The Environment Portal

The natural environment comprises all naturally-occurring surroundings and conditions in which living things grow and interact on Earth. These include complete landscape units that function as natural systems without major human intervention, as well as plants, animals, rocks, and natural phenomena occurring within their boundaries. They also include non-local or universal natural resources that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water and climate.

The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components:

• Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.

• Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.

As human population numbers increase and as humans continue to evolve, human activity modifies the natural environment at a rapidly increasing rate, producing what is referred to as the built environment. The potential of the natural environment to sustain these anthropogenic changes while continuing to function as an ecosystem is an issue of major worldwide concern. Key environmental areas of interest include climate change, water supply and waste water, air pollution, waste management and hazardous waste, and land use issues such as deforestation, desertification, and urban sprawl.

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Nuclear fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion, so named because it "falls out" of the atmosphere into which it is spread during the explosion. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust created when a nuclear weapon explodes. This radioactive dust, consisting of hot particles, is a kind of radioactive contamination. It can lead to contamination of the food chain. Fallout can also refer to the dust or debris that results from the nuclear explosion.

Did you know...

• ...that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) can cause ozone depletion, and the ozone hole needs to take more than a decade to recover?

• ... that the first National Park was the Yellowstone National Park in the United States?

• ... that Minamata disease was caused by mercury poisoning due to pollution drained into Minamata Bay in Japan?

• ... that the average United States citizen consumes 119pg (10⁻¹² g) of dioxin per day?

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John Muir (April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914) was one of the first modern preservationists. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, and wildlife, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, were read by millions and are still popular today. His direct activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club,
which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation
organizations in the United States. His writings and philosophy
strongly influenced the formation of the modern environmental movement.

Current events

• Wikinews Environment portal
  • November 17: Poaching in Zimbabwe on the rise
  • November 14: Non-industrial emissions key for meeting Kyoto targets in Europe
  • November 11: Public access to information on emissions from European industries
  • November 9: Cigarette butts kill fish, scientists complain

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The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged between the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Burning fossil fuels leads to the addition of extra carbon into the cycle over what naturally occurs and is a major cause of climate change.

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The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation. Previous names include World Conservation Union or International Union for the Preservation of Nature (IUPN).

Founded in 1948, its headquarters is located in the Lake Geneva area in Gland, Switzerland. The IUCN brings together 83 states, 108 government agencies, 766 NGOs and 81 international organizations and about 10,000 experts and scientists from countries around the world.

IUCN's mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies
throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature
and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

The first Director General of UNESCO, (Sir Julian Huxley),
wishing to give UNESCO a more scientific base, sponsored a congress to
establish a new environmental institution to help serve this purpose.
At that first congress (held at Fontainebleau, France), on 5 October 1948,
18 governments, 7 international organisations, and 107 national nature
conservation organisations all agreed to form the institution and
signed a "constitutive act" creating an International Union for the
Protection of Nature. From this beginning, the overriding stategy and
policy of the institution has been to explore and promote mutually
beneficial conservation arrangements that suit those promoting
development as well as assisting people and nations to better preserve
their flora and fauna.

At all times, the institution (in all its forms) has heavily
emphasised as a key operating principle the strong need to cater for
and address the needs of local nations, communities and peoples, so
that those nations, communities and peoples can take ownership of
future, long term conservation goals and objects in their local areas:

The IUCN's World Conservation Strategy (1980) was founded
upon this kind of principle, and clearly announced the IUCN's ambitions
to more effectively enter into dialogue with the promoters of human
development. The strategy was internationally applauded by many and
served to secure the IUCN funds from several donors who didn't
themselves feel they could open up effective dialogue in the world's developing countries, nor that United Nations organisations and international banks would effectively engage in such dialogue.

The IUCN has now expanded into many of the nations around the world,
making available the services of a large pool of mainly voluntary
specialists, providing local level advice and conservation services,
and expanding its networks of Committees and regional advisory bodies
into increasing numbers of countries.

The Union has three components: its member organizations, its 6 scientific commissions and its professional secretariat.

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