An environment is a complex of external factors. It acts on a system and determines its course and form of existence. Generally, the environment or milieu of some object, action, or individual consists of the substances, circumstances, objects, or conditions by which the object or person is surrounded or in which the action occurs.
An environment may be thought of as a superset, of which the given system is a subset. An environment may have one or more parameters, physical or otherwise. The environment of a given system must interact with that system in order for it to sustain and develop.
Although the two terms are interchangeable, some disciplines prefer the term milieu to avoid confusion with the more widely used meanings of environment in ecology, politics, and sociology.Either word may be used with specialized meaning in various contexts.
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For some, there is a difficulty with the term "natural environment" in that nearly all environments have been directly or indirectly influenced by humans at some point in time. In order to address this concern, some level of human influence is thus allowable without the status of any particular landscape ceasing to be "natural." The term's meaning, however, is usually dependent more on context than a set definition. Many natural environments are the product of the interaction between nature and humans. For this reason, the term ecosystem has been used to describe an environment that contains nature, and includes people. It follows then that environmental problems are human or social problems. Some also consider it dangerously misleading to regard "environment" as separate from "people."
It is the common understanding of natural environment that underlies environmentalism‹a broad political, social, and philosophical movement that advocates various actions and policies in the interest of protecting what nature remains in the natural environment, or restoring or expanding the role of nature in this environment.
While wilderness is increasingly rare, wild nature (e.g., unmanaged forests, uncultivated grasslands, wildlife, wildflowers) can be found in many locations previously inhabited by humans.Goals commonly expressed by the environmentalists include: reduction and clean up of man-made pollution, with future goals of zero pollution; reducing societal consumption of non-renewable fuels, development of alternative, green, low carbon or renewable energy sources; conservation and sustainable use of scarce resources such as water, land and air; protection of representative or unique or pristine ecosystems; preservation and expansion of threatened or endangered species or ecosystems from extinction; the establishment of nature and biosphere reserves under various types of protection, and, most generally, the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems upon which all human and other life on earth depends.
More recently, there has been a strong concern about climatic changes caused by anthroprogenic releases of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide, and their interactions with human uses and the natural environment. Efforts here have focused on the mitigition of greenhouse gases that are causing climatic changes (i.e., through the Climate Change Convention and the Kyoto Protocol), and on developing adaptative strategies to assist species, ecosystems, humans, regions and nations in adjusting to these climatic changes.
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While apocalyptic beliefs of this sort are common across a variety of religious traditions, the Earth Changes theory is particular to the New Age movement, and is often associated with the predictions of people claiming to have psychic abilities.
The term 'Earth Changes' to describe this apocalyptic sequence of events originates with the American psychic Edgar Cayce who made many prophesies of cataclysms involving the whole planet. He claimed the polar axis would shift and that many areas now land would become Ocean floor.
The belief that the California coast would slip into the sea - a common feature of Earth Changes predictions - originated with Cayce's alleged prophecies. In more recent times, self-proclaimed psychic Gordon Michale Scallion has issued a variety of prophecies centering on the concept of 'Earth Changes' that mimic Cayce's.
Scallion also believes that a series of major tectonic events will re-shape the globe, and herald a new age in human life. Scallion and his predictions were featured on a number of documentaries that appeared prior to the year 2000, highlighting millenarian beliefs in both world and New Age religious traditions. Many less notable believers in a variety of psychic phenomena report similar prophecies.
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Timeline of Environmental Events
Divers dig deep for the hole truth about our ancestors Telegraph.co.uk - March 4, 2008
A pioneering study of life recorded in giant sinkholes that extend
far below sea level has shown scientists the catastrophic impact
that ancient communities had on their environments.
