Our Environment: the Sum Total of Our Surroundings

I.Our environment is the sum total of our surroundings A photograph of Earth reveals a great deal, but it does not convey the complexity of our environment. Our environment (a term that comes from the French environner, “to surround”) is more than water, land, and air; it is the sum total of our surroundings. It includes all of the biotic factors, or living things, with which we interact. It also includes the abiotic factors, or nonliving things, with which we interact. Our environment includes the continents, oceans, clouds, and ice caps you can see in the photo of Earth from space, as well as the animals, plants, forests, and farms that comprise the landscapes around us. In a more inclusive sense, it also encompasses our built environment, the structures, urban centers, and living spaces humans have created. In its most inclusive sense, our environment also includes the complex webs of scientific, ethical, political, economic, and social relationships and institutions that shape our daily lives. From day to day, people most commonly use the term environment in the first, narrow sense—of a nonhuman or “natural” world apart from human society. This connotation is unfortunate, because it masks the very important fact that humans exist within the environment and are a part of nature. As one of many species of animals on Earth, we share with others the same dependence on a healthy functioning planet. The limitations of language make it all too easy to speak of “people and nature,” or “human society and the environment,” as though they are separate and do not interact. However, the fundamental insight of environmental science is that we are part of the natural world and that our interactions with other parts of it matter a great deal.
II. Environmental science explores interactions between humans and our environment Appreciating how we interact with our environment is crucial for a well-informed view of our place in the world and for a mature awareness