Portal:Environment

WikiProject Environment

Talk page

Welcome to the Environment Portal
(image link)

Introduction

Land management has preserved the natural characteristics of Hopetoun Falls, Australia while allowing ample access for visitors.

The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity. The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components:

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

In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment. Built environments are where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion, the natural environment is greatly changed into a simplified human environment. Even acts which seem less extreme, such as building a mud hut or a photovoltaic system in the desert, the modified environment becomes an artificial one. Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves, they are not human, hence beaver dams, and the works of mound-building termites, are thought of as natural. (Full article...)

A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic to global in extent. It can also be subdivided according to its attributes. Examples include the marine environment, the atmospheric environment and the terrestrial environment. The number of biophysical environments is countless, given that each living organism has its own environment.

The term environment can refer to a singular global environment in relation to humanity, or a local biophysical environment, e.g. the UK's Environment Agency. (Full article...)

Selected article -

Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest, but other types have been described.

Estimates vary from 40% to 75% of all biotic species being indigenous to the rainforests. There may be many millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms still undiscovered in tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated) -

... that upon its completion, the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center had the largest sloped green roof in the United States?
... that Mycobacterium bacterial species constantly remodel their cell wall layers to survive in stressful environments and avoid their host's immune defenses?
... that Salar de Pajonales in Chile has been used as an analogue for environments on Mars?
... that people with sensory processing disorders often require sensory friendly environments which are designed to accommodate their condition?
... that after Swampy was evicted from Jones Hill Wood, rare barbastelle bats were discovered to be living there?
... that American environmentalist Rosalie Edge was called "the only honest, unselfish, indomitable hellcat in the history of conservation"?
... that Carol Van Strum, an environmental activist who wrote the book A Bitter Fog, accumulated 20,000 documents across 40 years that revealed corporate and government cover-ups?
... that Robert D. Bullard has emerged as the "father of environmental justice" since the publication of his 1990 book, Dumping in Dixie?

Selected image -

Map of countries by population density.

Overpopulation is one of the reasons given for environmental impact as given by Paul R. Ehrlich's formula I = P x A x T where I is the impact, P is population A is affluence and T is technology. (See also:List of countries by population density.)

Current events

News

Selected biography -

Gro Brundtland (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈɡruː ˈhɑ̀ːlɛm ˈbrʉ̀ntlɑnː]; born Gro Harlem, 20 April 1939) is a Norwegian politician (Arbeiderpartiet), who served three terms as the 29th Prime Minister of Norway (1981, 1986–1989, and 1990–1996) and as the director-general of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2003. She is also known for having chaired the Brundtland Commission which presented the Brundtland Report on sustainable development. Educated as a physician, Brundtland joined the Labour Party and entered the government in 1974 as Minister of the Environment. She became the first female Prime Minister of Norway on 4 February 1981, but left office on 14 October 1981; she returned as Prime Minister on 9 May 1986 and served until 16 October 1989. She finally returned for her third term on 3 November 1990. From 1981 to 1992 she was leader of the Labour Party. After her surprise resignation as Prime Minister in 1996, she became an international leader in sustainable development and public health, and served as Director-General of the World Health Organization and as UN Special Envoy on Climate Change from 2007 to 2010. She is also deputy chair of The Elders and a former vice-president of Socialist International.

Brundtland belonged to the moderate wing of her party and supported Norwegian membership in the European Union during the 1994 referendum. As Prime Minister Brundtland became widely known as the "mother of the nation." Brundtland received the 1994 Charlemagne Prize, and has received many other awards and recognitions. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

Selected organization -

National ecological surplus or deficit, measured as a country's biocapacity per person (in global hectares) minus its ecological footprint per person (also in global hectares). Data from 2013.

x ≤ -9

-9 < x ≤ -8

-8 < x ≤ -7

-7 < x ≤ -6

-6 < x ≤ -5

-5 < x ≤ -4

-4 < x ≤ -3

-3 < x ≤ -2

-2 < x ≤ -1

-1 < x < 0

0 ≤ x < 2

2 ≤ x < 4

4 ≤ x < 6

6 ≤ x < 8

8 ≤ x

Data unavailable

The Global Footprint Network was founded in 2003 and is an independent think tank originally based in the United States, Belgium and Switzerland. It was established as a charitable not-for-profit organization in each of those three countries. Its aim is to develop and promote tools for advancing sustainability, including the ecological footprint and biocapacity, which measure the amount of resources we use and how much we have. These tools aim at bringing ecological limits to the center of decision-making. (Full article...)

List of selected organizations

General images -

The following are images from various environment-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Forest Landscape Integrity Index measures global anthropogenic modification on remaining forests annually. 0 = Most modification; 10= Least. (from Ecosystem)
Image 2Dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent, with stalked barnacles on right (from Habitat)
Image 3An Antarctic rock split apart to show endolithic lifeforms showing as a green layer a few millimeters thick (from Habitat)
Image 4A team of British researchers found a hole in the ozone layer forming over Antarctica, the discovery of which would later influence the Montreal Protocol in 1987. (from Environmental science)
Image 5Few creatures make the ice shelves of Antarctica their habitat, but water beneath the ice can provide habitat for multiple species. Animals such as penguins have adapted to live in very cold conditions. (from Habitat)
Image 6The Amazon River in Brazil. (from Ecoregion)
Image 7The High Peaks Wilderness Area in the 6,000,000-acre (2,400,000 ha) Adirondack Park is an example of a diverse ecosystem. (from Ecosystem)
Image 8Sea temperature and bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 9WWF terrestrial ecoregions (from Ecoregion)
Image 10Wetland habitat types in Borneo (from Habitat)
Image 11A portion of the C-38 canal, finished in 1971, now backfilled to restore the Kissimmee River floodplain to a more natural state (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 12The Paris Agreement (formerly the Kyoto Protocol) is adopted in 2016. Nearly every country in the United Nations has signed the treaty, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (from Environmental science)
Image 13The leaves of an Alnus nepalensis tree provide a microhabitat for species like the leaf beetle Aulacophora indica. (from Habitat)
Image 14Tropical Cyclone Larry over the Great Barrier Reef, 19 March 2006 (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 15Rich rainforest habitat in Dominica (from Habitat)
Image 16The Ötztal Alps, a mountain range in the central Alps of Europe, are part of the Central Eastern Alps, and can both be termed as ecoregions. (from Ecoregion)
Image 17A major coral bleaching event took place on this part of the Great Barrier Reef (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 18Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking novel, Silent Spring, in 1962, bringing the study of environmental science to the forefront of society. (from Environmental science)
Image 19Flora of Baja California Desert, Cataviña region, Mexico (from Ecosystem)
Image 20Spiny forest at Ifaty, Madagascar, featuring various Adansonia (baobab) species, Alluaudia procera (Madagascar ocotillo) and other vegetation (from Ecosystem)
Image 21Loch Lomond in Scotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake has remained stable over a long period until a number of introductions in the 1970s restructured its food web. (from Ecosystem)
Image 22Environmental science examines the effects of humans on nature, such as the Glen Canyon Dam in the United States (from Environmental science)
Image 23Climbing ferns overtake cypress trees in the Everglades. The ferns act as "fire ladders" that can destroy trees that would otherwise survive fires. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 24A false color composite of the greater Boston area, created using remote sensing technology, reveals otherwise not visible characteristics about the land cover and the health of the surrounding ecosystems. (from Environmental science)
Image 25View of Earth, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew. Approximately 71% of Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) consists of ocean (from Ecoregion)
Image 26A conifer forest in the Swiss Alps (National Park). (from Ecoregion)
Image 27Global oceanic and terrestrial phototroph abundance, from September 1997 to August 2000. As an estimate of autotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential and not an actual estimate of it. (from Ecosystem)
Image 28Blue Marble composite images generated by NASA in 2001 (left) and 2002 (right) (from Environmental science)
Image 29A map of the bioregions of Canada and the US. (from Ecoregion)
Image 30Twenty-five years after the devastating eruption at Mount St. Helens, United States, pioneer species have moved in. (from Habitat)
Image 31Ibex in an alpine habitat (from Habitat)
Image 32Sequence of a decomposing pig carcass over time (from Ecosystem)
Image 33Biodiversity of a coral reef. Corals adapt and modify their environment by forming calcium carbonate skeletons. This provides growing conditions for future generations and forms a habitat for many other species. (from Environmental science)
Image 34
A freshwater lake in Gran Canaria, an island of the Canary Islands. Clear boundaries make lakes convenient to study using an ecosystem approach.
(from Ecosystem)
Image 35Cattails indicate the presence of phosphorus in the water. Cattails are an invasive species; they crowd out sawgrass and grow too thick to allow nesting for birds and alligators. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 36Acropora with brown band disease, Lizard Island (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 37Proportion of forest area by forest area density class and global ecological zone, 2015, from Food and Agriculture Organization publication The State of the World's Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief (from Ecoregion)
Image 38The Shen Neng 1 aground on the Great Barrier Reef, 5 April 2010 (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 39Biological nitrogen cycling (from Ecosystem)
Image 40Desert scene in Egypt (from Habitat)
Image 41A protest against the Adani Carmichael mine, 2016 (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 42Compartments established by C&SF projects that separated the historic Everglades into Water Conservation Areas and the Everglades Agricultural Area. Twenty-five percent of the original Everglades are preserved in Everglades National Park. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 43Aerial view of stormwater treatment areas in the northern Everglades bordered by sugarcane fields on the right (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 44The Earth's atmosphere (from Environmental science)
Image 45Rainforest ecosystems are rich in biodiversity. This is the Gambia River in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park. (from Ecosystem)
Image 46Current water drainage patterns in South Florida in 2005 (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 47Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World (Olson et al. 2001, BioScience) (from Ecoregion)
Image 48Roseate spoonbills, along with other wading birds, have decreased by 90% since the 1930s and 1940s. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 49Trichodesmium bloom off the Great Barrier Reef (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 50Crown-of-thorns starfish and eaten coral off the coast of Cooktown, Queensland (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 51Planned water recovery and storage implementation using CERP strategies (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 52This coral reef in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area provides habitat for numerous marine species. (from Habitat)
Image 53Storage Silos on the Gladstone waterfront, an industrial area in the water catchment area (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 54Structure 65B on the Kissimmee River is destroyed by the Corps of Engineers in 2000 to restore the natural flow of the river. (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 55Catchments along the Great Barrier Reef (from Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef)
Image 56Natural water drainage patterns prior to development in South Florida, circa 1900 (from Restoration of the Everglades)
Image 57A map of the Amazon rainforest ecoregions. The yellow line encloses the ecoregions per the World Wide Fund for Nature. (from Ecoregion)

Selected quote -

More did you know -

...that recycling aluminium saves 95% of the energy cost of processing new aluminium?

Incandescent light bulb

...that the incandescent light bulb has an energy efficiency of only 5%, and the rest of the energy is used to generate heat rather than light?

... that the global ecological footprint is 1.8 global hectares (gha) per capita?

... that climate change scenarios, Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) were superseded by Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP)?

... that the Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center was originally housed in a Cincinnati mansion built around 1815?

Main topics

Natural environment

Things you can do

This list is transcluded from the tasks list page. To edit the list, click here

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Article requests can be posted at: Natural sciences requests page, Create articles for red-links at Vertical kiln, Geoecology, Environmental behavior, Environmental perception, Environmental writing.
Copyedit : Ecosystem management
Expand : Environmentalist, Environment (biophysical), Environment minister, Environmental studies, Habitat, Micro-sustainability, Built environment, Southeast Asian haze
Maintain : Environment pages needing attention, 2023 in the environment and environmental sciences
NPOV : DDT (see Talk:DDT), Energy development, Hydraulic fracturing
Photo : Environmental chemistry
Stubs : Stub categories: Environment, Environmental organizations, International development, Renewable energy, Sustainability, Waste, Water supply, More...
Update : Ecosystem management, Renewable energy transition, List of highly toxic gases
Verify : Appropriate technology, Biosphere, Environmental economics, Environmental engineering, Environmental ethics, Environmental movement, Environmental science, Human overpopulation, Natural environment, Pollution, Sustainable agriculture
Other : * Articles needing expert attention: International development.
- Add links for the Environment portal in related articles: {{Portal|Environment}}

Related categories

Environment

Environmentalism
Environmental awareness days
Environmental economics
Environmental history
Environmental humanities
Environmental indices
Environmental law
Environment-related lists
Environmental mass media
Environmental science
Environmental social science
Environmental songs
Environmental technology
Environment by country
Human impact
Human overpopulation
Nature conservation
Pollution
Renewable energy
Sustainability
Waste management

Related portals

WikiProjects

Agriculture • Climate change • Disaster management • Ecology • Energy • Energy development • Environment • Forestry • International development • Protected areas • Superfunds • Systems • Urban studies and planning • Water• Sanitation

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Commons
Free media repository
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals
Wikidata
Free knowledge base
Wikinews
Free-content news
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations
Wikisource
Free-content library
Wikiversity
Free learning tools
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus

Discover Wikipedia using portals

List of all portals

List of all portals
The arts portal

The arts portal
Biography portal

Biography portal
Current events portal

Current events portal
Geography portal

Geography portal
History portal

History portal
Mathematics portal

Mathematics portal
Science portal

Science portal
Society portal

Society portal
Technology portal

Technology portal
Random portal

Random portal
WikiProject Portals

WikiProject Portals

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.