ENVS 101 WW & WX & WY- Objective One
Unit 1: Introduction To Environmental Science
Objective One: To define the term "environment".
1.0 What is, and what's not, the environment?
Over time, the meaning of the term environment has changed. In order to understand the how the term environment has changed over time, let's look at how the word "environment" is defined in dictionaries from a number of time periods.
| 1882 | The American
Popular Dictionary, which was first published in 1882, over a hundred years
ago, defined the term environment as "surroundings. |
||
| 1940 | In 1940,
Webster's dictionary gave a couple of definitions for the term "environment".
# 1. act of environing, state of being environed. # 2. that which environs;
the surrounding conditions, influences or forces, which influence or modify.
Webster's 1940 dictionary also refers to several different kinds of environments,
a biological environment, a social environment, the physical or inorganic
environment, a psychosocial environment, and the biosocial environment.
Webster also defines the term "environmentalism" as emphasizing environment
rather than heredity, as the important, factor in the development of the
individual or race. |
||
| 1956 | An environmental
science textbook published in 1956 titled "Our Environment - Its Relation
to Us" includes a number of "environmental" topics such as air, fire, energy,
water, rocks and soil. Interestingly, however, the term "pollution" does
not appear in the text. What does this tell us? Did the book authors not
know how to spell the word? Probably not, rather it indicates that pollution
was not a concept that people were generally aware of in the 1950's. Societies
were polluting the environment in the 1950's, in fact, we are still cleaning
up pollution in many places around the world from 1950's and before. Yet
during that time, we did not understand what pollution of the environment
was. |
||
| 1972 | The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defined the "environment" as the total of circumstances surrounding an organism or group of organisms, a definition similar to the one given 100 years previously in 1882 by the American Popular Dictionary. However, The American Heritage Dictionary includes a new term, the word "environmentalist". It defines an "environmentalist" as a person who seeks to protect the natural environment as from air and water pollution, wasteful use of resources, and excessive human encroachments. |
1.1 When is an Environmentalist Environmental?
The definition of "environmentalist" includes a number of concepts which, previously, had not been part of the meaning of "environment". These include:
Well something must have happened between 1956 and 1972 that led to the inclusion of these new concepts in our definition of environment and something did. Before we discuss what happened, let's first look at concept #2, the "natural" environment. What is the "natural" environment? One obvious answer is that the "natural" environment is nature and, in fact, these two terms have become synonymous. If a friend asks you "What are you doing this weekend?" and you reply "I'm going out to commune with nature" or "I'm going out to commune with the natural environment", these two responses mean the same. So, the natural environment and nature are the same thing.
1.2 The Nature of Things What then, is nature?
Close your eyes for a second and think of nature. What do you see? Probably trees, green grass, a mountain in the background, a gentle deer beside a meandering stream, and the sky up above. What don't you see? Probably, other humans. Why? For the most part, when we think of nature, we don't think of humans or human stuff like shopping malls, the Internet, cable television, or Las Vegas. No, when we use the term "nature" we are, in fact, referring to everything except human things.
Does this mean that humans aren't natural? For most of us, humans are "natural" beings. We are land dwelling, air breathing, omnivorous mammals. Yet, at the same time, when we think of "nature" we don' think of humans. Somehow, our language has evolved this way, to recognize that humans are "natural" but, at the same time, not part of nature. Did you ever hear anyone say after a big snowstorm or hurricane when everything (human!) is not moving….there are no cars on the road, no one goes to work, the stores are closed….."Isn't it nice for nature, or Mother Nature, to be in charge for a while?" If you have, think about what this means. This suggests that, for most of the time, something other than nature is "in charge" or "in control". Who? The answer, by the way we use our language, is humans. In fact, we have two interesting and opposite terms in our language, "nature" and "human nature".
So, humans are "natural" beings yet, at the same time, not part of nature.
Now, let's go back to the definition of "environmentalist".An environmentalist is a person who seeks to protect "nature" or "the natural environment" from "human stuff" like pollution, wasteful use of resources and excessive human encroachments. This notion of protection is a critical component of environmental science. To better understand how this concept of "protection" came into being, let's look back in time to see when, and where, this notion came into being.
|
Copyright © 2001 Lynn Middleton |
|