Earth is objectively speaking, the best planet, what is the importance of environment? We’ve got oceans filled with things that look like this, and this, and also this, towering forests full of things that literally eat light and air, clouds, rainbows, clouds that look like rainbows, adorable sloths, funky looking caterpillars, and a universe of invisible tiny things that can do everything from make food to power the cycle of nitrogen on this here hunk of rock.
This beautiful, weird, corner of the universe has everything a person could need – and that’s because of the environment.
What is the importance of environment?
Well, it’s everything. And we humans depend on it for our literal existence. So don’t you think you should learn a little more about it? In this series of lessons on environmental science Miriam and I are going to explore all the ways humans interact with and rely on the environment.
Welcome to the Essentials of Environmental Science!
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary scientific approach to studying the Earth’s natural systems, human impacts on those systems, and potential solutions to environmental problems. People who work in the field of environmental science draw on aspects of biology, chemistry, economics, politics, human geography, urban planning, the list goes on, in their study of the natural world importance of environment in human life.
The scope of environmental science has steadily broadened over the last 100 years: starting from anthopocentrism – a human-centered worldview which has its roots in the European societies from which most modern scientific practices descend. Then into biocentrism – which ascribes value to human and non-human life, and finally into ecocentrism – which values the well-being of entire ecosystems including all the living and nonliving elements.
These three terms: anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism, describe standards of environmental ethics.
Depending on a culture’s – or a scientist’s – worldview, the environmental ethic will influence what questions are asked and what value we put on the answers. Today’s environmental problems, from water pollution to endangered species to climate change, require us to look for answers through the broadest lens: the ecocentric ethic. Humans have had a huge impact on our natural world, especially since the Industrial Revolution.
One 2011 article put it this way: “for better or for worse, the earth system now functions in ways unpredictable without understanding how human systems function and how they interact with and control earth system processes.” To truly understand environmental systems and human impact, it is important to not simply study an organism, like an endangered species, or a pollution source, like an oil spill, in isolation.
Instead, we should try to understand natural or human-caused disruptions to the environment from an ecocentric approach–looking at the bigger systems at play. If you learn one thing from watching our series on environmental science, make it this: We humans benefit from the environment, but we are also part of it.
That means our actions can and do affect Earth systems, so a lot of environmental science focuses on how to protect, preserve, and restore the systems human activity degrades. One way scientists do this is by constructing models to represent natural systems and all of their interconnected factors. Models are powerful scientific tools with the ability to both explain and what is the importance of environment.
A model could be code on a computer that recreates the physical processes of the earth’s climate, but it can also be a chart or graphic that represents the carbon cycle. Here’s a model of the planet’s hydrologic cycle. Environmental science helps us to understand how all the living and nonliving components are interrelated. Rain falls, runs into surface waters or down into the groundwater. Or, the water can be taken up by plants for photosynthesis.
This model represents all these actions with squiggly lines and rain drops. However, like any scientific model, it’s not perfect. It cannot possibly represent everything going on at any one time. The only thing that can do that is the earth itself. But even though we can’t run global-scale experiments, a model does allow us to predict what would happen if something in the system changed. For example, importance of environment in human life, this model would predict that there will be less evapotranspiration from the trees into the atmosphere.
Priyanshi Bhati 