Environment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the symbiosis between the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables that comprise the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories: the natural environment and the built environment, with some overlap between the two. Following the industrial revolution, the built environment has become an increasingly significant part of the Earth's environment.
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[edit] Constituents
The scope of the biophysical environment is all that contained in the biosphere, which is that part of the Earth in which all life occurs. A biophysical environment is the complex of biotic, climatic, and edaphic factors that act upon an organism and determine its form and survival, and morphs itself in the process. Ecosystems, of which there are numerous types and are a defined part of the biosphere, collectively make up the whole of the biosphere. Within an ecosystem there are habitats in which an organism (including human beings) exists. At its most natural state, an environment would lack any effects of human activity, although the scale of this activity is such that all areas of the Earth have had at least some influence by humans. At the other end of the scale is the built environment and in some cases it has the biotic component that is virtually absent.
The biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic to global in extent. They can also be subdivided according to their attributes. Some examples may be the Marine environment, the atmospheric environment and the terrestrial environment.[1]
[edit] Environmental science
Environmental science is the study of the interactions within the biophysical environment. Part of this scientific discipline is the investigation of the effect of human activity on the environment. Ecology, a sub-discipline of biology and a part of environmental sciences, is often mistaken as a study of human induced effects on the environment. Environmental studies is a broader academic discipline that is the systematic study of interaction of humans with their environment. It is a broad field of study that includes the natural environment, built environments and social environments.
Environmentalism is a broad social and philosophical movement that, in a large part, seeks to minimise or eliminate the effect of human activity on the biophysical environment. The issues of concern for environmentalists usually relate to the natural environment with the more important ones being climate change, species extinction, pollution and old growth forest loss.
[edit] See also
- Biophysics subject to the context
- Conservation (disambiguation)
- List of conservation topics
- List of environmental issues
- Lists of environmental topics
[edit] References
- ^ Kemp, David (1998). Environment Dictionary. London, UK: Routledge.
[edit] Bibliography
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Look up Environment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Miller, G. Tyler (1995). Environmental science. California: Wadsworth. ISBN 0-534-21588-2.
| Would libertarians kill a kid's QB dreams? |
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The reason he can't play? Residency requirements. The UIL decided that the Garmans moved to Southlake from Oklahoma City just so Daxx could play football, which is against UIL rules. While the Garmans have a home in Southlake and their Oklahoma house is listed for sale they still maintain a business in Oklahoma and Daxx's father travels back and forth. |
| Texas to cut criminal justice jobs? Great! |
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Cue the customary fear-mongering: Massive layoffs of correctional officers "would jeopardize public safety" warned a department spokesperson. Cutting parole staff "could have a withering impact on their public mission," we are admonished. |
| Global Warmers, meet Flat Earthers |
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Floods, fires, melting ice, heat waves and rainstorms are all touted in one article as proof of runaway global warming rather than eons-old common occurrences. Another story tells us how British Columbia adopted California's "landmark greenhouse gas reduction law" and created "more than 20,000 new [taxpayer-funded, bureaucrat-run, politically-connected] clean-tech jobs." And two others mentioned how the Senate scrapped a bill to curb carbon emissions "responsible for global warming" because of "opposition from Republicans and coal-state Democrats," proving that global warming is all about politics, not science. |
| Perform a local act of libertarianism |
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Libertarian activism doesn't have to be over the top. You don't have to run for president, harangue a crowd, or splatter the internet with an endless stream of blogs and tweets and Facebook messages. Libertarian activism can be simple and local and still effectively make its point. That point is, and should always be, that people working together voluntarily will always outperform the coercion of governments. |
| Washington's Idea of Fiscal Restraint |
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It has been months now since the new healthcare reform bill was passed into law. As is so typical, this massive piece of legislation was passed with a sense of urgency so acute that leadership declared America could not afford to wait until legislators, their staff and the general public had time to thoroughly read the bill. The truth comes out eventually, however. Much like the recently discovered exemption from Freedom of Information Act requirements for the SEC that was slipped into the equally massive and “urgent” financial reform bill, we are finally seeing what other insidiousness has been hiding in the fine print of the healthcare reform bill. It seems that all provisions in this poorly written and poorly conceived monstrosity need to be repealed as soon as possible. |