University of Kirkuk College of Engineering Civil Department

University Of Kirkuk
College Of Engineering
Civil Department
Name Of Raport:
ENVIRONMENT
Supervised by: Aisha Falah
Prepare by:-
Stage:
ENVIRONMENT
What is Environment?
The purpose of this essay is to familiarize you with the relationship between man and his
environment. After reading it you will be able to understand the meaning of Environment and
man’s place in the environment. You will also be able to see the complexities of, man-
environment inter-change and the impact that has been made on the environment since the
beginning of the industrial revolution.
Environment may be broadly understood to mean our surroundings. It can be divided into non-
living and living components. The Environment provides resources which support life on the
earth and which also help in the growth of a relationship of interchange between living
organisms and the environment in which they live. It is important to realise that humans enjoy a
unique position in nature due to their exceptional ability to influence and mould the environment.
In the recent past the term nature has been used as parallel to word environment. It has been
generally believed that nature is what man has not made. In our discussion environment and
nature have been used as synonym, which incorporate most of the visible manifestation of
geography. Raymond Williams defines nature as ‘the material world itself, taken as including or
not including human beings.’ Tracing the history of the term he suggests that ‘nature’ has meant
the ‘countryside’, the unspoiled places’, plants and creatures other than man.’ (Keywords,
London, 1988. p. 219-223).
Similarly, there are several vantage points from where environment has been studied and most of
us follow a complex combination of these methods. There are ecologists who are primarily
biological scientists and focus on relationships between environment and the living being in
general. Another set of scientists, generally termed as environmental scientists, try to examine
the functioning of the earth and the nature of human interactions with it. Declining bio-diversity
has given rise to conservationist biologists who stress application of scientific knowledge for
conservation of bio-diversity, which they rightly consider as centre of existence of life on earth.
Accepting the role of human agency in the ‘deterioration of environment’, the environmentalists
are suggesting scientific interventions to mitigate the ill impacts of human activities.
Conservationists along with accepting the role of human activities in the deterioration of
environment also recognise the needs of present and future generations of humans. They stress
the prudent use of resources to ensure the present and future needs of human society. More
recently, the role of disparity both economic and social within the society and among societies
and nations has defined the agenda for the study of the environment by social scientists,
particularly at the level of policy formulations.
The traditional understanding of nature has been that it is a system created by God for the
sustenance of humans. The general belief was that the Earth was the hub of the universe and
man had a central place in it. It was also believed that the environment was a static entity with
little or no possibilities of change. This had been the dominant view until the advent of
enlightenment in the early modern era. However, with the growth of scientific thinking and
reason it came to be gradually accepted that neither the Earth was at the axis of Universe, nor the
Humans were the core of the Earth. Science also established that there has been continuous
change in the nature of environment all along the history of the Earth, though the speed of
change differed for different components of nature and even this speed had not been a uniform
speed. This holds true for the evolution of both living and non-living components.
The industrial revolution heralded a completely new era in which the term ‘environment’
attained new dimensions. The present day concerns of environmental pollution, decay of bio-
diversity and the green-house effect have necessitated a redefining of the concept of the man-
nature relationship. Another corollary has been the problems related with the modern concept of
development and resultant compulsions of conservation. In their attempt to conserve the
dwindling bio-diversity, humans started demarcating fragile ecological zones ranging from
forests, wet lands, bio-sphere reserves, mangroves, etc., as reserves to preserve not only the flora-
fauna but also the physical attributes of ecological niche itself. It often led to conflicts with the
communities sustaining on such resources, e.g. forest-dwellers. Similar kind of conflicts can be
located on the sites for big-dams and ancillary activities which necessitated displacement.
Therefore, it is mandatory on our part to also examine the historical evolution of social relations
in their interaction with the ecological conditions on the one hand and the multiple issues of
contemporary environmental discourse on the other. The first section of this essay deals with the
historical evolution of the concept; it is then followed by a discussion on the contemporary
conflict between notions of development and environment; the last section traces the significance
of biodiversity and firms up the case of inevitability of bio-diversity conservation for survival of
life on Earth.

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Supervised by: Aisha Falah

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