The natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all those aspects of our world that exist outside the artificial constructs of the human hand and which remain essential to our initial, and continuing, existence. The environment, very simply, encompasses the atmosphere, ecosystems, water, biodiversity, and plant and animal life. Viewing each of these aspects in isolation reinforces their individual importance, but it should never cloud their existence as part of a much greater whole.

As inhabitants of this exquisite planet we rely on its ability to support us. Yet that the human world has been but a tiny moment on the time scale of the Earths age has had little significance upon our ability to so quickly have altered its delicate balances and eroded so many of its living creations. We seem to have forgotten that our very existence was founded despite all odds. Without the delicate balance of heat and light and fundamental elements converging and coalescing between the limits of the slight biosphere belt in which we live, the history of the earth as we know it would never have transpired. Yet by some form of grace we were granted the right to live, and it is the most careworn cliché to say, but one of the truest there ever was, that rights come with responsibility. Such responsibility should not be difficult; it should not even be questioned, to do so denies our very right, and ability, to exist.

"Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure, but Earth has provided the conditions essential to life's evolution. The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air. The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples. The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust." - Earth, Our Home: The Earth Charter

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