The word environment describes living and nonliving surroundings relevant to

organisms. It incorporates physical, chemical and biological factors and processes that determine
the growth and survival of organisms, populations, and communities. All these components fit
within the ecosystem concept as a way to organize all of the factors and processes that make up
the environment.
The term environment is used to describe, in the aggregate, all the external forces,
influences and conditions, which affect the life, nature, behavior and the growth, development
and maturity of living organisms.

UNDERSTANDING THE ENVIRONMENT

To understand our environment, we must seek knowledge and become familiar with the
various spheres of the earth that comprise it: the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and
atmosphere. These four spheres of the earth are interconnected and support the organism's life.
1. Atmosphere: The atmosphere implies the protective blanket of gases, surrounding the
earth:
a. It sustains life on the earth.
b. It saves it from the hostile environment of outer space.
c. It absorbs most of the cosmic rays from outer space and a major portion of the
electromagnetic radiation from the sun.
2. Hydrosphere: The Hydrosphere comprises all types of water resources oceans, seas,
lakes, rivers, streams, reservoir, polar icecaps, glaciers, and ground water.
a. Nature 97% of the earth’s water supply is in the oceans,
b. About 2% of the water resources is locked in the polar icecaps and glaciers.
c. Only about 1% is available as fresh surface water-rivers, lakes streams, and ground
water fit to be used for human consumption and other uses.
3. Lithosphere: Lithosphere is the outer mantle of the solid earth. It consists of minerals
occurring in the earth’s crusts and the soil e.g., minerals, organic matter, air and water.
4. Biosphere: Biosphere indicates the realm of living organisms and their interactions with
environment, viz atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.

ELEMENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Environment is constituted by the interacting systems of physical, biological and cultural

elements inter-related in various ways, individually as well as collectively.
 Physical elements
- Physical elements are as space, landforms, water bodies, climate soils, rocks and
minerals. They determine the variable character of the human habitat, its
opportunities as well as limitations.
 Biological elements
- Biological elements such as plants, animals, microorganisms and men constitute the
biosphere.

 Cultural elements
 - Cultural elements such as economic, social and political elements are essentially
manmade features, which make cultural milieu.
- The external cultural background against which social actions take place is referred to
as the cultural milieu. A milieu is the culture that surrounds you. Your milieu is made
up of your family, house, neighborhood, school, and the people you hang out with.
You are part of the upper crust if you live in a mansion and have wealthy friends.

“IN OUR EVERY DELIBERATION, WE MUST CONSIDER THE IMPACT OF OUR

DECISIONS ON THE NEXT SEVEN GENERATIONS.”- The Great Law of the Iroquois
Confederacy. What do you think the concept or message behind this quote is?

- Whether you are aware of it or not, every action you take has an effect on something
or someone else in your world.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
- Environmental science is the study of the interaction of humans with the natural
environment.
- It studies of the sources, reactions, transport, effect and fate of physical a biological
species in the air, water and soil and the effect of from human activity upon these.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE IS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE
- Environmental science studies all aspects of the environment in an
interdisciplinary way. This means that it requires the knowledge of various other
subjects including biology, chemistry, physics, statistics, microbiology, biochemistry,
geology, economics, law, sociology, etc.
- Republic Act No. 8749, otherwise known as the Philippine Clean Air Act, is a
comprehensive air quality management policy and program which aims to achieve
and maintain healthy air for all Filipinos.

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
- Environmental ethics can be defined as the philosophic study that examines the
ethical relationship of humans and the environment. The philosophy also explores the
moral relationship humans have with Earth, animals, and plants.
- Environmental ethics is a branch of ethics that studies the relationship between
humans and the environment, as well as the role of ethics in this. Environmental
ethics holds that humans, as well as other living creatures such as plants and animals,
are members of society. These items are a vital part of the world and are considered a
necessary part of human life. As a result, it is critical that every human respect and
honor this, as well as use morals and ethics when dealing with these creatures.

TWO MAIN CATEGORIES OF ETHICS IN HUMAN CULTURE IN MODERN

HISTORY
1. Anthropocentrism
- Human-centered philosophy
- Human interests and well-being come first
 - The focus in this view is mainly on humans, and animals and the natural world is
merely a background. In anthropocentrism, human perspective is the most important
and other issues take a second place.
2. Ecocentrism
- Nature-centered philosophy
- Preserving ecosystems comes first
- It considers both living components and non-living components equally important,
especially when making decisions regarding the environment. Unlike
anthropocentrism, it places little importance on human beings. Ecocentrism is only
concerned with humans when considering how human beings influence the ecosystem
as a whole.

Hetch Hetchy Debate

- Anthropocentric argued that San Francisco needed the water, and this was by far the
most viable option.
- Ecocentrict argued that this violated the very purpose of the Federal Parks were to be
preserved ecosystems – untouched by human hands.

The greatest good of the greatest number in the long run.

- The idea behind the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time is
that you do things for the greater public good and benefit and that what matters. The
western ethical philosophy provides that if any decision brings the greatest good for
the greatest number of people, then the decision is acceptable although a small
number of people might be affected by the decision. 
RESOURCE CONSERVATIONIST
- This person is in charge of science and technology coordination, direction, and
training. This individual leads the conservation planning and policy development
process.
MODERN ENVIRONMENTALISM
The modern environmentalism, starting in the 1960s, ushered in a wave of public awareness
and legislation.
 Reducing air and water pollution
 Preserving ecosystems and biodiversity
 Promoting sustainability
- In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, documenting the impacts that
pesticides like DDT were having on wildlife.
- DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was developed as the first of the modern
synthetic insecticides in the 1940s. DDT is persistent, meaning it is not biodegradable
and will not break down naturally. DDT, the most powerful pesticide the world had
ever known, exposed nature's vulnerability. Unlike most pesticides, whose
 effectiveness is limited to destroying one or two types of insects, DDT was capable of
killing hundreds of different kinds at once. Developed in 1939, it first distinguished
itself during World War II, clearing South Pacific islands of malaria-causing insects
for U.S. troops while being used as an effective delousing powder in Europe. Its
inventor was awarded the Nobel Prize.
- Many species of birds, including the bald eagle, nearly went extinct.
- Rachel Carson gave us a deeper understanding of the impact we have on our planet
and the impact our planet has on us.

FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

• Systematic principle of environment
- Environmental system includes a lot of elements or subsystems, such as atmosphere,
water bodies, soils, organisms, and their relationships in global, regional and local
levels. No matter what level of environment system is, it has similar properties and
principles, namely principle of environmental system. Environmental system includes
water, air, soil and organism, which correlate and co-restrain with the flows of
material, energy and information. Lacking any one of the elements, the whole
environment system cannot make up. Any element change will cause other element
changes and even entire system change. For example, water quality changed affects
soil quality inevitably first, and then will affect biological survival environment and
biomass. Meanwhile, air quality will be changed by pollutant migrations between
water and atmosphere, and between soil and atmosphere.

 Principle of environmental capacity

- In essential aspects, environmental problems are the environment changes caused by
human activities exceed the capacity that environmental system can be tolerance.
Environmental capacity is the largest amount that environmental system may
accommodate pollutants or supply many kinds of substance and energy for people,
while the environment quality does not worsen. Environmental capacity is one of
functions of an environmental system, and determined by the components and their
structures. If the components and structures of a system are more complex, the
environmental capacity is larger with the significant diversity and openness.
Environmental capacity is characterized by finiteness, variability and under-control,
etc.
 Symbiosis principle between human and environment
- What is Symbiosis? - Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical
association, typically to the advantage of both.
- Concept of “Symbiosis” was put forward by Anton de Bary, German mycologist. It
refers to that two or more creature reach a balance state at physiological
interdependence, and it was extended to other natural and social sciences later. The
natural world is a symbiont in which a lot of animals, plants and human are co-
existence and co-prosperity. On the view of philosophy, symbiosis theory is about
coexistence and win-win between human and environment.
 - The aim of the symbiosis principle between human and environment is to achieve the
collaborative development between human and the environmental system. The
symbiosis principle is a basic rule that human being understood gradually under the
research of the occurrence, development and treatment of environmental issues for a
long time

• Entropy principle
- Spontaneous transformation in the environment always increases with every
irreversible process and remain constant when the process is reversible.
- Entropy is one of physical quantities to characterize disorder degrees of a system.
Higher entropy of a system corresponds to a more disorderly system state in structure
and weaker functions, and lower entropy to a more orderly system and stronger
function.
- For environmental system, higher entropy state corresponds to environmental
pollution and the quality descended, on the contrary, lower entropy state corresponds
to higher environmental quality.
- Before human civilizations emerged, solar radiation's negative entropy input made the
environmental system's structures and functions more orderly and the environment's
quality better. Since the advent of human society, people have begun to use the
environment's natural resources to advance their economy and quality of life. Human
activities inevitably increased the entropy of the environment because the energy
conversion processes of natural resource utilization, production, transportation, and
consumption are governed by the second law of thermodynamics, and it is impossible
to utilize all of the useful substance and energy without producing some amount of
useless substance and energy.