around energy, especially the negative consequences of energy, the term environment is defined (4th definition) by the English Dictionary:
This leaves open a very important question: "Are humans part of the environment?"
From a historical interpretation of the definition, humans wouldn't be part of the environment. Also, people tend to think of the environment as the Earth's systems that aren't human to begin with. However in the far more important definition of the word environment, as the complex interplay between living systems, humans are very much a part of the environment. Humans are affected by and affect the natural world in deep ways. Moreover, humans have been doing so for as long as humans have existed. Hunting patterns, agricultural practices, and human waste have always had a major impact on the world's ecology. It has only been within the past hundred years or so that humans have begun to take a significant interest in these effects.
The term 'environment' is widely used and has a broad range of definitions, meanings and interpretations. What does the term 'environment' mean? In popular usage, for some people, the term 'environment' means, simply, 'nature': in other words, the natural landscape together with all of its non-human features, characteristics and processes. To those people, the environment is often closely related to notions of wilderness and of pristine landscapes that have not been influenced - or, at least, that have been imperceptibly influenced - by human activities. However, for other people, the term 'environment' includes human elements to some extent. Many people would regard agricultural and pastoral landscapes as being part of the environment, whilst others are yet more inclusive and regard all elements of the earth's surface - including urban areas - as constituting the environment. Thus, in popular usage, the notion of the 'environment' is associated with diverse images and is bound up with various assumptions and beliefs that are often unspoken - yet may be strongly held. All of these usages, however, have a central underlying
This is not to say that the study of environmental issues at other scales is unimportant; indeed, the management of localised environmental issues - such as the pollution of rivers - is critically important for human communities, livelihoods and well-being, as well as for the health and integrity of ecosystems. Nevertheless, the study and management of local and regional environmental issues belongs - rightly - within a holistic, integrated, global context. And whilst the study of the earth system may be subdivided, for convenience, into categories such as 'geosphere', 'atmosphere', 'hydrosphere' and 'biosphere' - as well as into smaller categories - it is important to emphasise that such categories interact and overlap at all spatial and temporal scales.
If you mean physical environment, then it is defined as the surrounding conditions and elements with which a living thing interacts with. However, apart from the physical, there are other types of elements that make up an environment. They are the chemical and biological attributes. Thus, an environment contains all biotic and abiotic factors that have a role in the survival, evolution, and development of the organism occupying it. A related term “environ” is defined as “to surround” or “to enclose”. The scope of the environment varies — from the tiniest, “micro” scale to the largest, global scale.
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