The environment comprises everything that creates natural conditions for the existence of organisms including man, and it is a precondition for their further development. Its components are mainly air, water, minerals, soil and living organisms.
The environment is born or created by nature and its growth or expansion is also set by nature itself. Man himself is a factor of the environment and has undergone the same processes of birth and evolution as undergone by the other co-factors, although he is a potent reactor to introduce large-scale changes in the environment. Environment not only includes the surface features and the flora and fauna on it, but also the zone of atmosphere and hydrosphere above and the mantle of the geological structure below. Hence, it has a volume or a zone in a cubical dimension. Environment has a regional and also a national aspect of analysis. The former is linked with natural factors, whereas the latter is associated with social or political factors. Environment includes the earth’s surface with all its physical features and natural resources, the distribution of land and water, mountains and plains, minerals, plants and animals, the climates and all cosmic forces that play upon the earth and affect the life of man. Thus environment can be defined as the sum total of all conditions and influences that affect the development and life of organisms.
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