What is the difference between nature and environment

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Seuil, coll. Mill JS On Nature. Even though very different landscapes can emerge in the minds of humans and be virtually superimposed on the geographically tangible and measurable space, environmental history like most other subdisciplines invariably needs concrete spaces for investigation, if it is to remain demonstrative and if it is to avoid arguing exclusively in terms of the history of ideas.

However, past natural spaces must be approached with methodological caution. They are often difficult to read. For example, due to the distinct language and symbols used in them, cartographic representations are not self-explanatory.

Neither should they be confused with the real thing, not only because they are snapshots that are overtaken by natural change even at the moment they are produced and they are intended to reduce complexity, but also because they often contain mistakes or are guided by specific interests. Just looking at the map of Europe dispels any doubt. It is not possible to identify clear and unchanging topographical, geographical or geological borders.

There is no European environment. Instead, we encounter many environments, which are generally not coterminous with national borders. Not even the perspective from the outside creates the impression of uniformity. The natural spaces could hardly be more diverse. Coastal and high-level mountainous regions are as much a part of the continent as lowlands and mid-level mountainous regions, for example the Polish marshlands and the French Massif Central.

If one does not count the northern Caucasus as belonging to Europe, then the altitude alone spans a range of about five kilometres, from the highest point of the Alps Mont Blanc, metres to the northern coast of the Caspian Sea, which is 28 metres below sea level.

All of this is also subject to change over the very "long duration". The way in which geological activity has shaped this European space and constantly changes it is the object of investigation of the various environmental historical disciplines referred to above. It is they who have provided explanations for the location of the Alps, the repeated glacial climatic changes, the continuous change in European flora and fauna, and they help to elucidate the small scale of European landscapes, and the diversity of habitats.

While most of the continent lies in the temperate latitudes, the climate could scarcely be more varied from north to south and from west to east: the arctic climate in the north; the Mediterranean, at times subtropical conditions in the south, with hot dry summers and mild, wet winters. While large parts of western Europe mainly have mild winters and cooler summers, the continental climate predominates in the east, with cold winters and hot summers.

Climate, as a statistically recordable and measurable dimension, is also bound to space and time, for example, to early modern southern Europe or modern central Europe. The basic climatic conditions described above are, of course, not immovable constants.

Even before historical climatology, we knew that the climate is subject to natural deviations not caused by humans, which in turn influence humans and their actions.

It was not till the second edition published in that Braudel ascribed considerably more significance to climate changes. However, no role was yet attributed to humans as actors in this change. In more recent times, humans have left their imprint on the climate, which is why for the last approximately years it must be dealt with in the section on anthropogenic environments.

The heated debate about whether the modern interglacial has anthropogenic causes and is being amplified by humans is part of this context. Emphasizing natural spatial and climatic differences on the European level does not mean that it is impossible to investigate commonalities.

Thus, similar ecotypes can be identified in small-scale European comparisons. Mirco-climatically comparable cultural landscapes and shared histories of over utilization beyond political-state allegiances can be investigated: for example, wine-growing regions, types of woodland management, national parks, national conservation areas and mining regions. Natural resources are also part of the natural environment of humans. Discussions of these resources usually focus on the consumption of non-renewables or resources that regenerate over very long time periods, such as coal and oil, as well as the unintended consequences of their use.

Concerns about the availability of energy resources have thus served from the start as an important impetus in environmental historical research, in the questions it pursues, in its theses and also in its periodizations. However, this is not a history that only began with industrial modernity, and not just from a European perspective. It goes back much further, when one considers for example the universally-used resources of water and timber.

Humans use water to drink, to irrigate, to generate energy and as a means of transportation. But it also poses a threat, and not just in coastal regions and along rivers.

Securing a reliable and safe supply of water was for a long time the primary resource problem, particularly in the urban centres, where an artificial network of streams and canals often had to be constructed to provide water, for waste disposal and for fire defences.

Whether for heating, cooking or building, whether for tools, barrels or ploughs, wood was also an essential resource. It accompanied humans through their lives literally from the cradle to the grave. It is no coincidence that the concept of sustainability emerged in the context of woodland management as early as the beginning of the 18th century. Of course, one cannot but acknowledge that resource issues and resource usage have taken on new dimensions over the past two centuries and again since the s.

Since , humans have used more gold, iron ore, copper and tin than in the entirety of human history before that. All resource usage has an inherent, hidden environmental problem. Resources are extracted, chemically processed, transported, incompletely consumed, leave remainders in the form of refuse and exhaust fumes and are reused — the treatment of natural resources goes through many stages, and it is not only the recycling of resources that has yet to be adequately investigated.

And while industrialization , which is based on non-renewable resources, began in European regions, it is not possible to identify a distinctively European characteristic in the treatment of resources.

The problems of today are either global in nature or they only become clearer when one looks back in the regional context, which is also dominated by a diversity that is not always free of contradictions. Distinguishing between natural and anthropogenic environments is an archetypal differentiation, in order to highlight spheres of influence of humans. These spheres of influence have grown over the course of history to the extent that it is now almost impossible to identify a natural environment under water, on land, in the atmosphere or in space directly around the earth that is not influenced by humans.

Particularly in southern and central Europe, it is likely that already by the late-medieval period there were few natural landscapes that remained untouched by humans.

Even in those places where nature lovers of the 19th and earlyth centuries believed they had discovered wilderness and primitive nature, we see diverse cultural landscapes. In central Europe, these include heath regions as well as orchard meadows and pastoral forests, which only retain their typical form through continued use. The human footprint has fundamentally shaped European landscapes and not only since industrialization. Even as the Roman senator and historian Tacitus ca.

Logging near settlements, slash-and-burn deforestation, arable farming and hunting — without wishing to create the impression of decline and overuse — these influences on the immediate surroundings were manifold already in antiquity and the Middles Ages and transformed the landscape.

With population growt h the encroachment spread. The emergence of urban centres, road networks and trade connections accompanied and accelerated this process, which affected flora as well as fauna.

That the history of animals belongs to that of the human species and vice versa is demonstrated not only by hunting. Animals are increasingly perceived as historical actors, as subjects, and no longer exclusively as a static background and as objects. For a long time this was not commonly understood, at least not in European historiography.

While social history had already investigated the beginnings of animal protection, research on human-animal interconnections has only gained momentum in recent years. New perspectives have come primarily from the English-speaking world, where interdisciplinary human-animal studies has been a topic of environmental history for some time.

Where are the boundaries between humans and animals? How much animal is still in a human? Can personality and intentionality be ascribed to animals as an object of investigation? It is no coincidence that these questions remind one of the controversy about biocentric versus anthropocentric environmental history.

They cannot be decided by historical studies alone, which concentrates on the social roles and cultural functions of human-animal relationships, to the extent that these can be determined from the archives of society.

However, in order to get as close as possible to the biological creature, for example to be able to judge the natural behaviour of an early modern wolf, bear, beaver or otter that is being pursued, we are again dependent on natural sciences disciplines such as behavioural biology.

In the cities in particular, animals were integral to the human environment, not just as beasts of burden and livestock, but also as synanthropes and pets. Whether livestock, particularly horses , underwent a direct loss of significance in the course of the fundamental processes of industrialization and urbanization remains to be determined. There are some indications that this was not the case, but research in this area is in its early stages. We have more information about the countless exotic animals that populated the European urban centres and courts — dead or alive, in naturalist museums as well as in the menageries of rulers and zoological gardens.

Supposed liminal cases between the species are particularly informative as regards the relationship between humans and animals of the respective period.

The so-called Hottentot Venus Sarah Baartmann ca. The animal welfare perspective of the 19th and 20th centuries, which was rooted in the European Enlightenment, opens up a European angle. Associations for the protection of animals began to emerge in the first half of the 19th century, mostly at the local level. In many respects, Great Britain led the way in this regard. By the second half of the 19th century, national associations had formed in many other countries, and connections began to form between these associations throughout Europe through international animal protection congresses.

The above should not be understood as a plea for a Eurocentric view of animal-human relationships. In this context also, the perspective must extend beyond Europe if we are to discover common European aspects.

Nature noun Kind, sort; character; quality. Environment noun programming The environment of a function at a point during the execution of a program is the set of identifiers in the function's scope and their bindings at that point. Nature noun obsolete Physical constitution or existence; the vital powers; the natural life.

Environment noun computing The set of variables and their values in a namespace that an operating system associates with a process. Nature noun obsolete Natural affection or reverence. Environment noun Act of environing; state of being environed. Nature verb obsolete To endow with natural qualities. Environment noun That which environs or surrounds; surrounding conditions, influences, or forces, by which living forms are influenced and modified in their growth and development.

Nature noun The existing system of things; the universe of matter, energy, time and space; the physical world; all of creation. Nature noun The personified sum and order of causes and effects; the powers which produce existing phenomena, whether in the total or in detail; the agencies which carry on the processes of creation or of being; - often conceived of as a single and separate entity, embodying the total of all finite agencies and forces as disconnected from a creating or ordering intelligence; as, produced by nature; the forces of nature.

Nature noun The established or regular course of things; usual order of events; connection of cause and effect. Nature noun The sum of qualities and attributes which make a person or thing what it is, as distinct from others; native character; inherent or essential qualities or attributes; peculiar constitution or quality of being.

Nature noun Physical constitution or existence; the vital powers; the natural life. Nature noun Natural affection or reverence. Nature noun Constitution or quality of mind or character.

Nature verb To endow with natural qualities. Nature noun the natural physical world including plants and animals and landscapes etc. Nature noun inborn or hereditary characteristics as an influence on or determinant of personality. Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the natural, physical, material world or universe. Nature Illustrations. Popular Comparisons. Adress vs. Comming vs. Label vs. The notion of interrelationship is a central one in environmental science and management, since many environmental issues have occurred because one environmental system has been disturbed or degraded - either accidentally or deliberately - as a result of changes in another.

By focusing on the interactions and interrelationships between different parts of the environment, we are using language that is characteristic of a systems analysis approach - or a systems framework - and applying it to the understanding of environmental science and management.

Indeed, many environmental scientists now tend to think in terms of the whole 'earth system' and its components, subsystems and processes. In some ways, the term 'earth system' is a more useful one than 'the environment', not least because it highlights the fact that the natural world is a dynamic, complex entity with its own laws and processes, rather than being simply a passive space that is inhabited, exploited and given significance by humans.

Moreover, increasingly, scientists have acknowledged that the study of environmental science and management should ideally be interdisciplinary in nature, so that insights from many academic disciplines and scientific specialisms are available to inform the study of environmental issues.

This is particularly important when it comes to understanding complex global environmental issues, such as climate change, which affect all parts of the earth system and which require expertise beyond the scope of any single academic discipline.

A further consideration is that the study of environmental science and management is, ultimately, focused on the planetary scale - since the earth system forms an integrated whole with many processes that operate globally.