Definition Essay about Environment: What Is the Environment?

Abstract

The word “environment” has been an illusion within many people in societies from years to years, especially media and policy directions extending its wrong understanding all over and making it difficult for measures on environmental protection to hold effective and efficient grounds like efforts to fight against climate change, land degradation, and desertification. This paper drew some insights from the dictionary and Wikipedia as the basic point and uses different research works to argue that the environment is a “state” of the earth's surface within ecosystems, which changes with time. It reviews research studies from many landscape monitoring assessments of Ecosystem Services (ES) to justify that soil. water, air, plant, animals, and humans are agents of the earth's surface within ecosystems that interact to determine the state known as the environment, through this process transformations take place to form the different materials and substances that we found on the earth's surface.

This means for measures of environmental protection, there is the need to balance the multi-agents interacting on the earth's surface within ecosystems by examining categories of outcome functions that humans directly benefit from them known as ES. They may be improving or antagonizing the environment (state). If the categories of the outcome functions are in a sink, then there will be environmental degradation, which could result in climate change or desertification, and other catastrophes. But understanding really what the environment is will lead to the provision of measures that continuously support the environmental balancing of the multi-agents on the earth's surface with ecosystems and promoting sustainable consumption. These will support that targets for environmental protection, and the fight against climate change, land degradation, and desertification are being achieved.

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But efforts to achieve sustainable consumption will also require a proper understanding of the natural environment and its functionalities based on the ES within ecosystems to design sustainable eco-patterns for the transformation of the multi-agent interactions on the earth's surface to meet human needs. This requires the support of research studies on bioprospecting. Bioprospecting will lead to the discovery of new organisms, substances, and materials to support human needs, thereby paving the way to more eco-production and cycle economies for sustainability. Therefore, to encourage environmental sustainability, the functional relationships of multi-agent interactions within ecosystems have to be well-known for effective and efficient protection measures requiring proper knowledge of the connections between the earth's surface and the environment (state).

The aim of this work is to seek cooperation with different natural science researchers to open up research development projects on bioprospecting on different ecosystems based on a deep understanding of our environment that can be beneficiary to society in terms of supporting sustainable consumption and policy frameworks for environmental protection.

Keywords: Multi agents, interactions, ecosystems, ecosystem services (ES), bioprospecting

1. Introduction

What is really the environment? Cambridge University Press (2005) presents it as “the conditions that you live or work in and the way they influence how you feel or how effectively you can work” or “air, water, and land in or on which people, animals, and plants live”. While Wikipedia’s review presents it as “everything that is around us”. It can be living or non-living things. It includes physical, chemical, and other natural forces. Living things live in their environment. They constantly interact with it and adapt themselves to conditions in their environment. In the environment, there are different interactions between animals, plants, soil, water, and other living and non-living things (https:// simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment).

However, when one asks people the simple question “what is the environment?”, there are usually no clearly defined answers and many people are only playing with words because they do not understand that it is multi-agents in a system that interacts (natural or artificial) to determine a “state” (environment) on the earth surface. That is, our environment is a “state” of the interaction and interdependences of everything that can be found around us on the earth's surface, in which soil, water, air, plants, animals, and humans are agents (humans, animals, and nature interact with the other agents on the earth surface within ecosystems to transform them to the different materials, organisms, and substances).

Therefore, the environment is only a state of the totality of multi-agent interactions on the earth's surface at a place (ecosystem) and time (a few or many years based on observation of a transition) to determine the nature of a landscape or water body (earth surface). In other words, the inputs of multi-agents on the earth's surface within ecosystems that determine the outputs of a “state” is known as the environment. Since everything is part of the environment of something else, the word environment is used to talk about many things. People in different fields of knowledge use the word environment differently (https:// simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment). The electromagnetic environment is radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation and magnetic fields, which it is simply referring to the state of something.

Many efforts towards environmental protection, especially efforts to fight against climate change, land degradation, and desertification are not achieving great results because many people do not actually understand that the environment is only a “state” of interaction within multi-agents in a system (earth surface) as inputs to determine the outputs (state). Therefore, efforts for environmental protection need to focus on the multi-agents on the earth's surface as an integrated process and determine the root causes of environmental damages based on sinks in ES. This is with respect to the totality of multi-agent interactions within particular ecosystems that can lead to control measures (input and output) in order to balance them for environmental improvement performances. ES benefits mankind from the functionalities of the natural ecosystems that are distributed on the earth's surface (MEA, 2005). This means environmental impact assessment should examine the multi-agent interactions on the earth's surface as an integrated process and determine the impact categories based on their interdependences. This requires an indicator system that ES has been assessed and justified as an appropriate indicator for environmental impact assessment (Fongwa, Fongwa, 2012a, and 2012b). A review of the results of monitoring observation studies of ecosystems carried out within my research framework from protected and none protected areas, urban and none urban areas, and other areas explains the situation.

2. Reviews of Outcomes from Ecosystem Monitoring Research Projects

The research works started with the examination of value created from the natural ecosystem for business development to protect the environment and climate change mitigation strategies based on the goods and services offered by the environment to mankind (Fongwa and Gnauck, 2009a; Fongwa, 2012a). Analysis of business development for preserving ES was carried out with an emission trading scheme as one of the markets considered to show that they are one option for balancing measures for achieving environmental protection and climate change mitigation targets (Fongwa, 2012a; Fongwa et al., 2011b).

Also, the analysis uses economic arguments to justify the need for inventory systems to estimate and balance ES, which payment schemes for them based on different economic and business models were considered for financing ecosystem developments (Fongwa and Gnauck, 2009b; Fongwa et al., 2011b; Fongwa, 2012a). This has led to further investigation of the relationships between ES and human activities on the landscape for appropriate payment schemes and management support systems. For instance, the impact of soil from waste to landfill for degraded landscapes and contamination of the earth's surfaces (Fongwa, 2011), shows how legal provisions and policies can encourage actions for soil, water, air, and biodiversity protection based on a proper understanding of the linkages within the different multi agents’ interactions in ecosystems of consideration.

More so, changes in landscapes due to human activities were also examined. For instance, figure 1 shows the sequence of land use changes leading to degradation and desertification in the Sahel region requiring appropriate measures and technological implications based on the understanding of the different multi-agents interactions on the ecosystems involved in balancing ES (Fongwa and Gnauck, 2010). Many of these relationships were investigated and justified using different studies (Fongwa and Gnauck, 2010; Fongwa et al., 2010a; Fongwa et al., 2011b, Fongwa and Islam, 2012; Gnauck and Fongwa, 2012; Fongwa, 2012a; Fongwa, 2019).

Furthermore, estimates from protected and none protected areas, urban and none urban areas, and other areas (Fongwa, 2010; Fongwa, 2015; Fongwa, 2012a; Fongwa, 2012b; Fongwa, 2019, Fongwa and Islam, 2012; Fongwa et al., 2010b; Gnauck and Fongwa, 2012; Fongwa et al., 2011a), show the need to describe the interaction within the multi-agents on ecosystems for determine different scenarios of the environment. Therefore, to describe the relationships of multi-agent interactions within ecosystems, models were used that provided a more understanding (Fongwa, 2012a; Fongwa et al., 2010c; Fongwa et al., 2012, Fongwa, 2019). For instance, description of the formation of algae growth in a natural ecosystem of the environment. Figure 2 below presents algae growth as a result of water temperature, nutrients, substrate, and radiation in an interaction known as multi-resource kinetic modeled with Petri net (Fongwa, 2012a; Fongwa, 2019).

However, modeling requires consideration of different background knowledge and data pools (Gnauck and Fongwa, 2012; Fongwa, 2012a; Fongwa, 2012c) that were integrated into the research to determine the quality of the modeling framework. In this regard, a sustainability assessment project was initiated with many invited scientists from around the world that participated in the discussion platforms (think tank) and contributed manuscripts that were published (Fongwa, 2012c). The think tank project provided different scientific information and data pools for properly understanding and describing the systems in consideration. The different interdisciplinary results on ecosystems protection, targets for fighting climate change, and sustainable development strategies as well as socio-economic and cultural implications from the discussions and some selected manuscripts that were published also showed that there are continuous environmental challenges requiring more understanding of the multi-agent interactions on the earth surface within ecosystems that can be essential for policy support measures on environmental protection, land degradation climate change mitigation and desertification.

In addition, a review of future energy supply and target for climate change to justify that ES has the potential of regulating the environment through environmental balancing measures as an aggregate of interactions with multi-agents to provide services. That is their combinations will form a state, which is the environment (Fongwa et al., 2011c). Therefore, ES was evaluated within the criteria for selecting tools for Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) to justify that they are an appropriate indicator for weighting policy options on environmental protection, especially climate change mitigation policies (Fongwa, 2012b). This clearly showed the connection of ES and multi-agents within ecosystems for understanding impact classes for their categories for different environmental scenario considerations. All the approaches considered in the research have shown that ES are essential indicators for the assessment of multi-agents on ecosystems for policy guides in the achievement of environment protection targets, which require further appropriate information and analytic models for knowledge development.

Nevertheless, over the past years, there have been driven innovations in technological and digitalization development to provide solutions to environmental protection and climate change problems. This is based on policy implications due to practical observations of negative impact scenarios. But there is the continuous occurrence of serious climate change scenarios with increasing temperature observations, desertification, and environmental degradations. For instance, figure 3 provides a projection of the world energy supply from 1980 to 2030 that envisaged the energy market domination with none renewable supply in different merit order of generation as could be seen on the curves (if everything remains constant from the projection period, which it is not possible).

However, over time till now in 2019, there has been a huge increase in the supply of energy generation influenced by a drastic increase in population and changes from manual processes to electrical (automatization), but the merit order of sources of energy generation is almost the same as the 1980 projection (none renewable energy dominating) meaning the level of environmental depletion has also hugely increased. Also, many countries are trying to meet their huge energy demands by encouraging more dangerous sources of energy supplies like nuclear and atomic which could be very challenging for environmental sustainability. Even though the rate of energy generating from renewable energy has increased, none renewable energy supply still dominates the market, which in real them increases negative environmental impacts. Our adaptive sustainability appraisal matrix (Fongwa, 2012b; Fongwa, 2015) is to evaluate technological and digitalization implications and analyze trade-offs between climate change and sustainability for sustainable consumption scenarios. Two examples of energy-material flows-mobility-urbanization and food/fibers-Industrial production-habitation-social economy scenarios are presented to give more explanations of the problems.

The method employs a sustainability impact assessment approach and makes use of an adaptive sustainability appraisal matrix. The results show that the foundation and ethics of sustainability (invention to action) for environmental protection and climate change action scenarios are still not understood to moderate the technological developments towards sustainability solutions requiring more scientific intervention in the politics of sustainable development. For instance, making a more detailed study of our analysis, it was found that there are many scenarios of technological changes like change to electrical cars without a complete life cycle assessment and analysis. Therefore, strategies and policies are being put in place to encourage electric cars in urban areas. While huge environmental damages are taking place in the rural areas for huge energy productions from none renewable sources to meet up with the increases in electricity demand as a result of more utilization of electric cars (change of process) in that region (the urban areas). That is creating zero environmental impact (input and output balances) in urban areas and greater negative environmental impacts in rural areas, which must be seen as bad strategies for achieving environmental protection targets. Also, resources are being depleted and losses in the process of energy conversion to electricity as well as other societal impacts of charging stations and parking in urban areas that may be a challenge for efficiency and effectiveness as well. This will result in only none sustainable impact scenarios, which it is recently revealing themselves through the constant variation in weather and climatic conditions.

Another scenario is food/fibres-Industrial production-habitation-social economy where a lot of transformation is going on (especially in more resilient ecosystems found in rural areas) without appropriate measures on environmental balancing and sustainable consumption as well as healthy living. This is influenced by a lack of policy direction on appropriate environmental protection based on no appropriate understanding of the connection of deriving goods and services (ES) within the natural ecosystem of the environment. This requires a lot of studies on bioprospecting within the natural ecosystems based on the fact that “our environment is all the things around us” (https:// simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment), which are transformed based on interactions. Bioprospecting is the search for new organisms and substances for societal needs, which are available in our natural ecosystems as plants, animals, and organisms known as provision ES (Fongwa, 2012a). They can be enhancing (service-providing units) or deteriorating (service-antagonizing units) the environment. For instance, one of the functions of plants, animals, and organisms in the ecosystems is to provide substances and products as well as bacteria and pathogens that are interesting for agriculture, medicine, processing, manufacturing, and tertiary industries such as foods, drinks, cosmetics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lubricants, remediations, public safety (medical) and sanitation, energy industrials, and many more uses. Therefore, a proper understanding of societies of ES will foster more eco-production and design for the environment. But there are scarcities of substances and resources for those production needs requiring bioprospecting of ecosystems and sustainable consumption measures to support cycle economy conceptions based on an understanding of our environment.

The research in this area takes an inter-generation learning approach based on information gathering on the use of different substances from ecosystems in natural and traditional environments from different knowledge pools using a think tank and investigations in protected areas and none protected areas.

That is preliminary research are been carried out on agricultural, agroforest, and dryland ecosystems to understand the linkages between the use of different materials, organisms, and substances from those natural environments by different intergeneration for sourcing bioprospecting scenarios. This can enable collaboration and cooperation for exploration research on the substances from different ecosystems for different societal uses requiring the involvement of different natural science researchers. Also, it can open up different interests for investments in re-greening ecosystems as an effort to support the fight against land degradation, climate change, and desertification, thereby environmental protection.

3. Conclusions

This paper has clarified the question of what is the environment by presenting it as a “state” of the interactions between multi-agents on the earth's surface within ecosystems. The different interactions in the ecosystems lead to different functions that provide goods and services that humans benefit from them as ES. Therefore, land degradation, climate change, and desertification are the results of nature, animal, and human interactions with the other multi-agents within the ecosystem, which is the output of a state (environment). This means environmental impact assessment for measures of protection should focus on the multi-agent interactions using ES as an indicator based on an understanding of the environment and fostering sustainable consumption patterns.

Studies based on landscape monitoring assessments reviewed in this paper show that a proper understanding of the multi-agent interaction within ecosystems on the earth's surfaces and their transformation will determine their “state” or “output” (environment), which ES is an appropriate indicator that can be used to foster sustainability consumption patterns. This is based on the goods and services as a function of the natural ecosystems that humans benefit from them, which require bioprospecting to exploit the potential for sustainable consumption to protect the environment and sustainability of the earth's surface demanding further research work in this area using different interdisciplinary natural research scientists. Therefore, bioprospecting has the great potential of contributing enormously to environmental protection, and the fight against land degradation, climate change, and desertification due to its strength to drive forward eco-patterns and cycle economies using ES as indicators. This will also foster sustainable consumption and healthy living patterns requiring a proper and deep understanding of making use of the different interactions with the multi-agents on ecosystems (inputs) and their transformations that determine the state of the earth's surface (environment).

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