Environment – The Interrelationship Between Human Activity and the Earth’s Atmosphere

Environment can be defined as the entire state or condition of being alive. It can also mean the physical aspects of the environment, including human habitat, physical aspects of the physical environment, and the way that people interact with the environment. The natural environment encompasses everything living and non-living which occurs naturally, which means in this instance not man made. The term is frequently used to describe the earth or any specific areas of the earth. In this sense, it could be said that the entire earth is an environment, which means there is a vast diversity of environments which are suitable to different species of organisms existing in that particular environment. However, the environment may be further subdivided into two more types, the ecological and the bio-ecological, each of which encompasses a wide range of different types of environment.

The earth’s biotic factors include those natural forces that affect the existence and the productivity of living things within an environment. These natural factors can be changes in temperature, precipitation, soil erosion, lighting, air, water, plant growth, and many other environmental factors. They can also be combinations of these factors. They often determine whether or not an area will sustain life. For example, although the temperature of a region may remain relatively constant throughout the year, rain can cause drastic temperature fluctuations, which can kill or damage some forms of organism.

On the other hand, biological factors include those qualities of the living organisms existing in the earth environment that enable them to survive and thrive. Examples include air, water, and land; all of which have different characteristics which allow them to sustain life. A combination of these qualities determine whether or not an area of the earth will support different forms of life. Another term that describes this relationship is net oxygen quantity or NOC. This is closely related to oxygen, the primary force that keeps the atmosphere in existence. If the atmospheric level of NOC is high, oxygen is low, and if NOC is low, oxygen is high; and if NOC is equal to atmospheric oxygen, the atmosphere is in a state of balanced oxygen and NOC.