How to conserve our environment

1. Environ
mental
Conserv
ation

2. What is Environment?
 Environment is everything that is around us. It
can be living or nonliving 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.

3. Natural Environment
 In biology and ecology, the environment is all of the natural materials and living things,
including sunlight. If those things are natural, it is a natural environment. Some people call
themselves environmentalists. They think we must protect the natural environment, to keep
it safe. Things in the natural environment that we value are called natural resources. For
example; fish, sunlight, and forests. These are renewable resources because they come back
naturally when we use them. Non-renewable resources are important things in the
environment that are limited for example, ores and fossil fuels. Some things in the natural
environment can kill people, such as lightning.
 Everything is surrounded by other things, so everything is the environment of something. This
includes the biotic and abiotic factors that influence each other. Living elements: animals,
plants, etc. are biotic elements, abiotic elements include air, water, sunlight etc. Studying
the environment means studying the relationships among these various things.
 Ecological units which are natural systems without much human interference. These include
all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere, and natural events.
 Universal natural resources and physical phenomena which lack clear-cut boundaries. These
include climate, air, water, energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism.

4. Historical Environment
 A person's environment is the events and culture that the person lived in. A
person's beliefs and actions depend on his environment. For example, Thomas
Jefferson and Julius Caesar owned slaves. Modern people mostly think it is
wrong to own slaves. But in Jefferson's and Caesar's environments slavery was
normal. So, their actions did not look as wrong in their societies.

5. Why Is It Important to Care About the
Environment?
 The ecosystem (all the communities of living organisms found in a specific
place, their habitats and their interactions) in which we live provides natural
services for humans and all other species that are essential to our health,
quality of life and survival. For example, our forests remove carbon dioxide
and other pollutants from the air we breathe and also cool our air
temperatures, reducing the formation of ground-level ozone, a pollutant that
can cause heart and lung problems to worsen; our wetlands store storm
water, filter and make harmless storm water pollutants, and recharge our
aquifers (where most of us get our drinking water) with these filtered waters;
and the dune systems on our beaches form natural barriers to storm waves
and provide important habitat and travel ways for wildlife.

6. Three Environmental Goals
Excellent Water Quality
Healthy Air Quality
Preservation of Biodiversity

7. Excellent Water Quality Benefits
 Economic - boost tourism, provide catch for fishing, shrimping, oystering
industries, decrease health care costs, provide environment for ecotourism
industry
 Social - use of surface waters for recreation, decrease prevalence of water-
borne diseases, increase quality of life, increase quality of water entering
aquifers
 Environmental - preserve diversity of water dependent animals and plants,
preserve various natural services of aquatic ecosystems (flood control, aquifer
recharge, etc.)

8. Healthy Air Quality Benefits
 Economic - boost tourism, decrease health care costs, decrease erosion of
buildings and pavement
 Social - decrease prevalence of circulatory and lung-related disease, increase
quality of life for residents
 Environmental - preserves water quality by reducing acid
precipitation/deposition, preserves aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity

9. Preservation of Biodiversity Benefits
 Economic - boost nature-based tourism, preserve food webs that support our
economy via fishing industries
 Social - provides for natural services, increase quality of life
 Environmental - preserve water and land-based ecosystems that provide
natural resources and natural services, preserve energy flow throughout the
biosphere

10. Excellent Water Quality Action to Achieve
Goals
 Use more pervious surfaces on all built sites to decrease storm water volume
and increase infiltration
 Prohibit direct discharge of storm water to water bodies
 Increase storm water retention time in treatment ponds
 Use upland buffers around all surface water bodies to treat runoff
 Use series of treatment ponds before storm water enters water body
 Use native plants in all buffers and treatment ponds to provide pollutant
breakdown and nutrient uptake

11. Healthy Air Quality Action to Achieve
Goals
 Develop efficient, low/no emission public transport system
 Use more pervious surfaces on built sites
 Use efficient, coordinated traffic control systems to reduce idling time
 Continue to develop efficient pathways and encourage residents and tourists
to use them
 Maintain and augment the urban forest to uptake and store carbon, filter
pollutants, produce oxygen and prevent ground-level ozone formation

12. Preservation of Biodiversity Action to
Achieve Goals
 Preserve natural habitats
 Provide safe travel ways for wildlife between habitats
 Encourage builders and residents to preserve and /or augment habitat during
site development
 Discourage use of non-native, invasive plants in the landscape
 Design roadways to calm traffic and provide wildlife refuges in medians
 Use wildlife-friendly curbing or no curbing along roadways
 Encourage residents and businesses to use integrated pest management