Environment
Our environment is a complex result of several interrelated and interdependent sets of systems on Earth.
Five systems of Earth interact to produce the environments we are familiar with. These are the:
Geosphere. This includes the interior and surface of Earth, which are made up of rocks.
Biosphere. This is what we normally think of as the ‘environment’. It is a limited part of the planet that can support what we think of as living things.
Hydrosphere. The hydrosphere is the combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet.
Atmosphere. The atmosphere is a thin layer, or envelope, of gas that keeps the planet warm and provides oxygen for breathing and carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.
Cryosphere. This is the frozen water part of the Earth's system and contains huge quantities of ice at the poles and elsewhere.
Humanity is seriously affecting four of these systems, and there is debate about how damaging ultradeep mining may be to the geosphere. Each plays a vital role in the function and sustainability of Earth’s system. All five of these enormous and complex systems interact with one another to maintain the Earth as we know it.
The biosphere, the part consisting of all living things, is made of the physical divisions of:
Lithosphere (land or soil),
Hydrosphere (water), and
Atmosphere (air).
The systems are interdependent, and within them, the living parts, the ecologies, have developed. Earth's biosphere is made up of five major biomes, each with innumerable interdependent ecosystems: aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, and tundra biomes. An ecosystem is composed of the interdependent biological communities of a given geographical area and its physical environment.
Scientists have developed an environmental schema known as the Planetary Boundaries, which can be measured and inform us whether we are approaching the dangerous limits of our planet for the living systems in the Biosphere to continue. The Planetary Boundaries examine those aspects of the environment that are critical to the biosphere's health and support humans and all other living things.
The Environment and Humans
When we consider all the parts of the environment and the Planetary Boundaries, we find that all have been seriously impacted by humans. From an evolutionary perspective, humans have always interacted with and changed the environment they live in or use, and that now includes large sections of the planet. As Rees (Rees, 2023) points out
“Homo sapiens has evolved to reproduce exponentially, expand geographically, and consume all available resources. For most of humanity’s evolutionary history, such expansionist tendencies have been countered by negative feedback. However, the scientific revolution and the use of fossil fuels reduced many forms of negative feedback, enabling us to realize our full potential for exponential growth. This natural capacity is being reinforced by growth-oriented neoliberal economics—nurture complements nature. Problem: the human enterprise is a ‘dissipative structure’ and sub-system of the ecosphere—it can grow and maintain itself only by consuming and dissipating available energy and resources extracted from its host system, the ecosphere, and discharging waste back into its host.”
This has been how we are. Just is. Now, humans need to mature and learn new ways of relating to our environment to minimise our future suffering and to learn new ways of feeling satisfied. Part of this may be to learn that we are okay just as we are. However, the story or narrative we live with daily, a story from our culture, the Techno-Industrial Consumer Culture (TICC), is different. TICC tells us that we are broken and that buying stuff is the only way to improve. Our relationship with ‘stuff’ is another story (Berson, 2021). MANA Inc. works at this interface, learning how we can be satisfied with less and ensure that we, as people, know we are okay just as we are. This is cultural change.
References have been added to master list:
Berson, J. (2021). The Human Scaffold How Not to Design Your Way Out of a Climate Crisis (First Edition ed.).
Rees, W. E. (2023). The Human Ecology of Overshoot: Why a Major ‘Population Correction’ Is Inevitable. World, 4(3), 509-527.