Understanding Your Natural Environment

The first important step towards understanding your natural environment is to out-rightly without doubt accept the concept as the ultimate. So then there is no room for debates and irrelevant scrutiny of obvious facts that has for ages proved that Nature is the beginning of everything. By accepting this truth you have decided to go on to live in the light. After acknowledgement you can now freely study Nature for more understanding and discoveries of new truths. Together lets surf the universe via this article in search of a sweet insight into the wonders of Nature

chincoteaguebirds_000

farming-kakkoor-649x484

What is Nature? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Nature as" "the physical world and everything in it (such as plants, animals, mountains, oceans, stars, etc.) that is not made by people" or, " the natural forces that control what happens in the world" and "the way that a person or animal behaves : the character or personality of a person or animal" From the above definitions we can say Nature is encompassing as its not man-made. Therefore there is really no complete understanding of the concept as its vast and somewhat overwhelming. According to another source; Evolving Thoughts, "Nature is (in a human context) what you are born with. The Greek cognate term that natura translates is ousia which is a form of the verb “to be”. John Stuart Mill, in an influential 1874 essay, noted that "As the nature of any given thing is the aggregate of its powers and properties, so Nature in the abstract is the aggregate of the powers and properties of all things. Nature means the sum of all phenomena, together with the causes which produce them; including not only all that happens, but all that is capable of happening; the unused capabilities of causes being as much a part of the idea of Nature as those which take effect" Understanding nature equips one with a full doze of the knowledge its wonders and prepares you with more sophisticated skills for managing future environmental challenges Your Natural Environment The word Natural means to exist in Nature and not made or caused by people, not having any extra substances or chemicals added and not containing anything artificial. Your Natural environment means all living and non-living things that are naturally around you. Two aspects are usually included:: Ecological units which are natural systems without much human interference. These include including 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. In contrast to the your natural environment is your built environment. There we have managed to modify our landscapes to make urban settings and agricultural land. By so doing your natural environment is greatly diminished. To some school of thought, the natural environment is God’s gift and provision for the care of his people. It provides healthy food, shelter, clothing, medicines, beauty, clean water, clean air and many other benefits for people to use and enjoy. The natural environment is also the world’s largest employer. More people all over the world make their living from environmental resources than by any other means. Do we need our natural environment? Our natural environment is our primary source of life. Every mineral in our body is in abundance in our environment. We depend entirely on a healthy natural environment for our wealth and wellbeing. It is fundamental to our economy and social structures, our homes and neighbourhoods, our ability to create and construct things, and to our health and happiness. Human beings are part of the natural world; we are one species amongst millions and have evolved to be part of nature, not apart from it. Nature matters not only because it does, but also because it brings people huge emotional value, it delivers a wide range of valuable goods and services that are of practical benefit to society, and much of the emotional and practical value that it generates has financial value which contributes to our economic performance. The natural environment, broadly conceived, can also enhance health, for example, many pharmaceuticals are derived from plants and animals, providing a compelling argument for preserving biodiversity. In addition, contact with the natural world may be directly beneficial to health. Your Contact With Nature A theoretical basis for the notion that contact with nature is beneficial comes from E.O. Wilson, who introduced the term Biophilia almost 20 years ago, defined as the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms. From an evolutionary perspective, a deep-seated connection with the natural world should be no surprise. Humans have been evolving for more than 2 million years, yet have lived relatively insulated from nature for only the last 10,000 years. As Wilson (1993) noted, “it would be quite extraordinary to find that all learning rules related to the natural world have been erased in a few thousand years, even in the tiny minority of peoples who have existed for more than one or two generations in wholly urban environments.” This is not a new idea, claimed Howard Frumkin of Emory University. The human connection to nature and the idea that this might be a component of good health have a long and fascinating history in philosophy, art, and popular culture. There is ample evidence—from animals, plants, landscapes, and wilderness experiences—that we can build on this affiliation to enhance our health. Animals have always played a prominent part in human life. Today, more people go to zoos each year than to all professional sporting events. More than half of all U.S. households own pets. Animals comprise more than 90 percent of the characters used in language acquisition and counting in children’s preschool books. A considerable body of evidence links contact with animals to human health. Preserving the bond between people and their animals, like encouraging good nutrition and exercise, appears to be in the best interests of those concerned with public health. Exposure to plants and flowers also nourishes a sense of our well-being. In a 1998 National Gardening Survey of more than 2,000 randomly selected households, half of the respondents agreed with the statement that flowers and plants at theme parks, historic sites, golf courses, and restaurants are important to enjoyment of these locations, and 40 percent agreed with the statement that being around plants makes them feel calmer and more relaxed. Office employees report similar feelings, stating that an office with plants is a more desirable place to work. Psychologist Michael Perlman has written of the psychological power of trees, as evidenced by mythology, dreams, and self-reported emotional responses. Indeed, the concept that plants have a role in mental health is fairly well established To return to an evolutionary perspective, human history probably began on the African savanna, a region of open grasslands punctuated by scattered stands of trees and denser woods near rivers and lakes. When offered a choice of landscapes, people react most positively to savanna-like settings, with moderate to high depth or openness, relatively smooth or uniform-length grassy vegetation or ground surfaces, scattered trees or small groupings of trees, and water, a finding that is consistent across every culture studied. This effect may extend beyond aesthetics, to restoration of health or recovery from stress. Research on recreational activities has shown that people viewing savanna-like settings report feelings of tranquility, peacefulness, or relaxation. On psychometric testing, people viewing such settings show decreased fear and anger, enhanced positive affect, and improved mental alertness, attention, and cognitive performance. The same results emerge from studies that directly consider conventional health end points. In 1981, University of Michigan architect Ernest Moore found that “prisoners assigned at random to cells along the prison’s outside wall with a view of rolling landscape and trees, had significantly lower frequency of sick call visits compared to those in the inside cells.” Moore could not identify any design features to explain this difference and that the outside view may provide some stress reduction. Our environment is our life Sources: http://www.gwentwildlife.org, http://www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov