It is all that surrounds human beings and that comprises: natural elements, both physical and biological; artificial elements; social elements and the interactions of all of these elements among each other.
The physical or natural environment, made up by nature and its resources: climate, soil, water, flora (forest vegetation, natural pastures, and wild vegetal species in general), fauna, minerals (metallic and non-metallic), energy (renewable and non-renewable) and wastes.
The human environment, which comprises human beings and their activities having the use of natural resources as starting point. It also encompasses the behavior of human beings with their kind and nature, including positive aspects (creativity, preservation of the environment) and negative aspects (destruction, environmental pollution).
Importance
The reasonable and wise use of non-renewable natural resources and perpetuation of renewable natural resources in order to maintain a sustainable exploitation in time and coexist in harmony with nature, abiding by its laws and basing our relationships on them, is called Environmental Preservation.
The use of processes, practices, techniques, materials, products, services or energy to prevent, reduce or control (separately or in combination) the generation, emission or discharge of any type of pollutant or waste in order to minimize adverse environmental impacts is known as Pollution Prevention, meaning by pollution the undesired change to the physical, chemical or biological features of air, water or earth that may or might affect dangerously human life or that of other species, our industrial processes, living conditions, our cultural values or which may or might wear out or deteriorate our raw material resources.
