Environment

The environment concept

It is now the right time to look at the term „environment“ in more detail. The terms nature and ecology are often used in the literature as synonyms for the environment. Whereas ecology describes the entirety of the relationships between organisms and their environment, nature is everything, organic and inorganic, that exists or develops without the intervention of people. If one looks up „Environment“ in a dictionary, one finds the following meaning: „surroundings affecting an organism and influencing its living conditions“. Thus one could describe the environment as that which surrounds us, water, earth, air and all the organisms living in them. Not only do these affect people, and the other way around, but they influence one another. The term sustainable development is often used in connection with the term environment. This is concerned with leaving an environment to the coming generations in which they can live to a standard similar to the current one.

Sustainability is also among the fundamental values of Severn Suzuki who become known as „the girl who silenced the world“ at the age of twelve. The Canadian held a speech in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro at the first UN conference on the environment and development.

Watch this speech:

20 years later she once again held a speech in Rio de Janeiro at the UN conference on sustainable development (Rio+20). Watch this video too and afterwards answer the questions:

Sources

http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Umwelt#Bedeutunga
http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Natur
http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Oekologie
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umwelt
http://www.umweltlexikon-online.de/RUBrechtmanagement/Umwelt.php