Caring for Our Environment
Abstract
When we refer to the environment, we mean the 'natural' environment which includes our whole universe. It is the same as what we mean by 'creation'. However, we normally speak of our environment in the more restricted sense of the earth on which we live. We are not always aware of the extent to which our lives depend on the natural environment which is, indeed, our life support system. For instance, just as fish cannot live outside of water in which they are enveloped, we cannot live without the air that we continually breathe and which surrounds us. Our bodies are comprised of more than 70% of water, therefore water is absolutely necessary for our survival. Food is also necessary for our survival and this food comes from the fruits and vegetables that
come from the soil or the trees, or from animal flesh or fish. Fire is also one of the great elements of nature on which we have come to depend so much.
Description
As we look at the natural world surrounding us, whether in the rural or urban area, it is easy to see how we humans are having a large impact on the environment. Living in the city, we see the garbage as we walk outside our homes, we cough from the black fumes of passing buses and lorries, we carefully hop from stone to stone to avoid streams of smelly rainwater. Living in the village, we see the large trees around our homes cut down and turned into charcoal, we notice how our fields need more fertiliser each year or are infested with more and more insects, we become angry with our streams for flooding and drying up and forgetting how to flow steadily the year round. These changes to the environment have become very visible and serious only in more recent times. Has our human relationship with the natural world changed somehow?