Environmental Protection and the Economy

Are environmental protection and economic growth compatible? Without doubt, economic growth has put an enormous strain on the environmental resources that power it. In fact, the environment would not need so much protecting but for the Industrial Revolution and what followed: dependence on fossil fuels,...

Pollution

What is pollution? Pollution is the presence of anything in the environment that produces undesired effects. Substances that may be entirely innocuous in one location may cause pollution in another. Salt is a key component of ocean water, but when salt water finds its way...

Ecosystems

What is an ecosystem? The environment is often seen as made up of distinct parts operating more or less independently of each other. Viewed this way, protecting the environment means protecting distinctly different categories of things: the oceans, endangered species, the air we breathe, and...

Air

Why is clean air important? Each person takes in more than three thousand gallons of air a day to stay alive. The quality of that air is key to good health. Moreover, polluted air affects everyone and is unavoidable: although it can collect in large...

Environmental Laws

What is environmental law in the United States? In the United States environmental law consists of laws enacted by Congress and by state legislatures to address environmental issues, and the written legal decisions of judges resolving environmental disputes arising from these laws. Both are now...

Environmental Protection

What is the environment? Various materials and conditions, some natural and some made by humans, affect life on earth. Taken together, they form the environment. Sunlight is part of the environment as is an ocean bed deep beneath the surface, or groundwater flowing through and...

The Future

What are the greatest threats to the environment today? We all should be deeply concerned about our planet as we move further into the twenty-first century. Even though the science is not completely certain and the facts are evolving, it is clear that we are...

Environmental Justice

How is justice a part of environmental protection? A safe, healthy environment is considered by many to be a basic human right. Like any goal embraced and implemented in various ways by all levels of government, environmental protection should be administered as justly and fairly...

The Built Environment

What is the built environment? The term “built environment” refers to the places that people have designed and constructed for living, working, and recreation. It includes homes, commercial buildings, highways, parks—every place that has been altered by humans for our safety, comfort, convenience, and pleasure....

Water

Why is clean water important? Water covers 70 percent of the surface of the earth in all three forms of matter, solid (ice), liquid (flowing water), and gas (water vapor such as clouds). The human body is over 60 percent water. Of all the earth’s...