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Show CHAPTER J - THE ENVIRONMENT The term "environment" defies brief description since it includes all conditions, circumstances, and influences surrounding and affecting the development and maintenance of mankind as well as all other living organisms. In relation to man, it includes the availability of work for pay, living conditions, safety, recreation opportunities, material goods, services, water, food, and a host of other factors conducive to existence at a given level of quality of life. In relation to all other associated forms of nature, the environment includes the charac- teristics, condition, and amount of land and water, habitat, vegetal cover, appearance, and the degree of exploitation of these resources by man. The heritage of present-day and long-past peoples of the Region is included within the concept of the environment. Some aspects of the natural environment are highly sensitive to the slightest permanent change. These have evolved through eons of special conditions which, when upset, quickly succumb or are transmuted. The natural environment of the earth itself is transitional-continually evolving, in long-range trends, from one form to another.* Man is but one among many factors in this evolution and he has the capability to accelerate, inhibit, or reverse some environmental trends. The greatest impact of man on the natural environment has been, and will be, simply his expanding population, attended by increasing demands on the natural resources and living space. For each increment of increased population, there attends an increment of depreciation in the natural environment. Increasing demands of population growth are fur- ther compounded by the accelerating technological advances and the desires of an affluent society. As a matter of choice or preference, some elements of the natural environment must be traded for improvements benefiting the welfare and. comfort of man. However, the opportunities to make choices become more scarce with higher population concentrations and intensified develop- ments. Many resources tend to be used beyond the limit of their capa- bility, space becomes limited to fewer uses, and natural environmental. quality declines. Therefore, in the interest of preserving the highest possible quality of environment for future generations, it becomes the obliga- tion of all long-range planning to carefully weigh the impacts of pro- posed development on the multifaceted environment. The remaining natural resources should be carefully preserved and managed to prolong their availability in the highest possible quality. 117 |