The word environment, whose dictionary meaning is simply that which surrounds, has in the last few decades become a buzzword , encompassing an exceedingly diverse array of elements and social issues. Taking the original meaning as a point of departure, it is clear that we humans depend totally on the environment provided by planet Earth for the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. Thus changes in this environment must be of vital concern. Will Earth continue to sustain humans in a way that also encourages the flourishing of the other living things with whom we share the planet? This question has loomed ever larger as it has become more evident that human activities have been inducing major changes in all of the compartments of the global environment. We have converted forests and savannas to farms and cities; we have exhumed ancient treasures of fuels and minerals; we have used the rivers and winds as convenient sewers; and we have released entirely new chemical compounds and organisms into the environment. In the 1960s, the scientific community began to use the word environment in this new non-specialist sense. Soon too, Departments of the Environment were created by many governments, and new scientific journals began publication while others were re-named. For example, the International Journal of Air Pollution became Atmospheric Environment! In the ensuing decades, the world community has come to see the environment in many different ways, as a life-support system, as a fragile sphere hanging in space, as a problem, a threat and a home.