El medio ambiente es el conjunto de componentes físicos, químicos, y biológicos, de las personas o de la sociedad en su conjunto. Comprende el conjunto de valores naturales, sociales y culturales existentes en un lugar y en un momento determinado, que influyen en la vida del ser humano y en las generaciones futuras. Es decir, no se trata solo del espacio en el que se desarrolla la vida, sino que también comprende seres vivos, objetos, agua, suelo, aire y las relaciones entre ellos, así como elementos tan intangibles como la cultura[cita requerida].

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The natural environment encompasses all living things and non-living things occurring naturally. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some part of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather, and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components: \n* Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere, and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature \n* Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from civilized human activity In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment. In such areas where man has fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion, the natural environment is greatly modified into a simplified human environment. Even events which seem less extreme such as hydroelectric dam construction, or photovoltaic system construction in the desert, modify the natural environment into an artificial one. It is difficult to find absolutely natural environments on Earth, and naturalness usually varies in a continuum, from 100% natural in one extreme to 0% natural in the other. More precisely, we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment, and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform. If, for instance, in an agricultural field, the mineralogic composition and the structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil, but the structure is quite different. Natural environment is often used as a synonym for habitat. For instance, when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is the savanna.

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