ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises the development of human collective awareness of the fact in relation to environmental deterioration. It implies that economic systems require active direction if their ability to create wealth is not to undermine itself, the human social fabric, and, most importantly, the biosphere upon which everything depends. Lung damage and increased susceptibility to respiratory diseases caused by air pollution are joined by other human health issues that arise from environmental degradation. Combating desertification is an investment cluster that straddles biodiversity and adaptation in dry-land circumstances, where human development must be sustained under particularly harsh and, with climate change, often worsening conditions, by conserving ecosystems and managing water at the margins of the habitable world. People can look at clusters of investments to do with mitigating and adapting to climate change, combating desertification, and conserving biodiversity. A simple classification divides biodiversity into genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity.
