ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how people have tried to preserve, protect and manage the agents of natures, and discusses whether the methods and approaches adopted by them are effective or not. Management and control are a feature of modern human society and the concept of management has been a major philosophy in human-nature relationships. The dominant approach used to ascertain the extent of environmental problems and hazards, and the need for management, is to measure them in terms of risk and safety. The precautionary principle approach and the best environmental practice approach are the two main forms of preventive environmental management. Technological advances could help to control the amount of pollution released into the environment and, advantageously, produce no environmentally harmful by-products. For example, G. J. Hutchings et al. describe a treatment process for volatile organic chemicals released from industrial stack emissions using uranium-oxide-based catalysts that can destroy a range of pollutants such as toluene and benzene at moderate temperatures.
