Desarrollo y medio ambiente en Europa: el patrimonio natural como base de la sostenibilidad

Abstract

The European Continent presents clearly differentiated and precise limits in its western part, but less defined in the Eastern one. Europe stretches from the northern tundra to the mediterranean and desertic climates in the South. It borders on the East with Asia, it shares the Atlantic with America and the Mediterranean with Africa and the Middle East. It shares the air with all the globe. From this perspective, the European landscape gains a new perspective. Thus, a first approach brings us close to conceptual issues (trying to answer what is and how one classifies landscapes). Quite a few are the people who have defined the geographical setting as the scenario or natural landscape in which human activities are carried out. There may not be a better way to express the kind of influence that the physical contour, the «environment», has on the animal, and specially on man. The territory influences on man, but, in which ways? Is man, as any vital organism, a reactive being? Undoubtely, the change brought about on him by any external circumstance is not an effect that follows the cause. Man, on the other hand, when he positions before his «setting,» perceives the landscape. This is an individual and philosophical act, that, as such, establishes to begin with differences among individuals, as it is difficult to encounter two people with the same visual characteristics. The perception of the landscape is influenced by the very own physiological characteristics of the human being, by his character and personality, and also by collective representations. Throughout this paper, we would like to show the importance the environment has on the European economic and human development, basis for the socalled natural wealth.