Five main types of environments are recognized. These are the natural environment, the socio-economic environment, the built environment, the political/governmental environment and the spiritual environment, which is an addition by the author to the list of environments. However, since these environments are in most cases affected by certain environmental challenges that are common to all of them and these environments are inter-dependent, with the happenings in one affecting the others, an “integrated environment” approach is adopted in this paper in discussing the environments, which are simply referred to as “the environment”, in most part of this paper.
The global environmental issues that are germane to sustainability of environment in which most of the third world countries are still lagging behind, are discussed. These issues are weighed against the back drop of the diverse sociological challenges facing these third world countries, many of which are not showing any sign of abatement within a foreseeable future. All these have led the author to the conclusion that most of these countries may remain in the doldrums for long, on the all-important issue of sustainability of the environment
Keywords: Built Environment, Climate Change, Loss of Biodiversity, Natural Environment, Natural Hazards and Sustainability, Political/Governmental Environment, Pollution, Socio-Economic Environment, Spiritual Environment
