The environment is something you are very familiar with.

It's
everything that makes up our surroundings and affects our ability to
live on the earth—the air we breathe, the water that covers most of
the earth's surface, the plants and animals around us, and much
more.

In recent years, scientists have been carefully examining the ways

that people affect the environment. They have found that we are
causing air pollution, deforestation, acid rain, and other problems
that are dangerous both to the earth and to ourselves. These days,
when you hear people talk about “the environment”, they are often
referring to the overall condition of our planet, or how healthy it is.

A hierarchy (from the Greek hierarkhia, "rule of a high priest", from hierarkhes, "president of sacred rites") is
an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) in which the items are represented as being
"above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important concept in a wide variety of
fields, such as philosophy, mathematics, computer science, organizational theory, systems theory, and
the social sciences (especially political philosophy).
A hierarchy can link entities either directly or indirectly, and either vertically or diagonally. The only direct links in
a hierarchy, insofar as they are hierarchical, are to one's immediate superior or to one of one's subordinates,
although a system that is largely hierarchical can also incorporate alternative hierarchies. Hierarchical links can
extend "vertically" upwards or downwards via multiple links in the same direction, following a path. All parts of
the hierarchy which are not linked vertically to one another nevertheless can be "horizontally" linked through a
path by traveling up the hierarchy to find a common direct or indirect superior, and then down again. This is
akin to two co-workers or colleagues; each reports to a common superior, but they have the same relative
amount of authority. Organizational forms exist that are both alternative and complementary to
hierarchy. Heterarchy is one such form.