Unit 01/Lecture 01

ENVIRONMENT STUDIES
1) Concept of environment and ecology- Definition, scope,
importance
2) Need for Public awareness

22/08/24
Problems:

• Pollution
• Solid waste disposal
• Degradation of environment
• Global warming
• Depletion of ozone layer and
• Loss of biodiversity

1. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development - Rio de Janerio

(Brazil) in 1992
2. World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg (South Africa) in
2002
Attention of people around the globe to the deteriorating condition of our
environment
 DEFINITION

• Environmental studies - multidisciplinary approach natural world and human

impacts on its existence

• Applied science -seeks practical answers to making human civilization

sustainable with earth finite resources

• Components:
Biology, geology, chemistry, physics, engineering, sociology, health, anthropology,
economics, statistics, computers and philosophy

Scope

Our dependence on nature is so great that we cannot continue to live without

protecting the earth’s environmental resources.

Cultural practices that helped traditional societies protect and preserve their
natural resources.. Emperor Ashoka’s edict proclaimed that all forms of life are
important for our well being in Fourth Century BC
Over the past 200 years

Modern Societies------population growth------ industrial development and

intensive agriculture-----producing more resources -----means of technological
innovations:
Growing more food by using fertilizers and pesticides, developing better strains of domestic animals
and crops, irrigating farmland through mega dams and developing industry, led to rapid economic
growth, the ill effects of this type of development, led to environmental degradation

Consumer oriented society uses up Non renewable resources: Minerals & oil
large amounts of natural resources Renewable resources: timber and water
such as water, minerals, petroleum
products, wood, etc.-

Renewable resources will also be depleted if we continue to use them faster than
nature can replace them
Our natural resources can be compared with money in a bank. If we use it rapidly,
the capital will be reduced to zero. On the other hand, if we use only the interest,
it can sustain us over the longer term. This is called sustainable utilization or
development
ASSIGNMENT Qs
1. Removal of timber and firewood from a forest is faster than the regrowth and
regeneration of tree loss of forest cover not only depletes the forest of its
resources, such as timber and other non-wood products, but affect our water
resources because an intact natural forest acts like a sponge which holds
water and releases it slowly. Deforestation leads to floods in the monsoon and
dry rivers once the rains are over: Case studies

1. What is the rarity of the resource and where does it originate?

2. Who uses it most intensively and how?
3. How is it being overused or misused?
4. Who is responsible for its improper use – the resource collector, the
middleman, the end user?
5. How can we help to conserve it and prevent its unsustainable use?

1. Productive value of nature

2. Aesthetic/Recreational value of nature

3. Mass public awareness.Examples

Importance
Environment - integration of several subjects -Science and Social Studies.
We live in a world in which natural resources are limited.
Support system Population increase Degradation
Water, air, soil, minerals, oil, the Earth resource base is shrinking waste or pollute large amounts of nature’s
products we get from forests, misuse of resources clean water
grasslands, oceans and from we create more material like plastic that
agriculture and livestock, are all we discard after a single use
a part of our life support we waste huge amounts of food, which is
systems discarded as garbage.
Manufacturing processes create solid
waste byproducts that are discarded, as
well as chemicals that flow out as liquid
waste and pollute water, and gases that
pollute the air.
Increasing amounts of waste cannot be
managed by natural processes.

These accumulate in our environment, leading to a variety of diseases and other

adverse environmental impacts now seriously affecting all our lives. Air pollution
leads to respiratory diseases, water pollution to gastro-intestinal diseases, and
many pollutants are known to cause cancer
We cannot expect Governments alone to manage the safeguarding of the
environment, nor can we expect other people to prevent environmental damage.
NEED FOR PUBLIC AWARENESS

No Government can perform all these clean-up functions

Individually we can play a major role in environment management: We can reduce wasting natural
resources and we can act as watchdogs that inform the Government about sources that lead to pollution and
degradation of our environment.

Institutions in Environment

• World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-I), New Delhi

• Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi Down to Earth
• Bombay Natural History Society
• CPR Environmental Education Centre, Madras
• Centre for Environnent Education (CEE), Ahmedabad
• Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research (BVIEER),Pune
• Uttarkhand Seva Nidhi (UKSN), Almora
• Kalpavriksh, Pune
• Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore
• Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun
• Botanical Survey of India (BSI)
• Zoological Survey of India (ZSI)
People in Environment

INTERNATIONAL NATIONAL
1. Charles Darwin wrote the ‘Origin of 1. Salim Ali’s ‘Book of Indian Birds’.
Species’ 2. Indira Gandhi preservation of India’s
2. Ralph Emerson spoke of the dangers of wildlife -Wildlife Protection Act-India
commerce to our environment gained a name for itself by being a
3. John Muir saved the great ancient major player in CITES and other
sequoia trees in California's forests. International Environmental Treaties
4. Aldo Leopold was a forest official early and Accords during her tenure
policies on wilderness conservation 3. S P Godrej wildlife conservation and
and wildlife nature awareness programs
5. management. 4. M S Swami Nathan is one of India’s
6. Rachel Carson published several foremost agricultural scientists
articles that caused immediate 5. Madhav Gadgil is a well-known
worldwide concern on the effects of Ecologist
pesticides on nature and mankind. – 6. Sunderlal Bahugna’s Chipko Movement
SILENT SPRING has become an internationally well
known example of a highly successful
conservation action program
 Unit 01/Lecture 02

ENVIRONMENT STUDIES
3) Natural Resources: General discussion on Natural
Resources
Natural Resources Introduction
ABiotic Biotic
air, water, soil, minerals, along plants and animals, microbes
with the climate and solar
energy
the non-living living parts
Plants and animals can only survive as communities of different organisms, all closely
linked to each in their own habitat, and requiring specific abiotic conditions.

Forests, grasslands, deserts, mountains, rivers, lakes and the marine environment all form
habitats for specialised communities of plants and animals to live in.

Interactions between the abiotic aspects of nature and specific living organisms together
form ecosystems of various type
Changes in land and resource use
During the last 100 years -better health care system and improved nutritional status -rapid
population growth (developing countries.)
Large stretches of land such as forests, grasslands and wetlands -converted - to intensive
agriculture. Land has been taken for industry and he urban sectors.

Dramatic alterations in land-use patterns and rapid disappearance of valuable natural

ecosystems
Earth’s Resources and Man Interaction among ecological factors as related to water, land, air light and temperature
Atmosphere Hydrosphere Lithosphere Biosphere
Clean water for drinking, Soil, the basis for Food, from crops and
washing and cooking, agriculture. domestic animals, various
agriculture and industry, food chains
generate electricity in Stone, sand and gravel, Energy needs: Biomass fuel
hydroelectric projects. used for construction wood collected from
Food resources from the forests and plantations,
sea and fresh water. Micronutrients in soil, along with other forms of
Hydrosphere - ¾ of the essential for plant growth. organic matter, used as a
Oxygen - human respiration, earth’s surface Oil, coal and gas, extracted source of energy
wild fauna in natural Largest-Marine ecosystem from underground sources. Timber and other
ecosystems & domestic ocean construction materials.
animals, growth of plants Fresh water-rivers, lakes It provides power for
and glaciers, underground vehicles, agricultural thin layer on the earth - life
Pollutants-industrial units – aquifers machinery, industry, and for can exist. air, water, rocks
gases - carbon dioxide, our homes soil and living creatures,
carbon monoxide & toxic form structural and
fumes by burning fossil functional ecological units,
fuels which together can be
considered as one giant
The buildup of carbon global living system, that of
dioxide which is known as Deforestation - serious our Earth itself
‘greenhouse effect’ in the changes to hydrosphere.
atmosphere is leading to Land without vegetation, -
current global warming rain erodes the soil which
is washed into the sea.
Water Pollution-
Chemicals from industry
and sewage find their way
into rivers and into the sea
ASSIGNMENT -Natural cycles between the spheres

Atmosphere, Hydrosphere and Lithosphere - Hydrological cycle

RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCE

Natural resources and associated problem

The unequal consumption of natural resources: developed world & developing nations
Consumption of resources per capita (per individual) of the developed countries is up to 50 times greater than in most
developing countries. Advanced countries produce over 75% of global industrial waste and greenhouse gases.

Energy from fossil fuels

per capita consumption of food
Land -major resource, affected by degradation due to misuse
Land Water – polluted by industrial waste
Natural wetlands great value are being drained for agriculture
Semi-arid land is being irrigated and overused.

Most damaging change in landuse - rapidity with which forests have vanished during recent
times, both in India and in the rest of the world
• Maintains oxygen levels
• Removes carbon dioxide,
• Control over water regimes (freshwater ecosystem is the
Forest prevailing pattern of water flow over a given time) Preventing flooding,
Controlling rainfall, Improving water quality, Maintaining water tables
• Slows down erosion
• Produce products such as food, fuel, timber,
fodder, medicinal plants, etc
The need for sustainable lifestyles:

There are clear indicators of sustainable • A stabilized population.

lifestyles in human life. • The long term conservation of biodiversity.
• Increased longevity • The careful long-term use of natural
• An increase in knowledge resources.
• An enhancement of income • The prevention of degradation and
pollution of the environment.
‘Human development index’.

Non-renewable resources: minerals, fossil fuels such as oil and coa

Renewable resources: Fresh water, Forests, Aquatic life, agriculture products

The Dodo of Madagascar and the Cheetah in India are well known examples of extinct
species
ASSIGNMENT Qs
Factors Responsible for Change-Global Warming and
climate change-loss of diversity, deforestation and
desertification
Global Warming & Climate Change Factors Responsible :
Human activities
About 75% solar energy reaches Earth is Industrialization
absorbed by surface - increases its Burning fossil fuels. When we burn fossil fuels
temperature. The rest of the heat radiates like coal and gas to create electricity or power
back to the atmosphere. Some of the heat is our cars, we release carbon dioxide pollution
trapped by greenhouse gases, mostly carbon into the atmosphere. ...
dioxide. As carbon dioxide is released by Deforestation. ...
various human activities, it is rapidly Agriculture. ...
increasing. This is causing global warming. Transportation. ...
The average surface temperature is about 15°C. This is
Industry manufacturing
about 33°C higher than it would be in the absence of the
greenhouse effect. Without such gases most of the Earth’s In 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel
surface would be frozen with a mean air temperature of - on Climate Change predicted
18°C.

Global warming - rise temperatures by 3.5 to 10 Cduring

the 21st century, if the present trends continue.

It is now believed that this could be much greater. This

would lead to not only temperature changes but in the
amount of rainfall. India may see great annual
fluctuations in rainfall leading to floods and drought.
The world must rapidly shift away from
burning fossil fuels — the number one
cause of the climate crisis.
https://www.wri.org/insights/2023-ipcc-ar6-synthesis-report-climate-change-
findings#:~:text=The%20world%20must%20rapidly%20shift,zero%20in%20the%20early%202050s.