UNIT 1 EVS

                      ENVIRONMENT 

Literary environment means the surrounding external conditions influencing development or growth of people, animal or plants; living or working conditions etc. This involves three questions:

1.What is Surrounded :

The answer to this question is living and non living objects in general and man in particular.

2. By what Surrounded

The physical attributes are the answer to this question, which become environment. In
fact, the concern of all education is the environment of man. However, man cannot exist or
be understood in isolation from the other forms of life and from plant life. Hence, environment
refers to the sum total of condition, which surround point in space and time. The scope of
the term Environment has been changing and widening by the passage of time. In the
primitive age, the environment consisted of only physical aspects of the planted earth' land,
air and water as biological communities. As the time passed on man extended his environment
through his social, economic and political functions.

3. Where Surrounded

    The answer to this question. It is in nature that physical component of the plant earth,
     viz land, air, water etc., support and affect life in the biosphere.

 Definitions of Environment : Some important definitions of environment are as under:

1.Boring: ‘A person’s environment consists of the sum total of the stimulation which he receives from his conception until his death.’ It can be concluded from the above definition that Environment comprises various types of forces such as physical, intellectual, economic, political, cultural, social, moral and emotional. Environment is the sum total of all the external forces, influences and conditions, which affect the life, nature, behaviour and the growth, development and maturation of living organisms.

2. Douglas and Holland: ‘The term environment is used to describe, in the aggregate, all the external forces, influences and conditions, which affect the life, nature, behaviour and the growth, development and maturity of living organisms.’

ENVIRONMENT STUDIES: IMPORTANCE

At present a great number of environment issues, have grown in size and complexity day by day, threatening the survival of mankind on earth. We study about these issues besides and effective suggestions in the Environment Studies. Environment studies have become significant for the following reasons:

1. Environment Issues Being of International Importance

It has been well recognised that environment issues like global warming and ozone depletion, acid rain, marine pollution and biodiversity are not merely national issues but are global issues and hence must be tackled with international efforts and cooperation.

2. Problems Cropped in The Wake of Development

Development, in its wake gave birth to Urbanization, Industrial Growth, Transportation Systems, Agriculture and Housing etc. However, it has become phased out in the developed world. The North, to cleanse their own environment has, fact fully, managed to move ‘dirty’ factories of South. When the West developed, it did so perhaps in ignorance of the environmental impact of its activities. Evidently such a path is neither practicable nor desirable, even if developing world follows that.

3. Explosively Increase in Pollution

World census reflects that one in every seven persons in this planted lives in India. Evidently with 16 per cent of the world's population and only 2.4 per cent of its land area, there is a heavy pressure on the natural resources including land. Agricultural experts have recognized soils health problems like deficiency of micronutrients and organic matter, soil

salinity and damage of soil structure.

4. Need for An Alternative Solution

It is essential, specially for developing countries to find alternative paths to an alternative goal. We need a goal as under:

(1) A goal, which ultimately is the true goal of development an environmentally sound and sustainable development.

(2) A goal common to all citizens of our earth.

(3) A goal distant from the developing world in the manner it is from the over-consuming wasteful societies of the “developed” world.

5. Need To Save Humanity From Extinction

It is incumbent upon us to save the humanity from extinction. Consequent to our activities constricting the environment and depleting the biosphere, in the name of development. 

6. Need For Wise Planning of Development

Our survival and sustenance depend. Resources withdraw, processing and use of the product have all to by synchronised with the ecological cycles in any plan of development our actions should be planned ecologically for the sustenance of the environment and development.

7. NEED FOR PUBLIC AWARENESS: 

1. Growing Population, 2. Poverty, 3. Agricultural Growth, 4. Need to Ground water, 5. Development And Forests, 6. Degradation of Land, 7. Reorientation of Institutions, 8. Reduction of Genetic Diversity, 9. Evil Consequences of Urbanisation, 10. Air and water Population

VARIOUS TYPES OF ENVIRONMENT

According to Kurt Lewin, environment is of three types which influence the personality of an individual as under:

(a) Physical Environment, (b) Social and Cultural Environment, and (c) Psychological Environment.

These may be explained as under:

1. Physical Environment: Physical environment, refers to geographical climate and weather or physical conditions

wherein and individual lives. The human races are greatly influenced by the climate. Some examples are as under:

(a) In the cold countries i.e. European countries the people are of white colour. Likewise, in Asian and African countries, that is, in hot countries people are of dark complexion.

(b) The physique of an individual depends on climate conditions as the individual tries to adjust in his physical environment.

(d) The human working efficiency also depends on the climatic conditions.

2. Social Environment: Social Environment includes an individual’s social, economic and political condition wherein he lives. The moral, cultural and emotional forces influence the life and nature of individual behaviour. Society may be classified into two categories as under:

(i) An open society is very conductive for the individual development.

(ii) A closed society is not very conductive for the development.

3. Psychological Environment: Although physical and social environment are common to the individual in a specific

situation. Yet every individual has his own psychological environment, in which he lives. The Psychological environment enables us to understand the personality of an individual. Both the person and his goal form psychological environment. If a person is unable to overcome the barriers, he can either get frustrated or completed to change his goal for a new psychological environment. But adopting this mechanism, the individual is helped in his adjustment to the environment.

ENVIRONMENT

Scope of Environment: The environment consists of four segments as under:

1. Atmosphere: The atmosphere implies the protective blanket of gases, surrounding the earth:

It sustains life on the earth.    (b) It saves earth from the hostile environment of outer space. (c) It absorbs most of the cosmic rays from outer space and a major portion of the electromagnetic radiation from the sun. (d) It transmits only here ultraviolet, visible, near infrared radiation (300 to 2500 nm) and radio waves. (0.14 to 40 m) while filtering out tissue-damaging ultra-violate waves below about 300 nm. 

The atmosphere is composed of nitrogen and oxygen. Besides, argon, carbon dioxide, and trace gases.

2. Hydrosphere: The Hydrosphere comprises all types of water resources oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, streams, reserviour, polar icecaps, glaciers, and ground water.

(i) Nature 97% of the earth’s water supply is in the oceans,

(ii) About 2% of the water resources is locked in the polar icecaps and glaciers.

(iii)Only about 1% is available as fresh surface water-rivers, lakes streams, undground water fit to be used for human consumption and other uses.

3. Lithosphere: Lithosphere is the outer mantle of the solid earth. It consists of minerals occurring in the earth’s crusts and the soil e.g. minerals, organic matter, air and water.

4. Biosphere: Biosphere indicates the realm of living organisms and their interactions with environment, viz atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.

Element of Environment

Environment is constituted by the interacting systems of physical, biological and cultural elements inter-related in various ways, individually as well as collectively. These elements may be explained as under:

(1) Physical elements

Physical elements are as space, landforms, water bodies, climate soils, rocks and minerals. They determine the variable character of the human habitat, its opportunities as well as limitations.

(2) Biological elements

Biological elements such as plants, animals, microorganisms and men constitute the biosphere.

 

(3) Cultural elements

Cultural elements such as economic, social and political elements are essentially manmade features, which make cultural milieu.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

ENVIRONMENT 

*Environmental science is, in broadest terms, a branch of science that seeks to understand the many ways that we affect our environment and the many ways that we can address these issues. 

*Environmental science draws on the research and expertise of specialists from numerous traditional sciences, including biology, ecology, chemistry, geology, engineering, and physics. 

*The study of environmental issues and solutions also draws heavily on the humanities: economics, political science, anthropology, history, law, sociology, and even psychology. Thus environmental science is a multidisciplinary field of endeavour. 

What’s Happening?

Our environment is constantly changing. There is no denying that. However, as our environment changes, so does the need to become increasingly aware of the problems that surround it. With a massive influx of natural disasters, warming and cooling periods, different types of weather patterns and much more, people need to be aware of what types of environmental problems our planet is facing.

Global warming has become an undisputed fact about our current livelihoods; our planet is warming up and we are definitely part of the problem. However, this isn’t the only environmental problem that we should be concerned about. All across the world, people are facing a wealth of new and challenging environmental problems every day. Some of them are small and only affect a few ecosystems, but others are drastically changing the landscape of what we already know.

*Our planet is poised at the brink of a severe environmental crisis.

*Current environmental problems make us vulnerable to disasters and tragedies, now and in the future. 

*We are in a state of planetary emergency, with environmental problems piling up high around us. 

*Unless we address the various issues prudently and seriously we are surely doomed for disaster. 

*Current environmental problems require urgent attention.

SOME ENVIRONMENAL ISSUES TODAY

1.Pollution: Pollution of air, water and soil require millions of years to recoup. Industry and motor vehicle exhaust are of serious concern. Heavy metals, nitrates and plastic are toxins responsible for pollution. While water pollution is caused by oil spill, acid rain, urban runoff; air pollution is caused by various gases and toxins released by industries and factories and combustion of fossil fuels; soil pollution is majorly caused by industrial waste that deprives soil from essential nutrients.

2.Global Warming: Climate changes like global warming is the result of human practices like emission of Greenhouse gases(water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide). Global warming leads to rising temperatures of the oceans and the earth’ surface causing melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea levels and also unnatural patterns of precipitation such as flash floods, excessive snow or desertification.

3. Overpopulation: The population of the planet is reaching unsustainable levels as it faces shortage of resources like water, fuel and food. Population explosion in less developed and developing countries is straining the already scarce resources. Intensive agriculture practiced to produce food damages the environment through use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides. Overpopulation is one of the crucial current environmental problem.

4. Natural Resource Depletion: Natural resource depletion is another crucial current environmental problems. Fossil fuel consumption results in emission of Greenhouse gases, which is responsible for global warming and climate change. Globally, people are taking efforts to shift to renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, biogas and geothermal energy. The cost of installing the infrastructure and maintaining these sources has plummeted in the recent years.

5. Waste Disposal: The over consumption of resources and creation of plastics are creating a global crisis of waste disposal. Developed countries are notorious for producing an excessive amount of waste or garbage and dumping their waste in the oceans and, less developed countries. Nuclear waste disposal has tremendous health hazards associated with it. Plastic, fast food, packaging and cheap electronic wastes threaten the well being of humans. Waste disposal is one of urgent current environmental problem.

6. Climate Change: Climate change is yet another environmental problem that has surfaced in last couple of decades. It occurs due to rise in global warming which occurs due to increase in temperature of atmosphere by burning of fossil fuels and release of harmful gases by industries. Climate change has various harmful effects but not limited to melting of polar ice, change in seasons, occurrence of new diseases, frequent occurrence of floods and change in overall weather scenario.

7. Loss of Biodiversity: Human activity is leading to the extinction of species and habitats and and loss of bio-diversity. Eco systems, which took millions of years to perfect, are in danger when any species population is decimating. Balance of natural processes like pollination is crucial to the survival of the eco-system and human activity threatens the same. Another example is the destruction of coral reefs in the various oceans, which support the rich marine life.

8. Deforestation: Our forests are natural sinks of carbon dioxide and produce fresh oxygen as well as helps in regulating temperature and rainfall. At present forests cover 30% of the land but every year tree cover is lost amounting to the country of Panama due to growing population demand for more food, shelter and cloth. Deforestation simply means clearing of green cover and make that land available for residential, industrial or commercial purpose.

9. Ocean Acidification: It is a direct impact of excessive production of CO2. 25% of CO2 produced by humans. The ocean acidity has increased by the last 250 years but by 2100, it may shoot up by 150%. The main impact is on shellfish and plankton in the same way as human osteoporosis.

10. Ozone Layer Depletion: The ozone layer is an invisible layer of protection around the planet that protects us from the sun’s harmful rays. Depletion of the crucial Ozone layer of the atmosphere is attributed to pollution caused by Chlorine and Bromide found in Chloro-floro carbons (CFC’s). Once these toxic gases reach the upper atmosphere, they cause a hole in the ozone layer, the biggest of which is above the Antarctic. The CFC’s are banned in many industries and consumer products. Ozone layer is valuable because it prevents harmful UV radiation from reaching the earth. This is one of the most important current environmental problem.

11. Urban Sprawl: Urban sprawl refers to migration of population from high density urban areas to low density rural areas which results in spreading of city over more and more rural land. Urban sprawl results in land degradation, increased traffic, environmental issues and health issues. The ever growing demand of land displaces natural environment consisting of flora and fauna instead of being replaced.

12: Public Health Issues: The current environmental problems pose a lot of risk to health of humans, and animals. Dirty water is the biggest health risk of the world and poses threat to the quality of life and public health. Run-off to rivers carries along toxins, chemicals and disease carrying organisms. Pollutants cause respiratory disease like Asthma and cardiac-vascular problems. High temperatures encourage the spread of infectious diseases like Dengue.

13. Genetic Engineering: Genetic modification of food using biotechnology is called genetic engineering. Genetic modification of food results in increased toxins and diseases as genes from an allergic plant can transfer to target plant. Genetically modified crops can cause serious environmental problems as an engineered gene may prove toxic to wildlife. Another drawback is that increased use of toxins to make insect resistant plant can cause resultant organisms to become resistant to antibiotics.