1

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
UNIT I

Introduction to Environmental Studies

The word ‘Environment’ is derived from the French word ‘Environner’ which means to encircle,
around or surround.
Some important definitions of environment are as under:

1. According to Boring, ‘A person’s environment consists of the sum total of the stimulation which
he receives from his conception until his death.’ Indicating that environment comprises various
types of forces such as physical, intellectual, mental, economical, political, cultural, social, moral
and emotional.

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

Multidisciplinary nature of environmental studies

Environmental studies is a multidisciplinary subject wherein understanding of various disciplines

such as life sciences, physical sciences, mathematical sciences, engineering, social sciences, etc.
is quintessential. Knowledge and understanding of these disciplines help us better understand our
environment, any undesirable change that has taken place and find out solutions for better
management of the environment.

Life sciences like botany, zoology, microbiology, genetics and bio technology etc help in
understanding the biotic components and their interactions.
Physical sciences like physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Oceanography etc help in
understanding physical and chemical structure of abiotic components of environment along with
mass and energy transfer.

G.Shanmugaraja, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco College (Arts and Science), Karaikal.
Enironmental Studies_Unit-1
 2

Mathematics, statistics, computer science serve as effective tools in environmental modeling.

sociology provide the inputs for dealing with the
socio economic aspects associated with various developmental activities.
Civil engineering, Nanotechnology, Chemical engineering provides technical solutions to
environment pollution control and waste management.
Environmental laws provide the guidelines and legal measures for effective management and
protection of environment.
Environmental education and mass communication are two important subjects that are
instrumental in disseminating environmental awareness.
Environmental ethics provide the guidelines for sustainable life style.

Environmental Sciences, therefore, is a multi-disciplinary subject where we deal with different

aspects using holistic approach.

Components of environment: atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere

1. Atmosphere: The Atmosphere forms a distinctive protective layer about 100 km thick around
the earth. A blanket of gases called the atmosphere surrounds the earth and protects the surface of
earth from the Sun’s harmful, ultraviolet rays. It sustains life on the earth. It also regulates
temperature, preventing the earth from becoming too hot or too cold. It saves it from the hostile
environment of outer space. The atmosphere is composed of nitrogen and oxygen besides, argon,
carbon dioxide and trace gases.

G.Shanmugaraja, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco College (Arts and Science), Karaikal.
Enironmental Studies_Unit-1
 3

The atmosphere has a marked effect on the energy balance at the surface of the Earth. It absorbs
most of the cosmic rays from outer space and a major portion of the electromagnetic radiation
from the sun. It transmits only 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.

2. Hydrosphere: The Hydrosphere comprises all types of water resources oceans, seas, lakes,
rivers, streams, reservoirs, polar icecaps, glaciers, and ground water. Oceans represent 97% of the
earth’s water and about 2% of the water resources is locked in the polar icecaps and glaciers. Only
about 1% is available as fresh water as surface water in rivers, lakes, streams, and as ground water
for human use.

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 (plant, animals and
microorganisms) and their interactions with environment, viz. atmosphere, hydrosphere and
lithosphere.

Scope and Importance of Environment Studies

The environment consists of four segments of the earth namely atmosphere, hydrosphere,
lithosphere and biosphere. These four spheres interact with each other forming a complex system.

Therefore, the scope of environmental studies is very wide and it deals with many areas like
i. Conservation of natural resources,
ii. Ecological aspects,
iii. Pollution of the surrounding natural resources,
iv. Controlling the pollution,
v. Social issues connected to it, and
vi. Impacts of human population on the environment.

Environment studies as a subject if important for the following reasons:

1. Global Environment Issues: Issues such as global warming and ozone depletion, acid rain,
marine pollution and biodiversity loss require international efforts and cooperation to solve them.
2. Development and Environment: Development has led to Urbanization, Industrialization,
Infrastructure, Telecommunication and Transportation Systems, Intensive Agriculture and
Construction, etc. Development has undesirable effects on the environment of the entire world.
3. Increase in Pollution: Pollution of air, water and soil adversely affects human health and is a
cause of concern.
4. Need for an Alternative Solution: It is essential, especially for developing countries to find
alternative paths to solve environmental issues.

G.Shanmugaraja, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco College (Arts and Science), Karaikal.
Enironmental Studies_Unit-1
 4

5. Need for Judicious Planning of Development: Our survival and sustenance depend on
resources availability. Hence, proper management of resources is the need of the hour.
6. R. Misra (1991) recognized four basic requirements of environmental management as under:
i. Impact of human activities on the environment,
ii. Value system,
iii. Plan and design for sustainable development,
iv. Environment education.

Concept of Sustainable Development

There are three aims of sustainable development:-

a) Economic- to attain balanced growth
b) Ecological- to preserve the eco system
c) Social-guarantying equal access to resources to all human communities

The objective laid down in the Brundtland report is as follows

 Dividing growth
 Changing the quality of growth
 Meeting essential needs of all in terms of job, food, energy, water and sanitation.
 Ensuring a sustainable population
 Conserving and enhancing the resource base.
 Reorienting technology, building technology that’s less exploitative
 Managing environment and economics in decision making.

Need for sustainable development:

There are several challenges that need attention in the arena of economic development and
environmental depletion. Hence the idea of Sustainable development is essential to address the
following issues.
 To curb or prevent the environmental degradation
 To ensure a safe human life
 To check the exploitative technology and find alternative sources
 To check the over exploitation and wastage of natural resources
 To regenerate renewable energy resources

The concept of Sustainable development is based on following principles

 Integration of environment and economic decision
 Stewardship or humans as the caretaker of the environment
 Shared responsibility, accountability and decision making
 Prevention and mitigation
 Conservation
 Waste minimization
 Enhancement of productivity, capability, quality of nature and human life
 Rehabilitation and reclamation
 Scientific and technological innovations

G.Shanmugaraja, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco College (Arts and Science), Karaikal.
Enironmental Studies_Unit-1
 5

Components of sustainable development:

While discussing the components of sustainable development different criteria have been used
depending on the context and the levels of decision making. The components are broadly divided
into three elements namely social, economic and environmental.

 Economic
 Social
 Environment

a) Social components:
• Workers health and safety
• Impact on local communities, quality of life
• Benefits to disadvantaged groups

b) Economic components:
• Creation for new markets and opportunities for sale growth
• Cost reduction through efficiency and improvements and reduced energy and
raw material inputs
• Creation of additional value

c) Environmental components:
• Reduce waste, effluent generation, emission into environment
• Reduce impact on human health
• Use of renewable raw material
• Elimination of toxic substances

Need For Public Awareness

 Increasing population, urbanization and poverty have generated pressure on the natural
resources and lead to a degradation of the environment.
 To prevent the environment from further degradation, the Supreme Court has ordered and
initiated environment protection awareness through government and non-government
agencies to take part in protecting our environment.
 Environmental pollution cannot prevented by laws alone. Public participation is equally
important with regard to environmental protection.
 Environmental education is a process of learning by giving an overall perspective of
knowledge and awareness of the environment.
 It sensitizes the society about environmental issues and challenges interested individuals
to develop skills and expertise thereby providing appropriate solution.
 Climate change, loss of diversity ,ozone layer depletion, illegal trade of endangered
species, destruction of habitats, land degradation, environmental pollution, storm water
pose a serious threat to ecosystem in forest, rural, urban and marine ecosystem.
 Both formal and informal education on the environment will give the interested individual
the knowledge, values, skills and tools needed to the face the environmental challenges on
a local and global level.

G.Shanmugaraja, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco College (Arts and Science), Karaikal.
Enironmental Studies_Unit-1
 6

Environmental Ethics: Issues & Possible Solutions

Environmental Ethics is connected with the fundamental rights of man for life and welfare.
Its need is to keep nature’s resource for today’s requirement and also preserving it for the future
generation.

Environmental ethics deals with how we utilise and distribute resources. It includes the rights
of all living beings to live and maintain the ecosystem.

 It recognise plant and animal rights.

 It realize the intrinsic worth of nature.
It implies:
 Humanity’s relationship to the environment.
 Its understanding and responsibility towards the nature
 Its obligations to leave some of nature’s resources to future generations
 The preservation of the wilderness and of species diversity
 It asks comprehensive, global questions, develop metaphysical theories and
applies its principles to the daily lives of men and women everywhere on earth.

Therefore, it deals mainly with the following:

1. Resource conservation
2. Equity concerns - (between countries and between urban and rural).

Resource conservation and equitable distribution

It is the inequality of the distribution of nature’s resource that leads to competitions. This
inequality is the reason for the differences between nations, haves and the have nots, rural and
urban communities, the rich and the poor. The acquisition of resources by exploiting the
marginalised and tribal communities is not justified. “The report of ‘Status of India’s
Environment’ published by Anil Agarwal in 1985, throws light on this pathetic situation. The
reason for all environmental problems is the consumption of the rich and the developmental
activities by exploiting the poor. He brought forth the following propositions which are of great
relevance to the ethical issues that are related to environmental concerns.”

Propositions related to the ethical issues:

1. Environmental destruction is largely caused by the consumption of the rich.

2. The worst sufferers of environmental destruction are the poor. Even among the poor, the
worst sufferers are the marginalised communities and women.
3. Even where nature is being ‘recreated’, as in afforestation, it is being transformed away
from the needs of the poor.
4. There cannot be proper economic and social development without a holistic
understanding of society and nature.
5. If we care for the poor, we cannot allow the Gross Nature Product to be destroyed any
further. Gross Nature Product will be enhanced only if we can arrest and reverse the
growing alienation between the people and the common property resources.

G.Shanmugaraja, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco College (Arts and Science), Karaikal.
Enironmental Studies_Unit-1
 7

6. It is totally inadequate to talk only of sustainable rural development, as the World

Conservation Strategy does. We cannot save the rural environment or rural people
dependent on it unless we can bring about sustainable urban development.

Who is really suffering the environmental degradation and who pays for the environmental
degradation? Certainly, they are village folks, tribal people and rural women. Village Community
is already aware about the preservation of our valuable natural resources. So urban people should
be taught the importance of preservation of natural resources than the village folk. The
conservation of common property resources also should be one of our aims.

Equity issues
Daniel D Chirasin “Environmental Science –Creating a sustainable future” explains 3
ethical principles related to environment. They are:

1. Intergenerational equity: Fairness to future generations. Present generations have an

obligation to meet their needs in ways that do not foreclose on future generations.
2. Intra-generational equity: Present generations also have an obligation to act in ways that
do not prevent others who are alive today from meeting their needs.
3. Ecological Justice: Human actions should not endanger other species, which also have
an inherent right to resources they need to survive.

It is also concerned with who owns the resources. Today, economically advanced nations are
exploiting the worlds’ resource, along with the developing countries. Divisions such as North-
South, rich and poor aggravate this. Growing urbanisation also intensifies it.

What are the possible solutions?

For the preservation of nature’s resources, equal division is needed. There should be
appropriate efforts from the part of government for this conservation of natural resources. We need
an institutional management policy to preserve the resources of village areas and to provide the
necessary things to the urban society also.

1. The urban population should be made aware of the preservation of natural resources. At the
same time, village folk should be taught about global warming, climate change and the selection
of suitable cropping pattern.
2. A sustainable ecosystem that preserves the resources for the future generation should be framed
and things be executed.
3. All the living beings also have rights to enjoy the earth as human beings do. As Mahatma Gandhi
stated, “Human beings are the trustees of the lower animal kingdom”. The existence of human
beings in an ecosystem depends on these living beings also.
4. Plastic that harms the nature must be reduced. Awareness regarding the necessity of energy and
water conservation, waste management and pollution control must be created people and local
government, educational institutions and others must take the leadership and act.

G.Shanmugaraja, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco College (Arts and Science), Karaikal.
Enironmental Studies_Unit-1
 8

ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION ACT

This is an act to provide for the protection and improvement of environment and for matters
connected therewith.

The Act came into force in 1986 and it is intended to remedy the gaps noticed in the earlier laws
and to serve as a single environmental legislation.

It empowers the Central government to take all measures as is deemed necessary for the
protection and improvement of the environment and preventing, controlling and abating
environmental pollution.

In this Act, the term “environment” includes water, air and land and the interrelationship which
exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants,
microorganism and property. “Environmental pollution” means the presence in the environment
of any environmental pollutant such as any solid, liquid or gaseous substance present in such
concentration as may be, or tend to be, injurious to environment.

Some of the important matters in this Act are as follows:

1. Planning and execution of a nation-wide programme for the prevention, control and
abatement of environmental pollution.
2. Laying down standards for the quality of environment.
3. Laying down procedures and safeguards for the prevention of accidents
4. Restriction of areas in which polluting activities shall not be carried out.
5. Inspection of any premises, plant, equipment, machinery, manufacturing or other
processes, materials or substances and take steps for the prevention, control and abatement
of environmental pollution.
6. Collection and dissemination of information in respect of matters relating to
environmental pollution.
7. Preparation of manuals, codes or guides relating to the prevention, control and abatement
of environmental pollution.

Whoever fails to comply with or breaks any of the provisions of this Act, or the rules made shall
be punishable with imprisonment.

The National Environmental Tribunal Act has also come into force from 1995 to provide for strict
liability for damages arising out of any accident occurring while handling any hazardous substance.

G.Shanmugaraja, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco College (Arts and Science), Karaikal.
Enironmental Studies_Unit-1