Introduction to Environmental Science

By Y. Anjaneyulu

The importance of environmental science and environmental studies cannot be disputed. The need for sustainable development is a key to the future of mankind. Continuing problems of pollution, loss of forest, solid waste disposal, degradation of environmental issues like economic productivity and national security, Global warming, the depletion of ozone layer and loss of biodiversity have made everyone aware of environmental issues and consequences.
  Inspite of the deteriorating status of the environment, study of environment has so far not received adequate attention in our academic programmes.  Recognizing this, the Hon’ble supreme court directed the UGC to introduce a basic course on environment at undergraduate level in college education.  Accordingly, UGC constituted an expert committee, which drafted the core module course, comprising of 7 units and field work.
            This book tries to cover up and match with the module core syllabus suggested by UGC, New Delhi for all branches of Engineering.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BSP BOOKS
• Release date: Mar 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9789386819000

Book preview

1

The Multidisciplinary Nature of Environmental Studies

1.1 What is Environmental Science?

Environmental science is the study of how various species interact with one another and with the non-living environment (matter and energy). It is a physical and social science that integrates knowledge from a wide range Ofdisciplines, including physics, chemistry, biology (especially ecology), geology, geography, resource technology and engineering, resource conservation and management, demography (the study of population dynamics), economics, politics, sociology, psychology, law and ethics. In other words, it is a study of how all the components of nature and human societies adapt and interact. It is the study of interaction of the biotic component (plants, animals and microorganisms) among themselves and together with the abiotic component (temperature, rainfall, RH, soil, air, fire, atmosphere and topography i.e., environmental biology = ecology).

1.2 Environment

The word environment is derived from an old French word ‘ENVIRON’ means encircle. In real world everything that affects an organism during its lifetime is collectively known as its environment. Environment is a very broad concept. For example, during its lifetime an animal such as racoon is likely to interact with millions of other organisms (bacteria, food organisms, parasites, mates, predators), drink copious amounts of water, breathe huge quantities of air, and respond to daily changes in temperature and humidity, which will become the various components that make up the racoon’s environment.

1.3 The Interrelated Nature of Environmental Problems

The understanding of the functions of the various components OfEnvironment which is nothing but environmental science is by nature an interdisciplinary field. The word environment is usually understood to mean the surrounding conditions that affect the people and other organisms. From a human perspective, environmental issues involve concerns about science, nature, health, employment, profits, politics, ethics, and economics.

Most social and political decisions are made with respect to political jurisdictions, but environmental problems do not necessarily coincide with these artificial, political boundaries.

Because of all these political, economic, ethical, and scientific links, solving environmental problems are complex and will not have simple solutions.

1.4 Environmental Problems due to over utilization of Natural Resources

Many environmental problems presently we are facing are mainly due to (a) over population (b) wasteful use of resources, (c) destruction and degradation of wildlife habitats, (d) depletion and contaminated surface and ground water (e) depletion of nonrenewable fuels or minerals (f) deforestation (g) Soil erosion (h) conversion of productive crop lands and grazing lands to deserts, desertification (i) loss of biodiversity due to species extinction etc., which are interconnected. Along with the rapid population growth the ecological demands are also growing exponentially. For example, world population has more than doubled in only 44 years, from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 6.25 billion in 2001. Unless death rates rise sharply, it may reach 10-11 billion by 2050, and 14 billion by 2100.

As the number of people and their resource use increases exponentially, there is growing evidence that we are decreasing Earth’s ability to sustain life, including our own species. Each year more forests, grasslands, and wetlands disappear, and some deserts grow larger. Vital topsoil is washed or blown away from farmland and cleared forests, clogging streams, lakes, and reservoirs with sediment. Many grasslands have been overgrazed and fisheries overharvested.

Some of the main factors responsible for the major environmental problems can be identified as

1. Rapid population growth.

2. Simplification and degradation of parts of Earth’s life-support systems.

3. Poverty, which can drive poor people to use potentially renewable resources Unsustainably for short-term survival and also often exposes the poor to much higher health and other environmental risks.

4. Widespread use of relatively cheap and environmentally damaging fossil fuels (especially oil and coal).

5. Rapid ad wasteful use of resources with too little emphasis on pollution prevention ad waste reduction.

6. Overuse and degradation of global common-property resources, which are owned by none and available to all.

Fig. 1.1 Major Environmental problems arising out of the over utilization of earths resource

7. Failure to encourage Earth-sustaining forms of economic development and to discourage Earth-degrading forms of economic growth.

8. Our urge to dominate and manage nature for our use. Greed rather than need lead to ecodegradation and food & fodder scarcity.

The major environmental problems arising out of improper utilisation of Earth Capital Natural resources can be classified into (a) Air Pollution (b) Water pollution (c) Biodiversity degradation (d) Waste production and (e) Food supply problems which are presented with more details in Fig. 1.1.

1.5 Assessment of Environmental Degradation-Three F actor Model

To estimate the extent of environmental degradation covered by the consumption of natural resources by over population of the developing countries and wasteful over consumption of resources by the few rich people of the developed countries, John Holdem a physicist and Paul Ehrlich a biologist proposed a three factor model.

According to this model, total environmental degradation and pollution-that is, the environmental impact of population (I) in a given area depends on three factors : 1. the number ofpeople (population size, P), 2. the average number of units of resources each person uses (per capita consumption or affluence, A), and 3. the amount of environmental degradation and pollution produced for each unit of resources used (the environmental destructiveness of the technologies used to provide and consume resources, T).

I = P X A X T

In developing countries P³ syndrome (Population, Poverty and Pollution) is the key factor leading to environmental degradation.

In rich developed countries like USA over consumption of natural resources by people wil be at such a high rate that significant pollution, environmental degradation, and resource depletion occur. In this country population and high rates of per capita resource use (and the resulting high levels of pollution and environmental degradation per person) will be the key factors in determining overall environmental degradation. In some countries high levels of resource use and the resulting waste and pollution occur because of the failure of political and economic systems to develop a mixture of incentives, taxes, and regulations that lead to inclusion of the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in their market prices.

The three-factor model is useful in understanding how key environmental problems and some oftheir causes are connected. However, the interconnected problems we face involve a number of poorly understood interactions among many more factors than those in the three-factor model.

1.6 Inequalities in the consumption Of Natural Resources by different parts of the globe, Quality of Life and Healthy Environment

7While three quarters of the world’s population who live in the poor South consume 20% of the World’s global resources and produce less pollution the rich North consumes, the remaining 80% resources causing 90% of global pollution problems. A Westerner annually consumes 264 pounds of paper, 990 pounds of steel, 60 pounds of other metals and energy equivalent to 6 tonnes of coal while the corresponding figures of consumption by a Southerner are 18 pounds, 99 pounds, 5 pounds and 0.5 tonnes respectively. The third world developing countries have 75% of the World’s poor, 30% of the World’s food grains, 18% of the World’s export earnings, 17% of the World’s GNP, 15% of the World’s energy consumption, 8% of the World’s industry expenditure and 5% of the World’s Science and Technology and incur 11% of World’s education expenditure and 6% of World’s population which stood at 30:1 in 1960 and 45:1 in 1980 has become 60:1 by 1990. Contrary to the public belief, the poor world feeds the rich world because food imports by the rich world exceed the exports by about 10%.

Thus, the population increases in poor countries and gluttony patterns of consumption and mass-scale production in industrialised countries has upset the balance between people and resources, leading to deterioration of the environment. The economic future of developed and developing countries is not dependent only on the laws of trade and finance, but on environmentally sound development activities. To be beneficial, such development should deal not only with the relations between man and man, but also with the relations between man and nature. This formed basis of UN programmes such as IBP, MAB and UNEP.

A safe and healthy environment for mankind implies public or community provisions to ensure that the environment is protected from substances or pathogens that cause damage to human health and to ensure sufficient supplies of natural resources like water, air, land and food essential for healthy life. The problems must be considered at different geographic scales within the habitat, the home, the work place, the neighbourhood, the city, the state, the nation and the world.

At the first and smallest scale, the environmental problems in the home and the work place revolve around the fact that millions of people are exposed to disease-producing microorganisms due to toxic substances that damage the health of the present and future populations. For instance, the pathogens from human excreta enter the drinking water supplies and the living areas, the home or work place without any safeguards and the smoke or fumes from domestic cooking using coal or wood cause serious respiratory problems including cancer. They cause high levels of ill-health, disable men and may result in premature death among the poor people. Lack of appropriate waste disposal methods and drinking water and drainage facilities accelerate the spread of several infectious disease like cholera, typhoid, jaundice, diarrhoea, dysentery etc. A billion villages do not have safe and adequate drinking water supplies. Crowded housing conditions promote the spread of tuberculosis or other infections epidemics. One of India’s slums in an industrial belt has reported that 60% children are afflicted with tuberculosis.

A second geographic scale deals with the home or work place neighbourhood where the animal and human excreta and industrial solid wastes are dumped in open places with the result that disease-causing agents like flies, cockroaches and rats spread infectious diseases. Due to absence of drainage or sewers, sullage and sewage stagnates in pools around the homes and such pools become the breeding places for mosquitoes which spread malaria, filarial and brain fevers on a large scale. The spread of dengue fever and recently the SARS also may be due to much pollution.

The third geographic scale pertains to industrial belts and major townships that have many polluting industries, over-crowded slums, congested streets, ill-maintained automobiles and vehicles that emit much smoke, lead, hydro-carbons, benzo-pyrenes and oxides of nitrogen. The poor women labour of industries, who use wood or coal for cooking in their ill-ventilated huts are exposed to respiratory diseases and cancer. Since most of the industries discharge either partly treated or untreated toxic effluents into the near by water courses, most of the natural water courses have become unfit for drinking and other public uses. Improper siting of highly polluting industries in areas with poor environmental carrying capacities in their air and water regimes is proving hazardous to public health and counter-productive to the state. The Bhopal tragedy is a striking example. Besides industrial pollution, several urban centers are exposed to high levels of noise pollution. More than 130 million urban dwellers are exposed to noise pollution which is increasing day by day. The escalating rates of urbanization, industrialization, and population growth in developing countries is constantly adding to the biological and chemical contamination of the environment. Today, at the global level, there are 1700 million cases Oftuberculosis, 270 million of malaria, 90 million cases of filaria, 10 million cases of leprosy, 10 million cases of guinea-worm, 480 million cases of amoebiasis, one million cases of typhoid, 2000 million cases of hepatitis-B (Jaundice), 900 million cases of hookworm, 120 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases, 10 million cases of AIDS virus and 7 million cases of cancer. Out of 10 million cases of AIDS infected people about 5 lakhs are sick with AIDS. Among the 1700 million people infected with tuberculosis, 20 million are sick. Environmental factors are responsible for 200 million cases of mental disorders, 90 million cases of drug abuse, 12 million deaths due to cardio-vascular diseases and 5 million deaths due to pneumonia.

Just one living tree can give us timber, fodder, fuel, fruits, fibre, medicine, shade, oxygen and a habitat for birds and animals. The combined use of several trees consisting of thousands of species is inestimable. Unfortunately, the annual shrinkage of tropical forests is 80,000 square miles. They are disappearing at the rate of 100 acres per minute and if the trends continue very little will be left by the year 2040. The bulk of the forests in the temperate areas ofEurope and America have been destroyed and the remainder is being lost due to pollution, acid rain and illegal logging. The Amazon forests are cut down on a large scale to make way for huge cattle ranches meant for export of beef to the western world. Agencies like World Bank in the name of development are giving aid to poor countries to build major projects like dams which involve deforestation and displacement of indigenous people on a large scale.

Every decade nearly 7% of the world’s soil is lost through large scale improper farming techniques. The American farmers work the soil so hard that an area twice the size of California has been rendered unproductive. The use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides is responsible for more than half of the water pollution in the USA. Since the pesticides will be effective for only a limited time some pests develop immunity to the pesticides. Moreover new pests emerge either by mutations or because of the elimination of their natural predators due to these chemicals. The number of damaging insect species has tripled since 1960. About a million people are unintentionally poisoned every year by pesticides. The pesticide residue can cause cancer, birth defects, neurological disorders, liver diseases, reproductive problems and genetic mutations.

The western industries produce vast amounts of highly toxic solid waste, much of it is dumped in the third world. Since 1986 more than 2 million tonnes of toxic wastes have been shipped from Western Europe and North America to other countries, nearly 1.25 lakh tonnes of toxic wastes are sent to the third world every year from Europe.

While the annual renewable supply of water available for use is about 3,000 cubic meters per person the climatic and population growth trends will cause a drop in the supply to 2230 cubic meters by the year 2000. However the uneven distribution of water in different geographical regions will lead to a widening water gap by the end of the century. The socioeconomic conditions of the households influence the water consumption levels. For instance the water usage in litres per head per day is 1,000 for households with dish washers, washing machines and sprinklers, 100 to 350 litres for those with a piped supply and taps, 20 to 70 litres for those dependant on public taps and 2 to 5 litres for those depending on a stream or hand pump several miles away from the residences. 80% of the diseases in developing countries are due to inadequate water supply and sanitation and unless water supply is available from a source in less than 5 minutes walk, water consumption cannot be maintained at healthy standards. The facts on the escalating environmental crises as they are known today, are listed below:

1.7 Present Environmental Issues of Global Concern

The main environmental issues today are wide ranging and all-encompassing: deforestation, biodiversity, soil erosion, climate change, pesticide build-up, industrial and municipal pollution. All have been caused by anthropogenic interventions in the natural and self-sustaining cycles. The human ambition for a higher living standard has hammered ‘consumerism’, ignoring the lasting and adverse impact of this hammer on earth’s limited resources. All these problem can be categorized into four main issues.

1. Population Explosion

World population is growing by 92 million people adding annually, roughly equal to another Mexico every year, of this total, 88 million are being added in the developing world due to which ecological demands are exponentially growing resulting in the greater degradation of Natural resources in this region.

2. Land Degradation

The most urgent environmental problems facing the developing countries are those relating to the use of land. Of particular concern are deforestation, devegetation and desertification. All these are outcomes of many interrelated activities. Overgrazing and land clearing and commercial logging rob the soil of its cover and fertility and reduce agricultural yields. They also increase flooding, sedimentation and silting up of dams and reservoirs. The problems are worse where the inadequacy of fuel wood compels rural families to bum agricultural residues and dung, thus depriving the source of soil fertility and accelerating erosion. Such deforestation deprives people of other essential products for their survival and threatens wild life reserves and fragile ecosystems. Resources that are in principle renewable, are rapidly disappearing as a result of overexploitation. And the extinction of plant and animal species, proceeding all too rapidly, may have serious and as yet unknown consequence for the future of mankind. Every year nearly 6,000 million tonnes of topsoil are lost by erosion, which contain over 5 million tonnes of critical plant nutrients, whose replacement value via fertiliser has been calculated to be 2,500 crores of mpees. Nearly one third (over a hundred million hectares) of India’s land is eroded, salined or water logged. Almost three-quarters of dry land farmers have holding below 2ha which are at present levels of productivity, inadequate for self-sufficiency.

3. Environmental Pollution

(i) Environmental pollution although typically associated with industrialization, is a great and growing concern in developing countries. Air and water pollution in such large cities like Kolkota, Mumbai, New Delhi etc. are growing to critical level unsanitary living conditions due to inadequate water supply and improper waste disposal. It is observed almost exclusively in the poorer countries. Throughout the developing world, water polluted by pesticides, by municipal and industrial wastes cause diseases, malnutrition and death.

(ii) Not only industry, but agriculture likewise contributes to pollution. The use of chemical fertilisers for example, pollutes the environment in various ways:

(a) Fertilizers not used by the soil are washed away by water and contaminate the rivers.

(b) Manufacture and distribution of fertilizers are energy-intensive processes and pollute the environment.

(c) Many agricultural activities led to generation of green house gases.

(iii) Air Pollution : Air pollution in some Indian cities is rising alarmingly. No major Indian city is free from the threat of chemical accidents or pollution hazards. In Delhi and Bombay 1,000 hazardous units and industries have been identified. Nuclear hazards may pose serious threats to people in the vicinity of Nuclear power plants.

(iv) Acid Rain : Over the past few years air pollution has been seen increasingly as a regional or global problem, not a local one. Acid rain may fall to earth thousands of miles away from the places of emission of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Thus the cloud generated in the developed world may rain in the territory of the developing world. The destruction of forests in northern Europe is perhaps the clearest consequence.

(v) Ozone depletion : The protective ozone shield in heavily populated latitudes of the Northern hemisphere is thinning twice as fast as scientists predicted just a few years ago.

(vi) Green House Effect: Atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide are now 26 per cent higher than the pre-industrial concentration and continue to rise higher and higher. The earth’s surface was warmer in 1990 than in any years since record keeping began in the mid-nineteenth century, Six of the seven warmest years on record have occurred since 1980.

(vii) Water Pollution: It is estimated that 70% of the surface water resources are polluted and that in large stretches of major rivers, water is not even fit for bathing, leave alone drinking. Polluted water is the source of most of the diseases that affect, cripple or kill millions of Indians every year. Reservoirs of most dams in India are silting up at rates much higher than those anticipated, thereby reducing their expected life. Theareaproneto Iloodinghastripledsince 1960, from 19 to 50 million hectares. Over half of the districts in India have suffered from other floods and droughts, between 1983 and 1986.

(viii) Deforestation : Forests are vanishing at a rate of some 17 million hectares per year, an area about half the size of Finland. A minimum of 140 plant and animal species are condemned to extinction each day. 58.8% of Indian forests have no or inadequate regeneration, mainly because of degradation. Consequently, the productivity of India’s forests is very low averaging 0.7 cu. m hectare, per year. This is only a fourth of the Asian average. Livestock currently requires 932 million tonnes green and 780 million tonnes dry fodder annually, yet, only 250and 414 million tonnes respectively are provided. The rest come from grazing in forest land. Over 90 million livestock graze in India’s forests, which currently have the ability to sustainably support only 31 million. There is an urgent need to grow fodder to protect the cattle wealth, the backbone of rural economy. Fuel wood consumption is estimated at 235 million tonnes per annum. While annual production is only 90 million tonnes, 40 million tonnes from forests and the remaining from agro wastes. The balance comes from forest capital stock. India has among the lowest per capita availability of forests in the world of 0.11 ha, as compared to 0.50 in Thailand and 0.13 in China. Industrial wood consumption is 28 million cu.m per annum, but annual forest growth is only 122 million cu.m. The remainder is made up by depletion of forests beyond their regenerative capacities.

1.8 Environmental Problems in India

Environmental problems in India can be put into three classes.

(a) Problems arising from conditions of poverty and under-development.

(b) Problems arising as negative-effects of the very process of development.

(c) Problems arising from improper implementation of the directives and Laws of Environmental Protection.

The first category pertains to the impact on the health and integrity of our natural resources (land, soil, water, forests, wildlife, etc) as a result of poverty and the inadequate availability, for a large section of population of the means to fulfill the basic human needs (food, fuel, shelter, clothing, employment, etc.). The second category deals with the unintended side effects of efforts made to achieve rapid economic growth and development. In this latter category would fall distortions imposed on national resources from ecologically unsound development projects and programmes as well as from lack of attention to long-term public interests by commercial and vested interests. Thus, it is clear that a concern for environment essentially is a desire to see that national development proceeds along ecologically sustainable line Environmental conservation is in fact, the very basis of all developmental activities.

1.9 Government’s Initiative for Environmental Management

Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India and Department of Environment and Forests of each State Government have been deeply engaged in the protection, preservation and conservation of environment. Several possible policies, programmes and implementation strategies have been evolved from time to time by these Governmental Organizations towards their effort for better environmental management. The programmes and activities are directed towards all aspects of environment and ecology with the purpose of protection and conservation of environment and ecology. With the purpose of protection and conservation of nature and natural resources, these departments are fully aware about the environment and major environmental problems that the country is facing today. Their missions include

- Developing a good and sustainable environment through land and water management

- Conservation and restoration of the ecological heritage.

- Development and propagation of eco-friendly technologies for sustainable development synthesizing ecotechnology and biotechnology.

- Involving NGO’s and women in all environmental related activities.

- Help Government to formulate laws and regulations.

- Undertake special measures in afforestation and harnessing wastelands

- Supporting environmental education in all educational institutions.

1.10 Environmental Management and the Law

Between 1974 Water ‘Prevention and control ofPollution’Actand 1997 National Environmental Appellate Authority Act, about two dozen acts have been enacted in India exclusively for environmental pollution control. According to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Central Pollution Control Board, State Pollution Control Board and the Pollution Control Committee of the Union Territories have fded Govt, of India 6624 cases as on 31.10.1997 under the water and air acts. 3677cases are still pending in various courts. The loopholes in environmental laws make it easier for the lawyer to support the cause of the polluter. These laws if implemented properly can contribute a large extent to this end.

Various Government agencies and NGO’s in their effort towards environmental protection and law organise seminars and workshops involving the judiciary, advocates, academicians and students. These seminars and workshops discuss and suggest strategies on various aspects and issues involving problems and contraventions of environmental laws.

The dimensions Ofenvironmental management are increasing each year, as governments become aware of the political priority of reasonable environmental protection and it's links to economic development and technological progress.

Environmental management covers such general areas as environment and enterprise objectives, scope and structure of the environment, interaction of nature, society and the enterprise, environmental impact assessment, economics of pollution prevention etc; such project areas as projected development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; and such production areas as production management and the environment product design, technology choice waste management and production systems.

1.11 Environemental Education

Education has a very important role to play in dealing with this global issue. Education has been used by mankind not only as a conserving agency and a mechanism of social control but also as a creative and regenerative influence to bring about positive changes in existing modes of thinking and living in beliefs, values, attitudes and customs. In a crisis of the kind we are witnessing vis-a-vis environmental problems, there are greater demands on education to take a more active part and make purposeful contributions in the form of developing an awareness and sensitizing in the first place, of the challenges and consequences of manhandling of the environment, a proper understanding and appreciation of the phenomenon of better living and the formation and sustaining of desired values and attitudes through it.

Environmental Education is an integral process, which deals with man’s interrelationship with his natural and man made surroundings, including the relation of population growth, pollution, resource allocation and depletion, conservation, technology and urban and rural plannmg to the total human environment. Environmental Education is a study of the factors influencing ecosystems, mental and physical health, living and working conditions, decaying cities and population pressures. Environmental Education is intended to promote among citizens the awareness and understanding of the environment, our relationship to it, and the concern and responsible action necessary to assure our survival and to improve the quality of life. By Environmental Education is meant to envision a set of organized curricular and co curricular experiences designed to bring about the needed changes in knowledge, understanding, attitudes, and skills pertaining to environment, conservation and ecological balance and sustaining it. Education must be considered as a solution for all environmental problems. It must be strengthened and supplemented by corresponding social and political action.

Education, by its nature and content is considered a strong and effective process of bringing about behavioral modifications. It aims at influencing the values, attitudes and beliefs of individuals. Most of the problems of environment are problems of the human mind. It is therefore imperative that education is eminently suitable as a strategy to deal with environmental problems. Education aims at developing a peaceful and happy world order and supports individuals in their quest for solving problems and attempts at working towards a better living. The goal OfEnvironmental Education should be to improve and enhance the quality of life.

A nation may take pride in its industrial and economic growth. While investment on a large scale in these sectors would result in increased products, unchecked erosion Ofenvironment will nullify the effects of industrial growth. It will create an imbalance in the ecosystem, not withstanding scientific and industrial progress, making life on this planet miserable.

More specifically, the objectives OfEnvironmental education are

- Awareness-to help individuals and social groups acquire an awareness of and sensitivity to the total environment and its allied problems.

- Knowledge- to help individual and social groups acquire basic understanding of the total environment, its associated problems and humanity’s critically responsible presence and role in it.

- Attitude- to help individuals and social groups acquire social values, strong feelings of concern for the environment and the motivation for actively participating in its protection and improvement.

- Skills - to help individuals and social groups acquire the skills for solving environmental problems.

- Evaluation ability-to help individuals and social groups evaluate environmental measures and education programmes in terms of ecological, political, economic, social, aesthetic and educational factors.

- Participation-to help individuals and social groups develop a sense of responsibility and urgency regarding environmental problems to ensure appropriate action to solve those problems.

Education must attempt to imbibe in learners a value oriented thought to take care of the environment. The success of Environmental Education would depend on internalizing the following principles.

* Environmental Education considers environment in its totality.

* Environmental Education is not a one shot learning approach. It is a challenging area requiring both disciplinary and interdisciplinary approach. This calls for a holistic rather than a piece meal subject oriented approach.

* Environmental hazards are controllable and every citizen has a moral obligation and responsibility towards this.

* Concerns of environment are concerns of several agencies. Formal and nonformal education system and programmes must work in unison.

* Education must cater to all sections of society-the general public, and non specialists, socio professional groups and technologists as well.

* Promote the value and necessity of local, national and interpersonal cooperation in the prevention of and solution to environmental problems.

* Help learners discover the symptoms and causes of environmental problems.

The importance of environmental protection has long been recognized in our country. Article 51 (g) of the constitution states It shall be the duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, include forests, lakes, rivers, and wild life and to have the compassion for living creatures. The National Policy on Education 1986 reiterated the need for education to play a more proactive role in regard to educating learners ‘about’ the environment ‘for’ the environment. There is a paramount need to create a consciousness of the environment. It must permeate all ages and all sections of society beginning with the child and ‘in’ the environment. Environment consciousness generation should be included from school and college levels.

(a) Education about environment provides learners with the know how on environment.

(b) Education for environment will be concerned about conservation, preservation and upgradation.

(c) Education in Environment would result in using environment as a medium of learning and activities become possible.

The Supreme Court heard a public interest litigation case on the urgent need to impart environmental education for all the students-the future citizens of the country - to enable them to protect the public health, prevent pollution and save all forms of life as envisaged under article 51-A(g) of the constitution which has directed all National Organizations like U.G.C which regulates higher education in India and State Govts, to offer Environmental Education as a paper in the curricula of various degree courses.

1.12 Need for public Awareness for solving Environmental Problems

About 80% of our natural water resources are highly polluted. Even the mighty and holy rivers like Ganges, Yamuna, Cauvery, Godavari and Krishna and their tributaries have polluted reaches and people have lost their livelihood due to fish kills from pollution. Industrial pollution in Patancheru near Hyderabad has seriously effected public health, fishing and agricultural operations. Similar problems are reported from several industrial belts in the state and the country. Air pollution from industries and automobiles is posing a serious threat to the health and welfare of the man. Automobile pollution forms 60% of the air pollution in urban areas. New Delhi, Calcutta, and Bombay are some of the highly polluted areas in India. Three-fourth of the traffic constables in Ahmedabad are reported to face serious problems of respiratory disorders and cancer due to continued exposure to automobile and industrial pollution. Citizens of Bombay are paying Rs.500 Crores per year towards medical expenses for air pollution related diseases. The pollution of air and water due to automobiles and industries and the pesticides result in food adulteration and the consequential reduction in natural powers of immunity. The fast growing incidence of cancer, AIDS and other debilitating sicknesses are posing threats to the survival of man.

At many levels, the problems of pollution are increasing day by day because several major polluting industries are expanded and new ones are established in locations that do not have the required environmental-carrying-capacity. Environmental deterioration is also fast increasing because developmental activities are promoted without consideration of environmental guidelines and principles of sustainable development. Concern for environmental protection is again stressed in the policies of economic development. Successive plan documents have also given recognition to this important aspect. Inspite of all these actions, the environmental problems in India have been rising almost in direct proportion to industrialization, urbanization and population growth. But implementation of the laws will be effective only with public support and participation for which an awareness and clear understating of key environmental problems is highly essential.

1.13 Environmental Crisis and Sustainable Development

Our present environmental crises lie in the paradigms of scientific materialism and economic determinism which fail to recognise the physical limits imposed by ecological systems on economic activity. The economies must expand within ecosystems which have limited regenerative capacities.

The emergence of the concept of sustainable development in recent years has brought in the general realization that societal perceptions must shift towards ecological determinism so as to achieve qualitative growth within the limits of the ecosystem’s carrying capacity. A carrying capacity-based planning process, innovative technologies for enhanced material and energy, affectivity of production and consumption, structural economic change towards less resource-intensive sectors, and preventive environmental management through increasingly interventionist policies of ecological capabilities, is highly essential for achieving sustainable development.

The following are some action strategies for achieving sustainable development.

Action Strategies for Sustainable Management

• Control the population growth

• Conserve natural resources like water, forests, soil, biodiversity.

• Reduce the waste of matter and energy resources.

• Place more emphasis on pollution prevention and waste reduction.

• Compost, recycle, and reuse atleast 60% by weight of matter from the resources we use.

• Make things that last longer and are easier to reuse, recycle, and repair.

• Shift to more dependence on locally available renewable energy from the sun, wind, flowing water, and biomass.

• Help sustain Earth's biodiversity with emphasis on protecting vital habitats for wild species.

• Use potentially renewable resources such as water, soil, plant, and animals judiciously less faster than they are renewed.

Use or modify economic and political systems to develop a mix of economic incentives, taxes, and regulations that reward Earth-sustaining behaviour and that discourage Earthdegrading behaviour. Carefully evaluate which environmental problems are best reduced or solved through marketplace approaches (free-marked environmental), government subsidies and taxes and government regulations.

2

Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

2.1 Resources

A resource is anything we get from the environment (Earth’s life-support systems) to meet our needs and desires, which has a dependability through time. All forms of life need resources such as food, water and shelter for survival and good health. The earth capital consists of a number of life support systems for use by human beings and other species Fig. 2.1.

The sum of all physical, chemical, biological and social factors which compose the surroundings of man is referred to as environment and each element of these surroundings constitutes a resource from which man draws in order to develop a better life. Thus, any part of our natural environment-such as land, water, air, minerals, forests, range land, wild life, fish, or even human population-that man can utilise to promote his welfare, are regarded as natural resources.

With reference to energy a resource can be defined as a form of energy and/or matter which is essential for the functioning of organisms, populations, and ecosystems. In the particular case of humans, a resource, is any form energy or matter essential for the fulfillment of physiological, socio-economic, and cultural needs, both at the individual level that of the community (Ramade, 1984).

Fig. 2.1 Life support systems and Economic services

The five basic ecological variables-energy, matter, space, time, and diversity are sometimes Combinedly called natural resources. As such, laws which govern changes in these quantities have great applicability in the resource use.

Resources are dynamic which not only improves new knowledge, expanding science and new technologies but also to changing culture and social objectives Fig. 2.2.

For example some resources, such as solar energy, fresh air, fresh surface water, fertile soil, and wild edible plants, are directly available for use by us and other organisms, while other resources, such as petroleum (oil), iron, ground water (water occurring underground), and modem crops, are not directly available, and their supplies are limited. They become useful to us only with some effort and technological ingenuity Fig. 2.3. For example, petroleum was a mysterious fluid until we learned how to extract it, and refine it into gasoline, and other products that could be used for the support of mankind.

Fig. 2.2 The idea of showing culture as a spreadsheet which man drives deeper into the realm of nature, converting more and more neutral stuff into resources-and into resistances as well

2.2 Resources Appraisal

Thus resource is any material which is needed or used to sustain life and livelihood. Air to breathe; water to drink; land to live, food for growth, forests for timber, paper, and wood products; ores for iron, aluminium, copper, and other metals; oil, natural gas, and coal for energy are all examples. In short, there is nothing people cannot use which will not involve utilization of our natural resources. Further, the human population is making ever-increasing demands upon, the Earth’s ecological resources.

Fig. 2.3 It is directed to depict in a simple diagram the more complex relationships accounting for the resource of man on more advanced levels of civilization.

World population growth, which is presently about 2 percent per year, has to increase the demand for resources by at least 2 percent per year just to maintain the standard of living. The increase in demand for resources may be multiplied several fold. Further, even in the unlikely event that population growth were checked, increasing demand for resources due to desires for a higher standard of living would probably go on indefinitely.

2.3 The Resource Problem

The all-too-obvious question is how long can Earth’s resources sustain this growing demand ? As per the expert who proposed the Limits to growth, published in 1972, if present trends continue, we will not only run out of resources but will do so with extreme suddenness in the next 30 to 50 years. Thus, our entire industrial technological society would collapse in the relatively near future, starved, as it were, for critical resources.

However some experts object the above theory as limits to growth do not give adequate credit to the potential of technology as much as it gives to the resources required for new technologies. For example, the invention in Organic Chemistry, of synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber, and countless plastic products, can be produced from inexpensive oil resource which relieve the pressure on natural fibers and rubber and other more expensive materials. Other advances in technology have permitted the exploitation of lower-grade ores, and so on.

However technology cannot bring back an extinct animal resource but it can extend the supply of some resources by improving them, using them more efficiently or recycling them. For example, due to improved technology, steel provides 43% more structural support that it did few decades back, 7 times more electrical power is generated from 1 ton of coal than in 1900. Similarly the energy needed to produce 1 ton of pig iron has fallen eight fold in US since 1800 to 1900, only 10% of the copper was recycled. Today about 40% is recycled. However, while many matter resources, such as copper, lead and silver, can be recycled, we can never recycle energy resources. Once a fossil fuel resource, such as coal, oil or natural gas, is burned, it is gone forever as a useful energy source. The concentrated energy in the fossil fuel is released as heat, which is eventually dispersed into the earth’s atmosphere. From there it flows back into space. Some times technology can solve the problem of a scarce resource by finding a substitute or replacement. For instance, aluminium and reinforced plastics are replacing steel and wood as an energy source, oil replaced coal for many uses nuclear power (obtained from uranium) or a combination of solar, wind and plant (biomass) energy may soon replace petroleum and natural gas.

Any material will be useful as a resource only if it can be made available at a reasonable cost for example, once the easily available supplies of a resource are depleted the costs of finding and making a scarce resource available rise, the resource will eventually become too expensive for most people. Higher costs may stimulate a new search for new supplies or make mining and processing lower grade deposits economically feasible. But regardless of what ever we afford to pay, we can’t get a resource out of earth if it is in fact not there.

There can also be an economic limit to recycling. Typically, recycling is cheaper than mining virgin materials, but only if the material to be recycled is not too widely dispersed. The continued use of a resource may also depend on the impact of its mining, processing and use on the environment. Even if affordable supplies of a resource area available, its use (at least for certain purposes) may have to be abandoned if this use seriously threatens human and other forms of life. Sometimes the environmental effects of a resource use can be minimized and cleaned up but in some cases the costs may be so high that we can no longer afford to use the resource.

2.4 Classes of Resources

Resources are also classified as biotic (or living) and abiotic (or non-living) resources, forest, agriculture, fish and wildlife falling in the first category, and land, water minerals etc., in the second.

Classification of resources based on quantity, mutability and reusability was proposed. Inexhaustible and exhaustible are the main categories of resource based on their stocks in nature (Fig. 2.4). Inexhaustible resources are further divided into two groups-immutable and mutable resources, depending upon the possibility of their qualitative degradation as a result of man’s activity. On the other hand, exhaustible resources, being limited in occurrence, are vulnerable to both quantitative and qualitative degradation. Thus, their availability depends upon the method of use, so these care classed into maintainable and non-maintainable resources. Supply of maintainable resources could be made to last for long through wise use, however, some of them have capacity to reproduce-called non-renewable resources. Non-maintainable resources have static supply and when destroyed or consumptively used are irreplaceable, yet some of them have potentiality for reuse-called reusable resources, and rest whose permanent exhaustion is certain are called non-reusable resources.

It is convenient to divide resources into three general categories : 1. renewable resources, 2. non-renewable resources that can be recycled, and 3. non-renewable resources that cannot be cycled.

Fig. 2.4 Classification of natural resources

2.5 Renewable Resources (Flow)

Renewable resources are those that are replenished through relatively rapid natural cycles Fig. 2.5. Examples are oxygen in the air, which is replenished through photosynthesis, freshwater, which is replenished through the water cycle; and all biological products (food, fibers, timber), which are replenished thorough natural cycles of growth and reproduction.

Fig. 2.5 Natural cycles of renewable resources

Solar energy is also called a renewable resource because on a human time scale it is essentially inexhaustible. It is expected to last at least 6.5 billion years while the sun completes its life cycle.

Some potentially renewable resource that can be renewed fairly rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes, include forests, grassland grasses, wild animals, fresh air, and fertile soil.

One important potentially renewable resource for us and other species is biological diversity, or biodiversity, which consists of the life forms that can best survive the variety of conditions currently found on earth. Kinds of biodiversity include 1. genetic diversity (variety in the genetic makeup among individuals within a single species) 2. species diversity (Variety among the species or unique forms of life found in different habitats of the planet, and 3. ecological diversity (variety of forests, deserts, grasslands, streams, lakes, oceans, wetlands, and other biological communities that interact with one another and with their nonliving components of environments of matter and energy). This rich variety of genes, species, and biological communities gives us food, wood, fibers, energy, raw material, industrial chemicals, and medicines. Various life forms and biological communities also provide free recycling and purification services and natural pest control potential.

Potentially renewable resources, however can be depleted. The highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply is called its sustainable yield. Ifresource⁵S utilization rate exceeds the natural replacement rate, the available supply begins to shrink, a process known as environmental degradation.

Overuse of Commons

Renewable Resources

One cause of environmental degradation is the overuse of common-property resources, which are owned by none and available to all users free of charge. Most are potentially renewable. The term global commons refers to portions of Earth and its surrounding space that lie beyond the territorial claims of any nation. Examples include clean air, the open ocean, fish in the open ocean, migratory birds, Antarctica, gases of the lower atmosphere, the ozone content of the stratosphere, and space, including the vast high seas, as much as 70% of Earth’s surface are commons.

2.6 Nonrenewable Resources that can be Recycled

All non-energy mineral resources which occur in the Earth’s crust like ores of copper, aluminum, mercury, and other metals; deposits of fertilizer nutrients such as phosphate rock and potassium, and minerals that are used in their natural state such as asbestos, clay, and mica are considered as non renewable resources which can be recycled. As these deposits are mined, they are not replaced, and hence such materials are considered nonrenewable. However, it is possible, at least in theory, for people to collect these materials or elements they used and recycle them.

Recycling involves collecting and reprocessing a resource into new products. For example, glass bottles can be crushed and melted to make new bottles or other glass items. Reuse involves using a resource over and over in the same form.

In practice, we never completely exhaust a nonrenewable mineral resource. However, a mineral resource becomes economically depleted when the costs of finding, extracting, transporting, and processing what is left exceeds the amount earned from them. At that point we have five choices: recycle or reuse existing supplies, waste less, use less, try to develop a substitute, or do without and wait millions of years for more to be produced.

2.7 Nonrenewable Resources that can not be Recycled

Resources that exist in a fixed quantity in Earth’s crust and thus theoretically can be completely used up are called nonrenewable(or exhaustible) resources. On a time scale of millions to billions of years, such resources can be renewed by geological processes. However, on the much shorter human time scale of hundreds to thousands of years, these resources can be depleted much faster than they are formed.

Fossil fuels are derived from organic matter that accumulated during hundreds of millions of years of early biogeological history. There is no way of recycling the energy in fossil fuels Fig. 2.6.

Fig. 2.6 Energy flow through Fossil Fuels: Coal, oil and Natural gas are derived from photosynthesis of early geological times, deposits are limited and they are used and gone for ever

Nonrenewable resources that cannot be recycled are those mineral energy resources, namely, fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), that presently supply better than 90 percent of our energy, and uranium that is used for nuclear (atomic) power.

Nonrenewable energy resources, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, can’t be recycled or reused. Once burned, the useful energy in these fossil fuels is gone, leaving behind waste heat and polluting exhaust gases. Most of the per capita economic growth has been fueled by relatively cheap nonrenewable oil, which is expected to be economically depleted within 40 to 80 years.

Limits of Renewable Resources

2.8 Destruction Versus Conservation

In theory, a renewable resource can last forever. Unfortunately, the term renewable source is often taken to mean inexhaustible resource. All renewable resources are sharply named by the capacity of natural systems to renew them. For example, ground water is renewable only at the rate of which water continues to percolate into the soil, in many areas, and water is being exhausted by withdrawing it faster than it is being replaced.

For example, between 25% and 50% of the world’s wetlands (55% in the United States) have been either drained or built upon, or seriously polluted. Coral reefs are being destroyed in 93 of the 109 major locations. In many of the developed countries, diverse, old-growth forests

are being cleared and replaced with single-species tree plantation farms or with much less diverse second growth forests. Such practices reduce wildlife habitats and wildlife diversity. Overgrazing by livestock degrades a large area of land year after year.

Thousands of wild life species become extinct each year mostly because of human activities. If habitat destruction continues at cunent rates, as many as 1.5 million species disappear over the next 24 years-a drastic loss in vital earth capital. These examples help explain why most environmental scientists believe that over the next few decades, the danger of degradation and depletion is greatest for potentially renewable resources, these nonrenewable resources(except for petroleum and perhaps a few scare minerals) we can’t find economically and environmentally acceptable substitutes.

Biological species or products also represent a renewable resource, but only so long as a depending population is maintained. Many species have been driven to extinction and consequently we have lost these resources forever. Renewable resources may be adversely conducted or even totally destroyed by means other than direct use. Renewable resources are renewable and will last only so long as our use of them remains within the capacity of the system to renew itself and effort is made to project the system from undue interference from errors such as pollution and habitat destruction. Learning to manage and use renewable resources in accordance with these considerations, is the essence of the study and practice of environmental conservation.

2.9 Concept of Maximum Sustained Yield

For conservation of renewable resources the main thrust will be the concept of maximum sustained yield detracted as the maximum rate of use of a renewable resource, which can sustain without damaging or impairing its renewability.

For e.g., if 50 animals produce 10 offspring a year and if 10 other animals are replaced by 10 young ones each year, the maximum sustained yield from this population is 10 per year. If demand on animals increases to 20 per year, at the expense of the breeding potential of the population, such practice will lead to the extinction of the animals in less than 5 years.

2.10 Reasons for Exceeding Maximum Sustained Yields

(a) Greed

Perhaps the most obvious reason for consuming a renewable resource beyond its maximum sustained yield is greed. Instant profit is resorted to by human beings not caring for long lasting durable profit. Concept of sustained yield is voluntarily abstained.

(b) Tragedy of The Commons

Second, even when individuals or groups such as fishermen realize that they are exploiting their resource (fish) leading to their own long-term detriment, they find it impossible to stop the tragedy of the commons. This is due to logic that prevails, that the fish is a common property and the fisherman who catches more fish gets more benefited. If one fisherman did not take advantages another would. The result will be that fisherman that will exploit by excess fish catch creates negative to sustainable yield and leads to the tragedy of another common :

(c) Economic of Supply And Demand

A factor which aggravates exploitation of a resource either through greed or through the tragedy of the commons is the general economic relationship between price and supply; as supply diminishes, price increases. In turn, the rising price increases the potential for shortterm profit and makes it increasingly tempting to further exploit already overexploited resources and hence deplete them to a point of no return.

(d) Need

People who take more than maximum sustained yield of a resource may be doing so out of need to meet basic necessities. There are hundreds of millions of people in the world who do not have enough to eat. Consider, for example, a poor farmer whose very survival depends on animals grazing on land that is already overgrazed. Can such an individual by convinced that it will be better to starve his family and himself this year in order to preserve the grassland for next year.

(e) Ignorance

Overharvesting may occur partly from ignorance of what the maximum sustained yield actually is. It is one thing for a rancher to determine sustained yield when the cattle can be accurately observed; it is quite another thing for fishermen to determine their maximum sustained yield when they cannot directly see their resource.

Conservation and Natural Resource Management

Conservation is defined as The optimum allocation of natural, human and cultural resources in the programmes at national development (H.M.Rose 1958). It is derived from two Latin words cow-together and servare- to keep or guard measures an act of preservation or to keep together. Environmentalists consider conservation as hoarding or to control supply of goods in such a way that some part is left for nature. However, some others interpret conservation as total protection or restriction of consumptive use of resources like wild life (means complete ban on killing any animal) and forests (means complete stopping of felling of trees).

World Conservation Strategy defines conservation as "the management of human use of the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest sustainable benefits to present generation, while maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. Thus, conservation is a practice embracing preservation, maintenance, sustainability, the true aim of conservation is two fold : (i) preservation of quality of environment and (ii) to ensure continuous yield of useful material, living or non-living, by establishing a balanced cycle or harvest and renewal.

The concept of resource conservation has now come under a still wider field of environmental management which is, in essence, the process of allocating natural and man made resources so as to make optimum use of the environment in satisfying basic human needs at the minimum and more, as far as possible, for an indefinite future and at the same time preventing depletion and degradation of resources.

The global population, however, cannot and should not overlook and deny the fast deterioration of environment world over, resulting in dwindling natural resources, pollution of air, water and land, extermination of a number of life forms, dwindling health status, danger to cultural assets and many socio-economic backlashes. The root of the problem lies in too many people using too many resources wastefully.

3

Forest Resources

3.1 Forest Resources-Uses

3.1.1 Importance of Forests : Forests are Important Ecologically and Economically

The functions of a forest may broadly be classified into following three categories:

(i) Protective functions: These include the protective role of forests against soil erosion, droughts, floods, intense radiation.

(ii) Productive functions: Forests are the source of wood and many other products like gums, resins, fibres, medicines, katha, honey, bidi wrappers, pulp, paper.

(iii) Accessory functions: These include the role of forests in recreation, aesthetics, and as habitat of diverse wildlife.

3.1.2 Ecological Importance

Forests are home to 50-90% of earth’s species and are potentially renewable resources if used as per optimum needs and ensuring their security known as sustainability. However, forests-especially tropical forests of United States, southwestern Canada, and Asia are disappearing faster than any other biome as they are cleared for timber, paper pulp, or fuel wood and even for minor forest produce and replaced by cropland, grazing land, mines, reservoirs, and cities. Ecodegradation of forests is intense due to urbanization, civilization and even tourism they are also threatened by air pollution and by climate changes.

Forests play crucial role in regulation of global climate and temperature as the forest cover absorbs the solar energy for primary production of food and energy that would otherwise be reflected back into the atmosphere by the bare surface of the earth. It is well known that through the process of photosynthesis in green plants, carbon is taken from the atmosphere, using solar energy and water, produce food and store as energy and released back into the atmosphere due to respiration as a part of a steady-state a cycle known as carbon cycle. But as more forests are destroyed than replaced, there will be a net increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere contributing to the warming up trend i.e., greenhouse effects. For example, the worlds forest contain about 830 pg C (10¹⁵ gm) in their vegetation which is 1.5 times more the carbon present in soil. The forest help as sinks for CO2 during photosynthesis and release O9 in that process balancing the O2 in the biosphere.

Forests, wetlands, mangroves and wildlife are some of our major natural renewable resources and their conservation is highly essential for sustainable development. They contribute significantly for economic development by providing goods and services to the people and industry. Further, they also play an important role in enhancing the quality of environment by influencing the life support systems.

Forested watersheds act as giant sponges, slowing down runoff and absorbing and holding water that recharges springs, streams, and groundwater. Thus they regulate the flow of water from mountain highlands to croplands and urban areas, they act as shields and they reduce the amount of sediment washing into streams, lakes, and reservoirs by restricting soil erosion as the forests enrich soil binding property.

Forests also influence local, regional, and global climate. On a hot day, a large tree may extract from the soil as much as 5.5 metric tons (5 tons) of water and transpire it into the atmosphere to natural rain cloud seeding. Thus 50-80% of the moisture in the air above tropical forests comes from trees via transpiration and evaporation. If large areas of these lush forests are cleared, average annual precipitation drops, the region’s climate gets hotter, drier, and soils become depleted of already scarce nutrients, baked, and washed away. This process can eventually convert a diverse tropical forest into a sparse grassland or a desert involving deforestation, devegetation leading to desertification.

They also provide habitats for high wildlife species diversity than any other biome, buffer us against noise, absorb air pollutants, and nourish the human spirit.

According to one calculation, during its lifetime a typical tree provides annual 200,000 US $ worth Ofecological benefits in the form of oxygen, air purification, soil fertility erosion control, water recycling, humidity control, and wildlife habitats. However as timber the same tree is worth only about 600 US $. Even if such estimates are off by a factor of 100, the longterm ecological benefits of a tree still clearly exceed its short-term economic benefits. As