1Multidisciplinary nature of Environmental studies-Definition, scope and
importance-natural resources, renewable resources, natural resources and
related problems
Source Living in the environment
Scope and Importance
of Environmental Studies
Environmental
Studies have wide scope and the demand is ever increasing to combat the
challenges like Climate Change, Deforestation, Industrialization, Rise in Sea
levels, Increase in population, Poaching, Oil Spills , Toxic Gas Release from
Industries, etc.
Few of the relevant
areas one could provide service using environmental studies are:
1. HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) Divisions: Nearly every Big
Manufacturing company these days have an HSE division. HSE professionals are
well qualified professionals who try to protect the interests of the company by
complying with the local statutes and promoting a healthy and safe working
culture inside the company.
2. Design and Operating
Effluent Treatment Plants:
Environmental Engineers Operate ETPs in Industries.
3. Conduct Environmental Impact
Assessments :Every
proposed project initially requires the help of consultants to conduct EIA
study (Environmental Impact Assessment) to ensure that their project isn't
going to harm the neighbourhood environmental aspects in long and short term.
4: Work in Alternate Energy
Sectors :
In this age where there is great emphasis on alternate energy , many
environment professionals are busy building wind mills (companies like suzlon, gamesa,
vestas) and solar panels (like GE, Siemens) . Many environmentalists also work
in Nuclear Plants, which is more critical.
5. Legal Aspects relating
to Environment: Those who are interested in the legal aspects of
environment could become Environmental Lawyers, they ensure that Industries do
not get away destroying the natural habitats for their own needs. There are
standards that countries have to comply with if they want to work, for example
standards of USEPA in USA, standards of KEPA in Kuwait, India is on the verge
of having its own environment protection agency Body soon.
6. Academics: There is a lot of research
going on in many universities worldwide that has helped in developing new
technologies that impacts the environment positively. For example many companies
that do not have a strong R&D section depend on the Universities for
studying and addressing their areas of concern.
7. Environmental
Scientists/Chemists in Environmental Labs and Research organizations: There are Environmental Labs
who require environmental graduates that do the testings pertaining to
environment parameters, like how much arsenic is present in the sample of water
or what is the level of pm10 in the air of a surrounding or for example to what
level the soil is contaminated in a particular area, etc. In India, NEERI, CSIR
and CPCB are government organizations in India that addresses environmental
issues through their projects.
The
importance of environmental studies
Without understanding how the
environment works and how different environmental factors interact with each
other and with our usage of the planet, we cannot even begin to understand how
to slow the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, plastic pollution, and all
of the other harmful impacts we are having on the planet
In today’s world because of
industrialization and increasing population, the natural resources has been
rapidly utilised and our environment is being increasingly degraded by human
activities, so we need to protect the environment.
It is not only the duty of
government but also the people to take active role for protecting the
environment, so protecting our environment is economically more viable than
cleaning it up once, it is damaged.
The
ecosystem (all the communities of living organisms found in a specific place,
their habitats and their interactions) in which we live provides natural
services for humans and all other species that are essential to our health,
quality of life and survival. For example, our forests remove carbon dioxide
and other pollutants from the air we breathe and also cool our air
temperatures, reducing the formation of ground-level ozone, a pollutant that
can cause heart and lung problems to worsen; our wetlands store storm water,
filter and make harmless storm water pollutants, and recharge our aquifers
(where most of us get our drinking water) with these filtered waters; and the
dune systems on our beaches form natural barriers to storm waves and provide
important habitat and travel ways for wildlife.
Applications
of environmental studies include improving lives by monitoring changes,
preventing harmful changes if possible and adapting to changes.
Natural
resources
1.
Forest
2.
The ocean is an example
of a natural resource. Ocean waves can be used to generate wave power, a renewable energy. Ocean
water is important for salt production, desalination, and providing habitat for deep water fishes.
There are biodiversity of marine species in the sea where nutrient cycles are
common.
Natural resources are resources that exist without actions of humankind.
This includes all valued characteristics such as magnetic, gravitational,
electrical properties and forces etc. On earth it includes: sunlight, atmosphere, water, land (includes all
minerals) along with all vegetation, crops and animal life that naturally subsists upon or
within the heretofore identified characteristics and substances
Natural resources
may be further classified in different ways. Natural resources are materials
and components (something that can be used) that can be found within the
environment. Every man-made product is composed of natural resources (at its
fundamental level). A natural
resource may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water, air, and as well as a living organism such as a fish, or it
may exist in an alternate form that must be processed to obtain the resource
such as metal ores, rare earth metals, petroleum, and most forms of energy.
There is much debate
worldwide over natural resource allocations, this is particularly true during
periods of increasing scarcity and shortages (depletion and overconsumption
of resources) but also because the exportation of natural resources is
the basis
There are various methods of categorizing natural
resources, these include source of origin, stage of development, and by their
renewability.
On the basis of origin, natural resources may be
divided into two types:
§ Biotic — Biotic resources are obtained from
the biosphere (living and organic material), such as forests and animals, and the
materials that can be obtained from them. Fossil fuels such
as coal and petroleum are also
included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic matter.
§ Abiotic – Abiotic resources are those that
come from non-living, non-organic material. Examples of abiotic resources
include land, fresh water, air, rare earth metals and
heavy metals including ores such as gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.
Natural resources can be categorized as either
renewable or non-renewable:
§ Renewable
resources —
Renewable resources can be replenished naturally with in human span. Some of
these resources, like soil, sunlight, air, wind, water, etc., are continuously
available and their quantity is not noticeably affected by human consumption.
Though many renewable resources do not have such a rapid recovery rate, these
resources are susceptible to depletion by over-use. Resources from a human use
perspective are classified as renewable so long as the rate of
replenishment/recovery exceeds that of the rate of consumption. They replenish
easily compared to Non-renewable resources. However, in some circumstances,
even water is not renewable easily. Wood is a renewable resource, but
it takes time to renew and in some places people use the land for something
else. Soil, if it blows away, is not easy to renew. Renewable
resources include crops,
wind, hydroelectric power, fish, and sunlight.
§ Non-renewable
resources –
Non-renewable resources either form slowly or do not naturally form in the
environment. Minerals are the most common resource included in this category.
By the human perspective, resources are non-renewable when their rate of
consumption exceeds the rate of replenishment/recovery; a good example of this
are fossil fuels, which are in this category because their rate of formation is
extremely slow (potentially millions of years), meaning they are considered
non-renewable. Some resources actually naturally deplete in amount without
human interference, the most notable of these being radio-active elements such
as uranium, which naturally decay into heavy metals. Of these, the metallic
minerals can be re-used by recycling them, but coal and petroleum cannot
be recycled. Once they are completely used they take
millions of years to replenish. Natural resource is what
people can use which comes from the natural environment. Examples of natural
resources are air, water, wood, oil, wind energy, natural gas, iron, and coal
A non-renewable resource is a resource that does not
grow and come back, or a resource that would take a very long time to come
back. For example, coal is
a non-renewable resource. When we use coal, there is less coal afterward. The
non-renewable resource can be used directly (for example, burning oil to cook),
or we can find a renewable resource to use (for example, using wind energy to
make electricity to cook). Non-renewable
resources cannot be recycled. For example, fossil
fuels cannot
be recycled.
Natural
resources and associated problems
1) Exploitation
Human
population is growing day-by-day. Continuous increase in population caused an
increasing demand for natural resources. Due to urban expansion, electricity
need and industrialization, man started utilizing natural resources at a much
larger scale. Non-renewable resources are limited.
Natural
resources cannot be replaced easily. After some time, these resources may come
to an end. It is a matter of much concern and ensures a balance between
population growth and utilization of resources.
This over utilization creates many problems. In some
regions there are problems of water logging due to over irrigation. In some
areas, there is no sufficient water for industry and agriculture. Thus, there
is need for conservation of natural resources.
Developed countries
(North) consume more global resources than developing countries (South
including India and China). South is
rich in biodiversity and high population but North is less populated with less
biodiversity. Developed countries has 20
per cent of population consumes about 80 percent of energy.
Developing countries over exploit natural resources
for their basic needs because of overpopulation.
2.
Environmental effect on mining natural resources
Natural resources are not limitless, and
the following consequences can arise from
mining of these resources:.
Deforestation,
Desertification, Extinction of species, Forced migration, Soil erosion, Oil
depletion, Ozone depletion, Greenhouse gas increase, Extreme energy
consumption, Water pollution, Natural hazard/Natural disaster, Metals and minerals depletion
3.
Occurrence of disasters
Disasters like
flooding, water stagnation, earthquake are possible due to construction of dam
for storage of water etc.,
4.
More
use of non renewable and less use of renewable source
People are more using non renewable resources. This
leads to more release of green house gases like carbon dioxide leading to
global warming and climate change.
5.
Generation of waste
Waste are
created during extraction, consumption
of natural resources
Famous Books and authors
Origin of Species - Charles
Darwin
Silent Spring- Rachel Carson
Diversity of Life - EO Wilson
Book of Indian Birds - Salim
Ali
Salim Ali -Fall of a Sparrow
State of India’s Environment - Anil
Agarwal
