Environment

Acknowledgement
Very first, I would thank my teacher for giving me this opportunity and the headings in the correct

.
pattern for writing about environment, which will follow throughout my working I would also like
to thank my father for making changes and making my work better than before.

During my thesis, I used my experience, took out material from the Internet, used my school books
and lot other supporting books. I also took matter from newspapers, magazines and atlas.

I have taken the pictures to depict facts from the Internet, books, newspapers and magazines.

Introduction
The surrounding condition for existence or the natural surroundings in which a living thing lives is
known as environment. The creation of life is formed because of environment and it is very useful
for us. In nature interdependence is also done, without this life would not be possible, even if one...
plants or animals would not exist... on earth.

Everything we make and use comes from nature. There are natural living and non-living things in the
environment.

Living things –

1. Plants - they give us oxygen, which is very important for animals and human beings. Animals
such as cows, goats and horses, or herbivores, are dependent on grass and plants. Some
insects and birds make their shelter on trees and plants also.
2. Animals - they give plants carbon-dioxide, which is very important for them for growing and
making food for the whole world. Animals help the seeds of the plants to be dispersed. They
also help in making the soil fertile by grazing the fields.

Non-living things –

1. Air – the main importance of air is that it helps us to BREATHE! It contains water vapour,
dust particles, smoke, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon-dioxide and others. The water vapour
in the air is known as humidity. Air is also used in burning things.
2. Soil – plants grow in it, as it provides the minerals they need. Plants get their nutrition from
the soil and are able to grow and make food for the entire living world. Many animals find
their shelter in it. We also need products from the soil to build our home.
3. Water – without water no living thing can survive. The sources of water are rain, ponds,
lakes, rivers, seas and waterfalls but therefore contains harmful germs so, the sources of
water under the ground are used. They are tube wells, hand pumps and wells.
4. Light – we get light from the sun and even from electricity, but here we will talk about the
light we get from the sun. The energy from the sun is known as solar energy. This kind of
energy is being utilised these days for running many things.
5. Temperature – temperature varies from place to place. It is different even in all parts of
India. The temperature of a place determines because of four factors –
  Height above the sea level
 Distance from the sea
 Winds
 Humidity
6. Physical Features – I love that our country has many physical features. Here is a list of the
physical features and their colour to recognise them easily on a map.
 Water bodies - blue
 High mountains - dark brown
 Lower mountains/hill - light brown
 Plains/lowlands - green
 Plateaus - yellow

These things are the most precious. We all should conserve these things. To conserve them we
should follow the three R’s.

R educe R euse R ecycle

Humans Depending on Living Factors of Environment

Plants

Humans are dependent on plant life. Without it, everything would destroy. Without plants, we
would have no oxygen to breathe. Plants provide fuel, food, clothing and even shelter. Human
dependence on plants... human dependence on green organisms to produce the oxygen in the air
we breathe and to remove carbon dioxide, we give it out. Our furniture is made with timber from
trees and the lumber furnishes the cardboard and synthetic fibres. Some of our clothing, camping
equipments, bedding and other textile goods are made from fibbers of many different plants.
Firewood is used to make fuel, wood pulp used to make paper, rubber, gum, cork and resins used
make paint and medicines are made from trees such as neem. They also provide shelter to small
animals and forests provide shelter to wild animals.

Nowadays, people are cutting trees or deforesting forests for their own benefits, but do not realise
that plants give us our most precious... oxygen to breath.

Animals

Animals are also very useful to human beings. People use animals and their products for more than
thousands of years. Many animals like horse, camel, elephant, donkeys and bullocks are used as a
means of transport by the human population. Cows and bulls of the farmers help them in plugging.
Hides are further processed as leather and used for the production of shoes, belts and other articles.
Few animals like dogs, cats, birds are used as pets. Dogs also guard our house. Several vaccines,
antitoxins and hormones are obtained from animals.
People are deforesting forests for their own benefits, and do not even think about the wildlife that
they are very useful to us.

Humans Depending on Non-Living Factors of Environment

Air

Air is the most precious thing in our life. Both animals and plants need oxygen of the air to breathe.
They use this oxygen to get energy from food during the process of respiration. That is why we
cannot stay alive for long, without air. During respiration, plants and animals breathe in oxygen and
give out carbon-dioxide. Plants use carbon-dioxide to make their food during the process of
photosynthesis. During photosynthesis they take in carbon-dioxide and give out oxygen. This oxygen
is again used by animals and plants for respiration.

Air is a mixture of gases. About 78% is nitrogen, 21% is oxygen and 1% is the other gases. Air
contains a very small amount of carbon-dioxide... 0.03% only. Air is also needed for burning.

Soil

Soil is made up of small particles of broken down rocks, remains of dead plants and animals, water
and air. It also contains tiny living things called bacteria. It takes hundreds of years to form one
centimetre thick soil. To make the soil fertile manures and fertilizers are added... artificially. When
animals and plants die, their bodies decay and mix with the soil. This adds humus to the soil, which
makes it fertile... naturally. Plants cannot grow without soil as, it provides them support and they get
water and minerals they need, to make their food. It also provides shelter to ants, rabbits and
earthworms.

Soil erodes by the erosion by water, wind, due to activities of humans, deforestation and
overgrazing. It is necessary to conserve soil, so we should start afforesting, making soil covers,
growing shelter belts, start terrace or step farming and building embankments.

Water

The earth is covered with three-fourth of water, but still scarcity is seen in many parts of the world.
Water is found in oceans, lakes, rivers, under the ground and even in the sky, as water vapour. The
water in seas and oceans is salty and cannot be used for drinking or irrigation. Our main source of
water is rain. However, it rains only for two or three months in India. Rivers are full of water during
these months, but the extra water simply flows into the sea. We need water to drink, bathe, wash
clothes, cook our food and farmers need it to grow crops. It is very essential for the functioning of
the body too.

The force of water is used to generate electricity using dams build on most of the rivers. This
generated electricity is known as hydroelectricity. Dams also control the flow of a river. Irrigation
canals are dug to take water from rivers to regions where there is lack of water.
Light

We get light and heat from the sun. The energy from the sun is called solar energy. This energy is
being utilised these days for running many things. Plants use the energy of sunlight to make food
during photosynthesis. It also provides warmth to seeds for germination. Animals also need the
warmth of sunlight for survival. It kills germs and even gives us vitamin-D, which makes our bones
strong.

Sun rays also effect the heat falling on the earth. Near the equator, the rays fall vertically, but near
the poles they are slanting. This means that land near the poles gets heated less by the rays than
near the equator. Also, days are longer near the equator than near the poles. This also effects
because of the three climatic or heat zones. They are:

 Tropical or torrid zone

Temperature

Temperature differentiates because of four factors:

Height above the Sea Level

You know that it is cooler up in the hills than in the plains, even if the two places are the same
distance away from the equator. The higher you go, the cooler it becomes. The peaks of high
mountains are covered with snow throughout the year. Thus, the higher a place is from sea level, the
cooler is its climate.

There are many peaks in the world, but the highest is Mount Everest in Nepal... 8848m then on the
second number, Mount Godwin Austen... 8611m and then on the third number, Kanchenjunga...
8598m.

Distance from the Sea

Water heats up and cools more slowly than land. This effects the climate of places near the sea. They
are warmer in winter and cooler in summer than places far away from the sea. The sea affects the
climate of a place.  Coastal areas are cooler and wetter than inland areas. Clouds form when warm
air from inland areas meets cool air from the sea. In the summer, temperatures can be very hot and
dry in the centre of the continents as moisture from the sea evaporates before it reaches the centre
of the continent. 

Winds

Winds tend to flow in particular directions in different parts of the world. They might be hot, cool or
full of moisture... which bring rain... depending on where they come from. Winds that blow from the
sea often bring rain to the coast and dry weather to inland areas.  Winds that blow to Britain from
warm inland areas such as Africa will be warm and dry.  Winds that blow to Britain from inland areas
such as the Netherlands will be cold and dry in winter.  Britain’s prevailing winds come from a south-
westerly direction over the Atlantic.  The winds are cool in the summer and mild in the winter.
Humidity

Humidity is the amount of water vapour in the air. It indicates the likelihood of precipitation, dew, or
fog. Humidity is a measurement of the amount of water vapor carried in the air, not including any
liquid water or ice falling through the air. For clouds to form, and rain to start, the air does not have
to reach 100% humidity at the Earth's surface, but only where the clouds and raindrops form. This
normally occurs when the air rises and cools. Some water from the rain may evaporate into the air
as it falls, increasing the humidity, but not necessarily enough to raise the humidity to 100%. It is also
possible for rain falling through warm, humid air to be cold enough to lower the air temperature
thus, condensing water vapour out of the air. Although that would indeed raise the humidity. The
water lost from the air would also lower the humidity.

Physical Features

India is a land made up of plains, hills, mountains, plateaus, long coastline, forests, islands and
deserts. These form the physical features of India. A large number of rivers also flow through India. A
map showing the kind of land a country has is called a physical map.

Certain standard colours are used to show features such as, water bodies in blue, mountain and
highlands in brown and yellow and plains and lowlands in green.

Interdependence of Plants and Animals

Here are some points in which plants and animals are interdependent on each other.

1. Animals like grasshopper, bees, squirrels, sheep, goats etc. are nutritionally dependent upon
green plants because they depend on continued supplies of ready-made food substances
usually from green plants for their energy and growth. Green plant eaters are called
herbivores. Animals which do not feed directly on plant materials but rather on animals are
called carnivores. They are indirectly dependent upon plants for their food and energy,
because carnivores eat the herbivores. If there were no plants, there would not be any
herbivores left to feed the carnivores. So they would die of hunger. Insectivores are provided
with specific organs for trapping insects. A trapped insect is digested for its proteins. Dead
remains of animals are decomposed and again used by the plants. Then this process rotates
in nature.
2. Green plants take in carbon-dioxide gas from the air during photosynthesis. Carbon-dioxide
gas is given out by animals during respiration. Carbon-dioxide being an injurious gas it should
be removed from the air regularly. Plants do this job of purifying the air. If the plants had not
absorbed carbon-dioxide the air would have been poisoned with it so much that life would
have been impossible on earth. Plants give out oxygen formed during the process of
photosynthesis. This oxygen is the source of oxygen used by animals in their respiration. In
this way the oxygen balance of air is maintained by the plants.
3. Many insects like bees, butterflies, ants etc. come to flowers for collecting nectar and
pollens. During the process they move from one flower to another. While moving from one
 flower to another the sticky pollen grains produced in the male parts of flower adhere (hold
on) on their legs, wings, and antenna. When they come to another flower along with the
pollen grains the pollen grains adhere on the sticky surface of stigma (female part). This is an
act of transference of pollen grains from male to female flower, a process termed cross
pollination. Thus insects help the flowering plants in pollination against nectar, the food of
insect.
4. Animals play a very important role in the dispersal of seeds and fruits of flowering plants.
The seeds for the purpose of dispersal develop various attachment structures like hooks,
spines or sticky hairs. With the help of these structures the seeds get attached on the bodies
of visiting animals and are thus, carried to distant places. Animals generally eat fruits. When
the whole fruit is eaten, animals leave the seeds, they are able to germinate. This is how
seeds spread out to distant places.
5. Plants are the homes of many animals... small and big. Plants provide shelter from
predicators and harsh factors of the environment, like the hot sun, wind, dampness, cold
snow and torrential rain.

Pollution
The release of substances in air, water, noise or soil that are harmful to living things is known as
pollution. These harmful substances are called pollutants. Pollution is a big environment problem.

The main kinds of pollution are air, water, soil and noise pollution.

Air Pollution

Cause of air pollution: most air pollution comes from burning of fuels to run vehicles, chimneys of
factories and power stations. Burning of fuels releases smoke and harmful gases into the
atmosphere resulting in air pollution.

Effect of air pollution: access pollutants in the air makes it unfit for breathing and results in a
number of diseases of the respiratory system. Many people living in areas with serious air pollution
suffer from breathing problems... asthma... and lung damage.

How to control air pollution: we can use CNG... Compressed Natural Gas as it does not release much
smoke as other gases. Reuse paper, plastic, metals, glass products until they turn bad. After that you
can take help of recycling process.

Water Pollution

Cause of water pollution: from municipal wastewater systems, the sewage in water can cause
serious illness to both the people drinking it and the organisms living in it. Sea creatures that are
killed by plastic readily decompose. The plastic does not... it remains in the ecosystem to kill again
and again.

Effect of water pollution: drinking water polluted by sewage contains germs. Drinking this water can
cause diseases... dysentery, jaundice, typhoid. Acid rain contains uncountable particles, which can
harm plant life in lakes and rivers.
How to control water pollution: protect groundwater, which is crucial for drinking water, irrigation
systems and natural ecosystems. Do not throw trash in water.

Soil Pollution

Cause of soil pollution: the tree’s roots hold the soil securely so, it will not dash away. Nowadays,
people cut trees for their own use and leave a vast area barren. No grip is left, and the soil would
dash away.

Effect of soil pollution: it affects in dry regions... deserts... due to erosion by wind, ploughing
farmlands leaves the soil loose and it can easily be eroded