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Unit-I Introduction to Environmental Studies
Environmental Studies:
Environmental studies is the systematic and scientific study of the environment and the induced changes on
living organisms including humans. It includes not only the study of physical and biological characters of the
environment but also the social and cultural factors and the impact of humans on environment. It is multi-
disciplinary in nature.It deals with the study of processes in soil, water, and air which lead to
environmental degradation.

Multidisciplinary Nature of Environmental Studies

The Environmental studies/science is multidisciplinary in nature because it depends on various other
disciplines like physics, chemistry, ecology, social science, geography, agriculture, climatology, geology,
oceanography, biology, etc. It is a multidisciplinary field that depends not only on core scientific areas, but
also applies knowledge from other non-scientific studies such as economic, law and social science.
1. Physics:
• To understand the flow of material and energy.
• To make mathematical models of environment and related problems.
2. Chemistry:
• To understand the chemical interactions in the different segments of environment.
• To study the chemical alterations in the environment.
• To study the fate of chemicals in environment.
3. Atmospheric Science and Climatology:
• It comprises meteorological studies, heating effects of earth, greenhouse effect, air mass circulations,
precipitations, atmospheric energy budget, etc.
4. Ecology and Biology:
• To understand and study the effects of environmental conditions on living organisms.
• To study species interactions.
• To study about ecosystems, their structure and functions.
5. Geo-science:
• It includes geology, soil science, earth’s structure, types of rock, aquifers, earth tectonics, and evolution
of the earth's crust.
6. Mathematics and Computer Science:
• It includes in environmental modeling, remote sensing, GIS, and analysis of environment related data.
7. Law:
• It helps in framing and implementation of environment related laws, acts, rules.
8. Social Science:
• It helps in dealing with human population, resettlement & rehabilitation problem, environmental
movements, and health related issues.

Scope and importance of Environmental Studies:

The disciplines included in environmental education are environmental sciences, environmental engineering
and environmental management.Scope- in research, teaching, in pollution control boards, NGO, Govt. jobs,
environmental monitoring laboratories.
Environment belongs to all of us and we have a responsibility to contribute towards its conservation and
protection.Study of environment is very important to handle current environmental issues such as:
1. To protect fragile ecosystems. Ex. Polar ecosystem

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2. To focus on current environmental issues. Ex. Population problem, global warming, biodiversity loss,
pollution.
3. Environmental studies provide the knowledge about :
(a) Environmental quality (air, water, food, hygiene)
(b) Balancing ecosystem
(c) To recycle and reuse waste
(d) Management of natural resources
(e) To promote environmental education and training.
(f) To make laws and regulations to protect environment.
(g) To make aware.

Need of Public Awareness about Environment:

In today’s world because of anthropogenic activities and rapid increasing population, the natural resources
has been rapidly utilized and our environment is being increasingly degraded, 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. The role of mass media such as newspapers, radio, television, etc is also very important to
make people aware regarding environment.
✓ Our environment is very important to us because it is where we live and share resources with other
species.
✓ In today’s world because of industrialization and increasing population, the natural resources has been
rapidly utilized 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.
✓ Public awareness of the environment means the ability to understand the surrounding environment,
including the natural environment.
✓ Understanding of causes and effects of environmental degradation of human beings and other living
organisms.
✓ Understanding of how the environment works as a system.
✓ Knowledge of inter-relationships of different segments of the environment, including the relationship
between air pollution, soil contamination, and the quality of surface and underground water.
✓ Knowledge of public health hazards caused by environmental contamination.
✓ Knowledge of methods for the prevention and control of water pollution, air pollution, soil pollution, etc.
✓ Knowledge of solid waste management practices.
✓ Every year since 1974, after “The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment”, held at
Stockholm from 5 to 16 June 1972,World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated on 5 June every year.

Environment:
The term environment has been derived from a French word “Environia” means to surround.
Environment includes which we are directly or indirectly dependent for our survival, whether it is living
component (biotic) like animals, plants or nonliving component (abiotic) like soil, air and water.
Co-existence
A B
(Surrounding conditions) (Living organism)
Both are in co-existence means surrounding conditions affect living organisms and on the other hand living
organisms alter the surrounding (environmental) conditions.Surrounding conditions include:
a) Physical - ex. light, noise, temperature etc
b) Chemical – ex. Composition of air, means chemical
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c) Biological – ex. Other surrounding living organisms, bacteria, fungi, animals, etc
d) Social – ex. Culture, society, education

Types of Environment:
Environment is of two type i.e. natural environment (eg. Forest, grassland) which is regulated and controlled
by nature and the artificial environment (eg. Cropland, aquarium) which is partially/fully regulated by human
beings.

Segments/Components of Environment:
Environment is divided into four components. Lithosphere
1. Atmosphere: Layer of gases that surround earth. It allows us to
breathe and protects earth. Biosphere
2. Hydrosphere: All the water on earth (surface water,
underground water and water vapor in the atmosphere).
Atmosphere Hydrosphere
3. Lithosphere: Surface of the planet that forms the continents
and the ocean floor.
4. Biosphere: Part of earth where life exists.

Atmosphere:
• The layer of gases that surrounds the earth is known as atmosphere.
• It allows us to breathe and protects earth from harmful radiations.
• The atmosphere is comprised of four layers based on temperature.
• These layers are troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere.
• It extends to a height of about 1600 km from the earth’s surface.
A. General facts about the atmosphere:
✓ The average temperature of the atmosphere at Earth's surface is 15 °C.
✓ At sea level, pressure ranges from about 960 to 1,050 mb, with an average of 1,013 mb.
✓ According to the American National Center for Atmospheric Research, "The total mean mass of the
atmosphere is 5.1480×1018 kg.
✓ In summary, the mass of Earth's atmosphere is distributed approximately as follows:
• 50% is below 5.6 km
• 90% is below 16 km
• 99.99997% is below 100 km
✓ The density of air at sea level is about 1.2 kg/m3 (or 1.2 g/L). Atmospheric density decreases as the
altitude increases.
B. Composition of Atmosphere
The dominant gases present in earth’s atmosphere are:
➢ Nitrogen (N2) - 78%
➢ Oxygen (O2) - 21%
➢ Carbon dioxide (CO2) - 0.04%
➢ Argon – approx. 1%
➢ Some of the gases are present in trace amounts like neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen and water
vapor.
C. Layers of Atmosphere:
The different layers of atmosphere are as follows:

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1. Troposphere:
➢ It is the first layer of atmosphere and it is up to maximum 18 kms from the ground surface near equator
and 7 to 10 kms near poles.
➢ This is the lowest part of the atmosphere - the part we live in.
➢ It contains most of our weather - clouds, rain, snow.
➢ In this layer temperature decreases with altitude.
➢ The averages height of this layer is about 11 km from the ground surface.
➢ Temperature varies from 15oC to -56oC in atmosphere.
➢ The upper most boundary of this layer is called Tropopause. Tropopause separates troposphere from
stratosphere.
➢ In this part of the atmosphere the temperature gets colder as the distance above the earth increases, by
about 6.5°C/km. The actual change of temperature with height varies from day to day, depending on the
weather conditions.
➢ The troposphere contains about 75% of all of the air in the atmosphere, and almost all of the water
vapour (which forms clouds and rain).
➢ The decrease in temperature with height is a result of the decreasing pressure. If a parcel of air moves
upwards it expands (because of the lower pressure). When air expands it cools.
➢ The lowest part of the troposphere is called the boundary layer.

Fig: Vertical structure of atmosphere

2. Stratosphere:
➢ It is the second layer of atmosphere.
➢ It is about 50 km from ground surface.
➢ Ozone is also present in this layer in significant concentrations.

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➢ In stratosphere, there is the increase in temperature with height because of absorption of ultraviolet (UV)
radiation from the sun by the ozone gas. By absorbing dangerous UV radiation, it protects us from skin
cancer and other health issues.
➢ It serves as a blanket in reducing the cooling rate of earth.
3. Mesosphere:
➢ It is also called as Middle atmosphere.
➢ It is about 85 km from the earth’s surface.
➢ Atmospheric pressure is low (i.e. below 1% of the pressure at sea level), air is quite cold, temp is about -
92°C (coldest temperatures in Earth's atmosphere) near the top of mesosphere at the "mesopause".
4. Thermosphere:
➢ It is also known as Ionosphere due to the presence of gaseous species in ionic forms.
➢ It is also called as hot layer.
➢ It is the fourth layer of atmosphere (upto 350-500 km).
➢ The thermosphere lies above the mesopause, and is a region in which temperatures again increases with
height. This increase in temperature is due to the absorption of energetic ultraviolet and X-Ray radiation
from the sun. High-energy X-rays and UV radiation from the Sun are absorbed in the thermosphere,
raising its temperature to thousands of degrees. Temperatures in the upper thermosphere can range
from about 500° C (932° F) to 2,000° C (3,632° F) or higher.
➢ The energetic solar radiation knocks electrons off molecules and atoms, turning them into "ions".
➢ This layer also reflects and absorbs radio waves, allowing us to receive shortwave radio broadcasts in
different parts of parts of the world.
➢ Many satellites actually orbit Earth within the thermosphere.
➢ The aurora, also known as the Northern Lights and Southern Lights, occur in the thermosphere.

With this all we have two important terms that you should know about the atmosphere.
One is Exosphere and second is Magnetosphere.
➢ The region above about 500 km is called the exosphere. It contains mainly oxygen and hydrogen atoms,
but there are so few of them that they rarely collide and some of them escape out into space.
➢ The earth behaves like a huge magnet. It traps electrons and protons, concentrating them in two bands
about 3,000 and 16,000 km above the earth’s surface known as - the Van Allen "radiation" belts. This
outer region surrounding the earth, where charged particles spiral along the magnetic field lines, is called
the magnetosphere.
Lapse Rate:
It can be defined as the rate at which air temperature decreases with altitude in atmosphere is called lapse
rate. The average value of lapse rate in the lower atmosphere is about 6.5°C per 1 km.

Hydrosphere:
All the water on Earth is part of a large system called the hydrosphere.On Earth, water occurs in all three
phases.About 75 percent of Earth’s surface is covered with water. This water is found: the water found on
earth’s surface may be divided into 3 parts:
a. Surface wateron Earth refers to water that collects on the ground.
✓ Oceans
✓ Lakes
✓ Rivers
✓ Streams
✓ Reservoirs.
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b. Glacier:A glacier is a huge mass of ice that forms on land when snow and ice accumulate faster than they
melt. Most of Earth’s fresh water is in the form of glacier ice.
c. Groundwater: Groundwater is water that collects underground. Some of the water on Earth’s surface
moves down through the soil to the water table (the upper level of underground water).

Fig: Distribution of Water on Earth

➢ Most (97.2%) of it is found in the oceans; freshwater accounts for just 2.8% of the hydrosphere and
most of this is locked in glaciers, permanent snow cover at the poles, and in mountainous regions.
The rest is in lakes, rivers, and ground water.
➢ About 1.4 billion cubic km of water in liquid and frozen form make up the oceans, lakes,
streams, glaciers, and groundwater.
➢ The entire hydrosphere, extending upward to about 15 km in Earth’s atmosphere and downward to
depths on the order of 5 km in its crust.
➢ Saltwater accounts for 97.5% of this amount, whereas fresh water accounts for only 2.5%. Of this
fresh water, 68.9% is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in the Arctic, the Antarctic and
mountain glaciers; 30.8% is in the form of fresh groundwater; and only 0.3% of the fresh water on
Earth is in easily accessible lakes, reservoirs and river systems.
➢ The total mass of Earth's hydrosphere is about 1.4 × 1018 tonnes, which is about 0.023% of Earth's
total mass. At any given time, about 20 × 1012 tonnes of this is in the form of water vapor in
the Earth's atmosphere .
➢ Approximately 71% of Earth's surface, is covered by ocean. The average salinity of Earth's oceans is
about 35 grams of salt per kilogram of sea water (3.5%).
"Every year the turnover of water on Earth involves 577,000 km3 of water. This is water that evaporates from
the oceanic surface (502,800 km3) and from land (74,200 km3). The same amount of water falls as
atmospheric precipitation, 458,000 km3 on the ocean and 119,000 km3 on land. The difference between
precipitation and evaporation from the land surface (119,000 - 74,200 = 44,800 km3/year) represents the
total runoff of the Earth's rivers (42,700 km3/year) and direct groundwater runoff to the ocean (2100
km3/year). These are the principal sources of fresh water to support life necessities and man's economic
activities."
Lithosphere:
The upper most100 km thick layer of earth is called lithosphere where all continents and ocean exist. It is
divided into three parts:
a. Crust: It is theupper most 5-50 km thick layer of earth made of solid lighter rocks.

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b. Core: Inner Core – 1200 km made of solid Fe, Ni.Outer Core – 2250 km made of liquid Fe, Ni.
c. Mantle – 2900 km made of dense rocks.

Biosphere:
➢ Thepart of the earth where life exists is called biosphere.The biosphere also known as the ecosphere, is
the worldwide sum of all ecosystems.
➢ The term "biosphere" was coined by geologist Eduard Suess in 1875, which he defined as the place
on Earth's surface where life dwells. The biosphere is a global ecosystem composed of living organisms
(biota) and the abiotic (nonliving) factors from which they derive energy and nutrients.
➢ It extends vertically into the atmosphere about 10 km and 8 km into the ocean and about 7 km under the
earth’s surface.
➢ The biosphere as an open thermodynamic system exists due to a permanent flow of solar energy. Earth
receives 3.5 × 1024 J of solar energy annually that maintains the work of the climatic machine. The
function of the “green cover” results in 5.5 × 1021 J/year of new biomass. Thus, although vegetation is the
main concentrator and transformer of solar energy in the biosphere, it uses only 0.16% of solar energy for
the creation of a new biomass. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-
sciences/biosphere)

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Sustainability and Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is a pattern of economic growth in which resource use aims to meet human needs
while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present but also for the
generation to come.
✓ The term sustainable development was used by the Brundtland commission (World commission on
Environment and Development (WCED)). Sustainable development is defined as “the development
which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs”.
✓ Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the
social challenges faced by humanity.
✓ This definition centers around development of a long-term relationship between natural system and
economic development.
Principles of Sustainable development:
It can be attained by working at three levels:
1. Improving the quality of human life while living within
the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems (e.g.,
providing basic needs like food, shelter, clothes, health,
education etc.).
2. Economic development that provides opportunity for
all the people (e.g., industrialization, creating job
opportunities, utilization of natural resources for
development purpose to raise quality of life).
3. Environmental protection - Economic and social development that protect and enhance the natural
environment (e.g., providing clean water, air, safe environment to people and for future generations).

In ecological terms, it would mean that every generation should leave water, air, and soil resources ae
pure and unpolluted as when it came on the earth. However, it requires proper scientific and technological
input to solve environmental problems.

Achievement of Sustainable Development:

1. Improving energy efficiency.
2. Saving forests
3. Safe guarding biodiversity
4. Adopting water resources management.
5. Managing coastal zones.
6. By control pollution.
7. Planning better cities.
8. Stabilizing world population.
9. Stopping environmental destructive activities.
10. Conserve and protect natural resources from misuse and wasteful consumption.
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We can conclude:
a. Reducing excessive resource use and enhancing resource conservation.
b. Recycling and reuse of materials waste minimization with proper technological input.
c. Scientific management of renewable resources, specially bio-resources which has a life cycle.

Causes of unsustainability:The two basic causes of unsustainability are –

1. Over population in developing (poor) countries which have under consumption of resources (overall
waste generation is very large).
2. Over consumption of resources bydeveloped (rich) countries, which generates large quantity of waste.
Population Natural resources usage Energy usage
22% (developed countries) 88% 73%
78% (developing countries) 12% 27%

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