1. THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY NATURE
OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
and
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Arti Jain
Health Safety Fire and Environment
| Jul 2012| © 2012 UPES

2. ENVIRONMENT
 An envelop which surrounds all living and non living beings and
effects, directly or indirectly the sustenance of life on green and
living planet earth.
 The combination of external physical conditions that affect and
influence the growth, development, and survival of organisms
 Is the sum total of water, air and land and the interrelationships
that exist among them and with the human beings ,other living
organisms and materials.
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3. Components of Environment
 Biotic Components
 Abiotic Components
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4. Environment is a multidisciplinary Science which includes study of
:
Chemistry
 Physics
 Geology
 Climatology
 Earth Sciences
 Engineering
 Modelling of weather/ecosystem
 Remote Sensing
 Maths
 Zoology
 Botany etc. etc...
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5. OBJECTIVES
The environment can be protected by adopting the following
strategies:
• Maintenance of environmental quality
• Balancing the ecosystem
• To restrict and regulate the exploitation of natural resources
• To adopt engineered technology without creating adverse
effects on the environment
• To control over population and over consumption of resources
• To promote environmental education and training among
people
• To formulate laws and regulations to control pollution
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6. OBJECTIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
To help children and general public towards:
 Awareness: acquire sensitivity to the total environment
and its allied problems.
To create an overall understanding of the impacts and effects
of behaviors and lifestyles - on both the local and global
environments, and on the short-term and long-term
 Skill: acquire skills for identifying environmental problems.
To help individuals, groups and societies acquire the action
competence or skills of environmental citizenship - in order to
be able to identify and anticipate environmental problems and
work with others to resolve, minimize and prevent them.
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7.  Knowledge: To know conservation of natural resources.
To help individuals, groups and societies gain a variety of
experiences in, and a basic understanding of, the knowledge
and action competencies required for sustainable development
 Evaluation ability:
To evaluate environs measures and education and education
programmes in terms of social, economic, ecological and
aesthetic factors.
 Values - to help individuals, groups and societies acquire
feelings of concern for issues of sustainability as well as a set
of values upon which they can make judgments about
appropriate ways of acting individually and with others to
promote sustainable development
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8.  Participation :
To provide individuals, groups and societies with opportunities
to be actively involved in exercising their skills of environmental
citizenship and be actively involved at all levels in working
towards sustainable development.
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9. IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPEMENT
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10.  Environment is not a single subject.
 It is an integration of several subjects that include both Science and
Social Studies.
 To understand all the different aspects of our environment we need to
understand
biology, chemistry
physics, geography,
resource management, economics
and population issues.
 Thus the scope of environmental studies is extremely wide and covers
some aspects of nearly every major discipline.
 We live in a world in which natural resources are limited.
 Water, air, soil, minerals, oil, the products we get from forests,
grasslands, oceans and from agriculture and livestock, are all a part of
our life support systems.
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11. Without them, life itself would be impossible.
As we keep increasing in numbers and the quantity of resources each of
us uses also increases, the earth’s re- source base must inevitably shrink.
The earth cannot be expected to sustain this expanding level of utilization
of resources.
We waste or pollute large amounts of nature’s clean water; we create
more and more material like plastic that we dis-card after a single use.
Increasing amounts of waste cannot be managed by natural processes.
These accumulate in our environment, leading to a variety of diseases
and other adverse environmental impacts now seriously affecting all our
lives.
Air pollution leads to respiratory diseases, water pollution to gastro-
intestinal diseases, and many pollutants are known to cause cancer.
Improving this situation will only happen if each of us begins to take
actions in our daily lives that will help preserve our environmental
resources.
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12. We cannot expect Governments alone to manage the safeguarding of
the environment, nor can we expect other people to prevent
environmental damage.
We need to do it ourselves.
Aesthetic/Recreational value of nature:
The aesthetic and recreational values that nature possesses enlivens
our existence on earth.
This is created by developing National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries in
relatively undisturbed areas.
The beauty of nature encompasses every aspect of the living and non-
living part of our earth.
One can appreciate the magnificence of a mountain, the power of the
sea, the beauty of a forest, and the vast expanse of the desert.
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13. NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
 All major natural resources in the country are in grave danger of irreparable
damage.
 A society cannot survive if its natural resources are rendered unfit for use by
its people.
 The only hope of salvaging this grave situation is by making the young aware
that they need to proactively begin to protect the environment they will
inherit.
 Science and Technology can help in a limited way but cannot deliver it.
 The moral and ethical education for changing people’s attitude
 To protect children living in polluted regions, environmental education
represents a relevant means of prevention
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14.  It is need for the hour to propose the environmental education with the
essential elements of moral philosophy.
 For conceptual change
 Essential components Of The environmental education
 Alerting the public to the need to achieve global sustainable development and
the likely consequences of failing to do so.
 Focusing the educational curricula for global sustainable development by
incorporating the know –how and skills and also the moral imperatives.
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15.  Responsibility of Government:
We often feel that managing all this is something that the government should do.
But if we go on endangering our environment, there is no way in which the
Government can perform all these clean-up functions.
It is the prevention of environment degradation in which we must all take part that
must become a part of all our lives.
Just as for any disease, prevention is better than cure.
To prevent ill-effects on our environment by our actions, is economically more viable
than cleaning up the environment once it is damaged.
Individually we can play a major role in environment management.
This can only be made possible through mass public awareness.
Mass media such as newspa- pers, radio, television, strongly influence public
opinion.
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16. However, someone has to bring this about. If each of us feels strongly about the
environment the
Practice and promote issues such as
saving paper, saving water
reducing use of plastics
practicing the 3Rs principle of reduce, reuse, recycle,
and proper waste disposal.
Join local movements that support activities such as
saving trees in your area
go on nature treks,
recycle waste
buy environmentally friendly products.
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17. • Practice and promote good civic sense
- such as no spitting or tobacco chewing
- no throwing garbage on the road
- no smoking in public places
- No defecating in public places.
• Take part in events organized on World Environment Day, Wildlife Week, etc.
• Visit a National Park or Sanctuary, or spend time in whatever nature you have
near your home.
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18. Curriculum development
Reasons for including moral education in engineering Curricula:
• As future planners
• designers,
• builders and decision makers
• students shoulder special responsibility in protecting the integrity of
nature and the natural environment.
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19.  MATTER: Substance, which occupies space and has mass.
 CHEMISTRY: The science of matter- the study of the composition,
structure and properties of matter and the changes that matter
undergoes.
 ENERGY: The capacity to do work, such as causing a body of matter to
move. The rate at which energy is transferred or moved. That is energy
per unit time is called power.
 RESOURCES: Matter of specific kinds and energy needed by humans
for their well being or existence.
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20.  CLIMATE: The overall, long term characteristics of weather, including
temperature, precipitation and, storms and wind patterns in an area.
 POLLUTANT: A substance present in greater than natural
concentration as a result of human activity and having a net detrimental
effect upon its environment or upon something of value in that
environment.
 BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITY: The total of all living organisms
inhabiting in the specified area. A biological community and the
environmental conditions that characterize it are termed a biome. A
group of organisms of the same species in a biological community is
called population.
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21.  PRODUCTIVITY: Rate of production of biomass per unit time per unit
area by organisms called productivity.
 AUTECOLOGY—the study of individual species in relation to the
environment
 BIOTIC : living components of the system, in nature.
 ABIOTIC: non-living components of any system in nature
 INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY: is the study of the relationship of living
organisms with their environment (industry).
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22.  AUTOTROPH : is an organism that produces organic compounds from
carbon dioxide as a carbon source, using either light or reactions of
inorganic chemical compounds as a source of energy.
 AUTECOLOGY : the study of individual species in relation to the
environment
 ALLEE EFFECT : is a phenomenon which describes a positive relation
between population density and the per capita growth rate.
In other words, for smaller populations, the reproduction and survival of
individuals decreases. This effect usually saturates or disappears as
populations get larger.
* It is named after W. C. Allee.
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23. ECOLOGY
Original definition given by : Haeckel
Ecology = oikos logos (Greek words)
Oikos (house or dwelling place) & logos (the study of)
Ecology is the study of the relationship of organisms with their environment.
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24. Ecology is the scientific study of the processes influencing the distribution
and abundance of organisms, the interactions among organisms, and the
interactions between organisms and the transformation and flux of energy
and matter.
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25.  INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY : is the scientific study of the driving forces
that influence the flow of selected materials among economic processes,
energy and matter.
 Domains of Industrial Ecology
1. Material extractor Material Extractor Material Processor
2. Material processor / Manufacturer
3. Consumer
4. Waste processor
Waste processor Consumer
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26. Global Environmental Issues
 Population explosion
 Land degradation
 Loss of Biodiversity
 Global warming
 Habitat Destruction
 Ozone Depletion
 Ground water depletion
 Deforestation
 Environmental Pollution
 Acid Rain
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