What is Environment? Definition & Meaning, Types, Importance, Scope

What is Environment

Environmental science is an interdisciplinary subject created by the needs of rapid development of the industrial era. In the last century, especially last decades several serious environmental issues have become a focal point of the scientific community. These are mainly pollution leading to global warming, ozone layer depletion, acid rain; and deforestation leading to water crisis, desertification, global warming: also rapid population growth leading to depletion resources.

Above circumstances require a holistic knowledge about working of our environment supporting life on this planet and thorough understanding the changes causing problems. Since no single existing subject covered the above lacunae in knowledge completely, hence environmental science as a separate subject was required to understand the complex subject and find the solutions.

Environment Definition

The word environment is derived from the French verb environner, which means to “encircle” or “surround.” Thus, our environment can be defined as the physical, chemical and biological world that surrounds us, as well as the complex of social and cultural conditions affecting an individual or community.

Environmental science is defined as an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates various academic fields (particularly sciences) to study the structure and function of our life-supporting environment and to understand causes, effects, and solutions of different types of environmental problems. In other words, environmental science is the scientific study of all the components or factors that make or influence our life-supporting biophysical environment. Environmental sciences involves multiple disciplines, like Biology, Geology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Sociology, Health, Anthropology, Economics, Statistics, Philosophy, Ecology.

In simple terms environmental sciences deals with every issue that affects an organism. Environmental science is methodological study of the environment and includes the study of all biophysical as well as anthropogenic conditions or circumstances under which an organism lives.

Environment, Ecology and Ecosystem: Environment, Ecology and Ecosystem are three different terms. But they are interrelated. And we must understand all of them to understand environment.

Ecology - At the same time we should understand Ecology which is understanding interaction of an organism and its environment.

The term ecology was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel.

Ecology is the branch of biological science concerned with the relationships and interactions between living organisms and their physical surroundings or environment.

Ecology comes from the Greek words oikos (house or place where one lives) and logos (study of). Ecology means the study of the “house” in which we live i.e. our immediate surroundings which envelop us and with whom we interact with us on everyday basis.

Ecology can be defined more specifically as the “Study of the interactions between organisms and the non-living components of their environment or “Study of interrelationship between the organism and Environment”

The basic unit of ecology is ecosystem. Living organisms and the environment in which they live and with which they exchange materials and energy combine to make up an ecosystem. An ecosystem comprises of the biotic components - the living plants and animals including all the microbes and the abiotic components - air, water, minerals, soil, temperature, humidity etc. that constitute the environment. Third and essential component of most natural ecosystems is energy, usually starts in the form of sunlight, rarely it may be chemical energy. Common examples of land-based or terrestrial ecosystems include forests, deserts, jungles, meadows and alpine and semi-alpine ecosystems. Water-based or aquatic ecosystems include streams, rivers, lakes, marshes, estuaries and oceanic ecosystems. There are no specific limitations on the size of an ecosystem, and the boundaries are also not well defined in many cases. A small water body can be studied as a separate ecosystem. A desert comprising hundreds of miles or large oceans and even the whole surface of earth can be viewed as an ecosystem.

Structural units of ecology: The basic structural units of ecological organization are species and populations. A biological species are defined as all the organisms potentially able to interbreed under natural conditions and to produce fertile offspring. A population defined as of all the members of a single species occupying a defined geographical area at a particular time. An ecological community is composed of a number of populations that lie and interact within a defined region.

Scientists like to use term natural environment as a better term to use given the common use of the word environment. It is a known fact that the Earth includes a large Environment. Definitely, any organism has a relationship with its environment. Humans have a unique working relationship with domesticated animals like cows, chickens, dogs etc. This study of how the existence and activities of an organism influence its environment and the vice versa is called ecology.

Ecosystem is a large geographical area where both biotic and abiotic components interact with each other. E.g., Desert, Ocean, Sea etc.

Types of Environment

Before discussing types of environment, we must know what constitutes the environment.

Environment is constituted of following elements

Physical elements like land, sunlight, temperature, air, elevation, latitude, water bodies, climate soils, rocks and minerals. They interact amongst themselves and with biological elements to constitute unique environment at a place. It can be divided into three spheres

The lithosphere (solid earth)
The hydrosphere (water component)
The atmosphere (gaseous component)

Biological elements such as plants, animals, microorganisms and humans constitute the biosphere. They interact amongst themselves and with physical elements. Biological components can be categorized into

Plants (flora)
Animals (fauna)

Cultural elements such as economic, social and political elements are essentially manmade features. They are the latest entrants to the environment and affect the system.

As such the types of environment can be decided on the constituents’ separately or the unique small spatial units.

Classification on basis of physical elements.

Lithospheric Environment
Hydrospheric Environment
Atmospheric Environment

Classification into small spatial systems like

Mountain Environment
Glacier Environment
Plateau Environment
Coastal Environment
Oceanic environment

From the conceptual point of earth being a unique planet to support life environment can be classified into two broad types:

I) Essential life-supporting biophysical environment: It includes all the biophysical entities as well as the processes that contribute to providing all humans and other living beings the basic material needs of life, that is, oxygen, water, food, and habitat.

In fact, the concepts of environmental sciences are based on this meaning. The “essential life-supporting biophysical environment” is also termed as “environment”, “natural environment”, “biophysical environment”, “biosphere”, or “ecological system”.

II) Non-essential life-assisting environment: It includes all the entities or processes that assist human life in various ways but cannot be considered essential for the physical survival of life on this planet. It includes social systems, language, technology, economic system, education, and various aspects of human civilization. Although we can survive physically, without these entities the life will be largely in wild or natural form. “Non-essential life-assisting environment” is also known as “anthropogenic environment”, “social environment”, “man-made environment”, or “built environment”.

Classification on basis of life

The natural surroundings of an organism, both living and physical are its environment. Physical objects like land and manmade object, light and other forms of energy, water, air etc. which surround us, are our physical environment. It is classified as “abiotic” environment.
Humans, other animals, plants and microbes surrounding us comprise our living environment. It is classified as “biotic” environment.

Importance of environment

The importance of environment studies can be judged with the fact that earth is the only planet known to support life. It is a rare place in known universe with delicate balance of optimum temperature, radiation, atmosphere and water to support life. Also on earth the resources are limited. This applies to all components of environment, coming in stress to the point of crisis due to recent exponential development. Examples are water crisis, energy crisis, agricultural crisis, housing scarcity, and practically scarcity of almost all natural resources.

Also the issue of pollution is important, be it air pollution, water pollution, toxic landfills, noise pollution, etc.

The health issues arising out of pollution and climate change are affecting the majority population of the world.

Smog is regularly affecting north India every winter and affecting health of millions of people. We are in constant danger of environmental disasters like Bhopal gas tragedy, Endosulfan tragedy in Kerala, Chernobyl reactor leak, Fukushima reactor leak etc. We are yet not able to understand fully the health implications of these disasters many of which occurred several decades back.

The new infectious diseases starting from AIDS epidemic followed by Ebola, MERS, SARS and now ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, are challenging the very existence of mankind.

They are also raising serious questions on our unsustainable lifestyles and bringing into focus the perils of rapid globalization. The advances in transportation industry have not only contributed to pollution but also blown local environmental phenomenon into global one. In future environmental sciences may become an integral part of epidemiology for managing heath disasters like the current COVID crisis.

With the advancement in fields of satellite imaging and computations now it has become possible to predict the fickle weather systems within reasonable limits. This has greatly helped aviation, shipping sectors and fishing a lot. It has also helped a lot in managing disasters. At the same time human activities have interfered a lot in weather phenomenon bringing into play new variables into an already uncertain system. Hence environmental sciences are going to play a major role in metrology in future.

The rapid and indiscriminate development in past century has made the study of environment very important for all disciplines. Environmental sciences involves multiple disciplines, like Biology, Geology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Sociology, Health, Anthropology, Economics, Statistics, Philosophy, Ecology. The importance of environmental sciences is for all of them.

The objectives of environmental sciences are

Comprehensive knowledge of environmental issues and how they affect us and what is our role in them.
Understanding pollution and its implications. To create a pollution-free environment (that is, clean air, water, land, and food) by adopting different methods of preventing and controlling pollution.
Optimal utilization and conservation of our natural resources such as water, forest, minerals, and fossil fuels. Reducing wastage and recycling.
Adopting eco-friendly lifestyles by knowing environmental implications of one’s activities, preventing and controlling pollution, and utilizing the resources efficiently and minimizing wastages.
Encouraging eco-friendly industries by adopting clean and efficient technologies and installing pollution control systems.
Solving critical global environmental issues like global warming, climate change, ozone-layer depletion, desertification, and energy crisis by using interdisciplinary knowledge and approach.
Sustainable developments by ensuring equal distribution of natural resources in all classes and conserve the natural resources for future generations, as well as by conserving delicate nature in every way possible.

The importance of the subject can be summed in three burning issues:

1. International importance of environmental issues especially pollution: environment issues like global warming and ozone depletion, acid rain, marine pollution and biodiversity must be tackled with international efforts and cooperation. These cannot be solved by the efforts of single society region or nation.

2. Problems due to unsustainable development: Recent uncontrolled development, led to Rapid unplanned Urbanization, Unregulated Industrial Growth, Clogged Transportation Systems, Unsustainable Agriculture and Housing problems for masses etc. Developed world has phased out these issues locally. However, to cleanse their own environment they managed to move the ‘dirty’ factories to developing nations. Rapid skewed unequal growth is an enormous issue for the developing nations and is also affecting developed world to some extent.

3. Explosively increase in population: In the developing world especially India population explosion is biggest issue. India with 16 per cent of the world's population and only 2.4 per cent of land area exerts a very heavy pressure on the natural resources including land and scarce water. Agricultural experts have recognized soil health problems like deficiency of micronutrients and organic matter, soil salinity and damage of soil structure. Water crisis is a major issue not only in India but many developed nations as well.

Future avenues

Disaster management.
Assessment of impact on epidemiology of both infectious and non-infectious diseases.
Occupational health.
Assessment of environmental changes in weather.

We should understand that development of environmental science is still in nascent phase and applications both academic and practical shall be far greater than what we currently use it for.

More than any discipline environmental studies has a major role of public awareness. That’s why it has become subject right from pre-school up to university. People have to be made aware of changes around them. How the environmental changes affect their lives? How their actions are contributing to the disastrous changes in environment? What is the cost of inaction? How they can contribute in improving environment? Ultimately only collective action of whole mankind can only stop the downward spiral of changes occurring to our environment. And nobody can escape the ill effects of this biggest man-made disaster.

Governments across the world are now focusing on this issue more seriously than ever. Indian government has a separate ministry for Environment and separate green tribunal for the same. Both are contributing in not only direct efforts to conserve environment but government is taking numerous steps to educate public about the environmental pollution and resource crisis. State governments are also acting vigorously in this field. Intergovernmental panels like United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and IPCC are co-coordinating between all nations on this sensitive issue.

Scope of Environmental Sciences

Environmental sciences knowledge is of tremendous use in most of the areas of development. These areas are studied as scope of the subject. Environmental science has a vast scope since it covers a wide range of subject matters or issues related to our complex life-supporting systems. The areas of applicability define the career opportunities related to the subject.

Major areas of applicability of the subject are

management of natural resources, water crisis, energy crisis,
conservation of ecosystem and biodiversity, desertification
prevention and control of pollution, including climate change, ozone layer depletion
managing development in terms of population, urbanization, health In last few decades, environmental science is considered important for many economic
activities. This has given rise to job opportunities in this field.

Major career options related to the subject are as follows:

I. Industries: Industries need to comply with numerous environmental norms. Hence, environment experts are required to guide the industries for controlling pollution, adopting clean technologies, proper waste disposal, and carrying out environmental audit. CPCB and norms of green tribunal and other legal bodies and authorities are being implemented vigorously in industries and they need experts for the same.
II. Consultancy: Environment consultancies are hired by various government bodies, industries, advocacy and rights groups and NGOs for carrying out different types of field-based studies, laboratory-based analyses or population studies, which are often required in environment impact assessment (EIA) and other compliance processes. Environment is becoming important issue for litigation and all parties need help for the same.
III. Research and development (R&D): R&D opportunities in this area include studying pollution in detail and its implication on environment and humans. Various governments industries and NGOs bodies are supporting the research in this field as it is the biggest issue of this millennium. Enormous funding is also being done for the development of clean and efficient technologies for future.
IV. Academics: Environmental science is taught at every level of education, from school to university level. A large number of teachers or academicians are required for this purpose. Environmental studies are now being focused right from primary education.
V. Green marketing: Environmental quality certifications like ISO-14000 are also being incorporated in marketing strategy—this creates many career opportunities. Many eco-friendly products are being promoted in market; experts are required to create awareness in public about them.
VI. Media: Mainstream print and electronic media requires experts to report and analyze environmental issues to generate awareness about the environment, hence there is an immense need for skilled manpower in this field. Dedicated green media have come up in form of magazines and newspapers, who regularly publish articles on environmental theme, for example, Down to Earth, a magazine published by Centre for Science and Environment.
VII. Green advocacy: Environmental lawyers are emerging as major players in ensuring proper implementation of environmental norms, laws, and programmes. Public Interest Litigation (PIL) empowers a common man to fight against any antienvironment activity.
VIII. NGOs: These days, most of the environmental programmes are being implemented through NGOs, with the help of funds from national and international agencies. Green-peace, IPCC, WWF, CSE, CEE, TERI, Tarun Bharat Sangh, and Vatavaran are some examples of environmental NGOs. Uttarakhand has many environmental groups like Uttarakhand Sewa Nidhi (USKN), CHIYA etc. Uttarakhand is home to historic Chipko andolan in pre- independence era.
IX. Government jobs: A number of conventional jobs are available in government bodies such as environmental ministry, pollution control boards, national parks, and biosphere reserves.
X. International agencies: Various international agencies such as UNEP, IUCN, TSBF, and World Bank require qualified human resources to implement environment-related projects.
XI. Environmentalism: Though not a direct employment scope but environmentalism is much bigger movement across world to conserve our planet, its wildlife, natural resources. It is addressing the major issues affecting people like pesticide use, air pollution, water pollution, solid waste disposal, water crisis, energy crisis, radiation and other environmental crisis. There is a constant pressure by environmentalists on all major governments and international forums to act now on this issue. They have achieved major success in form of Davos summit resolutions, etc. to bring a consensus on environmental action. But a lot is still required to bring the change required for life to continue on this planet. We must understand that we not only studying environmental sciences for just a career or academics; but for larger issues pertaining to our health and for the very sake of survival of future generations.
XII. Environmental ethics: In the era of rapid development and to provide a better lifestyle for masses, several ethical questions arise when there is always an environmental cost to pay. We all are aware that environment has to be protected, but at the same time there are harsh social, economic and political realities. We have to provide food, water, housing and basic infrastructure to masses. A minimum quality of life has to be provided to the citizens by a responsible social government. Hence ethical issues arise and have to be addressed each time. We have to develop constantly, with due concern to climate change, preserving biodiversity, reducing pollution. There are multiple unanswered questions, which we have to address in almost every public infrastructure project as regards to environment. Fortunately, in India we are establishing bodies/authorities to answer the same.

Summary

In this unit you have learnt that we need require a holistic knowledge about working of our environment supporting life on this planet and thorough understanding the changes causing problems. We need the knowledge to answer several serious environmental issues have become a focal point of the scientific community. These are mainly pollution leading to global warming, ozone layer depletion, acid rain; and deforestation leading to water crisis, desertification, global warming: also, rapid population growth leading to depletion resources.

Environment is the physical, chemical and biological world that surrounds us, as well as the complex of social and cultural conditions affecting an individual or community. We have also learnt that we can study this interdisciplinary academic field by integrating various academic fields (particularly sciences) to study the structure and function of our life-supporting environment and to understand causes, effects, and solutions of different environmental problems.

We have learnt about Environment, Ecology and Ecosystem and their co-relation. Ecology is the branch of biological science concerned with the relationships and interactions between living organisms and their physical surroundings or environment.

We have classified environment physical elements, and more importantly as biotic and abiotic environment. We learnt that environment can be classified as local systems. For the purpose practicality the most important classification is “essential life-supporting biophysical environment” and “non-essential life-assisting environment”.

Understanding environment is important for supporting life on earth. We have to understand and find solutions for the problems of pollution, resource crisis and population growth. The drastic climate change needs to be addressed to sustain life on this planet. Only public awareness and action with state and international support can solve the serious environmental issues we are facing.

The scope is unlimited not only in career options like Academics, industries, research and development, media, NGOs, marketing, government and international jobs; but more importantly in making public aware about the rapid environmental changes. Only by proactive environmentalism we can save our environment to protect our health and life of our future generations. Environmental ethical questions need to be answered in development projects related to needs of masses.

GLOSSARY

Abiotic factors - Physical Objects like land and manmade object, light and other forms of energy, water, air etc. which surround us, and the elements/compounds found in them.
Atmosphere - Gaseous envelope around the earth, the air. It has many gases out which N2, O2, CO2 and water vapour are most important.
Biosphere - All parts of earth where the living organisms live.
Biotic factors - Living organisms in environment or ecosystem, like animals including humans, plants and microbes.
Demography - Study of populations.
Desertification - The process of desert formation, it is manifested by permanent loss of plant cover in a region, and the loss of capacity of the land to support plant growth.
Ecology - It is the branch of biological science concerned with the relationships and interactions between living organisms and their physical surroundings or environment.
Ecosystem - Entity arising out of functional interaction of biotic components with abiotic components of environment.
Environment - The physical, chemical and biological world that surrounds us, as well as the complex of social and cultural conditions affecting an individual or community.
Epidemic - Large sudden outbreak of a infectious disease in a community.
Epidemiology - The branch of medicine which deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health.
Fauna - The collective term for all animals in a given ecosystem or environment.
Flora - The collective term for all plants in a given ecosystem or environment.
Hydrosphere - The portion of earth having water in liquid or solid form.
Lithosphere - Solid rocky crust of earth.
Metrology - Study of measurement, or study of weather.
Pollution - Man made unfavorable changes in the natural environment which are harmful to the life on earth.
Organism - The primary unit of life, any form unicellular or multicellular which can survive and reproduce.

What is Environment? Definition & Meaning, Types, Importance, Scope