This document discusses the multi-disciplinary nature of environmental studies. It begins by defining the environment and ecology, and explains that all organisms depend on their environment for survival. It then describes the different components of the environment, including the physical/abiotic and living/biotic factors. It outlines the objectives of environmental studies according to UNESCO, including creating awareness, imparting knowledge, developing concern, and motivating participation in protection. Finally, it discusses some key environmental organizations in India and their role in involvement and awareness campaigns.

1. The Multi Disciplinary
Nature Of
Environmental Studies

2. “Environment” is derived from the French word “Environner”, which
means to encircle or surround.
Environment is defined as “the sum total of water, air and land and
the inter- relationships that exist among them and with the human
beings, other living beings and materials”.
Every organism is a special unit.
It invariably depends upon the environment and other organisms for their
existence.
It either eats other organisms or is eaten up by others and competes with
others for the necessities of life such as food, shelter etc.
Survival requires group associations.
Such associations and inter- relationships of organisms and their
environment in general constitute the Science of Ecology.

3. The word Ecology was coined by Ernst Haeckel in 1869 and is derived
from two Greek words “oikos” meaning “house, habitation or place
of living” and “logos” meaning “study”.
The field of ecology deals with the influence of environmental factors on
all the aspects of life such as morphology, physiology, growth,
distribution, behaviour and survival of the organisms.
All the external conditions that affect the life of organisms in their
natural habitats aggregate to form the environment i.e. “the
surroundings” of an organism.
The environment has been classified into:
(a) Physical or Abiotic Environment:
It is composed of external physical factors like temperature, humidity,
water, minerals and gases etc., and
(b) Living or Biotic Environment:
It is composed of all the living components- plants, animals and micro-
organisms.

4. All these constituents of environment are referred to as the
environmental factors or ecological factors or simply as factors.
A factor is defined as an ecological condition which directly or
indirectly affects the growth and development and hence the life of an
organism.
“Environmental Studies” is the scientific study of the environmental
system and the status of its inherent or induced changes on organisms.
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
man on the environment.

5. • Urban environment is somewhat different from rural environment.
• In urban environment we can see profound influence of human
beings.
• Urban air, water and soil are loaded with various types of chemicals
and wastes.
• Diversity of plants and animals is much less as compared to rural
environment.
• Urban population is more dense and has greater energy demands.

6. Objectives and Guiding Principles of Environmental Studies
According to UNESCO (1971), the objectives of environmental studies
are:
(a) Creating the awareness about environmental problems among people.
(b) Imparting basic knowledge about the environment and its allied
problems.
(c) Developing an attitude of concern for the environment.
(d) Motivating public to participate in environment protection and
environment improvement.
(e) Acquiring skills to help the concerned individuals in identifying and
solving environmental problems.
The chief objective of environmental education is that individuals and
social groups should acquire awareness and knowledge, develop
attitudes, skills and abilities, and participate in solving real life
environmental problems in order to improve the quality of life.

7. Scope
Environmental studies as a subject has a wide scope. It encompasses a
large number of areas and aspects, which may be summarized as
follows:
• Natural Resources- their conservation and management
• Ecology and biodiversity
• Environmental pollution and control
• Social issues in relation to development and environment
• Human population and environment
These are the basic aspects of environmental studies which have a direct
relevance to every section of the society.

8. Environmental studies can be highly specialized concentrating on more
technical aspects like environmental science, environmental
engineering and environmental management.
(a) Environmental Science: It deals with the scientific study of
environmental system (air, water, soil, and land), the inherent or
induced changes on organisms and the environmental damages
occurred as a result of human interaction with the environment.
(b) Environmental Engineering: It deals with the study of technical
processes involved in the protection of the environment from the
potentially detrimental effects of human activity and improving the
environmental quality for the health and well being of humans.
(c) Environmental management: It encourages planned investment at
the start of the production chain rather than forced investment in
cleaning up at the end.

9. Need for Environmental Awareness
• Environment belong to all and participation of masses is a must for
successful implementation of environmental protection plans.
• Living in a technologically developing society, our lifestyles and
attitudes have become self- oriented. Environmental awareness is
needed to change the mindset of modern society for an earth- oriented
approach.
• There is a need to make public environmentally aware of the serious
health impacts of environmental pollution and their right to live in a
clean and healthy environment.
• There is an urgent need to create awareness amongst people that we
have no other option but to follow sustainability principles. Only then
life of mankind on this earth would be secure and our future
generations would be safe.

10. Environment belongs to all and is important to all. Whatever be the
occupation or age of a person, he will be affected by environment and
also he will affect the environment by his deeds.
Environment is one subject that is actually global as well as local in
nature.
For global issues like depletion of ozone layer, global warming etc., we
have to think and plan globally.
For localized environmental problems like river or lake pollution, soil
erosion etc., we have to think and act locally.
If we want to live in a clean and healthy environment and wish to hand
over a clean and safe earth to the upcoming generations, it is most
important to understand the basic of environment.

11. There are four segment of environment-
(1) Atmosphere
It is the thin layer of gases separating earth from the outer space. It
extends to the height of about 1600 km from the earth surface. It is a
major source of carbon and oxygen for all organisms and a source of
nitrogen for a few organisms.
(2) Hydrosphere
It covers more than 75% of the earth surface either as oceans or as fresh
water.
(3) Lithosphere
The solid component of earth is called Lithosphere, which includes soil,
earth, rocks, mountains etc.

12. Lithosphere mainly contains three layers-
(a) Inner & Outer Core- Central fluid or vaporized sphere of diameter
of 2500 km from the centre.
(b) Mantle- It is about 2900-3000 km above the core in molten state.
(c) Crust- Outermost solid zone about 8-40 km above mantle.
(4) Biosphere
This segment of environment consist of atmosphere, lithosphere and
hydrosphere which influences and support life systems.

13. Structure of Atmosphere-
Atmosphere consist of several layers.
(1) Troposphere-
It is the lowest layer of atmosphere in which living organisms exist. It is
the region of strong air movement and cloud formation. The air in
troposphere consists volume of about 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen,
1% Argon and 0.03% Carbon di oxide.
(2) Stratosphere-
It is the layer above the troposphere, which is about 50 km from the
surface of earth. This layer is characterized by increasing
temperature. Near the top of this layer is the region where the ultra
violet solar radiation is absorbed by ozone and this region is known
as ozonosphere.

14. (3) Mesosphere-
This layer is above stratosphere in which there is cold temperature and
low atmospheric pressure. The temperature drops reaching a minimum
of -95 °C at 80-90 km above earth’s surface. This zone is called
mesopause.
(4) Thermosphere-
The layer above mesosphere is thermosphere which extends upto 500 km
above the earth’s surface. It is characterized by increase in
temperature from the mesopause. The upper zone of thermosphere
where the molecules are in ionized form is called Ionosphere.
(5) Exosphere-
Atmosphere above the ionosphere is called exosphere. It extends upto
32190 km from the surface of the earth. It has very high temperature
due to radiations of sun.

15. Environmental issues received international attention in Stockholm
Conference, held on 5th June, 1972. Since then we celebrate World
Environment Day on 5th June.
At the United Nations conference on Environment and Development
held at Rio de Janeiro, in 1992, known popularly as Earth Summit,
and ten years later the world summit on sustainable development, held
at Johannesberg in 2002, key issues of global environment concern
were highlighted.

16. Environmental Organization and their involvement-
1. Role of the “Ministry of Environment & Forest”, Govt. of India
The ministry of environment and forest is the most active in involving
public in various programmes for environmental improvement as
well as environmental impact assessment for development activities.
2. National Environment Awareness Campaign (NEAC)
It is a major awareness program of the ministry to inform people all over
India about different environmental issues. NEAC is a multimedia
campaign utilizing all types of conventional and non-conventional
media of communication to spread various message relating to
environmental issues to diverse target group.

17. 3. Centre for Environment Education (CEE), Ahmadabad
The main objective of CEE is to create environmental awareness
amongst children, youth, decision- makers and the general
community. To achieve this, CEE develops innovative programmes
and educational materials and field tests them for their validity and
effectiveness.
4. CPR Environment Education Centre (CPR-CEE), Chennai
Encouraged by the overwhelming response to CE, another centre for EE
was established at Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyer foundation at chennai
in 1988 to fulfill the EE needs of the Southern States of India.
5. Paryavaran Vahini (Environmental Brigade)
The Paryavaran Vahini scheme was launched in 1992 with the basic
objective of encouraging people’s participation in environmental
protection activities.

18. 6. Eco- Clubs
Recognizing that school children are the future decision- makers of this
country, a special scheme has been designed to encourage
participation of school children in various activities related to
ecological conservation and preservation of the environment. Under
this scheme, networks of Eco or Environment or Nature clubs are
set up in various schools across the country.