The document provides an overview of an introductory environmental studies course, including key topics covered in the first chapter such as: - Definitions of the environment, abiotic, and biotic components - The multidisciplinary nature of environmental studies encompassing many fields of science - The importance of environmental studies for sustainable development, educating people, and maintaining ecological balance - Segments of the environment including the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere

1. AECC-EVS (Dr. Mansi Rastogi)
Environment Studies- 7 Units
Books recommended- 1. Kaushik and Kaushik (hindi and
English, (ePDF for Eng available)
2. Singh and Gupta (Hindi)

2. Chapter-1
INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

3. Environmental Studies
• Environmental Studies refers to a systematic study of
environment, a branch of applied science that seeks practical
solutions for sustenance of human civilization.
• Interdisciplinary, holistic and mission oriented study
• Involves the study and understanding of the fact that even a single
phenomenon can affect the environment in a variety of ways
• with varying degrees of complexity
• different perspectives

4. Definitions
The term environment is derived from a French word environner
which means ‘surrounding’.
Environment is the sum total of
• all social, economical, biological, physical, and chemical
factors which constitute the human surroundings
• influences which modify and determine the development of
life and its associated characteristics.

5. AbioticComponents
• Abiotic or non-living components of
environment include all the physical and
chemical factors that influence living
organisms.
• Examples of abiotic components are air,
water, soil, rocks, etc.

6. Biotic Components
Biotic or living components are the living components
of environment and include microbes, plants,
animals, and human beings.
Components of Environment

8. Multidisciplinary Nature of Environmental Studies
Environmental Studies requires skills that encompass a range of
disciplines including chemistry, biology, earth sciences, atmospheric
science, statistics, mathematics, and geography.

9. Importance of Environmental Studies
Gaining knowledge about the Productive, aesthetic/recreational
and optional values of environment
Assess the environmental impacts induced by human activities.
It gives us basic knowledge of environment and associated problems
(exploitation of natural resources, biodiversity threats, pollution,
human induced calamity such as floods, landslides
It helps to achieve sustainable development through alternative
solutions
It helps to educate people regarding their duties towards the protection
of environment.
It helps in maintaining ecological balance

10. NeedforPublic Awareness
To conserve the dwindling earth’s resources
Check environmental degradation by human activities
Through media
Through organizing seminars &
conferences
Entertainment
Science centers
Through print, broadcast and
internet
Government alone cannot perform all the
clean-upfunctions.
Individual/group efforts and involvement
of youth
Mass public awareness: newspapers, radio,
television strongly influences public
opinion on conserving our environment.
MethodsforPublic Awareness

12. Segmentsof Environment

13. • Lithosphere:
Solidcomponets
Crust:<1% (Thin5-50km)
Mantle-68%(moltenstate,
2900-3500km)
Core-Femetal(innerandouter
3500km)
• Hydrosphere:Covers75%of
earth
(oceans,sea, rivers)
• Atmosphere:
~1%: (99% ofair) extendsto
1600 km from earth’s surface
Consists of O2, CO2
• Biosphere:All life (air, O2, N2,
CO2)

14. Sustainable Development
The term sustainable development refers
to the development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the
ability of the future generations to meet
their own needs.
• An approach to development that looks to balance different, and often
competing, needs against an awareness of the environmental, social and
economic limitations we face as asociety.
• All too often, development is driven by one particular need, without fully
considering the wider or future impacts.
• We are already seeing the damage this kind of approach can cause, from
large-scale financial crises caused by irresponsible banking, to changes in
global climate resulting from our dependence on fossil fuel-based energy
sources.

15. • blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for
all
3 pillars of SD
Environment
Social
Economic
• 17 goals
No poverty, Zero hunger, Good health and well being, Quality
education, Gender Equality ………….
Sustainable development goals (SDG’s)

17. Measures for Sustainable Development
SD
population
control
Reducing
per capita
demand of
natural
resources
Using
efficient
technologic
al devices
Sustainable
agriculture
Promoting
environmental
awareness
through
education
Following
the 3Rs
(reduce,
reuse, and
recycling)
approach
Indices
1. Current status
2. Anticipated
Progress gap
between
predicted value
and specified
target (2030)

18. SustainableBuildingMaterials: Approach

23. Greenbuildings
Green building (also known as eco buildings or sustainable
building) refers to a structure and using process that throughout a
building's life-cycle:
from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance,
renovation, and demolition is
• environmentally responsible
• resource-efficient
Objectiveofgreen buildings
• Designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on
human health and the natural environment
• Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
• Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
• Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation.

25. There have been four stages:
• Pragmatic resource conservation
• Moral and aesthetic nature preservation
• Utilitarian conservation
• Biocentric preservation
STAGES

27. Utilitarian conservation
Utilitarianism is a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster
happiness or pleasure and oppose actions that cause unhappiness or
harm. When directed toward making social, economic, or political
decisions, a utilitarian philosophy would aim for the betterment of society
as a whole. Utilitarianism would say that an action is right if it results in
the happiness of the greatest number of people in a society or a group.
Biocentric preservation
The term biocentrism encompasses all environmental ethics that "extend
the status of moral object from human beings to all living things in
nature". ... Biocentrists observe that all species have inherent value, and
that humans are not "superior" to other species in a moral or ethical
sense.

28. 112
BRIEF HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTALISM
,
Perhaps the
first real
environmental
activists were
the Bishnoi
Hindus of
Khejarli, who
were
slaughtered by
the Maharaja
of Jodhpur in
1720 for
attempting to
protect the
forest that he
felled to build
himself a
palace
The Greek
physicians
Hippocrates
and Galen
began to
observe
environmental
health
problems such
as acid
contamination
in copper
miners.
Five thousand
years ago the
Indus
civilisation
of Mohenjo
Darro (an
ancient city in
modern-day
Pakistan),
were already
recognizing
the effects of
pollution on
human health
and practiced
waste
management
and sanitation.
1835, Ralph
Waldo
Emerson
wrote Nature,
encouraging
us to
appreciate the
natural world
American
Botanist Willia
m
Bartram and
ornithologist J
ames
Audubon
dedicated
themselves to
the
conservation
of wildlife.

29. At the end of
the 19th
century, in
Jena,
Germany,
zoologist Erns
t
Haeckel wrot
e about
science we
now know as
ecology.
an anti-
nuclear
manifesto in
1955 with
British
philosopher
Bertrand
Russell,
Campaign for
Nuclear
Disarmament,
in the UK
In the early
20th century,
the
chemist Alice
Hamilton led
a campaign
against lead
poisoning
from leaded
gasoline, and
it took
governments
50 years to
ban leaded
gasoline.
Rachel Carson
brought the
environmenta
l movement
into focus
with the 1962
publication
of Silent
Spring,
describing the
impact of
chemical
pesticides on
biodiversity.
Rex Weyler
co-founder of
Greenpeace
International
in 1979.
BRIEF HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTALISM
,