2.

1 INTRODUCTION History of our global environment: About

ten thousand years ago, when mankind changed
Our environment provides us with a variety of from a hunter-gatherer, living in wilderness ar-
goods and services necessary for our day to day eas such as forests and grasslands, into an agri-
lives. These natural resources include, air, wa- culturalist and pastoralist, we began to change
ter, soil, minerals, along with the climate and the environment to suit our own requirements.
solar energy, which form the non-living or ‘abi- As our ability to grow food and use domestic
otic’ part of nature. The ‘biotic’ or living parts animals grew, these ‘natural’ ecosystems were
of nature consists of plants and animals, includ- developed into agricultural land. Most traditional
ing microbes. Plants and animals can only sur- agriculturists depended extensively on rain,
vive as communities of different organisms, all streams and rivers for water. Later they began
closely linked to each in their own habitat, and to use wells to tap underground water sources
requiring specific abiotic conditions. Thus, for- and to impound water and created irrigated land
ests, grasslands, deserts, mountains, rivers, lakes by building dams. Recently we began to use fer-
and the marine environment all form habitats tilizers and pesticides to further boost the pro-
for specialised communities of plants and ani- duction of food from the same amount of land.
mals to live in. Interactions between the abiotic However we now realize that all this has led to
aspects of nature and specific living organisms several undesirable changes in our environment.
together form ecosystems of various types. Mankind has been overusing and depleting
Many of these living organisms are used as our natural resources. The over-intensive use of land
food resources. Others are linked to our food has been found to exhaust the capability of the
less directly, such as pollinators and dispersers ecosystem to support the growing demands of
of plants, soil animals like worms, which recycle more and more people, all requiring more in-
nutrients for plant growth, and fungi and ter- tensive use of resources. Industrial growth,
mites that break up dead plant material so that urbanisation, population growth and the enor-
micro-organisms can act on the detritus to re- mous increase in the use of consumer goods,
form soil nutrients. have all put further stresses on the environment.
They create great quantities of solid waste. Pol-
lution of air, water and soil have begun to seri-
ously affect human health.

Changes in land and resource use:

During the last 100 years, a better
health care delivery system and an
improved nutritional status has led to
rapid population growth,
especially in the develop-
ing countries. This phe-
nomenal rise in human
numbers has, in the recent
past, placed great de-
mands on the earth’s natural resources. Large
stretches of land such as forests, grasslands and
wetlands have been converted into intensive ag-
riculture. Land has been taken for industry and

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 the urban sectors. These changes have brought Earth’s Resources and Man: The resources on
about dramatic alterations in land-use patterns which mankind is dependent are provided by
and rapid disappearance of valuable natural eco- various sources or ‘spheres’.
systems. The need for more water, more food,
more energy, more consumer goods, is not only 1) Atmosphere
the result of a greater population, but also the • Oxygen for human respiration (metabolic re-
result of over-utilization of resources by people quirements).
from the more affluent societies, and the afflu-
• Oxygen for wild fauna in natural ecosystems
ent sections of our own.
and domestic animals used by man as food.
Industrial development is aimed at meeting • Oxygen as a part of carbon dioxide, used
growing demands for all consumer items. How- for the growth of plants (in turn are used
ever, these consumer goods also generate waste by man).
in ever larger quantities. The growth of indus-
trial complexes has led to a shift of people from The atmosphere forms a protective shell over
their traditional, sustainable, rural way of life to the earth. The lowest layer, the troposphere,
urban centers that developed around industry. the only part warm enough for us to survive in,
During the last few decades, several small ur- is only 12 kilometers thick. The stratosphere is
ban centers have become large cities, some have 50 kilometers thick and contains a layer of
even become giant mega-cities. This has in- sulphates which is important for the formation
creased the disparity between what the sur- of rain. It also contains a layer of ozone, which
rounding land can produce and what the large absorbs ultra-violet light known to cause can-
number of increasingly consumer-oriented cer and without which, no life could exist on
people in these areas of high population den- earth. The atmosphere is not uniformly warmed
sity consume. Urban centers cannot exist with- by the sun. This leads to air flows and variations
out resources such as water from rivers and in climate, temperature and rainfall in different
lakes, food from agricultural areas, domestic parts of the earth. It is a complex dynamic sys-
animals from pasture lands and timber, fuel tem. If its nature is disrupted it affects all man-
wood, construction material and other resources kind. Most air pollutants have both global and
from forests. Rural agricultural systems are de- regional effects.
pendent on forests, wetlands, grasslands, rivers
and lakes. The result is a movement of natural Living creatures cannot survive without air even
resources from the wilderness ecosystems and for a span of a few minutes. To continue to sup-
agricultural sector to the urban user. The mag- port life, air must be kept clean. Major pollut-
nitude of the shift of resources has been increas- ants of air are created by industrial units that
ing in parallel with the growth of industry and release various gases such as carbon dioxide,
urbanisation, and has changed natural land- carbon monoxide and toxic fumes into the air.
scapes all over the world. In many cases, this Air is also polluted by burning fossil fuels. The
has led to the rapid development of the urban buildup of carbon dioxide which is known as
economy, but to a far slower economic devel- ‘greenhouse effect’ in the atmosphere is lead-
opment for rural people and serious impover- ing to current global warming. The growing
ishment of the lives of wilderness dwellers. The number of scooters, motorcycles, cars, buses and
result is a serious inequality in the distribution trucks which run on fossil fuel (petrol and die-
of resources among human beings, which is both sel) is a major cause of air pollution in cities and
unfair and unsustainable. along highways.

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 Air pollution leads to acute and chronic respira- Chemicals from industry and sewage find their
tory diseases such as various lung infections, way into rivers and into the sea. Water pollu-
asthma and even cancer. tion thus threatens the health of communities
as all our lives depend on the availability of clean
2) Hydrosphere water. This once plentiful resource is now be-
• Clean water for drinking (a metabolic re- coming rare and expensive due to pollution.
quirement for living processes).
• Water for washing and cooking.
3) Lithosphere
• Water used in agriculture and industry.
• Soil, the basis for agriculture to provide us
• Food resources from the sea, including fish, with food.
crustacea, sea weed, etc.
• Stone, sand and gravel, used for construc-
• Food from fresh water sources, including tion.
fish, crustacea and aquatic plants.
• Micronutrients in soil, essential for plant
• Water flowing down from mountain ranges growth.
harnessed to generate electricity in hydro-
• Microscopic flora, small soil fauna and fungi
electric projects.
in soil, important living organisms of the
lithosphere, which break down plant litter
The hydrosphere covers three quarters of the
as well as animal wastes to provide nutri-
earth’s surface. A major part of the hydrosphere
ents for plants.
is the marine ecosystem in the ocean, while only
a small part occurs in fresh water. Fresh water • A large number of minerals on which our
in rivers, lakes and glaciers, is perpetually being industries are based.
renewed by a process of evaporation and rain- • Oil, coal and gas, extracted from under-
fall. Some of this fresh water lies in underground ground sources. It provides power for ve-
aquifers. Human activities such as deforestation hicles, agricultural machinery, industry, and
create serious changes in the hydrosphere. Once for our homes.
land is denuded of vegetation, the rain erodes
the soil which is washed into the sea. The lithosphere began as a hot ball of matter
which formed the earth about 4.6 billion years
ago. About 3.2 billion years ago, the earth
cooled down considerably and a very special
event took place - life began on our planet. The
crust of the earth is 6 or 7 kilometers thick and
lies under the continents. Of the 92 elements in
the lithosphere only eight are common constitu-
ents of crustal rocks. Of these constituents, 47%
is oxygen, 28% is silicon, 8% is aluminium, 5%
is iron, while sodium, magnesium, potassium
and calcium constitute 4% each. Together,
these elements form about 200 common min-
eral compounds. Rocks, when broken down,
form soil on which man is dependent for his
agriculture. Their minerals are also the raw ma-
terial used in various industries.

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 4) Biosphere such as the amount of water within the pond at
• Food, from crops and domestic animals, different times of the year, the quantity of nu-
providing human metabolic requirements. trients flowing into the pond from the surround-
ing terrestrial ecosystem, all affect the ‘nature’
• Food, for all forms of life which live as in-
of the pond.
terdependent species in a community and
form food chains in nature on which man is
Natural cycles between the spheres: All four
dependent.
spheres are closely inter-linked systems and are
• Energy needs: Biomass fuel wood collected dependent on the integrity of each other. Dis-
from forests and plantations, along with turbing one of these spheres in our environment
other forms of organic matter, used as a affects all the others.
source of energy.
• Timber and other construction materials. The linkages between them are mainly in the
form of cycles. For instance, the atmosphere,
This is the relatively thin layer on the earth in hydrosphere and lithosphere are all connected
which life can exist. Within it the air, water, rocks through the hydrological cycle. Water evapo-
and soil and the living creatures, form structural rated from the hydrosphere (the seas and fresh-
and functional ecological units, which together water ecosystems), forms clouds in the atmo-
can be considered as one giant global living sys- sphere. This becomes rain, which provides mois-
tem, that of our Earth itself. Within this frame- ture for the lithosphere, on which life depends.
work, those characterised by broadly similar The rain also acts on rocks as an agent of ero-
geography and climate, as well as communities sion and over millions of years has created soil,
of plant and animal life can be divided for con- on which plant life grows. Atmospheric move-
venience into different biogeographical realms. ments in the form of wind, break down rocks
These occur on different continents. Within into soil. The most sensitive and complex link-
these, smaller biogeographical units can be iden- ages are those between the atmosphere, the
tified on the basis of structural differences and hydrosphere and the lithosphere on the one
functional aspects into distinctive recognizable hand, with the millions of living organisms in
ecosystems, which give a distinctive character the biosphere on the other. All living organisms
to a landscape or waterscape. Their easily vis- which exist on earth live only in the relatively
ible and identifiable characteristics can be de- thin layer of the lithosphere and hydrosphere
scribed at different scales such as those of a that is present on the surface of land and in the
country, a state, a district or even an individual water. The biosphere which they form has
valley, hill range, river or lake. countless associations with different parts of the
three other ‘spheres’.
The simplest of these ecosystems to understand
is a pond. It can be used as a model to under- It is therefore essential to understand the inter-
stand the nature of any other ecosystem and to relationships of the separate entities soil, wa-
appreciate the changes over time that are seen ter, air and living organisms, and to appreciate
in any ecosystem. The structural features of a the value of preserving intact ecosystems as a
pond include its size, depth and the quality of whole.
its water. The periphery, the shallow part and
the deep part of the pond, each provide spe-
cific conditions for different plant and animal
communities. Functionally, a variety of cycles

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 Activity 1: water from irrigation systems but are still de-
pendent on solar energy for the growth of crops.
Observe a nearby pond in different sea- Moreover modern agriculture creates a variety
sons and document the seasonal of environmental problems, which ultimately
changes in it. One can also observe lead to the formation of unproductive land.
changes in a river or the seasonal These include irrigation, which leads to the
changes in a forest or grassland. development of saline soil, and the use of artifi-
cial fertilizers eventually ruin soil quality, and
pesticides, which are a health hazard for
Activity 2: humans as well as destroying components vital
to the long-term health of agricultural ecosys-
Take a simple object in daily use and tems.
track its components back to each of its
spheres. To manufacture consumer products, industry
requires raw materials from nature, including
Eg: this textbook: paper from wood – water, minerals and power. During the manu-
biosphere facturing process, the gases, chemicals and
Water for pulping – hydrosphere waste products pollute our environment, unless
the industry is carefully managed to clean up
Bleach to whiten paper – a mineral
this mess.
from lithosphere

2.2.1 Natural resources and associated prob-

2.2 RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE RE-
lems
SOURCES
The unequal consumption of natural re-
Ecosystems act as resource producers and pro-
sources: A major part of natural resources are
cessors. Solar energy is the main driving force
today consumed in the technologically advanced
of ecological systems, providing energy for the
or ‘developed’ world, usually termed ‘the North’.
growth of plants in forests, grasslands and
The ‘developing nations’ of ‘the South’, includ-
aquatic ecosystems. A forest recycles its plant
ing India and China, also over use many re-
material slowly by continuously returning its
sources because of their greater human popu-
dead material, leaves, branches, etc. to the soil.
lation. However, the consumption of resources
Grasslands recycle material much faster than
per capita (per individual) of the developed coun-
forests as the grass dries up after the rains are
tries is up to 50 times greater than in most de-
over every year. All the aquatic ecosystems are
veloping countries. Advanced countries produce
also solar energy dependent and have cycles of
over 75% of global industrial waste and green-
growth when plant life spreads and aquatic
house gases.
animals breed. The sun also drives the water
cycle.
Energy from fossil fuels is consumed in relatively
much greater quantities in developed countries.
Our food comes from both natural and agricul-
Their per capita consumption of food too is
tural ecosystems. Traditional agricultural ecosys-
much greater as well as their waste of enor-
tems that depended on rainfall have been modi-
mous quantities of food and other products,
fied in recent times to produce more and more
such as packaging material, used in the food
food by the addition of extra chemicals and
industry. The USA for example with just 4% of

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 the world’s population consumes about 25% Land as a resource is now under serious pres-
of the world’s resources. sure due to an increasing ‘land hunger’ - to pro-
duce sufficient quantities of food for an explod-
Producing animal food for human consumption ing human population. It is also affected by deg-
requires more land than growing crops. Thus radation due to misuse. Land and water re-
countries that are highly dependent on non-veg- sources are polluted by industrial waste and ru-
etarian diets need much larger areas for ral and urban sewage. They are increasingly
pastureland than those where the people are being diverted for short-term economic gains
mainly vegetarian. to agriculture and industry. Natural wetlands of
great value are being drained for agriculture and
other purposes. Semi-arid land is being irrigated
Planning Landuse: Land itself is a major re- and overused.
source, needed for food production, animal
husbandry, industry, and for our growing hu- The most damaging change in landuse is dem-
man settlements. These forms of intensive land- onstrated by the rapidity with which forests have
use are frequently extended at the cost of ‘wild vanished during recent times, both in India and
lands’, our remaining forests, grasslands, wet- in the rest of the world. Forests provide us with
lands and deserts. Thus it is essential to evolve a a variety of services. These include processes
rational land-use policy that examines how much such as maintaining oxygen levels in the atmo-
land must be made available for different pur- sphere, removal of carbon dioxide, control over
poses and where it must be situated. For in- water regimes, and slowing down erosion and
stance, there are usually alternate sites at which also produce products such as food, fuel, tim-
industrial complexes or dams can be built, but a ber, fodder, medicinal plants, etc. In the long
natural wilderness cannot be recreated artifi- term, the loss of these is far greater than the
cially. Scientists today believe that at least 10 short-term gains produced by converting for-
percent of land and water bodies of each eco- ested lands to other uses.
system must be kept as wilderness for the long-
term needs of protecting nature and natural
resources.

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 The need for sustainable lifestyles: The qual- 2.2.3 Renewable resources
ity of human life and the quality of ecosystems
on earth are indicators of the sustainable use of Though water and biological living resources are
resources. There are clear indicators of sustain- considered renewable. They are in fact renew-
able lifestyles in human life. able only within certain limits. They are linked
to natural cycles such as the water cycle.
• Increased longevity
• Fresh water (even after being used) is evapo-
• An increase in knowledge rated by the sun’s energy, forms water
vapour and is reformed in clouds and falls
• An enhancement of income. to earth as rain. However, water sources
can be overused or wasted to such an ex-
These three together are known as the ‘Human tent that they locally run dry. Water sources
development index’. can be so heavily polluted by sewage and
toxic substances that it becomes impossible
The quality of the ecosystems have indicators to use the water.
that are more difficult to assess.
• Forests, once destroyed take thousands of
• A stabilized population. years to regrow into fully developed natu-
ral ecosystems with their full complement
• The long term conservation of biodiversity. of species. Forests thus can be said to be-
have like non-renewable resources if over-
• The careful long-term use of natural re- used.
sources.
• Fish are today being over-harvested until the
• The prevention of degradation and pollu- catch has become a fraction of the original
tion of the environment. resource and the fish are incapable of breed-
ing successfully to replenish the population.

2.2.2 Non-renewable resources • The output of agricultural land if misman-

aged drops drastically.
These are minerals that have been formed in
the lithosphere over millions of years and con- • When the population of a species of plant
stitute a closed system. These non-renewable or animal is reduced by human activities,
resources, once used, remain on earth in a dif- until it cannot reproduce fast enough to
ferent form and, unless recycled, become waste maintain a viable number, the species be-
material. comes extinct.

Non-renewable resources include fossil fuels • Many species are probably becoming extinct
such as oil and coal, which if extracted at the without us even knowing, and other linked
present rate, will soon be totally used up. The species are affected by their loss.
end products of fossil fuels are in the form of
heat and mechanical energy and chemical com-
pounds, which cannot be reconstituted as a re-
source.

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