Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies
Topics
• Definition of Environmental Studies (ES)
• Scope of ES
• Natural Resources
• Awareness Activities
• Environmental related Institutes
• Indians
Definition
• Environmental studies deals with every issue
that affects an organism.
• It is essentially a multidisciplinary approach
that brings about an appreciation of our
natural world and human impacts on its
integrity.
• It is an applied science as its seeks practical
answers to making human civilization
sustainable on the earth’s finite resources.
Scope
• Its components include
• Biology
• Geology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Engineering
• Sociology
• Health
• Anthropology
• Economics,
• Statistics
• Computers
• Philosophy
Natural Resources
Save Earth
Individual Responsibility
Awareness Activities
Activity-1
Take any article that you use in daily life –
a bucket full of water, or an item of food, a
table, or a book.
Trace its components journey backwards from your

home to their origins as natural resources in our
environment.
How many of these components are renewable

resources and how many non-renewable?
How we use resources ?
• For every resource we use we must ask ourselves
the following questions:
• What is the rarity of the resource and where does
it originate?
• Who uses it most intensively and how?
• How is it being overused or misused?
• Who is responsible for its improper use –the
resource collector, the middleman, the end user?
• How can we help to conserve it and prevent its
unsustainable use?
RRR
Recycle
Activity-2
• Are you using any resource unsustainably?

• In what ways could you reduce, reuse and
recycle that resource?
• Is there an unequal distribution of this
resource so that you are more fortunate than
many others who have less access to it?
Activity-3
• Think of all the things that you do in a day. List
these activities and identify the main
resources used during these activities.
• What can you do to prevent waste, reuse
articles that you normally throw away, what
recycled materials can you use?
• Think of the various energy sources you use
everyday. How could you reduce their use?
Activity-4
• Exercises in self learning about the
environment attempt to assess the level of
damage to the environment due to your
actions that have occurred during your last
working day, the last week, the last year.
• Then estimate the damage you are likely to do
in your lifetime if you continue in your present
ways
Example-Plastic
• Think about all the articles you use daily that are made
from plastic. Plastic plays an important part in our
modern lives.
• Make a list of the plastic articles you usually use.
• How can you reduce the amount of plastic you
• use?
• What effects does plastic have on our environment?
• Where did the plastic come from/ how is it made?
• What happens to it when you throw it away/where
does it go?
Example – Fossil fuels
• How much do you use? Can you reduce your
consumption?
• What effect does it have on the air we breathe?
• When we leave a motorbike or car running during a
traffic stop, we do not usually remember that the fuel
we are wasting is a part of a nonrenewable resource
that the earth cannot reform.
• Once all the fossil fuels are burnt off, it will mean the
end of oil as a source of energy.
• Only if each of us contributes our part in conserving
fossil based energy can we make it last longer on
earth.
Example – Water
• How much do you really need to use, as against how
much you waste when you:
• (a) Brush your teeth? (b) Have a bath? (c) Wash
clothes? (d) Wash the scooter or car?
• Where did the water come from? What is its actual
source? How has it reached you?
• Where will the waste water go?
• Do you feel you should change the way you use
water?
• How can you change this so that it is more
sustainable?
Example – Food
• Where has it come from?
• How is it grown?
• What chemicals are used in its production?
• How does it reach you?
• How is it cooked?
• How much is wasted? How is the waste
disposed off?
Example – Paper
• What is it made from?
• Where does it come from and what happens
during manufacture?
• How much do you use and how much do you
waste?
• How can you prevent it from being wasted?
Example – Electrical Energy
• How much do you use everyday?
• Where does it come from?
• How do you waste it?
• How can you conserve energy?
Institutions
• Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Mumbai
• World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-I), New Delhi
• Center for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi
• CPR Environmental Education Centre, Madras
• Centre for Environment Education (CEE), Ahmedabad
• Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and
Research (BVIEER), Pune
• Uttarkhand Seva Nidhi (UKSN), Almora
• Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun
• Botanical Survey of India (BSI)
• Kalpavriksh, Pune
• Zoological Survey of India (ZSI)
Medha Patkar
Salim
Ali
S P Godrej
Madhav Gadgil
Anil Agarwal
M C Mehta

Environmental Studies

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Environmental Studies

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Environmental Studies

Trace its components journey backwards from your

How many of these components are renewable

• Are you using any resource unsustainably?

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