CBSE Class 11 Economics Environment And Sustainable Development Notes Set B

Environment is defined as the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources.
It includes all the biotic and abiotic factors that influence each other. 
While all living elements—the birds, animals and plants, forests, fisheries etc.—are biotic elements, abiotic elements include air, water, land etc.
 

Functions of the Environment: The environment performs four vital functions
(i) It supplies resources: resources here include both renewable and non-renewable resources.
Renewable resources are those which can be used without the possibility of the resource becoming depleted or exhausted. That is, a continuous supply of the resource remains available.
Examples of renewable resources are the trees in the forests and the fishes in the ocean. 
Non-renewable resources, on the other hand, are those which get exhausted with extraction and use, for example, fossil fuel
(ii) it assimilates (absorb) waste
(iii) it sustains life by providing genetic and bio diversity and (iv) it also provides aesthetic (beauty) services like scenery etc.

The environment is able to perform these functions without any interruption as long as the demand on these functions is within its carrying capacity.
This implies that the resource extraction is not above the rate of regeneration of the resource and the wastes generated are within the assimilating capacity of the environment.

Absorptive capacity means the ability of the environment to absorb degradation.
To make matters worse, global environmental issues such as global warming and ozone depletion also contribute to increased financial commitments for the government.
Thus, it is clear that the opportunity costs of negative environmental impacts are high.

State Of India’s Environment

India has abundant natural resources in terms of rich quality of soil, hundreds of rivers and tributaries, lush green forests, plenty of mineral deposits beneath the land surface, vast stretch of the Indian Ocean, ranges of mountains, etc.
The black soil of the Deccan Plateau is particularly suitable for cultivation of cotton, leading to concentration of textile industries in this region.
The Indo-Gangetic plains — spread from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal — are one of the most fertile, intensively cultivated and densely populated regions in the world.
India accounts for nearly 8 per cent of the world’s total iron-ore reserves.
However, the developmental activities in India have resulted in pressure on its finite natural resources, besides creating impacts on human health and well-being.
The priority issues identified are

(i) land degradation
(ii) biodiversity loss
(iii) air pollution with special reference to vehicular pollution in urban cities
(iv) management of fresh water and
(v) solid waste management. Land in India suffers from varying degrees and types of degradation stemming mainly from unstable use and nappropriate management practices.

You may be aware of the Chipko Movement, which aimed at protecting forests in the Himalayas. In Karnataka, a similar movement took a different name, ‘Appiko’, which means to hug.
The per capita forest land in the country is only 0.06 hectare against the requirement of 0.47 hectare to meet basic needs, resulting in an excess felling of about 15 million cubic metre forests over the permissible limit.
India is one of the ten most industrialised nations of the world.
But this status has brought with it unwanted and unanticipated consequences such as unplanned urbanisation, pollution and the risk of accidents. 

Sustainable Development

Environment and economy are interdependent and need each other.
What is needed is sustainable development: development that will allow all future generations to have a potential average quality of life that is at least as high as that which is being enjoyed by the current generation.
The concept of sustainable development was emphasised by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which defined it as: ‘Development that meets the need of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs’.
The present generation can promote development that enhances the natural and built environment in ways that are compatible with
(i) conservation of natural assets
(ii) preservation of the regenerative capacity of the world’s natural ecological system
(iii) avoiding the imposition of added costs or risks on future generations.

To achieve sustainable development, the following needs to be done
(i) Limiting the human population to a level within the carrying capacity of the environment.
The carrying capacity of the environment is like a ‘plimsoll line’ of the ship which is its load limit mark.
(ii) Technological progress should be input efficient and not input consuming
(iii) Renewable resources should be extracted on a sustainable basis, that is, rate of extraction should not exceed rate of regeneration
(iv)For non-renewable resources rate of depletion should not exceed the rate of creation of renewable substitutes and
(v)Inefficiencies arising from pollution should be corrected.

Strategies For Sustainable Development 

Use of Non-conventional Sources of Energy: India, as you know, is hugely dependent on thermal and hydro power plants to meet its power needs. Both of these have adverse environmental impacts. Thermal power plants emit large quantities of carbon dioxide which is a green house gas. It also produces fly ash which, if not used properly, can cause pollution of water bodies, land and other components of the environment.
Wind power and solar rays are good examples of conventional but cleaner and greener energy sources but are not yet been explored on a large scale due to lack of technological devices.

LPG, Gobar Gas in Rural Areas:
Households in rural areas generally use wood, dung cake or other biomass as fuel.
This practice has several adverse implications like deforestation, reduction in green cover, wastage of cattle dung and air pollution.

To rectify the situation, subsidised LPG is being provided. In addition, gobar gas plants are being provided through easy loans and subsidy.
As far as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is concerned, it is a clean fuel 
— it reduces household pollution to a large extent.

Wind Power: In areas where speed of wind is usually high, wind mills can provide electricity without any adverse impact on the environment.
Wind turbines move with the wind and electricity is generated.

Solar Power through Photovoltaic Cells: India is naturally endowed with a large quantity of solar energy in the form of sunlight.
Plants use solar energy to perform photosynthesis. Now, with the help of photovoltaic cells, solar energy can be converted into electricity.

These cells use special kind of materials to capture solar energy and then convert the energy into electricity.
This technology is extremely useful for remote areas and for places where supply of power through grid or power lines is either not possible or proves very costly.
This technique is also totally free from pollution.
India is also leading an International body called International Solar Alliance (ISA).

Mini-hydel Plants: In mountainous regions, streams can be found almost everywhere.
Mini-hydel plants use the energy of such streams to move small turbines. The turbines generate electricity which can be used locally.

Traditional Knowledge and Practices: Traditionally, Indian people have been close to their environment.
They have been more a component of the environment and not its controller.
If we look back at our agriculture system, healthcare system, housing, transport etc., we find that all practices have been environment friendly. Only recently have we drifted away from the traditional systems and caused large scale damage to the environment and also our rural heritage.

Biocomposting: In our quest to increase agricultural production during the last five decades or so, we almost totally neglected the use of compost and completely switched over to chemical fertilisers.
The result is that large tracts of productive land have been adversely affected, water bodies including ground water system have suffered due to chemical contamination and demand for irrigation has been going up year after year.
Farmers, in large numbers all over the country, have again started using compost made from organic wastes of different types.

Biopest Control: With the advent of green revolution, the entire country entered into a frenzy to use more and more chemical pesticides for higher yield. Soon, the adverse impacts began to show; food products were contaminated, soil, water bodies and even ground water were polluted with pesticides. Even milk, meat and fishes were found to be contaminated. 
To meet this challenge, efforts are on to bring in better methods of pest control. One such step is the use of pesticides based on plant products.
Neem trees are proving to be quite useful.
Mixed cropping and growing different crops in consecutive years on the same land have also helped farmers.

Learning Objectives

• Introduction
  o Meaning of Environment
  o Functions of the Environment
  o Reasons for Environmental Crisis
• Pollution
  o Air Pollution
  o Water Pollution
  o Noise Pollution
• Global Warming and Ozone depletion
  o Global warming
  o Ozone depletion
• Environmental Degradation
  o Degradation of forest or Deforestation
  o Land Degradation
  o Causes of Environment Degradation
  o Measures to Control Environmental Degradation
• Sustainable development
  o Strategies for Sustainable Development

Question. What has lead to depletion of ozone layer?
Answer. The problem of ozone depletion is cost by high levels of chlorine and bromine compounds in the stratosphere.

Question. Why have some resources become extinct?
Answer. Some resources have become extinct because their extinction has been above the rate of regeneration.

Question. What do you mean by biotic elements?
Answer. All living elements like birds, animals and plants, forests, fisheries etc. are biotic elements.

Question. Give the meaning of Renewable Resources?
Answer. These are those resources which can be used without the possibility of being exhausted, such as trees, fishes etc.

Question. What happens when the rate of resource extraction exceeds that of their re-generation?
Answer. When the rate of resources extraction exceeds that of their re-generation then environment fails to perform its vital function of life substance and it lead to the situation of Environmental Crisis.

Question. Mention any 1 measure to control air pollution in vehicles.
Answer. Promotion of cleaner fuels, like use of CNG instead of petrol or diesel.

Question. How the opportunity cost negative Environmental impact are high?
Answer. Increased financial commitments of the Government due to Global warming and Ozone depletion and rise in expenditure on health due to decline in air and water quality shows that opportunity cost of the negative environment impact on high.

Question. What do you mean by Pollution?
Answer. Pollution is the Introduction of contaminates into an environment, that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem.

Question. What is Global warming?
Answer. Global warming is the observed and projected increase in the average temperature of earth’s atmosphere and oceans.

Question. What has caused Global Warming?
Answer. The Global warming is due to increase in the Green-house gas concentrations, like water vapour, carbon-dioxide, methane and ozone in the atmosphere.

Question. What is meant by Environment?
Answer. Environment is defined as the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources.

Question. What does Environment Includes?
Answer. Environment includes all the biotic and abiotic factors that influence each other.

Question. Give the meaning of air pollution.
Answer. Air pollution is the presence of materials in air such concentration, which are harmful to man and his environment.

Question. What has lead to the Air pollution in urban areas?
Answer. Increasing number of motor vehicles and concentration of industries in urban areas and has lead to air pollution in urban areas.

Question. What do you mean by the Carrying capacity of environment?
Answer.Carrying capacity of the environment implies that the resources extraction is not above the rate of regeneration of the resources and the wastes generated are within the assimilating capacity of the environment.

Question.  State the 2 major environmental issues that the world is facing today?
Answer.(i) Depletion of natural resources (ii) Environmental degradation

Question. What is Sustainable development?
Answer. It is the development, which will allow all future generations to have a potential average quality of life, that is at least as high, which is being enjoyed by the current generation.

Question. What is meant by Bio diversity?
Answer. Bio diversity is defined as the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystem and the ecological complexes of which they are a part.

Question. What do you mean by ozone depletion?
Answer. It refers to destruction of ozone in the ozone layer, due to presence of chlorine from manmade chlorofluorocarbons and other forces.

Question. How has the supply – demand relationship lead to degradation of environment?
Answer.The demand for resources has gone beyond the rate of regeneration (supply). It has increased the pressure on the absorption capacity of the environment and such several of the supply – demand relationship has lead to degradation of the environment.

Question. What do you mean by non-renewable resources?
Answer. These are those resources which get exhausted with extraction and use such as coal, gas etc.

Question. What is included under abiotic elements?
Answer. It includes non-living elements like air, water, land etc.

Functions of Environment
1. It provides resources for production:- Resources such as renewable and non- renewable are supplied by the environment.
2. Environment assimilates wastes.
3. It sustains life by providing essential elements like sun, soil, air, water etc.
4. It provides aesthetic services: - It includes land, forest, water bodies, rainfall, mountain etc. , with this people enjoy the beauty of hill station and to improve the quality of life.

Carrying Capacity
Carrying capacity means 2 things.
1. Resources extraction should remain below the rate of resource generations.
2. Generation of wastes should remain within the absorption capacity of the environment.
If these two conditions are not fulfilled, then environment fails to perform its vital functions of life sustenance and it leads to the situations of environmental crises.

Reason for Environmental Crises

• Population explosion and Industrial revolution has increased the demand for environmental resources, but their supply is limited due to misuse and overuse.
• The intensive and extensive extraction of both renewable and non-renewable resources has exhausted some of the vital resources.
• Extinction of many resources and continuous rising population has also resulted in environmental crisis.
• Due to affluent consumption and production standard of developed world, the waste generated is beyond the absorptive capacity of the environment.
• The development process has polluted environment, water and atmosphere and there is decline in air and water quality. It has resulted in increased incidence of respiratory and water borne diseases.
• The expenditure on health is also rising. Global environmental issues such as global warming. Ozone depletion also contributes to the increased financial commitments of government.

Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an Environment that causes instability, disorder, harm and or discomfort in the ecosystem.
Pollution is substances, chemicals or factors which cause adverse effect on natural quality of any constituent of environment.

Strategies for Sustainable development
The following strategies should be adhered to, for sustainable development.
1. Use of Non-conventional source of Energy – India is mostly dependent on thermal and hydropower plants which have adverse environmental impact. Non-conventional sources like wind and solar says are cleaner and greener technologies, which can be effectively used to replace thermal and hydropower.
2. Use of Cleaner fuels – Use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is being promoted to be used as fuel. In Delhi, the use of CNG as fuel in public transport system has lowered air pollution and the air has become cleaner. The use of LPG and Gobar Gas is being promoted which reduces air pollution.
3. Establishment of Mini-Hydel plants – Mountain regions and streams are used to generate electricity through mini Hydel plants. These are environment friendly.
4. Traditional Knowledge and Practices – Traditionally all practices relating to agriculture system, health care system, housing, transport etc. used to be environment friendly. The shift from the traditional system has caused large scale damage to the environment as our social heritage.
5. Use of Bio-Compost – The use of chemical fertilizers to increase the Agricultural production has not only adversely affected the large areas of productive land but also contaminate the water bodies. Increases in demand for organic food demand for dung are in increased use which is an important fertilizer and soil conditioner.
6. Control of Bio pest
7. Change in unsustainable patterns of consumption and production – India has taken large number of steps for sustainable development.