Environment
Topic: Environment and Sustainable Development · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Environment and Sustainable Development"
Meaning
NCERT defines the environment as "the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources". It includes all biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors that act on each other. It does four jobs:
- It supplies renewable and non-renewable resources.
- It assimilates waste, which means it absorbs and breaks down what we throw away.
- It sustains life by providing genetic diversity and biodiversity.
- It gives aesthetic services such as scenery.
Example
One forest in the Western Ghats does all four jobs. It supplies timber and fuelwood. It absorbs carbon dioxide. It shelters many species. It offers scenery that draws tourists.
Don't confuse with
- Natural capital: this is the stock of soil, water, forests, minerals and biodiversity, measured as a form of wealth. "Environment" is the wider idea. It covers every living and non-living factor and how they interact, not only what can be valued as an asset.
Related concepts
- Biotic and abiotic components
- Functions of the environment
- Renewable resources
- Non-renewable resources
- Reserves-to-production life
- Hotelling rule
- Carrying capacity
- Absorptive capacity
- Environmental crisis
- Supply-demand reversal of environmental resources