Functions of the environment

Topic: Environment and Sustainable Development · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Environment and Sustainable Development"

Meaning

The functions of the environment are the four jobs that the environment does for human beings. It supplies resources, assimilates waste, sustains life through genetic diversity and biodiversity, and gives aesthetic services such as scenery.

These functions matter because they depend on each other. If we take too many resources (function 1) or dump too much waste (function 2), the environment can no longer sustain life (function 3). NCERT calls this failure the environmental crisis.

Explanation

What "environment" means here

• NCERT (Class 11) defines the environment as "the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources".
• It has two parts, and they act on each other all the time:
• Biotic components are the living parts: birds, animals, plants, forests, fisheries.

• Abiotic components are the non-living parts: air, water, land, rocks, sunlight.

• How the two parts depend on each other:

• Sunlight and water (abiotic) → plants grow (biotic).
• Forests (biotic) → hold the soil and recharge groundwater (abiotic).

The four functions

1. Supplies resources - It gives both renewable resources (supply keeps regenerating, e.g. trees in forests, fish in the ocean) and non-renewable resources (they run out as we use them, e.g. coal, crude oil, natural gas). - These resources feed production and consumption.

2. Assimilates waste - It absorbs and breaks down what we throw away, such as smoke, sewage and garbage. - A river can break down a limited amount of sewage. This ability is called absorptive capacity (the environment's ability to absorb damage).

3. Sustains life - It provides genetic diversity (variety of genes within one species) and biodiversity (variety of species). - This is the function that fails in an environmental crisis.

4. Gives aesthetic services - It offers things we enjoy looking at, such as mountains, rivers and scenery.

The limit: carrying capacity

• Carrying capacity is the limit within which the environment can keep doing its functions. Both conditions must hold: 1. Resource extraction ≤ rate of regeneration (protects function 1) 2. Waste generated ≤ assimilating capacity (protects function 2)

• Worked example: a forest regrows 100 trees a year.

• Cut 80 trees a year → the stock stays healthy.

• Cut 120 trees a year → the stock falls by 20 trees every year. The forest is used beyond its carrying capacity.

• Trap: renewable does not mean unlimited. Groundwater is renewable. But if we pump out more than the rain puts back, the water table falls. That is overuse.

Why the functions are now under stress: the supply-demand reversal

• Before industrialisation:
• Demand for environmental resources was less than supply.
• Pollution stayed within absorptive capacity, and extraction was slower than regeneration.

• So the environment was, in effect, a "free good" (so plentiful that nobody needed to pay for it).

• After the population explosion and the Industrial Revolution:

• Demand went beyond the rate of regeneration.
• Supply shrank because of overuse and misuse. This trend continues today.

• Environmental resources became scarce economic goods. They now have a price and an opportunity cost (the value of the next-best thing given up).

• Two drivers of the crisis (NCERT):

• Rising population in developing countries: more people need resources.
• Affluent consumption and production in developed countries: each person uses far more resources and creates far more waste.

In India

• Supply function and oil imports
• India imports most of its oil. When world oil prices rise, the cost reaches everyone through fuel, transport and the prices of goods.

• World crude-oil reserves in 2017 were 1,732 bn barrels. At that year's rate of extraction, they would last about 47 years (NCERT: "only 50 years more").

• Waste-assimilation function and the CPCB

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) was set up in 1974 under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 [2][3].
• Its main function is to promote cleanliness of streams and wells in different areas of the States [2][3].
• It later also got the job of improving air quality and controlling air pollution [3].
• It advises the Central Government, plans a nation-wide programme against pollution and coordinates State Pollution Control Boards [3].

• In simple terms, the CPCB tries to keep waste below the environment's absorptive capacity.

• What happens when the functions fail: the water crisis

• NCERT says about 70% of India's water is polluted. This increases respiratory and water-borne diseases.
• NITI Aayog's Composite Water Management Index (CWMI, 2018) gives the same picture: nearly 70% of water is contaminated, and India ranks 120th out of 122 countries on the water quality index [6].
• The same report says about 600 million (60 crore) Indians face high to extreme water stress [6].
• The chain of cost:
  • river polluted → people get water-borne diseases
  • → families and the government spend on treatment
  • → less money is left for schools, roads or jobs.

Don't confuse with

• Carrying capacity vs absorptive capacity: carrying capacity is the overall limit and needs two conditions (extraction ≤ regeneration and waste ≤ assimilating capacity). Absorptive capacity covers only the waste side, i.e. the environment's ability to absorb damage.
• Resource depletion vs environmental degradation: depletion is about the quantity of resources (they get used up by heavy extraction). Degradation is about the quality of the environment (it falls because of pollution, deforestation and soil erosion).
• Environmental crisis vs resource scarcity: NCERT defines the crisis as the failure of the third function (sustaining life). It is not just running short of resources, which is function 1.
• Renewable vs unlimited: renewable resources such as groundwater can still be overused if extraction is faster than regeneration (Class 10 trap).

Prelims Hooks

• The four functions are: supplies resources, assimilates waste, sustains life (genetic diversity and biodiversity), and gives aesthetic services.
• The environmental crisis is the failure of the third function, sustaining life. It happens when resources are overused or waste is dumped beyond what the environment can absorb.
• NCERT defines the environment as "the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources". It includes biotic and abiotic factors.
• Carrying capacity needs two conditions: extraction ≤ regeneration and waste ≤ assimilating capacity.
• CPCB was set up in 1974 under the Water Act, 1974, not under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 [2][3].
• Dublin Statement (January 1992): its 4th principle says water is an economic good [4]. This shows the supply-demand reversal.

Mains Points

• From free good to scarce good
• Overuse of the supply and waste-assimilation functions has turned environmental resources from "free goods" into scarce goods.
• This supports putting a price on water and pollution, for example through the Dublin principle [4] and the polluter-pays principle.

• But it must be balanced against the right to water and fairness to the poor. This was the core of the long Dublin debate [5].

• Two drivers, two responsibilities

• Population pressure in developing countries and affluent consumption in developed countries together push the environment past its carrying capacity.

• This supports differentiated responsibility in global climate talks. Global problems such as global warming and ozone depletion also add to government spending.

• Protecting the functions is an investment in growth

• When the life-sustaining function fails, the opportunity cost is high: money is diverted to health care, to finding new resources and to global commitments.
• About 70% of India's water is contaminated [6]. So environmental protection supports growth rather than holding it back. This is a useful line for GS-III answers on growth versus environment.

Related concepts

• Environment
• Biotic and abiotic components
• Renewable resources
• Non-renewable resources
• Reserves-to-production life
• Hotelling rule
• Carrying capacity
• Absorptive capacity
• Environmental crisis
• Supply-demand reversal of environmental resources

Read more

• The environment, its functions and the supply-demand reversal