Environmental Studies Tutorial

Environmental Studies is a multidisciplinary course that deals with systematic studies of human interactions with the surrounding environment. This discipline covers a detailed study of principles of physical sciences, humanities, economics, and social sciences to address complex issues associated with the environment.

In simple terms, we can state that Environmental Studies refer to a wide and systematic study of nature or environment around us, its physical, biological, social, economic and cultural factors, as well as the nature and characteristics of the relationship between human and the environment.

This tutorial has been designed to help students and readers to understand the importance of our environment, and it explains the use of natural resources more efficiently and provides a sustainable way of living. Environment studies is also important to understand how far humans influence nature and to what extent nature delivers its bounties constitute.

What is Environment?

Environment can be defined as the natural and human created surroundings that support and sustain life on the Earth. It has several physical, chemical, and biological components, and these components can interact with each other and with human actions and activities.

Apart from the natural factors, the environment also includes, social, political, cultural, and economic factors, all these factors have an impact on humans and their behaviors.

What is Environmental Studies?

Environmental Studies is an academic discipline designed to study, analyze, and understand the environment on the Earth and the challenges associated with it. It is a multidisciplinary field that uses an integrated knowledge of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The primary objective of environmental studies is to understand the causes and effects of environmental issues and find potential solutions to address them.

Environmental studies also provides the understanding of relationship of humans with their surrounding environment. It provides multiple kinds of links like biological, ecological, geographical, and social between human and the natural environment. Environmental studies focuses on promoting sustainable practices and awareness to conserve the environment.

Importance of Environmental Studies

In todays technological world, the environmental studies is one of the most important fields to understand the environmental challenges and needs for sustainable practices. Some of key reasons that highlight the importance of Environmental Studies are explained below −

Understanding Environmental Issues

Environmental studies help us understanding the key environmental issues like pollution, resource depletion, climate change, habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, etc., and it provides a way of addressing these issues.

Promoting Sustainability

Creating a sustainable environment is one of the main objectives of the environmental studies. Environmental studies gives methods for utilizing resources effectively and reducing waste generation. These practices support the transition towards a sustainable environment and economy to meet the demands of both current and future generations.

Conserving Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Environmental studies also teaches about the significance of conserving ecosystems and biodiversity. Both of these are crucial for maintaining an ecological balance in the environment. Environmental studies provides several ways for protecting habitats and preserving different species to maintain the natural cycles and provide essential natural services like clean water, climate regulation, pollination, and more.

Helping in Policy and Decision Making

Environmental studies also help in making decisions and policies about environment and potential impacts on it. The knowledge gained in environmental studies provides a support to policy-makers and stakeholders in defining effective laws, regulations, and policies to make the environment healthy and sustainable.

Increasing Public Awareness

Environmental studies is acting as a best tool for educating public and spreading awareness about the environmental issues and their possible impacts. This motivates people to reduce harms to the environment and create a sustainable environment for future by adopting environment-friendly practices in their daily life.

Addressing the Problem of Climate Change

Environmental studies highlights the causes and impacts of climate change and provides methods to reduce these issues. Some of the common ways include integration of renewable energy resources, using energy-efficient devices, and trying to minimize the greenhouse gas emissions.

Introducing the Concept of Environmental Justice

Environmental studies also introduces the concept of environmental justice, which states that all people are treated the same when it comes to environmental polices and practices.

Supporting Resource Management

Environmental studies also provides effective methods for managing the natural resources like water, minerals, forests, clean air, etc. It promotes the prevention of depletion and degradation of natural resources. This also helps creating a long-term and sustainable economy.

Developing Ethical Responsibility towards Environment

Environmental studies educates people about the environment, its importance, and impacts on it. It develops a sense of ethical responsibility towards creating a sustainable environment on the Earth. It highlights impacts that people make on the environment and encourages them to change their behaviors to protect and conserve the environment.

Encouraging Innovation and Solutions

Being a multidisciplinary field, environmental studies integrates knowledge from various fields and paves the path for innovation and practical solutions to address the environmental issues. This field helps developing technologies and methods to control and reduce the pollution, reduce the human impacts on the environment, and restore the natural resources and ecosystems.

Scope of Environmental Studies

It was emerged to increase the awareness of the environmental impacts of the human activities, such as deforestation, industrialization, increased population and resource consumption, urbanization, and many more. All these concerns increased the attention towards environment and highlighted the needs for addressing the issues affecting it.

Initially, environmental studies is included as a part of humanities and social sciences, but today it has become a distinct field of study that combines various disciplines including natural sciences, education, ethics, laws and policies, etc. It is evolving continuously to understand and solve the major environmental issues in this modern world.

Therefore, today environmental studies has a wide and diverse scope and covers a variety of topics essential for protecting the environment and increasing its sustainability.

Some of the key areas highlighting the scope of environmental studies are explained here −

• Environmental Science − This part of environmental studies deals with the study of natural environment, its components, and processes on the Earth. It mainly focuses on analyzing the impacts of human activities on climate, water cycles, biodiversity, and other elements of the environment.
• Environmental Ethics − This part provides moral principles that help creating a healthy relationship between humans and the environment. It wisely defines responsibilities of humans toward nature and future generations.
• Environmental Policies − It defines and analyzes the rules and regulations to govern the environmental management on the planate. It helps addressing environmental issues like pollution and emissions, land utilization, depletion of natural resources, and more.
• Environmental Education − This area mainly focuses on spreading awareness and providing knowledge to people about the environment and issues impact it. It changes the attitude and behavior of the people around the environmental issues and builds a culture of sustainability.
• Environmental Law − This area of environmental studies defines a legal framework to protect the environment. It sets rules and regulations to conserve environmental elements such as air quality, clean water, biodiversity, etc.

Multidisciplinary Nature of Environmental Studies

As we already know that environmental studies is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that combines knowledge from various domains like natural sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, humanities, economics, and more to understand the environment and associated issues and develop effective solutions to protect it.

Some of the major disciplines and their significance in environmental studies is explained below −

• Ecology − This discipline provides information about the relationship between organisms and their environment, which is important for understanding impacts of human activities on the natural systems and species.
• Geology − It provides information about physical structure of the Earth and processes like erosion, soil formation, etc. which are responsible for shaping it. The study of geology helps managing the natural resources and disasters like landslides, earthquakes, etc.
• Atmospheric Science − This domain helps understanding the climate, composition of atmosphere, weather patterns, etc. All this information is essential for understanding and controlling the air quality, climate changes, and pollution.
• Environmental Chemistry − This discipline deals with the analysis of composition and properties of materials present in the environment. It plays a crucial role in maintaining the soil quality and reducing the contaminations and toxins in the environment.
• Biology − It deals with the study of living organisms, their interactions with each other and the environment.
• Economics − Economics provides a study of financial aspects of the environment. It helps managing the natural resources and evaluating their costs.
• Sociology − It deals with the human societies, their behaviors and cultural values and highlights how these are affecting the environment.
• Environmental Ethics − This domain deals with the studies and foundation of values that support creation of a sustainable environment.
• History − This field provides an understanding of human activities and their impacts on the environmental changes over past years. These studies help making decisions and policies on the environment.
• Arts − This domain provides a way for spreading awareness about environmental issues and building an emotional connection between humans and the natural environment through visual arts, images, and multimedia.
• Engineering and Technology − These disciplines deal with the development and applications of technologies and practical solutions for environmental challenges like climate change, pollution, infrastructure issues, etc.

Career in Environmental Studies

Depending on the interests, skills, and qualifications, students can find a wide range of career options and jobs in the field of environmental studies. Some of the common career options and job roles in environmental studies are listed below −

• Environmental Scientist − Graduates can choose environmental scientist as a career option where they apply scientific methods and theories to examine and solve environment related problems like climate change, pollution, etc.
• Environmental Engineer − Graduates in environmental studies can also become environmental engineers where design and develop technologies and practical solutions to reduce impacts on the environment.
• Environmental Educator − After completing environmental studies, one can become a professional educator in the same field and can educate or train students about the environmental issues and challenges.

Limitations of Environmental Studies

Environmental studies play a significant role in managing environmental challenges; however, it also has certain limitations which are explained below −

• Lack of Data and Information − It is the top most limitation of environmental studies because the analysis of the environment is completely dependent on the data and information. Incomplete and inaccurate data or information can limit the analysis of our environment and associated problems and hence the development of effective solutions.
• Complexity of Environmental Issues − Problems and issues associated with the environment are highly complex and require multidisciplinary knowledge to understand and solve them.
• Availability of Limited Resources − Environmental studies require a variety of resources like funds, historical data, technologies, expertise and more. But the sad part is that all these resources are not always available.
• Economic and Political Constraints − There are several economic and political factors limiting the environmental studies. These constraints mainly affect the field in terms of developing effective policies and regulations around the environment.

What You Will Learn in Environmental Studies?

In this comprehensive tutorial on environmental studies, you will learn about the following key concepts and topics −

• Environment − In this section of the tutorial, you will learn the concept of the environment and its components. It will also discuss the interconnection among different environmental components that sustain life on the Earth.
• Ecosystem − In this chapter, you will learn about the concept of ecosystems and the functions of ecosystems. It also explains how the living organisms interact with their physical surroundings.
• Classification of Ecosystem − This chapter will explain different types of ecosystems along with their characteristics and examples.
• Functions of Ecosystem − In this section, you will explore the important functions of ecosystems and will understand how these functions support biodiversity.
• Ecological Pyramid − In this chapter, you will understand the ecological pyramid, which is a graphical representation of distribution of energy, biomass, and numbers of organisms.
• Energy Flow in Ecosystem − This part of the tutorial explains how energy flows across ecosystems. Here, you will also understand the concept of energy transfer efficiency.
• Natural Resources − This chapter gives an overview of renewable and non-renewable resources available in nature. It explains how these natural resources are important for human life.
• Water Resources − In this chapter, you will learn about water, its distribution, utilization, pollution, and challenges associated with its scarcity. It will also highlight the importance of a sustainable water management.
• Mineral Resources − This chapter explains the mineral resources present in the nature. It also highlights their importance and impacts on the environment.
• Land Resources − This chapter discusses land as a natural resource and explains its usage, degradation, and conservation.
• Energy Resources − In this chapter, you will learn about different types of energy resources and their depletion.
• Biodiversity − This section of the tutorial will explain the concept of biodiversity and its levels. It will also highlight the significance of biodiversity in maintaining ecological balance in the environment.
• Biodiversity Hotspots − In this chapter, you will learn about the regions having very high biodiversity which is under threat, and will also understand the criteria for biodiversity hotspots.
• Threats to Biodiversity − This chapter explains major threats to biodiversity and how these treats are affecting ecosystems.
• Conservation of Biodiversity − In this part, you will learn about methods and practices to protect or conserve biodiversity.
• Pollution and Control − This chapter gives an overview of different types of pollutions in the environment, their causes, and methods to control them.
• Air Pollution − This dedicated chapter defines the air pollution and highlights its causes, impacts, and methods to control.
• Water Pollution − In this chapter, you will learn about definition, sources, effects, and control methods of water pollution.
• Noise Pollution − This chapter discusses about noise pollution, its causes, impacts on environmental elements, and methods to reduce it.
• Soil Pollution − In this part, you will learn about soil pollution, its sources, and consequences on environment. It will also highlight the possible remedies to reduce the soil pollution.
• Solid Waste Management − In this chapter, you will explore the concept of solid waste management and challenges associated with it. This chapter also highlights best practices that should be followed for sustainable waste disposal.
• Hazardous Waste Management − This section of the tutorial will explain the methods and their importance to manage hazardous waste safely to protect humans, animals, and the environment.
• Water Waste Management − In this section, you will understand how to effectively manage waste water to avoid water related issues in the environment.
• Global Environmental Problems − This chapter is meant for highlighting global issues related to environment such as pollution, climate change, loss biodiversity, etc. It explains the major causes, impacts, and efforts that can be made to reduce these issues.
• Ozone Depletion − This chapter is dedicated to explain the causes and impacts of depletion of the ozone layer. It also highlights global efforts to mitigate this problem.
• Deforestation and Desertification − In this chapter, you will understand two important environmental concepts named, deforestation and desertification, along with their causes and impacts on the environment.
• International Protocols − This chapter defines major international protocols formed around environmental protection.
• Policy and Legislation − In this part, you will learn about policies, rules, and regulations implemented to protect the environment and create a sustainable future.
• Air, Water, and Forest Acts − This chapter provides an overview of acts related to maintaining air quality, controlling water pollution, and conserving forests in the environment.
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) − In this chapter, you will learn about a widely used tool, called EIA process, to evaluate the impacts on the environment.
• Towards a Sustainable Future − This chapter explains the concept of sustainability and provides practices to build a sustainable environment for future generations.

Who this Environmental Studies Tutorial is Meant for?

This tutorial is mainly designed for undergraduate college students studying Environmental Studies or Environment and Ecology as a part of their syllabus in various universities and colleges. This tutorial is also helpful for readers having no background in environmental studies, as it explains concept in a lucid manner and simple language.

Therefore, anyone, including environmental science students, environmental managers, environmental advisors, environmental consultants, sustainability managers, sustainability advisors, CSR professionals, entrepreneurs / start-ups looking to improve their project's sustainability, sustainability students, or who is looking to start their career in environmental sustainability can enjoy this tutorial.

Prerequisites to Learn Environmental Studies

This is an introductory tutorial on environmental studies, therefore, anyone who wants to learn environmental concepts can follow this tutorial. However, if readers have a basic understanding of their physical surroundings and the changes in climatic condition, seasonal differences, etc. will be very helpful in smoothly grasping the concepts covered in this tutorial.

FAQs on Environmental Studies

In this portion, we have gathered some of the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Environmental Studies followed by their answers −

What are the 5 major field of environmental studies?

The 5 major fields of Environmental Studies are listed below −

• Atmospheric Sciences − It deals with atmospheric calculations, understanding chemical reactions, carbon dioxide emissions, global warming, etc.
• Ecology − It deals with understanding how species or living creatures have interactions with each other and the environment.
• Environmental Chemistry − It explains the chemical effects in the environment such as chemical reactions of different plants, chemical degradation, how chemicals are transported through the environment, and more.
• Geo Sciences − This field deals with the study of physical and chemical constitutions of the Earth and its environment.
• Social Sciences − It provides a detailed understanding of how people and social elements interact with the environment.

What are the topics covered in Environmental Studies?

In environmental studies, we study about principles of physical sciences, economics, humanities, and social sciences, along with their applications to solve complex environmental issues. Environmental studies also explains the relationship between the natural and the built environment.

What are the 5 components of the environment?

The following are 5 main components of the environment −

• Physical Components − These are non-living constituents of the environment, such as air, water, soil, etc.
• Biological Components − The living constituents of the environment like animals, plans, microorganisms, humans, etc. are biological components of the environment.
• Lithosphere − These are the solid components of our environment.
• Atmosphere − It is the gaseous layer surrounding our planate.
• Hydrosphere − It is the water body covering the majority surface of the Earth.

What are the functions of the environment?

The main functions of the environment are listed below −

• Support life on the planate
• Provide resources essential for all living and non-living elements
• Climate regulation
• Maintain ecosystems, etc.

What are the two types of environment?

The two types of environments are defined here −

• Geographical Environment − It is also known as natural environment. It consists of all elements provided by the nature.
• Man-Made Environment − It is also referred to as cultural environment. It consists of all components created by man.

What are the objectives of Environmental Studies?

The primary objective of environmental studies is to examine and understand the environment, and develop methods to solve environmental issues. It also aimed for spreading awareness and literacy about the environmental issues and challenges.