Geography: Nature and Scope — Geography STD 12 Commerce / Arts — Question

Man and environment are inter-related. The environment influences the life of human beings who in-turn modifies the environment as a result of their growth, dispersal, activities, death, etc. Thus, all living beings including man and their environment are mutually reactive affecting each other in a number of ways and a dynamic equilibrium is possible between the two, i.e., human beings and environment are interdependent. If the natural environment helped in the development of different structures of the society on the one hand, the existence and quality of environment now rests on the responses of these social structures to the environment on the other hand.

The burning issues like quality of environment, disruption of earth’s natural ecosystems, environmental degradation and pollution, ecological imbalances, depletion of resources, etc., can be approached and solved only after considering the value judgments which may be determined by taking into account the consequences of ‘Environmental Improvement Programme’ on the entire society and society’s response towards the programme. However, all these depend on the interest and desire of the society in improving the quality of environment.

The interaction between the environment and man depends largely on the social and political system. The differential interactions are due to the uneven distribution of natural resources, uneven economic and social development, dissimilarities of demographic factors, varying view points of the governments and individuals towards the environment, etc.

Continuous and exceedingly increasing rate of exploitation of natural resources, industrialisation, technological growth, unplanned urbanisation and profit-oriented capitalism by the developed western world are responsible for grave environmental crisis and ecological imbalance not confined to their own countries but to the whole world.

The changes in the relationship between man and environment depend upon the change in organisation and attitude of man. To improve environmental stand and to maintain ecological balance, the following remedies are important

• Rapid growth of population
• Rational use of non-polluted water resources
• Use of organic fertilizers for agricultural growth
• To check soil erosion
• Restoration of forest resources
• To check pollution