Q.What is environment? What is environmental pollution?

Environment is the totality of a person's surroundings — both natural and man-made — which serve as resources for human life: natural resources (land, water, air, fauna and flora, raw materials) and man-made resources (cultural heritage, socio-economic institutions and the people themselves).

Environmental pollution is the injection of harmful substances (pollutants) into the environment, largely as a result of industrial production. It changes the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of air, land and water, harming human and other life.

Meaning of environment

• The environment is defined as the totality of a person's surroundings — both natural and man-made. These surroundings are also resources useful for human life.
• Natural resources: land, water, air, fauna and flora, and raw materials.
• Man-made resources: cultural heritage, socio-economic institutions, and the people themselves.
• It is widely recognised that the quality of the environment is deteriorating fast, largely because of industrial activity, and industrial emissions around major cities are seriously affecting people's health.

Meaning of environmental pollution

• Pollution is the injection of harmful substances into the environment, and it is largely the result of industrial production.
• Because some waste is inevitable when materials and energy are used, manufacturers face the challenge of minimising the harmful impact of that waste through proper technologies.
• What pollution does:
  • It changes the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of air, land and water.
  • It harms human life and the life of other species and degrades living conditions.
  • It wastes or depletes raw-material resources and affects the country's cultural heritage, making it harder to protect historical monuments.
  • Pollution exists because the environment can absorb only a limited amount of pollutants and waste; some hazardous wastes, toxic by-products and chemicals cannot be assimilated at all.
• Thus pollution puts environmental quality, human health, and natural and man-made resources at serious risk, which is why environmental protection is directly tied to the control of pollution.