Environment and Society

Ecology is the study of the interaction of living organisms and the natural environment.Being an interdisciplinery science ecology draws from the work of natural and social scientists.Of all the living organisms, humans alone take deliberate action to modify the world according to their interests.There is an increasing environmental pollution due to generation of large scale solid and liquid wastes which leads to the process of global warming.Deforestation and declining biodiversity have become issues of global concern.

Human cultural changes have led to environmental changes over the centuries with the increasing sophistication of technology being used.In the past the primitive societies hardly affected the environment but as the humans developed and passed the stages of pastoralism and agriculture,changes began to occur.This reached to the highest point with the advent of industrialization.Machines and fossil fuels replaced manpower.Industrial advancements enabled man to build dams over rivers,tunnels through mountains and drill ocean floor for oil and natural gas.Most of the energy produced in the world is consumed by industrial societies.Their 15% population take up almost 80% of the energy produced.Their production level is much more higher and also account for more wastes than the agricultural societies.

Improvement in technology has also led to boom in world population.The most rapid growth in population is defined in the poorest regions and rapid growth goes hand in hand with rise in poverty level.Poverty strains the environment as the resources available at hand are limited  but the users are multifold.Besides technology and population the human culture is also involved in the environmental issues.The growing trend of dependence on finite resources is harming the environment more while the research and usage of renewable resources has failed to catch up with the increasing energy demands.For example deforestation has outpaced the reforestation attempts everywhere in the world.