Introduction

Meaning

 Environment has been derived from a French word “Environia” means to surround.
It refers to both abiotic (physical or non-living) and biotic (living) environment.

  C.C. Park : Environment refers to the sum total of all conditions which surround
man at a given point in space and time.

 Dr. T.N.Khoshoo : The sum total of all conditions and influences that affect the
development of life of all organisms.

 Complicated and Interactive

 Relationship b/w man and environment

Continued

 Section 2 (a) of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 defines

“Environment as follows: “Environment includes water, air
and land and the inter-relationship which exists among and
between water, air and land and human beings, other living
creatures, plants, micro-organism and property”.
Concept

 Vague and Wide

 The complex term environment infers to conditions that

influence living and nonliving organisms including plant life,
air, water, sunlight etc., life and sources of life. Environment in
its wide connotation also includes temperature, wind,
electricity etc.
Types of Environment
Environment

Biotic Manmade
Physical/Abiotic
 ECOSYSTEM

 Thephysical environment and a biotic community

together are known as an eco-system.

a biological environment consisting of all the organisms

living in a particular area, all the nonliving, physical
components of the environment with which the
organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight.

 Examples of ecosystems?
ENVIRONMENTALISM

 Man’ s concern for preservation and protection of his

environment i.e. “Environmentalism” today is the
outcome of the biophysical, economic and social impact
of technological innovations and twentieth century
industrial revolution in the West.
 A social movement or an ideology focused on the
welfare of the environment.
 seeks to induce humans to act as stewards of nature,
rather her exploiters, and therefore to respect the
functioning of natural systems by limiting activities
which disturb these systems.
Environmentalism

 Chipko Movement
 Appilo movement
 Silent valley movement
Concern for Environment Protection

 Environment degradation
 Increased industrialization
 Deforestation
 Depletion of Natural resources
 Need for development (Developing and Developed countries)
Concern for Environment Protection

 Pollution
 Green House gases
 Ozone layer Depletion
 Health Hazards
 Submersion of islands
 Melting of glaciers
Causes of Environmental Pollution

 Population growth
 Increased general affluence and economic growth
America, with just 6% of the world population consumes 30%
of the world’s energy while India with 16% of the global
population consumes just 2% of the world’s energy
 Nature of modern technology
Generation of synthetic and non-biodegradable substances like.
Plastics, chemical nitrogen fertilizers, synthetic fibres,
petrochemical.
Overpopulation

 World population - exponential growth

 1 billion in 1800
 2.5 billion in 1950
 6 billion in 2000
 7 billion in 2011
 7.6 billion currently
Environmental Pollution

 Pollution is derived from the Latin word pollution

 Deliberate or accidental contamination of environment
 Section 2(c) of Environmental (protection) Act, 1986 states
environmental pollution as “the presence in the environment of
any environment pollutant”
 Section 2(b) describes environment pollutant as “any solid or
liquid or gaseous substance present in such concentration as
may on tend to be injurious to environment
Water Pollution
Sources

 Sewage- places high biochemical oxygen demand resulting in

depletion of oxygen levels.

 Industrial Waste
 Agricultural Wastes

 Plastic (Garbage)
 Chemical substances

 Oil Spills
Effects

 Public Health
 Aquatic and Marine Life (Ecosystems, Dead Zones)
 Plants and Animal life
 Agriculture
Air Pollution
Sources of Air Pollution

 Combustion of fuels
 Transportation
 Industries
 Agriculture
 Incineration
Effects of Air Pollution

 General Environment
 Human Health & Safety
 Ozone Layer Depletion
 Global Warming
 Other Effects (Acid rains, Taj Mahal losing sheen)
Noise Pollution

 Sources
 Industrial
 Non-industrial
 Effects
 Noise hazards
 Noise nuisance
Land Pollution

 Sources
 Solid Waste Disposal
 Mining
 Agricultural Chemicals
 Soil Erosion
 Effects
 Barren lands
 Landslides
Industrial Disastors

 Chernobyl accident in 1986 (UKRAINE)

 Acute Radiation Syndrome
 Radioactive materials in water, soil
 Minamata (Japan)- mercury poisoning disaster- release of
methylmercury in the industrial wastewater
 Bhopal Gas tragedy (India)
 Years later , the plant site which was abandoned, still has store of
dangerous wastes and outdated chemicals
 Deep Water Horizon Oil spill, 2010
 Alaska, Exxon Valdez, 1989
Thick crude oil washed up on the cobble beach of Evans
Island sticks to the boots and pants of a local fisherman in
Prince William
 Red Necked Grebe, covered in oil, found on Knights
Island, about 35 miles from the spill
Many seabirds, such as cormorants and murres, were
killed by the spilled oil.
Origin

 Prior to the 1960s, environmental law did

not exist as a discrete domestic and
international legal category.
 Environmental law has roots in private actions
which protect the use and enjoyment of land,
nuisance and abuse of rights, and in the public
health reform laws of the nineteenth century
 Not subjects of legal system
 Origin

 The ‘traditional era’ until about 1970 (i.e., preceding the 1972 United Nations
Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, UNCHE), which is sometimes
sub-divided into

 The formative ‘modern era’ from Stockholm to the 1992 United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro; and

 The ‘post-modern era’ from Rio onwards

Traditional Era

 Bilateral and regional regulatory agreements

between states and dispute settlement
arrangements over the shared utilization of
watercourses, wildlife and fisheries in
transboundary areas, allocation of resources
in areas outside national jurisdiction
 Trail Smelter case, 1929
The Modern Era

 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, 1972

(Stockholm Conf. 5th June)
 Magna Carta of environment protection and sustainable
development
 a global rise in environmental risks, highlighted by a series of eco-
disasters starting with the 1967 Torrey Canyon accident (oil
pollution in the North Sea) and other disasters
The Modern Era

 Environment 'Stockholm Declaration on the Human

Environment.
 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in
December 1972: promote sustainability and safeguard the
natural environment.
 Developments in National Law
 Development of International Environmental Law as a
Discipline
Post-Modern Era

 The proliferation of new multilateral environmental

instruments and norms
 Implementation issues
 Rio Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED,
1992) focus shifted to the ‘effectiveness’ of the existing
international legal instruments.
 UNFCCC, CBD and environmental soft law (the Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21)
Law

 Environmental law is a combination of three things:

• the first is the statute that is passed .
• The second is the list of regulations imposed by the
respective Agency in relation to that particular statute.
• And the third is the legal interpretation of these regulations by
the courts in the event of an environmental issue or problem
Role of Environmental Laws

 Protection
 Preservation
 Control