A Textbook of Environmental Studies

This textbook on environmental studies has been written for students, teachers and all who are interested in environmental science. It covers the entire breadth of the environmental studies, providing concise, non- technical explanations of physical processes and systems and the effects of human activities. It explores the interactions of humans within the natural environment and probes issues thoroughly examining their scientific basis, their history, and society's response. It is hoped that the contents of the book will enable readers to critically evaluate the latest environmental issues and to apply that understanding to situations and events in their everyday lives.

Dr. Ashok Dawan has been teaching biology and environmental science to graduate and undergraduate students for the last 20 years. He has conducted research on biodiversity, natural resource conservation and global environmental problems. During his career, he has advised many national and international environmental bodies about tropical forests, biological diversity and sustainability. He has published more than 25 research articles and a number of outstanding books on various environmental issues.

Environmental issues are hardly new subjects of discussion, deliberation and action with ever increasing commercialisation and urbanisation making their presence felt in a continually globalising world, environmental studies have only stressed their relevance more in society. Even as reams of newspaper, public and private forums of debate, internet websites and other forms devote attention to the challenges con- fronting humanity through environmental degradation, the extent of human activities in the world has reached. such a level as to bringing up a new environmental problem almost every single day. In such a scenario, it becomes crucial to emphasise upon the need for environmental studies, what it brings into consideration, and how it can redeem a situation which threatens the very fabric of human life.

This book, written as an introductory manual, brings within its purview the subject of environmental studies, its principles, processes, practices concepts, and the import it carries in a world which can no longer turn a blind eye to the environmental problems which face it. It guides the readers through a comprehensive content which focuses upon both traditional and contemporary problems of the environment, the local, national and international environmental policies, the role of the common man, and the destruction and degradation of the environment. In the field's concerns, and how they expand the scope of the insight serve resourceful for the readers.