ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
NATURE, MODERN SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
By Judy Kawira
OBJECTIVE
1) To make students aware of the changing environment and modes of living in
different ecological conditions.
2) To make students familiar with the nature, biological and physical qualities of
the earth
INTRODUCTION
• Man is adapted to serve in the diverse ecological conditions
from the Arctic to the equator, from mountains to ocean, from
wetlands to dry lands etc.
• Man has to adapt himself to the changing environment in order
to survive.
• In the struggle for existence those "welt adapted" were fit to
survive while the others not adopting according to the changing
environment were eliminated in the course of evolution.
BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATIONS
• Traces of adaptations are seen in the form of biological and social and
cultural adaptations.
• Pigmentation of the skin and development of the subcutaneous fatty layer
in the region of chick storage of fat in a particular portion of the human
body are common examples of biological adaptation.
• But it is true that today all these features are of less importance.
• Because of the advancement of technology and inventions of artificial
means of protection, man can easily combat adverse climate conditions.
• We can say that man's direct dependence on natural conditions is
constantly decreasing.
• However social and cultural adaptation is increasing owing to his mobility.
• Every human society has its own distinct culture with regard to food they eat, garments
they wear, rites and rituals of births and deaths and marriages modes of livelihood,
means of recreation and several other activities.
• Not only this a variety of lifestyles are seen all over the world.
• If we think of Kenya, we find that although the basic cultural network is the same, there
is a difference in the lifestyles of people, living in different regions.
• This difference is mainly due to the geographical and climatic conditions of that
particular region, and the availability of resources in that particular region.
• According to the above-mentioned reasons, the mode of livelihood changes, eating
habits change, means of recreation change and the lifestyle appears changed on the
whole.
T H E E N V I R O N M E N T M AY B E D I V I D E D I N T O T H E F O L L O W I N G M A J O R C O M P O N E N T S .
Natural and physical component - it can be further divided into two types namely abiotic or non-living and
biotic or living component.
The abiotic component is made up of the following –
• Location - it can be understood in terms of the exact location of a place on the earth. Related to the location
other factors can be understood such as climate, temperature, rainfall, forest, availability of water and other
natural resources.
• Terrain - altitude or degree of slope forms another significant aspect of the physical environment.
• Geological structure - it is the presence and composition of underlying rocks and determines landforms and
the occurrence of mineral wealth.
• Climate - it is the most dominant component of physical environment. It is understood through temperature,
rainfall, humidity and sunlight. It affects various aspects such as plant growth, type of soil, occupation etc.
• Energy - energy received from the sun is the main source of heat and light is the environment. It is also the
life-giving force for the plant and animal world. The biotic components are those which influence living
organisms, plants, animals and man. They are producers or autographs, consumers or heterotrophs,
decomposers and reducers. The biotic components are interlinked and form a food chain
• Culture or human components - it basically includes all the man-made and artificial characteristics
of human society. The man stays in the physical or natural environment but changes or modifies, this
natural environment to suit his needs and requirements. In other words, he develops a cultural
environment.
• The cultural environment can be further divided into the following categories
• Social environment - it can be understood in terms of the non-material aspects including the norms,
values, ideas knowledge etc. whereas the material aspects are the manifest forms of the non-material
aspects.
• Economic environment - it involves the different types of economic activities developed by man.
Each type of economic activity has its own requirement of resources as well as technology.
• Political environment - it includes the type of environment and its ideological principles, various
important factors such as production, consumption, use of resources etc. are determined by the
strategies and policies advocated by the -government. This in turn determines the level of
development and progress of the society. Thus environment is a complex phenomenon.
ECO-SYSTEM
• An assemblage of species of plants and animals inhabiting a common area and having
effects on one another is known as a biotic community.
• A combination of a biotic community with the natural or physical environment is known
as an ecosystem.
• The term eco-system implies a local community of organisms interacting with their local
non-living environment’.
• In other words, the interdependence of living and non-living aspects i.e. plants, animals,
man, forest, soil etc. make an eco-system.
• It is defined as a unit which includes all the organisms (biological component) in a given
area interacting with the environment (physical component) so that the flow of energy
leads to a clearly defined tropic (nutrient supply) structure biotic diversity and material
cycles.
• It means every eco-system has a flow of energy and cycling
of nutrients which bind the biological and physical
components together.
• Every eco-system has a certain capacity to sustain - its
components without deterioration this is called its carrying
capacity.
• An ecosystem does not remain constant. Changes occur in
it continuously in one form or the other. It is significant that
even a small change in one part of an ecosystem is felt
throughout the ecosystem.
• This establishes the importance of inter-linkages in an
ecosystem. However, the system tries to maintain the
stability of an ecosystem depends on its diversity.
• The more diversity more is the interdependence and more
the resistance to change.
• This does not however mean that ecosystem is devoid of
any change. Changes do occur. It is the drastic change in
the ecosystem that affects the environment.
• Eco-system constitutes a very important unit of environment.
• It consists of three main components namely producers, consumers, decomposers and reducers.
• Producers - they basically include plants which act on self-nourishing organisms. These plants contain chlorophyll and with its help,
they obtain solar energy and manufacture it into food, they act as a starting point in a good chain all living organisms depend on the
existence of producers for their requirements of food, thus they are the primary source of energy.
• Consumer - they are mainly of two types namely the macro consumers and micro consumers. The macro consumers can be further
divided into 3 types as follows
• (a) primary consumers include herbivorous or grass-eating animals which feed on green vegetation ex-sheep deer etc.
• b) Secondary consumers - they include the carnivores which eat the flesh of herbivores they are also called herbivorous
predators for example foxes, hyenas on land and fish and crabs in the water.
• c) Tertiary consumers - they include the animals which feed on secondary consumers and are known as higher-level carnivores
ex-tiger lions on land and sharks in the water a part from these omnivores also included that this organism which depends both
on primary and secondary for e.g. Man.
• Micro consumers are called detersives such as earthworms, centipedes etc. they feed on organic matter.
• 3) Decomposers and reducers - they include the bacteria and fungi. These are basically microscopic organisms. They break down
complex compounds of dead plants and animals absorb some of the decomposed products and release mineral nutrients into the soil.
Bacterial decomposed dead animal tissues and fungi decompose dead plant tissues. In this process of decomposition and reduction the
nutrients which are released into the soil are used by procedures.
• An eco-system has two important aspects namely structure and function.
• The structure includes the composition quantity and distribution of the biological and physical components.
• The function includes aspects such as the rate of energy flow and nutrients, ecological regulation of the environment by
the organism etc.
• Some of the major eco-system of the world are seas, freshwater marshes streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, deserts grasslands
and forests.
• Broadly speaking ecosystem can be divided into two major categories:-
• Aquatic or water ecosystems such as seas, rivers, ponds etc.
• Terrestrial or land ecosystems such as deserts, forests etc.
FUNCTIONS OF AN ECO-SYSTEM
1. The ecosystem performs the most important function of satisfying the requirements of the different aspects of the
biotic component.
2. It is through an ecosystem that the interaction as well as interdependence between the biological component and
the physical component in the environment takes place, this interdependence is between biotic and biotic
components. For example:- plants depend on solar energy and soil. The interdependence is also between different
aspects within the biotic components. For example the carnivores depend on herbivores.
3. Eco-system leads to the transfer of food energy and nutrients from one source to another source.
4. The different forms of eco-system are beneficial because they lead to positive effects on the environment which
in turn helps the living organisms.
5. Eco-systems have helped human beings by providing materials as well as services necessary for survival as well
as development.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATURE SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Nature
• it is understood as the qualities and characteristics related to any given thing from the viewpoint of the environment. Nature
consists of the biological and physical qualities of Earth.
• It means the physical characteristics such as air, water, soil, temperature etc. as well as the natural laws and principles which
control the functioning of the natural events.
Science
• it is defined as the systematic body of factual knowledge obtained by the use of the scientific method there are certain important
characteristics of science.
i. It is based on truth or facts.
ii. The scientific methods of observation and experimentation are used.
iii. Science puts forward knowledge i.e. reliable, valid and verifiable in other words the knowledge has to be precise,
accurate and free from vagueness and ambiguity.
iv. It believes in ethical neutrality i.e. freedom from value judgement.
v. Science never accepts anything to be conclusively true. It is a continuous search for facts hence scientific knowledge
is subject to revision and modification as per any new research.
• Technology
• it is defined as the application of knowledge for practical purposes.
• It is closely related to science.
• This is because scientific knowledge is put to practical use. There are certain important characteristics of technology
• 1) It has a utilitarian value. It means the means of technology are of use to the human society.
• 2) technology has been created to react to changes in the society.
• 3) It is through the creative aspects of the technology that the developments and progress have been possible technology used
not necessarily always be beneficial. There are negative effects of technology also.
• This relationship can be understood from a positive viewpoint as well as negative view point.
• Positive aspects of the relationship between nature, science and technology.
• As long as nature was a mystery the development and progress of human society remained as a lower level. Simple
occurrences or natural events could not be deciphered by man. Man remained unaware of the causes of events such as
rainfall, storms, floods, earthquakes etc. The logic and reasoning behind certain events. Such as how fire occur or how it
could be ignited could never been known. This put a serious limitation on his innovativeness.
• But it was through science that significant changes took place in the history of
mankind.
• Science discovered the laws of nature acted as a torch of light to explore and
discover the unknown.
• It provided a lay of hope to man to understand natural occurrences in a
rational and logical manner.
• Science determines natural functioning.
• This was possible because science was based on truth or facts.
• These facts were discovered accidentally or consciously.
• Once they were discovered and subsequently verified, this scientific
knowledge could be used to modify and adopt nature for the sake of the
benefit of mankind.
• Application of Science and scientific discoveries.
• Principles - development of technology After the advent of technology, the heights reached by human beings in terms of
development and progress have been unparalleled. Various fields benefited from these developments.
• Examples can be given with respect to important natural resources such as land, water, soil, forest etc.
• Science and technology have helped man in the proper utilization of land, and space, planning towns and cities.
• The importance of water is evident through a conscious effort at water saving and water utilization schemes. Irrigation,
water harvesting, dams etc. are a result of these efforts, science and technology have contributed to improving soil fertility
as well as minimizing soil erosion.
• Apart from this, the uses of forests have been maximized through science and technology wood, timber and other
products of forest have been utilized to the benefit of human society.
• However, it was the selfishness and greed of man which did not stop him at the utilization of natural resources but led to
the exploitation of nature.
• Negative aspects of the relationship between nature, science, and technology.
• The negative aspects are much more significant as compared to the positive aspects because of the damage they have
caused to the nature.
• Man has exploited natural resources in a tremendous manner.
• Modern scientific knowledge and technological innovations have degraded the natural environment. Examples can be
given with respect to important natural resources being misused. A lot of deforestation is carried out in order to increase
the landscape.
• This has created significant changes in rainfall.
• The use Use of chemicals as well as chemical waste has led to significant pollution levels which are evident in different
forms. Water pollution, soil pollution etc.
• Heavy industrialization, urbanisation, modern transportation.
• The system has caused severe air pollution. Modern science and technology have led to serious damages such as the
depletion of the ozone layer global warming etc.
• Many developments have taken place which had revealed that technology may not always be beneficial to mankind.
QUESTION
• Write in short about the impact of modern science and technology on the
environment.