Environmental Studies (AECC) Study Materials

Biodiversity ·          Biodiversity itself is a combination of two words, Bio (life) and diversity (variety). ·          It is the number and variety of organisms found within a specified topographical region. ·          It brings up to the varieties of flora, fauna, and micro-organisms, the genes they contain and the ecosystems they form. ·          It relates to the variability among living organisms on the earth, including the variability within and between the species and that within and between the ecosystems. ·          Biodiversity is an arrangement in continuous evolution, from the viewpoint of an individual organism as well as from a viewpoint of species. ·          It is not found uniformly on the earth. [See Video:  ht...

Non-conventional Energy Sources in India Population explosion has resulted in manifold increase in demand for energy. The conventional, non-renewable sources of energy, such as coal, petroleum, natural gas, etc. are experiencing extensive pressure, resulting in an urgent need to switch to non-conventional sources of energy which are renewable and ecologically safe. For instance, solar, geothermal, wind, biomass, tidal and wave energy fall under non-conventional sources. Maximum utilisation of renewable sources will facilitate generating energy without harming the environment and its surroundings. The role of new and renewable energy has been assuming increasing significance in recent times with the growing concern for the country’s energy security. Energy self-sufficiency was identified as the major driver for renewable energy in the country in the wake of the two oil shocks of the 1970s. The sudden increase in the price of oil, uncertainties associated with its supply and ...

Need of Energy Resources: Energy is one of the most important component of economic infrastructure. It is the basic input required to sustain economic growth. There is direct relation between the level of economic development and per capita energy consumption. Simply speaking more developed a country, higher is the per capita consumption of energy and vice-versa. India’s per capita consumption of energy is only one eighth of global average. This indicates that our country has low rate of per capita consumption of energy as compared to developed countries. Two Main Sources of Energy: The sources of energy are of following types: I. CONVENTIONAL SOURCES OF ENERGY: These sources of energy are also called non renewable sources. These sources of energy are in limited quantity except hydro-electric power. These are further classified as commercial energy and non-commercial energy: I.A COMMERCIAL ENERGY SOURCES: These are coal, petroleum and electricity. Th...