Which of the following is/are the function(s) of environment ? 1. Supplying resources 2. Sustaining life 3. Providing aesthetic services Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1, 2 and 3
- (d)1 and 3 only
Correct — C, 1, 2 and 3. All three are standard functions of the environment, and the textbook list this item is drawn from actually names four. In NCERT's words the environment performs four vital functions: it supplies resources, both renewable such as forest trees and ocean fish and non-renewable such as fossil fuel; it assimilates waste; it sustains life by providing genetic and biodiversity; and it also provides aesthetic services like scenery. Statement 1 is the first of those, statement 2 the third and statement 3 the fourth. The one the question leaves out is waste assimilation — and that omission is deliberate, because the paper is testing whether a candidate rejects a correct statement merely for being unfamiliar.
- (a)1 only — Keeps only resource supply. It reads the environment as a warehouse of raw materials, which is the narrowest of the four functions and the one economists were criticised for treating as the whole story.
- (b)2 and 3 only — Drops resource supply, which is the least disputable function on the list — every input to production, from timber and fish to coal and iron ore, comes out of the environment.
- (d)1 and 3 only — Drops life support. Yet sustaining life through genetic and biological diversity is the function on which the other three depend; without it there is nothing to supply, absorb or admire.
In environmental economics the environment is treated as the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources, biotic and abiotic together. It performs four functions — supplying resources, assimilating waste, sustaining life and providing aesthetic services — and it can go on performing them indefinitely provided the demands made on it stay within its carrying capacity. Carrying capacity means that resource extraction stays below the rate of regeneration and waste generation stays below the environment's absorptive capacity.
The trap in a which-of-these item is almost always an omission rather than a falsehood, and that is the case here. A candidate who has learnt the four functions may hesitate because the printed list has only three, and may then reason that one of the printed three must therefore be wrong. It is not: the paper has simply left waste assimilation out. The correct move on any statements question is to test each statement on its own merits and never to reject one because the set looks incomplete. It is also worth noticing why aesthetic services belong on a list of economic functions at all — scenery, birdsong and clean air are genuinely valued, and the moment they are degraded people pay to travel to places where they survive.
- NCERT lists four functions of the environment: supplying resources, assimilating waste, sustaining life through genetic and biodiversity, and providing aesthetic services.
- Renewable resources can be used without becoming exhausted, such as forest trees and ocean fish; non-renewable resources such as fossil fuel are depleted by extraction.
- Absorptive capacity is the environment's ability to absorb degradation; when waste exceeds it, an environmental crisis follows.
- The environment performs its functions without interruption only while demand stays within its carrying capacity.
- Rising population in developing countries and high consumption in developed countries have stressed the first two functions in particular.
Three of four are printed and all three are correct; the missing fourth is the reason candidates second-guess a true statement.
- Rejecting a true statement because the printed list looks incomplete.
- Treating aesthetic services as a soft extra rather than a listed function.
- Confusing carrying capacity, which is about rates of use, with the total stock of a resource.
As a which-of-these statements item on the functions of the environment, or as a definitional question on carrying capacity or absorptive capacity.
Sustainable development is described as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In this perspective, inherently the concept of sustainable development is intertwined with which of the following concepts ?
- (a) Social justice and empowerment
- (b) Inclusive Growth
- (c) Globalization
- (d) Carrying capacity
Answer(d) Carrying capacity
The other half of the same chapter. The environment can keep performing its four functions only while use stays within carrying capacity, which is precisely what makes carrying capacity the concept sustainable development is built on.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is a function of the environment that the standard four-function list includes but is often overlooked?
- (a)Assimilation of waste
- (b)Creation of employment
- (c)Distribution of income
- (d)Regulation of prices
Answer(a) Assimilation of waste — alongside supplying resources, sustaining life and providing aesthetic services; the other three are functions of an economy, not of the environment.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The ability of the environment to absorb degradation is known as its
- (a)carrying capacity
- (b)absorptive capacity
- (c)regenerative capacity
- (d)assimilative yield
Answer(b) Absorptive capacity — carrying capacity is the wider condition that extraction stays below regeneration and waste below absorptive capacity.