The environment modified by human activities is called

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, Anthropogenic environment. The word comes from the Greek anthropos ('human being') plus the suffix -genic ('produced by'), so an anthropogenic environment is by definition one created or altered by human action — cropland carved out of forest, a reservoir behind a dam, a canal network, a plantation, a mine, a road corridor or a city. Geographers use the term as the general category standing opposite the natural (physical) environment, which is the term for surroundings as they exist without human modification. The stem gives the agency of change ('modified by human activities'), and only option (b) names that agency.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Wrong — the natural or physical environment is the sum of land, water, air and living things as they occur independently of human intervention. It is the exact opposite of what the stem describes.  (c) Tempting but wrong — a city is certainly human-made, but 'urban environment' names only one type of human-modified setting. Irrigated farmland, reservoirs, canals, plantations and mines are equally products of human activity and are not urban, so the term is far too narrow to be the general answer.  (d) Wrong — 'modern environment' is not a recognised category in environmental geography. It would point to a period of time, not to the agency (human action) that did the modifying.

Concept: Environmental geography classifies surroundings by the agency that shaped them. The natural (physical) environment covers the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere as they occur without human intervention. The anthropogenic environment — also called the human-made, cultural or built environment — is that same setting after people have reshaped it: fields, canals, reservoirs, plantations, mines, settlements and cities. In practice the two form a continuum rather than a pair of boxes, because almost no part of the Earth's surface today is entirely free of human influence. The same prefix is used widely: anthropogenic emissions (human-caused greenhouse gases), anthropogenic landforms, and the much-discussed (though not formally ratified) 'Anthropocene'.

State PCS 2019 Q22 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q22 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer