Environmental Science
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Abstract
The late 1960s was a period of rapid, profound and stimulating development in geography as a whole and in environmental science in particular. There was an unprecedented explosion of ^ public and academic interest in issues of environmental concern, which stimulated the birth of a new discipline called Environmental Science. The shift in paradigm in this new discipline is its orientation to global problems, its conception of the earth as a set of interlocking, interacting systems and its interest in man as a part of these systems. Not only does man respond to the forces of environment, man in turn acts upon and modifies environmental processes and forms. Man creates many forms of environmental degradation and pollution. Part of the purpose of Environmental Science is to recognize man’s impact upon the environment, and particularly to show how susceptibility of the environment to the impact, varies from place to place. Such knowledge can be put to use intelligently for water/land use planning and resource management. Concern about changes in the global environment prompts man to ask four basic questions: What is happening to the environment? Why is it happening? What can we do and what are we doing about it? What will happen if we do not act now? These are key questions that are relevant to every environmental scientist.