Environment

and Education
SPECIAL TOPIC 3
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

ENVIRONMENT
DEFINED
P. Gisbert says, Environment is

anything immediately surrounding

an object and exerting a direct
influence on it.

ENVIRONMENT
DEFINED
T. D. Elliot defines environment as

the field of effective stimulation

and interaction for any unit of
living matter.

ENVIRONMENT
DEFINED

environment is
a external force which
influences us.
E. J. Ross says

CLASSIFICATION
OF ENVIRONMENT
1. Natural Environment
2. Social Environment
3. Cultural Environment

ECOLOGY
First proposed by a German
biologist, Ernest Haeckel, in 1869
Ecology is the study of the total
relations of the animal both to its
inorganic and to its organic
environment, including its friendly and
inimical relations with those animals
and plants in which it comes directly
or indirectly in contact.

OTHER DEFINITIONS
OF ECOLOGY
Ecology is the science of the
community (Frederick Clements,
1916).
Ecology is the science of all the
relations of all the organisms to all
their environment (Trailor, 1936).

Ecology
is
the
study
of
interrelationships of plants and
animals with their environment
(Clarke, 1954).
Ecology is the scientific study of the
structure and functions of nature
(Odum, 1963).
Ecology, in a broad sense, is the
study of ecosystem (Misra, 1970).

ECOSYSTEM
An ecosystem is a small segment of
nature embracing the community of
living things plus the physical
environment.
The basic and most important concept
of an ecosystem is that everything is
somehow related to everything else in
nature.

MAJOR TYPES OF
ECOSYSTEMS:
seas
estuaries and seashores
fresh water systems
deserts
tundra
grasslands
tundra

GENERAL PRINCIPLES
OR CHARACTERISTICS
OF ECOSYSTEMS
(SMITH, 1966)
1. The ecosystem is a major
structural and functional unit of
ecology.

2. The structure of an ecosystem is

related to its species diversity;
the more complex ecosystems
have a high species diversity.
3.

The function of the ecosystem is

related to energy flow and
material cycling through ad
within ecosystem.

4. The relative amount of energy

needed to maintain an ecosystem
depends on its structure. The
more complex structure, the
lesser the energy it needs to
maintain itself.
5. Ecosystems mature by passing
from less complex to more
complex states.

6. Both the environment and the energy

fixation in any given ecosystem are
limited and cannot be exceeded
without causing serious undesirable
effects.
7. Alterations
in
the
environment
represent selective pressures upon
the population to which it must adjust.
Organisms which are unable to adjust
to the change, environment vanish.

MAN AND
ENVIRONMENT
Every action has an equal and
opposite reaction. Newtons
third law
Equally
apply
to
mans
relationship with nature as it
relates to application of force on
inanimate objects.

Man is unique in many ways.

- the ability to subordinate nature
and natural resources