interview questions to ask environmental management
Answers
Mega list of top interview questions on environment which will help you to succeed in an interview.
Q.1. What is environment ?
Ans. If we do not want to go into the intricacies of the term, then we can define environment as everything that surrounds us. Whatever we see around us is confined to the living component of the human eco-system. With time, the concept has undergone modifications. Today, environment means a single system of the interacting living and non-living natural components of the earth.
But the earth is not the only planet of the solar family, which again belongs to our home Galaxy — the Milky Way. There are about 100 billion such galaxies floating in the vast universe, each containing about 100 billion stars!! In this universe, not a single event can be said to be isolated, and no object is independent of the rest.
Since everything is interrelated with every other thing, logic demands-that the entire universe is our environment. But, for practical reasons, environmental study deals only with the system of interaction between non-living and living components of the globe.
In 1977, the first international conference on Environmental Education was held in Tiflis (capital city of Georgia Republic). The programme was organised by UNESCO and UNEP, and here it was noted that “the environment includes a complex of natural, built and social components in the life of humanity”.
Q.2. Describe the principal characteristics of environment.
Ans. The principal characteristics of the environment have been listed below:
(i) At any given point of time, the environment of any area is the sum total of all biotic elements and the abiotic elements around them.
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(ii) The three basic components that constitute the structure of the environment are biome, habitat and energy,
(iii) The elements of the environment are systematically organised and interact with one another to maintain the integrity of the system.
Thus, the environment is a perfectly functioning system:
(iv) The input of solar energy is responsible for the functioning of the system.
(v) The environment is an open system since there is a continuous inflow and outflow of matter and energy.
(vi) The productivity of the environment is determined by the availability and amount of energy.
Q.3. Give a brief account of the components of environment.
Ans. The three basic components of environment are:
(I) Abiotic (physical or inorganic) components,
(II) Biotic (organic) components, and the
(III) Energy components.
Again, the abiotic components of the environment consist of:
(a) The lithosphere — the chief reservoir of mineral nutrients,
(b) The atmosphere — the chief reservoir of gases essential for organic life, and
(c) The hydrosphere — the chief reservoir of liquid water.
The biotic component of environment includes all kinds of organic life, ranging from microorganisms to plants and animals, including man.
Energy is the third component of environment, which is indispensable for the generation and sustenance of all forms of organic life. The sun is the main source of energy in the environment. Geo-thermal energy is yet another type of energy. Since photosynthesis is essential for the existence of organic life, we find that life is confined to only those regions where solar energy can be captured for photosynthesis.
This forms a narrow belt of life that extends from about 180-210 m below sea level to almost 6 km (snow-line in mountain ranges). This is known as the Biosphere, which can be said to be a thin film (1/1000th) when we consider the earth’s radius (6,370 kms).