Functions of the Environment: Environment performs valuable service to the economy by dispensing- storing and assimilating the residuals and waste by products generated due to economic activity.
It is a natural process that waste products into harmless and at times valuable transforms the potentially harmful concentration substances. Wind currents disperse of air pollutants. Rain and gravity remove pollutants from the air. In some cases, air pollution undergoes chemical change to become less harmful or even useful. Bacteria in water feed on and transform organic wastes into inorganic nutrients for algae, the first link in the aquatic food chain.
Limited Assimilative Capacity Of Environment
If the capacity of the environment to assimilate the waste product is unlimited, then there will be no problem of pollution at all. Residuals can be dumped into the environment without any limit and cost. But, the assimilative capacity of the environment is limited in several ways. For example, bacteria feeding on organic residuals use oxygen.
If the supply of oxygen is depleted, the aquatic life will be affected. Some materials, such as the heavy metals are not degraded by natural forces, and they accumulate in the environment when they are ejected by producers. Mercury and some other heavy metals are examples in this point. Organic forms of mercury may get concentrated in the food chain by natural process. As a result, a relatively small amount of mercury in the environment in the non-toxic form, may eventually swell up in harmful way through fish population. Many examples can be cited to establish that the assimilative capacity of the environment is limited and residuals can impair environmental functions and services.
The second, perhaps, very important service rendered by the environment is the support of human life. Life on this earth has been made hospitable for human beings because of the generosity of the environment. – Food, clothing and shelter, cultural development habits, lobe due and habitats, sports and pastimes and all are possible on this to the congenial environment for a health living. Of course, the atmosphere may be less hospitable as residuals accumulate in it causing ill-health and poor life expectancy. Pollution in the atmosphere in large concentration may alter seriously the ecological system to harm human life in the long run.
Thirdly, the services rendered by environment could be called amenity services. Some parts of the globe are pleasant spots, where people engage themselves in recreational activities like hiking, camping and boating. The environment can provide amenity services by being pleasant. A pleasant lake, very useful for swimming and boating could be made unfit and utterly useless, by the disposal of human wastes and septic tank flows into the lake.
Finally, the environment serves as a source of material inputs to the economy. These include fuels, minerals, water from rivers, gases from atmosphere and fish from the seas. The quality of these material flows can be impaired by residual discharges, thereby increasing the cost of obtaining our requirements of food and other materials from the environment.
