1

CSS Environmental Science

Notes
(Created and Designed by Entireeducation.com)
Contact Us: 03084293988

2
 About Entireeducation.com
You are welcome for visiting our website which is fully composed of educational systems including
different countries university admissions which consist much essential for admitting in University.
Some university not only provides information but also ask that you can take admission on-line so, we
also provide on-line admission. We take daily update to each and every university or other educational
institute. We are now providing now daily new university admission from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
and Bangladesh. Our first objective to give first South Asian universities then We will provide the
international, worldwide universities.

Entireeducation Team incorporates with professional and create a new CSS notes for aspirants. CSS
Notes are fully comprises in accordance with new syllabus updated in 2016. Our professional stay and
layout notes up to mark. Student will get an extensive hub of knowledge regarding Environmental
Sciences from these notes. The best thing of Entireeducation notes reflects only one handbook for the
students. Through which a student can easily extract and through out the entire concepts. Fully updated
notes assist student to pulls through life career in a gleaming way with collaboration of Entireeducation
notes.

Thanks

Regards, Entireeducation.com

3
Table of Content
I. History of Environmental Thought

• Environment and Sustainable Development…………………………………………7

• History of Environmental Movements…………………………………………….…8
• Industrial and Agriculture Revolution……………………………………………….12
• United Nations Conference on Human Environment 1972, ……………….…..…16
• Our Common Future 1987, ………………………………………………………..…17
• Rio Summit 1992………………………………………………………………………18
• Agenda 21……………………………………………………………………………….19
• World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002…………………………………..21
• Millennium Development Goals. …………………………………………………..……22

II. Sustainable Development Issues

• Population growth………………………………………………………………….……23
• Poverty…………………………………………………………………………………25
• Biodiversity loss and its Conservation…………………………………………………31
• Energy security (energy conservation and alternative energy resources) …………33
• Urbanization and sustainable cities, ……………………………………………….…37
• Carrying capacity and ecological footprint. …………………………………………37
• Food security and sustainable agriculture. ……………………………………………38
• Ecological restoration. …………………………………………………………………..41

III. Interdisciplinary nature of Environmental Science

Orientation on convergence of various social and natural sciences to evolve a newndiscipline

of environmental science:

• Environmental Biology…………………………………………………………………43
• Environmental Chemistry…………………………………………………………..…44
• Environmental Physics, ……………………………………………………………….45
• Environmental Microbiology…………………………………………………….……49
• Environmental Toxicology, ………………………………………………………….…50
• Environmental Economics, ………………………………………………………….…51
• Environmental Geology…………………………………………………………………..55
• Environmental Geography……………………………………………………….……56
• Environmental Biotechnology……………………………………………………………56
• Environmental Sociology. ………………………………………………………………58

4
IV. Environmental Pollution

• Air Pollution…………………………………………………………………………..…64
• Water Pollution………………………………………………………………………….69
• Soil Pollution……………………………………………………………………………72
• Noise Pollution…………………………………………………………………………76
• Solid Waste………………………………………………………………………………79
• Water Logging & Salinity………………………………………………………………..83
• Deforestation, ……………………………………………………………………….…..83
• Desertification…………………………………………………………………….……..86
• Eutrophication, …………………………………………………………………………..89
• Global and regional air pollution problems (Greenhouse effect, Global Warming/Climate
Change, Ozone Depletion, Acid Rain). ……………………………………………..…90

V. Climate Change

• Climate Pattern at local, regional and global scale. Different types of climate including
tropical and mid latitude climate, polar climates. …………………………………..…98
• Climate change processes, Drivers and Indicators of .Climate Change, Effects of Climate
Chang on natural and societal systems. ………………………………………..103
• Carbon foot print. Climate change adaptation and mitigation, Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM), REDD+. Global environmental politics on climate change: role of India,
China and USA (Copenhagen Accord 2009). ……………………………

VI. Environmental Governance…118

Policy, legal and institutional frameworks for governance of environment in Pakistan:

• National Conservation Strategy of 1992, ………

• National Environmental Policy Act of Pakistan 2005,
• Environmental Protection Act of 1997, Pak-EPA (Review of IEE/EIA) Regulations 2000,
• Hospital Waste Management Rules 2005
• Pollution Charge Rules
• Sample Rules
• Solid Waste Management Plan 2005
• Hazardous Substances Rules 2005
• National Drinking Water Policy 2009
• Sanitation Policy, National Climate Change Policy 2012.

VII. Global initiatives

Brief on some of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements ratified by Pakistan,....124

• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ……………………………………….…124

• Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety, …………………………………………………….131
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(CITES),
………………………………………………………………………………………131

5
 • Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat
(Ramsar Convention)
…………………………………………………………………..………132
• Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS),
………………………………133
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto Protocol
to UNFCCC, ……………………………………………………………………134
• Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer………End Notes
• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
…………………………138

VIII. Environmental Assessment and Management

• Environmental Impact Assessment…………………………………………………..…139

• Strategic Environmental Assessment, ……………………………………………….…140
• Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14000), ………………………………….141
• Occupational Health & Safety management systems(OHSAS 18000), ………..….143
• Participatory Approaches to Environmental Management……………………….…..144
• Technological Approaches to Environmental Management……………………….….145
• Approaches to Solid Waste Management……………………………………………...145
• Disaster Risk Management………………………………………………………..…….146
• Pollution Control Technologies……………………………………………………….…146
• Geographic Information System & Remote Sensing……………………………….…..158
• Natural Resources Management…………………………………………………………159

6
History of Environmental Thought:
Environment and Sustainable Development:
Sustainable development (SD) is a process for meeting human development goals while maintaining
the ability of natural systems to continue to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon
which the economy and society depend[citation needed]. While the modern concept of sustainable
development is derived most strongly from the 1987 Brundtland Report, it is rooted in earlier ideas
about sustainable forest management and twentieth century environmental concerns[citation needed].

Sustainable development is the organizing principle for sustaining finite resources necessary to provide
for the needs of future generations of life on the planet. It is a process that envisions a desirable future
state for human societies in which living conditions and resource-use continue to meet human needs
without undermining the "integrity, stability and beauty" of natural biotic systems.

Environment

The Blue Marble, photographed from Apollo 17 in 1972, quickly became an icon of environmental
conservation.

Environmental sustainability concerns the natural environment and how it endures and remains diverse
and productive. Since natural resources are derived from the environment, the state of air, water, and
the climate are of particular concern. The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report outlines current knowledge
about scientific, technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change, and lists options
for adaptation and mitigation.[12] Environmental sustainability requires society to design activities to
meet human needs while preserving the life support systems of the planet. This, for example, entails
using water sustainably, utilizing renewable energy, and sustainable material supplies (e.g. harvesting
wood from forests at a rate that maintains the biomass and biodiversity).[citation needed]

An unsustainable situation occurs when natural capital (the sum total of nature's resources) is used up
faster than it can be replenished. Sustainability requires that human activity only uses nature's resources
at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally. Inherently the concept of sustainable development
is intertwined with the concept of carrying capacity. Theoretically, the long-term result of
environmental degradation is the inability to sustain human life. Such degradation on a global scale
should imply an increase in human death rate until population falls to what the degraded environment
can support[citation needed]. If the degradation continues beyond a certain tipping point or critical
threshold it would lead to eventual extinction for humanity.

Integral elements for a sustainable development are research and innovation activities. A telling
example is the European environmental research and innovation policy, which aims at defining and
implementing a transformative agenda to greening the economy and the society as a whole so to achieve
a truly sustainable development. Research and innovation in Europe is financially supported by the
programme Horizon 2020, which is also open to participation worldwide.[13] An promising direction
towards sustainable development is to design systems that are flexible and reversible [14][15]

History of Environmental Movements

The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including
conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing

7
environmental issues. Environmentalists advocate the sustainable management of resources and
stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behavior. In its
recognition of humanity as a participant in (not enemy of) ecosystems, the movement is centered on
ecology, health, and human rights.

The environmental movement is an international movement, represented by a range of organizations,

from the large to grassroots and varies from country to country. Due to its large membership, varying
and strong beliefs, and occasionally speculative nature, the environmental movement is not always
united in its goals. The movement also encompasses some other movements with a more specific focus,
such as the climate movement. At its broadest, the movement includes private citizens, professionals,
religious devotees, politicians, scientists, nonprofit organizations and individual advocates.

Early awareness

Levels of air pollution rose during the Industrial Revolution, sparking the first modern environmental
laws to be passed in the mid-19th century.

Early interest in the environment was a feature of the Romantic movement in the early 19th century.
The poet William Wordsworth had travelled extensively in the Lake District and wrote that it is a "sort
of national property in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart
to enjoy".

The origins of the environmental movement lay in the response to increasing levels of smoke pollution
in the atmosphere during the Industrial Revolution. The emergence of great factories and the
concomitant immense growth in coal consumption gave rise to an unprecedented level of air pollution
in industrial centers; after 1900 the large volume of industrial chemical discharges added to the growing
load of untreated human waste.[2] Under increasing political pressure from the urban middle-class, the
first large-scale, modern environmental laws came in the form of Britain's Alkali Acts, passed in 1863,
to regulate the deleterious air pollution (gaseous hydrochloric acid) given off by the Leblanc process,
used to produce soda ash.

Conservation movement

The modern conservation movement was first manifested in the forests of India, with the practical
application of scientific conservation principles. The conservation ethic that began to evolve included
three core principles: that the human activity damaged the environment, that there was a civic duty to
maintain the environment for future generations, and that scientific, empirically based methods should
be applied to ensure this duty was carried out. Sir James Ranald Martin was prominent in promoting
this ideology, publishing many medico-topographical reports that demonstrated the scale of damage
wrought through large-scale deforestation and desiccation, and lobbying extensively for the
institutionalization of forest conservation activities in British India through the establishment of Forest
Departments.[3] The Madras Board of Revenue started local conservation efforts in 1842, headed by
Alexander Gibson, a professional botanist who systematically adopted a forest conservation program
based on scientific principles. This was the first case of state management of forests in the world.[4]
Eventually, the government under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie introduced the first permanent
and large-scale forest conservation program in the world in 1855, a model that soon spread to other
colonies, as well the United States. In 1860, the Department banned the use shifting cultivation.[5] Dr.
Hugh Cleghorn's 1861 manual, The forests and gardens of South India, became the definitive work on
the subject and was widely used by forest assistants in the subcontinent.

8
Sir Dietrich Brandis joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the teak forests of Pegu
division in eastern Burma. During that time Burma's teak forests were controlled by militant Karen
tribals. He introduced the "taungya" system,[8] in which Karen villagers provided labour for clearing,
planting and weeding teak plantations. He formulated new forest legislation and helped establish
research and training institutions. The Imperial Forest School at Dehradun was founded by him.[9][10]

British Agricultural:

The British Agricultural Revolution was the unprecedented increase in agricultural production in
England due to increases in labour and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries.
Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the century to 1770, and thereafter productivity
remained among the highest in the world. This increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid
growth of population in England and Wales, from 5.5 million in 1700 to over 9 million by 1801 though
domestic production gave way increasingly to food imports in the nineteenth century as population
more than tripled to over 32 million.[1] The rise in productivity accelerated the decline of the
agricultural share of the labour force, adding to the urban workforce on which industrialization
depended: the Agricultural Revolution has therefore been cited as a cause of the Industrial
Revolution.[2]

One important element in this change was the move in crop rotation to turnips and clover in place of
fallow. Turnips can be grown in winter and are deep rooted, allowing them to gather minerals
unavailable to shallow rooted crops. Clover fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form of fertiliser.
This permitted the intensive arable cultivation of light soils on enclosed farms and provided fodder to
support increased livestock numbers whose manure added further to soil fertility.

Major developments and innovations

The British Agricultural Revolution was the result of the complex interaction of social, economic and
farming technology changes. Major developments and innovations include:[3]

• Norfolk four-course crop rotation: Fodder crops, particularly turnips and clover, replaced
leaving the land fallow.
• The Dutch improved the Chinese plough so that it could be pulled with fewer oxen or horses.
• Enclosure: the removal of common rights to establish exclusive ownership of land
• Development of a national market free of tariffs, tolls and customs barriers
• Transportation infrastructures, such as improved roads, canals, and later, railways
• Land conversion, land drains and reclamation
• Increase in farm size
• Selective breeding

Development of a national market

Markets were widespread by 1500 with about 800 locations in Britain. These were regulated and not
free. The most important development between the 16th century and the mid-19th century was the
development of private marketing. By the 19th century, marketing was nationwide and the vast majority
of agricultural production was for market rather than for the farmer and his family. The 16th-century
market radius was about 10 miles, which could support a town of 10,000.[17]

The next stage of development was trading between markets, requiring merchants, credit and forward
sales, knowledge of markets and pricing and of supply and demand in different markets. Eventually the

9
market evolved into a national one driven by London and other growing cities. By 1700, there was a
national market for wheat.

Legislation regulating middlemen required registration, addressed weights and measures, fixing of
prices and collection of tolls by the government. Market regulations were eased in 1663, when people
were allowed some self-regulation to hold inventory, but it was forbidden to withhold commodities
from the market in an effort to increase prices. In the late 18th century, the idea of “self regulation” was
gaining acceptance.[18]

The lack of internal tariffs, customs barriers and feudal tolls made Britain “the largest coherent market
in Europe”.[19]

Transportation infrastructures:

High wagon transportation costs made it uneconomical to ship commodities very far outside the market
radius by road, generally limiting shipment to less than 20 or 30 miles to market or to a navigable
waterway. Water transport was, and in some cases still is, much more efficient than land transport. In
the early 19th century it cost as much to transport a ton of freight 32 miles by wagon over an unimproved
road as it did to ship it 3000 miles across the Atlantic.[20] A horse could pull at most one ton of freight
on a Macadam road, which was multi-layer stone covered and crowned, with side drainage. But a single
horse could pull a barge weighing over 30 tons.

Commerce was aided by the expansion of roads and inland waterways. Road transport capacity grew
from threefold to fourfold from 1500 to 1700.

Railroads would eventually reduce the cost of land transport by over 95%; however they did not become
important until after 1850.

Land conversion, drainage and reclamation

Another way to get more land was to convert some pasture land into arable land and recover fen land
and some pastures. It is estimated that the amount of arable land in Britain grew by 10–30% through
these land conversions.

The British Agricultural Revolution was aided by land maintenance advancements in Flanders, and the
Netherlands. Due to the large and dense population of Flanders and Holland, farmers there were forced
to take maximum advantage of every bit of usable land; the country had become a pioneer in canal
building, soil restoration and maintenance, soil drainage, and land reclamation technology. Dutch
experts like Cornelius Vermuyden brought some of this technology to Britain.[citation needed]

Water-meadows were utilised in the late 16th to the 20th centuries and allowed earlier pasturing of
livestock after they were wintered on hay. This increased livestock yields, giving more hides, meat,
milk, and manure as well as better hay crops.[citation needed]

Rise in capitalist farmers

With the development of regional markets and eventually a national market, aided by improved
transportation infrastructures, farmers were no longer dependent on their local market and were less
subject to having to sell at low prices into an oversupplied local market and not being able to sell their
surpluses to distant localities that were experiencing shortages. They also became less subject to price
fixing regulations. Farming became a business rather than solely a means of subsistence.[23]

10
Under free market capitalism, farmers had to remain competitive. To be successful, farmers had to
become effective managers who incorporated the latest farming innovations in order to be low cost
producers.

Selective breeding of livestock

In England, Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke introduced selective breeding as a scientific practice,
mating together two animals with particularly desirable characteristics, and also using inbreeding or the
mating of close relatives, such as father and daughter, or brother and sister, to stabilise certain qualities
in order to reduce genetic diversity in desirable animals programmes from the mid-18th century.
Arguably, Bakewell's most important breeding programme was with sheep. Using native stock, he was
able to quickly select for large, yet fine-boned sheep, with long, lustrous wool. The Lincoln Longwool
was improved by Bakewell, and in turn the Lincoln was used to develop the subsequent breed, named
the New (or Dishley) Leicester. It was hornless and had a square, meaty body with straight top lines.[24]
Bakewell was also the first to breed cattle to be used primarily for beef. Previously, cattle were first and
foremost kept for pulling ploughs as oxen or for dairy uses, with beef from surplus males as an
additional bonus, but he crossed long-horned heifers and a Westmoreland bull to eventually create the
Dishley Longhorn. As more and more farmers followed his lead, farm animals increased dramatically
in size and quality. The average weight of a bull sold for slaughter at Smithfield was reported around
1700 as 370 pounds (170 kg), though this is considered a low estimate: by 1786, weights of 840 pounds
(380 kg) were reported, though other contemporary indicators suggest an increase of around a quarter
over the intervening century.

Significance

The Agricultural Revolution was part of a long process of improvement, but sound advice on farming
began to appear in England in the mid-17th century, from writers such as Samuel Hartlib, Walter Blith
and others,[35] and the overall agricultural productivity of Britain started to grow significantly only in
the period of the Agricultural Revolution. It is estimated that total agricultural output grew 2.7-fold
between 1700 and 1870 and output per worker at a similar rate.

The Agricultural Revolution in Britain proved to be a major turning point in history, allowing
population to far exceed earlier peaks and sustain the country's rise to industrial pre-eminence. Towards
the end of the 19th century, the substantial gains in British agricultural productivity were rapidly offset
by competition from cheaper imports, made possible by the exploitation of new lands and advances in
transportation, refrigeration, and other technologies.

Industrial Revolution:

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about
1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production
methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency
of water power, the increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools and the rise of
the factory system. It also included the change from wood and other bio-fuels to coal. Textiles were the
dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital
invested; the textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.[1]:40

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was
influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented
sustained growth. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the

11
standard of living for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history,
although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th
centuries.[2][3][4]

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and industrialisation spread to Western Europe and
North America within a few decades. Since then industrialisation has spread throughout the world.[1]
The precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is the pace of
economic and social changes.[5][6][7][8] GDP per capita was broadly stable before the Industrial
Revolution and the emergence of the modern capitalist economy,[9] while the Industrial Revolution
began an era of per-capita economic growth in capitalist economies.[10] Economic historians are in
agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of
humanity since the domestication of animals, plants[11] and fire.

The First Industrial Revolution evolved into the Second Industrial Revolution in the transition years
between 1840 and 1870, when technological and economic progress continued with the increasing
adoption of steam transport (steam-powered railways, boats and ships), the large-scale manufacture of
machine tools and the increasing use of machinery in steam-powered factories.

Important technological developments

The commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations,[18]
beginning in the second half of the 18th century. By the 1830s the following gains had been made in
important technologies:

Textiles – Mechanised cotton spinning powered by steam or water greatly increased the output of a
worker. The power loom increased the output of a worker by a factor of over 40.[19] The cotton gin
increased productivity of removing seed from cotton by a factor of 50.[13] Large gains in productivity
also occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton.[1

Steam power – The efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one-fifth and one-
tenth as much fuel. The adaptation of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them suitable for
industrial uses.[1]:82 The high pressure engine had a high power to weight ratio, making it suitable for
transportation.[20] Steam power underwent a rapid expansion after 1800.

Iron making – The substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost for pig iron and
wrought iron production.[1]:89–93 Using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces,[1]:218[21] resulting
in economies of scale. The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760. It was later improved by
making it double acting, which allowed higher furnace temperatures. The puddling process produced a
structural grade iron at a lower cost than the finery forge[1]:91 The rolling mill was fifteen times faster
than hammering wrought iron. Hot blast (1828) greatly increased fuel efficiency in iron production in
the following decades.

Cement

In 1824 Joseph Aspdin, a British bricklayer turned builder, patented a chemical process for making
portland cement which was an important advance in the building trades. This process involves sintering
a mixture of clay and limestone to about 1,400 °C (2,552 °F), then grinding it into a fine powder which
is then mixed with water, sand and gravel to produce concrete. Portland cement was used by the famous
English engineer Marc Isambard Brunel several years later when constructing the Thames Tunnel.[39]
Cement was used on a large scale in the construction of the London sewerage system a generation later.

12
Gas lighting

Another major industry of the later Industrial Revolution was gas lighting. Though others made a similar
innovation elsewhere, the large-scale introduction of this was the work of William Murdoch, an
employee of Boulton and Watt, the Birmingham steam engine pioneers. The process consisted of the
large-scale gasification of coal in furnaces, the purification of the gas (removal of sulphur, ammonia,
and heavy hydrocarbons), and its storage and distribution. The first gas lighting utilities were
established in London between 1812 and 1820. They soon became one of the major consumers of coal
in the UK. Gas lighting had an impact on social and industrial organisation because it allowed factories
and stores to remain open longer than with tallow candles or oil. Its introduction allowed night life to
flourish in cities and towns as interiors and streets could be lighted on a larger scale than before.

Glass making

A new method of producing glass, known as the cylinder process, was developed in Europe during the
early 19th century. In 1832, this process was used by the Chance Brothers to create sheet glass. They
became the leading producers of window and plate glass. This advancement allowed for larger panes
of glass to be created without interruption, thus freeing up the space planning in interiors as well as the
fenestration of buildings. The Crystal Palace is the supreme example of the use of sheet glass in a new
and innovative structure..

Paper machine

A machine for making a continuous sheet of paper on a loop of wire fabric was patented in 1798 by
Nicholas Louis Robert who worked for Saint-Léger Didot family in France. The paper machine is
known as a Fourdrinier after the financiers, brothers Sealy and Henry Fourdrinier, who were stationers
in London. Although greatly improved and with many variations, the Fourdriner machine is the
predominant means of paper production today.

The method of continuous production demonstrated by the paper machine influenced the development
of continuous rolling of iron and later steel and other continuous production processes.

Transportation

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, inland transport was by navigable rivers and roads, with
coastal vessels employed to move heavy goods by sea. Wagon ways were used for conveying coal to
rivers for further shipment, but canals had not yet been widely constructed. Animals supplied all of the
motive power on land, with sails providing the motive power on the sea. The first horse railways were
introduced toward the end of the 18th century, with steam locomotives being introduced in the early
decades of the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution improved Britain's transport infrastructure with a turnpike road network, a
canal and waterway network, and a railway network. Raw materials and finished products could be
moved more quickly and cheaply than before. Improved transportation also allowed new ideas to spread
quickly.

13
Roads

Construction of the first macadamized road in the United States (1823). In the foreground, workers are
breaking stones "so as not to exceed 6 ounces in weight or to pass a two-inch ring".[59]

Much of the original British road system was poorly maintained by thousands of local parishes, but
from the 1720s (and occasionally earlier) turnpike trusts were set up to charge tolls and maintain some
roads. Increasing numbers of main roads were turnpiked from the 1750s to the extent that almost every
main road in England and Wales was the responsibility of a turnpike trust. New engineered roads were
built by John Metcalf, Thomas Telford and most notably John McAdam, with the first 'macadamised'
stretch of road being Marsh Road at Ashton Gate, Bristol in 1816.[60] The major turnpikes radiated
from London and were the means by which the Royal Mail was able to reach the rest of the country.
Heavy goods transport on these roads was by means of slow, broad wheeled, carts hauled by teams of
horses. Lighter goods were conveyed by smaller carts or by teams of pack horse. Stage coaches carried
the rich, and the less wealthy could pay to ride on carriers carts.

Railways

Painting depicting the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, the first inter-city
railway in the world and which spawned Railway Mania due to its success.

Wagonways for moving coal in the mining areas had started in the 17th century and were often
associated with canal or river systems for the further movement of coal. These were all horse drawn or
relied on gravity, with a stationary steam engine to haul the wagons back to the top of the incline. The
first applications of the steam locomotive were on wagon or plate ways (as they were then often called
from the cast-iron plates used). Horse-drawn public railways did not begin until the early years of the
19th century when improvements to pig and wrought iron production were lowering costs. See:
Metallurgy

Reducing friction was one of the major reasons for the success of railroads compared to wagons. This
was demonstrated on an iron plate covered wooden tramway in 1805 at Croydon, U.K.

“ A good horse on an ordinary turnpike road can draw two thousand pounds, or one ton. A party of
gentlemen were invited to witness the experiment, that the superiority of the new road might be
established by ocular demonstration. Twelve wagons were loaded with stones, till each wagon weighed
three tons, and the wagons were fastened together. A horse was then attached, which drew the wagons
with ease, six miles in two hours, having stopped four times, in order to show he had the power of
starting, as well as drawing his great load.”[61]

Steam locomotives began being built after the introduction of high pressure steam engines around 1800.
These engines exhausted used steam to the atmosphere, doing away with the condenser and cooling
water. They were also much lighter weight and smaller in size for a given horsepower than the stationary
condensing engines. A few of these early locomotives were used in mines. Steam-hauled public
railways began with the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825.

14
On 15 September 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened, the first inter-city railway
in the world and was attended by Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington.[62] The railway was
engineered by Joseph Locke and George Stephenson, linked the rapidly expanding industrial town of
Manchester with the port town of Liverpool. The opening was marred by problems, due to the primitive
nature of the technology being employed, however problems were gradually ironed out and the railway
became highly successful, transporting passengers and freight. The success of the inter-city railway,
particularly in the transport of freight and commodities, led to Railway Mania.

Construction of major railways connecting the larger cities and towns began in the 1830s but only
gained momentum at the very end of the first Industrial Revolution. After many of the workers had
completed the railways, they did not return to their rural lifestyles but instead remained in the cities,
providing additional workers for the factories.

United Nations Conference on Human Environment 1972

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden from June
5 to June 16 in 1972.

When the UN General Assembly decided to convene the 1972 Stockholm Conference, at the initiative
of the Government of Sweden to host it, UN Secretary-General U Thant invited Maurice Strong to lead
it as Secretary-General of the Conference, as the Canadian diplomat (under Pierre Trudeau) had initiated
and already worked for over two years on the project.[1][2]

History

Sweden first suggested to ECOSOC in 1968 the idea of having a UN conference to focus on human
interactions with the environment. ECOSOC passed resolution 1346 supporting the idea. General
Assembly Resolution 2398 in 1969 decided to convene a conference in 1972 and mandated a set of
reports from the UN secretary-general suggesting that the conference focus on "stimulating and
providing guidelines for action by national government and international organizations" facing
environmental issues.

UNCHE

The UNCHE emphasized that defending and improving the environment must become a goal to be
pursued by all countries. The Stockholm Declaration and Action Plan defined principles for the
preservation and enhancement of the natural environment, and highlighted the need to support people
in this process. The Conference indicated that “industrialized” environmental problems, such as habitat
degradation, toxicity and acid rain , were not necessarily relevant issues for all countries. In particular,
development strategies were not meeting the needs of the poorest countries and communities.

Some of the specific issues addressed was the role which industrialized countries should have in the
process of protecting the environment, stating that industrial countries should help to close the gap

15
between them and underdeveloped countries while keeping their own priorities and the protection and
improvement of the environment in mind. The conference developed a long set of recommendations to
act as goals to pursue its mission. Recommendations included that governments communicate about
environmental issues that have international implications (such as air pollution), that governments give
attention to the training of those who plan, develop, and manage settlement areas, and that agencies
work together to address many issues, such as access to clean water and population growth.

However, it was the pending environmental problems that dominated the meeting and led to wider
public environmental awareness.

United Nations Environment Programme

One of the greatest achievements of the UNCHE was the creation of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), based in Nairobi, Kenya. The mission of UNEP is "to provide leadership and
encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and
peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations." UNEP is the
voice for the environment within the United Nations system and works toward this mission by:

• Encouraging international participation and cooperation in addressing environmental issues and

environmental policy
• Monitoring the status of the global environment and interpreting environmental data collected
• Creating environmental awareness in governments, society, and the private sector
• Coordinating UN activities pertaining to the environment
• Developing regional programs for sustainability
• Helping environmental authorities, especially those in developing countries, form and
implement policy
• Helping to develop international environmental law

Our Common Future 1987

Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report, from the United Nations World
Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) was published in 1987.

Its targets were multilateralism and interdependence of nations in the search for a sustainable
development path. The report sought to recapture the spirit of the United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment - the Stockholm Conference - which had introduced environmental concerns to
the formal political development sphere. Our Common Future placed environmental issues firmly on
the political agenda; it aimed to discuss the environment and development as one single issue.

The document was the culmination of a “900 day” international-exercise which catalogued, analysed,
and synthesised: written submissions and expert testimony from “senior government representatives,
scientists and experts, research institutes, industrialists, representatives of non-governmental
organizations, and the general public” held at public hearings throughout the world.

The Brundtland Commission's mandate was to:

• “ re-examine the critical issues of environment and development and to formulate innovative,
concrete, and realistic action proposals to deal with them;

16
 • strengthen international cooperation on environment and development and to assess and
propose new forms of cooperation that can break out of existing patterns and influence policies
and events in the direction of needed change; and
• raise the level of understanding and commitment to action on the part of individuals, voluntary
organizations, businesses, institutes, and governments” (1987: 347). “The Commission focused
its attention in the areas of population, food security, the loss of species and genetic resources,
energy, industry, and human settlements - realizing that all of these are connected and cannot
be treated in isolation one from another”

The Brundtland Commission Report recognised that human resource development in the form of
poverty reduction, gender equity, and wealth redistribution was crucial to formulating strategies for
environmental conservation, and it also recognised that environmental-limits to economic growth in
industrialised and industrialising societies existed. As such, the Report offered “[the] analysis, the broad
remedies, and the recommendations for a sustainable course of development” within such societies
(1987: 16). However, the Report was unable to identify the mode(s) of production that are responsible
for degradation of the environment, and in the absence of analysing the principles governing market-
led economic growth, the Report postulated that such growth could be reformed (and expanded); this
lack of analysis resulted in an obfuscated-introduction of the term sustainable development.[2]

The publication of Our Common Future and the work of the World Commission on Environment and
Development laid the groundwork for the convening of the 1992 Earth Summit and the adoption of
Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration and to the establishment of the Commission on Sustainable
Development.

An oft-quoted definition of sustainable development is defined in the report as:

"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs."

In addition, key contributions of Our Common Future to the concept of sustainable development include
the recognition that the many crises facing the planet are interlocking crises that are elements of a single
crisis of the whole [3] and of the vital need for the active participation of all sectors of society in
consultation and decisions relating to sustainable development.

Our Common Future is also known as the Brundtland Report in recognition of former Norwegian Prime
Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland's role as Chair of the World Commission on Environment and
Development.

Rio Summit 1992

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio
Summit, Rio Conference, and Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations
conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992.

In 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development was also held in Rio, and is also
commonly called Rio+20 or Rio Earth Summit 2012. It was held from 13 to 22 June.

Overview

17
172 governments participated, with 116 sending their heads of state or government.[1] Some 2,400
representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attended, with 17,000 people at the parallel
NGO "Global Forum" (also called Forum Global), who had Consultative Status.

The issues addressed included:

• systematic scrutiny of patterns of production — particularly the production of toxic

components, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste including radioactive chemicals
• alternative sources of energy to replace the use of fossil fuels which delegates linked to global
climate change
• new reliance on public transportation systems in order to reduce vehicle emissions, congestion
in cities and the health problems caused by polluted air and smoke
• the growing usage and limited supply of water

An important achievement of the summit was an agreement on the Climate Change Convention which
in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol. Another agreement was to "not to carry out any activities on the lands
of indigenous peoples that would cause environmental degradation or that would be culturally
inappropriate".

The Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the Earth Summit, and made a start
towards redefinition of measures that did not inherently encourage destruction of natural ecoregions
and so-called uneconomic growth.

Twelve cities were also honoured by the Local Government Honours Award for innovative local
environmental programs. These included Sudbury in Canada for its ambitious program to rehabilitate
environmental damage from the local mining industry, Austin in the United States for its green building
strategy, and Kitakyūshū in Japan for incorporating an international education and training component
into its municipal pollution control program.

Results

The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

• Agenda 21
• Forest Principles
• Moreover, important legally binding agreements (Rio Convention) were opened for signature:
• Convention on Biological Diversity[5]
• Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Critics, point out that many of the agreements made in Rio have not been realized regarding such
fundamental issues as fighting poverty and cleaning up the environment.

Green Cross International was founded to build upon the work of the Summit.

Agenda 21

18
Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regard to
sustainable development.[1] It is a product of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and
Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is an action agenda for the UN, other
multilateral organizations, and individual governments around the world that can be executed at local,
national, and global levels. The "21" in Agenda 21 refers to the 21st Century. It has been affirmed and
modified at subsequent UN conferences.

Structure and contents[edit]

Agenda 21 is a 700-page document divided into 40 chapters that have been grouped into 4 sections:

Section I: Social and Economic Dimensions is directed toward combating poverty, especially in
developing countries, changing consumption patterns, promoting health, achieving a more sustainable
population, and sustainable settlement in decision making.

Section II: Conservation and Management of Resources for Development Includes atmospheric
protection, combating deforestation, protecting fragile environments, conservation of biological
diversity (biodiversity), control of pollution and the management of biotechnology, and radioactive
wastes.

Section III: Strengthening the Role of Major Groups includes the roles of children and youth, women,
NGOs, local authorities, business and industry, and workers; and strengthening the role of indigenous
peoples, their communities, and farmers.

Section IV: Means of Implementation: implementation includes science, technology transfer,

education, international institutions and financial mechanisms.

Development and evolution

The full text of Agenda 21 was made public at the UN Conference on Environment and Development
(Earth Summit), held in Rio de Janeiro on June 13, 1992, where 178 governments voted to adopt the
program. The final text was the result of drafting, consultation, and negotiation, beginning in 1989 and
culminating at the two-week conference.

Rio+5 (1997)[edit]

In 1997, the UN General Assembly held a special session to appraise the status of Agenda 21 (Rio +5).
The Assembly recognized progress as "uneven" and identified key trends, including increasing
globalization, widening inequalities in income, and continued deterioration of the global environment.
A new General Assembly Resolution (S-19/2) promised further action.

Rio+10 (2002)[edit]

World Summit on Sustainable Development

The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, agreed to at the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(Earth Summit 2002), affirmed UN commitment to "full implementation" of Agenda 21, alongside
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other international agreements.

Agenda 21 for culture (2002)[edit]

19
The first World Public Meeting on Culture, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2002, came up with the idea
to establish guidelines for local cultural policies, something comparable to what Agenda 21 was for the
environment.[2] They are to be included in various subsections of Agenda 21 and will be carried out
through a wide range of sub-programs beginning with G8 countries.[citation needed]

Rio+20 (2012):

In 2012, at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development the attending members
reaffirmed their commitment to Agenda 21 in their outcome document called "The Future We Want".
180 leaders from nations participated.

Implementation

The Commission on Sustainable Development acts as a high-level forum on sustainable development

and has acted as preparatory committee for summits and sessions on the implementation of Agenda 21.
The UN Division for Sustainable Development acts as the secretariat to the Commission and works
"within the context of" Agenda 21.

Implementation by member states remains voluntary, and its adoption has varied.

For Complete CSS Environmental

Science Notes

Call At:
03084293988,
03314019933

20
For Complete CSS Environmental
Science Notes

Call At:
03084293988,
03314019933

21