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The NCERT Class 11 Sociology Chapter 3: Environment and Society from Understanding Society studies the dynamic inter-relationship between human societies and their natural environment. It examines how social organisation, values, and economic systems shape environmental interactions, and how ecological factors influence societal structures. The chapter highlights major environmental problems, their social roots, and the concept of sustainable development. These notes summarise key concepts and clarify sociological perspectives for better revision.
Table of Contents
Explore Notes of Class 11: Understanding Society
Introduction
This section introduces the ecological basis of societies and the complex relationship between human actions and the environment.
Definition: Ecology refers to the web of physical and biological systems, including humans, mountains, rivers, and flora and fauna, shaped by geography and hydrology.
Characteristics:
- All societies depend on natural resources (e.g., wood, iron, water) for material objects like furniture or electricity.
- Human actions modify ecology (e.g., deforestation increases flood-proneness; global warming alters climate).
- Social environments emerge from the interaction between biophysical ecology and human interventions.
- Ecology shapes society (e.g., fertile Indo-Gangetic plains enable dense settlements), while society shapes nature (e.g., capitalism drives car-centric landscapes).
- Distinguishing natural and human factors in ecological change is challenging over time.
Significance: Understanding environment-society interactions helps address urgent environmental crises systematically.
Example: A classroom chair’s production involves wood from forests, iron nails, and global trade, reflecting complex resource flows from nature.
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This section examines how social structures, particularly property relations and values, shape human interactions with the environment.
Definition: Social organisation refers to the systems of property, labour division, and values that determine how natural resources are accessed and used.
Characteristics:
- Property Relations: Government or private ownership dictates resource use (e.g., government forests leased to timber companies or open to villagers).
- Division of Labour: Landless labourers and women have different environmental relationships than landowners (e.g., women in rural India gather fuel but lack resource control).
- Social Values:
- Capitalism commodifies nature (e.g., rivers reduced to profit calculations).
- Socialism redistributes land for equality (e.g., land reforms for peasants).
- Religious values may protect sacred groves or justify environmental changes.
- Knowledge systems influence environmental perceptions (e.g., colonial sciences like geology served resource extraction).
Significance: Social organisation creates varied environment-society relationships, often leading to inequalities in resource access.
Example: In rural India, women face acute resource scarcity as they fetch water and fuel but lack control over these resources.
Major Environmental Problems and Risks
This section outlines key environmental issues and their global and local significance.
Definition: Environmental problems include resource depletion, pollution, global warming, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and disasters, all rooted in human activity.
Characteristics:
- Resource Depletion:
- Non-renewable resources like fossil fuels, groundwater, and topsoil are rapidly depleted.
- Groundwater decline is acute in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh due to intensive agriculture.
- Rivers are dammed, and urban water bodies are built over, disrupting ecosystems.
- Biodiverse habitats (forests, wetlands) shrink due to agricultural expansion, endangering species like tigers.
- Pollution:
- Air pollution from industries, vehicles, and domestic fires causes 7 million deaths annually (WHO, 2012).
- Indoor pollution from rural cooking fires endangers women due to poor ventilation.
- Water pollution from sewage, factory effluents, and farm runoff affects rivers and groundwater.
- Noise pollution from loudspeakers and traffic prompts court interventions.
- Global Warming:
- Greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide) trap heat, raising global temperatures.
- Effects include melting polar ice, rising sea levels, and erratic climates.
- India and China significantly contribute to global emissions.
- Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs):
- Gene-splicing creates pest-resistant crops (e.g., Bt cotton) but raises unknown health and ecological risks.
- Corporate control over sterile seeds increases farmer dependency.
- Natural and Man-made Disasters:
- Examples include the 1984 Bhopal gas leak (4,000 deaths) and the 2004 tsunami.
- Industrial accidents like Chernobyl highlight the risks of complex technologies.
Significance: These problems threaten ecosystems and human survival, requiring urgent sociological analysis.
Example: Rapid groundwater depletion in Punjab for agriculture empties aquifers, disrupting long-term water availability.
This section explains how environmental issues are rooted in social inequalities and power dynamics.
Definition: Environmental problems are social problems because social status and power determine who is most affected and how solutions are implemented.
Characteristics:
- Social Inequality: Wealthy groups can insulate themselves from crises (e.g., rich farmers in Kutch use borewells, leaving poor villagers waterless).
- Public Interest Conflicts: Environmental priorities (e.g., biodiversity protection) may benefit powerful groups while harming the poor.
- Social Ecology Perspective:
- Property and production systems shape environmental practices (e.g., the Forest Department prioritises timber over artisans’ needs).
- Different social groups (e.g., men vs. women, landlords vs. labourers) have distinct environmental relationships.
- Environmental conflicts arise from competing interests and ideologies.
- Addressing environmental issues requires changing social relations to create equitable resource management.
Significance: Environmental crises reflect and reinforce social inequalities, necessitating socially inclusive solutions.
Example: In Kutch, rich farmers’ borewells deplete groundwater, leaving poor villagers’ wells dry during droughts.
Sustainable Development
This section discusses sustainable development as a balanced approach to the environment and the economy.
Definition: Sustainable development meets present needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet theirs (Brundtland Report, 1987).
Characteristics:
- Ecological-Economic Tension: The past 300 years of exploitative development have caused species extinction and resource depletion.
- Capitalist Consumption: Emphasis on new products fuels inequality and marginalises the poor.
- Key Concepts:
- Prioritising the essential needs of the world’s poor.
- Recognising technological and social limitations on environmental capacity.
- Global Goals: The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (with 169 targets) aim for equitable, inclusive development.
- Vision: A sustainable society ensures equitable resource distribution and balances present and future needs.
Significance: Sustainable development addresses environmental crises by promoting inclusive, long-term solutions.
Example: Uncontrolled industrial growth has led to biodiversity loss, threatening future generations’ resources.
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Discussion Questions
This section highlights key discussion points to deepen understanding of environment-society conflicts.
Questions and Insights:
- Water Scarcity:
- Is it natural or human-made? Human actions like over-extraction and damming exacerbate scarcity.
- Social factors (e.g., property rights, wealth) determine water allocation, with powerful groups securing more.
- Unequal access affects women and the poor disproportionately.
- Urban Space Conflicts:
- Urban poor live in slums due to unaffordable housing and migration for work.
- Elite groups control landed property, limiting access for the poor.
- Water and sanitation access is shaped by wealth and power, with slums often underserved.
Significance: These questions reveal how social inequalities drive environmental conflicts in rural and urban contexts.
Example: In Delhi, poor migrants are evicted from public lands to build malls, highlighting urban space conflicts.
Important Definitions in NCERT Class 11 Sociology Chapter 2: Environment and Society Notes
This section lists key terms for clarity and revision. It will help you to understand the key concepts and terms related to this chapter.
- Ecology: The web of physical and biological systems, including humans, shaped by geography and hydrology.
- Social Organisation: Systems of property, labour, and values that determine resource access and use.
- Resource Depletion: The rapid use of non-renewable resources like groundwater, topsoil, and biodiversity.
- Pollution: Contamination of air, water, or noise, causing health and ecological harm.
- Global Warming: Rising global temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change.
- Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs): Crops or organisms altered through gene-splicing, with uncertain long-term effects.
- Sustainable Development: Development meeting present needs without compromising future generations’ abilities (Brundtland Report, 1987).
- Social Ecology: A perspective highlighting how social relations shape environmental perceptions and practices.
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FAQs
Social organisation, through property relations, labour division, and values (e.g., capitalism, socialism), determines who controls and accesses natural resources, creating unequal environmental relationships.
Resource depletion (e.g., groundwater, biodiversity), pollution (air, water, noise), global warming, genetically modified organisms, and natural/man-made disasters.
Environmental issues stem from social inequalities, as wealth and power determine who is most affected and how solutions are prioritised, often benefiting the powerful.
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