Question

What are the functions of the environment?

Answer 1

The environment performs the following four dynamic functions:

1. Offer Production Resources: Environment provides us with wide tangible resources like minerals, water and soil. These are the gifts of nature. These resources act as an input for converting natural resources into productive and useful things. In other words, environment provides input for production that enhances human life qualitatively.

2. Sustains Life: Environment provides us with vital ingredients like sun, soil, water and air that are necessary for the survival of life. Absence of these essential elements implies absence of life. It supports biodiversity.

3. Assimilates Waste: The activities of production and consumption generate waste. This waste in the form of garbage is absorbed by the environment automatically.

4. Enhances Quality of Life: Environment includes surroundings such as rivers, oceans, mountains and deserts. It provides scenic beauty that man admires in life and adds to the quality of human life.