The paper will have two Sections:
Section A (Compulsory) will contain short answer
questions covering the entire syllabus.
Section B will contain six questions. Candidates will
be required to answer any four questions from this
section.
1. Understanding our Environment
(a) Environmental Science.
What do we understand by 'Environment"?
What does the study of Environmental Science
involve?
(b) Our main environmental problems.
Environmental problems to be studied in
terms of resource depletion, pollution and
extinction of species.
(c) A global perspective of environmental
problems.
To be studied with reference to the developed
and developing countries.
(d) The root of environmental problems.
Population crisis and consumption crisis
should be covered.
(e) A sustainable world.
Concept of sustainability to be explained;
sustainable societies to be discussed.
Living things in Ecosystems
(a) Ecosystem.
Concept of ecosystems to be explained; biotic
and abiotic structures, organisms and
species; populations, communities.
(b) Habitat and ecological niche.
To be discussed in terms of address and
function.
5. Water
3. How Ecosystems work
(a) Our water resources.
(a) Energy flow in ecosystems.
Water resource in the form of frozen solid in
polar ice caps, surface water (rivers of
controversy, dams), groundwater (aquifers
running low). Solutions to water shortages
must be covered in terms of desalting the sea,
towing water, water conservation and water
harvesting.
An explanation of how life depends on the sun;
who eats what; respiration: burning the fuel.
Energy transfer: food chains, food webs and
trophic levels.
(b) The cycling of materials.
The water cycle, the carbon cycle (how
humans are affecting the carbon cycle) and
the nitrogen cycle; Not to be tested, for
knowledge and understanding only.
(b) Freshwater pollution.
Point pollution and non-point pollution;
wastewater treatment plants, pathogens. The
manner in which water pollution affects
ecosystems; artificial eutrophication, thermal
pollution. Cleaning up water pollution. The
special problem of groundwater pollution;
bottled water.
Interdependence of natural cycles.
(c) How ecosystems change.
Succession- secondary and primary.
4. Kinds of Ecosystems
(c) Ocean pollution.
(a) Forests.
How pollutants get into oceans; preventing
ocean pollution; who owns the oceans?
Tropical rainforests and threats to
rainforests; temperate rainforests; temperate
deciduous forests; Taiga.
6. Air
(a) Causes of air pollution.
(b) Grasslands, Deserts and Tundra.
Air pollution due to - natural disasters;
domestic combustion; air pollution on
wheels; industrial air pollution.
Tropical savannas; temperate grasslands:
prairies, steppes and pampas; deserts;
Tundra. Threats to the temperate grasslands,
deserts and Tundra.
Major air pollutants - carbon monoxide,
oxides of nitrogen, oxides of sulphur, ozone,
lead, hydrocarbons, benzene and particulates
-their sources, health effects and the
environmental effects must be studied.
(c) Freshwater ecosystems.
The study to cover - lakes and ponds; wetlands
- marshes and swamps; rivers. Threats to
wetlands and rivers must also be highlighted.
Classification of air pollutants based on
composition - gaseous pollutants and
particulate matter (grit, dust, smoke and lead
oxide); broader classification - primary and
secondary pollutants.
(d) Marine ecosystems.
Estuaries, coral reefs, oceans and how each is
threatened should be discussed. Polar
ecosystems of the Arctic and the Antarctic and
the threats to them must also be covered.
Aerosols (smog), sources – natural
(continental, oceanic and anthropogenic);
their effect on our lives.
exploited for cash and food crops, population
pressures, increasing demand for timber to
meet the needs of the developed world,
grazing and its link with desertification.
Air pollution episode - the Bhopal gas
tragedy.
Effects of deforestation
atmosphere and soil process.
(b) Thermal inversions, photochemical smog and
acid precipitation.
on
climate,
(b) Soil erosion and desertification.
Thermal
inversions
(Los
Angeles),
Photochemical Smog (Mexico City) and Acid
Precipitation (Mumbai) - how acid
precipitation affects ecosystems.
Causes and consequences of soil erosion and
desertification - removal of vegetation,
overgrazing, overculture, clearance of slopes,
drought, heavy rainfall, bad farming
practices.
(c) Impact of air pollution.
(c) Land pollution.
Impact of air pollution should be covered in
terms of economic losses, lowered
agricultural
productivity
and
health
problems.
Causes and consequences of land pollution -
salinization, fertilizers, pesticides, toxic
wastes, nuclear wastes, domestic wastes,
ground water contamination.
7. Atmosphere and Climate
(a) World poverty and gap between developed
and developing countries.
Dimensions of world poverty and gap between
developed and developing countries using
development indicators such as per-capita
incomes, housing, levels of disease and
nutrition.
(b) Poverty in developed countries, poverty in
developing countries.
(a) The atmosphere.
Balance between photosynthesis and
respiration; layers of the atmosphere. Not to
be tested, for knowledge and understanding
only.
(b) Climate.
What
determines
climate
(latitude,
atmospheric circulation patterns, ocean
circulation patterns, local geography,
seasonal changes in climate). Not to be tested,
for knowledge and understanding only.
Rural poverty and urban poverty.
(c) The implications of poverty trap for the
environment in developing countries.
(c) Greenhouse earth.
The Greenhouse Effect, rising carbon dioxide
levels, GHGs and the earth’s temperature
(global warming); effect on weather,
agriculture and sea-levels; slowing the
temperature change.
Self-explanatory.
.
8. Soil and Land
(c) Social, economic
problems.
(a) Deforestation.
Causes and consequences of rapid and
progressive deforestation in the developing
world - fuel crisis, competition for land, land
and
environmental
Problems of housing, congestion, pollution,
loss of agricultural land and provision of
services to be covered
9. People
(a) World poverty and gap between developed
and developing countries.
Dimensions of world poverty and gap between
developed and developing countries using
development indicators such as per-capita
incomes, housing, levels of disease and
nutrition.
(b) Poverty in developed countries, poverty in
developing countries.
Rural poverty and urban poverty.
(c) The implications of poverty trap for the
environment in developing countries.
Self-explanatory
10. Urbanisation
(a) Causes of urbanisation.
The push-pull factors to be discussed.
(d) The Ozone layer.
Ozone in the troposphere, ozone in the
stratosphere; detection of the damage to the
ozone layer; causes and consequences of
ozone thinning; alternatives to CFCs.
(b) Manifestations of urbanisation.
Growth of slums, growth of informal sector,
pressure on civic amenities; degradation of
human resources; growing sense of despair.
11. Agriculture
(a) Unsustainable
patterns
industrialised agriculture.
INTERNAL ASSESSMENT
of
modern
Any one project/assignment from the prescribed
syllabus.
Monocultures, disappearance of traditional
crop varieties, pollution risk due to use of
pesticides and inorganic fertilizers; problems
of irrigation – surface and ground water.
Suggested Assignments
1. Make a survey of any one threat to the local
environment with suggestions as to how the
impact of the threat could be gradually reduced.
(b) Environmental damage due to large farm
units.
Self-explanatory.
(c) Food mountains in developed countries.
Surplus and waste.
(d) The Green Revolution.
Discussion on whether Green Revolution is a
success or a failure.
2. Make
a
functional
model
of
an
apparatus/equipment that could be used to
alleviate the impact of any pollutant and, make a
survey to study the effectiveness of this
apparatus/equipment. (The report of the study is to
form a part of the Project Work.)
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