What is our environment?

Look around you right now. The air you breathe, the water you drink, the soil under your feet, the trees outside the window, the birds, insects and people, and even the roads and buildings all make up your environment. Our environment is everything around us, both living and non-living. Every plant and animal, including us, depends on it for food, water, air and shelter.

Living and non-living parts

The environment has two main parts. The living part includes plants, animals, people and tiny living things such as bacteria and fungi. Living things grow, breathe, need food and produce young ones. The non-living part includes air, water, soil, rocks, sunlight and heat. Living things cannot survive without the non-living parts: plants need sunlight, water and soil; animals need air and water. Places can also be natural, like forests, rivers and mountains, or man-made, like houses, bridges, farms and cities.

Habitats: homes in nature

The natural home of a plant or animal is called its habitat. A camel lives in the hot desert, a fish in a pond, a yak in the cold mountains and a monkey in a forest. Each habitat gives its living things the food, water, shelter and climate they need. When a habitat is destroyed, the plants and animals living there lose their homes.

Food chains and food webs

Living things are linked to one another through food. Green plants make their own food using sunlight, so they are called producers. Animals cannot make food, so they are consumers. Herbivores such as cows and deer eat plants, carnivores such as lions and eagles eat other animals, and omnivores such as bears and humans eat both. A food chain shows who eats whom, for example grass is eaten by a goat, and the goat is eaten by a tiger. Many food chains join together to make a food web. Decomposers such as mushrooms, bacteria and earthworms break down dead plants and animals and return goodness to the soil.

Balance in nature

Every living thing has a job. Bees carry pollen so plants can make fruits and seeds. Frogs and birds eat insects that would otherwise damage crops. Vultures clean up dead animals. If one kind of living thing disappears, others are affected, and the balance of nature is upset. That is why it is important to protect all plants and animals, big and small.

Pollution: when the environment gets sick

Pollution means making the air, water or land dirty and harmful. Air pollution comes from vehicle smoke, factories and burning garbage, and it can make people cough and fall ill. Water pollution happens when sewage, chemicals and garbage are thrown into rivers, lakes and seas, killing fish and spreading diseases. Land pollution comes from litter, plastic and chemicals in the soil. Loud sounds from horns, loudspeakers and machines cause noise pollution, which leads to headaches and stress.

Waste: biodegradable and non-biodegradable

Waste that breaks down naturally in the soil, such as peels, leaves, paper and cotton, is biodegradable. It can be turned into compost that makes soil rich. Waste such as plastic, glass and metal does not break down easily and is non-biodegradable. We should keep wet and dry waste in separate bins so each kind can be handled properly.

Saving our environment

We can all help by following the three Rs: Reduce (use less, such as carrying a cloth bag), Reuse (use things again, such as using a jar as a pen stand) and Recycle (make old things into new ones, such as turning old paper into new paper). Planting trees, saving water and electricity, walking or cycling short distances and not wasting food all help. Protecting forests and wildlife is called conservation. India has many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, and in the famous Chipko movement, villagers hugged trees to stop them from being cut. Every year on 5 June, people around the world celebrate World Environment Day.

This Our Environment worksheet for Class 4 turns these ideas into a green adventure on WitKnowLearn with an online quiz, online activities and interactive games. Flip the cards, heal three places in the Environment Rescue Lab, play the games, do the nature labs, take the challenges and then make compost and catch dust from the air in the Virtual Lab.