ABSTRACT
The term, Geological Environment, or Geoenvironment, refers to the uppermost parts of the lithosphere which is affected by human activities. Geoenvironment is linked to and is influenced by, atmosphere, climate, terrain and vegetation cover. Human activities influence the geological, physical, chemical and biochemical processes taking place in rocks and soils. The flow of the Ganga was sufficiently large to take care of the pollution, and the river was beleived to be perennially clean and unpollutable. In 1991, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) reexamined the whole issue, and came up with the concept of Ecologically-Sustainable Industrial Development (ESID). Progressive industries are now realising that it is less expensive and thus more profitable to change the process technologies to make them less polluting, rather than finding cheaper ways of waste disposal. The environmental degradation in the industrialised countries is largely chemical, and these countries are said to be facing a ‘Chemical Time Bomb’.
