The environment performs four vital functions which are listed out below:
1. It supplies resources: resources here include both renewable and nonrenewable resources. Renewable resources are those which can be used without the possibility of the resource becoming depleted or exhausted.
That is, a continuous supply of the resource remains available. Examples of renewable resources are the trees in the forests and the fishes in the ocean. Nonrenewable resources, on the other hand, are those which get exhausted with extraction and use, for example, fossil fuel.
2. It assimilates waste
3. It sustains life by providing genetic and biodiversity and
4. It also provides aesthetic services like scenery etc.