Describe some examples of changes to the environment and their after effects due to the cultural factors. Please I want short answer
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5
Environmental Change
Raymond S. Nickerson, Neville P. Moray
THE PROBLEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
The subject of detrimental environmental change has received much attention in the news media for some time. Scientists, policy makers, and the public have become increasingly concerned about the threat that such change, if it continues unabated, poses for the future. Growing numbers of scientists from a variety of disciplines have been systematically studying specific aspects of this change and attempting to identify effective strategies for preventing or mitigating potentially catastrophic effects.
Human factors researchers have not focused much attention on this area in the past. Perhaps it has been assumed that the discipline has little to offer toward the solution of environmental problems. We believe it does have something to offer. This chapter represents an effort to stimulate and contribute to a dialogue that will help identify what some of the possibilities are.
Dimensions of the Problem
Some earth and atmospheric scientists have been documenting an increased concentration of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere and have been attempting to better understand how a continuing accumulation will affect the future world climate (Houghton and Woodwell, 1989; National Research Council, 1983). Others have been studying
"5 Environmental Change." National Research Council. 1995. Emerging Needs and Opportunities for Human Factors Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4940.×
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such phenomena as "acid rain" and its effects on lakes and streams, forests, and materials (Baker et al., 1991; Mohnen, 1988; Schwartz, 1989), air pollution and urban smog (Gray and Alson, 1989; National Research Council, 1991; Office of Technology Assessment, 1988), and the thinning of ozone in the stratosphere (Stolarski et al., 1992; Stolarski, 1988). Studies have focused on the contamination and depletion of fresh-water supplies (la Riviere, 1989; National Research Council, 1977; Postel, 1985), on the depletion of the world's forests (Myers, 1989; Repetto, 1990) and wetlands (Steinhart, 1990; Wallace, 1985), and on the worldwide loss of arable land (Crossen and Rosenberg, 1989; National Research Council, 1990; Schlesinger et al., 1990). Biologists have been documenting the loss of wildlife habitat and the accompanying decrease in biodiversity (Soule, 1991; Wilson, 1989). More detailed discussions of the many facets of the problem are readily available (Gore, 1992; Nickerson, 1992; Stern et al., 1992).
Behavioral Causes of Environmental Change
Many of the most readily identified causes of these changes are human activities. Major contributors to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere include the burning of fossil fuels for heating and energy generation and the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as coolants and aerosols. The burning of fossil fuels is also a major cause of acid rain, which is formed when airborne sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides combine with water vapor. Air pollutants include ozone, carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulates—all by-products of industrial and energy-generation processes. Stratospheric ozone thinning is believed to be a direct consequence of the accumulation of CFCs in the upper atmosphere.
Major threats to clean, fresh-water supplies include contamination not only from precipitation of chemical emissions that have accumulated in the atmosphere but also from agricultural runoff containing pesticides and fertilizers, from waste discharges into rivers, from salt used for highway deicing, from hazardous wastes disposed of improperly, and from leachate from municipal dumps. Deforestation is the consequence both of converting forests to farmland and residential and business areas and of overharvesting timber. Wetland loss results from the "reclamation" of wetlands for commercial development. Desertification, the transformation of arable land into land on which crops will no longer grow, has a variety of causes, including overgrazing and the salinization of soil from excessive irrigation.
Since the human activities that are implicated in detrimental environmental change are aimed at satisfying human needs and desires, those activities can only be expected to increase as the population grows. And population growth, worldwide, is expected to continue for the near future at
Answer:
The Impact of Social and Cultural Environment on Health
THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL VARIABLES ON HEALTH: AN OVERVIEW OF PAST RESEARCH
Educational Attainment
Education is usually assessed by the use of two standard questions that ask about the number of years of schooling completed and the educational credentials gained.
An association between education and health in observational data does not necessarily imply causation. Alternatively, the association between education and health may partly reflect confounding by a third variable, such as ability, which is a prior common cause of both educational attainment and health status. Although highly unlikely, in the extreme case, if the association between education and health is entirely accounted for by confounding bias, then improving the individual’s level of schooling would do nothing to improve his/her health chances.
Income
The measurement of income is more complex than assessing educational attainment. Survey-based questions inquiring about income must minimally specify the following components: (a) time frame—for example monthly, annually, or over a lifetime (in general, the shorter the time frame for the assessment of income, the greater the measurement error); (b) sources, such as wages and salary, self-employment income, rent, interest and dividends, pensions and social security, unemployment benefits, alimony and near-cash sources such as food stamps; (c) unit of measurement, that is, whether income is assessed for the individual or the household (with appropriate adjustments for household size in the latter case); and (d) whether it is gross or disposable income (i.e., taking account of taxes and transfer payments). In addition to the higher rate of measurement error for income (as compared to educational attainment), this variable also is associated with higher refusal rates in surveys that are administered to the general population.
Occupational Status
The third standard component of SES that typically is measured by social scientists is occupational status, which summarizes the levels of prestige, authority, power, and other resources that are associated with differ ent positions in the labor market. Occupational status has the advantage over income of being a more permanent marker of access to economic resources.
The Psychosocial Work Environment and Health
In contrast to the demand-control model of job stress, the effort-reward imbalance model developed by Siegrist maintains that working conditions produce adverse health outcomes when the costs associated with the job (e.g., high level of effort) exceed its rewards (money, esteem, and career opportunities) (Siegrist et al, 1986). As with the demand-control model, a self-administered questionnaire has been developed and validated. Both the demand-control model and the effort-reward imbalance model have been shown to predict the incidence of cardiovascular disease and other health outcomes in longitudinal observational studies (Marmot and Wilkinson, 2006).
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ASPECTS OF HEALTH INFLUENCED BY THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
It is important to note, however, that the relevance and magnitude of the associations between social-environmental variables and health outcomes can vary at different points of the disease process. For example, the incidence of some cancers, notably breast cancer and melanoma, is higher among more advantaged SES groups, reflecting in part the underlying socioeconomic distribution of their risk factors. For breast cancer, the increased incidence among higher SES women is in part explained by reproductive factors, including earlier age at menarche, later age at first birth, and lower fertility.1 On the other hand, survival following the diagnosis of breast cancer consistently favors higher SES women, due, among other things, to earlier detection and better access to effective treatment (Lochner and Kawachi, 2000). Likewise, observational evidence suggests the strong role of social support in improving survival and functional recovery following major diseases (such as stroke or heart attack), but the evidence is less consistent for preventing the incidence of disease (where social networks appear to have a stronger role) (Seeman, 1998).