Human and Environment Interactions Resources, Hazards and Health

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Human and Environment Interactions---------------
------------------------------Resources, Hazards
and Health

• Rajiv Thakur (Ph.D Candidate)
• Department of Geography, Geology Anthropology
• Indiana State University

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CLOTHING
FOOD
SHELTER
HUMAN ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION
RECREATION
LIVELIHOOD
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• Social Reproduction!
• Change

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• means the interaction of people and the
  environment, how people adapt to the environment,
  and how people change the environment to meet
  their needs and wants

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Needs Choice
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• Global Warming

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Natural Disasters
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• Earthquakes

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• Why Earthquakes?

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Volcanoes
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• Hurricanes

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• Tsunamis

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• Floods

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Web based information

• Japan (earthquakes)
• http//www.japan-guide.com/e/e2116.html
• http//www.seinan-gu.ac.jp/djohnson/natural/quake
  s.html
• http//www.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
• http//www.drgeorgepc.com/EarthquakesJapan.html
• Hurricanes (US)
• http//www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastcost.shtml
• http//www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/science
  .htm
• http//www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/deadly/index
  .html

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Web based info contd

• Tsunamis
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami
• http//www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/general/
  physics/physics.html
• http//walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/
• Earthquakes
• http//earthquake.usgs.gov/
• Floods
• http//www.weather.gov/ahps/
• http//earthquake.usgs.gov/research/hazmaps/

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1. Learning Outcomes Media Exercise

• Activity Keep a journal record facts on
  natural disasters from TV/ internet/ news
  broadcast/ newspaper for at least 3 weeks
• To prepare a map of the disaster affected region
• Identify HE interaction origin changes
  disaster response
• Make a PPT presentation

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2. Learning Outcomes Critical Thinking
Exercises

• Activity students in group could research and
  prepare human needs inventory in a region (e.g.
  US, Africa, Midwest) choices available study
  impact on environment to satisfy those needs
  raise critical questions and consider
  alternatives through policy intervention

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3. Learning Outcomes Impact of Globalization
on Human-Environment Interaction

• Activity students prepare an inventory of
  items and products they use on a daily basis by,
  recording their place of manufacture, point of
  retail sale, and point of consumption. In the
  process they may identify the ways in which the
  physical landscape has been altered and what
  consequences it might have for the environment
  and what public policy intervention might be
  appropriate

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• Resource Use and Sustainability

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• US California Water Issue
• Two-thirds of the state's population receives at
  least a portion of their drinking water from the
  Delta.
• 50 percent of California agriculture receives
  water from the Bay-Delta system.
• The Delta sustains 80 percent of the state's
  commercial fisheries.
• Some 7,000 agencies or cities have permits to
  develop and use water supplies from the Bay-Delta
  and its watershed region.
• The Bay-Delta is the largest estuary on the West
  Coast.
• The Delta is home to 54 species of fish with a
  total of 130
• fish species in the Delta and Bay
  combined.

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• California and water inextricably linked
• Three main interest groups -- agricultural, urban
  and environmental
• Overwhelmingly complex and controversial
• Water fuels the economy
• Critical question distribution
• Demands for more reliable and higher quality
  water supplies continue to come from the state's
  agricultural industry, businesses, manufacturers
  and developers
• The Delta serves as a major water source for
  approximately two-thirds of the state over 22
  million people

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Web based information

• http//www.water-ed.org/cabriefing.asp
• http//www.water-ed.org/calfeddeltabriefing.asp
• www.waterrights.ca.gov/watertransfer/Final20Repor
  t20-20Water20Transfer
• http//feinstein.senate.gov/05speeches/s-ca-water-
  updt.htm

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• African Sahel Overgrazing vegetation, drought
  and desertification
• There is a widespread belief that the Sahara
  desert is advancing into the Sahel region
• Is the Sahara extending into the Sahel?
• Is this because of fluctuations of rainfall
  (total amount, rainfall intensity, duration of
  wet season, ?) or is it largely the result of
  human activities, such as overgrazing or the
  removal of trees for firewood?
• There are also the questions Do deserts create
  droughts? Do droughts create deserts? In other
  words, is there a positive climate feedback,
  which accelerates land degradation?

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What Causes Desertification?

• Overgrazing
• Farming of Average Land
• Destruction of Plants in Dry Regions
• Incorrect Irrigation in Arid Regions Causes a
  Build Up of Salt in the Soil
• The Effects Of Desertification
• Soil becomes less usable
• Vegetation is Lacked or Damaged
• Causes Famine
• Food Loss
• People near Affected Areas

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Learning Outcomes Position Paper on Regional
Resource Issues Sustainability

• Activity - The focus of this assignment is
  issues concerning resource and land management.
  Potential issues include (but are not restricted
  to) biodiversity fisheries management hunting
  and game management livestock grazing forest
  management mining non-indigenous or invasive
  species off-road vehicle use (motorized or
  non-motorized) range management recreation
  rehabilitation and restoration threatened and
  endangered species tourism and aesthetics
  wilderness wildland fire and wildlife and
  non-game habitat.

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• Divide the class into groups
• Each group should come to class prepared to
  present in 15 minutes (with an additional 5
  minutes for questions)
• 1. In your collective opinion, what is the most
  critical forest or rangeland management issue
  that needs to be addressed? Provide evidence to
  support why it is a critical issue.
• 2. What goals would your group like to accomplish
  in order to solve problems related to this issue?
  You do not need to be exhaustive in most cases,
  2-3 goals should be sufficient. Prioritize your
  list of goals, and provide justification why you
  list the goals in the order that you do. NOTE If
  you list only 1 goal, then explain why that 1
  goal is sufficient.
• 3. For your highest priority goal, what policies
  and management actions would you need to change
  or implement?

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• Be sure that your group clearly states
• what the issue is
• what the current policies and management
  actions are (if none, then state that)
• what changes or new policies and management
  strategies are needed
• both the benefits and detriments of the current
  policies/actions (or non-action) as well as
  potential benefits/detriments of what you like to
  see done
• how these polices and actions will help
  accomplish your goal

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• Role of Technology

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• Environmental determinism vs. Possibilism
• Environmental determinism, a theory that dates
  back to the early twentieth century, is the
  belief that the environment of a region shapes
  the culture of the people who inhabit that region
• Environmental possibilism as the belief that
  humans always had a range of opportunities for
  cultural expression and economic activity in any
  given environment.

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SOUTHWEST ASIA
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Netherlands
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Soaring over "Minato Mirai 21", the redeveloped
seafront area in Yokohama City, the 70-story,
296-meter (971-foot) Yokohama Landmark Tower is
the tallest building in Japan as of May 1998. The
building is also equipped with the world's
fastest elevator with its maximum speed of 45
km/h (28m.p.h.).  
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Narmada Dam, India
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Learning Outcomes Internet search Role of
Technology

• Activity Students will Internet Search for
  impact of technology on human-environment
  interaction
• Map regions and places where such impact are
  being experienced
• Document impact on population growth, decline of
  ecosystems, global warming and loss of
  biodiversity

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Proposed solutions to Environmental problems

• A. Wilderness preservation
• 1. The first national parks created in the world
  were Yosemite and Yellowstone, in 1864 and 1872
• B. Sustainable use
• 1. Through ecological, social, and economic
  planning, resource use t can occur that works
  toward
• meeting human needs of the present and future
  generations.
• 2. Criticism of the idea of sustainable
  development in that it may mean different things
  to different
• people, i.e., Consuming Your Way to a
  Sustainable Future. Sustainable development has
  been
• oversimplified in that to some it assumes that
  nature is like a human body (an organism) and
  will
• recover from anthropogenic interference back to a
  normal functioning state.

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• C. Stewardship
• 1. Moral framework that should inform personal
  and public
• corporations, and nations. Defines an ethic that
  should guide
• D. Promotion of environmental justice
• 1. Promotion and establishment of just
  relationships between

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