Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
United States, many European countries, and Japan) generally have strong economies that provide medical,
educational, and social services for most members of their societies. Poorer nations provide uneven services
for their populations. Education in the poor nations may be limited, restricted to males, or based on ethnicity.
The wealthy in poor nations can usually obtain medical and educational services.
Culture
Culture is the patterns of human knowledge, belief, and behaviors that are considered the norm for a society.
This is based on shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize the society and can be based on
a set of religious beliefs, a common history, or a common goal. The way in which a society treats the environ-
ment is impacted by cultural values. These human actions can pertain to agricultural use of the land, fishing
practices, land development, resource extraction, or by-products from use including pollution. Cultural influen-
ce combined with personal experiences affects how an individual views and treats the environment.
Disease
Disease affects population growth. Death rates, especially infant mortality rates, are lower in industrialized so-
cieties than in developing nations. Industrialized societies have better access to medicines, hospitals or clinics,
and doctors. Developing countries may have difficulty providing inoculations against diseases commonly con-
sidered eliminated in developed countries, such as polio, measles, and tuberculosis. Education, medicines, and
preventive measures for HIV infections, available in developed nations, are seriously lacking in the developing
countries. Africa has severe issues with HIV and AIDS infections. Malaria, which is almost nonexistent in the
industrialized nations, is common in African countries.
Resource Use
By far, industrialized societies use more resources and a larger variety of resources than developing societies.
The developing society is primarily concerned about the basic needs of obtaining or providing food, water, and
shelter. Food tends to be locally grown, found, or even hunted. Water often comes from a local stream, river, or
well. It is usually used without purification and is often carried in containers, instead of being piped into
homes. Homes are small, often lacking electricity or indoor plumbing, and often in disrepair. Industrial societ-
ies have larger homes, appliances, cars, recreational vehicles, and personal articles. They have indoor plumbing
and don't get their water from a local stream. Many industrialized countries utilize dams and aqueducts to ac-
quire their purified water supplies and provide hydroelectric power. They use their own resources and then buy
additional resources from other countries. Japan has virtually no resources and must import all its resources. As
the population uses more and more finite resources without recycling or discovering new resources, fewer re-
sources are left for the flora and fauna of Earth.
Habitat Destruction
Large populations have a direct impact on the land necessary to support the human population. More land is
necessary to grow food, provide space for living requirements, dispose of waste, and harvest and extract re-
sources. These actions all have an impact on the environment and, therefore, on the habitats of other organ-
isms. Loss of habitats for species will continue to grow as the human population continues to grow, further im-
posing on these habitats.
Populations in both industrialized and developing nations have environmental impacts, although the differen-
ces in land use affect habitats differently. Also, industrialized countries tend to have smaller populations but
have a larger amount of land destruction than developing countries. Populations in industrialized countries not
