What is the difference between environment and society

The Environment and Society specialization within the Geography major emphasizes the inseparability of social and natural systems. Geographers uniquely draw from integrated human and physical approaches to understand how environmental change, sustainability and social justice all require attention to interactions between humans and their environments. In our courses and in our research we analyze global environmental change, climate change, ecosystem modeling, environmental justice and health, political ecology, globalization and environment, and land-system science, among many other scholarly traditions.

As landfill sites fill up, we risk an increase in groundwater contamination. A parking lot filled with electronic waste, known as e-waste. Photo courtesy of U. Electronic waste, or e-waste, is one of the fastest growing segments of garbage.

And it is far more problematic than even the mountains of broken plastic and rusty metal that plague the environment. E-waste is the name for obsolete, broken, and worn-out electronics—from computers to mobile phones to televisions. The challenge is that these products, which are multiplying at alarming rates thanks in part to planned obsolescence the designing of products to quickly become outdated and then be replaced by the constant emergence of newer and cheaper electronics , have toxic chemicals and precious metals in them, which makes for a dangerous combination.

So where do they go? In fact, it is one of the dirtiest jobs around. Overseas, without the benefit of environmental regulation, e-waste dumps become a kind of boomtown for entrepreneurs willing to sort through endless stacks of broken-down electronics for tiny bits of valuable copper, silver, and other precious metals. Unfortunately, in their hunt, these workers are exposed to deadly toxins. Governments are beginning to take notice of the impending disaster, and the European Union, as well as the state of California, put stricter regulations in place.

These regulations both limit the amount of toxins allowed in electronics and address the issue of end-of-life recycling. But not surprisingly, corporations, while insisting they are greening their process, often fight stricter regulations.

Meanwhile, many environmental groups, including the activist group Greenpeace, have taken up the cause. Greenpeace states that it is working to get companies to:. Greenpeace produces annual ratings of how well companies are meeting these goals so consumers can see how brands stack up. For instance, Apple moved from ranking fourth overall to sixth overall from to The hope is that consumers will vote with their wallets, and the greener companies will be rewarded.

Smog hangs heavily over the major cities, sometimes grounding aircraft that cannot navigate through it. Pedestrians and cyclists wear air-filter masks to protect themselves.

In Beijing, citizens are skeptical that the government-issued daily pollution ratings are trustworthy. Increasingly, they are taking their own pollution measurements in the hopes that accurate information will galvanize others to action. Given that some days they can barely see down the street, they hope action comes soon Papenfuss The amount of air pollution varies from locale to locale, and you may be more personally affected than you realize.

How often do you check air quality reports before leaving your house? Depending on where you live, this question can sound utterly strange or like an everyday matter. Along with oxygen, most of the time we are also breathing in soot, hydrocarbons, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur oxides. Much of the pollution in the air comes from human activity.

How many college students move their cars across campus at least once a day? Who checks the environmental report card on how many pollutants each company throws into the air before purchasing a cell phone? Many of us are guilty of taking our environment for granted without concern for how everyday decisions add up to a long-term global problem.

How many minor adjustments can you think of, like walking instead of driving, that would reduce your overall carbon footprint? But like the herder who adds one more head of cattle to realize the benefits of owning more cows but who does not have to pay the price of the overgrazed land, we take the benefit of driving or buying the latest cell phones without worrying about the end result. Air pollution accumulates in the body, much like the effects of smoking cigarettes accumulate over time, leading to more chronic illnesses.

And in addition to directly affecting human health, air pollution affects crop quality as well as heating and cooling costs.

In other words, we all pay a lot more than the price at the pump when we fill up our tank with gas. Radioactivity is a form of air pollution. While nuclear energy promises a safe and abundant power source, increasingly it is looked upon as a danger to the environment and to those who inhabit it. We accumulate nuclear waste, which we must then keep track of long term and ultimately figure out how to store the toxic waste material without damaging the environment or putting future generations at risk.

The earthquake in Japan illustrates the dangers of even safe, government-monitored nuclear energy. When disaster occurs, how can we safely evacuate the large numbers of affected people? Indeed, how can we even be sure how far the evacuation radius should extend? Radiation can also enter the food chain, causing damage from the bottom phytoplankton and microscopic soil organisms all the way to the top. Once again, the price paid for cheap power is much greater than what we see on the electric bill.

The enormous oil disaster that hit the Louisiana Gulf Coast in is just one of a high number of environmental crises that have led to toxic residue.

Often, the stories are not newsmakers, but simply an unpleasant part of life for the people who live near toxic sites such as Centralia, Pennsylvania and Hinkley, California. In many cases, people in these neighborhoods can be part of a cancer cluster without realizing the cause. Oil on the gulf shore beaches caused great destruction, killing marine and land animals and crippling local business. There used to be a place called Centralia, Pennsylvania. The town incorporated in the s and once had several thousand residents, largely coal workers.

But the story of its demise begins a century later in That year, a trash-burning fire was lit in the pit of the old abandoned coal mine outside of town. The fire moved down the mineshaft and ignited a vein of coal. It is still burning. For more than twenty years, people tried to extinguish the underground fire, but no matter what they did, it returned. There was little government action, and people had to abandon their homes as toxic gases engulfed the area and sinkholes developed.

The situation drew national attention when the ground collapsed under twelve-year-old Todd Domboski in Todd was in his yard when a sinkhole four feet wide and feet deep opened beneath him. He clung to exposed tree roots and saved his life; if he had fallen a few feet farther, the heat or carbon monoxide would have killed him instantly.

In , engineers studying the fire concluded that it could burn for another century or more and could spread over nearly 4, acres. A few determined Centralians refused to leave, even though the government bought their homes, and they are the only ones who remain.

In one field, signs warn people to enter at their own risk, because the ground is hot and unstable. And the fire burns on DeKok Environmental racism refers to the way in which minority group neighborhoods populated primarily by people of color and members of low socioeconomic groups are burdened with a disproportionate number of hazards, including toxic waste facilities, garbage dumps, and other sources of environmental pollution and foul odors that lower the quality of life.

All around the globe, members of minority groups bear a greater burden of the health problems that result from higher exposure to waste and pollution. This can occur due to unsafe or unhealthy work conditions where no regulations exist or are enforced for poor workers, or in neighborhoods that are uncomfortably close to toxic materials.

The statistics on environmental racism are shocking. His research found, for example, that African American children are five times more likely to have lead poisoning the leading environmental health threat for children than their Caucasian counterparts, and that a disproportionate number of people of color reside in areas with hazardous waste facilities Bullard et al.

Sociologists with the project are examining how environmental racism is addressed in the long-term cleanup of the environmental disasters caused by Hurricane Katrina. Skip to Content. From its earliest development as an academic field, geography has been concerned with the manifold relations between societies and their natural and built environments. Societies adapt and transform the environments they inhabit.

They depend upon the use of resources and reduction of hazards for their survival and material well-being. They also assign meanings to the environment that vary over place and time, but that help define their identity and values within the world.