...Human Impacts on the Environment: Ocean Acidification Ecological human effects on the planet are now about 40% greater than the planet can support in a sustainable fashion (Grossman, 2010). One of the many areas with significant damage is the marine biosphere. Ocean acidification is a great threat to marine and subsequently human life. The pH level in the ocean has been a relatively constant 8.15 to 8.25 and organisms have evolved under these circumstances for over 50 million years. However since the end of the Industrial Revolution, worldwide burning of fossil fuels and human innovations such as concrete manufacture have resulted in the release of more than 440 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is dissolved in seawater which causes the concentration of hydrogen ions to increase. Approximately half of the carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuels is absorbed by the ocean. Were this not the case, climate change would be far worse. The term ocean acidification pertains to the lowering of the ocean’s pH. As carbon dioxide dissolves in water it forms carbonic acid, and as more and more is assimilated the pH decreases, and the seawater becomes less alkaline. Consequently the hydrogen ions react with carbonate ions in the water, forming bicarbonate. This causes the carbonate ion numbers to be greatly reduced, which in turn has a substantial effect upon the many species that take in carbonate from the water...
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...RUNNING HEAD: Impacts of Human Behavior on the Environment 1 Impacts of Human Behavior on the Environment Psy 460 Impacts of Human Behavior on the Environment 2 Environmental psychology is the study of the link between human behavior, the direct impact on the environment, and the psychology of humans. The physical or manmade environment such as building houses or workplaces, and natural environments in nature, are all important parts of environmental psychology. The study that includes environmental psychology is diverse and requires more studies to determine what changes need to be made. Modern technology such as, the development of chemicals, manufacturing plants, population increases, mining and mining processes and other human activities have brought many issues and concerns about the environment. Some of the environmental issues that are impacting our environment negatively are: global warming, climate changes, more intense adverse weather such as stronger hurricanes and tornadoes, while other areas have drought and rainy conditions (Steg, 2013). Technology can create negative impacts to the environment by humans attempting to improve on nature in areas where nature should be left alone. Controlling nature, for example, by building dams over rivers to generate electricity has adverse effects on fish and other water species. The oil and chemicals that are used...
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...Bicycling: impact on the environment and humans More than 40% of the public are convinced that humans are the cause of global warming. “According to the U.S. Forest Service, forests in the United States alone sequester some 827 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, nearly 10 percent of the country’s CO2 emissions.” (Beavan 49) The leading cause of global warming is CO2 emissions produced by humans through transportation. In order to avoid this problem riding vehicles that do not produce any CO2 emissions like bicycling would benefit the globe as a whole. Bicycling could reduce harm to the environment and improve individual’s quality of life. Choosing transportation like bicycling can reduce the harm that it brings to the environment. One benefit of bicycling is the reduction of CO2 emission, which causes global warming. Transportation with a lot of carbon release causes the air quality to go bad. This causes climate changes around the world for example it warms the atmosphere causing the ice to melt in the artic, which then effects the animals that live in that environment. Another benefit is it enables more energy to be conserved. Choosing transportation with less pollution such as a bicycle can reduce the manufacturing of vehicles that cause more pollution like a car; this reduces so much energy such as electricity that is being used by the factories to manufacture these products. Also it saves materials like the metals and plastics that are used for production of vehicles...
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...Human Behavior: Negative and Positive Effects on the Environment Human behavior has many effects on the environment; some of which are negative and some that are positive. The environment also affects human behavior. Negative effects of human behavior can be seen in animal extinction, climate change, pollution, noise, and deforestation, just to name some. Protecting the ozone layer, conserving earth’s resources such as; water and power, and protecting endangered animals are some of the ways that human behavior has a positive effect on the environment. When something in the environment triggers important information or causes a reaction it is known as an environmental cue. Environmental cues often affect human behavior. Environmental Impact Humans cannot possibly avoid impact of the environment; just existing creates an impact on the environment. However that impact can be positive. The negative impact that humans have on the environment is the main concern today and causes concern for the future. Humans have changed the environment by making adaptations to make living more comfortable. However humans don’t always consider the consequences for the behaviors they exhibit (Derreby, 2011). Environmental Cues Steg (2013) describes environmental cues as environmental elements that trigger a reaction or send information that is important. Environmental cues signal humans to behave in sync with social norms or to engage in a specific action, however the response...
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...Ecosystem Case Study. Assess contemporary management practices that have been applied to reduce these impacts. PLAN IMPACTS Global warming —> Water temp —> Coral bleaching —> increased starfish Pollution—> agricultural run off overfishing Industrialisation —> oil spills, shipping toursim STRATEGIES - Traditional Banning dredging and offshore dumping Zoning Increasing funding for farmers to reduce run off through water quality- from budget. Budget increased by 25 million per annum for 4 years in oder to restore reef as of 1st July 2014. GBRMPA 1995 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 25 year plan. Justification; why save the reef? tourist attraction 7th wonder of the word contributes 6 billion to Australian economy produces 63 000 jobs The Great Barrier Reef is the longest coral reef structure in the world extending over 2300 km from papua new guinea on Queensland’s east coast. It renowned for it visibility from space considering it holds more than 2900 individual reefs and is home to over ‘6 300’ different species (wwf). Although this ecosystem is protected as a World Heritage site, it has still been significantly impacted by human activities, including pollution, mining and urban run off. Traditional management strategies have been a vast help over the past thousands of year but the severity of human impacts have dramatically increased in the past 50 years and contemporary strategies have been put into practise in attempt to reduce these...
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...big my impact on the environment was. And now that the semester is over I know exactly what I as a consumer am doing to the environment. Everyone plays a big role in impacting the environment and everyone can play a bigger role in helping conserve the environment they live in. When it comes to air pollution, global climate change, changes in natural habitat, and water pollution I as a consumer negatively impact those four problems. With air pollution I affect it negatively by driving a car, running electricity, and other ways like using the stove in the kitchen. I affect climate change by driving a car, by buying things that come from factories that release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and by using electricity. When it comes to changes in natural habitat I impact it by living in a house that was built on natural habitat which then forced the environment to change, also by going to the mall and other stores that were built upon natural habitat. I impact water pollution by using harmful pesticides, buying food that comes from farms that irrigate, by wasting water like letting the faucet run, also by using fertilizer. Those are just some of the ways I as a consumer impact Earth’s environment. The five levels on which people can participate in working towards a sustainable future are as follows, individual lifestyle changes, political involvement, membership participation N60s, volunteer, and career choices. I can modify my lifestyle to better impact the environment by these...
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...Name Professor Course Number Date How Do You Think Humans Interact With the Environment? Introduction The term environment has different definitions depending on the context and the people involved. Culture and technological advancements of a people are some of the criteria used to define the term environment. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the environment as the “complex physical, chemical, and biotic factors that act upon and organism and ultimately determine its survival.” An important point to note from this definition is that, in this particular case, the human being is the organism whose survival is dependent on the environment. Among all living organisms on earth, none has influenced the environment as humans. In their daily activities, people build houses, roads, cities, dams, and carry out various other activities in order to make life more comfortable. Consequently, human beings adapt, depend on, and modify the environment in order to make life more comfortable. This has resulted in consequences such as climate change that have only recently been appreciated by the global community. It is an irrefutable fact that human beings cannot survive without the environment. Therefore, the topic of how humans are interacting with the environment is becoming an increasingly debated topic. This paper seeks to discuss how humans interact with the environment and the impacts that have resulted from these interactions. Finally, a solution to the challenge brought about...
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...Describe the entire product life cycle of a textbook( with social-ecological impact) Product life cycle of textbook (Paper Life Cycle, 2011) Step 1 (Forest) Firstly, the producer will seek materials for making papers, the woods is the main material of making papers. The manufacturers will purchase lots of woods from the supplier of trees to progress their papers. So that the, supplier will cut down the trees from the forest instead to supply to the producers. When these happened, if the landowners failed to practice sustainable, this will cause the failure of sustainability of managing forest and damaged to the environment heavily (Life Cycle, 2011). Step 2 (Transportation) Secondly, after harvested the trees and clean up and get the woods ready for deliver to the paper manufacturer. The woods would be store in an inventory before gather up and transfer to the manufacturers. This step requires the machine to arrange and pick to the transportation or inventory which is man power hardly to do. The woods will deliver to the manufacturer accordingly to the quantity of order. During this step, the social impact toward the society could be offered job opportunity and not much impact to the environment (Life Cycle, 2011).. Step 3(Paper Making) Thirdly, the process is to remove all of the bark from logs. Afterward chipping the logs, we cook the wood chips in a large vessel under pressure with heat and chemicals. When the cooking is complete, the pulp is...
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...Case-In-Point Analysis Bernetta Moss Environmental Issues and Ethics/SCI362 February 24, 2012 Instructor: Brandy Schroeder Case-In-Point Analysis Antarctica is certainly the most pristine environment left on the earth. Unfortunately this is no longer the case because of multiple human activities that have led to environmental issues and concerns such as pollution, ozone layer thinning, global warming etc. Human impact is a serious threat to ecosystem and food chain of Antarctica. In the last few decades, various marine species of Antarctic ecosystem have been brought close to extinction because of human activities in various forms such as pollution from sewage and other contaminants, overfishing and other mixed activities and interference like global climate change caused by human emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, ozone layer depletion, global warming etc. This all leads to damage of food web and ecosystem of the Antarctica. Another serious impact of emission of carbon dioxide is ocean acidification, which is serious damage to the marine ecosystem of Antarctica. These activities are the main causes of disturbed environment of marine ecosystem of Antarctica. Another factor contributing to Antarctica's ecosystem disturbance is the commercial aspect of human activities. Human are harvesting krill to feed their animals and fishes which is negatively affecting the ecosystem of Antarctica. It is affecting the volume of krill and other fishes which are important...
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...individuals identity is defined by their surroundings. The interchanges that take place within a space can be helpful or harmful to an individual. Mary Oliver’s “Sleeping in the Forest” suggests that the relationship an individual has with the environment is beneficial to the human body. Whereas, Lower Lusatia’s “Little Red Hood” demonstrates how an external landscape can be harmful to an individual. Both characters in “Sleeping in the Forest” and “Little Red Hood” see the beauty of nature, gain a sense of belonging, and are reborn. It depends on how an individual becomes connected to an external landscape that determines how they will be effected by it. The poem “Sleeping in the Forest” brings attention to the importance of...
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...Agriculture’s Environmental Impact Human beings have used our earth’s natural resources to further our evolution and sustain global society. Throughout history, our relationship with agriculture has influenced our ability to cultivate crops and thus influencing the success of survival, evolution and our global community. With the basic essentials, water, soil and seeds we are able to produce food, through agriculture to maintain our society. Agriculture is a relatively new human innovative rapidly spreading across the world only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, during the agricultural revolution (Diamond 1999, Montgomery 2007, Price & Gebauer 1995, Smith 1995). We have become completely reliable on our watersoil systems to produce vegetation for human beings as well as livestock. As society has developed into an agriculturally dependent society in the last ten millennia so has the complexity of urban civilization with increasing intellectual achievements and new advances. Its evident that agriculture defines our modern society but it also has negative impacts on our natural resources, some of these factors include: deforestation, soil degradation and climate change. Our human population in growing rapidly and with this there has been an increasing food demand. To meet this nutritional requirement, terrain has been altered to be suitable for agricultural use. Every year forests are cleared on a mass scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. In fact, “ agriculture...
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...IMPACT OF HR AND BUSINESS STRATEGY ALIGNMENT ON JOB PERFORMANCE AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION Abstract A company’s success is determined to a large extent by the nature of its employees as well as the level of devotion that employees demonstrate. Due to this, the top managers and executives are given the responsibility for maintaining control on employee’s activities as well as the employee’s management policies through the development of the Human Resource Management Department. This shows that how important role HR plays in maintain the employees satisfied within any organization. This research study is focused on studying the impact of HR and business strategy alignment on job performance and employee satisfaction. This research used deductive approach as this study find out the impact of aligning HR with business strategy and effect of job environment on employee satisfaction. The survey questionnaire method is used to get reliable and valid results based on close ended questions having a 5-Likert scale to measure the attitude of employees and employers towards the impact of aligning HR with business strategy and effect of job environment on employee satisfaction at Siemens. The research used SPSS for analysing quantitative information by using descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. Research shows that Siemens align HR practices and business strategy. From regression analysis, it is found that alignment of Human Resource practices with the business strategies of...
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...Functions of Human Resources BUS 303 Human Resources Management Instructor September 22, 2014 This paper gives a full depiction and dissection of the Human Resource Management (HRM) capacity. Main topics discussed are: Compensation and benefits, EEO and affirmative action, human resources development, safety and health, human resources planning, recruitment, and selection; compensation and benefits, and employee and labor relations. Included in this paper are also subsidiary points examined including: the fundamental capacities of Human Resource Management, arranging and anticipating human asset necessities, recruitment and determination, evaluation, assessment and worker inspiration. The connections between fruitful business and Human Resource Management are analyzed and in addition how Human Resource Management procedures could be consolidated into business methods to enhance benefit. The historical backdrop of the improvement of human asset administration might be followed back to the early 1900s. Human asset director’s unique capacity was to fundamentally deal with the relationship in the middle of organizations and worker's guilds. Galbraith and Nathanson were among the first association scholar to examine unequivocally the idea of human assets systems in the setting of key administration (Mathis & Jackson, 2011). They created a model for the human asset administration work that partitioned the human asset administration capacity into four fundamental sub...
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...The above quote rightly points out the role of environment for the mankind and the responsibility we need to shoulder for its sustenance. We've come a long way in recognizing that and now almost every business has a statute of doing something good for the environment as part of their CSR initiative. But companies who think of the environment as a social responsibility and not as an imperative are not going in the right direction. The global climate changes and the gradual scarcity of resources have come to light as major disruptions in the business environment. These challenges have opened up new opportunities for companies to sell solutions to these problems. Businesses prosper with the motive of growing their profits at an infinite rate. But environment considerations should not be left while garnering those profits. The role of Environmental ethics come into play here which focuses on the MNCs' ethics in running their businesses as well as keeping the environment untouched to the extent possible. Environmental Ethics The field of Environmental Ethics has grown since the early 1970s. The scholars who have categorized the natural environment include Alan Marshall and Michael Smith. Marshall has used the following terms to describe these categories: Libertarian extension, which commits itself to extend equal rights to the community which consists of humans as well as non-humans, Ecologic extension, which places equal emphasis on human rights as well as the interdependence of all...
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...1. INTRODCTION Environmental management predates to 1972, where a conference regarding the Human Environment was held by the United Nations in Stockholm, Sweden. This conference won the attention of many countries and other international organizations who recognised the importance of environmental challenges faced, both nationally and internationally, on all levels (United Nations Environment Programme; International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2000). Since then environmental management has broadened its horizons to include important standards such as ISO 14001, ISO 15001 and ISO 500001 to name but a few (Anon., 2015). With such laws and standards in place, one can speculate the nature and purpose of environmental management in...
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