Corporate Obstacles To Pollution Prevention Case Study

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Case Study: Corporate Obstacles to Pollution Prevention

Peter Cebon

 

If pollution prevention is such a great thing, why doesn’t it just happen?  Plenty of case studies show it is a “win-win-win” alternative, benefiting the corporation, the community, and the countryside.  Yet it took 10 years for government to take such an obvious idea seriously, and another five to create a semblance if regulatory interest.  On the corporate side, very little happened before publication of the first Toxic Release Inventory in 1989 put public pressure on companies.  Not all companies found pollution prevention cheap or easy.

 

Pollution prevention is a complex subject ranging from small changes in operating technique to massive, research-driven endeavors to create new products and processes.  To keep things manageable, let’s focus here on one type of pollution prevention: incremental changes in existing technology.  In this context, incremental changes means the substitution of one or two steps in a production process; it may also mean changes in relationships between production steps.  Examples might include changes in a washing step, or redesigning the process to eliminate the need for washing altogether.  Eliminating chlorofluorocarbons and saving energy by replacing a refrigeration process with a heat exchanger that can exploit waste cooling from another part of the process would likewise be incremental change.

 

For these incremental changes, three decision-making stages are critical: identifying a pollution prevention opportunity, finding a solution appropriate to that opportunity, and implementing that solution.  It will be useful to examine how three important aspects of an organization-its culture, its ability to process information, and its politics-can affect these three stages.  The discussion should demonstrate the importance of thinking of pollution prevention as a social, rather than simply a technical, activity.

 

What makes pollution prevention difficult in practice?  The question can best be answered by first considering a second question, How is pollution prevention different from end-of-pipe emissions control?  A key difference between the two is that pollution prevention opportunities are embedded deep within the plant and are tied to very specific physical locations.  To determine whether a particular solution is feasible, people need a really intimate understanding of the way the plant works.  This kind of understanding doesn’t come for design drawings but from the uses and working idiosyncrasies of the individual pieces of equipment.

 

Emissions control devices, on the other hand, are physically quite separate from the rest of the production process.  All that’s necessary to understand them is the composition of the material coming out the pipe.  Because that tends to be the same from one plant to another, the solutions can be relatively independent of the process.  One example: Despite different makes and ages of conventional boilers, different control systems, different histories, and different operating strategies, a scrubber is always a viable emissions control strategy for high-sulfur, coal-fired power stations.

 

A brief digression: In Monty Python’s Flying Circus, an accountant tells us why his job is not boring.  He recounts, in excruciating detail, the many “not at all boring” things that happen in his day.  But why is this funny?  Because it plays on a common stenotype that accountants are very boring people who find exciting exactly those routine details of daily life the rest of us dismiss as ordinary.  For the stereotype to resemble reality, one of two things must be happening: Either people who choose to be accountants bore us, or the profession socializes new members to think and act in a way the rest of us find boring.

 

Organizational culture is the same.  Organizations tend to recruit people who think in a way compatible with the organization’s view of the world, or else socialize them to think that way.  They train, reward and punish employees to reinforce the organization’s beliefs, and they allocate resources in accordance with those beliefs.

 

Now suppose an organization makes a cultural assumption that technical expertise is the only really valid form of knowledge and, therefore, that knowledge built from hands-on experience has very little value outside of day-to-day operations.  From what we said above, people in such a company are likely to make at least two kinds of errors.  First, engineers who are reasonably-but not intimately-familiar with the process may conclude that there are no preventive opportunities because they can’t see them.  Second, the company may send in a “SWAT” team of technical experts to ferret out opportunities comparable to those described in many case studies.  Not surprisingly, the team doesn’t find many and concludes the opportunities don’t exist.

 

Other important cultural beliefs also affect companies’ prevention behavior regarding pollution prevention.  Consider the way people conceptualize the production process.  Do they think of it in terms of technology or people?  How do they see their jobs and the jobs of others?  Do they look for opportunities to improve things or wait for things to go wrong?  Finally, do they see unusual events as problems to be solved or opportunities to get even deeper insight into the way things work?

 

Pollution prevention presents a difficult information processing problem because it requires people to understand more than the intimate details of the production process; they must also understand the technical possibilities.  Such specialized information is generally carried into the organization by technical specialists or vendors.  Such information is, for the most part, accessible only to people with the skills and communications link to get and understand it.

 

Pollution prevention solutions, then, require a nexus between two very dissimilar types of information: contextual and technical.  The organizational problem lies in bringing the two together.  This is notoriously difficult because they tend to be held by different actors in the organizational cast.  We saw above that process engineers and “SWAT” teams are unlikely to find opportunities and solutions.  Let’s look at one last player, the environmental manager.  Environmental managers, an obvious choice, are generally responsible for helping a firm comply with the law.  While their work may expose them to many pollution prevention solutions, they often have trouble getting access to production areas.  People in production often perceive them as “the compliance police.”  Also, most of their work-applying for permits, running treatment plants, reporting spills, and filling out waste manifests-doesn’t require intimate process knowledge.

 

Instead of looking to individuals, we might think in combinations.  The production operators-the people who turn the knobs and run the process-and production engineers-the people who help solve technical problems and design and implement changes in the production technology-could work together to find solutions.  While the operators know exactly where the possibilities are, they rarely have the skills to realize them or knowledge of the smorgasbord of available solutions.  Together with the production engineers, however, they have all the information.  And sometimes, the production engineers have both good enough relationships with operators to find the problems and the skills and contacts to get the technical information to determine the solutions.

 

Suppose then, that a pollution prevention manager wants to get engineers and operators working together.  This can be intensely political because of competition from numerous other managers.  Production engineers and operators generally report to production supervision, and most of their time is taken up with immediate production issues.  The engineers must understand and remedy the day-to-day crises, ensure the product is up to standard, deal with the latest spill, make sure people work safely, and do a myriad of other jobs.  Operators spend most of their time actually running the plant.  The pollution prevention manager competes for their remaining time along with safety, diversity, energy, quality, and training managers.  All these managers have top management’s endorsement, but that generally amounts to permission to compete, not succeed.

 

That is not the end of the politics.  The pollution prevention manager’s solution requires the engineers and operators to work together.  For that to happen, both groups must be amenable.  In some chemical plants I’ve studied, the engineers have been young, they have lacked interpersonal skills to solicit and obtain good help from operators, and they have not fully appreciated the operators’ skills.  The operators, on the other hand, have been older and not necessarily forthcoming with the latest know-it-all engineer breezing through the plant on a three-year rotation looking for career enhancing ideas.

 

Even when pollution prevention solutions are identified, resources such as capital and people are allocated by intensely political processes.  Largely because pollution prevention projects are so often deeply embedded in the technology of the plant, assessing the return on a pollution prevention investment may be difficult…This is important because in many companies discretionary capital is scarce and money for new projects is hard to come by.  Unless the true costs and potential profitability of prevention options can be properly assessed, they are at a disadvantage in competition with other projects for discretionary company resources.

 

In sum, rather than being simple, as many case studies might have us believe, pollution prevention is often quite difficult to put into practice.  As discussed, pollution prevention can be hampered by at least three realities of organizational life: The cultures of the organizations can effectively limit their perspectives; in many organizations, it is difficult to get the right information to the right people at the right time; and many aspects of organizational life are highly political.  These realities, among others, inhibit organizations’ abilities to carry out the three basic stages of decision making-identifying preventive opportunities, identifying specific solutions, and implementing those solutions.

 

These barriers are not insurmountable.  There are many encouraging case studies.  A number of companies have managed to overcome existing barriers and find cost-effective prevention solutions to their environmental problems.

 

The author presents many issues that hinder the implementation of pollution prevention solutions.  Use the format outlined in “Writing the Case Analysis” to address these problems and recommend solutions for overcoming these issues and integrating pollution prevention into the environmental management system.

 

 

 

Writing the Case Analysis

 

 

Begin the paper with an overview of the situation as described in the reading.  Provide sufficient detail such that someone who has not read the case could understand what is going on.

 

A thorough written analysis should include, but not necessarily be limited to, the following:

 

1) A clear statement of the problem(s).

 

2) A thorough analysis of the pertinent stakeholders and of the issues and the ways these combine to create the problem(s).  Address the issues in the questions that follow the case if included.

 

3) One or more suggested solutions, with clear explanations of the strengths and weaknesses of each solution and with each solution supported.

 

4) An explanation of how the solution(s) can be implemented (by whom, etc.) and the problems that might be encountered with the implementation.

 

Avoid “might be” scenarios.  Unless such material can be solidly and logically derived from the existing case material, it has no place in the written case analysis.

 

 

The quality of the written analysis will be judged not only on the solutions provided but also on how well the analyzer has supported his or her arguments with the use of case material, theory, and solid critical thinking.  No statement should be included in a case analysis that is not thoroughly supported.

 
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Case Analysis: Case Learning Is A Method Of Applying Theory To Sound Practical Real World Applications. Each Selected Case Provides A Description Of A Problem Situation Taken From A Specific Company. The Purpose Of Each Case Is To Augment The Course Co

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Case Analysis:  

Case learning is a method of applying theory to sound practical real world applications. Each selected case provides a description of a problem situation taken from a specific company. The purpose of each case is to augment the course content with applications that enable the CalSouthern Learner to apply text materials to a problem and solve that application problem using Learner selected methods and procedures.

There are no exact answers or perfect solutions to case problems. Indeed, each recommended solution and justification can and is usually different comparatively amongst a group of respondents. The solution must fit the case and must be vigorously supported. The problem statement, analysis, selected solution, and especially the justification of the selected solution, are all critical elements in the case method. There are no short cuts to case presentations but a formalized methodology that enables the case presenter the optimal way to solve the case problem.

In your case analysis; be sure to answer all of the questions given for the case.  Provide the key facts and details necessary for the reader to understand the case as part of the problem statement and analysis (who, what, when, where, how).  Discuss what lessons can be learned from the case.

You must read and follow the Case Submittal Format file found in the course resources area. Please double-space, use 12 point font, with one inch margins. Be sure to cite your resources and provide the references using APA format.  Remember to reference all work cited or quoted by the text authors. You should be doing this often in your responses.

Read Chapter 9 Case:  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge starting on page 146 in your text.

Using the CASE FORMAT found in the syllabus ADDITIONAL RESOURCES review the case using the CASE FORMAT to structure a comprehensive analysis, and answer the questions at the end of the case.

 

Assignment Outcomes

Summarize the impact of quality on information and its relationship to DBMS

Investigate BI, Data Warehouses, CRM and various systems in making business decisions

Demonstrate an understanding of BI Tools and how they benefit the business

Analyze and evaluate your overall comprehension of the course relative to a broad-based evaluation of you understanding of the course concepts

 
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Bedbug Research

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PBHL 3400 Dr. C. Gungil

Environmental Health Spring 2017

Project & Presentation

Due Date: Tuesday May 2, 2017 100 points

Instructions: There are two parts to this paper.

1. Select one of the following assignments topics (or one of your own):

Bedbugs

 

2. Go to at least five environmental websites, textbooks and/or journals to gather information about your topic. You can also use the links that I have provided at the end of this assignment. Be sure that a) the website address ends in .edu or .org or .gov. (At the end of each chapter there are some great references that you could utilize; b) The references are to be no more than five years old.

 

3. Write your paper using the following format:

A. Statement of the problem: Here you will define as well as explain the environmental problem.

B. Literature Review: Here you will place all of the information that you gathered from #2 above.

C. Discussion: In this section you will explain what your findings mean.

D. Recommendations: In this section you will state, based on your findings, what you would do to eradicate the problem.

E. Conclusion: From the information that you gathered in class and from the text, what do you now think about the problem.

F. References: Be sure to include all sources of information.

 

This assignment will be graded on content and style. Grammar and spelling count. Papers must be typed using double spacing and standard 1″ margins. Present in a narrative, using 12-point size type. Your paper should be approximately 7-10 pages.

 

Examples of Websites:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/

2. http://www.who.int/phe/en/

3. www.niehs.nih.gov

4. www.campaignearth.org

5. www.leonardodicaprio.org

6. www.epa.gov

7. www.ajph.org

8. www.osha.gov

9. www.blacksmithinstitute.org

10. www.fda.gov

11. www.usda.gov

12. www.ehrs.upenn.edu

13. www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html

14. www.climatecrisis.net

15. www.nj.gov/dep

16. https://www.edf.org/

17. http://www.who.int/phe/en/

 
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Ergonomics VI

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1) Explain carpal tunnel syndrome. What structures are involved, and what pathology exists here? Recommend prevention tips and treatments for this syndrome. Explain the modified Allen test and Tinel’s sign.

Your response should be 200 words.

 

2) Each of us reacts habitually when we see money on the ground; we bend over and pick it up. Describe how you would get employees to avoid improper bending to pick up items from the ground in situations such as this. Use the four Es: empowerment, encouragement, education, and enlightenment.

Your response should be 200 words.

 

3) Imagine that you are leading a training event to help prevent back injuries, and you are teaching students the proper way to lift. Describe, in detail, your recommended steps for lifting a box from a tabletop and placing the box on the floor in a way that would not create any pain or ergonomic issue(s).

Your response should be 200 words.

 

 
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Unit 3 Assignment

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FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 1

 

Course Description Provides an overview of the comprehensive approach to fire prevention within the community. Covers strategic planning and community programs as they relate to fire safety prevention and terrorist incidents. Explores the plan review process, code development, code enforcement, fire investigation, and evaluating prevention programs.

Course Textbook Shaw, R. (Ed.). (2012). Community-based disaster risk reduction. Bingley, England: Emerald.

Course Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Become champions of risk reduction. 2. Develop and meet risk reduction objectives. 3. Identify and develop intervention strategies. 4. Implement a risk reduction program. 5. Review and modify risk reduction programs.

 

Credits Upon completion of this course, the students will earn three (3) hours of college credit.

Course Structure

1. Unit Learning Outcomes: Each unit contains Learning Outcomes that specify the measurable skills and knowledge students should gain upon completion of the unit.

2. Unit Lesson: Each unit contains a Unit Lesson, which discusses unit material. 3. Reading Assignments: Units I-V, VII, and VIII contain Reading Assignments from one or more chapters from the

textbook. A Suggested Reading is listed in the Unit VII study guide. The reading itself is not provided in the course, but students are encouraged to read the resource listed if the opportunity arises as it has valuable information that expands upon the lesson material.

4. Key Terms: Key Terms are intended to guide students in their course of study. Students should pay particular attention to Key Terms as they represent important concepts within the unit material and reading.

5. Discussion Boards: Discussion Boards are a part of all CSU term courses. More information and specifications can be found in the Student Resources link listed in the Course Menu bar.

6. Unit Assignments: Students are required to submit for grading Unit Assignments in each unit. Specific information and instructions regarding these assignments are provided below. Grading rubrics are included with each Assignment. Specific information about accessing these rubrics is provided below.

7. Research Paper: Students are required to submit for grading a Research Paper in Unit VIII. Specific information and instructions regarding this assignment are provided below. A grading rubric is included with this assignment. Specific information for accessing this rubric is included below

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services Course Syllabus

 

 

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 2

8. Ask the Professor: This communication forum provides you with an opportunity to ask your professor general or course content related questions.

9. Student Break Room: This communication forum allows for casual conversation with your classmates.

CSU Online Library The CSU Online Library is available to support your courses and programs. The online library includes databases, journals, e-books, and research guides. These resources are always accessible and can be reached through the library webpage. To access the library, log into the myCSU Student Portal, and click on “CSU Online Library.” You can also access the CSU Online Library from the “My Library” button on the course menu for each course in Blackboard. The CSU Online Library offers several reference services. E-mail (library@columbiasouthern.edu) and telephone (1.877.268.8046) assistance is available Monday – Thursday from 8 am to 5 pm and Friday from 8 am to 3 pm. The library’s chat reference service, Ask a Librarian, is available 24/7; look for the chat box on the online library page. Librarians can help you develop your research plan or assist you in finding relevant, appropriate, and timely information. Reference requests can include customized keyword search strategies, links to articles, database help, and other services.

Unit Assignments Unit I Assignment Building a Demographic Profile of Your Community Introduction: In this Assignment, you will practice using American Fact Finder, create a demographical, social, economic, and housing profile of your community, profile how your community has developed and changed over the past 20 years, and predict what your community may look like 10 years from now. A. Practice Using American Fact Finder

Using this website, you will first locate your local jurisdiction by city. Follow the instructions below to access information on your community.

 Go to the U.S. Census Bureau Fact Finder website at http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml. Type the City and State in the search box for the community you would like to research.

B. Build a Demographical Profile of Your Home Community 1. Use Fact Finder to build a current demographical profile of your home community. Develop a profile of the people

who live in your community (age, gender, race, ethnicity, incomes, poverty, etc.). Perform the same actions for housing (type of homes, age, owner versus renter, etc.). Also, explore a profile of employment. A worksheet (with prompting questions) is provided to assist you.

 The demographic information will be used throughout the course.

 You must have this information available throughout the course in order to process the in-class activities and the culminating project for the course. Saving the information on a memory device or printing hard copies is highly recommended. All Fact Finder categories can be downloaded or printed. You also may wish to save the Census Bureau site as a favorite on your PC.

 Explore the FAQ’s page for Fact Finder. The link to the page is located on the top right of the Fact Finder site.

2. Once information has been gathered, consider how your home community has developed over time (past 20 years). Also consider how it may change as time progresses. As part of this Assignment, develop a short narrative on how your community has changed over the past 20 years and what its profile appear 10 years from now.

 One last huge point to consider: The U.S. census is collected and processed every 10 years. Community demographics can change dramatically in that timeframe. EFOs must remain knowledgeable of their home community’s changing demographics.

 

 

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 3

 It is wise to have a discussion with your local planning or community development professionals. If you have such a discussion, please include your findings as part of the narrative for this section.

 Being able to explain and use the demographical, social, and cultural development of your community is essential to the effectiveness and credibility of a strategic decision maker.

Click here to access a PDF of the Demographic Worksheet example. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit III Assignment Using your judgment and the information you gathered from previous units, select the three leading hazards in your community and complete the following worksheet for each hazard. Click here to access the Community Hazards worksheet. Complete the worksheet, save it using your last name and student ID, and submit it. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit IV Assignment Assess your community’s vulnerability for each of the three hazards identified in the Unit III Assignment. It is essential that each area of vulnerability be considered for each hazard. Next, consider all factors associated with each hazard discussed in this unit. Assign a level of priority to each hazard. Also, consider your community’s acceptable level of risk based on your experience and knowledge of your community. Finally, rank your three hazards according to their level of priority. Click here to access the Word document of the High Risk Populations worksheet. Complete the worksheet, save it using your last name and student ID, and submit it. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VI Assignment Read the article referenced below in the CSU Online Library, Academic Search Complete database. Barnett, D. J., Balicer, R. D., Blodgett, D., Fews, A. L., Parker, C. L., & Links, J. M. (2005). The Application of the Haddon

Matrix to Public Health Readiness and Response Planning. Environmental Health Perspectives, 113(5), 561-566. doi:10.1289/ehp.7491c

Using the examples provided, choose two of the following risks to complete the Haddon Matrix worksheet:

1. Cooking fire in the kitchen 2. Firefighter fatalities due to lack of seatbelt use in emergency vehicles 3. Flash flood in rural community 4. Falls in bathrooms of people age 65 and over in their homes.

Using the Haddon Matrix worksheet document linked below, list in each block as many different causal and contributing factors as possible that need to be considered in the prevention and cause of an injury or risk. When complete, highlight the cell, or cells that lend themselves to the greatest opportunities to prevent and or mitigate risk. Click here to access the Haddon Matrix worksheet. Complete the worksheet, save it using your last name and student ID, and submit it. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VII Assignment Carefully consider all of the change leadership attributes. Score yourself on the change leadership attributes described on the worksheet. Keep in mind that this assessment is for your leadership of a community risk reduction initiative in your organization and/or community.

 

 

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 4

If you believe you are highly competent in an area score yourself a “4” or “5.” If you believe you are average in an area based on someone at your rank and tenure, score yourself a “3.” If you believe you are weak in an area and require more development or training in order to be effective, score yourself a “1” or “2.” Remember, you are not scoring yourself against another person. Your assessment should be of your ability to be an effective leader of a change initiative. For each area you scored yourself a “3” or more, justify your answer based on your own experience. If you score a “2” or less in an area, determine personal action you can take to improve your ability in that area. It may be seek out training, participate on a leadership team, volunteer to coordinate a project, etc. Click here to access the Word document of the Self-Assessment worksheet. Complete the worksheet, save it using your last name and student ID, and submit it. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VII Case Study Watch the video, “Beyond the Flames: The Story of Project Wildfire” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUAK8PHnIN0. It is about a collaborative fire-wise effort dealing with wildland fire interface risk reduction efforts in the community of Bend, Oregon. Following the video, in one to two pages, answer the questions listed below. Be as specific as possible.

a. What was the critical risk reduction issue for Bend, Oregon? b. Who were the members of the leadership team for the initiative? c. Which of the eight stages of change were used by the leadership team? d. What were the leadership keys to the success of the initiative? e. Identify and explain the leadership lessons that you found in this video.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VIII Case Study Click here to access a PDF of the Community Values Case Study. Read the case study, and make notes on the impact of community values on the recruitment and hiring of a woman firefighter. Consider your own experiences with community values as a leader in your department if applicable. In one to two pages answer the questions following the case history. Be sure you answer each question completely. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Research Paper Unit I Research Paper Topic For this unit, you will identify what risk-reduction you will research in the particular community where you live (examples include flooding, drought, tornadoes, evacuation, earthquake, hazardous materials, etc.). After you choose what risk-reduction to address in your community, you should write a brief description on why you identified the particular risk-reduction topic. Your submission should be one page. You do not need a cover page but should include a separate reference page if resources are used in your assignment. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit II Research Paper Outline Create an outline for your community risk-reduction project. The outline should include the type of disaster or hazard impacting the community, who will be involved in assisting the creation of the risk-reduction plan, types of organizations that are community stakeholders, what types of NGOs may be involved, political figures who would be supportive of such

 

 

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 5

a measure, length of project to completion, probable pitfalls that may be associated with the project, cultural considerations (demographics, those who have experienced a disaster in this location, etc.), what types of volunteers will be needed to serve during times of crisis, funding for the project, and how sustainability will be used for maintaining the project/program several years from its inception. There is no minimum length or amount. It will be based on the topic you have developed in Unit I. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit IV Annotated Bibliography Spend time researching 10 references related to your selected topic that you can use in your research paper. Create an APA formatted annotated bibliography of the 10 articles from your research. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit V Research Proposal For this unit you will write a statement of the problem regarding the risk reduction project topic you chose in Unit I. Your paper should follow APA guidelines for citing and formatting of all resources. You should begin your paper with the proposal type and rationale for this choice. Your paper should be one to two pages in length. You do not need a cover page but should include a separate reference page. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VI Research Draft Write a two-page paper for the Research Paper to include:

 Introduction

 Background on the issue

 Key issues for commencing the risk reduction project

 Key stakeholders involved

 Demographics

 Geographic region

 Past/historical disasters for the area Your paper should follow APA guidelines for formatting of all resources, both in-text citations and references. Your draft paper should include a cover page and should include a separate reference page. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VIII Research Paper Write a two-page paper incorporating feedback from your instructor on the draft for the course project. The final submission should include:

 Introduction

 Background on the issue

 Key issues for commencing the risk reduction project

 Key stakeholders involved

 Demographics

 Geographic region

 Past/historical disasters for the area Your paper should follow APA guidelines for formatting of all resources, both in-text citations and references. Your draft paper should include a cover page and should include a separate reference page. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

 

 

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 6

APA Guidelines The application of the APA writing style shall be practical, functional, and appropriate to each academic level, with the primary purpose being the documentation (citation) of sources. CSU requires that students use APA style for certain papers and projects. Students should always carefully read and follow assignment directions and review the associated grading rubric when available. Students can find CSU’s Citation Guide by clicking here. This document includes examples and sample papers and provides information on how to contact the CSU Success Center.

Grading Rubrics This course utilizes analytic grading rubrics as tools for your professor in assigning grades for all learning activities. Each rubric serves as a guide that communicates the expectations of the learning activity and describes the criteria for each level of achievement. In addition, a rubric is a reference tool that lists evaluation criteria and can help you organize your efforts to meet the requirements of that learning activity. It is imperative for you to familiarize yourself with these rubrics because these are the primary tools your professor uses for assessing learning activities. Rubric categories include: (1) Discussion Board, (2) Assessment (Written Response), and (3) Assignment. However, it is possible that not all of the listed rubric types will be used in a single course (e.g., some courses may not have Assessments). The Discussion Board rubric can be found within Unit I’s Discussion Board submission instructions. The Assessment (Written Response) rubric can be found embedded in a link within the directions for each Unit Assessment. However, these rubrics will only be used when written-response questions appear within the Assessment. Each Assignment type (e.g., article critique, case study, research paper) will have its own rubric. The Assignment rubrics are built into Blackboard, allowing students to review them prior to beginning the Assignment and again once the Assignment has been scored. This rubric can be accessed via the Assignment link located within the unit where it is to be submitted. Students may also access the rubric through the course menu by selecting “Tools” and then “My Grades.” Again, it is vitally important for you to become familiar with these rubrics because their application to your Discussion Boards, Assessments, and Assignments is the method by which your instructor assigns all grades.

Communication Forums These are non-graded discussion forums that allow you to communicate with your professor and other students. Participation in these discussion forums is encouraged, but not required. You can access these forums with the buttons in the Course Menu. Instructions for subscribing/unsubscribing to these forums are provided below. Click here for instructions on how to subscribe/unsubscribe and post to the Communication Forums. Ask the Professor This communication forum provides you with an opportunity to ask your professor general or course content questions. Questions may focus on Blackboard locations of online course components, textbook or course content elaboration, additional guidance on assessment requirements, or general advice from other students. Questions that are specific in nature, such as inquiries regarding assessment/assignment grades or personal accommodation requests, are NOT to be posted on this forum. If you have questions, comments, or concerns of a non- public nature, please feel free to email your professor. Responses to your post will be addressed or emailed by the professor within 48 hours. Before posting, please ensure that you have read all relevant course documentation, including the syllabus, assessment/assignment instructions, faculty feedback, and other important information.

 

 

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Student Break Room This communication forum allows for casual conversation with your classmates. Communication on this forum should always maintain a standard of appropriateness and respect for your fellow classmates. This forum should NOT be used to share assessment answers.

Grading

Discussion Boards (8 @ 2%) = 16% Assignments (5 @ 6%) = 30% Case Studies (2 @ 5%) = 10% Unit I Research Paper Topic = 3% Unit II Research Paper Outline = 4% Unit IV Annotated Bibliography = 4% Unit V Research Proposal = 4% Unit VI Research Draft = 4% Unit VIII Research Paper = 25% Total = 100%

 

Course Schedule/Checklist (PLEASE PRINT) The following pages contain a printable Course Schedule to assist you through this course. By following this schedule, you will be assured that you will complete the course within the time allotted.

 

 

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 8

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services

Course Schedule

By following this schedule, you will be assured that you will complete the course within the time allotted. Please keep this schedule for reference as you progress through your course.

 

Unit I Introduction to Community Risk Reduction

Review:  Unit Study Guide

Read:  Chapter 1: Overview of Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction  Chapter 2: Government Roles in Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction  Chapter 3: Role of NGOs in Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction

Discuss:

 Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

 Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student’s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Submit:  Assignment by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)  Research Paper Topic by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Notes/Goals:

 

Unit II Community Risk Reduction Stakeholders

Review:  Unit Study Guide

Read:  Chapter 6: Bangladesh Experiences of Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction  Chapter 13: Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction in Vietnam

Discuss:

 Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

 Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student’s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Submit:  Research Paper Outline by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Notes/Goals:

 

 

 

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 9

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services

Course Schedule

Unit III Risk Reduction Intervention Strategies

Review:  Unit Study Guide

Read:

 Chapter 4: Universities and Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction  Chapter 5: Corporate Community Interface: New Approaches in Disaster Risk Reduction  Chapter 10: Reaching the Unreachable: Myanmar Experiences of Community-Based Disaster Risk

Reduction

Discuss:

 Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

 Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student’s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Submit:  Assignment by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Notes/Goals:

 

Unit IV Assessing Community Risk

Review:  Unit Study Guide

Read:  Chapter 14: Profile of Community-Based Disaster Risk Management in Central America  Chapter 15: Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction in Guatemala

Discuss:

 Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

 Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student’s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Submit:  Assignment by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)  Annotated Bibliography by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Notes/Goals:

 

Unit V Intervention and Program Design

Review:  Unit Study Guide

Read:  Chapter 16: Elements for a Sustainable Community Early Warning System in Cartago City,

Costa Rica

Discuss:

 Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

 Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student’s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Submit:  Research Proposal by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Notes/Goals:

 

 

 

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services 10

FIR 3307, Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services

Course Schedule

Unit VI Evaluation

Review:  Unit Study Guide

Read:  Reading Assignment: See Study Guide.

Discuss:

 Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

 Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student’s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Submit:  Assignment by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)  Research Draft by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Notes/Goals:

 

Unit VII Leading Organizational and Community Change

Review:  Unit Study Guide

Read:

 Chapter 8: Civil Society Organization and Disaster Risk Reduction in Indonesia: Role of Women, Youth, and Faith-Based Groups

 Chapter 9: Partnership Between City Government and Community-Based Disaster Prevention Organizations in Kobe, Japan

 Suggested Reading: See Study Guide

Discuss:

 Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

 Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student’s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Submit:  Assignment by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)  Case Study by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Notes/Goals:

 

Unit VIII Organizational and Community Leadership

Review:  Unit Study Guide

Read:  Chapter 20: Future Perspectives of Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction

Discuss:

 Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

 Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student’s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Submit:  Case Study by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)  Research Paper by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. CST (Central Time)

Notes/Goals:

 
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Study Guide

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Chapter 6

HISTORY AND GLOBAL

DISTRIBUTION 1

6.1 HISTORY AND GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

6.1.1 INTRODUCTION

A population is a group of individuals living together in a given area at a given time. Changes in populations are termed population dynamics. The current human population is made up of all of the people who currently share the earth. The �rst humans walked the planet millions of years ago. Since that time, the number of humans living on the planet and where they live has constantly changed over time. Every birth and death is a part of human population dynamics. Each time a person moves from one location to another, the spatial arrangement of the population is changed, and this, too, is an element of population dynamics. While humans are unique in many ways as a species, they are subject to many of the same limiting forces and unexpected events of all populations of organisms.

In 1999, the human population crossed the six billion mark. At current growth rates, the population will double within 50 years. Long ago, when the human population was small, the doubling of the population had little impact on the human population or its environment. However, with the size of today’s population, the e�ect of doubling the population is quite signi�cant. Already, most of the people of the world do not have adequate clean water, food, housing and medical care, and these de�ciencies are at least partially the result of over population. As the population continues to grow, competition for resources will increase. Natural disasters and political con�icts will exacerbate the problems, especially in the more stressed regions of developing nations. The survivors of this competition will likely be determined by factors such as place of birth and educational opportunities.

6.1.2 POPULATION GROWTH

Human populations are not stagnant. They naturally change in size, density and predominance of age groups in response to environmental factors such as resources availability and disease, as well as social and cultural factors. The increases and decreases in human population size make up what is known as human population dynamics. If resources are not limited, then populations experience exponential growth. A plot of exponential growth over time resembles a “J” curve. Absolute numbers are relatively small at �rst along the base of the J curve, but the population rapidly skyrockets when the critical time near the stem of the J curve is reached.

For most of the history of modern humans (Homo sapiens), people were hunter-gatherers. Food, especially meat from large mammals, was usually plentiful. However, populations were small because the nomadic life

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30 CHAPTER 6. HISTORY AND GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

did not favor large family sizes. During those times, the human population was probably not more than a few million worldwide. It was still in the base of the J growth curve.

With the end of the last Ice Age, roughly 10,000 years ago, the climates worldwide changed and many large mammals that had been the mainstay of human diet became extinct. This forced a change in diet and lifestyle, from one of the nomadic hunter-gatherer to that of a more stationary agricultural society.

Humans began cultivating food and started eating more plants and less meat. Having larger families was possible with the more stationary lifestyle. In fact, having a large family increasingly became an asset, as extra hands were needed for maintaining crops and homes. As agriculture became the mainstay of human life, the population increased.

As the population increased, people began living in villages, then in towns and �nally in cities. This led to problems associated with overcrowded conditions, such as the buildup of wastes, poverty and disease. Large families were no longer advantageous. Infanticide was common during medieval times in Europe, and communicable diseases also limited the human population numbers. Easily spread in crowded, rat-infested urban areas, Black Death, the �rst major outbreak of the Bubonic Plague (1347-1351) drastically reduced the populations in Europe and Asia, possibly by as much as 50 percent.

Starting in the 17th Century, advances in science, medicine, agriculture and industry allowed rapid growth of human population and infanticide again became a common practice.

The next big in�uence on the human population occurred with the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. With the advent of factories, children became valuable labor resources, thereby contributing to survival, and family sizes increased. The resulting population boom was further aided by improvements in agricultural technology that led to increased food production. Medical advancements increased control over disease and lengthened the average lifespan. By the early 19th century, the human population worldwide reached one billion. It was now in the stem of the J curve graph. As the world approached the 20th century, the human population was growing at an exponential rate.

During the 20th century, another important event in human population dynamics occurred. The birth rates in the highly developed countries decreased dramatically. Factors contributing to this decrease included: a rise in the standard of living, the availability of practical birth control methods and the establishment of child education and labor laws. These factors made large families economically impractical. In Japan, the birth rate has been so low in recent years that the government and corporations are worried about future labor shortages. Therefore, they are actively encouraging population growth. In contrast, the populations in less well-developed countries continue to soar. Worldwide, the human population currently exceeds six billion and continues to grow exponentially. How much more the world population will grow is a topic of intense speculation. One thing is certain: exponential growth cannot continue forever, as earth’s resources are limited.

6.1.3 POPULATION DEMOGRAPHICS

Human demography (population change) is usually described in terms of the births and deaths per 1000 people. When births of an area exceed deaths, population increases. When the births of an area are fewer than deaths, the population decreases. The annual rate at which the size of a population changes is:

Figure 6.1

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31

During the year 2000, the birth rate for the world was 22 and the death rate was 9. Thus, the world’s population grew at a rate of 1.3 percent. The annual rate of population change for a particular city or region is also a�ected by immigration (movement of people into a region) and emigration (movement out of a region).

Figure 6.2

Highly industrialized nations, like the United States, Canada, Japan and Germany, generally have low birth and death rates. Annual rates of natural population change vary from -0.1% to 0.5%. In some industrial nations (e.g. Germany and Russia) death rates exceed birth rates so the net population decreases over time. Newly industrialized countries (e.g. South Korea, Mexico and China) have moderate birth rates and low death rates. The low death rates result from better sanitation, better heath care and stable food production that accompany industrialization. The annual rates of natural population change are about 1 percent to 2 percent in these countries. Countries with limited industrial development (e.g. Pakistan and Ethiopia) tend to have high birth rates and moderate to low death rates. These nations are growing rapidly with annual rates of natural population change exceeding 2 percent.

Several factors in�uence human fertility. Important factors in�uencing birth and fertility rates in human populations are: a�uence, average marriage age, availability of birth control, family labor needs, cultural beliefs, religious beliefs and the cost of raising and educating children.

The rapid growth of the world’s population over the past 100 years is mainly results from a decline in death rates. Reasons for the drop in death rates include: better nutrition, fewer infant deaths, increased average life span and improvements in medical technology.

As countries become developed and industrialized, they experience a movement from high population growth to low population growth. Both death and birth rates decline.

These countries usually move from rapid population growth, to slow growth, to zero growth and �nally to a reduction in population. This shift in growth rate with development is called the “demographic transition.” Four distinct stages occur during the transition: pre-industrial, transitional, industrial and post-industrial.

During the pre-industrial stage, harsh living conditions result in a high birth rate and a high death rate. The population grows very slowly, if at all. The transitional stage begins shortly after industrialization. During this phase, the death rate drops because of increased food production and better sanitation and health conditions, but, the birth rate remains high. Therefore, the population grows rapidly.

During the industrial stage, industrialization is well established in the country. The birth rate drops and eventually approaches the death rate. Couples in cities realize that children are expensive to raise and that having large families restrict their job opportunities. The post-industrial stage occurs when the birth rate declines even further to equal the death rate, thus population growth reaches zero. The birth rate may eventually fall below the death rate, resulting in negative population growth.

The United States and most European countries have experienced this gradual transition over the past 150 years. The transition moves much faster for today’s developing countries. This is because improvements in preventive health and medical care in recent decades have dramatically reduced mortality � especially infant mortality � and increased life expectancy. In a growing number of countries, couples are having fewer children than the two they need to “replace” themselves. However, even if the level of “replacement fertility” were reached today, populations would continue to grow for several decades because of the large

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32 CHAPTER 6. HISTORY AND GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

numbers of people now entering their reproductive years. As a result of reduced fertility and mortality, there will be a gradual demographic shift in all countries

over the next few decades towards an older population. In developed countries, the proportion of people over age 65 has increased from 8 to 14 percent since 1950, and is expected to reach 25 percent by 2050. Within the next 35 years, those over age 65 will represent 30 percent or more of the populations in Japan and Germany. In some countries, the number of residents over age 85 will more than double.

6.1.4 PATTERNS OF RESOURCE USE

Humans have always made an impact on the environment through their use of resources. Early humans were primarily hunter-gatherers who used tools to survive. They fashioned wood and stone tools for hunting and food preparation, and used �re for cooking. Early humans developed methods for changing habitat to suit their needs and herding wild animals. As time passed, humans developed more tools and techniques and came to rely on that technology in their daily lives. Although the tools of early humans were primitive by today’s standards, they signi�cantly a�ected the environment and probably hastened the extinction of some large Ice Age mammals.

After the end of the last Ice Age, some eight to 10,000 years ago, humans began domesticating wild animals and plants. The �rst known instance of farming started in a region extending from southeastern Turkey to western Iran, known as the fertile crescent.

These early farmers domesticated crops such as chickpea, bitter vetch, grapes, olives, barley, emmer wheat, lentils, and �ax. They hybridized wheat for making bread from wild grass and emmer wheat. They also domesticated animals such as sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. The fertile crescent’s unique diversity of wild crops and animals o�ered humans a mix of basic agricultural commodities that allowed a revolution in the development of human society. With a reliable food supply, humans were able to stay in one place and be assured of having a constant supply of carbohydrates, protein, milk and oil. They had animals for transportation and plant and animal materials for producing clothing and rope. Agricultural economies soon displaced hunter-gatherer economies. Within 2,000 years, farming ranged from Pakistan to southern Italy.

Most early agriculture was subsistence farming in which farmers grew only enough food to feed their families. Agriculture underwent another important revolution about 5,000 years ago with the invention of the plow. The plow allowed humans to clear and farm larger plots of land than was otherwise possible. This increased the food supply and a concomitant increase in human population growth. More e�cient farming methods also resulted in urbanization because a few farmers could produce a large surplus of food to feed those in the urban areas.

Over the last 10,000 years, land clearing for agriculture has destroyed and degraded the habitats of many species of plants and animals. Today, growing populations in less developed countries are rapidly clearing tropical forests and savannas for agricultural use. These tropical rainforests and savannas provide habitat for most of the earth’s species. It has become clear that modern agricultural practices are not sustainable. Once-fertile areas are becoming infertile because of overgrazing, erosion and nutrient depletion. Furthermore, modern agriculture requires large inputs of energy and fertilizers, usually produced from nonrenewable fossil fuels.

The next major cultural change, the Industrial Revolution, began in England in the mid-18th century. It involved a shift from small-scale production of goods by hand to large-scale production of goods by ma- chines. Industrial production of goods increased the consumption of natural resources such as minerals fuel, timber and water by cities. After World War I, more e�cient mass production techniques were developed, and industrialization became prevalent in the economies of the United States, Canada, Japan and western Europe.

Advanced industrialization leads to many changes in human society, and some of those changes negatively a�ect the supply of natural resources and result in environmental degradation. These changes include: increased production and consumption of goods by humans, dependence on non-renewable resources such as oil and coal, production of synthetic materials (which may be toxic or non-biodegradable) and consumption of large amounts of energy at home and work.

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33

Other changes may have positive bene�ts. These include: creation and mass production of useful and a�ordable products, signi�cant increases in the average Gross National Product per person, large increases in agricultural productivity, sharp rises in average life expectancy and a gradual decline in population growth rates.

The information age was born with the invention of miniaturized electronics such as integrated circuits and computer central processing units. This stage in human development has changed and continues to change society as we know it. Information and communication have become the most-valued resources. This shift in turn, may lessen our in�uence on the earth’s environment through reduced natural resource consumption. For instance, in recent years energy use in the United States has not increased to the extent expected from economic growth. Online shopping, telecommuting and other Internet activities may be lessening human energy consumption.

By making good use of information technologies, less developed countries may be able to reduce potential environmental problems as their economies expand in the future. With so much information easily available, developing countries may not repeat the environmental mistakes that more developed countries made as they became industrialized.

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34 CHAPTER 6. HISTORY AND GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

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Chapter 7

CARRYING CAPACITY 1

7.1 CARRYING CAPACITY

7.1.1 INTRODUCTION

The human carrying capacity is a concept explored by many people, most famously Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 – 1834), for hundreds of years. Carrying capacity, “K,” refers to the number of individuals of a population that can be sustained inde�nitely by a given area. At carrying capacity, the population will have an impact on the resources of the given area, but not to the point where the area can no longer sustain the population. Just as a population of wildebeest or algae has a carrying capacity, so does a human population.

Humans, while subject to the same ecological constraints as any other species (a need for nutrients, water, etc.), have some features as individuals and some as a population that make them a unique species. Unlike most other organisms, humans have the capacity to alter their number of o�spring, level of resource consumption and distribution. While most women around the world could potentially have the same number of children during their lives, the number they actually have is a�ected by many factors. Depending upon technological, cultural, economic and educational factors, people around the world have families of di�erent sizes. Additionally, unlike other organisms, humans invent and alter technology, which allows them to change their environment. This ability makes it di�cult to determine the human K.

7.1.2 EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

When scholars in the 1700’s estimated the total number of people that today earth could sustain, they were living in a very di�erent world than our world. Today airplanes can transport people and food half way around the world in a matter of hours, not weeks or months, as was the case with ships in the 1700s. Today we have sophisticated, powered farm equipment that can rapidly plow, plant, fertilize and harvest acres of crops a day. One farmer can cultivate hundreds of acres of land. This is a far cry from the draft-animal plowing, hand planting and hand harvesting performed by farmers in the 1700s. Additionally, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and modern irrigation methods allow us to produce crops on formerly marginal lands and increase the productivity of other agricultural lands. With the increase in the amount of land that each individual can farm, the food production has increased. This increased food production, in turn, has increased the potential human K relative to estimates from the 1700s.

Whereas technological advances have increased the human K, changes in environmental conditions could potentially decrease it. For example, a global or even a large regional change in the climate could reduce K below current estimates. Coastal �ooding due to rising ocean levels associated with global warming and deserti�cation of agricultural lands resulting from poor farming practices or natural climate variation could cause food production to be less than that upon which the human carrying capacity was originally estimated.

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36 CHAPTER 7. CARRYING CAPACITY

There are those who believe that advances in technology and other knowledge will continue to provide the means to feed virtually any human population size. Those who subscribe to this philosophy believe that this continuous innovation will “save us” from ourselves and changes in the environment.

Others believe that technology will itself reach a limit to its capabilities. This group argues that resources on earth � including physical space � are limited and that eventually we must learn to live within our means. Aside from the physical limitations of the earth’s natural resources and food production capabilities, we must consider the conditions we are willing to live with.

7.1.3 EFFECT OF STANDARD OF LIVING

Given the wherewithal to do so, humans have aesthetic expectations in their daily lives. This is a considera- tion that is less evident in other species. While the earth might be able to hold many more than the current human population of six billion (estimates of the human K with current technology go as high as 50 billion) at some point people will �nd it unacceptable to live with the crowding and pollution issues associated with a dramatic increase in population. The qualitative measure of a person’s or population’s quality of life is called its standard of living. It is associated not only with aesthetics of surroundings and levels of noise, air and water pollution, but also with levels of resource consumption.

Americans have one of the world’s highest standards of living. While there are many who live in poverty in the United States, on average we have relatively small families, large homes, many possessions, plentiful food supplies, clean water and good medical care. This is not the case in most of the developing world.

While many nations have larger average family sizes, they have smaller homes, fewer possessions and less food. Supplies of clean water may be scarce and medical care may be inadequate. All people desire to have adequate resources to provide good care for their families, and thus population in most developing countries are striving for standard of living of developed nations.

Is it possible for all six billion people on earth to live at the same level of resource use as in the United States, Japan and Western Europe? With current technology, the answer is “no.” However, this does not mean that the people of one nation are more or less entitled to a given standard of living than those of another. What it does mean for citizens of nations like the United States is that we must reduce our current use of resources. Of all of the food purchased by the average American family, 10 percent is wasted. In addition, because most Americans are not vegetarians, we tend to eat high on the food chain, which requires more resources than a vegetarian diet.

Calculation of ecological e�ciency indicate that from one trophic level on the food chain to the next, there is only a 10 percent e�ciency in the transfer of energy. Thus people who predominately eat more grains, fruits and vegetables are getting more out of the energy required to produce the food than those who eat a lot of meat. The calories that a person gets from beef are much fewer than the calories in the grain required to raise the cattle. The person is better o� skipping the middleman � or middle cow in this case � and eating the grain. This is why many more people can be sustained on a diet that consists of a larger percentage of rice, millet or wheat, rather than of �sh, beef or chicken.

In addition to resources used to provide food, Americans use disproportionate amounts of natural re- sources such as trees (for paper, furniture and building, among other things) and fossil fuels (for automobiles, homes and industry). We also produce a great amount of “quick waste.” Packaging that comes on food in the grocery store is a good example of quick waste. The hard plastic packaging used for snack foods that is immediately removed and thrown away and plastic grocery bags are both examples of quick waste. Thus, patronizing fast food restaurants increases resource consumption and solid waste production at the same time.

The good news for the environment (from both a solid waste and a resource use standpoint) is that we can easily reduce the amount of goods and resources that we use and waste without drastically a�ecting our standard of living. By properly in�ating car tires, America could save millions of barrels of oil annually. If we were to use more renewable energy resources � like solar and wind power as opposed to petroleum and nuclear energy �there would be a reduced need to extract non-renewable resources from the earth. The amount of packaging used for goods could also be reduced. Reusable canvas bags could be used for shopping and plastic and paper grocery bags could be reused.

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37

At home, many waste materials could be recycled, instead of being thrown away. These relatively easy steps could reduce the overall ecological impact that each person has on the earth. This impact is sometimes termed a person’s ecological footprint. The smaller each person’s ecological footprint, the greater the standard of living possible for each person.

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38 CHAPTER 7. CARRYING CAPACITY

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Environmental Science Discussion 3

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For the past 5 decades, African-American women have consistently experienced an almost 4-times greater risk of death from pregnancy complications than have Caucasian-American women. The literature has supported that this increased risk of pregnancy-related death among African-American women is independent of age, parity, or education. An increased risk of death from other conditions, such as breast and gynecological cancer, has also been reported for African-American women. African-American women are also more likely to die from complications of pregnancy, including hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and cardiomyopathy. However, the reasons for this excess mortality remain unclear.

We now know that excess mortality from a condition can be caused by a higher prevalence of the condition, a higher case-fatality rate, or a combination of these factors. Several factors may contribute to the elevated case-fatality rates among African-American women, including patient attributes, such as disease severity, coexisting medical conditions, and the timing of entry into care, and health system factors, such as access to care and the quality and consistency of care. Although researchers have increasingly accepted the idea that race is more of a social rather than a biological construct, race can have biological consequences, when operating through a variety of factors, that we were unable to measure in this study.

Nonetheless, our lack of knowledge about what factors cause the disparity in pregnancy-related mortality between African-American and Caucasian-American women impedes our ability to formulate appropriate research and to design interventions to eliminate this disparity.

Discussion: Carefully examine and discuss one (1) biological or health services factor that has contributed to increase disparity in case-fatality rates for the pregnancy-related conditions. Cite and reference statistics and or case examples if necessary.

 
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Essay

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V Assignment

In a well-organized and detailed essay, identify a handful of leading metrics that you think your organization is using or could implement to help with the continuous improvement efforts of the company’s management systems. Reflect on the key risks faced by the workforce. Include the following information:

 Describe each metric with regard to its method of determination, established target, and time duration upon which it is based (are these quarterly goals, yearly, bi-annual, or other?)

 Describe why you think these indicators are, or could be, helpful to your organization.

Keep in mind that you may use this information in your final recommendation report in Unit VIII.

Your response should be a minimum of 700 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

 
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Unit 6 CS

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Review Case Study 14-

1: Physical Fitness and Wellness Program – Annual Medical Exam, found on page 184 in the textbook. Weimer v. City of Baton Rouge, 915 So.2d 875 (La.App. May 6, 2005). The full decision is available at http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1814941207931918549&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr This case addressed the legality of imposing a health and wellness program on firefighters. Describe the nature of the health and wellness program in your fire department or another department in your state. Explain the process by which the program was implemented and the union’s part, if any, in that process. Address the aspects of the program requiring voluntary or mandatory participation and, if applicable, disciplinary or non-disciplinary actions resulting from refusal to participate. Your response should be at least 300 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

 

Case Study 2: 50 points Review Case Study 14-3: Physical Ability Testing, Adverse Impact on Female Firefighters, found on page 187 in the textbook. Victoria Pietras v. Board of Fire Commissioners of the Farmingdale Fire District, 180 F.3d 468 (2nd Cir. 1999). The full decision is available at http://openjurist.org/180/f3d/468/pietras-v-board-of-fire-commissioners-of-the-farmingville-fire-district This case addressed the disparate impact of a physical agility test on female firefighters. Describe the physical agility testing done by your fire department or a department in your state. Address whether the testing is work related and reflects a “real world” scenario. Also, discuss whether you believe the testing has a disparate impact based upon sex or age. Your response should be at least 300 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

Please submit your Case Study 1 and 2 responses as one Word document. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment

 
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Construction Safety

1. Imagine you are the supervisor of a construction crew in which half of the workers speak only limited English. What steps should you take to ensure everyone fully understands the hazards of the job and how to work safely? Your response should be at least 75 words in length.

2. What might be some reasons that the construction industry has a higher fatality rate than other industries?  Your response should be at least 75 words in length.

3. Explain the rationale for workers’ compensation. What are the objectives of workers’ compensation? Who is covered by this program, and how does it help prevent future accidents?  Your essay should be at least 200 words in length and include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion

4. Discuss some criteria for selecting members of a worksite inspection team. Which one do you think is the most important, and why?  Your response should be at least 75 words in length.

5. What is the relationship between employee factors and management factors in accident causation? Why do you think many accidents result in “employee error” as the major cause?  Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

6. Think of a job common to construction worksites (for example, hanging drywall). List the steps for the job. For one of the steps, describe the potential hazards and suggest some possible control measures.  Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

 

 

 

World Religion

1. How has the Christian movement changed from its early beginnings when the Church was holding councils and discussing the theology of the Holy Trinity, to the Church in modern times?

Your response should be at least 150 words in length.

2. What major differences do you see in the denominations and is there any room for theological agreement?

Your response should be at least 150 words in length.

 
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