Gender Stratification Part 3-Income

Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism (Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht)

As most sociologists agree, the social structure underlies and perpetuates much of the sexism in society. Structural sexism, also known as institutional sexism, refers to the ways the organization of society and specifically its institutions subordinate individuals and groups based on their sex classification. Structural sexism has resulted in significant differences in the education and income levels, occupational and political involvement, and civil rights of women and men.

Income and Structural Sexism

In 2012, full-time working women in the United States earned, on the average, 81 percent of the weekly median earnings of full-time working men (Hegewisch et al. 2012). Further, cashiers, waitresses, maids and household cleaners, and retail sales workers, four of the most common occupations for women, have 40-hour-a-week median incomes below the federally established poverty level for a family of four (Hegewisch & Matite 2013).

The gender pay gap varies over time. By decade, in 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010, women’s annual earnings as a percentage of men’s increased from 60 percent to 72 percent, 74 percent, and 77 percent, respectively. As indicated, closing the gender gap has slowed down since the 1980s and early 1990s (Hegewisch et al. 2012). At the present rate of progress, it is predicted that the gender gap will not be closed until 2057 (IWPR 2013).

Racial differences also exist. Although women, in general earn 81 percent as much as men, Black American women earn just 68 percent of white men’s salaries, and Hispanic American women earn just 59 percent of white men’s salaries (Hegewisch et al. 2012). Even among celebrities, a significant income gap exists. According to Forbes magazine, the maximum salary for a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player is $107, 000, while Kobe Bryant signed a contract for $30.5 million for the 2013-2014 season with the Los Angeles Lakers (Badenhausen 2013).

Why does the gender pay gap exist? There are several arguments as to why the gender pay gap exists One, the human capital hypothesis holds that pay differences between females and males are a function of differences in women’s and men’s levels of education, skills, training, work experience, and the like. For example, Rose and Hartman (2008), using a longitudinal data set, found that over a 15 year period, women worked fewer years than men and, when they worked, they worked fewer hours per year. Rose and Hartman concluded that over “…the 15 years, the more likely a women is to have dependent children and be married, the more likely she is to be a low earner and have fewer hours in the labor market” (Rose & Hartman 2008, p.1). Bertrand et al. (2009) reported similar findings, concluding that the “presence of children is associated with less accumulation of job experience, more career interruptions, and shorter work hours for female MBAs but not for male MBAs (p. 24). Based on their analysis, the authors concluded that a decade after graduation, female MBAs earn an average annual salary of $243,481 and male MBAs earn an average annual salary of $442,353. Lower incomes over time create a significant deficit later in life. This is particularly true given a woman’s higher life expectancy and the exhaustion of household savings when her husband becomes ill (Smith et al. 2012).

One variation of the human capital hypothesis is called the life-cycle human capital hypothesis. Here it is argued that women have less incentive to invest in education and marketable skills because they know that, as wives and mothers, they will be working less than their male counterparts and that their careers will be interrupted by family responsibilities. Alternatively, men’s incentives to acquire marketable skills increase with greater family responsibilities and it is this human capital difference, or so it is argued, that is responsible for the female-male pay gap (Polachek 2006).

Human capital theorists also argue that women make educational choices (e.g., school attended, major, etc.) that limit their occupational opportunities and future earnings. Women, for example, are more likely to major in the humanities , education, or the social sciences rather than science and engineering, which results in reduced incomes (Corbett & Hill 2012). Research also indicates, however, that after controlling for “college major, occupation, economic sector, hours worked, months unemployed since graduation, GPA, type of undergraduate institution, institution selectivity, age, geographical region, and marital status…a 7 percent difference in the earnings of male and female college graduates one year after graduation was still unexplained” (Corbett & Hill 2012, p.8).

The second explanation for the gender gap is called the devaluation hypothesis. It argues that women are paid less because the work they perform is socially defined as less valuable than the work men perform. Guy and Newman (2004) argue that these jobs are undervalued in part because they include a significant amount of emotion work, that is, work that involves caring, negotiating, and empathizing with people, which is rarely specified in job descriptions or performance evaluations.

Finally, there is evidence that, even when women and men have equal education and experience (and, therefore, not a matter of human capital differences) and are in the same occupations (and, therefore, not a matter of women’s work being devalued), pay differences remain. Men make more than women in each of the 10 most sex-segregated occupations for females and males. Even among elementary and middle school teachers, a profession that is 81 percent female, women earn a weekly median salary of $921 and men earn a weekly median salary of $1,128, a difference of $10,350 annually (Hegewisch & Matite 2013).

Sources

Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht, Caroline 2015. Understanding Social Problems. Cengage Learning: Boston, MA.

Hegewisch, Ariane, Claudia Williams, and Angela Edwards. 2012 (March). “The Gender Wage Gap: 2012.” Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Available at www.iwpr.org

Hegewisch, Ariane, and Maxwell Matite. 2013 (April). The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation. Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Available at www.iwpr.org

Badenhausen, Kurt. 2013. “Maria Sharapova Tops Lists of the World’s Highest Paid Female Athletes.” Forbes, August 5. Available at www.forbes.com

Rose, Stephen J., and Heidi Hartman. 2008 (February). “Still a Man’s Labor Market: The Long-Term Earnings Gap.” IWPR# C366. New York: Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Polachek, Soloman W. 2006. “How the Life-Cycle Human Capitol Model Explains Why the Gender Gap Narrowed.” In The Declining Significance of Race, Francine D. Blau, Mary C. Brinton, and David B. Grusky, eds. (pp. 102-124). New York: Russell Sage.

Corbett, Christianne, and Catherine Hill. 2012 (October 24). Graduating to a Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year After College Graduation. American Association of University Women. Available at www. Aauw.org

Guy, Mary Ellen, and Meredith A. Newman. 2004. “Women’s Jobs, Men’s Jobs: Sex Segregation and Emotional Labor.” Public Administration Review 64:289-299

Gender Stratification Part 2: Work and Structural Sexism

Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism (Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht)

As most sociologists agree, the social structure underlies and perpetuates much of the sexism in society. Structural sexism, also known as institutional sexism, refers to the ways the organization of society and specifically its institutions subordinate individuals and groups based on their sex classification. Structural sexism has resulted in significant differences in the education and income levels, occupational and political involvement, and civil rights of women and men.

Work and Structural Sexism

According to an International Labour Organization (ILO) report, women made up 40 percent of the world’s total labor force in 2012 (ILO 2012a). In the same year, the gender gap in unemployment rates increased. Globally, the female unemployment rate was 6.4 percent compared to 5.7 percent unemployment for males. The report concludes that women have higher unemployment rates because of differences in educational attainment between men and women, occupational segregation, and higher rates of exiting and reentering the labor force as result of family obligations.

Women are also disproportionately employed in what is called vulnerable employment. Vulnerable employment is characterized by informal working arrangements, little job security, few benefits, and little recourse in the face of an unreasonable demand. Such is the case in developing countries where women are often “contributing family workers,” and in developed countries where women are disproportionately working in low-wage service occupations (ILO 2012a).

Women are also more likely to hold positions of little or no authority within the work environment and to receive lower wages than men (ILO 2012b). No matter what the job, if a woman does it, it is likely to be valued less than if a man does it. For example, in the early 1800s, 90 percent of all clerks were men and being a clerk was a prestigious profession. As the job became more routine, in part because of the advent of the typewriter, the pay and prestige of the job declined and the number of female clerk increased. Today, 92.2 percent of clerk are female (U.S. Census Bureau 2013), and the position is one of relatively low pay and prestige.

The concentration of women in certain occupations and men in other occupations is referred to as occupational sex segregation. Although occupational sex segregation remains high, it has decreased in recent years for some occupations. For example, between 1983 and 2010, the percentage of female physicians and surgeons more than doubled form 16 percent to 36 percent, female dentists increased from 7 percent to 30 percent and female clergy increased from 6 percent to 19 percent (U.S. Census Bureau 2009, 2013).

Although the pace is slower, men are increasingly applying for jobs that women traditionally held. Spurred by the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector and the recent economic crisis, many jobs traditionally defined as male (e.g., auto worker, construction worker) have been lost. Thus, over the last 20 years, there has been a significant increase in the number of men in traditionally held female jobs; for example, a 50 percent increase in male telephone operators, 45 percent increase in male tellers, and 40 percent increase in male preschool and kindergarten teachers (Bourin & Blakemore 2008). Some evidence suggests that men in traditionally held female jobs have an advantage in hiring, promotion, and salaries called the glass escalator effect (Williams 2007). For example, secretaries and administrative assistants are overwhelmingly female, 95.3 percent. Yet the average median weekly salary for male secretaries is $803 compared to $665 for female secretaries (Heswisch and Matite, 2013). Despite the increase of men into traditionally held female occupations, women are still heavily represented in low-prestige, low-wage, pink-collar jobs that offer few benefits.

Sex segregation in occupations continues for several reasons. First, cultural beliefs about what is an “appropriate” job for a man or a woman still exists. Snyder and Green’s (2008) analysis of nurses in the United States is a case in point. Using survey date and in-depth interviews, the researchers identified patterns of sex segregation. Over 88 percent of all patient-care nurses were in sex-specific specialties (e.g. intensive care and psychiatry for male nurses, and labor or delivery and outpatient services for female nurses). Interestingly, although women rarely mentioned gender as a reason for their choice of specialty, male nurses frequently did so, acknowledging the “process of gender affirmation that led them to seek out ‘masculine’ positions within what was otherwise construed to be a women’s profession” (p. 291).

Second, opportunity structures for men and women differ. For example, women and men, upon career entry, are often channeled by employers into gender-specific jobs that carry different wages and promotion opportunities. However, even women in higher-paying jobs may be victimized by a glass ceiling, an often invisible barrier that prevents women and other minorities from moving into top corporate positions. For example, women and minorities have different social networks that do white men, which contributes to this barrier. White men in high-paying jobs are more likely to have interpersonal connections with individuals in positions of authority (Padavic & Reskin 2002). In addition, women often find that their opportunities for career advancement are adversely affected after returning from family leave. Female lawyers returning from maternity leave found their career mobility stalled after being reassigned to less prestigious cases (Williams 2000).

There is also evidence that working mothers pay a price for motherhood. Using an experimental design, Correll et al. (2007) report that, even when qualifications, background, and work experience were held constant, “evaluators rated mothers as less competent and committed to paid work than non-mothers” (p. 1,332). Other examples of the “motherhood penalty” include women who feel pressured to choose professions that permit flexible hours and career paths, sometimes known as mommy tracks (Moen & Yu 2000). Thus, women dominate the field of elementary education, which permits them to be home when their children are not in school. Nursing, also dominated by women, often offers flexible hours. Although the type of career pursued may be the woman’s choice, it is a structured choice, meaning a choice among limited options as a result of the structure of society.

Finally, Blau and Kahn (2013) argue that the comparatively low rates of female labor force participation, and female labor force participation growth, is the result of a lack of U.S. worker-friendly, and perhaps more importantly female-friendly, employment policies. An analysis of policy data indicates that “…most other countries have enacted parental leave, part-time work, and child care policies that are more extensive than in the United States, and the gap has grown over time” (p. 4). The authors conclude that such policies make part-time work more attractive, and make it easier for women to “have it all,” i.e. combine work and family life.

Sources

Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht, Caroline 2015. Understanding Social Problems. Cengage Learning: Boston, MA.

ILO (International Labour Organization). 2012a (December). Global Employment Trends for Women. Available at www.ilo.org

ILO. 2012b (June 25). “Gender Dimensions of the World of Work in a Globalized Economy.” Gender Rethinking Alternative Paths for Development. Geneva: United Nations. Available at www.ilo.org

U.S. Census Bureau. 2013. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012, 130^th ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

U.S. Census Bureau. 2009. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008, 128^th ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Bourin, Lenny, and Bill Blakemore. 2008. “More Men Take Traditionally Female Jobs.” ABC World News, September 1. Available at http://abcnews.go.com

Williams, Christine L. 2007. “The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the ‘Female’ Occupations.” In Men’s Lives, 7^th ed., Michale S. Kimmel and Michael Messner, eds. (pp. 242-255). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Hegewisch, Ariane, and Maxwell Matite. 2013 (April) The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation. Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Available at www.iwpr.org

Synder, Karrie Ann, and Adam Isaiah Green, 2008. “Revisiting the Glass Escalator: The Case of Gender Segregation in a Female Dominated Occupation.” Social Problems 55(2):271-299.

Padavic, Irene, and Barbara Reskin. 2002. Men and Women at Work, 2^nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA:Pine Forge Press.

Williams, Joan. 2000. Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About it. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Correll, Shelly J., Stephen Benard, and In Paik. 2007. “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” American Journal of Sociology 112(5):1,297-1,338.

Moen, Phyllis, and Yan Yu. 2000. “Effective Work/Life Strategies: Working Couples, Working Conditions, Gender and Life Quality.” Social Problems 47:291-326.

Blau, Francine D., and Lawrence M Kahn. 2013. “Female Labor Supply: Why is the US Falling Behind?” January. NBER Working Paper No. 18702. The National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at www.nber.org

Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism Part 1-Education

Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism (Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht)

As most sociologists agree, the social structure underlies and perpetuates much of the sexism in society. Structural sexism, also known as institutional sexism, refers to the ways the organization of society and specifically its institutions subordinate individuals and groups based on their sex classification. Structural sexism has resulted in significant differences in the education and income levels, occupational and political involvement, and civil rights of women and men.

Education and Structural Sexism

Over 775 million adults over the age of 15 cannot read or write, and nearly two-thirds of them are women. Of the approximately 123 million illiterate youth, 76 million are female (UNESCO 2012).

Because children born to educated mothers are less likely to die at a young age, there is an education dividend associated with educating women. For example, if universal primary education was available for all girls in sub-Saharan Africa, 200,000 fewer children would die each year, and universal secondary education for all girls would save as many as 1.8 million lives annually (UNESCO 2011).

Historically, U.S. schools have discriminated against women. Before the 1830s, U.S. colleges accepted only males students. In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio became the first college to admit women. Even so, in 1833, female students at Oberlin were required to wash male students' clothes, clean their rooms, and serve their meals and were forbidden to speak at public assemblies (Fletcher 1943; Flexner 1972).This also only pertained to white women, as slavery was still a practiced institution.

In the 1960s, the women's movement sought to end sexism in education. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 states that not person shall be discriminated against on the basis of sex in any educational program receiving federal funds. These guidelines were designed to end sexism in the hiring and promoting of teachers and administrators. Title IX also sought to end sex discrimination in granting admission to college and awarding financial aid. Finally the guidelines called for an increase in opportunities for female athletes by making more funds available for their programs.

In 2012, few differences existed between men and women in their completion rates of high school and college degrees (NCES 2013). In fact, in recent years, most U.S. colleges and universities have had a higher percentage of women than men enrolling directly from better educated than their husbands while only 16 percent of fathers are better educated than their wives, the remainder of spouses having similar educational background (Wang et al. 2013). This trend is causing some concern that many young American men may not have the education they need to compete in today’s global economy.

Concern over the continued lack of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is also justified.  Women earn 81 percent of master’s degrees in library science but only 22 percent of master’s degrees in engineering and engineering technologies. Reasons for the STEM gender disparity include reliance on gender stereotyping (“Boys are better in math and science than girls!”), a lack of female STEM role models, little encouragement to follow STEM pursuits, and a lack of awareness about women in STEM fields (AAUW 2011).

Women earned 51 percent of doctorate degrees (e.g., JDs, MDs, PhDs) in 2012. Nonetheless, unlike many of their male counterparts, many women “opt out” of labor force participation. Hersch (2013) reports that female graduates of elite institutions, those most likely to find satisfying employment in their field of study, are more likely to “opt out” of the workforce than peers from less selective institutions who have children under the age of 18, have significantly lower levels of labor force involvement than their academic equals without children under the age of 18.

In higher education, there are also structural limitations that discourage women from advancing. Women seeking academic careers may find that securing tenure track position is more difficult for them than it is for men, and that having children pre-tenure negatively impacts the likelihood of getting tenure, that is, there is a “pregnancy penalty” (Ceci et al. 2009), Similarly, in an analysis of data from the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, Leslie (2007) reports that, as the number of children increases, the number of hours of female faculty member works decreases, and the number of hours a male faculty member works increases. Finally, research also indicates gender stereotyping in letters of recommendation. Women are more often described as socio-emotive (e.g. helpful) rather than active/assertive (e.g. ambitious) and, thus, are evaluated less positively (Madera et al. 2009). Similarly, female faculty are disproportionately assigned service duties (e.g. advising) when compared to their male counterparts, which places them at a disadvantage when being considered for tenure and/or promotion (Misra et al. 2011).

 Sources

Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht, Caroline 2015. Understanding Social Problems. Cengage Learning: Boston, MA.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). 2012 (September). “Adult and Youth Literacy.” Fact Sheet, No 20. Available at www.uis.unesco.org

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). 2011. “EFA Global Monitoring Report.” Available at www.unesco.org

Fletcher, Robert S. 1943. History of Oberlin College to the Civil War. Oberli, OH: Oberlin College Press.

Flexnor, Eleanor. 1972. Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States. New York: Atheneum

NCES (National Center for Educational Statistics) 2013. The Condition of Education, 2012. U.S. Department of Education. Available at www.nces.ed.gov

Wang, Wendy, Kim Parker, and Paul Taylor. 2013 (May 29). Breadwinner Moms. Pew Research Social and Demographic Trends. Available at www.pewsocialtrends.org

AAUW. 2011. Why So Few? Available at www.aauw.org

Hersch, Joni 2013. “Opting Out among Women with Elite Education.” Vanderbilt Law and Economics Research Paper. 13-05. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University.

Ceci, Stephne J., Wendy M. Williams, and Susan M. Barnett. 2009. “Women’s Underrepresentation in Science: Socio-Cultural and Biological Considerations.” Psychological Bulletin 135(2): 218-261.

Leslie, David W. 2007 (March). “The Reshaping of America’s Academic Workforce.” Research Dialogue 87. New York: TIAA-CREF Institute. Available at www.tiaa-crefinstitute.org

Madera, Juan M., Michelle M. Hebl, and Randi C. Martin. 2009. “Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences.” Journal of Applied Psychology 94(6): 1,591-1,599.

Misra, Joya, Jennifer Hickes Lundquist, Elissa Holmes, and Stephanie Agiomavritis. 2011. “The Ivory Ceiling of Service Work.” Academe 97:22-26.

Environmental Problems Part 6-Effects of Climate Change

Environmental Problems (Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht)

Effects of Global Warming and Climate Change

Climate Change kills an estimated 30,000 people per year, mostly in the developing world (Global Humanitarian Forum 2009). The majority of these deaths are attributed to crop failure leading to malnutrition and water problems such as flooding and drought. The effects of global warming and climate change also include the following:

Melting Ice and Sea-Level Rise. Between 1901 and 2010, average global sea level rose by about 7.5 inches (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2013). Some forecasts predict that sea-level rise could reach 3 to 6.5 feet over the 21^st century (Muldrow & Ochs 2011). The two major factors that are causing a rise in the sea level are (1) thermal expansion caused by the warming of the oceans (water expands as it warms), and (2) the melting of glaciers and the Greenland and polar ice sheets. In 2012, sea ice extent (ocean area covered by ice) was at a record low, and in mid-summer, 97 percent of the Greenland ice sheet was melting (UNEP 2013). Scientists say the Arctic Ocean in summer could be ice-free by the end of the century (Leitzell 2011). Rising sea levels pose a threat to 10 percent of the world’s population that live in coastal areas, and 13 of the world’s 20 largest cities that are located in coastal areas (Muldrow & Ochs 2011). As sea levels rise, some island countries, as well as some barrier islands off the U.S. coast, are likely to disappear, and low-lying coastal areas will become increasingly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding.

Flooding and Spread of Disease. Increased heavy rains and flooding caused by global warming contribute to increases in drownings and increases in the number of people exposed to insect-and-water-related diseases, such as malaria and cholera. Flooding, for example, provides fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes that carry a variety of diseases including encephalitis, dengue fever, yellow fever, West Nile virus, and malaria (Knoell 2007). With the warming of the planet, mosquitoes are now living in areas in which they previously were not found, placing more people at risk of acquiring one of the diseases carried by the insect.

Threat of Species Extinction. At least 19 species extinctions have been attributed to climate change (Staudinger et al. 2012). Scientists have predicted that, in certain areas of the world, global warming will lead to the extinction of up to 43 percent of plant and animal species, representing the potential loss of 56,000 plant species and 3,700 vertebrate species (Malcolm et al. 2006). The U.S. Geological Survey (2007) predicts that, due to the effects of climate change, the entire polar bear population of Alaska may be extinct in the next 43 years.

Extreme Weather: Hurricanes, Droughts, and Heat Waves. Rising temperatures are causing drought in some parts of the world and too much rain in other parts. Warmer tropical ocean temperatures can cause more intense hurricanes (Chafe 2006). With rising temperatures, an increase in the number, intensity, and duration of heat waves is expected, with the accompanying adverse health effects (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007). Droughts, as well as floods, can be devastating to crops and food supplies.

Forest Fires. Another effect of global warming is an increase in the number and size of forest fires (Westerling et al. 2006). For every degree Celsius warming in the Western states, scientists project a two-to-sixfold increase in area burned by wildfire (Staudinger et al. 2012). Warmer temperatures dry out trash brush and trees, creating ideal conditions for fires to spread. Warmer temperatures dry out brush and trees, creating ideal conditions for fires to spread. Warmer weather also allows bark beetles to breed more frequently, which leads to more trees dying from beetle infestation (Staudinger et al. 2012). Dead trees become dry and increase risk of fire. Global warming also means that spring comes earlier, making the fire season longer.

Effects on Recreation. Winter sports and recreation, such as skiing and snowboarding, are threatened by decreased and unreliable snowfall, causing high economic losses for winter recreation businesses, not to speak of frustration for winter sports enthusiasts. In coastal areas, beach recreation is also projected to suffer due to coastal erosion caused by sea level rise and increased storms association with climate change (Staudinger et al. 2012).

Sources

Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht, Caroline 2015. Understanding Social Problems. Cengage Learning: Boston, MA.

Global Humanitarian Forum. 2009. Human Impact Report: Climate Change-The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis. Genova: Global Humanitarian Forum.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2013. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. Available at www.climatechange2013.org

Muldrow, John, and Alexander Ochs (with Shakuntala Makhijani). 2011. “Glacial Melt and Ocean Warming Drive Sea Level Upward.” In Vital Signs, Linda Starke, ed. (pp. 43-46). Washington DC: Worldwatch Institute.

UNEP. 2013. UNEP Yearbook 2013: Emerging Issues in Our Global Environment. Available at www.unep.org

Leitzell, Katherine. 2011 (May 3). “When Will the Artic Lose its Sea Ice?” National Snow and Ice Data Center. Available at www.nsidc.org

Knoell, Carly. 2007 (August 9). “Malaria: Climbing in Elevation as Temperature Rises.” Population Connection. Available at www.populationconnection.org

Staudinger, Michelle D., Nancy B. Grimm, Amanda Staudt, Shawn L. Carter, F Stuart Chapin III, Peter Kareiva, Mary Ruckelshaus, Bruce A. Stein. 2012. Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services: Technical Input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment. Available at assessment.globalchange.gov

Malcolm, Jay R., Canran Liu, Ronald P. Neilson, Lara Hansen, and Lee Hannah. 2006. “Global Warming and Extinctions of Epidemic Species from Biodiversity Hotspots.” Conservation Biology 20(2):538-548

U.S. Geological Survey. 2007 (September 7). “Future Retreat of Arctic Ice Will Lower Polar Bear Populations and Limit Their Distribution.” USGS Newsroom. Available at www.usgs.gov

Chafe, Zoe. 2006. “Weather-Related Disasters Affect Millions.” In Vital Signs. L. Starke ed. (pp. 44-45). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2007. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. Available at www.ipcc.ch

Westerling, A.L., H.G. Hidalgo, D.R. Cayan, and T.W. Swetnam. 2006. “Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity.” Science 313 (5789):940-943

Environmental Problems Part 5-Global Warming and Climate Change

Environmental Problems (Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht)

Global Warming and Climate Change

Global warming refers to the increasing average global temperature of earth’s atmosphere, water and land, caused mainly by the accumulation of various gases (greenhouse gases) that collect in the atmosphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international team of scientists from countries around the world, “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal…The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased” (2013, p. SPM-3). In the United States, 2012 was the warmest year since records began in 1895 (Blunden & Arndt 2013).

Causes of Global Warming

The prevailing scientific view is that greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide, accumulate in the atmosphere and act like the glass in a greenhouse, holding heat from the sun close to the earth. Most scientists believe that global warming has resulted from the marked increase in global atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases since industrialization began. Global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to the actions of humankind, particularly the use of fossil fuels.

Deforestation also contributes to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Trees and other plant life use carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the air. As forests are cut down or are burned, fewer trees are available to absorb the carbon dioxide.

The growth of greenhouse gas emissions is strongest in developing countries, particularly China, which emits more carbon dioxide than any other nation. In 2010, China consumed nearly half of all coal worldwide and surpassed the United States as the world’s largest consumer of energy (BP 2011). However, the United States has the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide (Energy Information Administration,2013).

Even if greenhouse gases are stabilized, global air temperature and sea level are expected to continue to rise for hundreds of years. That is because global warming that has already occurred contributes to further warming of the planet, a process known as a positive feedback loop. For example, the melting of Siberia’s frozen peat bog could release billions of tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere (Pearce 2005). And the melting of ice and snow, another result of global warming, exposes more land and ocean area, which absorbs more heat than ice and snow, further warming the planet.

For more than 20 years, the fossil fuel industry and its allies have launched an aggressive misinformation campaign attacking and discrediting climate science, scientists, and scientific institutions (Greenpeace USA 2013). This well-funded “climate denial machine” has been effective in swaying public view of climate change: Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity causes global warming (Cook et al. 2013), more than half (57 percent) of U.S. adults believe that global warming is due to natural changes in the environment (Saad 2013).

 Sources

Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht, Caroline 2015. Understanding Social Problems. Cengage Learning: Boston, MA.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2013. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. Available at www.climatechange2013.org

Blunden, Jessica, and Derek S. Arndt. 2013. “State of the Climate in 2012.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 94(8):S1-S258

BP. 2011. BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Available at www.bp.com

Energy Information Administration. 2013 (September). Monthly Energy Review. Available at www.eia.gov

Pearce, Fred. 2005. “Climate Warming as Siberia Melts.” New Scientist, August 11. Available at www.NewScientist.com

Greenpeace USA. 2013. Dealing in Doubt: The Climate Denial Machine Vs. Climate Science. Available at www.greenpeace.org

Cook, John, Dana Nuccitelli, Sarah A. Green, Mark Richardson, Barbel Winkler, Rob Painting, Robert Way, Peter Jacobs, and Andrew Skuce, 2013. “Quantifying the Consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming in the Scientific Literature.” Environmental Research Letters 8(2)1-7.

Saad, Lydia. 2013 (April 8). “Americans’ Concerns about Global Warming on the Rise.” Gallup, Inc. Available at www.gallup.com

Environmental Problems Part 4-Water Pollution

Environmental Problems  (Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht)

Over the past 50 years, humans have altered ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other comparable period of time in history (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). As a result, humans have created environmental problems, including depletion of natural resources; air, land and water pollution; global warming and climate change; environmental illness; threats to biodiversity; and light pollution. Because many of these environmental problems are related to the ways that humans produce and consume energy, we will begin with global energy use.

Water Pollution

Our water is being polluted by a number of harmful substances, including plastics, pesticides, vehicle exhaust, acid rain, oil spills, sewage, and industrial, military, and agricultural waste. Water pollution is most severe in developing countries, where more than 1 billion people lack access to clean water. In developing nations, more than 80 percent of untreated sewage is dumped directly into rivers, lakes, and seas that are also used for drinking and bathing (World Water Assessment Program 2009).

In the United States, one indicator of water pollution is the thousands of fish advisories issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that warn against the consumption of certain fish caught in local waters because of contamination with pollutants such as mercury and dioxin. The EPA advises women who may become pregnant, pregnant women and nursing mothers, and young children to avoid eating certain fish altogether (swordfish, shark, king mackerel, and tilefish) because of the high levels of mercury (EPA 2004).

Pollutants in drinking water can cause serious health problems and even death. At Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in Onslow County, North Carolina, as many as 1 million people were exposed to water contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial degreasing solvent, and perchloroethylene (PCE), a dry-cleaning agent from 1957 until 1987 (Sinks 2007). Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to a number of health problem, including kidney, liver, and lung damage, as well as cancer, childhood leukemia, and birth defects.

Water pollution also affects the health and survival of fish and other marine life. In the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie, there are areas known as “dead zones” that due to pollution runoff from agricultural uses of fertilizer have oxygen levels so low they cannot support life (Scavia 2011)

In recent years, there has been increasing public concern about the effects of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking-a process used in natural gas production that involves injecting at high pressure a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into deep underground wells to break apart shale rock and release gas. Opponents of fracking cite a number of concerns about the damaging impacts to the environment and to human health, including the production of toxic wastewater and contamination of drinking water, air pollution, land damage, and global warming emissions (Ridlington & Rumpler 2013).

Another growing concern surrounds the increasing amount of plastic pollution found in the world’s oceans: There is not a single cubic meter of ocean water that does not contain some plastic. Much of this plastic is difficult to see because of its small size. Microplastics, which fragments of plastic that measure less than 5 mm, come from the degradation of plastic products and from small pellets that are used to make plastic products such as bottles, bags, and packaging. Some of these pellets are accidentally spilled into the environment and have been found on beaches and in ocean water around the world (Takada 2013) These plastic pellets and other plastic debris contain high concentration of hazardous chemicals that can have adverse effects on marine life and humans that consume seafood.

Sources

Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht, Caroline 2015. Understanding Social Problems. Cengage Learning: Boston, MA.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis. Washington. DC: Island Press.

World Water Assessment Program, 2009. World Water Development Report 3: Water In a Changing World. Available at www.unesco.org

EPA. 2004. What You Need to Know about Mercury in Fish and Shellfish. Available at www.epa.gov

Sinks, Thomas. 2007 (June 12). Statement by Thomas Sinks, PhD, Deputy Director, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry on ATSDR’s Activities at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune before Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations United States House of Representatives. Available at www.hhs.gov

Scavia, Donald. 2011 (September 2). “Dead Zones in Gulf of Mexico and Other Waters Require a Tougher Approach: Donald Scavia.” Nola.com Available at www.nola.com

Ridlington, Elizabeth, and John Rumpler. 2013. Fracking by the Numbers: Key Impacts of Dirty Drilling at the State and National Level. Environment America Research & Policy Center. Available at www.environmentamerica.org

Takada, Dr. Hideshige. 2013 (May 10). Microplastics and the Threat to Our Seafood. Ocean Health Index. Available at www.oceanhealthindex.org

Environmental Problems Part 3-Land Pollution

Environmental Problems (Mooney, Linda, Knox, David, and Schacht)

Over the past 50 years, humans have altered ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other comparable period of time in history (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). As a result, humans have created environmental problems, including depletion of natural resources; air, land and water pollution; global warming and climate change; environmental illness; threats to biodiversity; and light pollution. Because many of these environmental problems are related to the ways that humans produce and consume energy, we will begin with global energy use.

Land Pollution

About 30 percent of the world’s surface is land, which provides soil to grow the food we eat. Increasingly, humans are polluting the land with nuclear waste, solid waste and pesticides. In 2013, 1,320 hazardous waste sites in the United States (also called Superfund sites) were on the National Priorities List (EPA 2013a).

Solid Waste

In 1960, each U.S. citizen generated 2.7 pounds of garbage on average every day. This figure increased to 4.4 pounds in 2011 (EPA 2013b). This figure does not include mining, agricultural, and industrial waste; demolition and construction wastes; junked autos; or obsolete equipment wastes. Just over half of this waste is dumped in landfills; the rest is recycled or composted. The availability of landfill space is limited, however. Some states have passed laws that limit the amount of solid waste that can be disposed of; instead, they require that bottles and cans be returned for a deposit or that lawn clippings be used in community composting programs.

Solid waste includes discarded electrical appliances and electronic equipment, knows as e-waste. Ever think about where your discarded computer, cell phone, CD player, television, or other electronic product ends up when you replace it with a newer model? Most discarded electronics end up in landfills, incinerators, or hazardous substances, such as lead, cadmium, barium, mercury, PCBs, and polyvinyl chloride, can leach out of e-waste and contaminate the soil and groundwater.

Pesticides

Pesticides are used worldwide for crops and gardens; outdoor mosquito control; the care of lawns, parks, and golf courses; and indoor pest control. Pesticides contaminate food, water, and air and can be absorbed through the skin, swallowed, or inhaled. Many common pesticides are considered potential carcinogens and neurotoxins (Blatt 2005). Even when a pesticide is found to be hazardous and is banned in the United States, other countries from which we import food may continue to use it. In an analysis of more than 5,000 food samples, pesticide residues were detected in 43 percent of the domestic samples and 31 percent of the imported samples (Food and Drug Administration 2013). Pesticides also contaminate our groundwater supplies.

Sources

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis. Washington. DC: Island Press.

EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 2013a National Priorities List (NPL), Available at www.epa.gov/superfund/sites

EPA, 2013b. Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2011 Facts and Figures. Available at www.epa.gov

Blatt, Harvey. 2005. America’s Environmental Report Card: Are We Making the Grade? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Food and Drug Administration. 2013. Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program Results and Discussion FY 2009. Available at www.fda.gov