THE PROBLEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

The subject of detrimental environmental change has received much attention in the news media for some time.
Scientists, policy makers, and the public have become increasingly concerned about the threat that such change, if it
continues unabated, poses for the future. Growing numbers of scientists from a variety of disciplines have been
systematically studying specific aspects of this change and attempting to identify effective strategies for preventing or
mitigating potentially catastrophic effects.

Human factors researchers have not focused much attention on this area in the past. Perhaps it has been assumed
that the discipline has little to offer toward the solution of environmental problems. We believe it does have something
to offer. This chapter represents an effort to stimulate and contribute to a dialogue that will help identify what some of
the possibilities are.

Dimensions of the Problem

Some earth and atmospheric scientists have been documenting an increased concentration of carbon dioxide and
other "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere and have been attempting to better understand how a continuing
accumulation will affect the future world climate (Houghton and Woodwell, 1989; National Research Council, 1983).
Others have been studying

such phenomena as "acid rain" and its effects on lakes and streams, forests, and materials (Baker et al., 1991;
Mohnen, 1988; Schwartz, 1989), air pollution and urban smog (Gray and Alson, 1989; National Research Council,
1991; Office of Technology Assessment, 1988), and the thinning of ozone in the stratosphere (Stolarski et al., 1992;
Stolarski, 1988). Studies have focused on the contamination and depletion of fresh-water supplies (la Riviere, 1989;
National Research Council, 1977; Postel, 1985), on the depletion of the world's forests (Myers, 1989; Repetto, 1990)
and wetlands (Steinhart, 1990; Wallace, 1985), and on the worldwide loss of arable land (Crossen and Rosenberg,
1989; National Research Council, 1990; Schlesinger et al., 1990). Biologists have been documenting the loss of
wildlife habitat and the accompanying decrease in biodiversity (Soule, 1991; Wilson, 1989). More detailed
discussions of the many facets of the problem are readily available (Gore, 1992; Nickerson, 1992; Stern et al., 1992).

Behavioral Causes of Environmental Change

Many of the most readily identified causes of these changes are human activities. Major contributors to the
accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere include the burning of fossil fuels for heating and energy
generation and the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as coolants and aerosols. The burning of fossil fuels is also a
major cause of acid rain, which is formed when airborne sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides combine with water vapor.
Air pollutants include ozone, carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulates—all by-
products of industrial and energy-generation processes. Stratospheric ozone thinning is believed to be a direct
consequence of the accumulation of CFCs in the upper atmosphere.

Major threats to clean, fresh-water supplies include contamination not only from precipitation of chemical emissions
that have accumulated in the atmosphere but also from agricultural runoff containing pesticides and fertilizers, from
waste discharges into rivers, from salt used for highway deicing, from hazardous wastes disposed of improperly, and
from leachate from municipal dumps. Deforestation is the consequence both of converting forests to farmland and
residential and business areas and of overharvesting timber. Wetland loss results from the "reclamation" of wetlands
for commercial development. Desertification, the transformation of arable land into land on which crops will no longer
grow, has a variety of causes, including overgrazing and the salinization of soil from excessive irrigation.

Since the human activities that are implicated in detrimental environmental change are aimed at satisfying human
needs and desires, those activities can only be expected to increase as the population grows. And population growth,
worldwide, is expected to continue for the near future at