Challenges for Human Habitation
- Extreme environments have low population densities, such as in central Australia, Iceland, northern Canada and Namibia
- People have to adapt to harsh environments such as insufficient heat in Iceland and Canada or water scarcity in places such as Australia and the Sahara
- These environments are outside what is known as the 'comfort zone for human habitation'
- Humans have a wide tolerance of temperatures
- However, temperatures below -10°C or above 35°C are unsuitable in the long term
- Comfort zones can have cultural biases; for instance, the Inuit are more adapted to severe cold compared to other populations
- Challenges include:
- Limited water, food and fuel
- Climate extremes
- Extreme temperatures can cause heat stroke or frostbite
- The seasonal melting of permafrost can cause subsidence, which affects the structural integrity of buildings
- Unpredictable and severe weather patterns, from heavy snowfall or rainfall to dust storms, cause damage to infrastructure and disruptions
- The lack of daylight in polar regions affects physical and mental health
- Remoteness and inaccessibility
- Periglacial environments can be situated on steep or uneven terrain, making it difficult to build or access
- Likewise, arid environments can be land-locked and located far from habitation
- Infrastructure is limited and needs advanced engineering to overcome the demanding terrain, making it costly to build and difficult to maintain
- The lack of basic infrastructure, such as healthcare and education facilities, increases the problems of living in these regions
- Transportation is difficult, affecting the movement of people, goods, and services
- Developing and extracting resources in extreme environments requires advanced, reliable and usually expensive equipment
- Hot and arid environments offer little in the way of natural resources, such as clean water and fertile soil, to support humans
- Water in cold environments can be frozen for most of the year
- Any development in these fragile environments have significant ecological footprints, such as habitat damage and pollution
- The harsh conditions increase the economic costs linked to resource development and extraction
- Development projects are sensitive to fluctuations in global markets, making the feasibility of development in these areas an issue
General Adaptations Made by People in Extreme Environments
| Hot | Cold |
| Adaptations to temperature include painting buildings white to reflect the heat, having thicker walls and small windows to keep the heat out, air conditioning in the homes, wearing loose-fitting clothes and wearing head coverings |
Adaptations to temperature include triple glazing in houses, wearing layers, wool, fur, etc. to keep warm and using geothermal power |
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Adaptations to water scarcity include building houses with flat roofs to catch water, drip irrigation to grow crops and nomadic farming to prevent overgrazing by herds |
Adaptations to frozen ground include lifting houses above the ground, hunting rather than growing crops and building roads on gravel beds to stop them cracking |
| Travel is usual in the early morning or late afternoons to avoid direct sunlight, Long periods of rest during the day avoid exhaustion and limit dehydration. Seasonal mobility is a way of coping with limited amounts of water and a lack of pasture | Travel is migratory and follows the herding or hunting of caribou, moving north during the summer and south to the forest margins in winter. Fishing is also important as the availability of land for growing is too short |
Coping in cold environments
Adaptation by People in Alaska
| Farming techniques | Native Alaskans relied on hunting and fishing for food rather than farming the land because of permafrost and the very short growing season |
| Buildings |
High-pitched, steep roofs allow snow to slide off. Triple glazed windows keep heat in. In areas of permafrost, houses are raised on stilts to prevent their heat from melting the frozen ground beneath, (which can cause the land to sink and subside) |
| Transport | Alaskan roads are built on 1-2-metre-thick gravel pads that stop heat transferring from vehicles to the soil beneath, which would cause permafrost to melt and roads to crack |
| Energy use | Energy use is high as there is little heat and limited sunlight for parts of the year. In parts of Alaska, geothermal heat provides energy and hot water |
| Clothing | Inupiat and Yupik people of Alaska wear coats made of caribou skin (with double fur lining). Now they also wear modern fabrics like fleece and Gore-Tex |
Coping in hot environments
Adaptation by Middle Eastern Bedouin
| Farming techniques | Water in underground aquifers is accessed through boreholes, using hand-pumps or buckets to draw the water up. Only tribes that own the well are allowed to draw water from it. Where irrigation is not available, traditional nomadic pastoralism is still practiced; sheep and goats are moved to new grazing before they put too much stress on local vegetation |
| Buildings | Portable tents or shelters that give flexibility to move around with their animals. Bedouins that return to the same place every year for the winter months often build stone houses. Many Bedouin are now settled in permanent homes with flat roofs, thick walls, painted white walls, and small windows to keep the rooms within cool |
| Transport | Traditionally, camels have been used as desert transport. Now, people use 4x4s, although they can get stuck in sand |
| Energy use | Traditionally, energy use has been low due to high temperatures. In the Middle East where oil has been found, wealthy people use a lot of energy on air conditioning. Photovoltaic solar panels work very well in hot, sunny climates |
| Clothing | Middle Eastern Bedouin tribes favour loose-fitting clothing, often in blue to reflect sunlight. To avoid sunburn and protect from wind-blown sand, heads and faces are covered with head scarves called keffiyeh |