Environmental Psychology Article Analysis

Environmental Psychology Article Analysis

The environment has a major part in how an individual lives his or her life. Individuals can adapt to his or her environment and use to his or her benefits. Individuals living or farming on the plains can have the benefit of using the natural resource. Individuals living by water can have the benefit of fishing as a natural resource. There have been many times the environment has seemed to not be giving and it shall not be unnoticed. The environment is in a nonstop threat of hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, and avalanches. When an individual resides in the environment it can be plentiful and bountiful to the point he or she can use his or her natural resources to survive. This paper will analyze the Social Ecology of Hurricane Katrina: Re-Writing the Discourse of "Natural" Disasters, which involved environmental psychology and analyze the influence of a current environmental psychology.

The Social Ecology of Hurricane Katrina: Re-Writing the Discourse of "Natural" Disasters

It is very difficult to tell the difference between a natural event, which is affected by a human conduct. Furthermore, researchers in various fields have established that the level of devastation and the predicted likelihood of recovery of neighborhoods and communities correspond with the amount of political and socioeconomic capital held by neighborhoods and communities prior to disasters such as the Hurricane Katrina (Yoosun & Miller, 2006). During September 2005, there was a disaster, which is considered one of the worst disasters in the history of this nation. It was catastrophe, Hurricane Katrina destroying the coastline of New Orleans. The destruction of Hurricane Katrina cannot be fully understood by as the outcome of a force of nature of human manufacture. The Gulf Coast suffered destroyed as well. More than 1000 lives were lost; homes and property were destroyed. Included in the debris of vanished businesses, jobs, and obliterated communities and neighborhoods were the remnants of scattered families and shattered lives (Yoosun, Miller, 2006, p. 1).

The destruction wrought by the Hurricane Katrina was profound and multilayered. The breached levees resulted in the flooding of up to 80% of the city with water rising 25 feet in some places (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention & U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2005). The natural disaster left many individuals without water, food, no restaurants or stores, and also banks and ATM's for individuals to get money to purchase if there was any available. There was no phone or electricity to contact anyone to let them know if he or she is okay or if he or she needed anything. Every form of transportation, which an individual had was curtailed and all the streets was covered with contaminated water, shingles, mud, branches, clapboards, and nails, which made walking hazardous. Just imagine life without air conditioners in the unbearable heat it is not only frustrating, but is a serious health risk, for elderly and individuals with health problems.

Analyze the Influence of a Current Environmental psychology

We analyze the significance of this discourse of "natural disasters" through the framework of social ecology (Vanek, 2000). Since its development in the 1960s, the concept of social ecology