Environmental Stress: Cool Climates

Environmental Stress: Cool Climates

            Responses to cold can be described by two physiological responses; these responses are ones which retain heat and ones which increase heat production. Heat retention is considered to be the most beneficial because it requires less energy. This disrupts the survival of humans by disturbing homeostasis because energy comes from nutrition and diet. This is a problem because in cold conditions there is typically not very much food. This makes heat retention important because it became the primary way to survive without heat from food.

            One short term way that humans have an adapted to cold is by vasoconstriction. Vasoconstriction minimizes heat loss making it an energy efficient way of maintaining heat in the cold. Vasoconstriction is when blood vessels narrow in order to reduce blood flow to the skin. This response is involuntary and reduces heat loss at the surface of skin. A Facultative response to cold at times was voluntary exercise. Though this method warmed the body by generating muscle heat this was not the ideal method because is required food and nutrients from food in order to maintain energy. Developmental responses to cold have been found in changes of the facial shape. Additionally, cold has an effect on metabolic rate. The cooler the climate the faster the metabolic rate of the people within it. Cultural responses to cold include, building fires, using animal skin as clothing, and building shelters.

Vasoconstriction VS. Vasodilation

Vasoconstriction in Hands

                                                        Faculative: Voluntary Excercise

                                       Developmental Response to Cold: Global Metabolic Impact

Cultural Response to Cold

            Studying how cooler climates effected the evolution of humans can be very informational in regards to how we came to where we are based on how different hominid species were able to survive and adapt to their surroundings in order to live and reproduce. The environment has much to do with our bodies, how fast we metabolize food, what kind of food we take, and how we behave given the resources that are available in cooler climates.  This is all useful in allowing us to learn more about our background and how we as people better acclimate to certain environments today and how we have evolved to do so. This in my opinion reveals a lot about human history and how different people live in specific areas that are better suited for their physiological needs. This information can be productive in case of traveling or even emergencies. It is important to keep in mind especially when traveling to different areas how our bodies may not be used to certain conditions and what we must do in order to be better suited. For example, if you are going sailing and you are moving into cooler areas with rougher conditions it would be wise to know how to protect yourself from the cold and what to do to preserve energy.

            Using race in adaptation number two for exercise would be difficult, however, perhaps instead of focusing on how different races may be predisposed to be better at some exercise or have more ways of achieving better ways to survive or maintain homeostasis a better response would be to question how different people have different builds which allow them different athletic or survival abilities. Instead of the question of who is the best race to adapt it should be a question of what build physically is the best suited in certain climates based on their physical ability. A valuable lesson is that all people regardless of race are built differently. Perhaps then and even now different people regardless of race some people physically may have had a less difficult time using energy to voluntarily jump around or stay active than others did to acclimate to the cool weather. We can better understand people when race is separated from what we can and cannot do as well as what we expect of others. Race does not define a weaker or stronger group, however, perhaps we may assert that different people regardless of race are better designed to perform certain tasks or survive certain conditions.

Works Cited

Jurmaine, Robert. "Modern Human Biology: Patterns of Adaptation." Introduction to Physical Anthropology. 2013-2014 ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.