- High levels of solar radiation negatively impact the survival of humans because it affects human food sources like crops and love stock. They might not be able to survive the higher levels of radiation. It makes it harder for people to keep there core body temp down to 98.6 F because the increase in heat.
Short term
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Facultative
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Developmental
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Cultural
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| squinting to protect eyes from sun. | increased melatonin production in skin. making skin darker to protect from sun. |
Natural selection favoring more slender bodies that retain less heat. Bipedal walking less surface area for radiation.
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Technology, clothing, housing, sunblock, umbrellas
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- The benefits is that we get to learn why people developed the traits they have and what we can do to adapt to our changing environment better.
- People who live in areas where solar radiation is stronger like tropical area would have darker skin to protect themselves from the radiation. The study of environmental influences on adaptations is a better way of understanding human variation because “race” does not categorize people into groups with similar variation to study the way a groups environment influence their traits would be a better method because that’s how one would learn how they have adapted to that environment. For example you can learn that as a result of radiation in Africa the people are darker to adapt. Or maybe it was “sexual selection” as some scientists think it is. Another example would be head shape; you can really infer that this “race” has this head shape because it varies.
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| Short-term |
| Facultative |
| Developmental |
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| Cultural |
