Impacts on an individual environmentally????????? huh?

Question

Ok, for my assignment right i have to "describe the impacts of earthquakes on individuals and communities considering economic, environtmental and social factors"

I don't really understand economic, environmental and social factors, but the 1 that really throws me off is the "environmental" part.

The environment doesn't do anything to the individual, the earthquake does, but that's not right as i've tried that in other assignments and it gets marked down.

So can somebody please put me back on the right track to answering this question correctly?

Cheers

Answer 1

Well the earthquake ruins homes, buildings, roads, land, etc. It could destroy farmland or something, therefore effecting the people who buy food grown from that land.

Answer 2

Economic - shops, banks, farms destroyed leads to slump in local economy & loss of jobs; cost of rebuilding.

Social - loss of family/comunity members, high unemployment, loss of religious and educational services.

Environmental - destruction/disruption/contamination of water sources (dams, rivers etc), destruction of natural resources (timber, fish, minerals/mining), destruction of narional parks (loss of recreation and tourism).

The earthquake will impact the evironment which will in turn impact on the individual and the community. Basically any effect the earthquake has on the environment that will cause people a problem is an environmental factor.