How Physical Environment Affects Social Environment

The physical environment affects the social environment in the following ways;

The type of food: The physical environment determines the soil, climate and vegetation of an area which tends to affect / determines the type of crops to plant and eat. For example in Ghana, people who live in the forest zone eat more plantain, cocoyam and cassava whiles those in the savanna belt eat more guinea corn and sorghum.

Clothing: The type of things we wear is also determined by the physical environment. Ghana receives sunshine virtually throughout the year while Greenland on the other hand receives sunshine six months a year. In Ghana two seasons are experienced; wet and dry season. People are seen in jackets during wet seeason, but during the dry season they are seen in ordinary shirts or outfits. In other parts of the country where temperature is relatively low and little or no sunshine is experienced, people tend to put on pullovers and jackets in folds throughout the year.

Shelter: Even though trade among nations has changed the way we build, many people use the building materials that are available in their local area to build their houses. A good example are farmers who put up buildings of forest trees in the forest zone on the other hand people in the savanna zone use less trees in their buildings.

Type of local work: Education has not been able to change the traditional (local work) jobs in Ghana. For instance, people in Ghana situated along the rivers, lagoons, seas turn out to be fishermen where as those with fertile land engage in farming, craftsmen also engage in craft work in the forest zones of the country.

Type of energy: The main source of Ghana’s energy is from the Volta River and the Akosombo Dam. Anytime the volume of water in the Volta River is reduced, the supply of electricity in Ghana is reduced accordingly (load shedding). An increase in the volume of water of Volta increases the supply of power.