Human Geo 1.3-1.4 Questions Flashcards
Describe scale and cultural change:
Uniform cultural preferences produce uniform “global” landscapes of material artifacts/cultural values (fast-food restaurants/chains create an unvarying visual appearance, so customers always know what to expect). Globalization of cultural beliefs/forms” Africans have adopted Christianity or Islam, moving away from traditional religions.
Describe scale and economic change:
Most economic activities are influenced by interaction with decision-makers elsewhere. Everywhere is part of the global economy, but globalization has led to more specialization at the local level. Changes in production have led to a spatial division of labor where a region’s workers specialize. TCs decide where to produce things in response to characteristics of the local labor force, and particular production tasks are clustered in certain areas.
How are concentration and density different?
2 neighborhoods could have the same housing density but different concentrations (green space is in one park, or each house has their own green yard). MLB team distribution illustrates the difference. The distribution of teams changed in the 2nd half of the 20th century, and expanded from 16 to 30 teams, increasing density. Teams moved and dispersed to the West coast and Southeast.
Describe the differences between Gender and Sex:
A newborn baby’s SEX is either male or female, and GENDER is the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and relationships between women and men. Gender is a social construct (an idea that has been created & widely accepted by people, but may not represent a reality shared by all individuals in that group).
What is Gender Equality?
Equal chances or opportunities for females to access and control social, economic, and political resources. Gender inequality is reflected in many factors (like income, 55% that of men worldwide). In some countries, women have achieved near-equality with men (Canada, a few European countries, and a few developing countries with low incomes). Gap is most severe in Southwest Asia/North Africa.
What is gender equity?
The different needs, preferences, and interests of women and men (so different treatment may be needed to ensure equality). (box picture: all 3 people are at the same level and can all see over the fence, and the shortest person has the most boxes).
What are Sustainability’s Three Pillars?
Environment, economy, and society, and sustianability can only be achieved by bringing them together. Sustainability is a combination of natural and human elements, and requires curtailing the use of nonrenewable resources and limiting the use of renewable resources (So they can be supplied indefinitely).
What is the Social Pillar of Sustainability?
It deals with human needs and how they make use of resources to meet them. Consumer choices can support sustainability when people embrace it as a value. (ex. clothing of recycled/natural materials). Society’s values are the basis for choosing which resources to use. A project is socially sustainable if it reflects the values of the society and its benefits are enjoyed by everyone.
What is the Economic Pillar of Sustainability?
Natural resources acquire a $ value through exchange in a marketplace (supply/demand). Some goods don’t reflect their environmental costs (motorists don’t pay for their pollution while in a traffic jam). The price of a resource depends on a society’s ability to get it and adapt it to their purposes. Critics say it is too late to discuss sustainability, and others say human activities haven’t exceeded Earth’s capacity and Earth’s resources have no absolute limit.
Describe Köppen’s climate regions:
Climate regions are divided into subtypes. For all but the B climate (whose subdivision is made on temperature and precipitation), the subdivision is based on amount of precipitation and the season in which it falls. “H” denotes highland areas where climates are cold due to elevation, or local climate variations too great to show on the map.
Humans have a limited tolerance for extreme temperature and precipitation levels, so relatively few people live in the Cry (B) and Polar (E) climate regions, or in the Highlands.
What is more information regarding the Lithosphere and geomorphology?
The study of Earth’s landforms (geomorphology) helps to explain the distribution of people and the choice of economic activities at different locations. (ex. people prefer living on flatter land). Topographic maps show details of physical features (bodies of water, forests, mountains, valleys, wetlands) and cultural features (buildings, parks, roads, farms dams). “Topos” are used by engineers, hikers, hunters, home site seekers, and anyone who wants to see the lay of the land.
What 2 sustainability issues arise from the destruction of soil?
- Erosion: occurs when soil washes away in the rain/blows away in the wind. To reduce it, farmers can avoid steep slopes, plow less, and plant crops whose roots help bind the soil.
- Depletion of nutrients: Soil contains nutrients for growing plants, and they’re depleted when plants withdraw more nutrients than natural processes can replace. Each type of plant withdraws certain nutrients from the soil and restore others. To minimize depletion, farmers can plant different crops each year so the land remains productive.
What is the history of environmental determinism?
Other geographers adopted ED as well, like Friedrich Ratzel and his American student Ellen Churchill Semple. Ellsworth Huntington, an early American geographer, argued that climate was a major determinant of civilization. According to him, the temperate climate of maritime Northwestern Europe produced greater human efficiency (measured by standards of living)
What are 2 factors influencing human modification of the environment?
- Some human impacts on the environment are based on cultural values. One group of people may eat fruit from deciduous trees and use conifers for furniture, while another group may use deciduous trees for furniture and preserve conifers as religious symbols.
- A people’s level of wealth: A farmer who has a tractor may want to avoid a hilly piece of land, but a poor farmer with only a hoe may regard hilly land as the only chance to produce food through hand cultivation.
Describe the sustainable ecosystem of the Netherlands and how they face their problem of too much water:
They’ve built polders and dikes (which prevent the North Sea from flooding much of the country) to stop flooding, close waterways, and create land). The Dutch have built dikes in 2 major locations: Zuider Zee in the north and Delta Plan in southwest. After these two dike projects were completed, the Dutch government’s attitude towards modifying the environment changed (stopped building polders, are breaking some dikes, returning farmland to wetlands/forests).
