Geo Notes PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Geo Notes PDF

Description

Geo Notes Lect 2,3 – global inequality We are globally interconnected Through a continuing cycle of - Production - Consumption - (recycling) Resource Etraction - Can lead to conflict (oil, water, timber..) Pollution - Climate change! Consumption (pollution – climate change crisis)  recycling  production (potential conflict – resources n energy) -

Globalization causes our world to function as one world We all are interconnected in this one world We bear responsibility for our actions, even if we don’t see the consequences first hand (fast fashion) As you will learn, inequality is no accident, but a consequence

Global inequality 1. Differences between individuals 2. Differences between states o GDP,GNI  Canada $45,000  Gulf states $145,000  Central Africa 6  Canada , Germany: 1.5  India: 2.3  China: 1.6  USA: 1.8 Replacement level fertility  Number of children required to replace the parents and keep the population stable TFR of Canada  CDN in 1950s :4  CDN today: 1.5



NFLD: 1.3

 

ON: 1.5 Nunavut: 3.1

Bottom line: be wary of national averages! Factors affecting fertility

  

  

Biological o Woman’s age health and education Economic o Children as a source of labor to help the mother  Helping around the house Cultural o Laws customs that govern what women are allowed to do

Earth is finite Earth is fragile o Global ecosystem (ecosphere):  As thick as the wax layer on a apple skin Earth is a system

Drivers of resource use

Main forces that drive these demands: o Demographic o Sociopolitical? Economic o Scientific and technological Causes of resource scarcity Environmental issues can be linked to different human demands for resources and resultant scarcity  Physical  Socio economic  Geopolitical  Enviromental 

Physical scarcity  Occurs when resource is limited in physical quantity (eg land water and minerals)  Influence of demand (resource not considered scarce if demand is low, even if it's physically scarce or difficult to access)  Can change through time  Displays cycles of scarcity and abundance  For example aluminum currently 8% of the earth's crust Socio economic scarcity  Developing countries o Inability of people Geopolitical scarcity

 Example of the opec oil crisis in Middle East in the 1970s Enviromental scarcity  Abundance fallacy  Scarcity due to irresponsible human practises /Decision making Demo graphic Driver

Week 6 Culture relies on symbols -

Symbol: something that stands for smt else Semiotics is the study of symbols Math, religion, music, maps, language There’s are 7 thousand languages

Why are cultural geographers interested in language? - Language transmits culture - Language is necessary to describe the world o Even maps are a form of symbolic language - Language is a place-marking o An expression of power Naming and claiming places - Naming requires power to make names “stick” o European ‘discovery’, ‘A.D’, ‘Indians’, ‘natives’ - Worldwide, European settlers ‘named’ places they had ‘discovered’ o In reality, they overwrote existing places names o At the time, they overwrote the conquered cultures - Recently indigenous names are being reinstated o Frobisher bay/ Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut o Port Brabant/ Tuktoyaktuk, NWT Language: - Every ten days, a language disappears from the planet - By the end of your life, half of extant languages will be extinct - Indigenous languages in Canada are in peril - Half the world’s languages are being keep alive by a 5th of the population How did we get here? Chp 2: how the world assumed its current structure - European expansions, WST, neocolonialism

Chp 4 & 8: climate change is creating additional food shortages that contribute to political economic crises, which push people to leave (refugees/migrants) Chp 3: migrations lead to population changes both in sending and receiving countries Chp 5 & 6: migration lead to cultural/political changes in both sending and receiving countries.

CC is creating additional food shortages that contribute to political and econ crises, which push people to leave - people get pushed off the land by CC, drought, flooding, hunger, etc, - as they move to the city, food production declines, while demand goes up - as a result, food prices soar - broke gov'ts can't afford to buffer the increased prices with increased subsidies - shortages, protests, unrest, and violence ensue - people leave if they can: migration' - ! extremist movements use the dissatisfaction to gain more adherents - ! political polarization - POLITICAL DIMENSION! Botton line: - A new global situation in which attributes and intrests of core and periphery are not just defined by economic performance, but increasingly by cultural/religious markers - “us vz. Them mentality” instead of “global development” - Political violence on the rise (terrorism) - Military violence on the rise (war)

AFTER MIDTERM China is returning to world economic dominance Competition - Europe: fractured  Internal competition o Innovation encouraged/necessary - China: unified  no internal competition o Large enough to be self-sufficient, little political/social innovasion China comes full circle - Post 1980s global neoliberalism and fee trade - Large, cheap labour pool - China is capitalizing on changing global economic structures Lec 13-14: natural hazards and disasters’ environmental change and conflict

IPCC 6th assessment report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability was released today feb 28 What is a ‘natural’ hazard? What is a ‘natural’ disaster? - Volcano air could be a hazard. The explosion can be a disaster - (un) certainty & (un)predictability why do people live in hazardous areas? - Uncertainty o Impossible to predictct, we don’t know when they are going to happen - Bounded rationality - Economic o They might not have the economic means Impacts of natural disasters: - Developed counties: o Higher overall immediate economic losses o Higher adaptation capacity o Emergency relief - Developing counties: o Greater loss of human life o Little/no early warning systems o Very little adaptation capacity Poverty means vulnerability - Early warning systems can prevent disasters o Evacuation, building codes, barriers, ect.  These require financial resources and good planning Rapid urbanization = greater exposer - They settle into squatter settlements Particular vulnerable groups: - Women o less access to resources o gendered labour o primary caregivers - elderly o most at risk o isolation o reduced mobility natural disasters in the developing world: - growing elderly population

Lusaka: - fastest growing city in Africa - population of 1.7 million o 70% is unplanned settlements, 43 in all Zambia: - formerly part of the British colony of Rhodesia - variety of political problems - Lusaka emerging as fast-growing primary state

Informal settlements: - The poor have little access to formal land markets - Have few services, except where external aid agencies have become involved - The state does have a formally planned system to build new housing, but cannot keep up with demand Case study site: - Mutendre - Across the stream is a squatter settlement, kalikiliki - An earthen dam on site is not maintained Hazard: - Rain often falls in intense storms that cause flash floods - In 2005, administrators decided the dam might burst - Dam wall to drain water into the stream channel Storm event – December 24, 2005 - 250 homes damaged or lost - Some of the damaged homes were looted - The dam bursted Perceptions of risk: - Majority of interviewees said they didn’t even realize the area was at risk of flooding - Most see the government being responsible for taking action - None saw abandoning the hazard area as a solution Environment and conflict 2 theories between environmental change and security/conflict: - Scarcity-conflict model o Resources and population is balance either population increases or environmental change  scarcity (water, timber)  competition (over

-

resources)  conflict  institutional breakdown  violent conflict  scarcity (cycle) Abundance-conflict model (the resource curse) o Resources and population in balance (diamonds, gold, oil)  rising commodity prices  geographically concentrated resource (climate change opens new geographically concentrated resources)  competition for control  conflict  fractions  violent conflict

Vulnerability to climate change: Vulnerability (V) = potential for harm or loss V = f(E,S,A) E – exposure (extent of physical impact and effects) S – sensitivity (human element dependence on our worlds resources) A – adaptive capacity (adapt in the risks of the change) Lect 16: 1. From substance based to industrial agriculture (“green revolution” Subsistence farming - Smaller parcels of land, modest technology - Family self- sufficient in food is the main goal o Results in high rural pop, density o Land not overworked Green revolution - Industrial agric. Developed rapidly in NA & Europe in 1930 – 1960 - Most of population is now urban - Developing counties = large agriculture populations, lower levels of food productivity - Green revolution attempted to increase crop quality in developing world By products of green revolution - Improved plant varieties - Dissemination of capitalism in agriculture production - Creates rural income inequities - Requires more Land and water degradation (monocultures) Positive outcomes: - Crop yields exceed population growth - Price of food decreases - Nutrition improves Risks associated with industrial food production

-

Damage in ecosystems Alteration of natural cycle Fossil fuel dependence Destruction of rural communities

2. Food and population growth To feed another 2.5 billion on this planet - Would require putting an area twice the size of India under plow and pasture o Emitting to much additional carbon as 13,000 coal power plants - What can we do? o Eat less meat o Reduce food waste o Grow food instead of biofuel o Curb population growth Currently, - 80 % of agri. land is used to produce feed for animals - 80% of antibiotics are administered to farm animals - Humanity depends mostly on 200 plant species for food (out of 600 edible plants) - 75% of all water consumption goes to agri. o But were running out of water! What men want - Women who work close to home - Self-image as a provider, leader of the house hold - Even at the expense of higher household income What women want: - Protection from harassment by other men - Stay at home (higher social status) - Ambivalent at work Other factors influencing women’s workforce participation: - Need for another wage earner - Remit money to rural activities - Distance form center Other realities: - Women earn less than men - Garment factories best for women

-

Teenage garment workers= highest income

Cities as mirrors: - Cities are geographical manifestations of economic surplus and distribution (David Harvey) Factors urban perspectives vary: - Gender - Age - Economic status - Cultural background ex: china town, Jamaica town Characteristics of employment sectors Formal sector: - Difficult to enter - Corporate ownership - Large scale operations - Regulated - Skills/qualifications Informal sector: - Easy to enter - Rely on own resources - Small scale - Unregulated Disasters in one 12-month period 1999 - 2 earthquakes in turkey - Flood in Venezuela - 2 cyclones in India - 1 million people in Maputo affected by flooding Small disasters: - Each day poor neighbourhoods experience small disasters o Fires, diseases outbreaks, floods Particular challenges faced by the poor - They often live in an informal cash economy - Competitions for good income opportunity is fierce - Working conditions expose them to server health risks - No safety net - Pay more for basic needs then the rich

Gendered experience of the social network - Women’s urban landscape o Urban areas take on different meanings to women at certain times of the day David Harvey: - “Need is a relative concept”, a set of categories developed in human consciousness - As society changed so does consciousness of need...