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Study guide #3 for test Dr. Rice...

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Geography 1101: Introduction to Human Geography Fall 2014, Dr. Rice Exam 3 Review Sheet Below is a list of terms, concepts, and ideas you should understand for the test. In addition to defining and identifying these concepts, you should be able to apply them to real world situations, compare and contrast different approaches/ideas, and synthesize the information into critical reflections on why human geography matters. While I have tried to make this list as exhaustive as possible, please remember that all lectures and readings up to the test date are testable material. Chapter 4 The following sections of the chapter will not be on the test: “European Expansion and Globalization” (p116-119); “The Impact of Land-Use Change on the Environment” (p134-139). The rest of the chapter and the following concepts WILL be on the test: What is nature? What does it mean to say nature is socially constructed? Nature is a social creation as much as it is the physical universe that includes human beings. Nature is not only an object, it is a reflection of society in that the philosophies, belief systems, and ideologies people produce shape the way we think about and use nature. What is society? Society is the sum of the inventions, institutions, and relationships created and reproduced by human beings across particular places and times. What are nature-society interactions? Society’s relationship with nature varies from place to place and among different social groups. Society shapes people’s understandings and uses of nature at the same time that nature shapes society. The relationship between society and nature is usually mediated through technology. What is technology and how does it impact nature-society interactions? Technology is defined as physical objects or artifacts, activities or processes, and knowledge or know-how. The manifestations and impacts of technology can be measured in terms of concepts, such as level of industrialization and per capita energy consumption. What is the “I=PAT” Equation? I (impact)= P (population)* A (affluence, as measured by per capita income)* T (a technology factor). It relates human population pressures on environmental resources to a society’s level of affluence and access to technology. What is climate change (or global warming)? What do humans do that causes it? Global patterns of fossil-fuel use and changes in land use that are producing serious changes in climate and biodiversity through carbon dioxide—induced global warming or deforestation. What is fracking (hydraulic fracturing)? Environmental concerns?

What is the Anthropocene? A word meant to signal a new geological era in Earth’s history where humans have drastically impacted the environment. It began with the rise of agriculture. Understand the basic philosophy of each of the following theoretical approaches for nature-society studies: Cultural Ecology, Judeo-Christian Tradition, Transcendentalism, Conservation, Perseveration, Environmental Ethics, Ecofeminism, Deep Ecology, Environmental Justice, Ecotheology Cultural Ecology: The study of how human society has adapted to environmental challenges like aridity and steep landscapes through technologies such as irrigation and terracing and organizing people to construct and maintain these systems. Judeo-Christian Tradition: Religious ideas about man and nature and how humans dominate nature. Transcendentalism: A branch of American romanticism that also influenced understandings of nature during the early 1800s. It encouraged people to attempt to rise above nature and the limitations of the body to the point where the spirit dominates the flesh and a mystical and spiritual life replaces a primitive and savage one. Conservation: Holds that the natural resources should be used thoughtfully and that humans should serve as stewards, not exploiters, of the natural world. It implies responsibility to future generations as ell as to the natural world itself in the utilization of resources. Preservation: Advocates that certain habitats, species, and resources should remain off-limits to human use, regardless of whether the use maintains or depletes the resource in question. Environmental Ethics: A philosophical perspective that prescribes moral principles as guidance for our treatment of nature. From this perspective society has a moral obligation to treat nature according to the rules of moral behavior that exist for human beings. Ecofeminism: Holds that patriarchy—a system of social ideas that values men more highly than women—is at the center of our present environmental malaise. Because patriarchy has equated women with nature, it has promoted the subordination and exploitation of both. Deep Ecology: Shares many points of view with ecofeminism, is an approach to nature revolving around two key components: self-realization and biospherical egalitarianism. Self-realization embraces the view that humans must learn to recognize that they are part of the nonhuman world. Biospherical egalitarianism insists that Earth, or the biosphere, is the central focus of all life and that all components of nature, human and nonhuman, deserve the same respect and treatment. Environmental Justice: Activists consider the pollution of their neighborhoods by, for example, factories and hazardous-waste dumps to be the results of a structured and institutionalized inequality that is pervasive in both the capitalist core and the periphery. Their struggles are uniquely rooted in their economic status and the questions raised involved the distribution of economic and political resources.

Ecotheology: Calls for a reevaluation of the Western relationship to nature. Within religious circles, there is a fear that science may not be capable of inspiring the changes in behavior necessary to thwart continuing environmental destruction. Fossil Fuels and their impacts; the role of the Industrial Revolution in energy use/extraction Fossil Fuels: Coal, oil, and natural gas. How much of the world’s energy come from fossil fuels? 34% comes from oil 25% comes from coal 21% comes from natural gas 80% total from fossil fuels Where are rates of energy consumption the highest? Lowest? Rates of energy consumption: Highest—US, Russia, China; Lowest—Africa, South America Peak Oil Refers to the point at which the highest global rate of oil production is reached. Many experts believe that if world consumption of petroleum-derived products is not slowed, the arrival of Peak Oil is likely to bring with it a worldwide energy crisis. Energy Use and the Environment Global Warming/Air Pollution (*talked about above*) Acid Rain: is the wet deposition of acids upon Earth through the natural cleansing properties of the atmosphere. Solar Energy Passive: Wind Energy Nuclear Energy Uranium is enriched, but there is storage problems and problems associated with major disasters (no fail-safe reactors). Hydropower Harnessed water resources for food production, energy generation, flood control, and domestic use. Dams built to provide hydroelectric power for the burgeoning cities of the core and to encourage economic development in the periphery and semi periphery have also had profound negative environmental impacts—changes in downstream flow, evaporation, sediment transport and deposition, mineral quality and soil moisture, channeling and bank scouring, and aquatic biota and flora. Why does fossil fuel use persist? Cheap energy that makes money Global Environmental Politics Global Change: the combination of political, economic, social, historical, and environmental problems with which human beings across Earth must currently contend. Environmental issues and how they are connected to political, social, and economics. Causes and consequences are uneven What is sustainable development? Criticisms of it?

[DON'T worry about knowing the post-political slide ]

Chapter 8 The following sections of the chapter will not be on the test: “The Blue Revolution” (p 275-277); “Global Change in Food Production and Consumption” (p 279-281); “The Environment and Agricultural Industrialization” (p 290-292). The rest of the chapter and the following concepts WILL be on the test: Agriculture A science, an art, and a business directed at the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance and profit. Traditional Agricultural Practices: Hunting and Gathering; Subsistence Agriculture; Shifting Cultivation; Slash-and-Burn; Swidden; Intertillage; Pastoralism Hunting and Gathering: characterizes activities whereby people feed themselves by killing wild animals and gathering fruits, roots, nuts, and other edible plants. Subsistence Agriculture: Replaced hunting and gathering when people understood domestication of animals and plants could enable them to settle in one place. A system in which agriculturalists consume most of what they produce. Shifting Cultivation: A form of agriculture usually found in tropical forests, framers aim to maintain soil fertility by rotating the fields they cultivate. Slash-and-Burn: Existing plants are cropped close the ground, left to dry for a period, and then ignited. The burning process adds valuable nutrients to the soil, which is about the only readily available fertilizer. Swidden: Land that is cleared for cultivation after slash-and-burn agriculture is done. Intertillage: The practice of mixing different seeds and seedlings in the same swidden. Not only are different plants cultivated, but their planting is usually staggered so that harvesting can continue throughout the year. Pastoralism: Involves the breeding and herding of animals to satisfy the human needs for food, shelter, and clothing. Usually practiced in the cold and/or dry climates of savannas, desserts, and steppes, where subsistence agriculture is impracticable, pastoralism can be either sedentary or nomadic. Know basic world patterns of where subsistence vs. commercial agriculture is practiced (Figure 8.2) Subsistence: Periphery Commercial: Core First Agricultural Revolution Recognized as having been founded on the development of seed agriculture and the use of the plow and drift animals. Domestication of plant and animals allowed for the rise of settled ways of life. Second Agricultural Revolution Important elements included dramatic improvements in outputs, such as crop and livestock yields; innovations such as the improved yoke for oxen and the

replacement of the ox with the horse; and new inputs to agricultural production, such as fertilizers and field drainage systems. The apex of the second revolution coincided historically and geographically with the Industrial Revolution in England and Western Europe. Third Agricultural Revolution Fairly recent and began in the late nineteenth century and gained momentum throughout the twentieth century. Each of the third revolution’s important developmental phases originated in North America. The three phases are mechanization, chemical farming with synthetic fertilizers, and globally widespread food manufacturing. Mechanization The replacement of human farm labor with machines. Tractors, combines, reapers, pickers, and other forms of motorized machines have progressively replaced human and animal labor in the United States. Chemical Framing The application of synthetic fertilizers to the soil—and herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides to crops—to enhance yields. Food Manufacturing Adds economic value to agricultural products through a range of treatments—processing, canning, refining, packing, packaging, and so on—occurring off the farm and before the products reach the market. Agricultural Industrialization (or Industrial Ag) The process whereby the farm has moved from being the centerpiece of agricultural production to being one part of an integrated multilevel industrial process that includes production, storage, processing, distribution, marketing, and retailing. Involves three important developments: changes in rural labor activities as machines replace and/or enhance human labor; the introduction of innovative inputs—fertilizers and other agrochemicals, hybrid seeds, and biotechnologies—to supplement, alter, or replace biological outputs; and the development of industrial substitutes for agricultural products. Green Revolution An attempt to find ways to feed the world’s burgeoning population. Core countries began exporting fertilizers and high-yielding seeds to regions of the periphery in an attempt to boost agricultural production. The initial focus was on the development of seed varieties that would produce higher yields than those traditionally used in the target areas. The Green Revolution thus came to constitute a package of new inputs: new “miracle seeds”, water, fertilizers, and pesticides. GMOs and Biotechnology Genetically Modified Organisms: Any organism that has had its DNA modified in a laboratory rather than through cross-pollination or other forms of evolution. Proponents argue that is allows great advances in agriculture (plants that are more resistant to certain diseases or water shortages). Opponents worry that GMOs may have unexpected and irreversible effects on human health and the environment and result in maturation problems in children or in mutant plant and animal species.

Biorevlolution: Involves the genetic engineering of plants and animals and has the potential to outstrip the productivity increases of the Green Revolution. Biotechnology: Any technique that uses living organisms to improve, make, or modify plants and animals or to develop microorganisms for specific uses. A common argument for applying biotechnology to agriculture is the belief that these techniques can help reduce agricultural production costs and serve as a kind of resource management. Agro-Food System all revolutions and industrial food created this system. the number of steps and processes between plant and plate increased. farm policies will either encourage or discourage certain processes. economic organization of a food system built around a capitalist production. three forces: agribusiness, food chains, and integration of agriculture with manufacturing service, finance, and trade sectors food supply chain: 5 central and connected secotrs (inputs, production, processing, distribution, and consumption) with four contextual elements acting as external mediating forces (state, international trade environment, and credit/finance) key elements of service sector are marketing and distribution and they are about growing and processing agricultural products Agri-Business A system rather than a kind of corporate entity. It is a set of economic and political relationships that organizes food production from the developments of seeds to the retailing and consumption of the agricultural product. Does not mean that corporations are not critically important to the food production process. Food Regime A specific set of links that exist between food production and consumption. Food regimes emerge during key historical periods, when different cultural, political, and economic forces are in operation; they indicate the ways a particular type of food item is dominant during a specific time period and only one food regime dominates each particular period. Alternative Food Regimes: Organic Farming (vs. Conventional), Local Food, Urban Agriculture Organic Farming: describes farming or animal husbandry that occurs without the use of commercial fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, or growth hormones. Conventional Farming: an approach that uses chemicals in the form of plant protectants and fertilizers and intensive, hormone-based practices to breed and raise animals. Local Food: usually organically grown and its designation as local means that it is produced within a fairly limited distance from where it is consumed. Urban Agriculture: the establishment or performance of agricultural practices in or near an urban city-like setting. Fast Food and its Environmental Impacts Fast Food: edibles that can be prepared and served very quickly in packaged form in a restaurant. The concerns are that the quality of food is not good and can have health impacts long term.

Environmental Impacts: mass production of animals and plants hurts ecosystems and the environment (GHGs produces when building fast food place, when processing animals, and building plants that process animals). Food Desert Defined areas where lots of residents with low incomes do not have access to a grocery store with healthy, fresh foods. Undernutrition (Chronic hunger) the inadequate intake of one or more nutrients and/or calories. Malnutrition The condition that develops when the body does not get the right amount of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ function. A person with malnutrition can be undernourished or over nourished. Famine Acute starvation associated with a sharp increase in mortality. Expert’s argue that there are at least two critical factors behind long standing vulnerability to famine: a population’s command over food resources in terms of their livelihood and a trigger mechanism, which may be a natural phenomenon like drought or a human-made situation such as civil war. Food Security Assured access to enough food at all times to ensure active and healthy lives. Food Sovereignty The right of peoples, communities, and countries to define their own agricultural, labor, fishing, food, and land policies that are ecologically, socially, economically, and culturally appropriate to their unique circumstances. Chapter 10 The following sections of the chapter will not be on the test: “Urban Systems” (p367-369); “The Core: Mature Metropolises” (p 375, 378-379); “Pearl River Delta” (376-377) The rest of the chapter and the following concepts WILL be on the test: Know basic world trends in urbanization (where it has already occurred, where it is currently occurring) Core countries are urbanized and periphery not as much but developing/peripheral countries have fastest rates of urbanization like Mexico City and Sao Paul. Since 1950 world trend is people moving to urban areas and out of rural: 55% of world is urban Where are most of the fastest growing cities located? Periphery cities What percentage of the world’s population currently lives in an urban area? By 2050? 55% urban 2050—70% urban

Know the FOUR roles that towns and cities play in human economic and social organization The mobilizing function of urban settlement: Urban settings, with their physical infrastructure and their large and diverse populations, are places where entrepreneurs can get things done. Cities provide efficient and effective environments for organizing labor, capital, and raw materials and for distributing finished product. The decision-making capacity of urban settlement: Because urban settings bring together the decision-making machinery of public and private institutions and organizations, political and economic power resides in cities and towns. The generative functions of urban settlement: The concentration of people in urban settings makes for much greater interaction and competition, which facilitates the generation of innovation, knowledge, and information. The transformative capacity of urban settlement: The size, density, and variety of urban populations tend to have a liberating effect on people, allowing them to escape the rigidities of traditional, rural society and to participate in a variety of lifestyles and behaviors. Urban system Any interdependent set of urban settlements within a given region. They reflect the increasing numbers of people living in ever-larger towns and cities. They also reflect other important changes, such as changes in the relative size of cities, changes in their functional relationships with one another, and changes in their employment base and population composition. Urban form Refers to the physical structure and organization of cities in their land use, layout and built environment. Urban ecology The social and demographic composition of city districts and neighborhoods. As different social, economic, demographic, and racial subgroups become sorted into different territories, distinctive urban ecologies emerge. Urbanism Describes the way of life fostered by urban settings, in which the number, physical density, and variety of people often result in dist...