Human/Environmental Interaction
Climate and weather affect people’s lives
Farmers need rain
Floods, storms, earthquakes destroy
New technologies allow humans to influence their environment
Some of this is good, some is bad
Technology in Agriculture
Fertilizers
 Can cause environmental side effects
Mechanization
 Requires energy, usually fossil fuels
Energy Technology
Fossil Fuels
 Causes pollution; non-renewable resource
Nuclear Energy
 Cleaner energy source; accidents can be catastrophic
Transportation Technology
Building roadways & Railways
 Destroys natural habitats; increases pollution
 Mountains and landscapes can create barriers to transportation patterns and cause
problems
Automotive Technology
Parking lots
 Destroys natural habitats
Suburbs
 People can afford to commute to cities to work; more pollution, more natural land
destroyed as highways and subways are built
 In the U.S. the wealthy tend to live on the outskirts of the city in the suburbs
because they can afford to commute in and out of the cities
Aviation Technology
Airport Expansion
 Natural land destroyed; pollution
Noise Pollution
 Areas near airport lose value because of noise
Environmental Impact on Humans
Settlement Patterns
 People settle in an area that supports their lifestyle
Ex: Fertile areas, moderate climates, adequate precipitation, proximity to water
Housing Materials
 Housing depends on resources available
 Middle East: little or no forests; wood must be imported, rarely used to build
Agricultural Activities
 Crops chosen according to what the climate will allow
 Certain crops need different temperatures and precipitation levels
 Ex: cotton, rice, sugarcane
Types of Recreation
 Climate, land affect recreational opportunities
Ex: skiing, watersports, golf
Transportation Patterns
 Water transportation more popular in areas that can support it
Natural Hazards to Humans
Wind and Rain
Hurricanes (in the Atlantic)
Typhoons (hurricane in Pacific Ocean)
Tornadoes
Floods
Monsoons (seasonal wind in South Asia that can bring heavy rain – flooding and
mudslides)
Erosion
Earthquakes and Volcanoes
 Faults (cracks) in Earth’s surface are split by pressure from below
 California, Japan, Philippines are frequently in danger
Use (and Misuse) of Land
 Deforestation—clearing forests for other uses of the land

Forests filter air, provide habitats for wildlife, slow water runoff, and prevent
erosion

Deforestation taking place rapidly in Brazil and Malaysia

Forests in North America and Europe have already been greatly reduced
 Desertification—destruction of the land’s fertility caused by overgrazing of goats and
cattle and possibly drought

Natural grasses die and are replaced by tougher plants that don’t cover soil; soil
fails to hold moisture; sometimes land becomes desert

Sahel region of Africa was grassland, now largely desert
 Water Diversion

1960s: Soviet Union diverted water toward farmland in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
Positives: stimulated cotton production
Negatives: Aral Sea is drying up, rivers to it are polluted, thousands of

people suffering chronic illness
Aswan High Dam, Egypt, 1970: huge dam blocks flow of the Nile River in Egypt
Positives--controls flooding, better navigation on lower Nile, and generate
electricity
Negatives: reduced silt (soft mud w/ nutrients) flow downstream, farmers

now must use imported fertilizers, reduction of nutrients reduced
fishing industry, parasites breed in irrigation canals
Colorado River controlled by many dams
 Water distributed to California, Arizona, and Nevada
 Each state wants more water
 Success of cities and farms depend on good management of water
Other Landscape Changes
Polders
*Netherlands: seawater drained from land creating 2,600 square miles (size of
Delaware) of usable land
*Farming, airport, housing now on these “polders”
Terracing
*South America, Asia (China, India, SE Asia): step-like fields are cut one
above the other on sloping hillsides
*Increases available farmland in mountainous regions
*Reduces soil erosion
Pollution
Acid Rain: smoke from smokestacks, vehicle exhausts combine with water vapor and fall
as acid rain
o Kills fish, damages plants, makes soil useless for agriculture
o Occurring mostly in Central Europe, Scandinavia, China, North America
o Forests in Germany (Black Forest) and Appalachian Mountains have been badly
damaged
Smog: air pollution from vehicle and industries react with sunlight to form an irritant gas
called ozone
o Smog clouds worsen people’s breathing problems, raise cancer rates
Greenhouse Effect: carbon dioxide created by vehicles and industries helps to trap the
sun’s heat
o Increase in world’s average temperature (global warming)
o Antarctic ice melting or breaking away
o Too much melting of icecaps will cause ocean levels to rise, flooding many coastal
lands
1986—Chernobyl (Ukraine): nuclear accident released radioactive pollution
equal to 750 atomic bombs like those dropped on Hiroshima
o Area near plant is uninhabitable
o Tens of thousands of lives endangered
o Geographers call this a hazardscape
Other hazardscapes:
Oil spills—kill birds, plants, fish, makes the shoreline unusable for years (Alaska,
Gulf Coast)
 People are continuing to put more and more pressure on the natural world