1/21 Here are the notes. Geographers are principally concerned with understanding why things are where they are. The idea behind a formal region is to bound an area within which there are similar entities. There are differences between regions, but we should expect some uniformity within them. Geographers are sensitive to myriad interrelations between places in mundane settings. Powerful ideas, like the American dream and home ownership, are embodied in and reproduced by the landscape. Landscapes also structure quite profoundly, our experience of place. <<stopped at Slide 7>> 1/24 the friction of distance: the cost or toll incurred by transportation across a distance (time, money, energy) The map is a model and an abstraction of the real, spatial world. Scale is the relationship between distances on the map and distances on the earth. 1 inch equals a mile. (Verbal scale) 1;63,360 (Scale ratio) A large map scale shows a lot of detail, whereas a small map scale shows little detail. Latitude is a measure of how far north or south a point is from the equator. Longitude is a measure of how far east or west a point is from the Prime Meridian. Any plane that intersects the earth and contains the poles will mark out two meridians on the earth’s surface. <<stopped at slide 23>> 1/26 The Course ID is 6tmaxt - Globe & its coordinate system - Maps - GISc and GIS At the top of the paper write your name. Answer this question: List as many characteristics of lines of latitude and lines of longitude that you can. The measure of how far a point is east or west from the Prime Meridian. Longitude 1. positive values are east 2. negative values are west Parallel means line of latitude. Meridian means line of longitude. 0 degrees east (or west) is defined as a meridian that passes through Greenwich, England at the Royal Observatory. The pattern of parallels and meridians on a map is called the graticule. The standard line (or point) is where the developable surface comes into contact with the earth, and it is distortionless. All maps are distortions. Without time zones, every place on earth would have the same local time. ● We need time zones to maintain our basic bodily rhythms of sleeping when it’s dark and being active when it’s light. Nominally, there should be 24 time zones, because there are 24 hours in a day. 360 degrees / 24 time zones = 15 degrees / time zone Time zones are determined both by geographic location (particularly longitude) and by political arrangement. <<ended at slide 34>> 1/28 Geographic information systems Geographic information science Regions Environment Tectonic forces Georeferenced data are data that are tied to the earth’s surface (using some coordinate system). A GIS is a kind of decision-support system. Benefits of GIS include managing complexity and saving time and money as well as making better-informed decisions. Cities are organized around town halls. States are organized around state capitols. They are also functional regions. <<finished at slide 47>> 1/31 physical environment: ● landforms ● climate The heat from within the earth comes from three different sources: 1. residual heat from the formation of the planet 2. radioactive decay 3. friction from the movement of material within the earth The core of the earth is hotter than the surface of the sun. As material warms, it expands and hence becomes less dense. Chemical weathering changes the molecular composition of the material. Carbonation happens when carbonic acid, a weak acid formed when the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes into contact with water, changes a rock or a mineral. load is the amount of material that a stream is carrying at any one time. Load increases as the stream velocity increases. <<Ended on slide 61>> 2/2 How the land and the water are configured as well as geographic location, particularly latitude and elevation, structure climate. Insolation means incoming solar radiation. All locations on earth receive half a year of daylight and half a year of night for every solar year, but the way in which that time is distributed depends on latitude. Globally, low air pressure predominates at or near the equator. ● Air pressure is the weight of the column of air above one’s head. ● Because warm air is less dense than cool air and insolation is strongest at or near the equator, the equator is characterized by low air pressure. Air spreads out from the equator at high altitudes, cools, and descends in the sub-tropics, near 30 degrees latitude. Winds moving toward the equator are deflected to the West, while winds moving away from the equator are deflected to the east because of the Coriolis Effect. As air rises, it cools. As it cools, its ability to hold moisture declines. When warm, moist air rises, it precipitates. <<Ended at slide 70>> 2/7 Climate Water Food Agriculture covers about ⅕ of the earth’s land surface and constitutes a dramatic alteration of landcover. acid rain dramatic reductions in species and biodiversity The incoming radiation from the sun is shortwave, and it is good at passing through the atmosphere without being absorbed. The earth re-radiates much of the insolation that it absorbs as long wave radiation, which greenhouse gasses absorb. China, the USA, India, Russia, and Japan are the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses. <<Ended at slide 88>> 2/9 Water Food Globalization and Development What does per capita mean? It means per head or per person. National per capita water use takes the net water use in the country and divides it by the number of people. ● This gives us a measure of the intensity of water use. ● Enables comparisons in water use between different places. Virtual water is water that is consumed to support our lifestyles but which we don’t come into contact with in any direct way. North Africa and Southwest Asia have the lowest total renewable water resources. Food surpluses necessitated semi-permanent and then permanent settlements. ● As agriculture became more productive, more and more people could do things besides being involved directly in the production of food. The Tigray region in Northern Ethiopia today has a food catastrophe because of civil war. When we talk about development, we get to talk about expectations. <<ended at slide 98>> 2/11 development continued… globalization politics & geopolitics Classifications of development are based on: ● composition of the economy ● living standards GDP is a measure of the overall productivity of the economy. We use GDP per capita to control for the population of a country, because as population increases, the size of the economy will also increase. GDP itself is defined as consumption + investment + government spending. GNI (Gross national income) = GDP + exports imports PPP adjusts for the uneven spending power of a dollar in different countries. With options like Fairtrade products, purchasing becomes an overtly moral decision. <<Ended at slide 108>> 2/14 politics & geopolitics cities population press freedoms An NGO is a non-governmental organization. What’s particularly important with capitalism is that the means of production are privately owned. What are the BRICS? ● Brazil ● Russia ● India ● China ● South Africa The world is not just urbanized, but urban populations are growing. They are growing the fastest in Africa and South Asia. Ended at Slide 116 2/16 no class on 2/18 or 2/21 cities population gender What do people living in slums want? ● education ● jobs ● sanitation and access to clean water ● papers for their land so that they have security Where there are deserts or it is dry, there are lower population densities at the global scale. One of the reasons we’re concerned about population is because of environmental impact. Urbanization accompanies industrialization in stage 2B. In pre-industrial societies, children provided important labor and grew to take care of the elderly. 72/3% = 24 years for the population to double Total fertility rate is the number of children a woman is expected to have in her childbearing years. So a pyramidal shaped population pyramid indicates a population increase. <<Ended at slide 127>> population pyramids gender sociocultural issues Connect stage 2A with the pyramid shape of the population pyramid. The pyramid shape indicates a rapidly growing population. Italy and Japan are in stage 3B of the demographic transition, where birth rate has fallen below death rate Countries in stage 3B have inverted pyramid shapes for the age-sex diagram. In countries in stages 3A or 3B, things like geriatric care and social services for the elderly are particularly important. Countries in stage 2A like Afghanistan face another series of daunting challenges. ● Afghanistan is challenged to provide basic infrastructure (including housing) and social services to a rapidly growing population. And what happens if the growth of the economy does not keep pace with the growth of the population? Many women are responsible for the “economically productive” activities of the family in addition to the ones that aren’ compensated, like child-rearing, cooking, and cleaning. All culture is learned. When annual snowfall exceeds annual loss (predominantly melting), ice accumulates. Continental glaciers, formed during ice ages, covered much of the interior of the United States. A continental glacier can be a couple of miles thick. Streams always carry what is called load, or suspended sediments, particles, and stones. When streams empty into slower moving bodies of water, the amount of load they can carry greatly decreases, and the suspended load is dropped in place. <<finished slide 6>> 2/28 climate & vulnerability to climate change Environmental problems in North America ● water pollution and scarcity ● permafrost melting ● air pollution ● habitat loss The Great Basin falls within the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Continental climates are more extreme, because they are away from the moderating influences of the sea. Climograph: Charleston, SC Climograph: Minneapolis, MN Suburban areas are less dense and more spread out, causing a need for more intensive transportation services. Permafrost is soil that is frozen throughout the entire year. <<finished at slide 13>> 3/2 Environmental problems in North America continued ● air pollution ● water ● habitat loss ● Peopling of North America Acid rain is particularly caused by nitrogen oxides emitted from automobiles (which form nitric acid) and sulfur dioxide emitted from coal-burning power plants (which form sulfuric acid). <<finished at slide 21>> 3/4 oil extraction logging and mining early development of North America Globalization and Development in North America oil sand or tar sands are large deposits of sand with petroleum between the granules advanced recovery techniques The spotted owl, an endangered species, set the stage for logging conflicts in the northwest in the 1980s. Clear cutting simply cuts down everything within a defined area in a forest. The earth was experiencing a colder climate when Eurasians migrated to North America, and there was a land bridge crossing the Bering Strait. Native Americans suffered from terrible virgin soil epidemics after Europeans arrived. Subsistence farming means that the producers consume what they make. There was a tight interlinkage between Indian removals, the availability of land for plantations and plantation agriculture, and the expansion of slavery. <<finished at slide 32>> 3/7 The Indian Removals were tied to the expansion of agriculture in the South, particularly cotton production. Cotton was an essential input to the burgeoning textile mills in the northeast and fueled the industrialization of the United States. Regarding the income gap, technology has replaced a lot of “middle skill jobs.” Many jobs have left the United States with the increasing globalization and interconnectedness of the world, particularly China. Economically, there is greater regional differentiation within the United States. A small number of regions attract the lion’s share of investment, like a few privileged metropolitan areas. Fewer and fewer workers are members of labor unions, reducing their negotiating power. Inertia in economic development that privileges the wealthy, such as their children attending schools in the wealthiest school districts and going to the best and most expensive universities. Services comprise the tertiary sector. The solutions to the digital divide are different between rural and urban areas. Early textile manufacturers in the northeast couldn’t compete with textile manufacturers in Great Britain, who had years in advance to develop their technologies and methods. In order to “force” people in the United States to buy American, the government can impose tariffs on imported products, which artificially raises the price of products. In 2020 NAFTA was replaced by the USMCA which provided for a few protections/stipulations: ● monitor and enforce certain standards for working conditions in Mexico ● more environmental protections ● limits to prices for pharmaceuticals <<ended on slide 39>> 3/9 Globalization & Development ● gender ● food ● transportation Globalization always implies interconnectedness and interdependence between places. <<ended on slide 48>> 3/11 transportation Power & Politics <<ended on slide 60 after video>>