Chapter 4 Lecture

Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Context

Sixth Edition

Wendy A. MitteagerState University of New York, Oneonta

People and Nature

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Key Concepts

• Nature and Society• Environmental Philosophies• Ecological Imperialism• Energy Needs• Climate Change• Environmental Impacts• Globalization of Environment• Sustainability

Figure: Chapter 4 Opener Rescue workers in Japan

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Nature as a Concept

• Relationship between nature and society

• Earth Summit– Sustainable future

• Environmental Advocates– Pinchot, Carson,

Shiva

• EcosystemFigure 4.2 Technology often aggravates rather than solves environmental problems

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Nature as a Concept, (cont'd)

• Technology– Physical artifacts– Activities or processes– Knowledge or know-how

• I=PAT– Impact on earth resources– Population– Affluence– Technology

Figure 4.4 Electronic waste

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Nature-Society Interactions

• Cultural Ecology

• Global climate change

• Hurricane Katrina

• Haiti earthquake

• Political Ecology Figure 4.6 Haiti, one year after the earthquake

Apply your knowledge: Give examples of cultural ecology from your community or campus.

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Climate Change

Figure 4.5 Four elements represent how climate change is affecting the planet

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Water Politics

Figure 4.A Virtual water expended to produce foods

Figure 4.B Protesters in Bolivia, during the action against the hike in water rates

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U.S. Environmental Philosophies

• Views of nature• Henry David Thoreau

– Romanticism

• Ralph Waldo Emerson– Transcendentalism

• George Perkins Marsh– Humans as significant

agent of environmentalchange

Figure 4.8 Walden Pond today

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• Environmental Ethics• Ecofeminism• Deep Ecology• Environmental Justice• Ecotheology

U.S. Environmental Philosophies, (cont'd)

• Gifford Pinchot• Theodore Roosevelt• Conservation &

Preservation • Environmental

organizations

Apply your knowledge: Provide examples of how Thoreau's ideas about nature can be understood in termsof late-twentieth-century environmental philosophies. Apply the same analysis to Marsh and Emerson.

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European Expansion

• Internal, at first

• Disease & depopulation– Virgin soil epidemics– Columbian exchange– Demographic collapse

Figure 4.10 Population growth in Europe

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Ecological Imperialism

• Introduction of exoticsinto new ecosystems

• Intentional andunintentional

• Agriculture andlivestock

• Animal powerFigure 4.12 Painting of the capital city of the Aztecs

Apply your knowledge: Provide examples of plants andanimals in your region that are examples of ecological imperialism

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European Voyages of Exploration

Figure 4.11 Not all voyages were violent and exploitative – many were mutually beneficial through the exchange of knowledge.

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Recent Environmental Change

• Anthropocene

• Impact ofenergy needs– Nonrenewable– renewable

Figure 4.13 Biomass pyramid

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World Energy, 2008

Figure 4.14

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Peak Oil

Figure 4.D Predictions of future oil production

Figure 4.C Oil reserves by region, 2007

Figure 4.E Price of crude oil, 1986–2011

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Energy Needs

Figure 4.15 Increase in energy demand

Figure 4.16 Surface coal mining in Germany

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World Distribution of Nuclear Reactors, 2011

Figure 4.20

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Global Consumption of Fuelwoods, 2010

Figure 4.21

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Percentage of Hydropower in the Electricity Supply, 2010

Figure 4.22

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Global Climate Change

Figure 4.F Schematic framework of climate change drivers, impacts, and responses

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Figure 4.G This graph shows projected sea level rise. The maps show the impact of 5 meters of sea level rise.

Global Climate Change, (cont'd)

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Three Gorges Dam, China

Figure 4.23

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Global Acid Emissions

Figure 4.24

Apply your knowledge: How do various countries otherthan the U.S. address the problem of acid rain?

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Impact of Land-Use Change

• Five categories of land

• Conversion

• Modification

Figure 4.30 Greening of the Sahel

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Global Land Grab

Figure 4.27

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Globalization of the Environment

• Global change

• Environmental politics– WTO, IMF, G8,

United Nations, NGOs

• Environmental Sustainability

Figure 4.30 Bioprospecting in the Arctic

Apply your knowledge: Research an international institution that implements sustainable development programming.

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Future Geographies

• Increase in world energy consumption– Population growth– Periphery is

industrialized

• Global challenges will require international political and economic cooperation

Figure 4.31 Raw materials are shipped out of the U.S. to China. Containers from China to the U.S. are loaded with manufactured commodities

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End of Chapter 4