Geography 2153A/B Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Oxygen, Earth, Weathering
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Geography 2153A/B
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
GEO2153 Lecture 1 (September 11th, 2018)
Environmental change:
• Environmental change happens naturally but humans are increasing the speed of this
change
• Example is the Muir glacier in Alaska from 1882-2005
• Example is the deep-water horizon BP oil spill of 2010
• Example is the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986
• Iron mine dam burst in Brazil
Troubling impacts:
• Nuclear waster
• Toxic emissions
• Acid precipitations
• Genetically modified plant crops
• Deforestation
• Greenhouse gases
• Global climate change
Humans and the Environment:
• Economic and social structures can impact the environment by degrading and depleting
natural resources, which effects ecological functions
• Society cannot function without a healthy environment
• Example is cruise ships dumping waste into open water
• With mass tourism comes mass amounts of garbage
• Example is mount Everest being the highest junkyard in the world
What is the environment?
• Environment = the conditions that surround someone or something, the external factors
surrounding and affecting an organism at a given time
• External factors influence hoe different organisms live and develop
What is society?
• Society = a group of humans that co-exist and relate to one another through politics,
culture and institutions that govern good behavior
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
What is an economy?
• An economy is a system that organizes land, labour, capital and enterprise to meet the
wants and needs of consumers for products and services
• Economics is concerned with what is produced, how it is produced and who gets what is
being produced (implying equalities between access)
• Are people following environmental regulation when producing product?
Production and consumption:
• The economy is made up of 2 parts:
• Producers: people who harvest and manufacture products or provide services
• Consumers: people who use the products and services
• the economy manages material provisioning (economy allows use to buy stuff that are
made from natural resources)
Consumption, population and resources:
• how can we explain why humans have had such an impact on the environment?
• We can use the lenses of the economy to understand why we had an impact through
the relationship of mankind and the environment
Economic growth:
• The environment provides resources for the economy
• Technology has allowed us to extract these resources and use them for material wealth
• Problem is we are extracting resources faster than we can renew them (environmental
unsustainability)
• There needs to be a balance between the need for economic development and the need
to sustain the resource which the development depends upon
• Once we degrade all resources we can no longer develop
• CHECK IMAGE SLIDE 33 LECTURE 1
Human Demand and consumption:
• Food, clothing, shelter, commodities and goods
• We are disconnected from the products we buy and where they came from and how it
impacted the environment
• Consumption patterns have a significant impact on the environment
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Troubling impacts: nuclear waster, toxic emissions, acid precipitations, genetically modified plant crops, deforestation, greenhouse gases, global climate change. What is the environment: environment = the conditions that surround someone or something, the external factors surrounding and affecting an organism at a given time, external factors influence hoe different organisms live and develop. What is society: society = a group of humans that co-exist and relate to one another through politics, culture and institutions that govern good behavior. Human demand and consumption: food, clothing, shelter, commodities and goods, we are disconnected from the products we buy and where they came from and how it impacted the environment, consumption patterns have a significant impact on the environment. Ecological footprint: a (cid:373)easu(cid:396)e(cid:373)e(cid:374)t of la(cid:374)d (cid:396)e(cid:395)ui(cid:396)ed to sustai(cid:374) a populatio(cid:374)"s co(cid:374)su(cid:373)ptio(cid:374) patte(cid:396)(cid:374)s, how much land/resources do the average person of a particular area need to support their consumption habits, global footprint = 2. 2 hectors.
