Studied by 17 people
What is an issue?
a complex problem with many sides involving dispute that requires a solution and is a matter of concern to many people
What are the three things an issue must be?
Complex
Interrelated
Controversial
What is media?
forms of mass communication like newspapers, television, radio, the internet, etc., as well as the people involved in their production.
What is bias?
prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.
What are ways to identify bias?
Look at who wrote/published the information and why they wrote it; are they pushing a certain agenda?
Was the author/publisher/organization closely related to the event it is reporting on? How could that impact the way the information is presented/represented?
Does the argument/information only support one side?
Is the information overly simplified or generalized to minimize the complexity and even downright misconstrue or misinform?
Is the language used particularly strong or emotional? Why?
Is there a use/perpetuation of stereotypes?
Are the counter arguments, if there are any, fairly and thoroughly developed and presented, just as much as the initial argument is?
How can you tell if your information may be biased?
Check the credibility of your sources:
Have more confidence in academic articles, professional journals and most scholarly books due to their editing/peer reviewing process before they can be published
Have less confidence in magazines and newspapers due to their lack of peer-revision, though they can be held legally responsible for libel (defamation in a written form) if the information is incorrect and/or damaging
Have the least confidence in sources that are not peer reviewed and cannot be held financially responsible, like many websites
What is quality of life?
the standard of health, comfort, and happiness experienced by an individual or group
What are some factors impacting/indicating quality of life?
Population density
Life expectancy
Food adequacy
Food production efficiency
Trading wealth
Education
Health
Ease of travel
Crime
Dependency load
Housing
Fertility rate
What are some indexes that are used to determine quality of life?
Freedom Index: measures freedom within a country
GDP per capita: Gross Domestic Product; sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output, divided by mid-year population
GINI index: describes distribution of wealth within a country
HPI: Happy Planet Index; measures worldwide environmental progress
HDI; Human Development Index; considers education, wealth and health
Popsicle Index: measures the % of people who feel a young child could safely walk to go buy a popsicle and return safely
What is globalization?
a trend towards greater interconnections between systems
What are the six types of globalization?
Geographical
Sociological
Ecological
Cultural
Political
What is geographical globalization?
networking of world cities and regions rather than separate countries (borderless)
What is sociological globalization?
development of the concept that we are all members of one single society rather than distinct national and cultural societies (common attitudes/standards)
What is ecological globalization?
growing acceptance of the planet as one single ecosystem instead of a collection of ecosystems (ex: World Nations treaty to combat ozone depletion)
What is cultural globalization?
harmony of the world’s cultures (ex: music)
What is political globalization?
adopting uniform policies worldwide from sociological and economic perspectives (ex: United States, Mexico, Canada Free Trade Agreement)
What is technological globalization?
growth of worldwide communication via cellphone, internet, etc.
What is sustainability?
concern of meeting people’s needs today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs
shaped by two ways of looking at the environment and its role in human survival
What is anthropocentric sustainability?
the belief that nature is to be used, not preserve
conservation mustn’t work against societal values
primary value of natural areas is its value to humanity
conservation by developing societies is preventing waste for further exploitation
What is biocentric sustainability?
all parts of nature are interconnected
the environment must be protected and held in greatest value
natural areas have value in themselves
all human activities must work within the limits of the planet’s ecosystem
What is demography?
the study of human populations and the implications of changes in population size and composition
What is the Demographic Transition Model?
a chart that tracks the phenomenon of high birth and death rates changing to low birth and death rates over time as a population fluctuates
Which theorist is most commonly associated with the Demographic Transition Model?
Warren Thompson
What are population pyramids?
a graph used to make comparisons between men and women in the same age group or between young people and older people
What are the defining factors of stage 1 of the Demographic Transition Model?
High birth rates
High death rates
Stable but small population, slow natural increase
Wide, thin bottom that curves upwards to a narrow peak
High fertility rate
Low life expectancy
Poor access to medicine
Ex: Canada in 1750 or Chad today
What are the defining factors of stage 2 of the Demographic Transition Model?
High birth rates
Rapidly falling death rate
Very rapid natural increase
Dramatic decline in the death rate due to better sanitary conditions, access to medicine or better food supply.
Life expectancy increases so the population pyramid gets wider in the lower half
Straight sides, pyramid shape
Ex: Palestine
What are the defining factors of stage 3 of the Demographic Transition Model?
Falling birth rate (people may choose to have fewer children due to low infant mortality rates and access to birth control)
Falling death rate, more slowly
Natural increase slows down
Typically women are entering the work force in larger numbers
Pyramid shape lifted onto a rectangular base
Ex: Mexico
What are the defining factors of stage 4 of the Demographic Transition Model?
Low birth rate
Low death rate
Falling natural increase that eventually stabilizes
Highly urbanized societies
High life expectancy rate
Population growth typically happens due to immigration instead of natural increase
Curved shape, arching at a rounded top
Ex: Australia
What are the defining factors of stage 5 of the Demographic Transition Model?
Birth rate begins to rise again
Low death rate
Stable or slow natural increase
Maintains its rounded tip but begins to expand outward at the base
Ex: Ukraine
Why is the status of women a critical factor in demographic transition?
Discrimination against women appears to be the root cause of much of the high fertility and female disadvantage in survival, with regional variations reflecting differences in cultural systems.
(via encyclopedia.com)
What is a push factor?
certain conditions cause people to leave the places where they live.
These may include:
High crime rates
Lack of economic opportunity
Shortages of food
Wartime conditions
Low wages, underemployment and unemployment
Persecution
What is a pull factor?
other conditions attract people to new places to live
These may include:
Educational opportunities
High standards of living
Safe from religious and political persecution
Plentiful resources such as fresh water, forests, wildlife or agricultural land
What is a refugee?
involuntary migrants who move to other countries to seek safety and/or protection
What are internally displaced persons (IDPs?)
people who have to move within a country
What is an asylum seeker?
a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim
(via amnesty.org)
What are some ways that developing countries have tried to tackle overpopulation?
tax incentives
enforcing policies that limit the number of children a family can have (ex: India and China)
What natural and human factors would influence the magnitude of the Earth’s carrying capacity?
food and water supply
habitat space
competition with other species
sanitation
diseases
medical care
What is population overshoot?
a concern that human populations may become too large to be sustained by their environment or resources in the long term
What theorist is most closely associated with the notion of carrying capacity and overshoot?
Thomas Malthus
What are some major priorities to improve urban life in the future?
NOTE: Know any four of these for the exam.
increase transportation throughout cities
create more community spaces
limit carbon emissions and other types of pollution
create more affordable housing
preserve the environment and green spaces
What are some examples of why “the effects of colonial empires endure today” is a true statement?
Environmental degradation, leading to climate change
Plantations (Indigenous people became cheap labour, died, or left their native area)
Loss of culture
Trade and manufacturing restrictions imposed on colonies delayed the growth of, or destroyed, local customs, farming practices, manufacturing and business
New political systems overrode previous ways of living, disregarding preexisting cultures and customs
Why have some countries experienced “economic takeoff,” while others have not?
Lack of access to resources (more desirable goods to trade for = more countries in pursuit of trade)
Lack of globalizing and making economic connections to other countries
How useful are Walter Rostow’s five stages of economic development as a blueprint for LEDCs to follow?
Hardly; extremely biased and Westernized, cannot be translated to other cultures with same degree of accuracy.
Criticisms/Weaknesses:
1: Rostow is 'historical in the sense that the end result is known in the outset and is derived from the historical geographyof developed society.
2: Rostow is mechanical in the sense the underlying motor of change is not disclosed and therefore the stages become little more than a classificatory system based on data from developed countries.
3: His model is based on American and European history and aspiring to American norm of high mass consumption.
4: His model represents a “non-communist manifesto” or we can say a “capitalist manifesto”
What three countries are affiliated with the CUSMA?
Canada
United States
Mexico
Do you believe that transnational companies exploit LEDCs? Or, do you believe that transnational companies are important to economic growth of those countries?
NOTE: This is entirely subjective. I’ve attached my paragraph response from the Unit 3 test as an example.
Objectivity is a matter that can exist completely separately from opinion, which can be said about the idea of transnational companies taking advantage of LEDCs, whilst still, undeniably, being important for a country’s economic development - these two concepts are not mutually exclusive. On one hand, transnational companies can introduce new technology and foreign resources, but it can also open doors for MEDCs to exploit LEDCs, prioritizing their own growth and prosperity. Both of these ideas can be true at once - especially considering that standards of development are often viewed through a Westernized lens.
What is the Human Development Index (HDI)?
a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development
What is the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)?
an index that captures the percentage of households in a country deprived along three dimensions of well-being – monetary poverty, education, and basic infrastructure services – to provide a more complete picture of poverty.
How does the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index way of measuring poverty compare to the UN Human Development Index approach?
While both the HDI and the MPI use the three broad dimensions health, education and standard of living, the HDI uses indicators at the aggregate* level while MPI uses micro data and all indicators must come from the same survey.
*aggregate: a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another
How does income inequality affect the world on an international scale?
excessive inequality could erode social cohesion, lead to political polarization, and ultimately lower economic growth
(via imf.org)
Which two forms of chemical deterioration are most common?
acidification: when acidic compounds like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the atmosphere in concentrations high enough to be toxic to plants, animals, and microorganisms. This usually occurs through burning fossil fuels or other industrial processes. (some wording stolen from Casper, some other stolen from e.campusontario.pressbooks.pub)
eutrophication: occurs when a body of water receives an excessive nutrient load, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen. This often results in an overgrowth of algae. As the algae die and decompose, oxygen is depleted from the water, and this lack of oxygen in the water causes the death of aquatic animals, like fish. (via usgs.gov) sources: runoff, sewage, industrial discharge (via Casper’s notes)
What is soil erosion?
when the impact of water or wind detaches and removes soil particles, causing the soil to deteriorate
(via iastate.edu)
What is degradation?
caused by multiple forces, including extreme weather conditions, particularly drought. It is also caused by human activities that pollute or degrade the quality of soils and land utility (via who.int)
How serious is the challenge of land degradation in the world?
very serious; destroys habitats and depletes resources
How are increases in land degradation and world population connected?
“as more people are born more resources are used, contributing to land degradation through, land clearance, poor farming practices, overgrazing and overdrafting, urban sprawl and urban development, car emissions”
(credit to Sasha !!)
What are the environmental consequences of deforestation?
“Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide. If forests are cleared, or even disturbed, they release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Forest loss and damage is the cause of around 10% of global warming” -WWF
Desertification and soil erosion
Resource depletion and habitat disturbance/destruction
What is desertification?
the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture.
Which type of society is most responsible for degradation of lands and forests, MEDCs or LEDCs?
MEDCs due to industrial activities, large-scale and unsustainable agriculture practice, resource extraction and higher consumption patterns, technological advancements and global trade, which adds pressure to make less environmentally conscious decisions.
(Partially stolen from Casper)
What are common-pool resources (lakes, rivers, aquifers)?
a shared resource not owned by private or public entities
natural or manufactured resource systems in which the amount of the resource stock made accessible to each user is not based on any criteria.
(via wallstreetmojo.com)
What is the tragedy of the commons?
A tragedy of the commons occurs when a group of people in a community use a shared resource for their self-interest, which leads to the depletion of the resource for the whole community
(via wallstreetmojo.com)
Ex: overfishing
Note 
Flashcard (37)