geography exam

UNIT 1: What is geography?

The study of earths physical features and human activity

Two types of branches of geography

Physical geography

Human geography

three questions geography asks

Where is it? Why is it there? Why should we care?

Patterns vs trends

Pattern: Spatial repetition

Trends: Change over time

Four Geographic perspectives

Special

Ecological

Regional

Interrelationships

Political left vs right

Left: equality, government role

Right: Freedom, free markets

Liberalism vs authoritarianism

Liberalism: Individual freedom

Authoritarianism: strong state control

Implicit bias

automatic attitude that affect judgement

ingroups vs outgroups

ingroup: Us

outgroup: them

Blue dot experiment

people invent differences to justify “us vs them”

us vs them mentality

identify formed by opposing a common enemy

confirmation bias

seeking info that confirms existing beliefs

UNIT 2: What is geopolitics?

How geography affects political power and decisions

Iron rule of geography

geography limits political choices

four eras of modern geopolitics

imperialism, world wars, cold wars, post-cold war

European vs indigenous land views

ownership vs stewardship

communism

state ownership, class equality

capitalism

private ownership, profit motive

great leap forward

mao’s failed communist reform causing famine

cold war

ideological conflict between u.s and USSR

why the cold war ended

Economic failure and reforms in the USSR

impact of cold wars end on cuba

economic collapse after soviet support ended

why china became an economic power

market reforms, exports, cheap labor

UNIT 3: Economics

study of scarcity and resource allocation

free market economy

prices set by supply and demand

command economy

government controls production and prices

law of supply

higher price = more supply

law of demand

higher price = less demand

market equilibrium

supply equals demand

monopoly

one seller controls market

collusive oligopoly

few firms cooperate

competitive oligopoly

few firms cooperate

perfect competition

many sellers, identical products

adam smith - invisible hand

self-interest benefits society

four lessons of adam smith

self-interest, competition, specialization, invisible hand

inflation

rising prices, falling purchasing power

demand pull inflation

too much demand

cost push inflation

rising product costs

three pillars of neoliberalism

privatization, deregulation, free trade

extreme poverty

living on less than $2.15 a day

globalization helps poverty

jobs, investments, growth

globalization harms poverty

exploitation, inequality

four spheres of earth

atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere

geographic event

natural occurrence

disaster

event that impacts humans

geographic interaction

human-environment relationship

insolation

incoming solar radiation

albedo

reflectivity of earths surface

high albedo surfaces

ice, snow

low albedo surfaces

water, forests

greenhouse effect

traps heat to warm earth

why is the greenhouse effect important

makes life on earth possible

what glaciers show us

past climate, and CO2 levels

climate change impacts

heat waves, floods, storms, sea level rise

why fossil fuels are effective

cheap, energy dense, reliable

why decarbonization is difficult

infrastructure, cost, politics

jaccards fossil fuel myths

• Fossil fuels are cheap

• individual action is enough

• technology alone will save us