GEOG 202 EXAM ONE

What does Geography mean?

Writing the earth

Define the two types of geography

• Physical Geography: Climate, landforms, soils, vegetation, hydrology

• Human Geography: An examination of economic, cultural, and social systems across space and scale

What is a formal region

A contiguous, bounded territory that shares similarities (economic, political, cultural, environmental, population, settlement, and physical geography)

What is the concept of political economy and what is North America’s

• The Relationship between markets and the state, and how those relationships impact society and the environment

• Capitalism is the political economy of North America

How could capitalism be defined in four bullet points

• Capitalism: large scale realization of profit by producing goods and services for more than was paid to produce them

• Property in the form of the mean of production is privatized

• Means of production is publicly held and the goal of the corporation is to make profit for shareholders

• those without means of production work for those who have the means of production

How could North America be defined

• Regional Boundaries between Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean

• Resource rich with costs to its environments

• Wealthy region with wealth inequality

How is capitalism a world system?

• Capitalism is the primary way that economies work all over the world and it the economic driver of globalization

• Within the capitalistic system, no on is in charge, with individuals and corporations making independent decisions based on their own interests

• Markets are the mechanism by which exchanges are made, no one is in charge of the markets

• Markets are able to determine winners based on efficiency

• Government regulate markets to varying degrees (tariffs or currency valuation)

What is the role of labor in capitalism

• Labor takes the form of wage labor. People work for wages instead of product

• Labor must be efficient and is defined by its productivity

• Efficiency: maximum effort of labor for the lowest wage, and minimum wastage of resources

• Corporations and individuals businesses that produce most efficiently increase their market share

What is division of labor

• Break productive labor down into its smallest components to increase productivity

• through the division of labor, skill level is lowered so their wages could be reduced as well

• Deskilled laborers tend to not be invested in what they are producing

What is a major feature of life in North America

• Mass consumption: the production of large amounts of goods to be consumed by a large amount of people

• Consumer culture: A society in which patterns of consumption are key basis for status differentiation, personal identities, and pleasure

How does lecture define Sub-Saharan Africa and what are the challenges the region faces

• African states south of the Sahara desert (49 states and territory)

  • Shared History of colonization

• No uniting religion, language, philosophy, or political system

• North Africa is excluded due to its ties to the Arab world

• Fast-growing, generally poorer, more rural and younger

• Largest landmass straddling the equator

• Environmental obstacles to development

  • Poor soils

  • Widespread disease

  • Drought Vulnerability

What are the challenges that face Sub-Saharan Africa

• Challenges

  • Environmental Degradation

  • Climate Change

  • Poverty

  • Disease

  • Violence and Refugees

How do geographers reference a specific point on the globe

• Latitude: Measures the North and South of the equator

• Longitude: Measures the West and East of the Prime Meridian

What are map projections

• Due to the globe being a circle, a 2D drawing would never to representative of landmass size, each projection tries to be as accurate as possible

• Mercator projection is the most used, good for navigation, but N/S latitudes are disportionately and not used anymore

• Robinson projection is the one used in the textbook, makes size more balanced, but distorts shape

Map projections often have to sacrifice what two things

• Relative location and size of the continents

What are regions and the definitions associated with regions.

• Region: Contiguous bounded territory with common traits

• Formal Regions: Defined by physical and/or cultural features

• Functional Region: Defined by activities

Why is the Sahel important to Sub-Saharan Africa

• The Sahel is a zone of transition between the Sahara and the more humid regions of Africa (south Africa)

• Currently, the Sahel is increasing due to desertification

• Some argue that the desert ebs and flows, and that this is just natural changes

What is the overall climate of Sub-Saharan Africa

• Depends due to the distance to the equator, with majority being some type of Tropical

What are some of Africa’s environmental issues

• Sahel and desertification

  • Sahel ecological zone

  • balance of limited rain, drought resistance crops, and transhumance

    • Desertification due to expansion of agriculture and overgrazing

How is climate change affecting Sub-Saharan Africa?

• Sub-Saharan Africa emits the least amount of CO2, but has the greatest vulnerability

  • Extreme risk for poverty, drought, and heavy dependence on rainfall

  • Arid and semi-arid regions are most vulnerable

  • Impacts vary by subregion

• Famine widely affects many countries due to this

  • Food and Water insecurity is quite common

All good maps have

• Title

• Relative Fraction

• North Indicator

• Legend

• Credit or attribution

• Purpose

What are the types of maps

• Thematic Maps: Display data in a visually appealing way

• Dot map: Each dot has a value, usually depending on the size

• Choropleth map: Shows information in a color-organized manner

• Reference Maps: Show locations of features

• Every map must have a legend to interpret the map

Define small and large scale representative fractions

Small Scale: Large area showing small details

Large Scale: Small area showing large details

What is remote sensing

• Aerial photographs taken by airplane, balloon, drones, or satellite

• Electromagnetic images from aircraft and satellities

• Light wavelengths and resolutions tell what is one the ground

• Usually colored by geographer to indicate features

What is GIS

• Geography information systems

• Computerized data from many sources

• Spatial databased used to analyze a wide range of issues

• Central to geographic problem solving in many areas

Discuss the causes of desertification in the Sahel

• Overplanting and overuse by farmers

• Overgrazing by livestock

• Overcutting (deforestation for firewood and biofuels)

• Overpopulation due to the growing population in Sub-Saharan Africa

What are some possible solutions in the Sahel

• Crop Rotation to prevent the overtilling of soil

• Terracing to prevent rain from washing soil away

• Tree Belts to help soil down wind erosion and to hold the soil in place

What are the types of grassland in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Steppe: Semi-Arid Grasslands

• Savannah: Tropical Wet/Dry Grasslands

Why are some species endangered in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Habitat loss due to human usage and desertification

• Illegal hunting of protected animals (poaching for ivory and rhino horns)

What are some possible solutions in protecting endangered species in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Ecotourism: making the natural habitat of animals profitable in order to help protect them

• Stiff penalties for poaching

How would one describe Latin America

• Shared colonial history

• Racially diverse

• Extensive natural resources for development

• Majority of population is low to middle income

• 600 Million People

• In all of the 17 states, more than 50% live in cities

Describe the colonial basis of the Iberian influence in Latin America

• Treaty of Tordesillas divided South America between Spain and Portugal in 1494

Describe the economic and social development of Latin America

Development broadly refers to the wealth and well-being of individuals, regions, and states

GNI Per capita: Value of total produced both internal and external to state, per person

GDP: value of total production inside the state

What are the four sectors of the economy

• Primary: Raw materials

• Secondary; Manufactured items from the primary sector

• Tertiary: Services

• Quaternary: Knowledge production, research and development

What is primary export dependency

• Dependency on the export of raw materials, usually economically specializing in one or two major commodities

What was the economic model of Latin America in the 1930s-1960s

• Import Substitution: manufacturing intended for consumption inside the state for consumption by citizens

• this attempts to avoid imports

What is neoliberalism and its relation to Latin America

• If the state stays out of the regulation of trade and corporations, markets will grow and the growth will trickle down

• Maquiladoras

• Remittances

• Ecotourism and foreign direct spending

What is the informal sector and its importance in Latin America

• Economic activities of the urban periphery

• Widespread informal sector employment signals the poverty of a region, not the wealth

What are the stages of Rostow stages of economic growth

• Stages of economic development that follows the British historical example, from traditional to modern society in a stepwise. Every step up in the ladder is a step in economic and social development

What does Taylor state in 1992?

• State are in a relationship

What is world economic system

There is one system, one world economy, and different states experience different processes in that system

Incorporating the periphery

• Periphery is not a location, it is a space where peripheral processes dominate

What are common traits of the core

• High Wages

• Advanced technology

• Diversified production mix

• Globalized labor force

What are common traits of the periphery

• Low wages

• Rudimentary technology

• Simple production mix

• Localized labor force

What is the basis of “space is not a container”

• Core and periphery processes structure space (make space)

Describe the Latin American city

• No country is less than 50% urban

• Rural-to-urban migration

• Historical patterns

• Contemporary alterations

Describe Urban vocabulary

• Urban primacy: the condition of state having a city 3-4 times larger than any other city in the state

• Primate City: the city that is the largest in the state

• Megacities: Cities that have a population of 10 million or more

• Megalopolis: a continuous belt of urban development

Discuss squatter settlements

• Makeshift housing on land legally owned or rented by urban migrants, usually in unoccupied spaces in or near a rapidly growing city

Describe the urban morphology in Latin America

• Based on European cities