Geography Notes

Year 11, 2012 1. Terms 2. Skills 3. Natural Resources 4. Population Geography 5. Development Geography

Terms
Acronyms/Abbreviations
LDC - less developed country MDC - more developed country KIPPERS kids in parents pockets eroding retirement savings CUBS cashed up bogans (eg. Plumbers) DINKS double income no kids SINKS single income no kids SPUDS single person urban dwelling TRF tropical rainforest

Definitions
Deleterious - causing harm or damage ie. Deleterious effects Emigration movement of people out of an area Eutrophication a drop in sunlight + oxygen levels in a water body ( nutrients = eutrophication = sunlight = photosynthesis = oxygen = oxygen = organisms = nutrients) Immigration movement of people into an area Infant Mortality Rate number of deaths before age 1 per 1000 births per year Lacustrine - anything to do with lakes Land Gale Keystone Species - indicator species. If we want to discover the health of an ecosystem, we look at the population of a keystone species (top of the food chain) eg. Tigers, lions, sharks, whales Mortality Rate number of deaths per 1000 ppl per year Natural Increase when births exceed deaths Population Sex Ratio number of males per 100 females in the population Tailings mining waste eg. Mercury is disposed of in the Amazon River and sends the Amazons crazy

Natural Resources
The Nature of Natural Resources:
Varies between cultures and people eg. Aboriginals vs. miners According to Kleeman, a natural resource is something from the natural environment that, after processing or manufacture, meets the needs of society. o Ladler adds that a natural resource doesnt always need to be processed. Eg. Water, fish, some timber (eg. For firewood) The Australian economy is largely based on the exploitation of the natural resources bestowed by nature The discovery, extraction, transport and processing of these resources is dependent on the countrys human resources ie. The skills, knowledge and ability of its people

What is a Natural Resource?

1. 2. 3. 4. Must have a use A country must have the skill to transform the item Must be economically viable ie. Better than using an alternative Any adverse impacts must be acceptable to society

Types of Natural Resources:

1. Renewable Will eventually be replenished Eg. Forests, groundwater, wildlife and fish Forests it is assumed that after a forest is used for timber, given time, a very similar ecosystem would be reproduced in its place. However is forestry activity causes a reduction in either plant or animal populations, or degrades water catchments and rivers, then timber is not a truly renewable resource 2. Non-renewable Quantity is finite. Eg. Oil, natural gas, coal and uranium Petroleum based resources products of the carboniferous geological age. Climatic conditions under which they were formed are very different from those of today. They are being used in just a fraction of the time span over which they accumulated and they are not presently being replaced. 3. Recyclable Resources Can be recycled after use (changed into another form) Eg. Many mineral resources, and plastic and rubber products

 Scrap iron and steel, paper, aluminium cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles, copper wire, silicon, gold and lead from car batteries 4. Continuous Resources Will virtually always exist Eg. Solar energy, rainfall, wind energy, hydro-electricity, tidal power and geothermal power Globally wind power quadrupled between 2000 and 2006

Factors Affecting Natural Resources:

ECONOMIC FACTORS: Supply and Demand (refer to pg. 264 o Eg. Low supply + high demand = very high prices TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS: Technology can impact natural resource use by creating or stimulating demand ie. New technology needs new materials (which may not have been resources earlier) CULTURAL FACTORS: The amount and type of resources the culture has available Traditions regarding taboo/sacred resources eg. Indigenous Tasmanians dont eat fish with scales, Jews and Muslims are forbidden to eat pork Trying to transport cultures eg. Colonists in Australia used traditional English farming practices which dont work in Australia, kangaroo meat has only recently been approved for human consumption ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH: Fossil fuels vs. the health and functioning of the environment Nuclear power positives vs. unsafe disposal and catastrophic side effects Renewables vs. Non-Renewables *Renewables are often less economically viable but this is changing POLICY AND POLITICS: For strategic economic/political reasons governments may actively promote resource exploitation (eg. Coal seam gas) Incentives used to encourage the development of mines/new agricultural enterprise in unpopulated areas or areas with high levels of unemployment eg. 1960 bounty on locally produced cotton (led to the construction of large dams and the eventual transformation of large grazing holdings into intensively irrigated cotton-farming land)

Examples/Case Studies:
ECONOMICS Each Year: o Earths deserts by 6 million hectares

COPPER AND COBALT TECHNOLOGY It is in every cell phone you used, and if you have a mobile device of any kind then you contribute to the current civil war destabilising the Democratic Republic Congo that has left 100, 000s of women, girls and boys traumatised from a war culture in which they have been subjected to rape and forced to work in these mines 2008 Congolese government signed a deal with China for 10.6 billion tons of copper and 626 000 tons of cobalt. To get these resources people in the Republic of Congo are forcibly removed from land (which becomes mines) and forced to mine for very little, or nothing. NB: half the products in your house have raw materials from Africa, not just mobile phones. PESTICIDES ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH Used to kill parasites on livestock and insects, mice, rats, weeds and fungi on crops Dieldrin and DDT (Agent Orange) have been used for years (seemed to be a miracle cure and were sprayed on everything eg. Sprayed in hair to kill lice, sprayed all over groups of children) but have been banned in numerous countries because of their deleterious effects ASBESTOS ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH Wide-spread use effective insulator, high strength-to-weight ratio James Hardie Industries produced most of Australias asbestos Negative Health Impacts mesothelioma (lethal lung cancer), lung disease asbestosis There was a delay finding alternatives because of ignorance of health impacts, industries wanting to profit from its use, and governments not prepared to tackle the problem Asbestos is still used like its cardboard in many developing countries and is still used under heavy restrictions in some developed countries (eg. Australia) COAL SEAM GAS What?
Fracking hydraulic fracturing sand, water and chemicals blasted into coal seams to fracture the seams releasing the gas trapped Methane and explosive gases leak from a lot of the wells Some of the toxic fracturing fluid resurfaces, but most remains underground and pollutes the water table Huge amounts of water are extracted from the wells to allow the gas to escape (depletes the water table, and the extracted water can be contaminated)

Perspectives: Companies say it is safe and sustainable want the huge profit it provides
Farmers say they have been kept in the dark and conned Governments crave revenue and job creation

Australia (Four Corners): Great Artesian Basin contaminated and depleted Supplies huge amounts of QLD farmland knock on effect to crops etc. Conservative estimates suggest coal seam gas wells could draw 300 gigalitres of water from the ground each year

 Estimated that it would take 1000 years for the Artesian to return to precoal seam gas (CSG) standards & that the amount of water used by CSG was 22 times the amount estimated. Planning to desalinate and use waste water however this will produce 2131 million tons of salt (depending on the estimates of the water used) which companies havent planned what to do with. 31 million tons of salt is enough to fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to the brim 15 times Aim to build 40 000 wells in Australia; there are already 3000 on prime farming land in QLD Owners receive only $250 a year per well o Each well makes the company $1 000 000 a year Some wells leak so much gas that the water around them bubbles Industry could produce as much greenhouse gas as all the cars on the road in Australia QGC (Queensland Gas Company) supplied out of date data sheets (+ leave things out, and not up to Australian standards) about fracking chemicals, such as THPS. (THPS can cause pneumonia and death and shouldnt be released into waterways; QGC poured 130L of THPS sown a well and didnt tell farmers about it for 13 months and after over 2 years still cant confirm the problem is fixed) 23 chemicals used in fracking havent been properly assessed by any govt. agency before use Up to 40% of chemicals used will remain in the seams and move through the waterways America: Marcellus Shale Formation very valuable o New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama (strip running north to south; New York to Alabama 6 states have documented over 1000 reports of contaminated water from hydraulic fracturing Nixon made many environment laws eg. Clean Water Act o Oil and Gas companies have been made exempt from them all Gas is coming from 34 states Fracking fluid mix of over 596 chemicals 40 trillion gallons of water used (all now containing fracking fluids) A lot of it dumped illegally in fields and streams Of the water that goes down only half comes up Need 600+ trucks to bring the water to flush one well (erosion, disruption) Some of the waste water is sprayed in the air so it evaporates quicker (this has hundreds of chemicals which are now in the atmosphere and may cause damage eg. Dangerous levels of ozone, acid rain falling on grasslands) After wells were drilled people began getting sick, animals hair started falling out, workers had chemical burns, people have to start filtering or buying their water, children get asthma cant play outside anymore, smell and taste is weaker people have to sign non-disclosure agreements Known effects on humans of just one of the chemicals used

Testicular toxicity, malformation of the embryo, bone marrow depression, hemolysis (destruction of red blood cells) US Environment Protection Agency congress said they didnt need to investigate. Shown it was toxic then said it was harmless Sometimes wells destroy family haunts and beautiful natural formations Wells leak lots of gas lots of people have whole creeks which can be set on fire and are bubbling, and tap water that can be lit up.

OIL POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC 1970s US ration oil American car manufacturing Japanese small cars (use less fuel) Iraq Version 1 (Gulf War) & 2 are all about securing oil Petroleum companies $$ Gov. gets about 33 per $1 (Fuel Excise used to maintain roads etc.) COAL - POLITICAL Mining companies removed PM Rudd Because of the Super Profits Tax, Emissions Trading Scheme Through advertising campaigns

Threatened Resources
Fish/Marine Resources Depletion of fish and marine stocks Evidence indicates that unsustainable harvesting of wild populations is the main cause of the decline in marine populations and diversity. Other factors also threaten their renewability Forests Accelerated Deforestation (especially in TRFs) Forests are clearly being removed in many areas at a faster rate than they are able to replenish themselves. Forests are also habitats which, once removed, contribute to a serious decline in biodiversity in deforested areas (evidence of population collapse in keystone species toward the top of the food web) Overfishing inc. Logging (eg. PNG, things like seaweed, Africa, Malaysia, Pacific sand Islands) Habitat Agriculture Degradation/destruction As a result of Soils Land Degradation Soils are part of the nonliving physical environment on which almost all terrestrial life ultimately depends. Soils are also seen as an essential link between the lithosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.

Overview

Specifics

Vegetation removal, esp. in semi-arid areas. Increases the chances of human induced desertification eg. Land

 Pollution Global Warming Changes in ocean temps. Change food supplies & affect fish popns. Eg. El Ninos = fish popns of S. America effects villages acidity = stress on coral reefs = coral = marine popns in coral reefs & environs.

population pressure & recent logging (eg. Indonesia, Malaysia) For export (eg. Brazil) Fuel (eg. Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia) Urbanisation

gales Overgrazing, esp. in semi-arid areas Inappropriate crops (unable to cope in times of drought). This hastens vegetation loss & exposes the soil to wind erosion One serious concern with soils is the very slow rate of renewability on many continents, esp. arid areas compared with the pace of erosion and degn.

Sustainable Development
Our Common Future (the Brundtland Commission Report) defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs But some regard the primary focus on meeting human needs as being too anthropocentric (human-centred) and argue for global sustainability that includes all the components of the biosphere.

Population Geography
Nature and Rate
World Population 1 billion When Reached About 1800 How long did it take? All of human history (2 million years) 130 years 30 years 14 years 13 years 12 years 12 years 14 years 25 years 2 billion 1930 3 billion 1960 4 billion 1974 5 billion 1987 6 billion 1999 7 billion 2011 8 billion 2025 (projection) 9 billion 2050 (projection Growth = 77 million a year Growth Rate = 1.5% (1950-51) to 2% (early 1960s) now declining due to rising age of marriage and increasing availability & use of contraception 31% of world population is under the age of 15 creating momentum for growth even as fertility rates decline Ageing by 2050 therell be 2.5 ppl 60+ for every child 4 or younger Fertility Rates 5 (1950) to 2.7 (2000) to 2.56 (2007)

Restrictions on Continual Population Growth

Water Food/Land War Disease Natural Disasters: eg. Floods, heat waves, droughts (this sometimes turns off reproductive systems

Global Pattern of Population Increase

LDCs account for 80% of worlds population yet also account for 98% of annual increase MDC population is now 1.2 billion, expected to increase to 1.4 billion by 2050, with nearly all of this due to immigration to USA Africa

 Population expected to double by 2050 Fertility Rate = 7 kids per woman 41% of population under 15 Europe Expected to shrink by 9% by 2050 South America Relatively high but uneven population (eg. Women in French Guiana have twice as many children as those in Chile) Asia China drop in fertility rate from 6.5 (1968) to 1.6 (2007) even so, Chinas population (1.3 billion) is more than the whole of the developed world India 1.1 billion and growing by 0.6% per year. By 2050 India will overtake China as the most populous country (1.7 billion compared to 1.4 billion) Philippines 21 million (1950) to 150 million (2050); more ppl than Russia or Japan Russia expected to shrink by 23% between 2007 and 2050; from 142 million down to 109 million Japan expected to shrink by 26% Urbanisation 2% of ppl lived in cities (1800) to 12% (1900) to 47%+ (2000) 1900 (not one metropolitan region had 10million+ ppl), by 1950 (one NY) by 2000 (19 only 4 [Tokyo, Osaka, NY, LA] in industrialised countries) Population Density 45 ppl/km (2000) to 66ppl/km (2050) Assuming 10% of land is arable, population densities per unit of arable land will be roughly 10 times higher

Fertility Rates
FALLING FERTILITY RATES IN MDCs IN LATTER 20th CENTURY Factors: Social o liberation of women: Changing sex roles Perceptions of women as child bearers Education & career opportunities for women = more single women = later avg. age of marriage = later avg. age of birth of first child = avg. number of children o Changed lifestyle choices Rise in DINK phenomenon = avg. children per family Changed perceptions that family is the only pathway to fulfillment in life = more single women

o Rise of secularism (reduced influence of religion on personal lives and choices) Economic o As incomes rise in societies, fertility rates tend to fall (unless influences of religion play a part). Average incomes in MDCs have risen since WWII o Perception that children are a financial burden (eg. $250 000 to raise a child to adulthood) Medical/Technological o Wider range of relatively cheap methods of contraception Impacts: Population will begin to age Economic o There will be less people in the workforce to support the ageing population o As there are less people in the workforce and more on government support, taxes will rise, and people will struggle to pay them Social o in importance/value of family unit in societies Political o Immigration policies that target young families and migrants in areas of key skills shortages (eg. Nursing, medical specialists). UK, Australia in battle for nurses at present o Funding for anticipated population structure challenges in the future: The future fund set by the Australian government to put money away for funding of services related to the ageing of the population Policies designed to boost superannuation in the workforce o Policies designed to birth rates via financial and other incentives, such as in Australia: Changed tax regimes for families with children (reductions and rebates) Australias $4000 baby bonus causing a mini baby boom Extra funding for preschool child care Encouragement of firms to create workplace crches and child care services FALLING FERTILITY RATES IN LDCs IN THE LATTER 20th CENTURY (NB: Some of these are almost developed) Overall fertility rates since late 60s The high was in the late 50s (6.2) to a low of 2.9 (2007) BUT This masks regional variations (eg. The fertility rate in sub-Saharan Africa is 5.5 Factors: Lack of access to reliable birth control methods and other forms of contraception Lack of education Different cultural/religious expectations o Christianity o Women dont have the right to say no HIV/AIDS Poverty need children to work & compensate for infant mortality

Trends o As urbanisation , fertility rates o As living standards , fertility rates o As education standards for women , fertility rates o As womens rights , fertility rates Family size preferences globally have Average age of marriage has which has had the overall effect of fertility rates because the time in which you can have babies Cost of living which fertility rates

Mortality Rates
Worldwide 9 Africa 14 (some African countries are in excess of 20 eg. Swaziland 29) In some places as many as 1 in 10 infants die before turning 1 (highest in Sierra Leone 158) Whole or Africa (infant mortality) 86 Worldwide (infant mortality) 52 Factors: Nutritional Standards Standards of personal hygiene and effluent disposal Access to safe drinking water and the incidence of infectious diseases Access to medical and public health technology, including immunisation, antibiotics and insecticides High infant mortality is usually due to under-nutrition (inadequate food) and malnutrition (poor diet)

Population Movements
Migration
Migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of staying permanently or for a long period of time Immigration is the movement of people into an area Emigration is the movement of people out of an area

Types of Migration
1. International Migration 2. Internal Migration

International Migration
Voluntary or Forced 4 Main Reasons:

1. Resettlement Migration Better Quality of life, close to family who moved 2. Workers Shortage of workers in many countries Governments encourage people from other countries to come in and work for a set period of time in order to solve the labour shortage Growth of TNCs has led to an increase in companies sending suitably qualified personnel overseas Eg. Olympics 3. Students Students from developing countries looking to go to school in developed countries 4. Refugees A person who, owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside his/her country of nationality and who is unable or unwilling to return. (UN Protocol 1976)

Internal Migration
Movements within countries across the world are largely due to people moving from rural areas to the cities In the year 2025, it is expected that 60% of the worlds population will live in cities compared with only 14% at the beginning of the 20th century This process (urbanisation) is due to a number of reasons, often referred to as push/pull factors

Push Factors Unemployment Lower wages Crop failure Poor living conditions Poor health and/or education services Few facilities Natural disasters Civil war Political/Religious Factors Lifestyle (eg. Gay man in Broken Hill) Landlessness Move from subsistence to commercial production Rapid population growth Desertification Lack of opportunities

Pull Factors More jobs Higher wages Better living conditions Better education and health services Better facilities Less chance of natural disasters Lifestyle (eg. Acceptance) Entertainment

Issues Arising from the Changing Size and Distribution of Population

1. Environmental Increasing urbanisation puts a huge demand on the environment. The most common problems include noise, water and air-pollution. The provision of infrastructure and waste disposal is often above the capabilities of developing nations governments; this can lead to the development of shanty towns or ghettos 2. Social Employment Developing countries of the world are facing an employment crisis. Their age structure means that many new jobs need to be created to keep up with population growth. High levels of urbanisation mean that traditional subsistence farming is no longer viable Land availability: Rapidly increasing population means that there is often not enough land to go around. In developing countries, there is also pressure from TNCs. Without land on which to grow food people must find money to buy it, this leads to increased rates of poverty and malnutrition. Farmers also become reliant on TNCs for seed (genetic modification means that seeds only flower once and dont drop more seeds).

Examples
DETROIT Car Manufacturing (GM, Ford, Chryster) 1950s - population (African Americans, Mexican Americans, some Chinese/Asian coming to work in car factories wages were 3x higher)

1970s huge oil crisis (people wanted smaller Japanese cars rather than the huge American ones 1980s/1990s white wealthy Americans begin leaving, while poor immigrants remain

CABRAMATTA (ONE DAY IN CABRAMATTA) Fraser opened doors to Vietnamese but didnt put any support structures in place Both parents work very long hours just to feed families and kids had no connection to them (often parents could only speak Vietnamese and kids could only speak English). Often kids turned to gangs, drugs and criminal activity to find the acceptance they lacked (often only in early teens) John Newman assassinated (first Australian political assassination) by Phuong Ngo 2 restaurants only sold heroin 1998/99: increase in police, stop & search at random o Dealers have to go behind closed doors used apartments put steel doors on them with slots to pass drugs/money in or out. The police had to get through the doors in which time the dealers would hide the drugs and police would find only a group of people playing cards etc. Everyone stayed inside (couldnt walk down the path without seeing syringes lying on the footpath) Didnt speak out o Didnt trust the political system o Didnt trust Vietnam government either Thang Ngo ran for office and got elected (partly by fluke because other candidates gave him their preferences because they didnt think he stood a chance) Detox centre opened 20 beds but received 150 calls a day SKILLED WORKERS IN AUSTRALIA Tony Abbotts Migration Policy: Wants to increase skilled workers (white collar) (at the expense of refugees or family migration?) BUT dont really need white collar workers and not even really that many blue collar workers Government Immigration Policy: Since WWII Australia has taken over 6 million migrants (more migrants per capita than Canada, NZ or the US) Australians were born overseas from over 170 countries Skilled migration program targets people who arent sponsored by an Australian employer. Applicants must be over 18 and under 45. Must have good English, recent skilled work experience or a recently completed, eligible Australian qualification. Top group is computing professionals, accountants and elementary clerical, sales and service workers Older Workers: Govt. pays employers $1000 to employ someone over 50 (must keep them over 3 months and then are subject to fair work laws)

Govt. pays $10 000 to elderly to pay for house renovations to make houses more livable Trade Training Centres: Government gave $9 million to Loyola School, Mt Druitt to build a Trade Training Centre where students can take either full or partial apprenticeship training as well as complete their HSC. They offer automotive, electrical and hairdressing with more courses to come. $2.5 billion to last over 10 years from 2008 from federal government to create Trade Training Centres to boost Australias skilled labour force THE PHILIPPINES Population over 88.7 million, and density in excess of 296 ppl/km (6 times the world avg.) Population growth in 2007 was 1.76%, down from 2.07% in 2000 Growth outstripped capacity of the land and the economy Internal Migrations Pressure on agricultural land, so people have been moving to less densely settled upland areas (population of these areas has been growing by about 4% annually) Eg. Mindanao male-dominated migration has disrupted the livelihood and social stability of the existing Muslim or indigenous groups and embroiled parts of the island in political conflict. Agriculture has expanded into previously forested and/or with a slope greater than 18. As a result, the country lost 1/3 of its forest cover between 1990 and 2005. Rates of water runoff and erosion have increased as forest cover has been removed. Other consequences include loss of habitat for wildlife, microclimatic change and the situation of downstream rice growing areas. Also more flooding and mudslides (loss of life) International Migrations 4.8 million Philippine citizens are working temporarily in more than 160 countries. More, perhaps as many as 100 000 leave to seek work or residence illegally in Europe, US and East Asia Although population pressure is a significant factor in this, other factors include opportunities for higher standards of living for the well-educated, chain migration (family migration), and demand for Filipino labour in Middle East for all types of labour, in Hong Kong and Singapore as domestic servants, and in Europe as service workers COLLAPSE OF THE YUGOSLAV FEDERATION Background

Development Geography
What is Development? Can Development be measured? Characteristics of Developing Countries Poverty