Readings
for Workshop 5
The following material comes
from Chapter 4 of Geography for Life. You may read it here
or in its complete form in your text. For additional readings,
go to Resources.
The National
Geography Standards for Workshop 5
The national
geography standards highlighted in this workshop include Standards
9, 13, 15, and 16. As you read, be thinking
about how the standards apply in lessons you may have taught.
Standard
9: The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human
populations on Earth's surface.
Human population
has increased dramatically over the last few centuries. In 1830,
more than 900 million people inhabited Earth. As the twenty-first
century approached, Earth's population was nearly six billion.
At the same time, extraordinarily large and dense clusters of
people are growing: Tokyo has already reached a population in
excess of 25 million. The geographically informed person must
understand that the growth, distribution, and movements of people
on Earth's surface are the driving forces behind not only human
events - social, cultural, political, and economic - but also
certain physical events - large-scale flooding, resource depletion,
and ecological breakdown.
Students need
to develop an understanding of the interaction of the human and
environmental factors that help to explain the characteristics
of human populations, as well as their distribution and movements.
The distribution and density of Earth's population reflect the
planet's topography, soils, vegetation, and climate types (ecosystems);
available resources; and level of economic development. Population
growth rates are influenced by such factors as education (especially
of women), religion, telecommunications, urbanization, and employment
opportunities. Mortality rates are influenced by the availability
of medical services, food, shelter, health services, and the overall
age and sex distribution of the population.
Another key
population characteristic is growth, which may be described in
terms of fertility and mortality, crude birth- and death rates,
natural increase and doubling time, and population structure (age
and sex distribution). These basic demographic concepts help bring
focus to the human factors that explain population distributions
and densities, growth patterns, and population projections. Population
pyramids, for example, indicate the differential effects of past
events, such as wars, disease, famine, improved sanitation, and
vaccination programs, on birth- and death rates and gender. An
analysis of specific age cohorts enables predictions to be made.
For example, a large proportion zero to 15 years old suggests
rapid population, which will soon require significant resources
to support the elderly. Both predictions could have significant
geographic implications for a community; for example, a young
population could create a need for more housing and schools, whereas
an older population could create a need for more retirement and
medical facilities. Such demographic analyses can be performed
at all scales.
Almost every
country is experiencing increased urbanization. Across Earth peasant
and pastoral life is giving way to the more economically promising
lure of life in cities, as people seeking better jobs or more
income move to areas where opportunities are better. The majority
of the world's people are moving toward a way of life that only
a minority of people experienced less than a century ago. Population
geographers predict that Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Bombay, Shanghai, Lagos,
and Mexico City will be the 21st century's massive population
centers. However, people in some developed countries are giving
up the economic advantages of city life for the ease and attractions
of suburbs and small towns, especially those with access to employment
in metropolitan areas.
Migration
is one of the most distinctive and visible characteristics of
human populations, and it leads to significant reshaping of population
distribution and character. It is a dynamic process that is constantly
changing Earth's landscapes and modifying its cultures. It takes
place at a variety of scales and in different contexts. At international
scales geographers track the flows of immigrants and emigrants.
At national scales they consider net regional balances of in-
and out-migrants or the flows from rural to urban areas, which
are a principal cause of urbanization. At a local scale they consider
the continuous mobility of college students, retirees, and tourists
or the changes of address that occur without necessarily resulting
in a job change or change in friendship patterns.
The context
of migration varies from voluntary and discretionary (the search
for a better place to live), to voluntary but unavoidable (the
search for a place to live), to involuntary and unavoidable (the
denial of the right to choose a place to live).
In the two
voluntary contexts, migration often results from the weighing
of factors at the point of origin and at potential destinations
against the costs (financial and emotional) of moving. "Pull"
factors may make another place seem more attractive and therefore
influence the decision to move. Other factors are unpleasant enough
to "push" the migrant out of the local setting and toward
another area. These factors reflect people's objective knowledge
of places and also their secondhand impressions. As a consequence,
many countries have experienced waves of people going from settled
areas to new lands in the interior (e.g., the westward movement
in the United States in the nineteenth century and the move from
the southeast coast to the interior of Brazil starting in the
1960s, when the new capital city of Brasilia was built).
Voluntary
and unavoidable migration occurs when much of a region's or country's
population is impelled into migration streams, such as the millions
of Irish who fled to the United States in the 1840s because of
the potato famine or the millions of Somalis, Sudanese, and Rwandans
who moved in the 1990s because of drought, famine, and civil war.
However, some migrations are forced and involuntary. Such was
the case with African Americans who were taken to North and South
America in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries
to work as slave laborers on sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations.
Demographic
shifts rearrange patterns of population and create new human landscapes.
Natural increase, war, famine, and disease play decisive roles
in influencing why many people live where they do. Migration sets
people in motion as they leave one place, strike out for a second,
and possibly settle in a third. Intervening obstacles influence
the patterns of migration. Physical barriers such as deserts,
mountains, rivers, and seas or cultural barriers such as political
boundaries, languages, economic conditions, and cultural traditions
determine how people move and where they settle.
It is essential
that students develop an understanding of the dynamics of population
characteristics, distributions, and migration, and in particular
of how population distribution (in terms of size and characteristics)
is linked to the components of fertility, mortality, and mobility.
Standard
13: How the Forces of Cooperation and Conflict Among People Influence
the Division and Control of Earth's Surface.
Competing
for control of large and small areas of Earth's surface is a universal
trait among societies and has resulted in both productive cooperation
and destructive conflict between groups over time. The geographically
informed person has a general understanding of the nature and
history of the forces of cooperation and conflict on Earth and
the spatial manifestation of these forces in political and other
kinds of divisions of Earth's surface. This understanding enables
the individual to perceive how and why different groups have divided,
organized, and unified areas of Earth's surface.
Divisions are regions of Earth's surface over which groups of
people establish control for purposes of politics, administration,
religion, and economics. Each such region usually has an area,
a name, and a boundary. In the past even small groups inhabiting
vast territories divided space in accordance with their cultural
values and life-sustaining activities. For them some spaces were
sacred, others were devoted to hunting or gathering, and still
others were intended for shelter and socializing. In present-day
urban, industrial societies, earning a livelihood, owning or renting
a home in a safe neighborhood, getting a drink of clean water,
buying food, being able to travel safely within one's own community
- all of these activities are linked to how Earth is divided by
different groups for different purposes.
Often, conflicts
over how to divide and organize parts of Earth's space have involved
control of resources (e.g., Antarctica or the ocean floor), control
of strategic routes (e.g., the Panama or Suez Canals or the Dardanelles),
or the domination of other peoples (e.g., European colonialism
in Africa). Language, religion, political ideologies, national
origins, and race motivate conflicts over how territory and resources
will be developed, used, and distributed. Conflicts over trade,
human migration and settlement, and exploitation of marine and
land environments reflect how Earth's surface is divided into
fragments controlled by different political and economic interest
groups.
The primary
political division of Earth is by state sovereignty - a particular
government is recognized by others as having supreme authority
over a carefully delimited territory and the population and resources
within that space. With the exception of Antarctica, Earth's surface
is exhaustively partitioned by state sovereignty. These political
divisions are recognized by the United Nations and its member
states, which discuss and act on issues of mutual interest, especially
international peace and security. However, the partitioning is
not mutually exclusive. Some nations exert competing claims to
certain areas (e.g., the islands in the South Atlantic Ocean,
which are claimed by Great Britain as the Falkland Islands and
by Argentina as the Malvinas).
Regional alliances
among nations for military, political, cultural, or economic reasons
constitute another form of the division of Earth's surface. Among
these many alliances are the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
the Caribbean Community and Common Market, the Council of Arab
Economic Unity, and the European Union. In addition, numerous
multinational corporations divide Earth's space and compete with
each other for resource development, manufacturing, and the distribution
of goods and services. And non-governmental organizations such
as the International Red Cross and various worldwide religious
groups divide space to administer their programs.
Events of
the twentieth century illustrate that the division of Earth's
surface among different groups pursuing diverse goals continues
unabated at all scales of human activity. World wars, regional
wars, civil wars, and urban riots often are manifestations of
the intensity of feeling humans hold for the right to divide Earth
according to their particular perceptions and values. Traditionally,
most territorial disputes have been over the land surface, but
with the increasing value of resources in the oceans and even
outer space, political division of these spaces has become a topic
of international debate. Cooperation and conflict will occur in
all of these spatial contexts.
At smaller
spatial scales, land-use zones in municipalities, administrative
districts for airports and other essential services such as water
supply and garbage disposal, and school districting within counties,
states, and provinces are all examples of the local division of
space. Franchise areas, regional divisions of national and multinational
corporations, and free-trade zones indicate the economic division
of space. City neighborhood associations, suburban homeowners'
associations, civic and volunteer organization districts, and
the divisions of neighborhood space by youth gangs on the basis
of socioeconomic status, race, or national origin illustrate the
power of social and cultural divisions of space.
The interlocking
systems for dividing and controlling Earth's space influence all
dimensions of people's lives, including trade, culture, citizenship
and voting, travel, and self-identity. Students must understand
the genesis, structure, power, and pervasiveness of these divisions
to appreciate their role within a world that is both globally
interdependent and locally controlled.
Standard
15: How physical systems affect human systems.
No matter
what the spatial scale, Earth's surface presents a picture of
physical diversity in terms of soils, climates, vegetation, and
topography. That diversity offers a range of environmental contexts
for people. The geographically informed person must understand
how humans are able to live in various kinds of physical environments
- not only those of the familiar mid-latitudes but also those
that seem less conducive to intensive settlement such as the Arctic
tundra and the Equatorial rain forest - and the role physical
features of those environments play in shaping human activities.
To live in
any given physical environment humans must develop patterns of
spatial organization, which take advantage of opportunities offered
and avoid or minimize the effects of limitations. Physical systems
and environmental characteristics do not, by themselves, determine
the pattern of human activity. If the incentives are great enough
settlement is possible, although at great cost and risk. The trans-Alaska
oil pipeline and construction techniques used in tundra-area settlements
are evidence of the extent of human ingenuity. However, the environment
does place limitations on human societies (e.g., a glaciated region
with its complex of features - thin, rocky water-logged soils
and unique landforms - offers few opportunities for commercial
agriculture).
A central
concept is the idea of carrying capacity - the maximum, sustained
level of use of an environment that is possible without incurring
significant environmental destruction. Environments vary in their
carrying capacity, and people's failure to understand it - or
their inability to live within it - can lead to environmental
disaster. Cyclical environmental change, especially in semiarid
environments, can pose particular problems for human use of that
environment and can lead to desertification, famine, and mass
migration, as has occurred in the Sahel of north-central Africa.
The relationship between any environment and its inhabitants is
mediated by decisions about how much to consume and in what ways
to consume. Energy conservation, water conservation, and recycling
can have significant effects on patterns of environmental use.
In modern
times human have used technology as a means of reducing the potential
effect of physical systems on human activity. In the United States,
for example, the wide-spread introduction of air-conditioning
has allowed people to relocate to the South and Southwest, regions
previously considered less suited to settlement. And in various
regions of Earth, use of the airplane has made it possible to
establish settlements and industries in hitherto inaccessible
places. However, the use of technology to overcome physical impediments
to human activity can also have wide-ranging and sometimes unexpected
consequences. For instance, the attempt to control rivers by building
dams and dredging waterways to prevent destructive and life-threatening
floods can also lead to diminished soil replenishment, increased
water salinity, reduced flow of sediment to oceans, and increased
riverbank erosion.
In addition
to carrying-capacity limitations, the physical environment often
imposes significant costs on human society. Natural hazards are
defined as processes or events in the physical environment that
are not caused by humans but whose consequences can be harmful.
They cost the United States billions of dollars each year. Hurricanes,
earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, storms, floods, forest fires,
and insect infestations are events that are not preventable and
whose precise location, timing, and magnitude are not predictable.
Their negative consequences can be reduced by understanding the
potential vulnerability of different groups of people and by implementing
a variety of strategies such as improved building design, land-use
regulation, warning systems, and public education.
Whether the
issue is the mitigation of a natural hazard or recognition of
carrying capacity, students need to understand the characteristics
and spatial properties of the physical environment. It is essential
that they be able to translate an understanding of the physical
processes and patterns that shape Earth's surface into a picture
of that surface as a potential home for people. That home can
hold only so many people or be used only in certain ways without
incurring costs. Judgment as to the acceptability of those costs
requires an understanding of environmental opportunities and constraints.
Standard
16: The Changes that Occur in the Meaning, Use, Distribution,
and Importance of Resources.
A resource
is any physical material that constitutes part of Earth and which
people need and value. There are three basic resources - land,
water, and air - that are essential to human survival. However,
any other natural material also becomes a resource if and when
it becomes available to humans. The geographically informed person
must develop an understanding of this concept and of the changes
in the spatial distribution, quantity, and quality of resources
on Earth's surface.
Those changes
occur because a resource is a cultural concept, with the value
attached to any given resource varying from culture to culture
and period to period. Value can be expressed in economic or monetary
terms, in legal terms (as in the Clean Air Act), in terms of risk
assessment, or in terms of ethics (the responsibility to preserve
our National Parks for future generations). The value of a resource
depends on human needs and the technology available for its extraction
and use. Rock oil seeping from rocks in northwestern Pennsylvania
was of only minor value as a medicine until a technology was developed
in the mid-nineteenth century that enabled it to be refined into
a lamp illuminant. Some resources that were once valuable are
no longer important. For example, it was the availability of pine
tar and tall timber - strategic materials valued by the English
navy - that in the seventeenth century helped spur settlement
in northern New England, but that region now uses its vegetative
cover (and natural beauty) as a different type of resource - for
recreation and tourism. Resources, therefore, are the result of
people seeing a need and perceiving an opportunity to meet that
need.
The quantity
and quality of a resource is determined by whether it is a renewable,
nonrenewable, or a flow resource. Renewable resources, such as
plants and animals, can replenish themselves after they have been
used if their physical environment has not been destroyed. If
trees are harvested carefully, a new forest will grow to replace
the one that was cut. If animals eat grass in a pasture to a certain
level, grass will grow again and provide food for animals in the
future, as long as the carrying capacity of the land if not exceeded
by the pressure of too many animals. Nonrenewable resources, such
as minerals and fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), can
be extracted and used only once. Flow resources, such as water,
wind, and sunlight, are neither renewable nor nonrenewable because
they must be used as, when, and where they occur. The energy in
a river can be used to generate electricity, which can be transmitted
over great distances. However, that energy must be captured by
turbines as the water flows past or it will be lost.
The location
of resources influences the distribution of people and their activities
on the Earth. People live where they can earn a living. Human
migration and settlement are linked to the availability of resources,
ranging from fertile soils and supplies of freshwater to deposits
of metals or pools of natural gas. The patterns of population
distribution that result from the relationship between resources
and employment change as needs and technologies change. In Colorado,
for example, abandoned mining towns reflect the exhaustion of
nonrenewable resources (silver and lead deposits), whereas ski
resorts reflect the exploitation of renewable resources (snow
and scenery).
Technology
changes the ways in which humans appraise resources, and it may
modify economic systems and population distributions. Changes
in technology bring into play new ranges of resources from Earth's
stock. Since the industrial revolution, for example, technology
has shifted from waterpower to coal-generated steam to petroleum-powered
engines, and different resources and their source locations have
become important. The population of the Ruhr Valley in Germany,
for example, grew rapidly in response to the new importance of
coal and minerals in industrial ventures. Similarly, each innovation
in the manufacture of steel brought a new resource to prominence
in the United States, and resulted in locational shifts in steel
production and population growth.
Demands for
resources vary spatially. More resources are used by economically
developed countries than by developing countries. For example,
the United States uses petroleum at a rate that is five times
the world average. As countries develop economically, their demand
for resources increases faster than their population grows. The
wealth that accompanies economic development enables people to
consume more. The consumption of a resource does not necessarily
occur where the resource is produced or where the largest reserves
of the resource are located. Most of the petroleum produced in
Southwest Asia, for example, is consumed in the United States,
Europe, and Japan.
Sometimes, users of resources feel insecure when they have to
depend on other places to supply them with materials that are
so important to their economy and standard of living. This feeling
of insecurity can become especially strong if two interdependent
countries do not have good political relations, share the same
values, or understand each other. In some situations, conflict
over resources breaks out into warfare. One factor in Japan's
involvement in World War II, for example, was that Japan lacked
petroleum resources of its own and coveted oil fields elsewhere
in Asia, especially after the United States threatened to cut
off its petroleum exports to Japan.
Conflicts
over resources are likely to increase as demand increases. Globally,
the increase in demand tends to keep pace with the increase in
population. More people on Earth means more need for fertilizers,
building materials, food, energy, and everything else produced
from resources. Accordingly, if the people of the world are to
coexist, Earth's resources must be managed to guarantee adequate
supplies for everyone. That means reserves of renewable resources
need to be sustained at a productive level, new reserves of nonrenewable
resources need to be found and exploited, new applications for
flow resources need to be developed, and, wherever possible, cost-effective
substitutes - especially for nonrenewable resources - need to
be developed.
It is essential
that students have a solid grasp of the different kinds of resources
of the ways in which humans value and use (and compete over) resources,
and of the distribution of resources across Earth's surface.
The above
material is from Geograpy for Life: The National Geography Standards,
1994. The Geography Education Standards Project.
© 1994 National Geographic Societly, Wahington, D.C.
Reprinted with the permission of the National Goeographic Society.
