8.1 the global village_cycles

The Global Village

• New developments in communications have made our world smaller, by allowing information to pass between countries and people much faster than ever before.

• Modern Transportation has also made our world smaller by allowing people to move further and faster than ever before possible in human history.

The World as a System

• A system can be defined as a set of elements which interact with each other in a particular way.

• Global systems generally fall into three categories: The physical world, the Biological world and the Economic world.

The Universe Song

Geographic Terms • Location (a position on the Earth’s surface)

• Place (the Physical and human characteristics that make a location unique)

• Movement (The varied patterns in the movement of life forms, ideas, and materials)

• Regions (Basic units of study that define an area with certain human and physical characteristics)

• Human and physical interaction (The way humans depend on, adapt to, and modify the Environment)

• Biosphere: the regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth occupied by living organisms.

All the Countries in the world!

The Physical World

• The physical elements of the world : Air, wind, waterways, precipitation, soils etc. If any one of these elements changes those changes will affect other aspects of the system.

• Ex. Cutting down trees exposes the soil beneath to rainfall and wind. The unprotected soil erodes easily, and erosion leads to changes in river flows and groundwater levels. Cutting down trees also leads to desertification and loss of wildlife habitat.

The Global Environment:Sustainable Development

• Sustainable development: Economic development that manages the environment and its resources in a way that allows future generations to benefit from them.

• Sustainable development occurs on four levels:

1. At a planetary level, the health of the planet must be preserved because the human race depends on the earth.

2. On a global level, the gap between developing and developed nations is the greatest threat to sustainable development.

3. On a regional level, we must focus on issues like the preservation of natural resources and waste disposal.

4. On a local level, the diversity of the environment around us must be protected and preserved.

• Formally known as the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), the Brundtland Commission's mission is to unite countries to pursue sustainable development together.

Types of Resources

• Resources can be divided into two groups: Renewable and non-renewable.

• Renewable resources are those which will continue to supply materials indefinitely as long as the system that produces them is not disrupted. Forestry, fisheries and farming are all examples of renewable resources.

• Non-renewable resources are those which cannot be replaced once they are used up. Most of them are inorganic, that is ,non-living. Such materials have been created by nature over millions of years. Fossil fuels and metal ores are example of a non-renewable resource

The Distribution of Resources• The world’s natural resources are very unevenly distributed. Only about

one-fifth of the world’s land area is currently capable of sustaining a high population density, whether for farming or industry.

• The world’s best agricultural land is located mainly in warm temperate areas such as the Midwest of North America and along major rivers like the Nile. Many less developed tropical nations have almost no highly productive agricultural land and extreme climate change makes for irregular food production. (They have more arid land than arable land)

• Mineral resources are even less evenly distributed. The Canadian Shield and the South African plateau are among the richest locations of ore deposits.

• About ½ of the world’s coal is located in Russia and the US• Almost 60% of the word’s petroleum is in the Persian Gulf area.• The uneven distribution of the world’s resources is the major impetus for

international trade.

Uneven Distribution of Wealth

Air Resources• Global Warming: The earth absorbs the sun’s energy and

re-emits it as heat. Gases in the earth’s atmosphere then trap this heat keeping the temp on earth at a level that sustains life. This is called the Greenhouse effect, the gases that allow for it include Carbon dioxide (CO2) Methane (CH4) and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s)

• Unfortunately the level of these gases in the atmosphere is increasing due to human industrial activity. This is causing the global temperature to rise.

• Ultimately this rise in the Earth’s temp could lead to a rise in sea levels, which could destroy cities and crop lands.

• Eventually this rise in global temperatures could cause a warmer global climate, alter growth patterns and cause deserts to expand and forest cover to decrease.

• The effects of Global Warming. I apologize for the Nickleback.

Air Resources Continued: Ozone Depletion

• Ozone is a pale blue gas that is present in a thin layer in the Stratosphere. It is formed when oxygen in the atmosphere reacts with sunlight.

• Ozone forms a protective shield around the earth. It filters out ultraviolet radiation (dangerous to living things) from the sun.

• The Ozone layer is getting thinner and becoming damaged due to the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

• This damage to the Ozone layer is responsible for the rise in skin cancer in recent years.

• It could also lead to damage in the food chain, as a significant amount of sea life depends on algae for food and algae is very sensitive to sunlight

• Algae also produces a significant amount of the World’s oxygen and we use that all the time.

Image of the largest Antarctic ozone hole ever recorded (September 2006), over the Southern pole

Land Resources• Deforestation is one of the most serious threats to the world’s

forests. It continues at a rate of 170000km2 per year, about 466 km2 each day.

• An old-growth forest is a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance and thereby exhibits unique ecological features.

• Although reforestation of temperate forests is increasing in many countries the quality of these forests is inferior to that of natural forests, as they do not support the same level of biodiversity as ecologically complex natural forests do.

• Forests provide habitats for thousands of plant and animal species. Many of these have yet to be discovered, but they could hold the key to future scientific and medical breakthroughs.

• Most of the forests in Canada are boreal forests. The boreal region in Canada covers almost 60% of the country’s land area.

Deforestation.

• Rainforest Deforestation: The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest are human settlement and development of the land. In the nine years from 1991 to 2000, the total area of Amazon rainforest cleared rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km²; comparable to the total land area of Spain, Madagascar or Manitoba.

• Are minor comforts really worth all of this loss?

• Think hard about your answer.

Land Resources:Desertification

• Desertification: The expansion of deserts as a result of mismanagement of the land, for example: Clear-cutting, over cropping or overgrazing can lead to desertification.

• In Yukon, the zone of continuous permafrost might have moved 100 kilometres northward since 1899. It is thought that permafrost thawing could speed up global warming by releasing methane and other hydrocarbons, which are powerful greenhouse gases.

Desertification

Water Resources• All forms of life need water to survive.

• There are over 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water around the globe. However 97% of this is held as salt water in the oceans.

• Only 3% of the earth’s water is freshwater, and most of that is in the form of groundwater or ice.

• Water is distributed unevenly around the world. Some countries, like Canada are water rich, while other countries like Egypt are poor in water resources.

• Global warming is a threat to water resources as it has impacted on the ice fields in the Rockies as well as in other regions.

• Much of the accessible freshwater available on the globe is used to irrigate crops, 98% of Egypt’s water goes to irrigation projects, compared to only 10% in Canada

• Water quality is a measure of the condition of water compared to the requirements of any human need or purpose. Humans impact the water quality through pollution. There are supposed to be standards on the quality of water that humans can drink yet there are 783 million people without access to clean drinking water.

Water Resources: Continued• Much of the world’s fresh water is in the ground. It is called

groundwater.

• Groundwater is stored in Aquifers (a spongy layer of rock that holds on to water) deposited at the end of the last ice age, about 10 000 years ago. It is a finite (limited) supply, about one in four Canadians depends on Groundwater for a domestic water supply.

• When our groundwater runs out we are going to face problems associated with water shortages, like limited food production and industrial output.

• To have a reasonable quality of life the average person requires about 80 liters of Water a day.

• In Canada we use 360 liters a day on average making us second only to the US in water consumption per capita

Distribution of the World’s Water

Global Warming & Canada• Over the years Canada has hosted many conventions on

environmental problems that have resulted in international protocols:• The Montreal Protocol: The Montreal Protocol on Substances that

Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion.

• Kyoto Protocol: The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty that sets binding obligations on industrialized countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC is an environmental treaty with the goal of preventing "dangerous" human induced interference of the climate system.

• Acid Rain: caused by chemicals being released into the air that then rise

high into the atmosphere where they mix with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form more acidic pollutants. Over the past few decades, humans have released so many different chemicals into the air that they have changed the mix of gases in the atmosphere.

• PH Levels: When the acid rain falls into lakes and rivers they become acidic (i.e., the pH value goes down) when the water itself and its surrounding soil cannot buffer the acid rain enough to neutralize it. In areas where buffering capacity is low, acid rain releases aluminum from soils into lakes and streams; aluminum is highly toxic to many species of aquatic organisms.

• Genetically Modified Foods: foods produced from organisms that have had specific changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering. These techniques have allowed for the introduction of new crop traits as well as a far greater control over a food's genetic structure than previously afforded by methods such as selective breeding and mutation breeding

The Biological World• The elements of the biological world include: Trees, birds,

fish, bugs and people. All living organisms are a part of the Biological cycle.

• Humans have had a profound affect on the biological cycle, it is estimated that at least one species of plant or animal becomes extinct every day somewhere in the world.

• Because the world works on a series of interconnected systems each change in the composition of any of the systems can have far reaching affects.

• Going Organic

An Example of affecting the balance of life

• Frogs’ legs are a delicacy in many countries, with a greater world population the demand for frogs’ legs has increased.

• Frogs play an important role in the environment, since they eat mosquitoes and other bugs which spread malaria or attack crops. Due to the shortage of frogs, farmers in countries exporting frogs’ legs are finding it necessary to use pesticides, like DDT, to control the insect population.

• Pesticides build up in the bodies of animals, (especially DDT which is banned in Canada) thus there is a danger that frog flesh may become increasingly affected by chemical residues

The Swedish chef on the muppets tries to make frog's legs.

The Economic World

• The Economic cycle explains the relationship between Producers and Consumers.

• The Economic cycle has a profound affect on both the physical cycle and the biological cycle.

• The reasons behind deforestation, desertification and loss of animal habitat are almost all based on economics.

• Ex. Large portions of the world’s rainforest are being cut down to provide grazing land for cattle. The cattle is bound for fast food restaurants (mostly in North America)

• Some of the results of this deforestation are desertification and loss of wildlife habitat.

• Examine the international declaration of human rights on the next slide and ask yourself “How does the function of the economic world impact on the effectiveness of the international declaration of human rights

The Universal; Declaration of Human Rights• Declared at UN General Assembly in 1948• Based on the belief that: all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights• Condemns: “barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind”

• Declaration States:• Everyone has the right to: life liberty, and security of person• No slavery, abolish slave trade• No torture or cruel inhuman, or degrading treatment• Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law• No subjecting to arbitrary arrest or detention • Entitlement to fair and public hearing by an impartial tribunal in the case of

criminal charges against them • Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence• Significance:• First international statement to recognize that all human beings have specific

rights and freedoms• The Canadian Government signed and ratified this declaration• We are bound to it under international law.

Quality of life: Economic Development

• There is a great amount of economic disparity among the nations of the world.

• Not all countries enjoy the same standard of living (the quantity and quality of the products and services available to people.) Or quality of life (not only the material standard of living, but also social, political and environmental factors)

• Economic development is the process by which the condition of people’s lives are improved through knowledge and technology. It is a continuous process.

• In broad terms, high and middle income countries are called the developed world, while low income countries are called the developing world.

• Only those countries at the extreme ends of the economic spectrum can be this simply classified, most fall some where in between.

Quality of life: Economic Disparity

• Developing Country: a poor agricultural country that is seeking to become more advanced economically and socially.

• Developed Country: a sovereign state that has a highly developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure.

• There are different levels of economic development and opportunity within countries. Sao Paulo, Brazil, is as modern as any city in Canada, yet most of Brazil lives in extreme poverty.

• The distribution of wealth is uneven within wealthy countries and regions. Some communities in the Canadian North, for example, have more in common with a developing country than they do with cities like Vancouver.

• Even in Canadian cities, subcultures of poverty exist with street kids and homeless people

Uneven Distribution of Wealth in the Canadian North

Quality of Life: The Human Development

Index• The Human Development index measures the quality

of life, by ranking countries in three important areas: • A long and healthy life, (Life expectancy) • Knowledge, (Literacy rates, both male and female)• A decent standard of living/purchasing power, (Per

Capita GDP, on average how much purchasing power each citizen has in a year)

Foreign Aid:Canada’s contribution

• Each year the government sets aside billions of dollars for short-term humanitarian aid and long-term development strategies.

• The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is responsible for administering these programs

• CIDA donates money in the short term for aid when natural disasters strike

• CIDA also creates long-term sustainable development in less developed countries by contributing medical personnel, farmers teachers and technicians.

Different types of foreign aid

• Canadian aid is distributed in three ways.• Multilateral aid is funding provided to international

organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO)• Bilateral aid is aid that is negotiated between Canada and a

specific country.• Tied Aid is help that is provided on the understanding that

certain conditions be placed on receiving the funds.• CIDA also donates money to non-governmental organizations

(NGOs)• One of the stipulations that Canada has placed on aid is that

the countries receiving Canadian aid must uphold democracy and have a decent human rights record.

The Urban Revolution

• 200 years ago only 5% of the population lived in cities. Now 45% of people live in an urban environment.

• Part of this shift is the development of Mega cities (cities with populations larger than 8 million people) In 1950 only 2 cities, (London and New York) were considered mega cities, by 1995, there were 22.

• Urban migration started as a result of the Industrial revolution.

• In addition to creating jobs the move to an urban environment brought an increase in services and greater access to the infrastructure of a modern urban environment (ex. Access to hospitals and schools)

• Greater urbanization also led to greater Urban sprawl, which has led to the loss of wildlife habitats.