The Physical Setting: Landforms

• Continental drift

• Tectonic plates

• Oceanic plates

• Continental plates

• Subduction zones

• Pacific Ring of Fire

• Landscape Processes

•Weathering

• Erosion

• Hydrologic Cycle

• Temperature and Air Pressure

• Precipitation

The Physical Setting: Climate

Koppens Climate Regions of the World

• A: Warm, humid

• B: Dry

• C: Humid temperate

• D: Humid cold

• E: Cold polar

• H: Highland

Climate Change• On a geologic

time-scale climate change has gone on for a long time

– Cold periods (glacial)

– Warm periods

(interglacial)

• Currently human-accelerated climate change

Global Warming• Increased levels of

greenhouse gases from increased human activities

• Widespread deforestation

• Warming and cooling evident in tree rings, marine creatures and glacial ice

• Climate shift

• Shift in ocean currents

Population Distribution

Cultural Geography

• Definition of culture: Shared patterns of learned behavior

• Components:

Beliefs

Institutions

Technology

Cultural Landscape

• The composite of human imprints on the earth’s surface.

• “The cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a culture group”

— Carl Sauer, 1925

• Culture is the agent

• Natural environment is the medium

Political Organization: The State

• A politically organized territory

• Administered by a sovereign government

• Recognized by a significant portion of the international community.

• A state must also contain:

– a permanent resident population

– an organized economy

– a functioning internal circulation system

• Core versus peripheral areas

– Issues of power: core has power over the

periphery

– Advantages of location, interaction

– Exploitation of resources, including labor

– The specter of debt

– Corporate power (major

corporations from the

core)

Patterns of Development

Classification by World Bank

Patterns of Development

Globalization

• Global economic integration

• Cultural homogenization

• Winners and losers:

The world is not flat for the poor and powerless in debt-ridden countries A. WinklerPrins

Pudong, China

The Geographer’s

Perspective