Spatial Concepts and Earths Sustainability and Systems

Spatial Concepts

Culture

The beliefs, traits, and social ideas create a tradition among a group. Geographers study the culture between two regions. This can include features such as:

• Ideas, beliefs, values, practices

• Food, clothing, shelter, religion, language, art forms

Scale

How human actions can potentially affect the Earth and Globalization.

Small scale vs. large scale maps-  a small scale map is a large area but less detail, a large scale map is a small area but more detail

Globalization

This is the spread of people, culture, businesses, technology, information, and products throughout the world.

• The globalization of culture has been done through various factors such as technology, social media, immigration, and television. These have been so prominent in the spread of culture because of how many people have access to them.

• Communications Revolution- This is the movement of technology creating the phenomena of people learning of different cultures and spreading them.

• Some people oppose globalization because it can potentially cause their own cultures to become overshadowed, have contradicting beliefs to their own, or cause their culture to change too much and die off.

Connection

The relationship between us and objects. The human ability to expand our settlements and lives.

Hearth

A place where different types of innovations that affect certain populations, or all populations, occur. The three main hearth regions for all forms of innovations in the world are North America, Europe, and Japan. These hearths came to place because these areas have resources such as technology, investment opportunities, and money.

Diffusion

The spreading of any form of ideas throughout the world affects the cultures and beliefs of many people.

Relocation Diffusion- The spread of ideas through the movement of people. (Example: Immigration)

Expansion Diffusion- The spread of a feature. This type of diffusion usually occurs through technology. Subsections of this diffusion include:

• Hierarchical Diffusion- The spread of political ideas from political leaders.

• Contagious Diffusion- The rapid spread of a characteristic, such as a social media trend or a virus.

• Stimulus Diffusion- The spread of underlying principles such as the adoption of from the company of Apple from other companies, or believing a certain principle by multiple cultures that was originally the principle of a certain culture.

Space

The gap or interval between two different objects.

Distribution- The arrangement of a feature through space.

Density- How often something occurs through space.

• Concentration- The way a feature is spread through space.

• Clustered- Objects that are close together

• Dispersed- Objects that are far apart

Distance Decay- Saying the more Earth is globalized the less space there is for us to live.

Space-Time Compression- The more technology there is, the less space there is between everyone. In the past, you actually needed to physically go up to someone if you wanted to talk to them. Now, a phone call will be enough no matter how far you are from that person. Still, barriers like the oceans and deserts can be a bit hindering.

Earth’s Physical Systems

Abiotic Systems (Not living)

• Atmosphere- Thin layers of gas around the Earth

• Hydrosphere- Water on or near Earth’s surface

• Lithosphere- Earth’s crust and some of the mantle

Biotic Systems (Living)

• Biosphere- All living things residing on earth

Climate

Climate influences human actions. Humans can’t live in places that are too hot or cold, so they avoid places like the desert and north and south poles. Geographers take an interest in climate because no living thing can survive on this planet without interacting with another living thing.

• Cultural Ecology- The study of the relationship between humans and the environment

• Posibilism- The theory that humans can find a way to adjust and find an alternative when faced with an environmental issue.

• Enviormental determinism- Saying that all human actions are based on the environment

• Types of Climates

• Tropical

• Dry

• Warm Mid-Latitude

• Cold Mid-Latitude

• Polar

Sustainability and Resources

Resources

Renewable- are naturally being made faster than consumption

Nonrenewable- are naturally being made slower than consumption

* The two major misuses of resources are over using nonrenewable ones or destroying renewable ones through pollution

Sustainability

To make sure we don’t use too much of our resources and preserve them for the future. There are 3 pillars of sustainability:

• Environment

• Conserve- to manage and use Earth’s resources in a controlled manner

• Not cutting down too many tress and only overusing petroleum

• Preserve- to leave Earth’s resources untouched

• Saying nature is its own and leaving it be

• Economy

• In economy, the greater the supply, the lower the price, and vice verse

• But with resources, mallebility is more important than abundance

• Fossil fuels are easy, therefore, people want to use them more

• Society

• Us as a society can make better choices such as getting recycled products rather than ones made with petroleum. Overall, what ethics we have as people can change the way we use our resources.

* Two major critiques about sustainability are that we have already exceeded out limit, or that there is no limit to exceed