Human Geo 1.4 Vocab

Question 1

Resource

Answer 1

A substance in the environment that is useful to people, economically and technologically feasible to access, and socially acceptable to use. Nature offers a large variety of resources (water, minerals, soil, plants, animals)

Question 2

Sustainability

Answer 2

The use of Earth’s resources in ways that ensure their availability in the future

Question 3

Renewable Resource

Answer 3

A resource that is made in nature faster than humans consume it. Humans destroy otherwise renewable resources through pollution of air, water, and soil

Question 4

Nonrenewable Resource

Answer 4

A resource that is made in nature more slowly than humans consume it. Humans deplete nonrenewable resources (petroleum, natural gas, and coal)

Question 5

Conservation

Answer 5

The sustainable use and management of Earth’s natural resources to meet human needs such as food, medicine, and recreation. Renewable resources like trees & wildlife are conserved if they are consumed at a less rapid rate than they can be replaced. Nonrenewable resources are conserved if we use less in order to maintain more for future generations

Question 6

Preservation

Answer 6

The maintenance of resources in their present condition with as little human impact as possible. Preservation doesn’t regard nature as a resource for human use, instead of conservation. Preservation takes the view that the value of nature doesn’t derive from human needs and interests but from the fact that every living this has a right to exist and should be preserved.

Question 7

Biotic

Answer 7

Composed of living organisms

Question 8

Abiotic

Answer 8

Composed of nonliving or inorganic matter.

Question 9

Atmosphere

Answer 9

The thin layer of gases surrounding Earth (“air”) at an altitude up to 690 kilometers (428 miles), made up of oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, and a few other gases. As atmospheric gases are held to Earth by gravity, pressure is created. Variations in air pressure from one location to another produce weather features like wind, storms, and rain.

Question 10

Hydrosphere

Answer 10

All of the water on and near Earth’s surface. The oceans supply the atmosphere with water vapor, which returns to Earth’s surface as precipitation. It moderates seasonal temperature extremes across Earth. People in parts of the A climate region (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar) anxiously await the monsoon. For most of the year, the region receives dry, cool air from the northeast. In June, the wind direction shifts, bringing moist, warm, southwesterly air (the monsoon) from the Indian Ocean.

Question 11

Lithosphere

Answer 11

Earth’s crust and a portion of upper mantle directly below the crust (“stone”). -Earth is made of concentric spheres: The inner core (a dense, metallic sphere), then the outer core (made mostly of liquid iron and nickel), then the mantle, then the crust (thin, brittle outer shell) The lithosphere encompasses the crust and a portion of the mantle. Powerful forces within Earth bend, break, and shape the crust to form mountain chains, continents, and ocean basins.

Question 12

Climate

Answer 12

The long-term average weather condition at a particular locations. Geographers classify climates according to the Köppen system, (divides the world into 5 main climate regions identified by the letters A through E and by name).

Question 13

Biosphere

Answer 13

All living organisms on Earth, including plants and animals as well as microorganisms. It also includes portions of the 3 other abiotic systems (a piece of soil has minerals, moisture, pockets of air, and plant/insect matter). Most living organisms interact within the top 3 meters of the lithosphere (shelter/food), top 200 meters of the hydrosphere (drink/live), and lowest 30 meters of the atmosphere (breathing/protects from Sun’s rays).

Question 14

Ecosystem

Answer 14

A group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact. Human geographers are concerned with ecosystems involving human interaction which the spheres: Atmostphere with pollutants, lack of water in the hydrosphere, stable lithosphere that gives us materials and fuel, and the biosphere giving us food.

Question 15

Ecology

Answer 15

The scientific study of ecosystems. Ecologists study interrelationships between living organisms and the abiotic environments AND the interrelationships among living organisms in the biosphere.

Question 16

Cultural Ecology

Answer 16

A geographical approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships. Human geographers are especially interested in the fact that different cultural groups modify the 4 spheres in distinctive ways. The roots of cultural ecology reach back more than 200 years, to an era when early scientists traveled the globe, observing how people lived in different environments.

Question 17

Environmental Determinism

Answer 17

(ED) A 19th and early 20th century approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human activities. It was brought about by German geographers Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter in the 19th centyury.

Question 18

Possibilism

Answer 18

(P) The theory (adopted by rejecters of ED) that the physical environment may set limits on human activities, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives. According to P, people can choose the crops they grow and yet be compatible with their environment.

Question 19

Polder

Answer 19

Land that the Dutch have created by draining water from an area. The Netherlands has 6,500 square miles of polders, making up 16% of the country’s land area. The Dutch government has reserved most of the polders for agriculture to reduce dependence on imported food. Some polders are used for housing, and one contains Schiphol, a busy airport.

Question 20

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

Answer 20

Known informally as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The time in the zone encompassing the prime meridian, or 0° longitude. The earth is divided into 360° lines of longitude, and if we let every 15th degree of longitude represent one time zone, and divide the 360° by 15°, we get 24 time zones (for 24 hours). Each 15° band of longitude is assigned to a standard time zone. Ex.) the eastern US is 5 hours earlier than UTC.

Question 21

International Date Line

Answer 21

An arc that for the most part follows 180° longitude. When the International Date Line is crossed heading east (toward America), the clock moves back 24 hours, or one entire day. When it is crossed heading west (toward Asia), the calendar moves ahead 1 day. Samoa and Tokelau moved the IDL several thousand kilometers to the east so they would be on the same day as Australia and New Zealand. Kiribati moved it right before 2000 so it would be the first country to see each day’s sunrise, to attract tourists (which didn’t work).