Reading...
Play button
Play button
Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
98 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
Globalization
|
the increasing interconnectedness of people and places through converging, economic, political, and cultural activities.
|
|
|
Bubble economy
|
As vast sums of money flow into a developing country, they may create a speculatively inflated economy that cannot be sustained.
|
|
|
Geography
|
The term “geography” has its roots in the Greek words for “describing the earth”, and this discipline has been advanced since classical times by all cultures and civilizations.
|
|
|
Rat of Natural Increase (RNI):
|
depicts as a percentage the annual growth rate for a country or region.
|
|
|
Total Fertility Rate (TFR):
|
A synthetic and hypothetical number that measures the fertility of a statistically fictitious, yet average group of women moving through their child-bearing years.
|
|
|
Demographic Transition
|
A four-stage conceptualization that tracks changes in birthrates and death rates through time as population urbanizes
|
|
|
Push and Pull Forces:
|
Push forces drive people from homelands, while pull forces attract migrants to certain locations, within or beyond their national boundaries.
|
|
|
Lingua Franca
|
When people from different culture groups cannot communicate directly in their native language, they often agree on a third language to serve as a common tongue.
|
|
|
Plate Tectonics:
|
a geophysical theory that postulates that earth is made up of a large number of geologic plates that move very slowly across its surface.
|
|
|
Flood Hazard
|
The potential risk to life and limb and potential damage to property resulting from flooding.
|
|
|
Global Warming:
|
An increase in the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere that may change rainfall patterns so that some marginal agricultural areas become increasingly arid; melt polar ice caps, causing a rise in sea levels that will threaten coastal settlement; increase the number of heat waves that strike urban areas, causing death from heat stroke; and possibly lead to greater intensity in tropical storms.
|
|
|
Weather
|
the short-term, day-to-day expression of atmospheric processes.
|
|
|
Bioregion
|
an assemblage of local plants and animals, but our human prehistory also included the domestication of certain plants and animals.
|
|
|
Climate:
|
Compiled data on temperature, pressure, precipitation, humidity, and so on; and, over a period of time, statistically averages from these daily observations provide a quantitative picture of what are statistically common conditions.
|
|
|
Green Revolution
|
Innovations that involved new agricultural techniques using genetically altered seeds coupled with high inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
|
|
|
San Andreas Fault
|
A major geological fault in California; runs from San Diego to San Francisco; the source of serious earthquakes.
|
|
|
Hurricane Region
|
Most hurricanes in North America hit areas near the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The warm water of the West Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico create more favorable conditions for hurricanes.
|
|
|
Urban Heat Island
|
a metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities.
|
|
|
Acid Rain (North America)
|
Industrially produced sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere that damage forests, poison lakes, and kill fish. Many acid rain producers are located in the Midwest and southern Ontario, where industrial plants, power-generating facilities, and motor vehicles contribute to atmospheric pollution.
|
|
|
Ogallala Aquifer:
|
Center-pivot irrigation systems water the plains of western Kansas. Beneath these green fields, is the shrinking Ogallala Aquifer, a fast-diminishing resource destined to frustrate future farmers.
|
|
|
Cultural Assimilation:
|
the process by which a person or a group's language or culture come to resemble those of another group.
|
|
|
Megalopolis, North America:
|
The largest settlement agglomeration in the United States, includes the Washington, DC/Baltimore area (8.3 million), Philadelphia (6.4 million), New York City (22 million), and the greater Boston metropolitan area (7.5 million).
|
|
|
El Nino
|
(a reference to the Christ child) occurs when a warm Pacific current arrives along normally cold coastal waters of Ecuador and Peru in December, around Christmastime.
|
|
|
Maquiladora
|
the Mexican name for manufacturing operations in a free trade zone (FTZ), where factories import material and equipment on a duty-free and tariff-free basis for assembly, processing, or manufacturing and then export the assembled, processed and/or manufactured products, sometimes back to the raw materials' country of origin.
|
|
|
Andes Mountains
|
Beginning in northwestern Venezuela and ending at Tierra del Fuego, the Andes are relatively young mountains that extend nearly 5,000 miles. Created by the collision of oceanic and continental plates, the mountains are a series of folded and faulted sedimentary rocks with intrusions of crystalline and volcanic rock. Volcanism and regular earthquakes are common in this zone.
|
|
|
Altiplano:
|
The treeless high plain of Peru and Bolivia.
|
|
|
Altitudinal Zonation:
|
The concept of altitudinal zonation is most relevant for the Andes, the highlands of Central America, and the Mexican Plateau and refers to different climate zones due to different altitudes. Exploitation of these zones allows agriculurists, especially in the uplands, access to great diversity of domesticated wild plants.
|
|
|
Grassification:
|
The conversion of tropical forest to pasture. Contributes heavily to deforestation.
|
|
|
Patagonia:
|
Located at the southern end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific Ocean and from the east of the mountain range to the valleys it follows the Colorado River south towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean.
|
|
|
Greater Antilles:
|
The four large islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. One these islands are found the bulk of the region’s population, arable lands, and large mountain ranges.
|
|
|
Caribbean Diaspora:
|
The economic flight of Caribbean people across the globe, has defined existence in much of the region.
|
|
|
Caribbean Colonialism
|
A score of former European colonies, millions of descendants of ethnically distinct Africans and indentured workers from India and China, and isolated Amerindian communities on the mainland challenge any notion of cultural coherence.
|
|
|
Santeria:
|
a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumí.
|
|
|
CARICOM:
|
The Caribbean Community and Common Market, representing the former English colonies, proposed an ambitious regional industrialization plan and the creation of the Caribbean Development Bank to assist the poorer states. CARICOM also oversees the University of the West Indies, with campuses in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados.
|
|
|
Caribbean Population
|
The current population is 43 million, but the population is now growing at an annual rate of 1.2 percent, and projected population in 2025 is 48 million.
|
|
|
Sahel:
|
A zone of ecological transition between the Sahara to the north and wetter savannas and forest in the south. In the 1970s, the Sahel became an emblem for the dangers of unchecked population growth and human-induced environmental degradation when a relatively wet period came to an abrupt end and 6 years of drought ravaged the land (1968-74)
|
|
|
Great Escarpment:
|
a steep cliff that separates the coastal lowlands from the plateau uplands, which begins in southwestern Angola and ends in northeastern South Africa, creating a natural barrier to coastal settlement. Coastal plains tend to be narrow, with few natural harbors, and river navigation is impeded by a series of falls.
|
|
|
Animism:
|
a term used to classify all local faiths that do not fit into one of the handful of “world religions”. Most animist religions are centered on the worship of nature and ancestral spirits, but the internal diversity within the animist tradition is vast.
|
|
|
Transhumance:
|
the movement of animals between wet-season and dry-season pasture.
|
|
|
Biofuels:
|
wood and charcoal used for household energy needs, especially cooking.
|
|
|
Kalahari Basin:
|
Most of the Kalahari is not dry enough to be classified as a true desert, because it receives slightly more than 10 inches of rain a year. Its raining season is brief. Most of precipitation is immediately absorbed by the underlying sands, making surface water scarce.
|
|
|
Sudan Religious Tension:
|
Islam was introduced to Sudan in the 1300s by an invasion of Arab-speaking pastoralists who destroyed the indigenous Coptic Christian kigndoms of the areas, and within a few hundred years, Sudan became completely Islamic. The southern equatorial provinces of Sudan, however, where tropical diseases and extensive wetlands stalled arab advances, remained animist or converted to Christianity under British colonial rule. Experiencing both religious discrimination and economic exploitation, the Christian and Animist peoples of the south subsequently launched a large rebellion.
|
|
|
Congo River:
|
(or Zaire) is the largest watershed in the region in terms of drainage and volume flow. The Congo flows across a relatively flat basin that lies more than 1,000 feet above sea level, meandering through Africa’s largest tropical forest, the Ituri.
|
|
|
Apartheid:
|
In 1948, when the Afrikaner’s National Party gained control of the government, they introduced the policy of “separateness” known as apartheid. British South Africans had enacted a series of laws that were prejudicial to nonwhite groups, but it was under Afrikaner leadership that racial separation became more formalized and systematic. Operating on three scales-petite, meso-, and grand-apartheid managed social interaction by controlling space.
|
|
|
Maghreb:
|
(meaning “western island”) includes the nations of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia and is dominated near the Mediterranean coastline by the Atlas Mountains.
|
|
|
Pastoral Nomadism:
|
a traditional form of subsistence agriculture in which practitioners depend on the seasonal movement of livestock for a large part of their livelihood.
|
|
|
Mesopotamian rivers:
|
Lebanese accusations of Israel using Litani River, and demands for Hasbani River. Israeli fears pollution from Syria. Syria demands Banias and Hasbani river, as well as, rights in Sea of Galilee. Jordan demands Yarmuk from Syria. Jordan-Israel agreed on common use of Jordon River. Palestinians demand rights on Jordan, Yarmuk and Sea of Galilee.
|
|
|
Hydropolitics:
|
the interplay of water resources issues and politics, has raised tensions between countries that shared drainage basins.
|
|
|
Deforestation:
|
: Human activities have conspired with natural conditions to reduce most of the region’s forests to grass and scrub. Mediterranean forests grow slowly, are highly vulnerable to fire, and usually fare poorly if subject to heavy grazing.
|
|
|
Culture Hearth:
|
the region witnessed many cultural innovations that subsequently diffused widely to other portions of the world. As an early center for agriculture, several great civilizations, and three major world religions, the region has been a key human crossroads for thousands of years. Important trade routes have connected North Africa with the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa.
|
|
|
European Lowland/North European Plain
|
forms an arc from Southern France to the NE plains of Poland. Includes SE England. High population density: economic focus of Western Europe. Mostly below 500ft in elevation…broken by rolling hills, plateaus, uplands. Many major rivers…Rhine River Delta. Good sea port
|
|
|
European Growth Rate
|
slow growth rate (death rates exceed birthrates). Some are experiencing negative growth rates, while others simply have no growth rate. Continued expression of 4th stage of the demographic transformation…low-fertility/low mortality due to urbanization.
|
|
|
Basque Region
|
located in the west of the Pyrenees. The Pyrenees forms the political border between Spain and France, and includes the microstate of Andorra…extends 300 miles from Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Part of the overall region: Alpine Mountain System. Language spoken in Pyrenees: Occitanian
|
|
|
Acid Rain (Europe)
|
acid precipitation has taken a bad toll on eastern European forests. Usually caused by auto emissions, industrialization, and air pollution that moves it regionally. Example: Sweden, Bohemia, Czech Republic. Definition: harmful precipitation in sulfur and nitrogen oxides.
|
|
|
Iberia
|
Spain+Portugal. Mark still visible today throughout Latin America linguistically, architecturally, etc.
|
|
|
NATO
|
North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
|
|
|
Pyrenees
|
political border between Spain and France. IIncludes Andorra. Many glaciated peaks that reach 11,000 feet. Western end: Basque, Eastern end: Catalans (separatist traditions)
|
|
|
Siberia/Gulag
|
Siberia became a place for political dissidents/troublemakers (soviet period). Gulag Archipelago=millions were sent to political prisons where inmates disappeared or spent years removed from family (Russian + Jews included).
|
|
|
Slavic Language Group
|
a part of the northern branch of the Indo European language family. Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian=all similar dialects (Ukrainian most distinct)
|
|
|
Russian Domain Population
|
clustered west of Ural Mtns. Urban centers in Ukraine, Belarus: Population: 141.9 million in just Russia. Russian Domain Population: 200 million/6 states.
|
|
|
Ural Mtns
|
European Russia’s eastern edge; separates it from Siberia. Known for its division…less than 1,000 ft high.
|
|
|
Taiga
|
Siberian location; south of the tundra…Definition: Coniferous forest zone that dominates a large portion of the Russian interior.
|
|
|
G-8
|
Group of Eight; a collection of powerful countries that confer regularly on key global economic/political issues. Includes U.S, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Russia.
|
|
|
Aral sea
|
located on the boundary of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan…Western Central Asia. Shrinking due to diverting river water for crop production. Salinization increases=less fish species, agriculture suffering, desertification increased. 1990s….now two separate lakes.
|
|
|
Turkic Language Group
|
most spoken in Central Asia (compared to Mongolia, Tibetan). 6 languages: Azeri, Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Uyghur (main language of NW China). Other 5 languages: mainly spoken in the republic of the West (Former Soviet; Uzbek most widely spoken out of all Turkic languages).
|
|
|
Tebitian Topography
|
massive upland extending 1,250 miles from east to west, and 750 miles north to south. 12,000 ft in elevation; 15,000 ft average height. Many large rivers originate here; mostly arid due to high ranges. East-west-running ranges alternating with undrained basins.
|
|
|
Gobi Desert
|
second half of Central Asia’s eastern desert. Runs along the border between Mongolia and Chinese Region of Inner Mongolia. Increase in precipitation due to global warming. Most of the region is full of low/intermediate elevation
|
|
|
Kyrgyzstan Transhumance
|
moving flocks from lowland pastures in the winter to highland meadows in the summer. Highland meadows good for wood supplies and water.
|
|
|
Central Asian religions
|
Islam in the West and Center, and Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet and Mongolia. Tibetan Buddhism originated in India.
|
|
|
Opium in Afghanistan
|
largest producer in the world…some production decline recently. Central Asia’s poorest country.
|
|
|
Chinese Population
|
1.3 billion people. East Asia as a whole is the most populous region in the world. 95% live in Eastern China.
|
|
|
Japanese Natural Hazards
|
many earthquakes due to location at the convergence of 3 major tectonic plates. Also, volcanic eruptions, and coast is vulnerable to tsunamis caused by earthquakes
|
|
|
Anthropogenic Landscape
|
heavily transformed by human activities. North China Plain considered the world’s most anthropogenic landscape. Supports wheat, millet, sorghum…too dry for rice.
|
|
|
East Urban Primacy
|
urban population concentrated in a single city. Key examples: South Korea, Taiwan. Japan=superconurbation.
|
|
|
China’s “One Child” Policy
|
1980s…couples are expected to have only a single offspring. Suffer financial and other penalties if one does not comply. Drawbacks: labor shortages, gender inequality, difficulty aiding the aging population, social tensions, human-rights abuses.
|
|
|
Source of Energy, China
|
High Sulfur Coal.
|
|
|
Loess
|
eroding soil off of the Loess Plateau (West of the North China Plain). Loess consists of fine, windblown sediment that was deposited on this upland area during the last Ice Age. Forms fertile soil, but washes away easily with running water (bad). Loess Plateau=poorest part of China
|
|
|
Kanji
|
borrowed Chinese characters used in Japanese. Merged with hiragana. Japanese kanji differs slightly from Chinese Character in present-day.
|
|
|
South Asian Monsoons
|
Distinct change of wind direction corresponds to wet and dry seasons. 3 distinct seasons: warm and rainy, cool and dry season, hot season. Caused by large-scale meteorological processes that affect much of Asia
|
|
|
Deccan Plateau
|
South from the Indus Ganges Plain…main peninsular shape of India. Dominates peninsular India.
|
|
|
Isolation-Bhutan
|
small population that downplays economic development. Trades hydroelectric to India. Recently have allowed tourists to enter. Rugged terrain, remote location.
|
|
|
Origin-Bangladesh
|
achieved independence in 1971 after a short struggle against centralized Pakistani rule from the West. Formerly East Pakistan.
|
|
|
South Asian Villages
|
population usually clustered around villages in rural areas…usually located near water sources. South Asia is one of the least urbanized regions in the world. Migration into cities due to desperate conditions in the countryside and mechanization of farm labor
|
|
|
Main Crop-Ganges Valley
|
grain is the main crop in the lower valley. Large distribution means large volumes of irrigation water. Behind China in rice production in the world.
|
|
|
“Slash and Burn”
|
also called swidden. Large amounts of wood are left on the ground by logging operations, and the sun then turns the ‘slash’ flammable. Gives nutrients to the soil. Commercial forest cutting is responsible for most burning.
|
|
|
“Golden Triangle”
|
Mountains of northern Southeast Asia; main cash crop is opium….grown by local farmers for the global drug trade. Burma is second largest producer behind Aghanistan
|
|
|
Karen People
|
Eastern Burma/Myanmar. Roughly 7 million. Overrun by Burmese army and forced to camp in Thailand.
|
|
|
Khorat Plateau
|
centermost area of mainland Southeast Asia is Thailand’s Khorat plateau. Low, sandstone plateau that averages 500 feet in height…noted for its thin soils. Periodic water shortages and droughts. Low rice yield due to uncertain rainfall. Poorest region in Thailand (Khorat Plateau=northeast Thailand)
|
|
|
Kalimantan
|
the island of Borneo; 3rd largest island in the world. Malaysia splits between the mainland and the island. Most of Kalimantan is on Malaysia. Recent large growth rate of 30% annually during the last two decades of the 1900s.
|
|
|
Southeast Asian Population
|
fewer than 600 million. Low overall density.
|
|
|
Mon-Khmer language family
|
Vietnamese and Khmer (mainly spoken in Cambodia)> Khmer mainly derived from India, while Vietnamese has much Chinese influence.
|
|
|
East Timor
|
also called ‘Timor Leste’; gained independence in 2002, and is not a member of ASEAN (Assocation of SE Asian Nations). History: eastern half used to be a Portuguese colony…later Indonesia invaded and conquered. Language: tetum, Portuguese
|
|
|
Melanesia
|
meaning “dark islands”
o Includes the dark skinned peoples of New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji. Largest is Papua New Guinea, with a population of 6.8 million; includes the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, as well as portions of Northern Solomon Islands |
|
|
Marsupials
|
Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals living primarily in the Southern Hemisphere; a distinctive characteristic, common to most species, is that the young are carried in a pouch. Includes kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats.
|
|
|
Atolls
|
a combination of narrow sandy islands, barrier coral reefs, and shallow central lagoons. Formation of an atoll: 1) most Pacific islands begin as rugged volcanoes w/ fringing coral reefs. 2) As the extinct volcano erodes away, the coral reef expands and becomes a large barrier reef. 3) a coral atoll is formed.
|
|
|
Maoris
|
the natives of New Zealand. Account for more than 8 percent of the country’s 4 million residents. Most numerous on the North island of New Zealand
Committed to preserving their religion, traditional arts, and Polynesian life ways. Maori is now an official language of the country |
|
|
Australian Urbanization
|
91% of contemporary population lives in large cities along the continents extensive coastline. Though rural life in the Outback of interior Australia is a treasured part of the country’s heritage
|
|
|
Kanaka
|
worked on the Queenstand sugar coast as laborers; Pacific Island laborers from the Solomon Islands. Segregated socially and spatially from their Anglo employers, but nonetheless further diversified this ‘sugar coast’.
|
