Geography Vocabulary From Ch 3 Of World Regional Geography By Joseph Hobbs

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hunting and gathering

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foraging--hunters and gatherers may have been the "original affluent society"

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ecologically dominant species

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one that competes more successfully than other ogranisms for nutrition and other essentials of life or that exerts a greater influence than other species on the environment

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Pleistocene overkill hypothesis

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controversial--states that rather than being at harmony with nature, hunters and gatherers of the Pleistocene Era (2 million to 10,000 years ago) hunted many species to extinction, including the elephantlike mastodon of North America

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domestication

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the controlled breeding and cultivation of plants and animals, which brought about the Agricultural Revolution

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Agricultural Revolution

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also the Neolithic Revolution or Food-Producing Revolution

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extensive land use

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hunting & gathering, nomadic

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intensive land use

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settled down, farming, animal husbandry, living in fixed dwellings

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dry farming

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involved planting and harvesting according to the seasonal rainfall cycle

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irrigation

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bringing water to the land artificially by using levers, channels, and other technologies---allows for year-round crop growth

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carrying capacity

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the size of a species' population that an ecosystem can support

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culture hearths

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regions where civilization followed the domestication of plants and animals

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Industrial Revolution

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began in Europe around 1750, marked by rapid advances in technology and the use of inanimate power

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Age of Discovery (also Age of Exploration)

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3 to 4 centuries of European exploration, colonization, and global resources exploitation and trading led largely by European mercantile powers. It began with Columbus at the end of the 15th century and continued into the 19th century

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colonization

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extension of European countries' political and economic control over foreign areas

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more-developed countries (MDCs)/less-developed countries (LDSs)

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world's wealthier countries/poorer countries

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newly industrializing countries (NECs)

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ex: "Asian Tigers"--countries that don't fit the MDC or LDC idealized types

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gross domestic product (GDP)

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total output of goods and services that a country produces for home use in a year

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per capita GDP (gross domestic product)

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GDP divided by the population

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gross national product (GNP)

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closely related to GDP--includes foreign output by domestically owned producers

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per capita gross national income purchasing power parity (per capita GNI PPP)

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combines GNI and PPP as a method of comparing the real value of outpout between different countries' economies

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gross national income (GNI)

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includes gross domestic production plus income from abroad from sources such as rents, profits, and labor

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purchasing power parity (PPP)

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conversion factors of this consider differences in the relative prices of goods and services, providing a better overall way of comparing the real value of output between different countries' economies

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What per capita GNI PPP qualifies an MDC (more developed country)?

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$12,500 or more--all others are LDCs.

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abjectly poor

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living on less than $1/day (in 2007, 1.2 billion people, or about 18 percent of the world's population fell into this category)

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development

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a process of improvement int he material conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology

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Human Development Index (HDI)

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A UN-devised ranked index of countries' development that evaluates quality of life issues (such as gender equality, literacy, and human rights) in addition to economic performance

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dependency theory

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A theory arguing that the world's more developed countries continue to prosper by dominating their former colonies, the now independent less developed countries

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settler colonization

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the historical pattern by which Europeans sought to create new or "neo-Europes" abroad

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neo-Europes

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areas Europeans tried to colonize to make new little Europes

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mercantile colonialism

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the historical pattern by which Europeans extacted primary products from colonies abroad, particularly in the tropics

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value-added products

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finished products, worth much more than their raw materials

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natural resources

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products of the natural environment that can be used to benefit people. Resources are human appraisals.

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cash crops

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commercial crops--crops produced generally for export

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marginalization

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process by which poor subsistence farmers are pushed onto fragile, inferior, or marginal lands that cannot support crrops fo long and that are degraded by cultivation

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multinational companies

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also transnational companies--companies with operations outside their home countries

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hot money

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short-term and often volatile flows of investment that can cause seious damage to the "emerging market" economies of less developed countries

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globalization

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the spread of free trade, free makets, investments, and ideas across borders and he political and cultural adjustments that accompany this diffusion

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digital divide

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the divide between the handful of countries that are he technology innovators and users and the majority of nations that have little ability to create, purchase, or use new technologies

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information technology (IT)

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the internet, wireless phones, fiberoptics, and other technologies characteristic of more developed countries. enerally seen as beneficial for a country's economic prospects, IT is also spreading in the less developed countries

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knowledge economy

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based on innovation and services

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sustainable yield

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also natural replacement rate--the highest rate at which a renewable resources can be used without decreasing its potential for renewal

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renewable resources

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a resource, such as timber, that is grown or renewed so that a continual supply is available. A finite resource is one that, once consumed, cannot be easily used again. Petroleum products are a good example of such, and because it takes too much time to go through the process of creation, they are not seen as renewable

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ecological bankruptcy

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exhausted environmental capital

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deforestation

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removal of trees by people or livestock

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fuelwood crisis

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deforestation in the less developed countries caused by subsistence needs

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population explosion

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surge in earth's population since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution

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migration

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temporary, periodic, or permanent move to a new location

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demography

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study of population

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birth rate

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annual number of births per 1,000 people in a population

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death rate

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annual number of deaths per 1,000 people in a population

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population change rate

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birth rate minus death rate

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demographic transition

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a model describing population change within a country. The country initially has a high birth rate, a high death rate, and a low rate of natural increase, then moves hrough a middle stage of high birth rate, low death rate, and high rate of natural increase, and ultimately reaches a third stage of low birth rate, low or medium death rate, and low or negative rate of population increase

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first or preindustrial stage

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earliest humans to 1800--birth rates and death rates were high, population growth was negligible

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second or transitional staged

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birth rates high, death rates dropped sharply after 1800 due to medical and other innovations of the Industrial Revolution

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nontimber forest products (NTFPs)

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ex: handicrafts made from bamboo

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third or industrial stage

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beginning around 1875, birth rates began to fall as affluence spread

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affluence

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consumption per person

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fourth or postindustrial stage

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both low birth rates and low death rates (after about 1975), and therefore, like in stage 1, low population growth

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zero population growth (ZPG)

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birth rate = death rate

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population implosion

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rapid decrease in population

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population replacement level

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number of births necessary to keep population the same

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population pyramid

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also age structure diagram--classifies a population by gender and by 5-year age increments

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culture system

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a scheme to boost the output of valuable food and cash crops by requiring people to contibute their fields and labors

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positive feedback loop

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change in one direction produces more change in that direction--eg population grows, more people produce more food, which made it possible to support more people, who produced more food

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emigrant

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one who moves from a place

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immigrant

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one who moves to a place

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push factors

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factors (such as hunger, warfare) that push peasants out of rural areas into cities or from one place to another (nonselective migrants)

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pull factors

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external factor (eg educated villager takes a job in city or elsewhere) pulls person to migrate (selective migrants)

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nonselective migrants

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push factors force migration

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selective migrants

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migrate by choice due to pull factors

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rural-to-urban migration pattern

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characteristic of most countries, movement of people into cities

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urbanization

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growth of cities

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refugees

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victims of severe push factors such as persecution, political repression, and war, forced to be on the move, either as illegal immigrants or with asylum

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asylum

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permission to immigrate due to posed harm or persecution in country of origin

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internally displaced persons (IDPs)

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people dislodged and impoveished by strife in their country with little prospect of emigrating

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brain drain

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emigation of educated and talented people from a place that needs them

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illegal alien

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perceived as a threat to overwhelm social services and take jobs from locals

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guest worker

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perceived as performing important services that no one else wants to do

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Malthusian scenario

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model forecasting that human population growth will outpace growth in food and other resources, with a resulting population die-off

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technocentrists (cornucopians)

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supporters of forecasts that resources will keep pace with or exceed the needs of growing human populations

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neo-Malthusians

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supporters of forecasts that resources will not be able to keep pace with the needs of growing human populations

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people overpopulation

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apparent problem in LDCs

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consumption overpopulation

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characteristic of MDCs--people use a large quantity of resources

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ecological footprint

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the amount of biologically productive land needed to sustain a person's consumption and absorb his or her wastes (for every acre to support an Ethiopian, 69 acres are needed to support an American

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trophic (feeding) levels

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levels in a food chain

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biomass

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collective weight of organisms

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second law of thermodynamics

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the amount of high-quality usable energy diminishes dramatically as the energy passes through an ecosystem. An organism loses 90% of its energy in each passage of the food chain

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lifeboat ethics

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ecologist Garrett Hardin's argument that, for ecological reasons, rich countries should not assist poor countries

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sustainable development (or ecodevelopment)

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concepts and efforts to improve the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems

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debt-for-nature swap

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scenario in which lending institutions of MDCs can forgive some existing debts in return for the borrower's pledge to invest that amount in national parks or other conservation programs

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trade barriers

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imposed by MDCs against certain products from LDCs

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Third Revolution

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some geographers and other scientists believe that sustainable development will bring this about--a shift in human ways of interacting with the earth so dramatic that it will be compared with the origins of agiculture and industry