THE HUMAN ELEMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

Unit Overview

This unit will explore elements of determining population statistics of the world, cultural regions and economic systems.

The World Population

There are close to 6.5 billion people living on the Earth. By the year 2050, the population is expected to grow to 9 billion. You might be surprised to learn that this increase has not always been in the case. Between 1800 and 1950, the population of the world has doubled. Why? The reason for the increase in population is that the Industrial Revolution occurred.

Few events in history have had as great an effect on people’s lives as the Industrial Revolution that began in the late 18th century.

The Study of Demographics

Demography is the study of populations. We use statistics to learn about trends in population. The birth rate is number of births per 1000 per year. The opposite of birth rate is the death rate. The death rate is the number of deaths per 1000 per year. The natural increase is the difference between death and birth rates. If there are more birth rates, we are in a period of population growth. If there are more death rates than birth rates, the period is known as a negative population growth. If the birth and death rates equal out, the period is called zero population growth. By knowing the demographics of a nation, we can determine many things. We can tell if the country is an industrialized nation, whether it has mass poverty or if it has a solid system of healthcare.

Population Growth

Population growth does present many challenges for a nation. As the population increases, it becomes more difficult to ensure the country has enough food to feed the population and there are enough homes for people to live in. However, it is not all bad when we talk of population growth, countries that experience population growth have high levels of technology and they have quality agricultural systems that allow them to produce food at a faster pace. There is good and bad when talking about population growth.

Negative Population Growth

Much like countries that experience positive growth in their populations, there are many challenges for those who experience negative population growth. These countries have a difficult time finding workers to help keep the country going. How can a country produce goods, if they have no workers to produce the goods? These countries have to depend on people from other countries to work in their country. What happens when people from different countries come in contact with each other? Sometimes, conflicts do happen. Those conflicts are the reason why there is a negative population growth.

Population Density
We use the concept of population density, which is the average number of people living in a square mile or square kilometer, to determine how crowded it is in a region. To determine the population of a region we divide the population by its total land area. A country like Canada has a very low population density, which means there are fewer people per square mile. A city like New York has a large population density, there are more people living per square mile. In addition, on the map, countries in Asia have the highest population density. The map below will help you answer some questions.

Population density (people per km2) by country, 2006.”Every day the world’s population grows by approximately 200,000 people. That means every 40 days the planet adds enough new people to replace the entire population of New York City” Joel E. Cohen

Population Movement

Migration is the movement of people from place to place. During the Industrial Revolution, many people moved from rural areas to urban areas (cities). This process is called urbanization. The reason urbanization occurs is the desire for people to find jobs, we know from our studies in history that the Industrial Revolution provided these jobs. People also migrate to new countries. Why did people want to come to America? People wanted to come to America for better opportunities, so they could enjoy the freedoms we have.

When people leave an area for certain reason, those are known as push factors. Push Factors could be anything, perhaps there are no jobs in that area. Reason people migrate to other areas are called pull factors. Pull factors may be the amount of jobs that are available. The diagram below explains push pull factors.

Another example of why people leave an area is because of Natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, that struck New Orleans in 2005. The people who lost their homes because of the hurricane had to flee to other places to find a place to live. As these people left New Orleans to go to other places, they were called refugees.

Global Cultures

Not only do geographers study locations, but they also study culture.  When we use the term culture, it means a way of life for a group of people who share similar beliefs and customs. People may share the same language, music, and religion, but let’s not forget that government, social groups and economic systems reflect cultures in many parts of the world.  People organize communities by developing their way of life and they change based on cultures.  Today many people are struggling to maintain their cultures, as we have become a global community.

Elements of Culture

There are five elements of culture:

1. Language

2. Religion

3. Social Groups

4. Government and the Economy

5. Culture Regions

Language

Language is the key to everything. It is because of language that we express ourselves, communicate with others. Even within an individual culture, people may speak a different language, or a different way of pronouncing words. People who study language are called Linguists. Linguists organize the world’s language into language families; these are simply large groups of languages.

Religion

You have seen how differences in religion have led to various conflicts. The attacks on 9/11 are just one example. These attacks are because religious beliefs are different throughout the world. People use religion to define themselves; they celebrate holidays based on what their religion believes. Some of the major religions are Christianity, which may include Roman Catholics and Protestants or other religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam or Judaism.

Social Groups

In your life you there have been times where you have had to depend on friends to meet your basic needs. That is why we call it a social group. Within cultures, there are social classes. A social class is group of people ranked tog ether according wealth, education, religion and a variety of other items. Social groups are members of the same culture that work together to meet a basic need. Cultures include ethnic groups, people who share a common language, history or place of birth.

Government and the Economy

Governments share certain features and similar responsibilities as one another. Each government is responsible for maintaining security, law and order within its own country and also protects its people against invasion from a foreign country. They also provide services to those who are in need.

Governments are organized by levels of power such as national, state and local levels. As people get broken down into social classes, governments are also divided up- into levels of power, and the types of power of leaders. Is it possible for a national government to solve local problems? Of course not, this is why governments are broken down into levels.

Societies have economic systems. Geographers use economics as way of studying people. Much can be learned about a group of people by looking at their economic system. They look at the way they use natural resources to satisfy their needs. Do they enjoy the freedom of buying and selling as they wish, or does the government do that for them?

Cultural Regions

To help better understand the development of cultures, geographers often divide the Earth into cultural regions. These regions could be based on economic systems, social groups, languages, religions and governments found in the region. By studying their history we see how regions often share many influences.

Cultural Change

Cultures change for many reasons. They could be internal changes such as new technologies being introduced. If you are taking the course, new technologies have influenced how you educate yourself. These changes could also be external such as changes resulting from war and trade. When new knowledge spreads from one culture to another, it is called cultural diffusion.

The Agricultural Revolution

Cultural Diffusion has been a major factor when we look at how the world had developed. Many humans had no home, they often moved from place to place. These people are called nomads. Why did they move from place to place? They moved from place to place to find food. As the climate warmed, these people began to settle in cultural hearths. Cultural Hearths are the centers of civilization where ideas can be spread and practiced. Think of these as market places. These early Cultural Hearths all had mild climate and fertile land for farming.

The rise of cultural hearths led to having a surplus of food. Why is this important? What happens when you have more than you need of something? When there is more than what is in demand, people trade for something one does not have enough. This has led to the rise of cities. As you read earlier in this unit, governments must be broken down, creating the need for local governments.

What can happen when cultures come in contact with each other? There can be conflict. We know that differences in beliefs have led to many wars. People have migrated or moved from region to region to avoid these wars. Some migrated because there are more opportunities in other cultural hearths. What happens when people migrate? They bring with them their cultures and new ideas. This is how the process of cultural diffusion works.

Industrial and Informational Revolutions

As people continued spreading ideas, people began to learn about revolutions in technology. As you probably have studies in World History the world has gone through an Industrial Revolution. The idea of the Industrial Revolution is that we now can mass-produce products. This allows people to buy more of what they need and at cheaper prices. Many people moved from their farms to cities (where factories were located) this has led to even more exchanges of cultures and ideas.

Political and Economic Groups
As countries have become interconnected, we have the seen the rise of Unions (such as the European Union, a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in Europe) that use the strength of their economy to help countries with weaker economies. Today, there are over 200 countries that vary in their size, natural resources, and population.

Levels and Types of Government

Each government has its own characteristics. Some countries have what is known as unitary systems. This means that all powers are given to the national government and there are no local governments. Other countries like the United States have three levels of governments. The Federal System powers are divided between national, state and local governments. The national government is the most powerful level.

All governments belong to one of the three major groups:

1. Autocracy- Rule by a single person
2. Oligarchy- Rule be a few people
3. Democracy- Rule by many people

There are many forms of autocracies. One such form is a Totalitarian government, in which the decisions of a single person determine how the government will be run. In a totalitarian government the ruler controls every aspect of a person’s life, sometimes called a dictatorship.

A Monarchy is the second form of an autocracy. In a monarchy the leader has the title of King or Queen. There are two types of monarchies:

1. Absolute Monarchy- Where the ruler has complete and unlimited power
2. Constitutional Monarchy- The leader has limited power.

An Oligarchy is where the government is ruled by a few people. The group could be made up of military or social leaders. There are some freedoms for the people. However, the group in charge determines what those freedoms may be.

Democracy means rule by the people. The power of the ruler comes from the consent of its people. This may sound similar to the ideas of the Enlightenment because it is where the idea came. There are two types of democracies, Representative democracy and Direct democracy. Representative democracy is where people elect representatives to make decisions for the people and the other type of democracy is Direct democracy in which people meet in small groups in communities to make decisions for the betterment of those involved.

Click here to read more about “The Enlightenment”. On this website, it states, “today the Enlightenment is often viewed as a historical anomaly, a brief moment when a number of thinkers infatuated with reason vainly supposed that the perfect society could be built on common sense and tolerance”.

Types of Economies

Each nation creates an economic system that answers a basic fundamental question. The question is in three parts: what to produce, how and who should produce it, and who will buy and consume it? Let us examine the four types of economic systems:

1. Traditional Economies

2. Market Economies

3. Command Economies

4. Mixed Economies

Traditional Economies

In the traditional economic system, that fundamental economic question (we will refer to this throughout the unit) is answered by persons’ beliefs, religion, customs or even a family’s history. In a traditional economy a business could be private (like a family car dealership) that gets passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, in a traditional economy, the people usually do what their family has been doing. These types of economies are often found in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Market Economies

In a market economy the fundamental question is that the government does not decide what to produce, how it should be produced and who will consume it. That question is answered by the people and only the people. You may have heard it called capitalism or the free market system. In this system private businesses have the right to decide. We say the United States is a market economy.

Command Economy

On the opposite end of a market economy, is the idea of a command economy, in which the government has total control of the production, sale, and consumption of products. It is the government and only the government that answers that fundamental economic question. There are two different systems of a command economy.

1. Communism - Encarta’s Online Encyclopedia’s definition is that communism is a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.

2. Socialism - Encarta’s Online Encyclopedia’s definition is that socialism is an economic and social system under which essential industries and social services are publicly and cooperatively owned and democratically controlled with a view to equal opportunity and equal benefit for all.

A mixed economy is one that combines features of a traditional, command and market economy. In this system, there are still privately owned businesses, there are still opportunities to buy and sell stock. However, there is government intervention that does the thing people cannot do for themselves. An example might be welfare; this is what happens when someone cannot afford the basics? Government will supply the people with the money they need to survive. Another example would be social security or disability; this makes sure people have money as income, even if they cannot work.

Resources and Our Environment

As we become more interdependent on each other, our natural resources are traded around the world. However, there are cases in which we have misused our resources and caused pollution.

Resource Management

We learned in previous units that the Earth provides the elements necessary for life to survive. These are not made by man, but by the Earth. These are called natural resources. We learned the resources that can replenish are called renewable resources and those that cannot be replaced are called non-renewable resources. We have to remember that our natural resources must be managed to ensure future needs. Natural resources are very valuable and improve everyone’s lives. We must learn to use our resources wisely if we wish to keep our balance of life with the Earth.

Economies and World Trade

Those countries that have different levels of economic development have become more interdependent through trade. As you can tell from the map below, countries specialize in economic activities that are best suited to their resources or locations. As you can see on the map, the Middle East and Northern Africa have the world’s largest oil supply.

Geographers classify the economic activities of the world into four types.

1. Primary economic activities- Directly using natural resources

2. Secondary economic activities- Using the natural resources from the Earth to produce something to sell or trade

3. Tertiary Economic Activities- These activities provide services to people such as medical and legal services.

4. Quaternary economic activities- These activities produce and distribute information.

These economic activities also include industrialization or the spread of industry. Those nations that have industry are called developed countries. Those countries that are working towards industry are known as developing countries.

World Trade

As we have said before the unequal distribution of the Earth’s resources have led to world trade. Countries that cannot produce what they need turn to trade. The rule is one always trades what is has more of for things they have less of. The idea of world trade is important because many countries have what we call subsistence farming. In subsistence farming one produces only what it needs to survive. The rest of what they need comes from farming, but there is little or no profit for the farmer.

Another consideration could include the cost of making something. For example, why make it yourself, when it may be cheaper to trade for it. When a country sends a product to another country that product is called an export. On the opposite end when a country brings in a product from another country, it is called an import.

Trade is not that easy. There are many barriers to trade. Governments may charge a tariff or tax on things imported. They could also create a quota or limiting the number of goods one can import. These barriers are all designed to create jobs in their own countries. If we could only import 10 foreign cars, how would everyone else get a car? We would have to make our own, that would create the need for workers. In recent years countries have attempted to remove these barriers. The United States entered into agreement known as NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement. According to an article in Encarta Encyclopedia, NAFTA is a pact that calls for the gradual removal of tariffs and other trade barriers on most goods produced and sold in North America. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) became effective in Canada, Mexico, and the United States on January 1, 1994. Read more in the PDF File.

People and the Environment

The gains in technology have been great. They also have had negative impacts. Pollution of water, land and air threatens the health of all living things. Forests are being destroyed, species are disappearing, and deserts are growing. The safety of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste and the methods of disposing them have caused additional concerns.

Pollution

Pollution is the contamination of the environment, including air, water and soil. It is harmful as well to plants as well as other animals. Factories and automobiles send fumes and gasses into the air. These could cause respiratory diseases. We pollute water with the use of fertilizers and pesticides we read about earlier. These substances can lead to cancers or even death. For this reasons, many nations have created rules for air and water quality. These byproducts are the price we pay for the quality of our lives.

EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, is an Independent agency of the United States government, responsible for protecting the environment and maintaining it for future generations. It was established in 1970.

Read more on protecting our environment by clicking on an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) article from Encarta Encyclopedia PDF File.

Additional information on how the United States Environmental Protection Agency writes regulations can be found by clicking on the EPA website https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations or click on the PDF File.

The Ecosystem

As you have read, our ecosystem is in danger. We must learn to use our resources wisely if we wish to keep our balance of life with the Earth. To read more about the human impact on our natural environment, click on PDF File.

In Summary

Demography is the study of populations. The results of the study explain changes in society and how it has affected people.

Population can be measured in terms of density, or the average number of people living in a square mile or square kilometer.

The five elements of culture are language, religion, social groups, government and economy and culture regions.

There are four types of economic systems, which are Traditional, Market, Command and Mixed Economies.

We have to remember that our natural resources must be managed to ensure future needs.

Those countries that have different levels of economic development have become more interdependent through trade.

Careless use of resources is a threat to our environment.

Below are additional educational resources and activities for this unit.

Unit 4 Main Points Worksheet

Unit 4 Population Growth