Detailed in-class notes for Human Geography (GEOG 1101) with full version of Chapter 4_ People and Nature. This note will cover all materials for chapter 4 in exam 3 during online Human Geography summer class Maymester. This note will link to the book "Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global ...
Human Geography (GEOG 1101)
Chapter 4: People and Nature
● Ways that humans transform nature (energy production)
● Environmental issues.
Nature as a concept
● Urban parks (man-made), woodlands, forested areas, etc
● Human societies define the environment, nature and that shapes the reactions what
we are going to do with it, how we manage it, how we protect it => Human defines
what nature is for certain goals and means
● Nature is socially defined and changes through time (dynamic) and reflects
society in many ways (technology, human values, ethics, economy).
Definition:
"Nature is a social creation as it is the physical universe that includes human beings.
Therefore, understandings of nature are the product of the different times and different
needs" (and priorities, ethical views) (Knox and Marston)
So You Say It's "Natural"?
● The word nature has several meanings:
● Essential quality of something (human nature, nature of competition, innate quality)
=> very constructed
● Inherent force that directs humans and/or the world (natural events become disasters
like hurricane with no humans there, there is just lots of rain and wind but when it
encounters human settlement, it becomes an absolute disasters)
● The material world (environment) itself, which may or may not include humans
Society and Nature (there is a two-way relationship between nature and society)
● Society is "the sum of all inventions, institutions, and relationships created and
reproduced by human beings across particular places and times." (Knox and
Marston)
● Not environmental determinism (predominant philosophy in geography years ago
which thought environment people were in determine their success, activities, level of
"civilization": people in better environment tend to be more successful)
=> environment do not determine the social relationships, achievements, institutional
arrangements
● Not control of nature
=> nature still affects people but humans are not freed from nature and do not totally
control/dominate nature. Ex: natural disasters
● Nature-Society Interactions
, => The relationship between nature and society is two-way: Society shapes people’s
understandings and uses of nature at the same time that nature shapes society and its many
manifestations. The amount of shaping by society is dependent to a large extent on the state
of technology and the constraints on its use at any given time.
Technology and Nature
● 3 forms of technology that humans utilize to transform nature:
- Physical artifacts: things like plow, oil well, Iphone
- Activities and processes: human activities like farming, fracking
- Knowledge or know-how: engineering, agricultural sciences
● Some people argue that technologies are good such as industrial chemical farming
makes food plentiful and cheap, But they also bring negative outcomes like pesticide
use
● The "IPAT" equation (Malthusian idea)
- Environmental Impact (I) = Population (P) * Affluence (A) * Technology
=> the environmental impact is not just a function of the number of people, but consider their
affluence and their technology
● Technology Influence the environment:
- Harvesting/extraction of resources (mining, logging, getting oil/fossil fuels)
- Waste in manufacturing of goods and services (there is waste in the making products
process)
- Waste in the consumption of goods and services
High ecological footprint (to sustain the average lifestyle): developed world like US, North
America, Europe, Australia, Parts of Asia, South Africa, Middle East
Low ecological footprint: developing world like Southeast Asia, Central Africa
Higher energy consumption will increase the impacts through technology and affluence:
developed world
Lower energy consumption: developing world an formal colonial world of South America
How do we do the right things for the environment?
● Humans through social institutions have to negotiate and debate how to use the
resources we need but protect the environment with certain goals
● People have to make choices about how we manage the environment and what
issues we do or do not respond to, how we prioritize environmental issues we care
about and how to address them => need an intuitive (ethical or political)
framework to guide choices, do "right" things which is subjective and negotiated in
society
● Ethical question that require enormous amount of knowledge about the problems to
confront complex choices and understand there is no single right answer about the
environmental issues
● Environmental philosophies that folks might use as a framework:
Transcendentalism (influence people's understanding of nature during the 1800s and
associate it with Henry David Thoreau and other transcendental writers/philosophers/poets
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