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• Regions can be formal (uniform), functional (nodal), or vernacular (perceptual).
• Landscape refers to cultural landscapes, which vary.
• Location can be specific (absolute), relative, or nominal.

Space and Scales

• Space is categorized as absolute or relative.
• Scales range from international to the individual body.
• Place is a specific location with a sense of attachment.
• Sacred places evoke communal or personal attachment.
• Placelessness is associated with homogeneous or standardized places.

Distance and Spatial Interaction

• Distance is the space between two entities and can be absolute or relative.
• Relative distance varies with experience, time, cost, and psychological state.
• Spatial interaction measures relationships between locations through movement or communication.
• Travel, communication, and technology overcome the friction of distance.
• Movement includes migration of people and diffusion of ideas.
• Expansion diffusion is contagious and hierarchical.
• Geographies mnemonic: Places/Landscapes/Locations/Aspects of Distance/Connectivity/Flows/Ecologies/Scale + Spaces.
• Geo + Graphie means "writing" the earth.
• Geomatics, remote sensing, and computer-assisted cartography are other tools.

Humans and the Environment

• The environment operates from a holistic perspective where everything is related.
• Socio-Ecology emphasizes humans and society as part of nature and links environmental and social issues.
• The I=PAT equation is Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology.
• Uneven development, industrialization, migration, worldviews, governance, sustainability, and agricultural systems are relevant.
• The Anthropocene is a new era where human activity dominates the physical environment, argued to start on July 16, 1945.

Human Impacts on Vegetation

• Deforestation emerged with agriculture and escalated with colonization and industrialization.
• Agriculture has resulted in ecosystem simplification.
• Tropical rainforest removal releases stored carbon and impacts over 50% of all species.
• Climate change, overgrazing, and salinization cause desertification.
• The Kenyan Green Belt Movement and the Great Green Wall are examples of combating desertification.
• Human activities have led to a significant biodiversityloss.
• Excavation of resources affects ecosystems, changes hydrological flows, and leaves toxic wastes leading to land and soil degradation.
• Air pollution from industries/transportation exists and the response to ozone layer issues showcases effective measures.
• Agriculture consumes 73% of global water supplies, with uneven distribution and pollution being major concerns.
• Economic goals conflict with environmental sustainability, leading some to call the era the Capitalocene.
• The greenhouse effect increases surface temperatures by trapping outgoing radiation, exacerbated by human activities.
• By 2024 disruptions to ecosystems, rising sea levels, increasingly severe storms, and food system disruptions are expected.
• Climate justice addresses the disproportionate impact on those who contributed the least to climate change.
• Confronting the issue involves addressing fossil fuel use, fertilizer use, animal husbandry, and deforestation.
• Energy transitions towards renewable energy are crucial, but come with various challenges related to resources etc..

Energy

• Life cycle processes, geographic context, and social, economic, and political factors need consideration.
• Hydro energy is low-cost but can have substantial local impacts.
• Solar energy costs are decreasing, however demands for land exist.
• Wind energy is variable and can be controversial.
• Geothermal, tidal, and biofuel are other options.
• Energy conservation is crucial.
• Catastrophists believe population increase and environmental deterioration lead to a nightmarish future.
• Cornucopians believe in technology.
• Globalization is a complex combination of economic, political, and cultural changes accelerated since 1980.
• The quantity and speed of goods/information increases
• Distance affects everyday life, culture is still valued.

Geography and Distance

• The principle of least effort guides human activities by minimizing the effort to overcome friction of distance.
• Time-space convergence is a decrease in the friction of distance due to transportation and communication improvements.
• Transportation has changed rapidly due to advances in technology and social/political factors.
• Water transportation is inexpensive but can be slow.
• The Suez and Panama Canals are dramatically affected and should be considered environmentally and socially..
• Rail transportation is relatively cheap.
• Road transportation is less expensive to build than railways, but bridges are more complex.
• Air transportation is expensive and results in GHG emissions.
• Standardized containers from the 1950s increase efficiency and multimodal transport.
• Trade occurs if the cost difference between production and market covers movement costs.
• Resource base, labor, available capital affect trade
• Regional integration involves trade such as the WTO.
• Transnational corporations (TNCs) contribute to the international division of labor.
• Trend is for corporations carry out production in LDCs and for headquarters to be in MDCs
• FDI happens through investment by a government or TNC in another country with a manufacturing plant.

Communication and Digital Divide

• Mass communications media, Information and communication technologies (ICTs) overcome distance.
• A digital divide exists globally regarding technology access, however Finland declared internet access a basic right.
• Dimensions of digital divide: Global scales, urban-rural, socio-economic considerations
• Social media, used by business groups and grassroots activists.
• Improved communications facilitates free movement of capital.

Globalization Theories

• Hyperglobalist claim the world is "flat" due to improved communications, is leveled due to playing fields such as communications etc.
• Skeptic: Globalization is in Retreat (Saul) points to local identities etc.
• Globalization has been claimed to be declining since the 1990s.
• Transformationalist claim Extent and influence of globalization is exaggerated.
• Dispersal of manufacturing/trade is encouraged by institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO).
• Close-knit is Regional trade organizations established.
• Political changes in communist states have economic repercussions.
• Increasing cultural homogeneity but Possible benefits exist.
• Cultural differences persist and groups resist global culture.
• UN creates an example of international co-operation.
• Desires happen for regional or ethnic / national control.

Key Questions of Globalization

• Includes reducing poverty, promoting democracy, rights, and freedoms, and fostering pluralism and respect.
• Alternative globalization encourages solidarity, cross-cultural understanding, and environmental sustainability.

Logical Fallacies

• The use of personal testimonies/examples is anecdotal.
• Retrospective determinism argues that because something happened, it was inevitable.

Population Geography and Demography

• It include Population size and composition as well as processes influencing population composition.
• Health geography examine related spatial dimensions.
• Worldwide, there are 8 billion people.
• Carrying capacity is the maximum population supported by given resources and technology.
• Concerns happen for economic success, culture etc.

Malthusian Theory

• Population will outstrip the food supply.
• Advances in food production, changes in birth rate, and migration have proven to Malthus wrong.
• Population pressures, limited resources, high birth rates are still concerns.
• Demographic equation: P1 = PO + B − D + I - E (Births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants)
• Crude Birth Rate (CBR)
• Total Fertility Rate (TFR)
• Factors affecting fertility include biological, economic and cultural.
• Social or raise workforce sizes with political reasons (Dominant ethnic group fears relative decline and economic strategy.
• Anti-natalist policies include India and China.

Population Stages and Migration

• Stage I is Pre-Modern, Stage II is Urbanizing and Industrializing.
• Stage III is Mature Industrial, Stage IV is Post-Industrial.
• Migration is long-term relocation with movement of residence. Migrants are often risking their lives.
• Migration is debated around the globe for varied reasons.
• Types of Migration
• Primitive
• Forced and impelled
• Free migration
• Mass migration
• "Illegal" migration
• Push and Pull Factors
• Push Factors: Localized recession, discrimination, disaster
• Pull Factors: Superior career prospects, Preferable environment,Family

Health and Wealth Geography

• Study relates to distribution and diffusion of disease.
• Includes infectious/degenerative diseases and epidemics.
• Includes progress on disease elimination

Wealth Disparity

• False cause example, relates to this concept.
• Development terminology – Global south/north, Minority world/Majority world
• An interdependent system of countries links/competes against each other.
• The world uses division of core, semi-peripheral and peripheral countries
• Measuring human development includes income, education, health
• Today the top wealth share own nearly 50% of the planets wealth.
• Wealth is most often created with exploitation.
• Wealth reduction proposals could include an increase to top percentages for certain groups.

Refugee Crisis

• Individuals are forced to move from their homeland.
• Asylum seekers, Returnees are included in "persons of concern".
• The crisis is Linked to multi-layered geo-political issues plus cultural influence.
• Sustainable development goals strive to reduce poverty and hunger.

Cultural Geography

• A shared way of life, Includes belief systems, norms, and social practices
• Overlaps focus with anthropology but with relation to spatial patterns.
• Spatial examples are Relocation diffusion and Expansion diffusion (Contagious, Hierarchical)
• Considers cultural Landscapes that Embody meaning and symbolism not just for monuments.
• Orientalism is a is Tendency in Western culture .
• Western' is seen as superior and developed.
• Areas happen with a degree of homogeneity with criteria being that time includes boundaries.
• Capitalist and Vernacular regions exist with a Language component

Language

• Cultural diffusion (relocation and expansion diffusion) happens with language.
• Lingua franca is for communication.
• Pidgin is a simplified composition of several languages.
• Creole is a pidgin language that becomes a mother tongue.