Final Project on the Humanized Environment (Weebly)

http://trevorhumanizedenvironment.weebly.com/ 

First and second submission topics of discussion for chapter 14

Trevor Jones
5/12/16
Per. 3

Chapter 14 Discussion Topics 

1.  How scale affects our identity.

2.  Benedict Anderson's concept of a nation as an imagined community. 

3.  Connectedness affecting personalized information. 

4.  How connectedness and the internet affects globalization. 

5.  Affect of multiple types of networks on globalization. 

6.  How the digital divide increases the gap between core and periphery countries. 

7.  The concept of Space-Time Compression in global cities. 

8.  How social networks influence revolutions and propaganda. 

9.  How NGO's have an affect through social networking. 

10.  Vertical integration of the media and deciding what's news and what's not. 

Chapter 13 T&R

Trevor Jones 

5/4/16

Per. 3

Sources: 

Human Geography: People, Places, and Culture: Chapter 13 - The Humanized Environment

Home (Documentary on our Earth) - https://youtu.be/jqxENMKaeCU 

Deforestation of the Amazon: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/last-of-amazon/ 

Haiti Earthquake: http://list25.com/25-worst-natural-disasters-recorded/ 

Africa Toxic Storage: http://whenonearth.net/20-countries-that-are-used-as-dumping-grounds-for-your-waste/  

Home is a documentary about how humans have changed the environment (especially in the last 100 years), by educating the audience about earth’s unsustainable energy and environmental situation. Home presents the evidence of our impact upon the environment, and then proceeds to shed light on the situation, explaining how all is not lost if we as a species come together and fix our bad environmental habits. No matter how far scientists look into it, the root of our environmental crisis is based on climate change and environmental stress. As mentioned in the documentary, a subcategory of the problem is deforestation, taking place all over the world (most notably in the Amazon rainforest). Deforestation can lead to erosion of the land, desertification, and loss of nutrients in the land. Another major category discussed in the documentary is the pollution of the atmosphere. Pollution of the atmosphere, caused by countries emitting toxic gasses into the atmosphere, can cause detrimental effects to the population of not only the originating country, but the globe as a whole, through acid rain, and emission of chlorofluorocarbons, which deplete the ozone layer. Several other topic were mentioned in the documentary, but the final major subcategory is the pollution of water, or the hydraulic cycle. The pollution of fresh drinkable water is a major crisis for the population of the globe and can be caused by the overuse of clean water for corporate businesses (or even by governmental business for that matter), making the water too salty to use for anything. The pollution of freshwater can also be caused by the seeping  of toxic, nuclear, and unsanitary materials from landfills, into a local water source. Humans caused these environmental problems so at the end of the day, it is up to us to fix it for the planet. Luckily, organizations have been established to address these issues, the primary goal of which is to create a set of rules and policies to follow in order to cease or at least slow the set of crises that humanity has brought upon the environment. 

This is a map of South America. I choose to color this map because it contains the Amazon Rainforest, existing across parts of Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia. The amazon rainforest is a perfect example of the affect humans have on the environment through deforestation for use of resources. During the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down for agricultural uses and for lumber. If the Amazon’s current situation remains at the same pace, in the next two decades, an additional 20 percent of the rainforest may disappear causing a chain reaction of negative side affects in the land. The natural moisture of the rainforest will be depleted, causing trees to dry out and die which could further cause wildfires, harming neighboring tribes and inhabitants of the Amazon. Deforestation is an increasing problem and will continue to be unless humans can change their detrimental acts upon the environment.  

This is a map of North America. The reason that I chose to color this map is because it contains the country Haiti. In 2010, Haiti’s Port-Au-Prince experienced one of the most deadly earthquakes ever recorded, scoring a magnitude of 7.0 in the Richter Scale. This Deadly natural disaster led to over 200,000 deaths, 2 million homeless, and 3 million people in need of emergency aid (mostly from foreign core countries like the United States). Because of the extreme poverty in Port-Au-Prince, the population living in clustered slums were ill prepared for this disaster, causing the death and injury toll to be magnified compare to well prepared/funded regions in core countries (California). The humanized environment is magnified in this situation through the unique distribution of wealth, that could’ve prevented this disaster from occurring if the area was better prepared/funded. 

This is a map of Africa. The reason that I chose to color this map is because it contains various countries’ space taken advantage of by core countries in order to store toxic waste. Multiple countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Somalia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Zimbabwe, Lebanon and South Africa are paid small amounts of money to take toxic waste from core countries, and “dispose” of it, often in an unhealthy and unsafe way for the population and the environment. Unsafe methods of waste storage in periphery countries such as these can lead to disease among the locals forced to live there, loss of biodiversity, water and air pollution, and several other negative side affects. As toxic waste is exported to these periphery counties, we are reducing the chances of safe storage, further harming the environment for the entire globe, digging the population into a bigger hole than ever before.