Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions

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1 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions In this unit, we will explore how humans interact with their environment and the consequences of those interactions. In particular, we will focus on the following questions: 1. How do humans create and address global environmental problems? 2. How can environmental changes in one location become a global issue? 3. How does energy production and distribution affect the environment? 4. How does the distribution and utilization of natural resources influence the ways societies interact? Earth provides enough to satisfy every man s needs, but not every man s greed. --- Mahatma Ghandi Mahatma Ghandi ( ) was the leader of the Indian independence movement and it credited for inspiring movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. What do you think he meant by the statement above?

2 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions (Lesson 1) How Do Humans Interact with the Environment? In the previous unit, we explored the idea of culture and how culture is often influenced by the resources people have available. We also looked at how cultures adapt to their surroundings, or their environment. Cultural landscapes are the result of humans interacting with their environment. Buildings, bridges, cell towers, and other human features in the environment make up cultural landscapes. Human-environment interaction is one of the five themes of geography. Humans interact with their environments in one of three ways. They can: use the resources of the environment, such as cutting down trees for homes; modify the environment, such as building cities and towns; or adapt to the environment, such as wearing heavy coats in the winter and heating homes. Human-environment interactions take place at all spatial scales from the local to the global. Locally, we change the cultural landscape when we build homes, cultivate farmland, or remove oil and gas from the earth. Sometimes, these humanenvironment interactions at the local level lead to global problems. Global problems such as climate change, deforestation, pollution, and resource depletion can be investigated through the geographic theme of humanenvironment interaction. Take a look at the picture on the right. What is out of place? What used to be a thriving, active waterway has become a boat graveyard of sorts. How do you think this happened? The answer is simple humans interacted with their environment!

3 The Shrinking of the Aral Sea Below is a map of Central Asia. It shows the location of the Aral Sea on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Aral Sea The photographs below were taken of the Aral Sea at two different times. The one on the left was taken in 2000, while the other was taken in Human-environment interaction explains what caused the Aral Sea to shrink The approximate shoreline in 1960

4 In the 1960s, the Soviet Union controlled the region that is currently Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Soviets undertook a major water diversion project on the arid (dry) plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The region s two major rivers were used to transform the desert into farms for cotton and other crops. Before the water diversion project, the rivers flowed down from the mountains and finally pooled together in the lowest part of the basin. The lake they made, the Aral Sea, was once the fourth largest in the world. The water that was diverted for irrigation made the desert bloom. However, it devastated the Aral Sea. By 2000, the lake was already a fraction of what it was in As the lake dried up, fisheries and the communities that depended on them collapsed. The increasingly salty water became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides. The blowing dust from the exposed lakebed, contaminated with agricultural chemicals, became a public health hazard. The salty dust blew off the lakebed and settled onto fields, degrading the soil. Croplands had to be flushed with larger and larger volumes of river water. The loss of the moderating influence of such a large body of water made winters colder and summers hotter and drier.

5 Global Issues Tied to Human-Environmental Interactions Several environmental global problems can be seen in the Aral Sea issue: Diversion of rivers Soil damage Climate change Pollution Water shortages Beginning in 1973, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) has promoted World Environment Day each year to draw attention to global environmental problems. A different theme based on a global environmental issue is chosen each year. Below is a chart showing different global problems that have been selected over the years. What global problem was the focus of the year? 2004 Ocean pollution 2005 Loss of green space in cities What is one reason it is a global problem? More than 70 percent of the world s marine fisheries are fished up to or beyond their sustainable limit. When roads and buildings replace natural land cover, urban air temperatures can exceed those of the surrounding countryside by as much as 41 º F (5 º C) Desertification and other dry land issues The consequences of desertification and drought include food insecurity, famine and poverty Effects that climate change was having on polar ecosystems and communities Climate change can cause rising sea levels that can affect low lying coasts and islands Greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions have led to climate change Climate change 2010 Biodiversity 2011 Destruction of forests Globally, there will be more extreme weather including drought, flooding, disruption and destruction of plant and animal species. A total of 17,291 species are known to be threatened with extinction. We need trees because they play a key role in our battle against climate change How a Green Economy can help lower environmental risks We have a lot of environmental problems that could be reduced with a Green Economy Food waste and food loss Every year 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted.