RESOURCES

• “Resources are not, they become

• they are not static but expand and contract in response to human needs and human actions”

– Zimmerman, 1951

THE QUESTION OF USE

• Environmentalism

– The physical environment (emphasis on climate and terrain) is the active force in shaping the development of cultures

– human society is a passive product of its physical surroundings

Perception

• Look at similar environments– large cities– elongated, hilly sites– flanked on all sides but one by water - ie ocean,

river, bay– both connected to adjacent land by bridges built

in the 20th century

CHANGE OVER TIME

Perception

• Each person and cultural group has mental images of the environment

• These images are shaped by ?

• It is possible that the choices people make will depend on what the perception is rather than the reality

• So to understand reactions we must know how a cultures “sees” its’ environment

GEOMANCY (feng-shui)

• East Asian world view and art

• traditional system of land planning– sites for houses, villages, temples and graves– terrain, compass directions, soil texture and

patterns of streams are important

POSSIBILISM

• Possibilists do not ignore the environment but rather treat it as an influence

• Cultural heritage is treated as being at least as important as the physical environment in shaping human responses

• Significance?

Resourcesare defined in terms of:

• Human perceptions

• wants and needs

• technological skills

• legal limits such as property rights and environmental laws

• financial and institutional arrangements

• political, cultural and religious customs

• location and accessibility

Human Wants & Needs

Our Environment

Dianne Draper

Technological Skills

• A possibilistic viewpoint of a physical environment would state that the environment offers a range of choices and limitations

• The choice a culture makes is guided by cultural heritage and the range of perceived choices

OTHER FACTORSProperty Rights

Environmental Laws

• These produce legal limits on the use of resources and the environments that they are developed and used in– question of private land and dump sites– construction on or near wetlands (who owns

beaches on a public lake?)– the location of dumpsites in Ontario (concept of

waste disposal where it is produced

Financial/Institutional Arrangements

• Additions and constraints that may be added to the development and/or management of resources– in Ontario responsibilities for water quantity

and water quality lie with separate agencies

Religious/Cultural Customs

• Influence on rural land uses for example– development of the “long lot” system along the

banks of the St. Lawrence in Quebec - linked to modes of transport, the church, and inheritance

– Montreal, Quebec - Google– The lands of Spain and Morocco (separated by

the Straits of Gibralter) - Muslim Morocco does not raise pigs - but Spain does

Location/Access

• Distance is a barrier to the concepts associated with resources– distance is measured in terms?

•Time and cost

This has an impact on the feasibility of developing/using a resource

Major Themes of the Course• A Single, Unified, Global Ecosystem - a

collection of sub-systems but all are interconnected

• Pressures result in

• CONFLICT & UNCERTAINTY