What does AP expect you to know concerning Gender & the

Environment?

Nature and Perspectives:

• geographical perspectives on nature and society examine human alterations to the global and local environment, including impacts on land, water, and atmosphere, as well as effects on population, biodiversity, and climate

Nature and Perspectives:• geographical perspectives on nature and society examine human alterations to the global and local environment,

including impacts on land, water, and atmosphere, as well as effects on population, biodiversity, and climate

• Impact of Hurricane Katrina– Low lying cities protected by government built

levees, dikes, seawalls, canals & pumps– Uneven impact of destruction – most victims

poor, African-American, older• Lived in lowest-lying areas• Problems: transportation, information, money

Environment & Society• geographical perspectives on nature and society examine human alterations to the global and local environment, including impacts on

land, water, and atmosphere, as well as effects on population, biodiversity, and climate

• Humboldt and Ritter - Environmental Determinism - Physical environment caused social development

• Ratzel and Semple – geography was the study of the influences of the natural environment on people

• Huntington – climate was a major determinant in civilization (temperate climates = greater efficiency)

Environmental Modification: Netherlands

• geographical perspectives on nature and society examine human alterations to the global and local environment, including impacts on

land, water, and atmosphere, as well as effects on population, biodiversity, and climate • ½ land below sea level• Polder: piece of land created by draining water –

most used for agriculture & a busy airport• Dikes: to prevent flooding – converted a

saltwater lake to freshwater • 1990 call to return farm to wetlands or forest• Widespread use of fertilizers and insecticides

contribute to contaminated drinking water, acid rain, etc

Environmental Modification: Florida• geographical perspectives on nature and society examine human alterations to the global and local environment, including impacts on

land, water, and atmosphere, as well as effects on population, biodiversity, and climate

• Barrier Islands– To protect populations (aka vacation homes) on

barrier islands (large shifting sandbars)– Built seawalls & jetties (structure extending into sea) – Doesn’t stop erosion, just changes patterns

• Everglades– US Army Corps of Engineers drained land for farm

land– Caused polluted water (cattle), high mercury,

phosphorus, etc killed fish, threatened native vegetation & animals

Population

• students’ critical understanding of population trends …by considering models of population growth and decline, including Malthusian theory, the demographic transition, and the epidemiological (mortality) transition model.

• For example, as a country develops, the economic, social, and political roles of women in society change and influence levels of fertility, mortality rates, and migration trends. Given these kinds of understandings, students are in a position to evaluate the role, strengths, and weaknesses of major population policies, which attempt to either promote or restrict population growth.

DTM Stage 3

• People choose to have fewer children– Decline in mortality, IMR– Increase in Urban

• Not needed as farm labor• Costs• Smaller homes

– Changing social customs• Women’s rights

– More education– Higher % in labor force– Delayed marriage– Economic and legal equality

Migration

• Analysis of refugee flows, immigration, internal migration, and residential mobility helps students appreciate the interconnections between population phenomena and other topics environmental degradation and natural hazards may prompt population redistribution at various scales, which in turn creates new pressures on the environment.

Environmental Push & Pull

• Pull– Allergy relief: 1940s Arizona (since then inc.

allergens due to bermuda grass & mulberry trees)– Retirement: Florida, French Mediterranean,

southern coast of England

• Push– Water related disasters: Katrina flooding– Drought: northern Africa Sahel region, 1930s Dust

Bowl – Okies,

Culture

• learn how geographers assess the spatial and place dimensions of cultural groups as defined by language, religion, ethnicity, and gender, in the present as well as the past. The geographies of language, religion, ethnicity, and gender are studied to illustrate patterns and processes of cultural differences.

Influence of Physical Environment

• Relationship between environment & social customs– Environmental Determinism

• Food, clothing, shelter influenced by climate, soil & vegetation• Arctic wear fur lined boots, Dutch wooden shoes are waterproof

– Similar environments but different social customs– Different environments and similar social customs

• Folk Societies in LDCs more responsive to environment b/c more dependent

Food & Environment

• Availability of vegetation, animals & food– Lack of Fuel

• Asia: Soybeans – uncooked are toxic– soybean products which don’t require cooking (soy sauce, bean

sprouts)• Italy: quick frying foods

– Abundant fuel and cool• Northern Europe: stews over warming fire

• Cultural Tradition– Romania has numerous migrants over centuries

which have maintained cultural food preference (Romanians-poor bran soups, Saxons-pork fat based soups, Jews-beet based soups…)

Folk Housing

• Materials and design – environmental determinism

Traditional Role of Women

• “The global diffusion of popular culture threatens the subservience of women to men that is embedded in many folk cultures.” Rubenstein 136

• Negative impacts– Increase in prostitution – “sex tours”

Philippines, Thailand, S. Korea– India: dowry deaths, female feticide

Popular Customs & Environment

• Increased demand for natural resources– Animal extinction – furs, skin– Meat consumption – inefficient use of calories

• Pollution– Waste – discarding products, packaging– Emissions

Political

• basic structure of the political map, the inconsistencies between maps of political boundaries and maps of ethnic, economic, and environmental patterns. In addition students consider some of the forces that are changing the role of individual countries in the modern world, including ethnic separatism, terrorism, economic globalization, and social and environmental problems that cross national boundaries, such as climate change.

Agriculture

• the impact of agricultural change on quality of life and the environment; and issues in contemporary agriculture This diffusion process makes clear why distinct regional patterns emerge in terms of diet, energy use, and the adaptation of biotechnology Students learn about land survey systems, environmental conditions, sustainability, global food supply problems, and the cultural values that shape agricultural patterns. In addition this section presents the roles of women in agricultural production, particularly in subsistence farming and market economies in the developing world.

• Loss of prime agriculture land to urban development

• Trend of increasing land for farming to inc. food supply but lacks enough water – desertification (semiarid land degradation!)

Sustainable Agriculture

• Sustainable farms generate lower revenues but have lower costs

• Organic farms – inc. popular (up to about 0.4% in 2003)

• Sustainable farms – Sensitive land management– Limited use of chemicals– Better integration of crops and livestock

Gender and Farming

• Kenya: women practice subsistence ag., men commericial

Economic

• Measures of development (e.g., gross domestic product [GDP] per capita, the Human Development Index [HDI], the Gender Inequality Index [GII], and the Gini coefficient) are tools to understand patterns of economic differences Countries, regions, and communities must confront new patterns of economic inequity that are linked to geographies of interdependence in the world economy, including global financial crises, the shift in manufacturing to newly industrialized countries (NICs), imbalances in consumption patterns, and the roles of women in the labor force. Communities also face difficult questions regarding raw material, energy use, the conservation of resources, and the impact of pollution on the environment and quality of life.

Indicators

• Social – Education & Literacy

• Demographic– TFR, Life Expectancy

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

• Like HDI but Compares men to women

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

Income – avg. women’s are 2/3 of men’s

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

– Education – secondary school • MDC 99/100 • LDC 60/100

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

– Literacy

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

– Life Expectancy

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

• Like HDI but Compares men to women– Income – avg. women’s are 2/3 of men’s– Literacy – secondary school

• MDC 99/100 • LDC 60/100

– Education - – Life Expectancy

• Highest possible ranking of 1.0– Highest: Western Europe & North America– Lowest: sub-Saharan Africa

Gender Empowerment (GEM)

• GEM measures the ability of women to participate in the process of achieving improvements– Economic Indicators

• Income• Professional Jobs

– Political Power• Managerial Jobs• Elected Jobs

• Every country has a lower GEM than GDI

Urban

• topics as the analysis of patterns of urban land use, ethnic segregation, cycles of uneven development, and environmental justice (e.g., the disproportionate location of polluting industries in low-income or minority residential areas) residential developments that reduce energy use and protect the environments of future cities.

Resources

• Finite fossil fuels, coal, natural gas

• Pollution– Contributors

• Motor vehicles, industry, power plants

– Global warming– Ozone damage– Acid Rain – sulfur oxides and

nitrogen oxides

• Water Pollution– Americans use avg. 1,400 gal/day– Typical urban American 180 gal/day

• Land Pollution– Solid waste disposal

Renewing Resources

Climate Change in the South Pacific

• Rising ocean levels

• Most threatened: Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu– Tuvalu – highest pt is 15 ft.

• Emergency plan to be evacuated to Australia & New Zealand

– Kiribati purchased land in Fiji as an emergency evacuation plan