GEO Final

Europe's crises - economic, political, and refugee. How do we see them at work in Britain? Particularly, what is the geography of Brexit? Look at the three issues

1. Empire and Nationalism d. Brexit i. Leave slogan - "take back control." ii. In the UK, a country that once ruled half the world, the perceived loss of control over their own political system, their economic system, their destiny weighs heavier than in other places. - Bachman and Sidaway, 48. iii. Brexit is rooted in the British Empire 1. Post-war migration - racism and immigration. 2. Geopolitical decline. 2. Regional Fragmentation a. The end of the United Kingdom? (founded in 1801) b. Scotland voted to remain part of the UK on 18 September 2014. c. UK and Wales voted to leave the E.U., Scotland and Northern Ireland voted remain - What next? 3. Uneven Development. a. The map reveals a clear east-west divide. However, this pattern is less pronounced than it was just over a decade ago — when the EU underwent its largest expansion with the accession of 10 new Member States — as a result of two principal factors: b. a gradual process of economic convergence, resulting from relatively rapid growth among less developed regions; c. the financial and economic crisis, which had a considerable impact on the economic performance of most EU Member States.

Islands, Rocks, and the politics of territorial/oceanic claims

1. Opening of Sea Routes: Northwest Passage a. decrease distance from NYC to Tokyo by 2,500 miles! b. commercial/strategic significance c. distance/time = $ in shipping d. Seasonality! e. Environmental impact 2. Natural Resources a. Marine Resources b. Oil and Gas - obvious economic & security/strategic significance. 3. How to claim territory? a. Interact with international law b. Or, annex/conquer territories c. Create infrastructure d. Mobilize support and create new imaginative geographies e. Begin to incorporate the territory as part of the nation and body politic.

Why is Northern Ireland important in Brexit process?

A 1998 peace accord known as the Good Friday Agreement mostly ended the conflict between Republicans, usually Roman Catholics, who believed that the six counties of the north should be part of a united Ireland; and historically dominant Unionists, largely Protestants, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. In the years since the peace accord, the shared economy of the European Union made way for free trade and easy movement across a boundary that is now nearly invisible.

Kashmir

o A Hindu Maharaja had elected to join India, but Pakistani forces intervened on partition to protect the majority Muslim population, with implications that have never been resolved. o Economist Videographic: India, Pakistan, Kashimir o Kashmir - predominantly Muslim. Isolated as a minority in India at partition. War three times 1948, 1965, 1971 (1999)

New Scramble for Africa

o Addis Ababa, Light Rail Transit - Ethiopia o China investment in Africa Infrastructure Pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into African governments and infrastructure In return, reaped hundreds of billions in commodities o Chinese naval base under construction in Djibouti, Camp Lemonnier (US)

The Opium War

• British colonizers forced the opium trade on China in the 19th century • Opium Wars (1838-1842) ended with defeat for the Chinese and the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, after which, the opium trade to China expanded enormously • The British profited from Chinese opium addiction

Ecological Imperialism and Invasive Species: oceania

• "The process of European organisms taking over the ecosystems of other reions of the world - led to the endangerment and extinction of numerous other native species in this region as introduced species came to dominate" (Marston et al, 440). • Species introduced by Europeans that led to the endangerment and extinction of native species - e.g. the brown tree snake, mongoose, snails, horses, rabbits, sheep, even camels. • The Cane Toad - Native to South and mainland Middle America, cane toads were introduced to Australia from Hawaii in June 1935 by the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations in an attempt to control the native grey-backed cane beetle. - Unfortunately, the introduction of the toads has not only caused large environmental detriment, but there is no evidence that they have affected the cane beetles they were introduced to predate. - The toads have steadily expanded their range • Rabbits - Rabbits introduced as an exotic species in 1859. - Partly eradicated in the 1950s by the introduction of myxomatosis. - Rabbits starting to regain territory

Population growth and urbanization in China.

• 1.55billion in 2005 and almost 1% of the Earth's surface, 22% of global population only 11 people per square km. • Bulk of population is located along coastal regions and in the more fertile valleys and plains of inner China. • Density in Outer China is low, less than 1 person per square km. • In Inner China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan - density 200-500 per km square. • China, crowded towns and cities are more often a reflection of high-rates of urban-rural migration rather than of a lack of space. • 1961-1972 China grew by 210 million people as a demographic transition took effect. • By 1970 the average family size was 5.8. • By the 1970s this growth was seen as unsustainable with a communal form of production - a threat to the country's development.

Territorial Sea

• 12 nautical miles (1 nautical mile = 1.15 statute miles) out from baseline. • Zone of "complete" state rights & control • provisions for vessels passing through - "Innocent Passage" - permitted.

Arrival of European traders: South Asia

• 1690s on - Portuguese trading ports followed by Dutch, French, and British interests • 1700s Britain began to exert more control. The British East India Company was transformed into an administrative agency by the British Government.

Exclusive Economic Zones

• 200 nautical miles from baseline or continental shelf argument. • State has rights over resources on surface, in water, on sea floor & under sea floor • Resource exploration and exploitation • Fishing zone. Within the EEZ movement is free to all.

The Three Gorges/Yangtze dam.

• A cornerstone of the Chinese central government's approach to economic development in the country's interior. • The dam - 2km from bank to bank. • An emblem of China's ambitious aims to modernize through vast industrial programs. • Reservoir extends 404 miles upstream, submerging 19 cities, 150 towns, and 4500 villages. • 32 generators will provide for almost 10% of China's energy output. • Should improve river navigation and control flooding downstream. • Has also, unfortunately, become symbolic of the problems of graft, corruption, and disregard for social and environmental consequences of large scale infrastructural development.

British Colonialism - cultural imperialism: South Asia

• British East India Company (est 1600) o In 1773 the British Government transformed the company into an administrative agency. Began to pursue aggressive political expansion. o Ruled a large part of South Asia up until 1858. o In the late 1700s early 1800s the company began to focus less on trade and more on economic imperialism. o Focus on the region's agricultural wealth and the export of raw materials - cotton, tea, opium etc. Dismantled native industry creating dependency • British India o The focus of British imperialism now shifted beyond trade and territorial control to social reform and cultural imperialism. oThomas Macaulay (1853) - British administrators were urged to create a class of South Asian people who would be "Indian blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect." o One by one, territories were brought under the control of Britain, direct or indirectly.

Geomorphology, soils and minerals

• A plateau continent (raised plain) - 300m in the west, tilting to 1500m in the east. • The higher plateaus are habitable, cooler temps, higher rainfall • East African Rift Valley - 6000 miles from Jordan to the Red Sea. Has two major valleys and is filled with deep elongated lakes. Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria . o Rift valley: a large and long depression between steep walls formed by the downward displacement of a block of the earth's surface between tectonic faults • Geomorphology: the study of landforms • African soils tends to not be very fertile bc of the great age of the underlying geology and bc igh levels of rainfall wash out nutrients from exposed soils esp in deforested areas o Some areas have salty, alkaline, and iron or aluminum rich soils that are toxic to crops o Soil fertility tends to be higher where volcanic activity has deposited ash • Half of African continent is composed of very old crystalline rocks of volcanic origin that hold the key to African's mineral wealth • Mineral resources have played important role in African history o Salt, gold, diamonds have spurred European land grabs and caused conflict, and cont to incite conflict today

Decolonization and Independence

• A rapid process, sometimes peaceful, often violent. South Africa 1910. Ghana, 1957. Nigeria, 1960. • British settler-colonies saw violent transitions - Kenya, Zimbabwe. • France - sudden decolonization in 1960. Strong economic and cultural ties were maintained • Followed years of struggle, but then happened quite rapidly for some countries • Some relatively peaceful handovers to well-prepared African leadership, but other countries (South Africa) became independent under white rulers • Some more violent transitions of power to divided or unprepared local elites and militaries

The importance of Fur to Russian Expansion

• A very prized commodity from the earliest times - drew Russian trappers and traders to Siberia in the 16th C - another example of commodities driving expansion. • Government policy encouraged hunters' exploitation and displacement of indigenous people. • The trade reached the Sea of Okhotsk and Alaska • Fur has long had royal and aristocratic connotations and became a status symbol for those who could afford it • Tax revenues from the fur trade were the mainstay of the Russian imperial treasury for the next 3000 years

Aridity's effect on population density, and people's adaptation to climate.

• Adaption to aridity o People have adapted to the aridity and high temperatures through architecture, patterns of daily and seasonal activity, and dress. o Regional architecture - high ceilings, thick walls, deep set windows, arched high ceilings to enable warm air to rise. o Interior courtyards

The One Child Policy.

• After 1979 population control - strict birth quotas • one child for urban families, two for rural families and up to three for minorities • Rewards for families that only gave birth to one child, work bonuses, priority housing, later priorities in education • Families with more than one child were penalized by a 10% decrease in their annual wages and their children denied free education and health benefits. • 1995-2005, a 0.9% growth rate. • Problems o Personal and social coercion o Little Emperors - children with the attention of six adults o There are close to 120 boys for each 100 girls - soon there will be 50 million Chinese men with no prospects of marriage. o Recently there has been a relaxation of the policy but problems remain

The Indian Rebellion of 1857

• Aka - the Sepoy Mutiny. • The rebellion began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company's army on 10 May 1857. • Spread across regions of north and central India. • Resulted in the transfer of rule away from the company to the crown. • Inevitable anticolonial reaction came to a head in 1857, when an Indian Army unit rebelled • Incident quickly spread into a yearlong civil uprising, known as the Indian Mutiny • British Crown put down the rebellion with brutal force and established the Raj

Apartheid in South Africa - its logic and geography

• Apartheid ("apartness") o "Fundamental law" Legal recognition of distinction between whites and blacks o Racial segregation through territorial segregation o 1950 Population Registration Act: Bantu (blacks); Colored (mixed race); White; AsianA o 10 Homelands (tribal reserves) Blacks no longer South African citizens o Ended in 1994 o Black, white, and so-called colored populations were kept apart and the S African govt controlled the movement, employment, and residences of blacks o Stemmed from Dutch and British colonization and settlers who imposed strict segregation, native reserves, and the pass laws o After 1931, when S Africa was given sovereign power, ovt continued to impose strict separation policy o Protests ruthlessly repressed o Econ and trade sanctions imposed, voluntary investment bans, o In 1994 held first election in history in which blacks were allowed to vote, Nelson mandela elected • Geography o The personal -beaches, toilets, buses stadium seating, elevators and the like. o At the urban scale the city was divide into separate residential areas for each racial group. o At the regional and national scale it operated through the creation of homelands for different racial groups.

Climate change and conflict

• Arid climate makes the region vulnerable to the effects of climate change, number of countries have become participants in UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol • Poor environmental protections have left the state of the environment in the region seriously challenged • Rapid urbanization and high levels of migration to cities make solutions extremely difficult to implement • May be salt-water encroaching into fresh-water systems of low-lying areas due to sea level rise in this century • Growing carbon market is highly attractive to countries in this region o Kyoto Protocol- receive payments for investments in climate projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The Slave Trade and Abolition

• Begins with Portuguese slaving for sugar plantations. • 1530 - first slaves shipped to Brazil. • 1700 - 50,000 slaves a year shipped to the Americas. • Important source of wealth for African kingdoms too, • 9 million shipped to the Americas between 1600 and 1870. At least 1.5 million died en route • 1530- first slave shipped to Americas to work on plantations in Brazil • Est that 9 million slaves shipped to Americas bw 1600-1870 • Conditions of capture and transport were horrific • By end of 18th century, social movements led to the banning of slavery in Britain in 1772, end of salve trade in the colonies in 1807, emancipation in Caribbean in 1834

Japan's aging population and economic stagnation

• Biggest industrial challenge since WWII. Also competing with China for foreign investment. • Japan faces deindustrialization itself through the process of creative destruction.

Afghanistan - "The Great Game" and the Durand Line.

• British imperial rule over South Asia extended to the border of present-day Afghanistan by 1890 • Well into the 20th century, the British worked to extend political control further northward, dueling against Russian for political and military control beyond the Khyber Pass • British and Russians fought real and proxy wars over this border region • Armies, ambassadors, and spies were engaged in a conflict that became known as the Great Game • Conflict never fully resolved, and the British were never able to maintain control of Afghanistan during their rule in South Asia

Soviet Environmental legacies - Chernobyl

• Chernobyl, 1986 - explosion of a nuclear reactor in Ukraine radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. • Official death count of 31 but deaths continue from fallout. • Secondary radiation - vegetation still releases radioactive material into the ecosystem. • Still unclear how to decontaminate such a large area. • Stories of radiation filled intl newspapers following the meltdowns • Radiation levels have remained high, and a area surrounding the failed reaction (31 km in every direction) has been established as a zone of alienation, where only a handful of residents and scientific communities continue to reside • In yrs since the accident, forests have rapidly regrown and many wild animals have recolonized the area

Early colonization in Australia

• Colonization - Dutch exploration in 1642 by Abel Tasman. Australia and NZ claim similar colonial histories. • Pacific islands' colonization is less systematic • James Cook claimed Botany Bay for Britain in 1770, calling the territory New South Wales. - Based on Cook's reports, the British government decided to send convicts. - The First Feet of 11 ships in 1788, settling at Sydney. By 1868 more than 160,000 convicts were transported. - 1800-1830: Hobart, Brisbane, Newcastle, Perth, and Melbourne founded. - Growth of wheat, agriculture, sugar cane, livestock raising, and the 1851 gold rush.

The Resource curse.

• DRC o Resource wealth has rarely been harnessed for Congo's benefit - ruined country. o Resource Curse? natural riches have attracted rapacious adventurers, unscrupulous corporations, vicious warlords and corrupt governments o Beyond the increasing risk of armed conflict through financing and motivating conflicts, natural resources also increase the vulnerability of countries to armed conflict by weakening the ability of political institutions to peacefully resolve conflicts o Mineral wealth estimated at 23 trillion USD, but millions without running water and electricity Blessing and curse: rival warlords battled to secure control of mines • 1998-2002 civil war drew in neighboring countries, now conflict is over but not the poverty suffered by those working in the gold mines today • One boy earned 35 cents a day if he was lucky at a gold mine o Wealth earned by its people ends up in hands of smugglers, foreign nations, and corporations • Can't afford to feed their families, have to go to UN world food programs o Country is so rich, yet the people are so poor they can't afford food

Mining, Diamonds, Coltan.

• Diamonds o Associations of love and luxury, also industrially valuable. o 65% of world diamonds originate in Africa. Value - $8.5 billion. Industry employs 10,000 people worldwide. o 80% of all diamonds traded through Antwerp. o Diamonds - The Social Construction of a Resource o Blood Diamonds Angola, DRC, and Congo - diamonds are mined and smuggled across borders Easy to transport diamonds are used to purchase weapons - perhaps 10-15% of global trade. Diamond money has funded an increase in the magnitude of arms on every side. o 2/3 of global diamond trade is controlled by a South African conglomerate De Beers, which manages markets to ensure that prices remain high and supply stable o Also associated with corruption, violence, and warfare in Angola, DRC, and Sierra Leone Diamonds easily smuggled, profits fueled purchase of weapons for use in brutal local conflicts and wars • These "conflict" or "blood diamonds" may have accounted for 10-15% of all global trade in diamonds during 1990s • Kimberley Process in 2003 was est to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the mainstream rough diamond market • Coltan o Rare or high value minerals have fueled conflict in the DRC, including coltan (producing tantalum used for circuits in electronics, esp mobile phones) The Resource curse.

Arsenic contamination in Bangladesh

• Discovery in 2000 that millions of tube wells in Bangladesh were drawing arsenic-contaminated water o Wells installed bc of UNICEF campaign in 1970s o Well water never tested for arsenic contamination o By 1990s, high rates of certain types of cancer o Up to 77 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to toxic levels of arsenic • Millions of tube wells in Bangladesh were drawing arsenic contaminated water. • Tube wells - water wells lined with a durable and stable material, usually cement, that makes it possible to sink wells to a greater depth. • In 2000 the WHO described it as the largest mass poisoning of a population in history

Australia's Pacific Solution Immigration Policy and changing borders.

• E.g. doing US emigration at a port of departure (Ireland, Canada). • Australia's Pacific Solution: Australia has detained asylum seekers trying to reach its shores by boat on foreign territory such as Nauru and Indonesia. In July 2010, new Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard proposed a new processing center in East Timor for all asylum seekers (Brown, 2010). • The Pacific Solution was the name given to the Australian government policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Implemented during 2001-2007, it had bipartisan support from the Liberal-National government and Labor opposition at the time. • The Pacific Solution consisted of three central strategies: • Thousands of islands were excised from Australia's migration zone or Australian territory. • The Australian Defence Force commenced Operation Relex to intercept vessels carrying asylum seekers. • The asylum seekers were removed to detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea while their refugee status was determined. • Some of these islands, like Nauru, are Australian, but the government removed them from the "Australian Migration Zone" - a territorial categorization from which asylum applications could legally originate. A creative use of geography removed asylum seekers from sovereign territory.

Main points: East Asia

• East Asia is physically distinguished by the vast continental interior of China in the West and center, coupled with the peninsular and island coasts in the east. • landscapes have been hugely altered over the millennia, especially water flow. • Historically characterized by the core economic power of China. • From mid 20thC creation of profoundly different economic experiments in China, Japan, and the Koreas. • Geopolitics - revolve around the shifting balance of economic power between China and Japan and the unresolved problem of the Korean peninsula.

Gender inequality in China.

• Economic and social reforms have led to changes in the status of women. • Until the switch to state-led free market capitalism in the 1990, gender equality had been a major policy of the Communist Government. Mao- 'women hold up half the sky.' • Mixed effects - - fourfold expansion of women in college - 1991 and 2001. - arranged marriages in rural areas dropped from 36% to 16%. - But , an explosion of femininity and sexuality in the media, not always with positive results, traditional gender stereotypes have resurfaced. - Widening income gap between men and women - urban women made on average 70%of men's wages in 1990, 63% in 2005.

The geopolitical struggle for the Arctic

• Eight countries — Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Iceland and Finland and the United States — have Arctic Ocean coastlines. • Aug. 2, 2007 — A Russian expedition descended in a pair of submersible vessels more than two miles under the ice cap on Thursday and deposited a Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole. • A choreographed symbolic move but also collected soil samples. • Russian assertion that the seabed under the pole, called the Lomonosov Ridge, is an extension of Russia's continental shelf and thus Russian territory.

Colonialism's Impact - and its geographic variation

• Establishment of political boundaries that disregarded traditional territories, a reorientation of economies, transport routes, and land use toward the coast and export of commodities, improved medical care, introduction of European languages, land-tenure systems, taxation, education, and governance • Many new colonial boundaries divided indigenous • Colonial mines extracted large amounts of gold, diamonds, and copper for export to Europe • Geographic variation o Britain - paternalistic, indirect rule, pre-existing leaders responsible to the British Crown, took over land and laws but maintained some local property rights and laws in other regions, local taxes, children learned English in Eur style schools o France - policy of assimilation, encouraged elites to evolve into French citizens, more direct and militaristic, top down admin from Paris, some locals became French citizens o Belgium and Portugal - harsher, authoritarian forms of control, no political participation and frequent use of armed force

Colonialism in Africa - The Dark Continent

• European expansion, larger faster ships. • Portugal and Spain trade with West Africa. o Portuguese traded to get gold from coastal settlements in West Africa, and in 1497 Portuguese trader rounded Cape of Good Hope, initiating trade with the southeast coasts of Africa • Cape of Good Hope reached in 1497. • In return for salt, horses, cloth, and glass, Sub-Saharan Africa provided gold, ivory, and slaves to the world • Initially, coastal trading ports under European control - Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Slave Coast. • Difficulties moving inland - 'White Man's Grave'. • The Dark Continent • Sub-Saharan Africa provided gold, ivory, and slaves to the world via Portuguese and Arab traders o For centuries African slaves were in demand among Arabs

The Scramble for Africa/The New Scramble for Africa?

• Explorers, missionaries, traders move inland. • Explorers were linked with the Royal Geographical Society (1830 'the advancement of geographic science.') • Explosion of exploration and writing about Africa. • 1880 - new knowledge of African resources, gold and diamonds • Competition among European Powers to dominate global empires and markets. • Britain in Egypt, France in West Africa, and the Portuguese in Mozambique and Angola, King Leopold of Belgium owns the Congo • Intl interest increased dramatically with the 1850 discovery that quinine could supress malaria, and discovery of gold and diamonds in southern Africa o Explorers, traders, and missionaries from Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, and Germany moved to the interior of the continent • Bw 1880-1914, Europe powers moved aggressively to colonize Africa, partly through private trading companies • Scramble was formalized at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 o Meeting to divide Africa among European colonial powers - did not include a single African representative o Allocated territory according to prior claims and laid down a set of arbitrary boundaries that paid little respect to existing regions • By 1914- almost all of Africa was under European colonial control

Japanese Industrialization after 1868.

• First to react to the West's incursions. • The transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism can be traced to 1868. • Meiji Restoration - convinced that Japan needed to modernize to maintain national independence. • 'National Wealth and Military Strength'. • A high level of state involvement - successive governments intervened to promote industrial development by supporting capitalist monopolies (zaibatsu).

Water issues - flooding and scarcity: South Asia

• Flooding o Orographic uplift intensifies monsoons - Western Ghats receive 79-158 inches of rainfall. o Bangladesh, however, receives the most regular and severe flooding. oFlooding can kill thousands, worse when combined with cyclones (hurricanes). • Scarcity o For much of south asia, there is significant risk of drought if there is a late or unusually dry monsoon season

Independence and partition, 1947 - new borders and political geographies

• Grassroots political resistance. • Indian National Congress Party in 1887. • Decline of the British Empire post WWI and then WW II. • Britain simply no longer had the resources with which to control its greatest imperial asset, and its exit from India was messy, hasty, and clumsily improvised. • The subcontinent was partitioned into two independent nation states: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. • Immediately, there began one of the greatest migrations in human history, as millions of Muslims trekked to West and East Pakistan (the latter now known as Bangladesh) while millions of Hindus and Sikhs headed in the opposite direction. Many hundreds of thousands never made it. • More than 12 million people fled across the new national boundaries - the largest refugee migration ever recorded in the world. • Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was given its independence as a colony in 1948. • In creating new, independent countries. Britain sought to follow the European model of state building national states on the foundations of ethnicity, especially language and religion

Industrial and agricultural development: East Asia

• Has been ongoing since the 20th century, but recent boom in the Chinese econ has caused spectacular leaps in production, accompanies by unprecedented environmental challenges • Agriculture - several of the world's most important food crops were domesticated by the peoples of East Asia o Technical innovations in production have swept the region since the 1960s o Green Revolution - intl effort to introduce and encourage the cultivation of new varieties of crops, which produce more food but also require higher levels of industrial inputs including fertilizer, water, and pesticides o Environmental impacts have been enormous - nitrogen fertilizer, heavy use of herbicides and insecticides Recognition of this problem has encouraged adoption of GMOs

The Congo and mineral resources

• Has gold, copper, timber, coltan, ¼ of worlds cobalt • Rich mineral deposits and competing groups of violent people • Resource wealth has rarely been harnessed for Congo's benefit - ruined country. • Resource Curse? natural riches have attracted rapacious adventurers, unscrupulous corporations, vicious warlords and corrupt governments • Beyond the increasing risk of armed conflict through financing and motivating conflicts, natural resources also increase the vulnerability of countries to armed conflict by weakening the ability of political institutions to peacefully resolve conflicts. • Mineral wealth estimated at 23 trillion USD, but millions without running water and electricity o Blessing and curse: rival warlords

Pacific Islands Geography - High volcanic islands, and low coral islands

• High pacific islands: mostly volcanic in origin, rise steeply from the sea and have very narrow coastal plains and deep narrow valleys o Many high islands are created in linear chains as tectonic plates move over hot spots where molten rocks reach the surface, other form along the edge of tectonic plates o High island of New Guinea is second largest island in the world • Low Pacific islands: mostly atolls created from buildup of skeletons of coral organisms that grow in shallow tropical waters o Usually circular with a series of coral reefs or small islands ringing and sheltering an interior lagoon

Adaptations to periodic rainfall: South Asia

• If the monsoon is late, uneven, or doesn't reach certain localities, there are enormous risks of crop failure, drought, and potentially famine. • Has led to a remarkable range of indigenous adaptations • Terraced landscapes - stabilize land for agriculture in the face of serious soil erosion. • Agrodiversity - mixing of crops that have various degrees of productivity and drought tolerance • In more arid parts, agricultural systems maximize intercropping, the mixing of different crop species that have varying degrees of productivity and drought tolerance • Transhumance - an animal herding migration scheme that allows members of families to be away many months of the year attending animals

Regional inequality and China's special economic zones.

• In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the launch of both the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, infrastructure development and investment initiatives that would stretch from East Asia to Europe - geopolitical and economic motivations. • It harkens back to the original Silk Road. • Xi's vision included creating a vast network of railways, energy pipelines, highways, and streamlined border crossings, both westward—through the mountainous former Soviet republics—and southward, to Pakistan, India, and the rest of Southeast Asia. • In addition to physical infrastructure, China plans to build fifty special economic zones, modeled after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. • Morgan Stanley has predicted China's overall expenses over the life of the BRI could reach $1.2-1.3 trillion by 2027.

Migration and Ethnic Composition

• Indigenous Aboriginal, Maori, and Polynesian populations decimated by Europeans. • Australia and NZ dominated by English, Scottish, and Irish populations. Pacific Islands have 80% indigenous people. • Australia's immigration policy sought to maintain a European "look" through the adoption of the White Australia Policy after independence in 1901. - Immigration restricted to Northern Europeans. Immigrant desirability ranked. - 1973: racist restrictions on immigration lifted and replaced with skills criteria. Immigration from Asia begins e.g. Vietnam, Hong Kong, Philippines.

Potential climate change impacts: Sub-Saharan Africa

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - Africa as one of the most vulnerable regions. • multiple stresses make it highly vulnerable to climate change • Future Climate - uncertainty in rainfall, warming temperatures, and severe droughts in Southern Africa. • Warmer temps, changes in ecosystems, impacts on the poor have already been observed • Future - temps likely to warm by several degrees and although rainfall changes are more uncertain, existing water stresses may increase if drought intensifies • Africa's vulnerability to climate change is caused as much by poverty as by climate itself • Scientists concerned that climate change will expand the range of diseases and insects

The Environment of MENA

• MENA is environmentally diverse but dominated by aridity. • Plate tectonics have also been important in this region - fault lines create uplift and sources of water. • Desert - the Sahara, the world's biggest less than one inch of annual rainfall. • Precipitation generally low and highly variable • Soils tend to be thin and deficient in nutrients, most land must be irrigated • Exceptions: yemen, Turkey

The global distribution of Muslim population.

• MENA: 51-100 percentage of Muslim Population • South Asia and East Asia also have between 2-100 percent • Almost ¼ of the world is Muslim

Early South Asia - The Mauryan Empire, the Mughal Empire

• Mauryan o First to establish rule across greater South Asia o 320-125 BC. o Emperor Ashoka's wheel of law. o The spread of Buddhism. Securing control wrecked so much havoc and destruction that Ashoka renounced armed conquest and adopted Buddhist principles o After Ashoka's death in 232 BC, Mauryan empire fell into decline, succumbing to invaders from Central Asia • Mughal o 15thC India conquered by Turkish clan from Persia (modern day Iran). o The introduction of Islam to the Punjab (NW) and Bengal (NE). o A golden age for India - art, architecture, music, literature, and law.

The three sub regions of the Pacific Islands

• Melanesia • Micronesia • Polynesia

Monsoons - how they work

• Monsoon - seasonal torrent of rain on which the livelihood of the people depends. • Engine behind the monsoon is the heating and cooling of the Asian continent to the north of the region o Early summer - interior parts of Asia begin to heat more rapidly than the areas to the South, creating low pressure convection as hot air rises all across Asia o By midsummer, this pressure gradient becomes strong enough to draw moisture-laden air from the Indian Ocean and propel it northward across the subcontinent o This wet monsoon moves inland brining drenching rains o Northern hills and uplands exert a strong orographic effect, causing moist air from the sea to lift, condense, and produce heavy rainfall o Arrival of wet monsoon season is announced by violent storms and torrential rain o In winter, this system reverses

East Asia's physiography - threefold division.

• Most geographically significant feature, with implications for regional climate, resource endowments, and historical flows of people, trade, and culture, is its position on the east end of the vast Eurasian landmass. • Mountain folds drive the engine of river systems that flows out onto the vast plains • Threefold Division o The Tibetan Plateau - - an uplifted massif (a mountainous block of Earth's Crust), 1 million square miles. o The central mountains and plateaus of China and Mongolia. o Plains, Hills, Shelves, and Islands - the Chinese plains, hill country, coastal mountains, Korea. And the Japanese Archipelag

Qanats, Oases

• Oases: in some fertile places in the desert, underground water percolates to the surface o In Sahara, runoff from the Atlas Mountains collects underground in porous rock layers deep below the desert surface o Bc soils of oases are usually fertile, they support animal and plant life and even agriculture o Play and econ role as stopping points for caravana carrying commercial goods across the vast desert • Qanats: thru a series of low-gradient tunnels, the qanat collects groundwater, bringing it to the surface by way of gravity

Australia environmental history - isolation, distinctiveness, and island biogeography.

• Oceania's isolation has led to the development of some of the world's most unique ecosystems. - Australia more than 20,000 different plant species, 650 bird species, and 380 reptile species. - Marsupials - gives birth to premature offspring, nurtures them in a pouch. • Monotremes - lay eggs and then nurture their young with milk. • Islands have seen the evolution of flightless birds - Moa, Kiwi, Emu • Island Biodiversity - Biogeography is the study of the geographic location of a species. - Island biogeography is the study of the species composition and species richness on islands. - Theory that geographic area and isolation influence species colonization, extinction and speciation such that larger islands have more species and isolated islands have fewer species

What is Orientalism?

• Once established as different and inferior, Western domination of these Other peoples and places was not merely justified but also warranted. Although imaginings of the backward, violent, and inferior Other have been altered slightly since the early nineteenth century, they have survived and are deeply ingrained. • As we perceive the Orient, so too do we often perceive the Middle East in negative and particularistic contexts, such as terrorism, instability, violence, Islamic fundamentalism, anti-Americanism, oppression of women, or oil wealth. • Such manufactured and oversimplified geographical imaginings have not only shaped many people's perceptions of the Middle East but also influenced material practices and political decisions • "The Orient was almost a European invention" - Said 1978, 9. • It is a framework for looking at difference. A lens (a discourse): The way the west looks at the rest of the world.

How do we imagine and write about the Middle East? What effects does that process have?

• Orientalism: answer why when we think of the ME, we have a preconceived idea of the people who live there o How do we come to understand people who look diff than us, by the virtue of their skin? o Central argument: the way we acquire this info is not innocent or objective, but the end result of a process that reflects certain interests - highly motivated o Said: the way the West looks at ME is thru a lens (Orientalism) that distorts the actual reality of those people

South Asia's physiography

• Peninsular Highlands - a broad plateau flanked by two chains of hills. • Mountain Rim - spectacular terrain, remote valleys. • Plains - created by deposition of material eroded from the highlands and rim. • The Bengal Delta - created by the Ganges, Brahmaputra, the Meghna, and their distributaries (river branches that flow away from the main stream) which create vast web of waterways • Coastal Fringe - formed by marine erosion of the highlands

Desertification and famine

• People have adapted to the landscape - irrigation, flood plain farming, herding follows rains. • Climate variability, political change, growth of human and animal populations - drought threatens food security. • Combined with land degradation, persistent drought can lead to desertification. • Desertification - a process in which arid and semiarid lands become degraded and less productive and desertlike conditions result o main culprits: climate change, overgrazing, overcultivation, deforestation, and unskilled irrigation • famine - drought still contributes, but most recent food crises have been associated with conflict between or within countries o more than half a million people died in each of several conflict-related famines

Environmental legacies left by the Soviet Union, problems continue. Why the failures to curtail environmental transformation and degradation?

• Philip Pryde, one of the best historians of Soviet environmental policy, suggested that the problem could be summed up in three words: priorities, funding, and enforcement. - Priority was always for economic growth - Funding required to address environmental problems or prevent them from happening was woefully lacking. - Principles and directives, even when formulated at the highest levels of government within the Soviet Union, were usually ignored.

Climate Change and Bangladesh

• Record breaking and recurring floods in Bangladesh, Nepal, and NE India. • Coastal areas of Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal are vulnerable to sea-level rise • Frequency of hot days and heat waves have also increased in the last century. • Decline in Himalayan glaciers - impacts on water security. • Recent years have seen increase in intensity of rainfall. Recording breaking and recurring floods in Bangladesh, typhoons are a serious environmental hazard in Bangladesh and have growth less frequent but more intense, over 8,00 square miles of coastal areas could be lost to the sea in Bangladesh

Communist China - The Great Leap Forward, Mao.

• Revolution in 1911. Communists subsequently forced out. • Mao Zedong gains support of the peasantry (85% of popn), gains control of the country in 1949. • The Great Leap Forward - 1958 - Mao's scheme to accelerate the pace of economic growth. • Land collectivized, industrialization accelerated. • Disastrous results - 20-30million die between 1959 and 1962

Agriculture and resource/human stress: South Asia

• Rural population is 400-500 million people • 'ecosystem' people living at subsistence levels but in sustainable ways that have protected and preserved the environment. • gradually pushed on to unproductive soils and arid hillsides as commercial forestry, mining, road and dam construction, and industrialization limit access to land • rural people forced to use their limited resources in unsustainable ways • in rural areas a large number of people live directly off the land

How is climate change affecting the Arctic?

• Sea Level Rise • Species Changes = Food Chain/Food Web changes (food security) • Climate Change = agricultural change (food security) • Changes in Fresh Water supply (security) • Loss of ice/snow - actually intensifies climate change (feedback) • Storms/drought/precipitation/ocean currents (Hurricanes?) • This oblique view of the Arctic polar ice cap in September shows the significant reduction that has happened over a time period just over 20 years, from 1979 to 2003. • Future predictions show even more drastic reduction of the ice cap, thus opening new area for natural resources extraction and marine transports

Collectivization, Industrialization, and Soviet Economic Planning.

• Soviet Union - plan be self subsistent. Repression - estimated 10million dissidents sent to labour camps. • Technical optimization -developed Territorial production complexes. regional grouping of production facilities based on local resources that were suited to clusters of interdependent industries - e.g. petrochemicals, steel. • Through a process of collectivization, peasants were relocated onto collective farms (kohlkoz) where their labor was expected to produce bigger yields • The state purchased harvests at relatively low prices so that the collectivized peasant paid for industrialization by "gifts of labor" • Required severe repression • Economic planning: Stalin set up a command economy (all goods, etc are regulated by the govt). engineers, managers, and apparatchiks ran this new econ on a model of 5 yr plans where clear goals for economic development were set on a rotating basis • First 5 yr plan was established in 1928 • Under five year plans, 1928-1940, economy grew 10% per year. • Industrialization: between 1929 and 1940 the rate of industrial growth inc'd steadily • Industrialization of underdeveloped sub-regions - mainly central Asia and the Transcaucasus. • Security and Secrecy - from external military attack. Military Industrial development in Siberia. The creation of closed or secret cities.

The former Soviet Union and resources

• Soviet Union's resources are fragmented among newly formed countries. • Russia still has a large resource base = oil, gas, coal, lignite. • Central Asia and the Transcaucasus affected - smaller territories. • Kazakhstan - bulk of the oil reserves but there are problems of pipeline construction.

Soviet Ideology and nature - what was the relationship?

• Stalin's "Plan for the Great Transformation of Nature," Krushchev's Virgin Lands campaign and his project to open Siberia with the Bratsk-Angara Dam, and Brezhnev's River Diversion Project and Baikal-Amur Mainland Railroad, all functioned to increase the power of the central bureaucracy.

Environmental Destruction and the Soviet Union

• Strict planning methods to implement econ geography of the state o Territorial production complexes: regional groupings of production facilities based on local resources that were that were suited to clusters of interdependent industries o Expansion of industrialization in econ less-developed sub regions o Secrecy and security from external military attack • Every country in the former Soviet region has a legacy of serious environmental problems that stem from mismanagement of natural resources and failure to control pollution during the Soviet era o Soviet central planning placed strong emphasis on industrial output, with very little regard for environmental protection o Today serious environmental degradation, which is a legacy of Soviet planning, affects all parts of the region • Radioactive contamination (More than Switzerland), floods from hydroelectric dams (Netherlands), salinization, forest degradation, chemical poisoning from pesticides

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of the Mandate System

• Successor to the Byzantines, in power for more than 600 years - Turkish Muslims. • By the end of the 19thC the empire was under a lot of pressure from emerging nationalist movements. • WWI -lost its European lands and the polyglot empire began to fall apart to national claims. The Ottomans were defeated in WWI and the empire was radically restructured • The Mandate System o Post WWI Paris Peace Conference, the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire were carved up. o Mandates - areas generally administered by a European power, with the promise and preparation for self-government and future independence. o Not independent, but colonies. o France -Syria and Lebanon. Britain - Iraq and Palestine. o A new form of political control was created in the Middle East.

The origins of the Russian Revolution in 1917.

• Technological modernization - many serfs and peasants displaced. • Flood of rural-urban migration. • No mechanism for change - the Tsar rules absolutely. • Working class movement organized through the Soviets - Revolution in October 1917 • Problems of rural and urban change in the regions, to which the Russian tsars remained indifferent, fueled discontent • At turn of 20th century, Russia in grip of a severe economic recession o Inflation, with high prices for food and other basic commodities, led to famine and widespread hardship o Peasants rioted across the countryside and in 1905 network of grassroots councils of workers (soviets) emerged to coordinated strikes • WWI intensified discontent • Casualties mounted, govt's handling of the armed forces and domestic econ led to the October 1917 or Bolshevik Revolution o Bolshevik: majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party o Est the Soviet Union and renamed their political party the Communist Party

The Hydrological Cycle

• That ceaseless interchange of moisture from one physical state to another: Liquid Water evaporates>Water Vapor in the atmosphere>Saturation>Condensed >Liquid or Solid>Returns to Earth as Precipitation>Evaporation and Evapotranspiration continues the cycle

Australia's threefold physical geography•

• The Eastern Highlands - The Great Dividing Range. The Great Barrier Reef. • The interior lowlands - - Murray-Darling River System, the Great Artesian Basin (world's largest underwater aquifer) • The Western Plateau - Desert and Old Shield rock. Ayres Rock (Uluru). Rich mineral deposits.

Two major Riverine systems - the Nile, and the Tigris-Euphrates

• The Nile - 4,130 miles long. It runs through the ten countries. o Used for irrigation since ancient Egypt. o In the twentieth century it became a major focus of modernization in Egypt. o Two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. o River proceeds northward • Tigris and Euphrates o Home to the cradle of civilization, the fertile crescent. o The Tigris rises in the Anatolian Plateau of Turkey and flows through Iraq. o The Euphrates Flows through Syria, Iraq, and empties into the sea in Iran. o These river systems are the major source of water for most people in the regions but highly undependable

Imperial decline and Western Intervention in China and Japan in the mid 19thC

• The Opium War - 1839-42. Britain provoked war with China, which it easily won. • China ceded Hong Kong to Britain and allowed American and European traders access to Chinese ports. • U.S. Admiral Matthew Perry anchored his flagship in Tokyo Bay to 'persuade' the Japanese to open their ports. • Lesson learned - Asia was technologically far too weak and needed to develop. • Dynasties of Imperial China and Imperial Japan both eventually succumbed to combination of internal and external problems o Internally - admin and defense of growing pops began to drain the attention, energy, and wealth of the imperial regimes. As econ stalled, peasants were required to pay increasingly heavy taxes, driving many into poverty and thousands into banditry o By early 19th century, both had moved into phase of successive crises- famines and peasant uprisings o Externally - problems and power of western colonial force ultimately undermined both imperial regimes. Eur and American powers began to impinge on weakened rule in these empires in the 18th and 19th centuries, eventually seizing control or indirect authority of parts of China, and catalyzing industrialization and militarization of Japan

The British Raj and the transformation of India

• The Raj 1858-1947 o The Raj - British rule over South Asia extended to the entire region except Afghanistan and Nepal. o The British brought plantation agriculture to South Asia, producing food crops for the British population there and traders - coconuts, coffee, cotton, rubber, and tea. o Fostered western political ideas of national territorial sovereignty and the materialism that accompanies free markets in land, labour, and commerce

Where is the Middle East? What/where are its boundaries? How has the middle east been "made" as a geographic space? This is tied to Orientalism.

• The UK's possessions in South Asia made the Middle East geostrategically important and the middle of the journey to India. • Hence, the its origin as a British-centric label 'to an ambiguous region of Asia between the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans.' • Alfred Mahan, U.S. Navy Captain, in 1902 delineated Persia, Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf as the Middle East. • In 1921 Winston Churchill officially institutionalized the term when he established the Middle East Department of the British Colonial Office. • The department was concerned with British post-World War I territories in Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, and Egypt; • Thus Syria, Lebanon, the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, and Iran were not part of his vision of the Middle East. • In the US Near East or Western Asia were preferred until the Cold War o For example, Isaiah Bowman, in his book The New World: Problems in Political Geography (1921), never mentioned the Middle East; instead, he referred to Palestine, Iraq, Transjordan, Constantinople, Egypt, and Syria as the "Near East."

What is the UNCLOS?

• The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) - The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world's oceans and seas establishing rules governing territorial seas, exclusive economic zones, navigational rights, international straits, fishing, deep seabed mining, pollution controls, marine scientific research, and dispute settlement • The States Parties to this Convention, - Prompted by the desire to settle, in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation, all issues relating to the law of the sea and aware of the historic significance of this Convention as an important contribution to the maintenance of peace, justice and progress for all peoples of the world, - Noting that developments since the United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea held at Geneva in 1958 and 1960 have accentuated the need for a new and generally acceptable Convention on the law of the sea, - Conscious that the problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be considered as a whole

The Pearl River Delta.

• The World Bank recently declared the PRD the world's biggest megacity, surpassing Tokyo. With over 66m residents, it is more populous than Italy or, just, Britain. • Its GDP, at more than $1.2trn, is bigger than that of Indonesia, which has four times as many people. It has been growing at an average of 12% a year for the past decade. • Though it accounts for less than 1% of the country's territory and 5% of its population, it generates more than a tenth of its GDP and a quarter of its exports

Hydraulic civilizations - living with water.

• The rice cultures of south-eastern China and Japan have developed systems to control the excess of water. • Fish farming combined with maximizing rice production. • Rivers like the Yangtze carry huge amounts of silt making them unstable and prone to flooding. • Techniques to deal with excess water - drained marshes, irrigation systems, lakes converted to reservoirs, levees raised. • Hydraulic civilizations - historic empires held together and expanded based on their capacity for controlling water

Partition and migration: South Asia

• The subcontinent was partitioned into two independent nation states: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. • Immediately, there began one of the greatest migrations in human history, as millions of Muslims trekked to West and East Pakistan (the latter now known as Bangladesh) while millions of Hindus and Sikhs headed in the opposite direction. Many hundreds of thousands never made it.

Continental Shelves - why are they important?

• The term "continental shelf" is used by geologists generally to mean that part of the continental margin which is between the shoreline and the shelf break or, where there is no noticeable slope, between the shoreline and the point where the depth of the superjacent water is approximately between 100 and 200 metres. • According to article 76, the coastal State may establish the outer limits of its juridical continental shelf wherever the continental margin extends beyond 200 nautical miles by establishing the foot of the continental slope, by meeting the requirements stated for the thickness of sedimentary rocks, by satisfying geomorphological requirements and by meeting distance and depth criteria, or by any combination of these methods

What is the difference between hard and soft Brexit?

•At one extreme, "hard" Brexit could involve the UK refusing to compromise on issues like the free movement of people in order to maintain access to the EU single market. At the other end of the scale, a "soft" Brexit might follow a similar path to Norway, which is a member of the single market and has to accept the free movement of people as a result

The role of the ITCZ in climate and the thermal equator.

• Tropical Climate, warm temperatures, higher than 70f. • Dominated by ITCZ and subtropical high. • ITCZ - low pressure zone along the equator. Heated air here rises, causing low pressure, air converges and rises vertically, cools and condenses creating precipitation high rainfall over the Congo basin • Subtropical High - zone of descending air, high pressure, little precipitation, desert conditions in the Sahara and the Kalahari. • When the ITCZ is to the south of the equator, the north-east winds prevail over Nigeria, producing the dry-season conditions. When the ITCZ moves into the Northern Hemisphere, the south westerly wind prevails as far inland to bring rain fall during the wet season. • The implication is that there is a prolonged rainy season in the far south of Nigeria, while the far north undergoes long dry periods annually. Nigeria, therefore, has two major seasons, the dry season and the wet season, the lengths of which vary from north to south.

China's 1980s transition to state led capitalism and economic growth. What underpins this growth?

• Underpinned by the low cost of labor in China. • The retail margin on clothes made in China and sold in the West is 200-300%, domestic made clothing has around a 70% margin. • Non-state enterprise now dominates in China, about 80% of GDP. • China now completely integrated into the global economy.

Japan's post WWII economic miracle.

• WW2 left Japan in ruins but within five years it had returned to its prewar growth levels. • 1950s-60s annual economic growth rate was 10% compared with 2% in North America and Western Europe. • Factors - exceptionally high levels of personal savings. Rapid acquisition of new technology. Extensive government support of industry. • Interdependence of government and industry - 'Japan Inc.' • Ministry of International Trade and Industry - guided and coordinated corporations and organized them in business networks (Keiretsu).

Environmental degradation: East Asia

• Water pollution is a crisis in many parts of the region • Environmental impacts are not localized o Asian Brown Cloud - blanket of air pollution, hovers over vast area • Impacts of this pollution on citizens and workers are undeniable o In 2013 China govt acknowledged existence of "cancer-villages" settlements w disproportionately high rates of cancer

Water scarcity and water conflict in the MENA.

• Water scarity o Water is a highly charged political resource in the region. o United Nations Development Program, o In some places, econ conditions make water access difficult, which in others changes in global climate and overuse of freshwater resources have pushed many countries in the region to the brink Ex: excessive extraction of water from oasis wells have been occurring for so long that oases are dying o Persian Gulf region have some of the highest per capita water use rates in the world • Water conflict o The Middle East contains 3% of the world's population but only 1% of available fresh water. o The Tigris-Euphrates Basin has witnessed long-running disputes between Turkey, Syria and Iraq over water usage. o Egypt has threatened military action against Sudan if it attempts to limit the Nile's flow. Israel and Jordan argue over the use of the Jordan

Soviet Environmental legacies - Lake Baykal

• World's deepest lake. 20% of earth's freshwater. • 2,500 recorded plant and animal species, 75% of which are found nowhere else. • 'The Pearl of Siberia' - polluted from the 1960s on by toxins in the Selenga River which provides half of the lake's water. • A paper-pulp mill built on the lake by Soviet planners to utilize its pristine waters was opened in the 1960s. • Named a UNESCO world heritage site in 1998

Ecology - Savanna, Forest, Madagascar

• closely tied to climatic conditions but also reflect a complex evolution and physical geography. • Congo Basin -world's second largest rainforest and river. • Forest - 20% of Africa. • Great biodiversity - threatened by demands for timber and firewood • Madagascar o A biodiversity hotspot - 25% of all flowering plants in Africa, 33 species of lemur, 800 species of butterfly. o 80% of the population are subsistence farmers who use slash and burn to clear land. o Less than 15% of original forest remains. • Savanna o Drier regions have mixed woodlands and grasslands, with open stands and trees. o About 40% of Africa o The savannah - grassland found in tropical climates with a pronounced dry season . o E.g. the Serengeti o Savanna grassland areas cover about 2/5 of Africa o Have open stands of trees interspersed with shrubs and grasses, vegetation typically found in tropical climates that have a pronounced dry season and experience periodic fires o Provide extended grazing areas for both wildlife and livestock

Soviet Environmental legacies - Aral Sea

• drastic effects on the lake due to the excessive withdrawal of water from the main rivers that drain into it • Soviet modernization programs brought large scale irrigation to the arid and semi-arid regions. E.g. The Kara-Kum canal. • Cotton - half of Turkmenistan is devoted to cotton monoculture. Uzbekistan is one the world's third largest cotton producer. • Salinization - occurs when water evaporates from the surface of the land and leaves behind salt that it has drawn up through the subsoil. • Constant dust storms linked to high incidence of respiratory illness. • Devastated the fishing industry. • Ports such as Aralsk stranded more than 25miles from the retreating shoreline in the middle of a new 'White Desert' of former lake bed sands. • 1960 - world's fourth largest lake • 2008 10% of its original size - three residual lakes.

Contiguous Zone

• from territorial zone another seaward 12 nautical miles • permits states to prevent or punish infringements of their customs, fiscal, or sanitation laws

Central China - agricultural civilization

• the middle and lower Yangtze - is a heartland area of Han China and of Chinese agricultural civilization. • Accounts for 25% of cultivated land, one of its most densely populated regions and contains China's largest city, Shanghai 13 million in 2005. • Central China developed around waterways. The Yangtze west east artery combined with the Grand Canal north south. • Water dominates the landscapes - all along the river, are smaller lakes and rivers , tens of thousands of miles of canals, irrigation ditches, and thousands of linear ponds. • settlement patterns are characterized by rectilinear patterns of the drainage canals that link the smaller settlements. • Since 1949, it has developed as a core industrial and food producing region. Also contains a key oil field and the Yangtze dam. • Prone to flooding, 1887, huge floods claimed the lives of approx 7millionpeople.

General migration patterns within Europe

•Industrial development in the 19th century drew migrants from less-prosperous rural areas to a succession of industrial growth areas around coalfields •More recently, the main currents of migration have also been a consequence of patterns of economic development oRural-urban migration continues to empty the countryside of Mediterranean Europe as metropolitan regions become increasingly prosperous oCities have experiences decentralization of population as factories, offices, and housing developments have moved out of congested coastal areas • Most striking has been of migrant workers oBy 1975, 12-14 million immigrants had arrived in northwestern Europe, most came from Mediterranean countries • More than 18 million moved within Europe during 1980s and 90s as refugees from war/persecution or in flight from economic collapse in Russia and Eastern Europe