Answers to Thinking Geographically Questions

Figure 9.1: Although there is much similarity, the Southern Cone of South America, for example, ranks higher on the Human Development Index than it does in gross domestic product.

Figure 9.2: Answers will vary, but you may suggest that in less developed countries, data regarding health, education, and other aspects of well-being may not be collected and tabulated as extensively or as accurately as in more developed countries. Therefore, the HDI that is calculated based on this data may not be equally reliable from country to country.

Figure 9.3: In the days when derricks were the common apparatus, each well could tap a relatively small area. The grasshopper well indicates continued use, but fewer wells are needed to tap a broad area.

Figure 9.4: High-tech industries are more footloose, less dependent on moving heavy materials from place to place. They also depend on a highly educated work force. Therefore, they tend to locate in places with universities and with amenities that educated, upper-class people seek, like recreation and cultural attractions. They may also gravitate toward places with pleasant climate.

Figure 9.5: Small countries are more likely to have tourists from outside the country than are large countries.

Figure 9.6: Tourists model different lifestyles to local people, apart from the impact of their activities on the local ecology. They also bring in cash, potentially changing a barter-based economy.

Figure 9.7: Although much of the spread was contagious, the areas around Munich and Zurich adopted railroads earlier than their surroundings, as did St. Petersburg, Russia, and Constantinople (Istanbul).

Figure 9.8: The dense population of Britain had encouraged improvements in agriculture so that it could feed a large nonfarming industrial work force. British people had also explored and colonized other parts of the world, yielding sources of raw materials and food, as well as markets for manufactured goods. Such trade also created a pool of capital to invest in manufacturing.

Figure 9.9: The earliest centers of industrialization had outdated physical plants, and many suffered from contentious labor relations. Eastern Europe underwent 45 years of communist rule with its central planning and subservience to the desires of the Soviet Union.

Figure 9.9: Colonial governments were unwilling to allow colonies to develop manufacturing that would compete with the ruling countries’ products. Since independence, these trade relationships have continued, and political corruption has made many former colonies uninviting places to invest.

Figure 9.10: Automobile manufacturing is an industry that demands large supplies of steel and other raw materials, a highly skilled labor force, and cost-effective access to transportation routes. Many developing countries in South America, Africa, and Central Asia would find it challenging to effectively meet these requirements in order to compete on the global market with auto manufacturers in regions where these resources and capital are more readily available.

Figure 9.11: These methods are cheaper than seeking out individual trees.

Figure 9.12: The largest areas are in the eastern part as well as along the Amazon and in the southern part of the forest. These areas are the most accessible.

Figure 9.13: Among the factors would be programs and campaigns to reduce production of the chemicals causing acid rain, such as conversion to different types of fuel. Counteracting that would be growth in population and industrial activity, necessitating additional power generation.

Figure 9.14: Along with the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979, it has made the American public extremely fearful of nuclear power. No new nuclear power plants have been constructed in the United States since the two incidents took place.

Figure 9.15: Many of the countries that rank high are already developed and wealthy; others have taken the matter of sustainability seriously. Many countries that rank low are authoritarian.

Figure 9.16: Labor costs are the main reason. In countries like India, wages are much lower, and a large number of English-speaking technical college graduates are well qualified for such jobs.

Figure 9.17: Natural increase in China is low; this is the result of migration. Rural workers are moving to cities in large numbers seeking employment.

Figure 9.18: Countries with a large labor force see this kind of activity as an opportunity to industrialize, and they enact laws and policies to attract such zones.

Figure 9.19: Employers often favor women because they will work for lower wages.

Figure 9.20: The evaporation operation could produce toxic dust as well as ruin the land. The open-pit mine must dump the material it digs out somewhere, and it could flow into populated areas or nearby streams. The alp could experience landslides in heavy rain or snow.

Figure 9.21: Fishing grounds that these people depend on could be overfished. Fishing is also not a very lucrative occupation, compared with urban jobs. The people who live here are also very isolated. Providing services like education and health care may be very expensive.

Figure 9.22: Although the textile industry uses machinery, the tasks are fairly easy to learn, so labor is easy to train and can draw on low-cost sources.

Figure 9.23: There is a high barbed-wire fence around the parking lot with a guardhouse at the entrance.

Figure 9.24: In both cases, the buildings are plain, located near the factory, and provide small spaces as cheaply as possible. This housing is surrounded by trees and other greenery. The buildings seem to be only two stories high and may house families as well as workers.

Figure 9.25: This building has more stories, and probably the units house only single workers. While Figure 9.24 shows chimneys, this building is probably unheated (as are most buildings in southern China).

Figure 9.26: Part of the reason is to allow for large parking lots, as virtually all the workers drive to work in private cars. The setback also allows for some green space and protection of, for example, a small wetland.