1.12 GEOGRAPHIC INSIGHTS

Review and Self-Test

1. Environment: Humans are altering the planet at an unprecedented rate, causing sometimes drastic effects on ecosystems and climate. Multiple environmental factors often interact to influence the vulnerability of a location to the impacts of climate change. These vulnerabilities have a spatial pattern.

2. Globalization and Development: Global flows of information, goods, and people are transforming patterns of economic development. Local self-sufficiency is giving way to global interdependence as people and places are increasingly becoming connected, sometimes across vast distances.

3. Power and Politics: There are major differences across the world in the ways that power is wielded in societies. Modes of governing that are more authoritarian are based on the power of the state or community leaders. Modes that are based on notions of political freedom and democracy give the general public greater power over themselves and more of a role in deciding how policies are developed and governments are run. There are also many other ways of managing political power.

4. Urbanization: The development of urban manufacturing and service economies has pulled people into cities. Meanwhile, the mechanization of food production has drastically reduced the need for agricultural labor, thus pushing people out of rural areas.

5. Population and Gender: Population growth is slowing for a number of reasons, among them the increasing numbers of women who are delaying childbearing as they pursue educational and work opportunities outside the home.