2.11 GEOGRAPHIC INSIGHTS

North America: Review and Self-Test

1. Environment: North America’s intensive use of resources has an enormous impact on the environment. Although home to only 5 percent of the world’s population, North America produces 26 percent of the greenhouse gases released globally that are related to human activity. North American lifestyles have major environmental impacts, including the depletion and pollution of water resources and fisheries and the destruction of huge amounts of habitat for wild plants and animals.

2. Globalization and Development: Globalization has transformed economic development in North America, reorienting employment toward knowledge-intensive jobs that require education and training. Most of the manufacturing jobs upon which the region’s middle class was built have either been moved abroad to take advantage of cheaper labor or have been replaced by technology. North America’s demand for imported goods and its export of manufacturing jobs helps make it a major engine of globalization.

3. Power and Politics: North America has relatively high levels of political freedom, though in recent decades many of its residents have become disillusioned with the political process for a variety of reasons. While Canada plays a relatively modest political role abroad, the United States has enormous influence on the global political order, although its status as the world’s predominant “superpower” is increasingly being challenged.

4. Urbanization: A dramatic change in the spatial patterns of cities and suburbs has profoundly affected life in this very urbanized region. Since World War II, North America’s urban populations have increased by about 150 percent, but the amount of land they occupy has increased by almost 300 percent. This is primarily because of suburbanization and urban sprawl, which are companion processes to urbanization.

5. Population and Gender: Women’s participation in North America’s economy is beginning to rival that of men, contributing to more than two centuries of declining fertility rates as women delay childbearing to pursue education and careers. Declining childbirth rates play a major role in the aging of North American populations, which may slow economic growth.