Spatial Implications of Environmental Change exam summary articles
Week 1
Moseley et al. (2014). Chapter 1: Introduction
The ability of some societies to manage their resources sustainably, the role of science in the
use and management of resources, the seeming inability of the global capitalist system to
limit consumption, the role that non-human actors may play in transmitting the impacts of
one human action to another human group, and the limits of preservation in open ecosystems
and economies.
-> All of these themes and more are central to the dynamic subfield of human-environment
geography
The objectives of this chapter are:
1. To suggest that humans, like other animals, are able to sustainably interact with their
environment
2. To highlight the pressing nature of some contemporary environmental problems
3. To articulate the relevance of the geographic perspective to environmental questions
4. To outline broad elements of a human-environment geography approach to environmental
questions
5. To demonstrate what new insights may be gleaned by applying the human-environment
geography approach to some basic natural resource management concepts and an
example of this in US environmental history
6. To share the general plan and logic of the book
Animals and their habits
New migrants failed to understand the ecology of an area and attempted management
approaches that were inappropriate for their new location.
- Still other developed intensive production systems which required significant amount
of human labour to maintain. But when political instability or disease disrupted these
labour flows, such systems quickly fell into decline and the productivity of the
environment declined.
- The significance of this trade, combined with urbanization, was that it gradually
separated people from the sources of their food and goods and the byproducts of their
consumption. We were losing our ability to productively and sustainably engage with
ecosystems. Today we live in a world where many consumers in the most developed
, areas of the world have little to no idea where their provisions originate from and how
they are produced.
- We also live on a planet where the consequences of such detachment from the
biophysical world seem to be growing
- Not alle ecological challenges are a direct result of human modifying the environment
in a problematic manner. In some cases it may have more to do with ‘how humans
position themselves vis-à-vis the biophysical world
- Clearly many of the challenges could be avoided if we better understood our place
within, and relationship to, the biophysical world.
What is Geography and What Does It Have To Do with Studying the Environment?
Geography is a broad discipline that essentially seeks to understand and study the spatial
organization of human activity and of people’s relationships with their environment
- It is also about recognizing the interdependence among places and regions, without
losing sight of the individuality and uniqueness of specific places.
- By displaying data spatially (maps), it pushes geographers to ask why things are
distributed the way they are, or it may reveal patterns or correlations which had not
previously been seen.
- There are sub-specialists within the discipline based on the subject matter addresses
- The study of biophysical phenomena (physical geography), seeking to
understand long-term climate patterns and change (climatology), patterns of
plant and animal distribution (biogeography), and the origin and evolution of
landforms (geomorphology)
- The examination of human or social phenomena (human geography) studies
the patterns and dynamics of human activity on the landscape, including
settlement, urbanization, economic activity, culture, population, development
and disease.
- Between physical and human geography, lies the vibrant arena of human-environment
geography. The investigation of nature-society relationships lies at the heart of geography
- While we tend to think of the environment as ‘natural’ and more prominent in areas with
fewer people, we will argue that the built environment is of no less concern than many
so-called natural areas, and that both are products of human actions
-Geography has long been known for its techniques for presenting and manipulating spatial
data, particularly cartography or mapping. What is important to remember is that most
geographers use these techniques as a bridge to greater understanding.
A Geographic Perspective on Environmental Questions
,Four perspectives:
1. Scale-sensitive analysis
2. Attention to spatial patterns of resource use
3. A conception of the human-environment system as a single unit rather than two separate
parts
4. A cognizance of the connections between places and regions
Conventional Understanding of Exploitation, Conservation, and Preservation
- Exploitation refers to the use of a resource without regard to its long-term
productivity, usually by over-harvesting in the short term
- Conservation refers to use within certain biological limits, or within the annual
growth increment of a particular resource. In the case of forests or fisheries, this
annual growth increment is also referred to as the sustainable yield or maximum
sustainable yield
- Preservation refers to the non-use or non-consumptive use of natural resources in an
area. In some instances, an area is completely off limits to humans. More frequently,
non-consumptive uses are allowed
- The rationale for preservation is that certain areas must be set aside for compelling g
aesthetic or biodiversity reasons. This approach to preservation has been described as
the ‘Yellowstone model’, a model that emphasized national parks which people may
visit as tourists, but neither reside in nor exploit to support a resource-bases
livelihood.
Geographic Perspectives on Exploitation, Conservation, and Preservation
The concept of scale may be used in somewhat different ways. In cartography scale refers to
the distance on the map in relation to the distance on the surface of Earth. As such, relatively
small-scale maps show larger areas because the fraction of distance on the map over distance
on the Earth’s surface is mall. As such, one might analyse a problem at the scale of a local
community, or at level of a park, or using data aggregated at the scale of a state or province or
some broader scale
- The modification areal unit problem are two issues related to scale
1. Within geography, there is also a body of scholarship on the politics of scale
these studies examine the political implications of the choice of scale at which
an environmental issue is articulated and conceptualized. ‘Using scale as a
framing device is powerful political strategy, because focusing on a particular
scale presupposes certain kinds of solutions while forecasting others.
, 2. We may think about scale in at least 3 different ways in our case: the scale at
which the approach is implemented, the scale at which the approach is
analyzed, and the scale at which the approach is discussed or discursive scale
· The scale at which an approach is implemented or analyzed are sometimes
referred to as scale frames.
· In practical terms, the scale at which the preservationist approach may be
implemented is limited by the need for humans to use natural resources.
- In contrast to preservation, conservation could at least in theory be implanted at a
much broader scale because it allows for human use of resources within biological
limits. In such a situation, people in all places would be allowed to tend to their needs,
yet would be required to operate within the biological limits of the environment
- Many would assert that capitalism itself promotes a patchwork of uses on the
landscape, with capital accumulation in one area leading to capital depletion in
another.
- Analyzing preservation and conservation at the scale of a land management unit
allows one to arrive at one set of conclusions about the nature of these approaches
- However, as the scale frame is narrow or broaden, the homogeneity or heterogeneity
of land-use practices changes, and the characterization of what is happening changes
as well.
- As such, the scale at which an approach is presented or analysed is a choice with
political and ideological implications.
If one pulls back from the land management unit and begins to analyse the situation at
broader scales, at least three other geographic issues begin to become apparent:
1. Patterns of land use (how the landscape is divided up into different land-use units
2. The economic and ecological connections between different areal units and the politics of
these linkages
3. Synergistic human-environment interactions
- Preservation at the local sclae could violate conservation at a broader scale if it leads
to overexploitation on other parcels.
- Underpinning the land-use mosaic are a variety of economic and ecological linkages
between preservation areas and other point on the landscape
- At a very basic level, the non-use or non-consumptive use of resources in certain
areas implies uses that could have occurred in these areas likely have shifted
elsewhere.
- It is the ‘subsidy’ provided by intensive use of ‘normal use areas’ (both as sources of
resources and sites of human habitation) that allows people to set aside areas for
preservation.
Week 1
Moseley et al. (2014). Chapter 1: Introduction
The ability of some societies to manage their resources sustainably, the role of science in the
use and management of resources, the seeming inability of the global capitalist system to
limit consumption, the role that non-human actors may play in transmitting the impacts of
one human action to another human group, and the limits of preservation in open ecosystems
and economies.
-> All of these themes and more are central to the dynamic subfield of human-environment
geography
The objectives of this chapter are:
1. To suggest that humans, like other animals, are able to sustainably interact with their
environment
2. To highlight the pressing nature of some contemporary environmental problems
3. To articulate the relevance of the geographic perspective to environmental questions
4. To outline broad elements of a human-environment geography approach to environmental
questions
5. To demonstrate what new insights may be gleaned by applying the human-environment
geography approach to some basic natural resource management concepts and an
example of this in US environmental history
6. To share the general plan and logic of the book
Animals and their habits
New migrants failed to understand the ecology of an area and attempted management
approaches that were inappropriate for their new location.
- Still other developed intensive production systems which required significant amount
of human labour to maintain. But when political instability or disease disrupted these
labour flows, such systems quickly fell into decline and the productivity of the
environment declined.
- The significance of this trade, combined with urbanization, was that it gradually
separated people from the sources of their food and goods and the byproducts of their
consumption. We were losing our ability to productively and sustainably engage with
ecosystems. Today we live in a world where many consumers in the most developed
, areas of the world have little to no idea where their provisions originate from and how
they are produced.
- We also live on a planet where the consequences of such detachment from the
biophysical world seem to be growing
- Not alle ecological challenges are a direct result of human modifying the environment
in a problematic manner. In some cases it may have more to do with ‘how humans
position themselves vis-à-vis the biophysical world
- Clearly many of the challenges could be avoided if we better understood our place
within, and relationship to, the biophysical world.
What is Geography and What Does It Have To Do with Studying the Environment?
Geography is a broad discipline that essentially seeks to understand and study the spatial
organization of human activity and of people’s relationships with their environment
- It is also about recognizing the interdependence among places and regions, without
losing sight of the individuality and uniqueness of specific places.
- By displaying data spatially (maps), it pushes geographers to ask why things are
distributed the way they are, or it may reveal patterns or correlations which had not
previously been seen.
- There are sub-specialists within the discipline based on the subject matter addresses
- The study of biophysical phenomena (physical geography), seeking to
understand long-term climate patterns and change (climatology), patterns of
plant and animal distribution (biogeography), and the origin and evolution of
landforms (geomorphology)
- The examination of human or social phenomena (human geography) studies
the patterns and dynamics of human activity on the landscape, including
settlement, urbanization, economic activity, culture, population, development
and disease.
- Between physical and human geography, lies the vibrant arena of human-environment
geography. The investigation of nature-society relationships lies at the heart of geography
- While we tend to think of the environment as ‘natural’ and more prominent in areas with
fewer people, we will argue that the built environment is of no less concern than many
so-called natural areas, and that both are products of human actions
-Geography has long been known for its techniques for presenting and manipulating spatial
data, particularly cartography or mapping. What is important to remember is that most
geographers use these techniques as a bridge to greater understanding.
A Geographic Perspective on Environmental Questions
,Four perspectives:
1. Scale-sensitive analysis
2. Attention to spatial patterns of resource use
3. A conception of the human-environment system as a single unit rather than two separate
parts
4. A cognizance of the connections between places and regions
Conventional Understanding of Exploitation, Conservation, and Preservation
- Exploitation refers to the use of a resource without regard to its long-term
productivity, usually by over-harvesting in the short term
- Conservation refers to use within certain biological limits, or within the annual
growth increment of a particular resource. In the case of forests or fisheries, this
annual growth increment is also referred to as the sustainable yield or maximum
sustainable yield
- Preservation refers to the non-use or non-consumptive use of natural resources in an
area. In some instances, an area is completely off limits to humans. More frequently,
non-consumptive uses are allowed
- The rationale for preservation is that certain areas must be set aside for compelling g
aesthetic or biodiversity reasons. This approach to preservation has been described as
the ‘Yellowstone model’, a model that emphasized national parks which people may
visit as tourists, but neither reside in nor exploit to support a resource-bases
livelihood.
Geographic Perspectives on Exploitation, Conservation, and Preservation
The concept of scale may be used in somewhat different ways. In cartography scale refers to
the distance on the map in relation to the distance on the surface of Earth. As such, relatively
small-scale maps show larger areas because the fraction of distance on the map over distance
on the Earth’s surface is mall. As such, one might analyse a problem at the scale of a local
community, or at level of a park, or using data aggregated at the scale of a state or province or
some broader scale
- The modification areal unit problem are two issues related to scale
1. Within geography, there is also a body of scholarship on the politics of scale
these studies examine the political implications of the choice of scale at which
an environmental issue is articulated and conceptualized. ‘Using scale as a
framing device is powerful political strategy, because focusing on a particular
scale presupposes certain kinds of solutions while forecasting others.
, 2. We may think about scale in at least 3 different ways in our case: the scale at
which the approach is implemented, the scale at which the approach is
analyzed, and the scale at which the approach is discussed or discursive scale
· The scale at which an approach is implemented or analyzed are sometimes
referred to as scale frames.
· In practical terms, the scale at which the preservationist approach may be
implemented is limited by the need for humans to use natural resources.
- In contrast to preservation, conservation could at least in theory be implanted at a
much broader scale because it allows for human use of resources within biological
limits. In such a situation, people in all places would be allowed to tend to their needs,
yet would be required to operate within the biological limits of the environment
- Many would assert that capitalism itself promotes a patchwork of uses on the
landscape, with capital accumulation in one area leading to capital depletion in
another.
- Analyzing preservation and conservation at the scale of a land management unit
allows one to arrive at one set of conclusions about the nature of these approaches
- However, as the scale frame is narrow or broaden, the homogeneity or heterogeneity
of land-use practices changes, and the characterization of what is happening changes
as well.
- As such, the scale at which an approach is presented or analysed is a choice with
political and ideological implications.
If one pulls back from the land management unit and begins to analyse the situation at
broader scales, at least three other geographic issues begin to become apparent:
1. Patterns of land use (how the landscape is divided up into different land-use units
2. The economic and ecological connections between different areal units and the politics of
these linkages
3. Synergistic human-environment interactions
- Preservation at the local sclae could violate conservation at a broader scale if it leads
to overexploitation on other parcels.
- Underpinning the land-use mosaic are a variety of economic and ecological linkages
between preservation areas and other point on the landscape
- At a very basic level, the non-use or non-consumptive use of resources in certain
areas implies uses that could have occurred in these areas likely have shifted
elsewhere.
- It is the ‘subsidy’ provided by intensive use of ‘normal use areas’ (both as sources of
resources and sites of human habitation) that allows people to set aside areas for
preservation.
