Humans and the
Environment (Ch. 12)
Week 7 Lecture
GEOG 129 Human Geography: Resources, Development
and Society
25 February, 2025
Notices
Feedback on Midterm Exam by Friday
Second Essay is due Friday March 21
Feedback on First Essay?
Office Hour: Thursdays 11-12pm (TA office Hours)
Class Feedback on Essay
• Class average: 15.5 (78%)
• Integrating the three dimensions of the essay
(reflections on learning from the course, place case
study, application of selected concepts)
• Reflective voice
• Active deployment of concepts
• Summarizing what we discussed in class Vs reflection
on what you’ve learnt from the course.
ESSAY 2
A geographical perspective can provide an important
understanding of the differences across the world’s
peoples and places. Discuss this claim by reflecting
on your learning on this course. Draw on key
concepts and ideas that you have learned so far in
this course to explore a specific, named issue of
difference and show how human geography can
generate interesting insights and questions about the
issue.
ESSAY 2
Your named issue of difference could be any single
aspect of economic, social, environmental or
cultural difference. You could discuss the issue in a
more general or global way, or you could use an
example of an issue of difference grounded in a
specific place or region. Think of this as exploring
the difference among the world’s peoples that you
find the most interesting.
1500 words, excluding the front page and
references.
Tutorial Prep
Watch the 80-minute video This Changes Everything from
the link below: https://go.exlibris.link/8bYpWdl7
Answer the following 4 questions
1. What ideas/thoughts do you find striking in the video
2. What is ‘the story’ that Naomi Klein talked about? Can we
change the trajectory of climate change by changing ‘the story’?
3. What does the video reveal about human dependence on the
environment?
4. What does the video reveal about the idea of the Anthropocene?
Reading for Next Week
Topic: Humans and the Environment
10th Edition: (Chapter 12, pages 456-480 or from
‘Human Impacts on Vegetation’ to end of
chapter)
11th Edition: Chapter 2, pages 54 – 77
Questions
Image: Pixabay
Outline
Intro:
How human activities drive environmental change
Human dependence on the environment:
Energy, technology, resources
Human impact on the environment:
Environmental crisis and concern
Human impacts on vegetation, animal and climate
Sustainability and sustainable development
Topic Learning Outcomes
Appreciate the extent of human dependence and impacts on
the environment
Outline how human activities drive environmental change
Discuss the concepts of ecosystems, energy, technology,
resources and sustainability
Outline the characteristics of different source of energy
Discuss the history of environmental concern
Discuss human impacts on vegetation, animals and climate
Intro: human-environment interaction
The planet is changing, and rapidly
Significant increases in human impact
• Better understanding of those impacts too
Impacts threaten future human dependence
• i.e. cyclical interaction of dependence & impact
Interconnection of nature
Intro: human-environment interaction
Intro: human-environment interaction
The planetary boundaries (The Stockholm Resilience Institute)
ro: human-environment interaction
Intro: human-environment interaction
Anthropocene:
After the Holocene
1945? or 1640? Or 12,000
yrs ago?
Impact on geological record
(e.g. disappearance of coral
reefs)
Source: Mercier and Norton, 2019
Anthropocene? Or
Intro: Connecting human activities to environmental
change
1) Small changes
repeated often
enough
e.g. basic subsistence
agriculture, grazing etc
(cf. shifting cultivation)
Ekuri Forest, Cross River, Nigeria (Source: Fieldwork photo)
Intro: Connecting human activities to environmental
change
2) Technological
developments related
to energy demands (Source: livescience)
(Source: aircanada)
Intro: Connecting human activities to environmental
change
3) The lifestyles
promoted by
technological
advances
(Source: MIT News)
Intro: Connecting human activities to environmental
change
4) Human populations
(Source: letsfarm)
Intro: Connecting human activities to environmental
change
5) Increasing
interconnections of
regions and places –
globalizing scale of
impacts
(Source: Nasa)
Intro: Connecting human activities to
environmental change
Human activities lead to environmental change at
different rates across the world
Differential rates of consumption and waste
production
Intro:
Connecting
human
activities to
environment
al change
Intro:
Connecting
human
activities to
environment
al change
The
unevenne
ss of
lifestyle
consumpti
on
emissions
Intro:
Connecting
human
activities to
environment
al change
Consumption,
technology and
energy sources
have greater
significance than
population
Liberia and
Denmark
Have 5million plus
population
Yet, Denmark’s
per capita
What is interesting, surprising or striking
in the video?
How can we even up the average rate of
resource use around the world and still
do it at a level the earth can sustain?
Globally uneven dependence and impact
To learn more, see Global Goalcast https://globalgoalscast.org/32to1/
Human dependence on the
environment: Energy, technology,
resources
human dependence on the environment
Can/will
the environment continue to sustain human
dependence?
What’sthe nature of human dependence on the
environment?
How has it changed over time, different across places?
How is society responding to the imperatives of
sustenance?
human dependence on the environment
Human-environment
dependence in one place
affects other places, in
principle.
Practical understanding &
significance may vary
A whole-earth or global view
becomes important
human dependence on the environment
1) Systems: how complex realities function,
difference and interactions among parts, coherent
whole
Closed: no input/output, rare
Open: input/output interaction with the surrounding
Feedback:
interactions that reinforce or counter
system dynamics and patterns
Human dependence on the environment
2) Ecology
Ecosystems
Earthas an ecosystem: ecosphere. Closed or open
system?
Hydrosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere
Dynamic: cycling of matter and flow of energy
Humans shape ecosystems through simplification
Human dependence on the environment
Single energy
source
Energy, technology and resources
Energy, technology and resources
Which ones are forms of technology?
Energy, technology and resources
Energy: Capacity to do work.
Meeting survival needs and
unlimited wants
Technology: means of
harnessing and converting
energy to useful form
Natural converters: Fire, plants
and animals
Manmade converters: machines
that covert wind, water and fossil
energies
Energy, technology and resources
Natural Resources?
Physical environment + human
values (useful technologically,
socially, economically,
politically) Bitumen
Stock, renewable, and in-
betweens where most resources
are
Different across groups, space
and time
Energy, technology and resources
Stock resources as energy
Fossil energy = 87% globally
Energy, technology and resources
Stock resources as
energy
Continued demand
rise
• Estimated 50% by
2030
• Peak oil?
Source: Countercurrents
Disjuncture between production and discovery of oil?
Energy, technology and resources
Stock resources
as energy
Climate change –
‘peak demand’?
Other imperatives for
change to renewable
energy
Energy, technology and resources
Group Work
Renewables:
a. Geographies of deployment or
1. Hydro distribution
2. Nuclear b. Cost and other economic
3. Wind implications
4. Solar c. Social and environmental impacts
5. Geothermal d. Social acceptability
e. Future potential
6. Biofuels International
other sources
Energy Agency, Our world in data, Wikipedia,
End
