Transcript WG-3 - A Virtual Field Trip of Physical Geography in Ventura County

NORTH AMERICA
DEFINING THE REALM
• IN THIS CHAPTER
• Spectacular Scenery—
Natural Wealth
• The American Creed
• Bilingualism in Canada
• The Geography of Home
Foreclosures
• Immigration and the Future
of Multiculturalism
NORTH AMERICA
Population Clusters
• Cultural Pluralism—
people of different
cultures live adjacent to
each other but do not mix
• Canada
‒ East and South Asian
• United States
‒ Hispanic (16%)
‒ African American (13%)
‒ Other Ethnic Backgrounds
• Current US Population
= 300-million +
NORTH AMERICA’S
PHYSICAL
GEOGRAPHY
Physiographic Regions
• Plains
• Coastal Plains
‒ Gulf-Atlantic Coastal
‒ Arctic Coastal Plain
• Interior Plains
‒ Interior Lowlands
‒ Great Plains
• Canadian Shield
• Mountains and Highlands
‒
‒
‒
‒
Appalachian Highlands
Interior Highlands
Rocky Mountains
Intermountain Basins and
Plateaus
‒ Pacific Mountains and
Valleys
NORTH AMERICA
Climates
• Diversity of Environments
• Tropical A
‒ Southern tip of Florida
• Moist coastal zones C
‒ East Coast—humid Cfa
‒ West Coast—Cs and Cfb
• Arid Interior and West B
‒ Vegetation
‒ Scrub and brush
‒ Great Plains
• Northern D and Polar E
• Rain Shadow Effect
• West coast eastside of inland mountains
‒ Moisture-laden air arrives from the Pacific,
precipitation on mountainous west, dry on east
NORTH AMERICA
Native Americans and
European Settlement
• Native Americans—
U.S.
• First Nations—
Canada
‒ Metis
‒ Inuit
• European
‒ Britain
‒ France
• Languages
‒ English is Lingua
Franca; enhances
mobility within
realm
NORTH AMERICA
Predominant Religions
• Baptists
‒ Southeast from Texas to
Virginia
• Lutherans
‒ Upper Midwest
‒ Northern Great Plains
• Methodists
‒ Lower Midwest
• Mormons
‒ Interior West centered on
Utah
• Roman Catholics
‒ United States
• Southwest—Hispanics
• Northeast—Irish and Italians
‒ Canada
• Quebec
• Federal States
• Canada
‒ 10 Provinces, 3 Territories
• United States
‒ 50 States
NORTH AMERICA
Distribution of Natural Resources
• Water: rivers, lakes, ice
• Minerals—concentrated in three zones:
– Canadian Shield
• Iron ore, nickel, copper, gold, uranium, and diamonds
– Appalachians
• Iron ore, lead, and zinc
– Western Mountains
• Copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, uranium, silver, and gold
• Fossil Fuels
– Oil and Natural Gas
– Coal
NORTH AMERICA
Energy and Mineral
Deposits
• Oil/Natural Gas
Production Areas:
• Gulf Coast
‒ Coastal zone and offshore
• Midcontinent District
‒ Western Texas to eastern
Kansas
• Alaska’s North Slope
‒ Facing and extending
below the Arctic Ocean
• Canada’s Northeastern
‒ Alberta (tar sands)
• Coal Reserves
‒ Appalachian Mountains
‒ Beneath the Great Plains
‒ Southern Midwest
‒ Rocky Mountains
NORTH AMERICA
Industrialization and
Urbanization
• Industrial Revolution
• American
Manufacturing Belt
• Areas of Growth
• Movement of Goods
NORTH AMERICA
Deindustrialization and Suburbanization
• Deindustrialization
– Began in 1960s – loss of manufacturing (and jobs) due to
automation
• Suburbanization
– Outer cities became destination for economic activity
(suburbs)
• Information Economy
– Quaternary Sector
• Technology/Science/Business Centers
• Ex. Silicon Valley: NorCal global tech industry
NORTH AMERICA
Polycentric Cities
• Gentrification
• Limited return of more
affluent residents
• Construction of multipleuse high-rises
• Displacement of lowincome local residents
• Raise real estate value,
taxes, living costs
• Often spark resistance and
conflict
‒ Los Angeles example:
Metropolis with 6 nodes
(YOU are in North West/San
Fernando)
Effects of Great Recession
• Housing Loss/Negative Equity
NORTH AMERICA
Multicultural Realm
• Mobile Populations – East to SouthWest
• Migration – near constant immigration
(large influx of people of Latino/Asian descent)
• Melting Pot or Mosaic Culture
– Melting Pot – assumed assimilation to norm culture
– Immigrant numbers in America sufficient to create
durable societies within the national society, thus
defying the melting pot idea (USA and Canada)
– Complex ethnic and cultural mosaic (in US large
number of people with African/Hispanic descent, in
Canada Asian and Montreal large French descent)
NORTH AMERICA
REGIONS OF THE REALM
• U.S.-Canada Cross-Border
Linkages
• The Hispanicization of the
Southwest
• The Natural Riches of the
Northern Frontier
• Miami: South of the South
• China’s Impact on the
Pacific Hinge
• The Alaskan Frontier and
U.S. Geopolitics
NORTH AMERICA
• REGIONS OF THE
REALM
• North American Core
• Maritime Northeast
• French Canada
• Southeast
• Southwest
• Pacific Hinge
• Western Frontier
• Continental Interior
• Northern Frontier
NORTH AMERICA
Canada’s Spatial
Structure
• Second largest country in
the world territorially
• Atlantic Provinces
‒ Prince Edward Island
‒ Nova Scotia
‒ New Brunswick
‒ Newfoundland and
Labrador
• Francophone Quebec
• Populous, heavily
urbanized Ontario
NORTH AMERICA
Canada’s Spatial
Structure
• Western Canada
‒ Prairie Provinces
• Manitoba
• Saskatchewan
• Alberta
‒ British Columbia
• Arctic North
‒ Yukon
‒ Northwest Territories
• Nunavut—”Our Land”
‒ Created in 1999
‒ All of Canada’s Eastern
Arctic
‒ Inuit People
• Population Clustered
‒ Along 300-km (200-mi) of
U.S. border
‒ Along ocean shores
• Population pattern creates
cross-border affinities with
major American cities
‒ Toronto-Buffalo
‒ Windsor-Detroit
‒ Vancouver-Seattle
NORTH AMERICA
Canada’s
Cultural Contrasts
• Capital—Ottawa
‒ Located on Ottawa River
• Between English-speaking
Ontario and French-speaking
Quebec
• English-Speaking Canada
‒ 60% of population
• Head of State
‒ Queen Elizabeth II
‒ Part of the British
Commonwealth
• Represented by Governor
General
• French-Speaking Canada
‒ 23% of population
• Politics of Devolution
• Secession threat that weakens
state (West vs. East)
‒ Quebec
• 80% French Canadian
• Historic, traditional, and
emotional focus of French
culture in Canada
• Nationalist movement
NORTH AMERICA
Canada: Ascendancy of
Indigenous Peoples
• First Nations
‒ 1.4 million native people (First
Nations, Métis, and Inuit)
• Creation of Nunavut
• Treaties for self-government
in northern British Columbia
• CreeHistoric domain covers
the northern half of Quebec
‒ James Bay Hydroelectric
Project
• Cree attempted to block
construction
• Dropped opposition in return for
income from electricity
• Secured the right to control their
own economic and community
development
Regionalism and Ethnicity
in the United States
• As compared with
Canada…
– No serious contemporary
campaign for secession,
or withdrawal for
political independence,
since the Civil War.
– Indigenous peoples were
weakened by westward
push of European
settlers:
• Loss of population
and territory
• Little political power
NORTH AMERICA
Regionalism and Ethnicity
in the United States
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The North American Core
• Largest Cities and Federal
Capitals
• Leading Financial Markets
• Largest Number of
Corporate Headquarters
• Dominant Media Centers
• Prestigious Universities
• Cutting-Edge Research
Complexes
• Busiest Airports and
Intercity Expressways
• More than One-Third
National Populations
• American Manufacturing
Belt
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Maritime Northeast
• Northern Border of
Massachusetts to
Newfoundland
• Difficult Environments
• Maritime Orientation
• Limited Resources
• Rural Character
• Slow Economic
Development
• Primary Industries
‒ Fishing, Logging, Farming,
Recreation, and Tourism
‒ Discovery of offshore oil
reserves of Newfoundland
and Labrador
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
French Canada
•Southern Quebec
‒ Focused on St. Lawrence
River Valley—Montreal to
the River’s Mouth
•French-speaking Acadians in
New Brunswick
‒ Reject the notion of
independence and promote
efforts to keep Quebec
within the Canadian
federation
•Montreal
‒ Information Technology
‒ Telecommunications
‒ Biopharmaceuticals
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Southeast
• Sunbelt Migration in
1970s
• Core-region companies
located subsidiary
offices
‒ Atlanta, Charlotte,
Miami-Fort
Lauderdale, Tampa
• Racial segregation
dismantled by civil
rights movement
• New facilities: Airports
(Atlanta) to theme
parks, CNN, Cape
Canaveral
• Gap between rich and poor
wide
• New South
‒ Virginia’s Washington
suburbs, North Carolina’s
Research Triangle,
Tennessee’s Oak Ridge
complex, Atlanta’s corporate
campuses
• Old South
‒ Appalachia and rural
Mississippi
‒ Tobacco, cotton, and sugar
plantations
• Climate
‒ Warmer and more humid
than Core and Southwest
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Southwest
• East Texas to Eastern
Southern California
• Environment
‒ Arid—Steppe and Desert
• Culture
‒ Anglo
‒ Hispanic
‒ Native American
• Economy
‒ Oil and Natural Gas
‒ Technopoles—State-of-the-
Art, High Technology
Industrial Complexes
‒ NAFTA
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Pacific Hinge
• California’s border with
Mexico to Vancouver,
British Columbia
‒ California, western portions
of Oregon and Washington
‒ San Diego, Los Angeles,
San Francisco, Portland, and
Seattle
•California
‒ America’s most populous state
‒ Economy within world’s ten largest
‒ Productive agricultural regionCalifornia’s
Central Valley
‒ Spectacular economic growth
‒ Culturally diverse population
•Involvement in the economic growth of
countries on opposite shores of the Pacific Ocean
•Key interface between North American realm
and the Pacific Rim
‒ China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam,
Singapore
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Western Frontier
• From the Sierra Nevada
Mountains and Cascades to
the Rocky Mountains
• Parts of southern Alberta
and British Columbia,
eastern Washington State
and Oregon, all of Nevada,
Utah, and Idaho, western
Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado
•Las Vegas
‒ Fast-growing metropolitan area
‒ 40 million visitors annually
‒ Now, foreclosure, unemployment, due to national and global economic crises
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Continental Interior
• Interior Canada to the
borders of the Southeast
and Southwest
• Kansas City, Omaha,
Minneapolis, Winnipeg
• Agriculture—Breadbasket
‒ Meat Belt—beef and pork
‒ Corn Belt—animal feed and
ethanol
‒ Soybean
‒ Spring Wheat—Dakotas and
Prairie Provinces
‒ Winter Wheat—Kansas
• Food processing, packing,
marketing, flour milling,
soybean, sunflower and
canola oil production
U.S. FARM RESOURCE REGIONS
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Northern Frontier
• Largest region of the realm
• 90% of Canada and Alaska
• Isolated settlement
• Resources
• Canadian Shield
• Metallic ores such as nickel,
uranium, copper, gold, silver,
lead, and zinc
• Yukon and Northwest
Territories
• Gold and diamonds
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Northern Frontier
•Alberta
‒ Oil reserves—Tar sands
•Vast deposits of “oil
sands”petroleum is mixed
with sand
‒ Expensive, complicated,
damaging process to extract
•Athabasca Tar Sands
constitute one of the world’s
largest reserves
•Open-pit mining, Fort
McMurray
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Northern Frontier
•Alaska
‒ North Slope oil
‒
‒
‒
‒
exploitation1300kilometer (800-mi)
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Brooks Range to Arctic
Ocean
Dwindling supplies at
Prudhoe Bay
Additional reserves in
Alaska’s north
Opposition from
preservationist groups
• Climate Change
• Global Warming very observable
• Recession of Arctic ice
• Fauna threatened
• Altered shipping routes and
intercontinental distances
NORTH AMERICA
Regions of North
America
The Northern Frontier
•Canadian Boreal Forest
Agreement
•Involves 21 logging firms, 9
environmental organizations, and
the Canadian government
•Moratorium on logging within
certain areas
•Boreal forest
‒ Dense stands of coniferous
needle leaf trees (spruce, fir,
and pine)
‒ Habitat of endangered wildlife
species (caribou, lynx,
American black bear, and
wolverine)
Homework
1. Read Textbook Chapter 3a/b
2. Homework:
• Choose one “@from the Field Notes”
subsection topic in Ch.3 textbook; research
and summarize (1 page).
OR
• Choose a realm/region within or adjacent
to North America to review in detail (1
page). Use Chapter 3b for ideas and
information, research and summarize.