Transcript Industrialization - Wando High School

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
PEOPLE AND THEIR
ENVIRONMENT
Northern Europe
Northwestern Europe
Southern Europe
NORTHERN EUROPE
HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT
Northern Europe, also referred to as the Nordic
countries, has been shaped by years of
invasions, migrations, and trade.
 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland have
similar structures of societies and cultural traits.
 Industrialization brought an influx of new
social classes, which changed the political
culture.
 Following WWII, the Nordic countries developed
democracies.

POPULATION PATTERNS
 Migration
and ethnicity have
influenced where people have settled.
 The Sami are descendants of nomadic
peoples who lived in Scandinavia for
thousands of years.
 The Nordic countries have lower
population densities than most other
countries in Europe.
 Populations concentrate in areas near
the sea and in metropolitan areas.
SOCIETY AND CULTURE TODAY
While Protestant religions dominate in every
Nordic country, society is very secular.
 Northern Europe is filled with the world’s most
educated population, with literacy rates at
nearly 100 percent throughout the region.
 The governments function as welfare states,
providing social services but levying large taxes.
 Women are achieving equal status in Nordic
society, nearing the same status as men in the
workplace.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
All of the Nordic countries are small, open
economies that rely on foreign trade.
 Nordic countries rapidly evolved from agrarianbased economies into modern, industrialized
countries.
 Commercial fishing, mining, forestry, and
energy are the main resources in the area.
 The Nordic model emphasizes labor force
participation and promotes gender equality
and fiscal expansion.

MANAGING RESOURCES
Natural factors and human activity are causing
environmental problems.
 The Baltic Sea has a unique ecology because of
its isolation from the open ocean.
 Increased shipping has brought a number of
invasive species, non-native organisms that
threaten local habitats.
 Industrialization has damaged many wetlands.

HUMAN IMPACT
 Climate
change, acid rain, and
pollution are affecting Northern Europe.
 Scandinavian scientists were among the
first to understand the environmental
effects of acid rain.
 The high latitudes and steep mountain
valleys make climate change more
noticeable in Northern Europe.
ADDRESSING THE ISSUES
Governments and civic groups are taking steps to
address environmental problems.
 Environmental management focuses on
sustainability and long-term planning.
 Conservation has been an important issue for
the Nordic countries for over 100 years.
 The region supports ecotourism, a way to
encourage tourism that limits damage to the
unique lands of Northern Europe.

NORTHWESTERN EUROPE
HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT
Northwestern Europe was profoundly influenced
by Christianity and the Roman Empire.
 The Crusades opened up trade routes to the
eastern Mediterranean.
 During the Enlightenment, people began to
embrace reason and to question tradition.
 The European Union was formed in the 1990s
as an alliance that works toward European
economic and political unity.

POPULATION PATTERNS
Internal and external migration have shaped
this area of Europe.
 After World War II, guest workers, or foreign
laborers working temporarily in industrialized
countries, helped encourage economic growth
in the postwar period.
 Low birthrates have resulted in decreasing
populations in some countries.
 Cities along navigable rivers like the Seine and
Thames are key trading centers.

SOCIETY AND CULTURE
 Many
people speak more than one language
in most of the countries located in
Northwestern Europe.
 Christianity is the primary religion in the
region, although many do not actively
practice their faith.
 Women in this region achieved suffrage, or
the right to vote, before women in the United
States and many other areas of the world.
 Many influential artistic movements began
here, such as Romanticism, Realism, and
Impressionism.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
Northwestern Europe is the birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution.
 Over 70 % of workers are employed in service
industries.
 Agribusiness, or large-scale corporate farming,
arose to address the increasing demand for food
as the number of farmers shrank.
 The EU has achieved high volumes of trade by
eliminating tariffs and trade barriers among
member nations.

MANAGING RESOURCES
As a highly developed and industrialized
economy, Northwestern Europe consumes large
amounts of natural resources and generates
large amounts of waste products.
 Countries that border the Mediterranean Sea
sometimes use it for waste disposal.
 Overfishing has been a problem in the
subregion.
 Fragmentation of the landscape is causing
some animal populations to become isolated.

HUMAN IMPACT
 Manufacturing
and heavy auto use has
increased air pollution.
 Polluted clouds drift from the industrial
belt and cause acid deposition, wet or dry
acid pollution that falls to the ground.
 This acid pollution withers forests,
reduces oxygen for fish in rivers and
lakes, and even damages buildings.
ADDRESSING THE ISSUE
Countries in the EU can face legal action if they
do not respect environmental protection
laws.
 Many factories now burn natural gas instead of
coal, or are powered by alternative energy
sources.
 All the countries in Northwestern Europe have
ratified the Kyoto Protocol, part of a treaty on
climate change.
 Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
are working to protect ecosystems.

SOUTHERN EUROPE
HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT
The civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome laid
the foundation for Western civilization.
 The Renaissance marked a period of cultural
revival and enlightenment.
 Spain and Portugal became leaders in the Age of
Exploration, establishing new empires.
 Nationalism and unification in the 1800s and
1900s brought political stability to the area.
 Recent economic challenges include high
unemployment rates and credit problems.

POPULATION PATTERNS
Southern Europe is one of the most populated
regions of the world.
 As the populations of Greece, Italy, and Spain
age and the birthrates fall, care for the elderly
is straining the social welfare systems.
 Demand for labor is being met by migrants
within the European Union.
 Economic migration throughout the EU has
resulted in a growing diversity of cultures.

SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Education in Southern Europe is mandatory
for all children.
 The cultures of Greece, Spain, and Italy are
centered on the family and are influenced by the
Roman Catholic religion.
 Women have achieved a high level of gender
equality in higher education and business,
though their success in politics has been slower
to develop.
 The Greeks and Romans developed many
important elements of art and architecture.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
The global recession of 2008 hit Southern
Europe hard.
 Spain and Italy continue to face challenges.
 As one of the least developed in the area, Greece’s
economy remains weak as it grapples with high
public spending, low productivity, and tax
evasion.
 The EU is facing its first test of economic
stability with Southern Europe suffering from
record national debt and high unemployment.

MANAGING RESOURCES
Large algae blooms are damaging the delicate
marine biomes of the Adriatic Sea.
 Changes in the global climate has made
weather more unpredictable.
 Effects of climate change include increased
erosion, higher risk of fires, increased
deforestation, and the loss of glaciers at high
altitudes.

HUMAN IMPACT
The decline of fish stocks has adversely affected
the overall health of the marine biome.
 Manufacturing and tourism cause pollution
that is a major threat to surrounding seas and
agricultural resources.
 Pollutants and other human impacts have led to
pollution hot spots, the extreme damage or
even death of the local ecosystem.

ADDRESSING THE ISSUES
The EU created the European Environmental
Agency to effectively deal with environmental
issues.
 Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
such as Earthwatch, are working on solutions to
environmental problems.
 Certification is a way to combat deforestation
and to ensure that forest resources are being
used responsibly.
