Transcript Last Thursday

Today
• North Africa and Southwest Asia
Role of the geography (location &
situation) of
Resources and settlement
Populations & demography
© T. M. Whitmore
Last Time
• Underdevelopment in SS Africa
• Questions?
© T. M. Whitmore
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Some Comments on the Papers
Mostly good efforts. But some problems, too!
Some papers had no thesis at all
In some papers, the thesis was not connected
to the rest of the paper
Some papers exhibited poor organization
Some papers failed to show a clear connection
to the topic assigned
Globalization was frequently equated with
mere economic growth and urban expansion
Some papers stated a series of facts but
never drew actual conclusions from them
Some papers brought up globalization and its
© T. M. Whitmore
effects too generally and superficially
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More comments
Some papers showed no sources at all
Some papers made general claims without
substantiating them
Inappropriate sources were a problem
There was heavy reliance on internet sources,
some of doubtful reliability
Some noted sources at the end of the paper
but used no citations in the text
Some writers simply asserted opinion for fact
Grammar and proofreading are important
Style in some papers was too casual and
informal
© T. M. Whitmore
North Africa and SW Asia
(the “Middle East”)
• THEMES to characterize this region
Role of the geography (location &
situation) of resources and settlement
Role of the geography of
population/demography
Role of Culture, Religion, Ethnicity
Role of historical developments in
current geopolitical landscape
© T. M. Whitmore
A region at the center of world events
• At the intersection of the largest
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continents
Origins of agriculture and cities
Origin of three major religions
Center of multiple empires
Center of world oil production
Historical center of political Islam
Site of destabilizing armed conflicts
including the Iraq war and the ArabIsraeli conflict.
© T. M. Whitmore
© T. M. Whitmore
Geophysical Environment
• Aridity
• Regional Exceptions
• Deserts
Sahara
Arabian
Iranian
© T. M. Whitmore
Less than 100
100 - 200
200 - 400
400 - 600
600 - 1,000
1,000 - 1,500
1,500 - 2,000
2,000 - 3,000
More than 3,000
Mean annual precipitation in mm
NASA World Wind
Key Landscapes of Settlement
• N. slopes of Atlas Mtns.
• Nile valley
• Eastern Mediterranean
• Coastal Turkey
• Mesopotamia (Iraq)
• Slopes of Zagros and Elburz mtns in
Iran
• Elevated and southern areas in
Sudan
• Commonalities to these places
© T. M. Whitmore
© T. M. Whitmore
Source: NASA World Wind
Nile valley
Source: NASA World Wind
Coastal Turkey
Mesopotamia (Iraq)
Source: NASA World Wind
Natural resources-Water
• Controls settlement
• Source of significant political
contention
• Presence (or lack) supports
various livelihoods
Irrigated agriculture
Nomadism/herding
© T. M. Whitmore
Irrigated land
Source Atlas of the biosphere
Exotic rivers
Area of detail on next slide
NASA World Wind (Blue marble image)
Center pivot irrigation at Wadi As-Sirhan, Saudi Arabia
Landsat 7 image
Bedouin pastoralists
Traditional pastoralist regions during the late 19th and early
20th centuries
Natural resources II - Petroleum
• Spatial Distribution
• Reserves
• Production
• US dependence
• Major regions for oil & gas
Key importance of the “Gulf”
© T. M. Whitmore
World Crude Oil Production, 1973-2004
Million Barrels per Day
North America
World Oil Consumption in 1,000 barrels per day
17.2 m barrels/day
Population/Demography
• Population Totals
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Uneven geography
Among the fastest growing (~ 2%/yr)
populations
Some of the highest fertility (TFR ~
3.5) in the world
{Global averages ~1.5%/yr & TFR ~2.7}
Mortality: ~ “3rd world” average (Eo ~63;
IMR ~ 50/1000)
Urbanization
Higher than “3rd world” average© T. M. Whitmore
Population Density
Religion — A source of commonality
and division
• Islam (Muslim)
Sunni
Shíite
Fundamentalists
• Judaism
• Christianity
© T. M. Whitmore
© T. M. Whitmore
© Bret Wallach