Geographic realms:
largest units into which the inhabited world can be divided. Each of these realms possess combination of environmental, cultural, and organization properties.
3 main sets of criteria for realms:
1. physical and human
2. functional
3. historical
physical and human:
physical (natural) human (social). The largest units on which regionalization is based.
functional realm:
result of the interaction of human societies and natural environments. A functional interaction revealed by farms, mines, fishing ports, transport routes, dams, bridges, villages and etc.
historical:
must represent the most comprehensive and encompassing definition of the great clusters of human kind in the world today.
two varieties of geographic realms:
1. monocentric: dominated by a single major political entity, in terms of territory and/or population (Example: U.S., Mexico, China, etc).
2. polycentric: the appearance functioning & organization of realm are dispersed among a number of more of less equa
absolute location:
the position or place of a certain item on the surface of the Earth as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude with respect to the grids coordinates. (example: 90 degrees north of the equator).
relative location:
the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places. Distance, accessibility, and connectivity affect the relative location. The names of certain regions reveal aspects of the relative locations (Mainland Southeast Asia)
hinterland:
surrounding zone of interaction (outside core).
functional region:
usually forged by a structured urban-centered system of interaction. Has a core and a periphery.
Pleistocene:
the current ice age (12 million years)
Holocene:
the current warm period of glacial contraction.
4 major population clusters in order:
1. South Asia (largest population cluster--India, Pakistan, Bangladesh)
2. East Asia (China, Korean Peninsula to Vietnam)
3. Europe (Western Russia)
4. Eastern North America
cultural landscape:
the distinctive attributes of a society imprinted on its portion of the worlds physical stage.
language families:
groups of languages with a share but usually distinct orgin.
There is a minimum of _ language families.
15
Most widely distributed language family is:
Indo-European (English, French, Spanish, Russian, Persian & Hindi).
_ serves as the national/official language of many countries and outposts and remains the lingua franca.
English.
What is Gini Coefficient:
(An italian statistician, Corrado Gini, came up with formula to measure population & economical gains).
What are the index ranges for Gini Coefficient?:
0.0(no difference at all-everyone is the same amount), to 1.0 (one earner takes all).
What is China's Gini Coefficient?:
When china was under strict communist rule and before its modern economic boom began, its GC was low. It is now at .5.
What is Brazils Gini Coeficient?:
one of the worlds highest GC approaching at .6 is showing signs of a decrease partly as a result of social programs.
core areas:
places of dominance whose inhabitants exerted their power over their surroundings near and far.
periphery:
have-not components of national and regional systems.
Where is the global core?:
anchored by North America and blanked by Europe to the East and Japan and Australia to the West.
What percent of the population if the global core?:
15%
What percent income is the population of global core?:
75% of total annual income.
WTO:
World Trade Organization--globalization in the economic sphere is proceeding under the auspices of the WTO. To join, countries must agree to open their economies to foreign trade and investments.
Case of Philippines:
Filipino farmers found themselves competing against North American and European producers. Meanwhile, low-priced subsidized U.S. corn appeared on Filipino markets. As a result, the Filipino economy lost several hundred thousand farm jobs, wages went down,
Capital of Denmark:
Copenhagen
Norway:
Oslo
Sweden:
Stockholm
Finland:
Helsinki
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:
London
Republic of Ireland:
Dublin
Portugal:
Lisbon
Spain:
Madrid
Belgium:
Brussels
Netherlands:
1. The Hague 2. Amsterdam
France
Paris
Germany:
Berlin
Italy
Rome
Switzerland
Bern
Austria:
Vienna
Greece
Athens
Turkey
Ankara
Poland
Warsaw
Czech Republic
Prague
Slovakia
Bratislava
Hungary:
Budapest