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Part B- Human Environment Interaction Lessons 1-4 Unit 3: Human and Physical Systems

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Video- Geography: Movement and Human-Environment Interaction Geography: Movement and Human-Environment Interaction

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Human Environment Interaction Lesson 1- Geographic Factors

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Geographic Factors Geographic factors affect human settlement. Human settlement and cultural development are shaped by geographic features like mountains, deserts, and water. Other factors that affect cultural development are climate, location, topography, water resources, and natural resources.

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Climate The climate of a region affects where people settle and how they survive. People build their homes and grow food differently in dry, hot regions than in cooler, wet regions. Sudden changes in climate can bring events such as floods, droughts, and famine.

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How Climate Impacts People People do not live on the continent of Antarctica because its climate is too cold. Mexico has a warm, dry climate. People who visit there will want to wear light-weight clothing. People in hot, dry climates, such as a desert, have to make houses out of whatever they can find. Native Americans who lived in the dry Southwest built their houses out of mud or clay. The mud and clay was easy to find in the dry region.

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Location Location: where the region is affects how the culture develops and how history unfolds. Secluded islands have less cultural and historical influences than a land-locked country. Location also affects what areas of a region get settled first. Typically, those lands closest to water are settled first, and then the culture expands outwards.

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How Location Impacts People Food People who live by the sea may eat more fish than people who live inland. People who live inland often farm. Different kinds of plants and animals are natural to different areas. People have to learn to plant crops that will grow in their area.

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How Location Impacts People Clothing People who live in the North wear warmer clothes with a lot of layers, while people who live in the South wear lighter clothes. The climate of a location helps people decide what to wear to be comfortable.

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How Location Impacts People Shelter People use different materials to build their homes in different locations. People near oceans sometimes put their houses on poles to protect from flooding. People in colder climates have thicker walls than people who live in warm climates.

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How Location Impacts People Transportation People use different ways to get around in different locations. Ancient people used boats to travel around and trade with other countries. In the Pacific Ocean, small island countries also use boats to go from island to island. In the United States, people use cars, trucks, and airplanes for transportation.

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How Location Impacts People Recreation People do different things for fun in different locations. In the mountains, people ski on the snow. On the coast, people play in the ocean and build sandcastles. In the forest, people can hike and explore. Location helps decide what you do for fun.

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Topography Topography: the physical layout of a region. The locations of mountains, valleys, and deserts affect where people settle and how they travel. Mountains and deserts also give natural barriers to other cultures, keeping people from traveling through or over them without technologically advanced transportation.

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Water Water: cultures have been settling near water for centuries. Water allows for transportation, leading to trading and exchanging of cultural ideas and objects. Lakes and rivers also provide water for drinking and for growing crops.

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Natural Resources Natural resources: people grow and create different products based on the natural resources available to them. One culture may develop and trade timber; another might sell oil. The natural resources that are available affect how a culture survives and thrives.

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Human Environment Interaction Lesson 2- Types of Systems

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Types of Systems Physical and human systems have shaped the way that human societies develop. Physical systems are natural characteristics such as rivers and mountains. Human systems are manmade characteristics such as political boundaries and trade routes.

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Patterns of Migration After the last ice age, glaciers retreated in northern Europe. Animal herds moved north because the climate was now warmer. Hunter-gatherers followed these herds, migrating north themselves. Pigs and camels were first domesticated in the Middle East. When the climate dried and made farming and grazing very hard, migration spread the animals to Africa and Asia.

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Patterns of Migration Early humans arrived in Australia about 40,00045,000 years ago. They migrated through a land bridge from Southeast Asia.

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Physical Environment and Natural Resources In Ancient Egypt, the Nile River flooded each year in June. This flooding left nutrient-rich soil on the land. After the water levels decreased, the Egyptians would plant their crops in the moist soil.

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Physical Environment and Natural Resources Greece is made up of many islands and peninsulas. The mainland of Greece is very mountainous and is very difficult to travel over land. Because many of the Greek cities were on or near the sea, the Greeks used sailing as their primary way to travel and to ship goods.

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Physical Environment and Natural Resources Mesopotamia was very dry, but the people who lived there were able to build canals to bring water from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to irrigate their cropland. One of the ways in which the Mesopotamians used the nearby rivers was for transportation. By using the sail, Mesopotamians were able to trade over long distances.

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Physical Environment and Natural Resources The domestication of oxen was a major achievement of the Mesopotamians. Oxen were needed to provide the power to use plows. By being able to plow their fields, the Mesopotamians were able to have very productive farmland.

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Cultural Diffusion and Economic Interdependence The Silk Road was a trade route that connected China to civilizations further west. It was used to trade silk, spices, gold, ivory, exotic animals, and other goods. It also spread beliefs between civilizations. The Silk Road brought profits to the traders who used it, while towns and cities along the Silk Road made money from the traders. Because of the importance of trade with Europe, the Chinese needed a powerful empire to protect the Silk Road. The Silk Road remained prominent until improved ships allowed the silk trade to continue by sea.

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Cultural Diffusion and Economic Interdependence The Persians made many improvements to their empire in the form of canals, roads, and ports. Because of these improvements, trade grew throughout the Near East region, making Persia a great trading center.

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Cultural Diffusion and Economic Interdependence Phoenicia's economy was based on trade, which spread throughout the Mediterranean between 1200 BC and 900 BC. The Phoenicians developed the first written alphabet, which the Greeks adopted through trading with them.

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Cultural Diffusion and Economic Interdependence The Mediterranean Sea was important to many groups of people after the Phoenicians. It connected sailors and merchants from southern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. Great powers such as the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire also expanded through the Mediterranean.

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Cultural Diffusion and Economic Interdependence After the Crusades of the 11th to 13th centuries, trade increased between the Muslim Middle East and Christian Europe. The riches of new trade sources led to towns expanding.

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Establishing and Maintaining Political Boundaries Civilizations have created structures to establish or defend their own political boundaries. One example of this is the Great Wall of China, which was built between 220 and 206 B.C. to defend China's northern border from invaders.

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Establishing and Maintaining Political Boundaries Ancient civilizations often used their military power in order to expand their political boundaries. Ancient civilizations would need to have a strong military in order to maintain control of their empires.

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Establishing and Maintaining Political Boundaries Bodies of water have also separated groups of people throughout history. Many early civilizations and modern countries have had their boundaries influenced by rivers or oceans. Early cultures in Japan and Britain were able to stay isolated from their neighbors for generations because they lived on islands.

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Other Human Systems Ancient Egypt had a centralized government that controlled almost all aspects of public life. When they were not farming, Egyptians were required to build major projects for the pharaoh, who had absolute power over their lives. Under the pharaoh, nobles and priests directed most government affairs.

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Types of Human Environment Interaction Lesson 3

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Human Environment Interaction Civilizations change because of many different reasons. They can change negatively because of warfare, environmental changes, overpopulation, disease, or political collapse. Sometimes these changes, along with new ideas, can bring positive changes to civilizations.

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Warfare Warfare can lower the population of a civilization. It can cause hardships like a low food supply, or can result in the takeover of one civilization by another. Civilizations have been completely wiped out because of warfare. The ancient civilization of the Indus Valley, for example, survived for thousands of years before suddenly vanishing. Other civilizations cropped up around the same time the Indus Valley civilization disappeared. It is easy to assume they were attacked and destroyed.

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Warfare Ancient Egypt is another example of a civilization disappearing because of warfare. The ancient Egyptians were conquered by the early Roman Empire in 30 BC.

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Environmental Change Environmental changes can come in many forms. Ice Ages create a unique climate, for example. Certain animals can thrive in the colder temperatures of the Ice Age. When the Ice Age comes to an end, however, these same animals will mostly likely die, forcing a civilization that hunts the animals to find other things to eat.

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Environmental Change Earthquakes or volcanoes can cause massive changes to the environment, as well. They cause physical destruction and can mean a lower population because of deaths.

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Overpopulation Overpopulation means an area that has too many people living there. This can mean that people do not have enough space to live, the area cannot produce enough food for all the people to eat, or there is not enough water to drink.

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Overpopulation Overpopulation usually happens when more people are being born than are dying. Many times overpopulation can lead to the collapse of a civilization because people die of disease and starvation.

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Disease Diseases t hreaten all civilizations. Sometimes a disease will hurt a civilization simply because the people have no immunity to the disease. This can lead to a much smaller population or even wipe out a civilization completely because they are not prepared to handle the disease.

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Disease The Black Death is an example of such a disease. It killed as many as 100 million people in the 1400s. The Black Death is believed to have decreased the population of Europe by up to 60%.

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Disease Another example is the impact of diseases brought by European explorers on natives in the Americas. The Native American populations were greatly reduced because they had no immunity to European diseases like smallpox.

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Political Collapse Political collapse occurs when a government has lost power. At times people have overthrown governments by revolutions because they were unhappy. Other times governments have simply declined in power gradually.

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Political Collapse Ancient Rome, for example, was a great empire which lasted for many centuries. Eventually, however, the power of the government declined, so the civilization declined as well.

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Unreliable Food Source Civilizations rely on certain types of food in order to survive. When a food source becomes unreliable, a civilization must make adjustments. They can move in search of other things to eat, or they may adopt an agricultural society so they have more control over their source of food. In either case, the civilization must adapt or they will not be able to survive.

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New Ideas New ideas can often improve how a civilization lives and works. New ideas can include technological advancements and inventions. New ideas can also mean new techniques in different areas like art, architecture, literature, and labor.

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New Ideas The Renaissance of the 14th-17th centuries is a good example of how new ideas can change a civilization. Beginning in Italy and later spreading throughout much of Europe, the Renaissance brought about changes in art, politics, science, religion, and education. The Renaissance is probably most well known for great works of art by men such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

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Human Environment Interaction Lesson 4- Example: The Middle East

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Human Environment Interaction- The Middle East The Middle East is an area of the world with large amounts of oil reserves. However, the region's harsh, desert climate makes fresh water scarce. Industrialization and oil extraction have had damaging effects on the environment.

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Geography and Climate The Middle East has a variety of geographic features, including mountains, plains, plateaus, and coastlines. Some parts of Lebanon and Israel enjoy a temperate, Mediterranean climate. Much of the region, however, is dominated by desert terrain and dry climate. Most people do not live in these desert areas, living instead living in cities that are built near sources of water.

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Water Middle Eastern climate is so dry that fresh water has become a precious natural resource. Water is needed not only for drinking but also for agriculture, which is still a major industry in most Middle Eastern nations.

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Water Droughts and human development have had negative effects on the few freshwater sources located in the Middle East. The Dead Sea, which is between Israel and Jordan, is shrinking due to overuse. Some countries build dams to harvest the fresh water of rivers, but this also decreases the amount of water that will reach further down the river into other countries. Droughts and farming are causing deserts to actually expand into land that had once been fertile, a process known as desertification.

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Water Desalination is the process of removing salt from water to make it drinkable. The process is very expensive and few Middle Eastern countries can afford to invest in it. Due to Saudi Arabia's wealth from oil sales, it is one of few Middle Eastern countries that can afford the process.

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Other Natural Resources Despite the region's harsh climate, it has some of the richest natural resources in the world. The Persian Gulf has historically been a source of fish and pearls, which the people who live there use for trade. In modern times, discoveries of petroleum (oil) have brought economic booms to the Middle Eastern nations that have access to them. Oil is perhaps the most valuable export of several Middle Eastern countries, and countries with access to oil in the Persian Gulf have become wealthy.

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Pollution Some nations in the Middle East are changing to industrial- based economies at a faster pace than they change their laws to regulate industry. When this happens, factories do not have restrictions on air, soil, or water quality, and their production can have damaging effects on the environment.

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Pollution More commonly, environment in the Middle East is damaged through oil extraction. Accidental oil spills can destroy both ecosystems and environmental industries like fishing or tourism. Sometimes political conflict can destroy the environment. This occurred in the Gulf War in 1991, when Iraq burned Kuwait's oil wells and dumped more oil into the Persian Gulf, an event from which the soldiers and the Gulf environment are still suffering.