Chapter 8

Section 1

1. Geographers divide the large region of Latin America into three sub regions: Middle America (the areas between Panama and Mexico), South America, and the Caribbean.

2. The natural resources that make Latin America an economically important region are natural gas, oil deposits, mineral deposits such as gold, copper, aluminum, silver, and even emerald gems.

creative writing: The water systems of Latin America are necessary for trade and transportation. As the second longest river in the world, the amazon river winds its way through the rain forests of South America, leading fishermen and traders across the continent. the Paraná, Uruguay, and Paraguay Rivers all flow together and form the second largest river system on the continent. theses rivers also provide transportation and trade routs, and also give a source of hydroelectric power, electricity created by the movement of water through a dam. the Panama Canal, in Middle America, is a man-made canal that allows ships and boats to cross between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans without having to go all the way around the southern-most tip of South America.

 

South America's river systems

section 2

1. The climate regions of Latin America are tropical wet and dry, steppe, desert, Mediterranean, humid subtropical, marine west coast, and highland.

2. The highland climates, which are affected by location and altitude, occur mostly in the Andes Mountians in South America. Geographers call the differences in climate and vegitation vertical climate zones, and these zones are classified as tierra helada (above 16,000 ft, snow and ice, less than 20˚F), puna (between 12,000 and 16,000 ft, grass but no trees, 20-55˚F), tierra fría (between 6,000 and 12,000 ft, greatly spaced evergreen trees and shrubs, 55-65˚F), tierra templada (between 2,500 and 6,000 ft, broad leafed and pine trees, 65-75˚F), and tierra caliente (between sea level and 2,500 ft, coastal areas and foothills with a few trees, 75-80˚F).

creative writing: If I were to hike through the tierra fría in South America, this might be similar to a journal entry about what I would see:

    Day 1
   I took a gondola up the side of the mountain this morning. The fog was cold, and I'm glad that I brought a thick jacket. I couldn't see much of the mountian, but when i got off, there were a few trees nearby. There was frost on the ground as I set out across the mountain. I passed some farmers with thier sheep. They were friendly, but I dont think they wanted me near the animals. The fog cleared up around noon and I finally saw the landscape around me. The long green grass was wet with dew, and the few trees that grew here were dark, tiny dots on the mountain sides. It was amazing! I was so buisy looking around that I didn't see the tree in front of me and I ran right into it!

   Day 2
   After setting up camp yesterday, I couldn't sleep, so I watched the sky. There were so many stars, so much unlike in the cities below me, but most were hidden by passing clouds. When I was in my tent, I could hear the sheep bahing from across the mountain. this morning, the ground was covered in frost, and it got my boots wet and cold as I continued to hike. I met more farmers, but they tended crops of potatoes and barley instead of sheep. It was still cold, but i was warm from walking. a small stream was falling down between some rocks on the ground, and I had to walk across it, because it was too wide to jump. I almost slipped on the rocks, and the freezing cold water got in my boots, making my feet even colder than before.

   Day 3
   It was my last day in the tierra fría today. As I made my way back to the gondola station, I crossed the stream again. I was more careful about where I stepped, and I carried my shoes and socks instead of wearing them, so I could dry off my bare feet and put on warm shoes. You could say that I learned my lesson the hard way yesterday. The thick shrubs that clustered in the grass rustled when the wind blew, and some needles fell off the pine trees, too. The frost wasn't as common as yesterday, as the clouds were gone all morning. The bright sun hurt my eyes, which had been adjusted to the overcast sky. When I reached the station, I took a last look around. The view still stunned me, and I remembered the camera in my backpack. I took it out and snapped a quick picture before getting on the gondola.



vegitation in the tierra fría

Chapter 7

section 1

1. The development of a postindustrial economy in the United States and Canada are affected where and how people live because a postindustrial economy is based on service and high-tech industries. Service is the largest part of postindustrial economies. it includes government jobs, and also educational, health care, and banking jobs, and these depend on people living near their job sites, and people being able to do their jobs regularly. High-tech businesses depend on access to natural resources and transportation. places like Silicon Valley in California, are home grounds for major high-tech companies like Apple and Microsoft. for people to live there comfortably, and to keep them to stay, these cities offer pleasant weather - most of the time - and nearby housing as well as many jobs.



2.The economies of the United States and Canada are interdependent with each other and with those in other parts of the world because of a lack of some important natural resources. While some countries might have a certain kind of resource, like coal, another country might have iron.

creative writing: All around the world, different countries have different economies, and some even have multiple economies at the same time. Canada and the United States both have a market economy, which allows people to profit, own, and operate their own business. It also allows employers to pay their employees for their work and it holds laws and rules that defend employment opportunities, safety and health of workers, and private property rights. A postindustrial economy is transformed when technology develops in workplaces. The U.S. also have a postindustrial economy. A global economy is affected by trade all around the world. when a certain country spends money on imports, and earns money on exports, or when a country or region stop spending money or stop earning money, the global economy expands or shrinks. These three types of economies are interrelated because what a country exports affects what it can buy; what it can buy affects what it creates; what it creates affects what kind and how many jobs there are; those jobs affect who can work and how much the employees are paid; and the products that are sold, and the money that is earned affects how many people will buy the end product, which is all part of the global economy, postindustrial economy, and market economy.

section 2
1.One of the ways that the United States and Canada could manage their natural resources more responsibly is to stop clear-cutting forests, and instead cut some trees away, and replace them with native trees, then let the trees and plants grow back while harvesting another small part of the forest. Another way is to replace driving with other means of transportation (such as walking or bicycling), or to use public transportation (like buses or trains) to get from one place to another without using individual vehicles. A third way would be to eat less. It would mean that there would be more agricultural products to go around, a drop in over-fishing, and less production of greenhouse gasses used to process the food in mills and factories.


2.There are many forms of pollution in the United States and in Canada. One form is acid rain, which caused when chemical emissions released by factories, cars and power plants mix with water in the atmosphere and fall down as highly acidic rain. This rain can threaten timber and water resources for hundreds of miles from where their clouds first formed. Another form of pollution is smog. Smog is formed when sunlight meets with exhaust and chemical emissions to form a thick gray-brown cloud that hangs low over the ground. A third type of pollution is water pollution. water pollution damages water systems such as lakes, rivers and even oceans. Eutrophication, the process in which water becomes richly dissolved in nutrients speeds up with water pollution, which allows algae and bacteria to grow extremely quickly, leaving no oxygen for the fish and other animals that live in the polluted  waters.

(top) clear day in Denver, Colorado
(bottom) smoggy day in Denver, Colorado



creative writing: If the Trans-Alaska Pipeline were to touch the permafrost - a frozen water and soil layer that lies underground - and melt it, the sold mud and water could rust the piping and cause it to leak, spilling crude oil across thousands of miles of wilderness and ruining ecosystems all around it, or the supports for the pipes could slip in the now liquefied ground and create the same disaster.

layers  under the top soil in Alaska and northern Canada

Chapter 6

U.S.A. national

Section 1
1.Industry and technology supply jobs, and people looking for work go where there is a big demand for workers will go where they have the best chance at getting a job, and they bring their families with them. People will also avoid living in an area that is too hot, too cold, too wet, or too dry, and prefer to be in an area with a mild climate such as the west coast or the northeastern seaboard.

2. Four cultural elements influenced by the immigrant roots of the United States are language, religion, music, and education.

creative writing: All throughout United States history, there have been immigrants and settlers coming to escape discrimination, seek freedom, or a better economy. These next paragraphs might tell what life was like for a young female settler in 1845 coming to the United States for the first time, and her life afterwards.
  As she comes into New York Harbor, Charline is pushed back and forth between men and women and children, all from countries other than hers, as they rush to the vessel's windows for a view of the shoreline. Clutching her husband's arm, the twenty-year-old woman goes with the cround onto the top deck, in hopes of seeing their year-long destination, Ellis Island. When the ferry docks in the shadow of the enormous Ellis Island Immigration Building, and the ferrymen set up the plank, a steady stream of people sets foot onto solid American ground. Tears and a smile erupt on Charline's face, as well as her husband's. They wait long, cruelly anxious hours in line for their medical examination, immigrant papers, work grants and finally, finally, they meet again on the last stairwell of the building. They've made it. but many others were not as lucky. Broken families weep as their loved ones are kept inside for reasons sometimes not understood - diseases identified by speciallist doctors, a violent record back home, or not enough money on hand. The young couple feels sudenly guilty for the smiles on their faces, but they rush past the crying and mourning people to join the next ferry to the main land, to New York.
  Years past, and Charline, thirty and a mother of four children, lives with her husband in Detroit. the flour mill allows both male and female workers, and so while charline and her husband work, their neighbors, and close friends watch their chldren as well as their own. After four years of savings, and when their eldest three children are working, and the youngest is in college on a schollarship, Charline and her husband decide to move to California to join the Gold Rush. Unfortunately, when they get there a year later on covered wagons, all of the easy gold is gone. But the ecconomy is cheaper, and they decide to stay. While Charline becomes a seamstress, and her husband a banker, and their income is steady, taxes are high, because of the Civil War. 
  Charline was aging from stress. Both of her sons had joined the union army, one, who had a wife and child, had quit his job at a quarry, and the other had dropped out of law school. Her daughters stayed out of fighting, but one confided through a letter that she was a nurse at one of the union camps. When the war subsided, Charline, 40, would pace restlessly, awaiting her children's letters of how they, had survied the war, or how they had saved the lives of countless men, or something great. Only two of her children sent those letters. As greif filled her heart at the loss of her youngest child, Charline lived her life monocramatically. When she fell ill at age seventy, in the year 1895, she cried for her son, and when she lay on her deathbed, surrounded by her frail husband, and her surviving children, she smiled, for she would see him once again. She would see her old country, her childhood friends, her Detriot friends, her family.

Canada's national flag

Section 2
1. Two economical factors that encouraged the growth of Canada's western population are the aquiring of land from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the arctic to the United States, and also when gold was discovered in the Klondike province, sparking the Klondike Gold Rush.

2. Canada's religious practices and languages reflect the immigrant history of the county because the languages spoken by the provinces of the country are French and English, which reflect the stuggle between Great Britain settlers, and French settlers, and six main religions make up most of Canada's population, and all of them come from all around the world.

creative writing: If the american colonies had not separated from great britain, then canada would have become a French country, and would be much smaller, population wise, because one million British people would not have immigrated to Canada.

Chapter Five

Section 1

1. The lakes and river systems in the United States and Canada supply North America with drinking water, transportation of people and goods, as well as providing hydroelectric power through the use of dams. The mountain ranges on both the western and eastern sides of the continent decides which direction the rivers flow. The Continental Divide, a ridge or high point in the rocky mountains that directs the rivers to flow into the pacific ocean. The Fall Line, in the Appalachian Mountains, is the ridge that directs the eastern seaboard's rivers to flow out toward the gulfs, and the oceans, and away from the center of the continent.



the rivers of North America



2. Some of the major geographical features and natural resources that played important roles in the economic development of Canada and the united states are forests with desirable woods, coal, natural gas, fossil fuels, petroleum and minerals such as gold, silver, iron, copper and potash - a mineral salt.

creative writing: If I were on a non-stop flight from Norfolk, Virginia, to Seattle, Washington, and the airplane was low enough that I could easily see the ground through the window, I would be able to see all the landforms in between these two cities. The first thing I would see would be the Piedmont, a wide area of both high and low rolling hills. Next would be the old, green and sloping Appalachian Mountains, and after those, I would see the snaking Ohio River. Then the airplane would fly over the Great Planes, which would stretch for miles around, criss-crossed by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Then I would be flying over the Black Hills, a small mountain range of dark rock and wooded slopes, before going over the sharp grey points of the Rocky Mountains. Last of all would be the Columbia and snake rivers, both of them fast and cold from rain and snow melt.

Section 2
1. The types climate regions found in Canada and  the United States are subtropical, tropical, desert, and Mediterranean.


2. Three of the weather-related hazards found n the United States and Canada are hurricanes (huge tropical storms with winds of at least 75 mph), supercells (violent storms that often sprout tornadoes), and blizzards (snow storms with winds of at least 35 mph).

creative writing: The land forms surrounding an area and the area's elevation determine its climate. Two places of similar latitudes like Salt Lake City, Utah (40.45º N) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (40.0º N) have very different climates because of these variables. Salt Lake City is 4,226 feet above sea level, and Philadelphia is 45 feet above sea level, which means that Salt Lake City is moss likely to be colder than Philadelphia. Salt Lake City is also a steppe climate, which means that it receives little rain and is hot in the summer and cold in the winter, while Philadelphia is in a humid subtropical climate which means that it receives a lot of rain, but has mild winters and muggy summers.

Chapter Four

Section 2

1.  A culture can be defined by economy, daily life, history, language, art, religion and government.

2. The development of agriculture, language, trade and travel have all affected the interaction between cultures in recent years.

creative writing: If the informational revolution had not occurred, and there were no computers, no Internet, and no personal information storage devises, everyone's lives would be very different.

When I wake up, I would dress like I usually do. I'd come down stairs and eat my breakfast, brush my teeth and make my lunch. As my mom drives me to school, there are buildings, houses and parking lots, but no printed signs stating ; "Vote so-and-so for sheriff" or "Elect this person to be legislator." As we pull up to the school, the electric announcement board isn't there. In its place is a plastic sign with arrangeable letters. In abbreviated words it tells what is happening that week at school. A bell is rung, manually, and it keeps ringing for a minute. A cold wind blows dark clouds over head as I walk to the class room, and I wish that I'd brought a jacket. But no one else had brought one either, because there is no radar or weather man to tell us his weather predictions. during class, the teacher draws a picture of how our paper should look on the white board in front of us. We take out pieces of paper and recreate the drawing on our paper with pens and pencils. reading the single, handwritten book aloud, the class listening intently, for we have no books of our own because there are no printers to make any for us. When the last bell rings, I take home my notes on the homework, and my half completed pages. my brother is taken to his soccer practice, and my dad comes home from work. I finish my work, eat dinner, brush my teeth, and go to bed. no television, no computers, no cell phones, and no iPods. That would be my life with out the information revolution.

Section 3

1. The differences between major types of governments is who runs the government. this is divided into three main groups: (1) autocracy- run by a single person -, (2)oligarchy - run by a few people, usually wealthy ones -, and (3)democracy - run by many with representatives for all people.

2. Some examples of major types of ecosystems on the world are traditional, command, and market.


creative writing: In the scenario that I live under a democratic government and in a market economy, there would be both advantages, and disadvantages. the advantages would be that civilians would be able to vote for themselves, elect who they want to become government officials, and they would be able to buy what they want, sell what they want, and make as much of their product as they want, without too much interference on the government's part. the disadvantages, though, would be the fact that democracies go by the majority, and sometimes not everyone is satisfied in the end, and also, there is some government involvement when dealing with business.




United States' three branches of government



Section 4
1. A major factor in determining a country's economic development and trade relationships is how many natural resources that country has.

2. Human economic activities have, in recent years, had drastically affected the environment by introducing pollutants such as  carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, plastics, and scrap metals. and as cities become wealthier and become larger, they take over precious ecosystems that house plants and animals dependant on that specific environment.

creative writing: I disagree strongly with the statement, “Only developed countries need to replace their dependence on fossil fuels with the use of renewable energy resources.” I believe that if we are going to save our planet, we have to do so as a whole. if only the most developed countries reserve to renewable energy, that still leaves half the planet to use fossil fuels. to save our precious environment from total destruction, every country has to help, and every person has to help.