Geographers and environmental change

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Thornes
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Face ◽  
Indirect Impacts

Within geography, physical geography is concerned with the characteristics of the natural environment, the atmosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere; how they influence human activities and how they are affected by them across the face of the globe. It comprises geomorphology, climatology and biogeography, and proceeds by monitoring, modelling and managing environmental change. Geographical research at first concentrated on the direct impacts of glaciation on the geomorphology of Britain, such as the glacial erosion of northern Britain and its indirect impacts, especially the effects of changing sea levels. Physical geographers in the last 100 years have taken some comfort from the knowledge that their skills are applied in matters of public interest and importance. Now the pace of global environmental change is such that these skills will be essential in the next 100 years, in solving some of the great contemporary environmental problems such as global warming, the global disappearance of forests, desertification and water pollution.

Global environmental change and biodiversity loss.

2021 ◽  
pp. 127-144
Author(s):  
Paul A. Rees
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Global Biodiversity

Abstract This chapter contains questions about global warming, other aspects of environmental change and global biodiversity loss. The questions are arranged by topic and divided into three levels: foundation, intermediate and advanced.

Latin American Geography

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Robinson ◽  
César Caviedes
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
National Research Council ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Integrated Study

The brief essay that constitutes this chapter demonstrates a resurgence of work on the region that bodes well for the future. A new generation of scholars is replacing those who have for many years provided leadership in a variety of subfields. Several old hands have retired, some are still publishing con gusto (Denevan, Siemens, Horst, Preston), others we have lost forever (Parsons, Stanislawski, West, Eden) though through their works (Denevan 1989, 1999; Pederson 1998) and their students they remain with us. It perhaps needs to be said that this brief account of the Latin Americanist historiography of the last decade should not be viewed in isolation. Too often we are marginalized as mere “regionalists” in an age that surely lacks well-trained ones (National Research Council 1997). Our efforts, be they in historical, environmental, cultural, political, or socioeconomic also need to be seen as crucial components of each of these thematic subfields. The work of North American geographers in the different fields of physical geography is being conducted under the paradigmatic premiss that the environment is a physical milieu and the place of residence and activity for humans. From that perspective, global environmental change, climatic crises, and increased pressures on biotic resources by increasing populations have been among the concerns of the scholars and politicians who, in 1992, called the Global Conference on the Environment (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. There, new agendas for the integrated study of humans and the biosphere were formulated. Investigations about past and present impacts of humans on natural environments have refocused on the ways in which socioeconomic circumstances preside over environmental change (Turner 1991). The explanatory avenues and paradigmatic tenets of the natural and social sciences are now closely integrated in the treatment of humans and their environments (Turner 1997a). Latin America, where demographic growth and urban sprawl are testing the resilience and the limits of natural environments, and resource exploitation is exerting critical pressure on finite resources, provides a showcase for this type of analysis.

scholarly journals Thoughts on the Development of Physical Geography in the New Era

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhanjun Li
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Research Progress ◽  
Coupling Mechanism ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
New Era ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Global Environmental

Physical geography is the basic discipline of geography and the cornerstone of comprehensive geography research. Based on the main research progress of physical geography, This paper considered the development direction of natural geography in the new era. Driven by global environmental change, physical geography and its sub-disciplines have gained new development in heritage. The research progress of physical geography in recent years mainly includes the integration and deepening of natural geographical processes, the integration of terrestrial surface systems, land-sea interactions and regional ecological environment management applications. The development of physical geography and its sub-disciplines needs to face the global environmental change and human needs, explore the application of new technologies and methods, conduct multi-factor and multi-process integration research, develop and improve geographic models, simulate and predict environmental change and sustainable development, and serve Major national needs and government decisions. In the process of development, it is urgent to pay attention to the following frontier areas and directions:(1) Geomorphology needs to focus on strengthening the relationship between geomorphology and global environmental change and human activities;(2) Biogeography needs to deepen the frontier fields such as attribute geography and global change biogeography. Exploring the spatial distribution of biogeography and human needs in the context of connection changes;(3) Hydrology needs to carry out comprehensive integration research of multi-element, multi-process and multi-scale, and develop emerging subject areas such as ecological hydrology, social hydrology and hydromorphology;(4) Physical Geography needs to be comprehensively introduced into climate change research’s role in the major international climate change research program, the climate change framework convention, etc;(5) Comprehensive physical geography needs to face the country’s major needs, focusing on the coupling of human and land systems In the areas of resource and environmental carrying capacity evaluation, ecological security pattern and ecological civilization construction, etc.;(6) Physical geography needs to deepen the coupling of natural and human elements and process research ‘establishing and developing complex system simulation model’ analysis and simulation change environment Nature, humanity Su coupling mechanism and the dynamic changes of land surface systems.

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