>>>>Dean Grillot: So now that we’ve explored physical geography and how we can understand
the global community and our physical planet from that physical perspective, let’s think
about human geography and the way in which humans interact with their physical environment,
which can lead to all kinds of different outcomes. So now clearly, humans live on planet Earth.
And our physical environment is full of things that are really available to all of us: air,
water resources, open spaces, these are what we refer to as the global commons. The global
commons are those environmental aspects that are available to all human beings or those
living on the planet—humans and wildlife.
Now one of the things we really must consider is what we call tragedy of the commons. And
that is because these common spaces—common assets of planet Earth, our common environment
is available to all of us—that means that it’s subject potentially to harm from some of us.
There’s this problem between self-interest and what’s good for the collective. Now
one of the interesting aspects of the global commons, because the environment, these environmental
assets are available to all of us, is that we don’t necessarily all equally protect
it. This can be referred to as the tragedy of the commons—where self-interest might
get in the way of protecting a global asset that’s in the global or collective good.
Now let’s think about some ways in which humans can actually have an impact on our
global commons. Human settlements, for example, by nature actually have an impact on nature.
Humans who come together around different resources: bodies of water, fresh water, various
types of, of things that they live off the earth, they, they grow food, they engage in
practices that actually can effect—have a negative impact on the global commons. So
human settlements are one way in which human beings can have an impact on our global commons,
on our physical geography, on our global environment.
Now of course when we talk about human settlements, we also have to talk about human displacement
and the ways in which people migrate and move around. Sometimes they move around because
they want access to other resources, because they’ve depleted resources somewhere or
they’re just moving to a different geographical location. Humans do move and migrate. But
humans are also forced to move and migrate. Sometimes war, natural disaster, other types
of tragedies might force humans to move and congregate in ways that’s even more detrimental
to a global space.
Now population growth also has an impact on our planet Earth--on our human environment,
physical environment. Population growth obviously requires additional food resources and other
natural resources to serve that growing population. So population itself, as the population grows,
that can put pressure on the global commons and on natural resources. Many countries in
many locations in fact deal with food insecurity—the lack of proper access to enough food. We’ll
deal with this issue in a separate discussion, but keep in mind that this is one way in which
human settlements and human populations can have an impact on our global commons and our
global environment.
Now there are a number of other ways in which humans can have an impact on their physical
environment. One of those is deforestation. That’s when humans cut down trees in order
to graze cattle, graze livestock, grow food. This deforestation of course removes what
we call a carbon sink from our environment. Trees are a carbon sink; they suck in all
of the carbon, the carbon dioxide that we are producing in our environment. And as you
remove trees, you also remove a way in which we can absorb and get rid of that carbon in
our environment. So deforestation in and of itself is a way in which we contribute in
a negative way to our global common spaces.
Another way that humans can have an impact on the global commons and contribute to this
tragedy of the global commons is by overusing land and contributing to this process we call
desertification. Desertification has to do with the spreading of un-arable land, land
that is not really useful, has been depleted of its nutrients and isn’t as useful to
produce food. So this, of course, leads back to this problem of food productivity and leading
to food shortages, but it can also lead to increased natural disasters like extreme flooding,
for example. Water resources can be contaminated by human waste, animal waste, toxic run-off
through agricultural and industrial output and pollution. This affects water resources.
This of course limits or may limit access to clean water for drinking, for cooking,
for agricultural practices, basically for all kinds of human use and consumption. And
finally, humans have an impact on the global commons by burning fossil fuels, which pollutes
the atmosphere and traps gases within that atmosphere, leading to climate change as the
earth can warm. Through various types of industrial activities, we burn these fossil fuels and
we produce gases like carbon and methane, which gets trapped within the atmosphere and
creates climate change through global warming.
Now many of these negative effects of human life on planet Earth may be avoidable. Think
about how you might reduce your negative impact, reduce your carbon footprint. What could you
do? Could you reduce, reuse, recycle? Give some thought to what you could do and what
the challenges might be in overcoming the tragedy of the commons. Tell us what you think.