Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
0
3
6 mi
0
3
6 mi
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8 km
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8 km
CHILDREN
UNDER 18, 2000
One dot represents 100 children
CHILDREN
UNDER 18, 2010
One dot represents 100 children
Figure 3.9
Population Density of Children under Age 18 in New Orleans, 2000 and 2010
.
Adapted
with permission from:
Plyer, Allison and Elaine Ortiz.
Shifts in Population Loss of Children across the
New Orleans Metropolitan Area,
2011
.
Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, gnocdc.org.
1840s. The potato blight destroyed the potato crop, cre-
ating famine. Under colonial control of Great Britain at
the time, Irish farmers had no recourse to British political
policies that only served to worsen the loss of the potato
crop. For example, in 1847, the British enacted the Poor
Laws in Ireland, which placed the burden of providing
for the Irish poor (who had lost their potato crops) on
landlords and small farmers. Starving workers and small
farmers could not pay the taxes the landlords demanded,
and the Poor Laws only served to exacerbate the famine.
Understanding Great Britain's colonial role in Ireland
before, during, and after the potato famine reminds us
that environmental conditions rarely operate in a social
vacuum. The potato famine and the migration fl ow of
Irish to their chief destinations, the United States and
Canada, altered the demographics of both Ireland (the
source) and the United States and Canada.
Environmental crises including earthquakes, hurri-
canes, and volcanic eruptions also stimulate migrations.
For example, a surge of migration follows major earth-
quakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters.
Because many migrants return, the net outfl ow gener-
ated by such momentary crises is usually small, but not
always. Between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the popu-
lation of New Orleans fell by 11 percent as a result of
the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the
economic recession since. The proportion of children
in New Orleans' population also fell, from 27 percent in
2000 to 23 percent in 2007. Mapping where children live
in New Orleans refl ects another trend in post-Katrina
New Orleans: families with children in the New Orleans
region are moving out of the city center and close-in sub-
urbs and into the farther suburbs and exurbs, including
Belle Chasse (Fig. 3.9).
Some environmental crises, such as volcanic erup-
tions, bring long-term environmental changes to the
landscape, making return migration diffi cult, if not impos-
sible. For example, the Caribbean island of Montserrat
had a small population of about 10,000 prior to a volcanic
eruption that began in 1995. The volcano has been active
since then, prompting a migration fl ow. Geographer Jason
Dittmer studied how drastically the physical and cultural
landscapes of Montserrat have changed since the onset of
volcanic activity. Dittmer explains that roughly half the
island has been proclaimed an Exclusion Zone, a region
that includes the capital city of Plymouth (Fig. 3.10).
People are not allowed in this zone of active volcanic activ-
ity. The people who remained must now live in the north-
ern part of the island where the soils are thin, the land is
rocky, and making a living is diffi cult. Over 7000 people
migrated off the island, and the remaining 3000 migrated
to the northern coast of the island, where the effects of the
volcano are less felt.
Culture and Traditions
People who fear that their culture and traditions will
not survive a major political transition, and who are able
to migrate to places they perceive as safer, will often
do so. When the British partitioned South Asia into a
mainly Hindu India and an almost exclusively Muslim
Pakistan, millions of Muslim residents of India migrated
across the border to the new Islamic state, and millions
