Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
indirectly, by a rapidly urbanizing human population that now
exceeds 6,000 million people and is estimated to reach between
7.3 and 10.7 billion by the year
AD
2050. Thus, although the
'geo-ecological footprint' of each person has increased, there is
greater concern for the overall human impact, which has been
estimated to have increased 200% since 1960.
Rates of changes associated with the electronic age, such as the
growth in air transport, international agreements, transnational
companies, mobile phones, and internet users have, in some
cases, been even more rapid and ubiquitous. In 1985, neither
the mobile phone nor the internet were in existence; but by
the year 2000 there were over 800 million mobile phones and
around 1 billion internet users. The global extent and rate at
which human activities, ranging from pollution of the natural
environment to the organization of society, have transformed the
world and its functioning systems means that there are few, if any,
past analogues to guide future actions. This does not, however,
eradicate traditional geographical concerns with space, place, and
environment; rather, our attention is refocused as the realities
of information technology and its variable impacts have to be
accommodated.
Integrated geography therefore has a major role to play
in this fi eld at the interface between the biophysical and
human dimensions of global change. Specifi cally this role
includes: (1) documenting and monitoring local and regional
spatial patterns of change; (2) understanding the interacting
processes and explaining their effects in different places;
(3) developing policies for the mitigation of environmental
impacts at local to global scale; and (4) contributing to ethical
frameworks.
A good example is provided by so-called 'hotspots' of biodiversity
(Figure 19). They are defi ned as areas with exceptional
concentrations of endemic species that are also threatened
