Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
location or region are products of interaction between people and nature. While these relationships
are sometimes harmless, they may also have negative consequences, as in the Chesapeake Bay ex-
ample.
Environmental geography
is the sub-field that focuses on human impact on the natural environment,
and is the topic of this chapter. Previous chapters have referred to negative environmental impacts
without mentioning environmental geography by name. Devoting an entire chapter to it is meant to
emphasize both the magnitude of society's ability to alter the face of the Earth, and the existence of
a discreet area of geography that is devoted to the topic. Although ending the meaty part of this topic
with talk of pollution and such may seem like a downer, it affords the opportunity to think critically
about the role of geography in assessing the present and planning for the future.
Figure
18-1:
Hundreds
of
water-courses
from six states
drain into the
Chesapeake
Bay.
Grasping the Basics — Environmentally Speaking
Environment
refers to the myriad of natural characteristics and conditions that affect and are
affected by humans.
Environmental geography
, therefore, is the study of the characteristics of
locations and regions that are the result of human-nature interaction. This is closely allied to
the field of
ecology,
which studies the complex connections that link the following elements:
