Space Food -Cool page 80

To the Lakota, and other indigenous people on North America's Great Plains, the bison was an essential part of their culture ( expressed in the quote on the previous page). The bison provided meat for nutrition, a hide for clothing and shelter, bones for tools, and fat for soap. The bison was also central to their religious beliefs. So, when European settlers hunted the bison nearly to extinction, Lakota culture suffered. Culture is central to a society and the identity of its people, as well as its continued existence. Therefore, geographers study culture as a way to understand similarities and differences among societies across the world, and in some cases, to help preserve these societies. Analyzing Culture All of a group's learned behaviors, actions, beliefs, and objects are a part of culture. It is a visible force seen in a group's actions, possessions, and influence on the landscape. For example, in a large city you can see people working in offices, factories, and stores, and living in high-rise apartments or suburban homes. You might observe them attending movies, concerts, or sporting events. Culture is also an invisible force guiding people through shared belief systems, customs, and traditions. Culture is learned, in that it develops through experiences, and not merely transmitted through genetics. For example, many people in the United States have developed a strong sense of competitiveness in school and business, and believe that hard work is a key to success. These types of elements, visible and invisible, are cultural traits. A series of interrelated traits make up a cultural complex, such as the process of steps and acceptable behaviors related to greeting a person in different cultures. A single cultural artifact, such as an automobile, may represent many different values, beliefs, behaviors and traditions and be representative of a cultural complex. Since culture is learned there are many ways that one generation passes its culture to the next. Children and adults learn traits three ways: • imitation, as when learning a language by repeating sounds or behaviors from a person or television • informal instruction, as when a parent reminds a child to say "please" • formal instruction, as when students learn history in school 132 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP" EDITION CULTURAL COMPLEX OF THE AUTOMOBILE The automobile provides much more than just transportation, as it reflects many values that are central to American culture. Origins of Culture The area in which a unique culture or a specific trait develops is a culture hearth. Classical Greece was a culture hearth for democracy more than 2,000 years ago. New York City was a culture hearth for rap music in the 1970s. Geographers study how cultures develop in hearths and diffuse-or spread-to other places. Geographers also study taboos, behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture. For example, many cultures have taboos against eating certain foods, such as pork or insects. What is considered taboo changes over time. In the United States, marriages between Protestants and Catholics were once taboo, but they are not widely opposed now. Traditional, Folk, and Indigenous Cultures With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, modern transportation and communication connected people as never before and led to extensive cultural mixing, especially as cities have grown. The world prior to this time was very different; however, remnants of the past are still evident in our modern cultures. Traditional, folk, and indigenous cultures share some important characteristics and are often grouped together, but they do have some subtle differences. Traditional Culture Recently, the meanings of traditional, folk, and indigenous culture have begun to merge, causing geographers to debate when each should be used. Increasingly, the term traditional culture is used to encompass all three cultural designations. All three types share the function of passing down long-held beliefs, values, and practices and are generally resistant to rapid changes in their culture. Folk Culture The beliefs and practices of small, homogenous groups of people, often living in rural areas that are relatively isolated and slow to change, are known as folk cultures. Like all cultures, they demonstrate the diverse ways that people have adapted to a physical environment. For example, people around the world learned to make shelters out of available resources, whether 3.1: INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE 133 it was snow or mud bricks or wood. However, people used similar resources such as wood differently. In Scandinavia, people used trees to build cabins. In the American Midwest, people processed trees into boards, built a frame, and attached the boards to it. Many traits of folk culture continue today. Corn was first grown in Mexico around 10,000 years ago, and it is still grown there today. While many elements of folk culture exist side by side with modern culture, there are people whose societies have changed little, if at all, from long ago. These people practice traditional cultures, those which have not been affected by modern technology or influences. They often live in remote regions, such as some small tribes in the Amazon rainforest, and have scant knowledge of the outside world. As the lines continue blurring between cultural designations, the Amish of Pennsylvania are often referenced as both folk and traditional culture. Indigenous Culture When members of an ethnic group reside in their ancestral lands, and typically possess unique cultural traits, such as speaking their own exclusive language, they are considered an indigenous culture. Some indigenous peoples have been displaced from their native lands, but still practice their indigenous culture. Native Americans in the United States, such as the Navajo, have kept indigenous cultural practices. First Nations of Canada, such as the Inuit, have also retained their indigenous culture. Globalization and Popular Culture As a result of the Industrial Revolution, improvements in transportation and communication have shortened the time required for movement, trade, or other forms of interaction between two places. This development, known as space-time compression (see Topics 1.4 and 3.6), has accelerated culture change around the world. In 1817, a freight shipment from Cincinnati needed 52 days to reach New York City. By 1850, because of canals and railroads, it took half that long. And by 1852, it took only 7 days. Today, an airplane flight takes only a few hours, and digital information takes seconds or less. Similar change has occurred on the global scale. People travel freely across the world in a matter of hours, and communication has advanced to a point where people share information instantaneously across the globe. The increased global interaction has had a profound impact on cultures, from spreading English across the world to instant sharing of news, events and music. Globalization specifically refers to the increased integration of the world economy since the 1970s. The process of intensified interaction among peoples, governments, and companies of different countries around the globe has had profound impacts on culture. The culture of the United States is intertwined with globalization. Through the influence of its corporations, Hollywood movies, and government, the United States exerts widespread influence in other countries. But other countries also shape American culture. For example, in 2019, the National Basketball Association included players from 38 countries or territories. When cultural traits- such as clothing, music, movies, and types of 134 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP. EDITION businesses-spread quickly over a large area and are adopted by various groups, they become part of popular culture. Elements of popular culture often begin in urban areas and diffuse quickly through globalization processes such as the media and Internet. These elements can quickly be adopted worldwide, making them part of global culture. People around the world follow European soccer, Indian Bollywood movies, and Japanese animation known as anime. With people in many nations wearing similar clothes, listening to similar music, and eating similar food, popular cultural traits often promote uniformity in beliefs, values, and the cultural landscape across many places The cultural landscape, also known as the built environment (see Topic 3.2), is the modification of the environment by a group and is a visible reflection of that group's cultural beliefs and values. Traditional Culture to Popular Culture Popular culture emphasizes trying what is new rather than preserving what is traditional. Many people, especially older generations or those who follow a folk culture, openly resist the adoption of popular cultural traits. They do this by preserving traditional languages, religions, values, and foods. While older generations often resist the adoption of popular culture, they seldom are successful in keeping their traditional cultures from changing, especially among the young people of their society. One clash between popular and traditional culture is occurring in Brazil. As the population expands to the interior of the rain forest, many indigenous cultures, like the Yanamamo tribe, have more contact with outside groups. Remaining isolated by the forest is becoming increasingly difficult as many young people from the indigenous cultures become exposed to popular culture and begin to integrate into the larger Brazilian society. As the young people leave their communities, they are more likely to accept popular culture at the expense of their indigenous cultural heritage, which threatens the very existence of their folk culture. Traditional culture typically exhibits horizontal diversity, meaning each traditional culture has its own customs and language that makes it distinct from other culture groups. Yet, people people within each group are usually homogeneous, or very similar to each other. By contrast, popular culture typically exhibits vertical diversity, meaning that modern urban societies are usually heterogeneous, or exhibiting differences, within the society and usually contain numerous multiethnic neighborhoods. However, on a global scale popular cultures are relatively similar with the same type of malls, shops, fast food, and clothing. Urban global culture centers are not identical, yet, global cities often do not have as much horizontal diversity across space as folk cultures. 3.1: INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE 135 COMPARING TRADITIONAL AND POPULAR CULTURE Trait Traditional Culture Popular or Global Culture Society • Rural and isolated location • Urban and connected location • Homogeneous and • Diverse and multiethnic indigenous population population • Most people speak an • Many people speak a global indigenous or ethnic local language such as English or language Arabic • Horizontal diversity • Vertical diversity Social • Emphasis on community and • Emphasis on individualism and Structure conformity making choices • Families live close to each • Dispersed families other • Weakly defined gender roles • Well-defined gender roles Diffusion • Relatively slow and limited • Relatively rapid and extensive • Primarily through relocation • Often hierarchical • Oral traditions and stories • Social media and mass media Buildings and • Materials produced locally, • Materials produced in distant Housing such as stone or grass factories, such as steel or glass • Built by community or owner • Built by a business • Similar style for community • Variety of architectural styles • Different between cultures • Similar between cities • Traditional architecture • Postmodern / contemporary architecture Food • Locally produced • Often imported • Choices limited by tradition • Wide range of choice • Prepared by the family or • Purchased in restaurants community Spatial Focus • Local and regional • National and global Artifacts, Mentifacts, and Sociofacts Whether a cultural attribute is considered traditional, folk, indigenous, or popular in nature, it is valuable to differentiate between elements of culture that can be seen and those that can not. There are artifacts that comprise the material culture, which consists of tangible things, or those that can be experienced by the senses. Art, clothing, food, music, sports, and housing types are all tangible elements of culture. Another element of the study of artifacts is understanding the techniques to use or build a specific artifact. Artifacts can be unique to a particular culture, or can be shared. For example, people of all cultures need to communicate through language, yet there are many groups that possess languages unique to their culture. The ability to read, write and understand the English language is an artifact of importance for much of popular global culture. 136 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP" EDITION Mentifacts comprise a group's nonmaterial culture and consist ofintangible concepts, or those not having a physical presence. Beliefs, values, practices, and aesthetics (pleasing in appearance) determine what a cultural group views as acceptable and desirable. Mentifacts can also be unique or shared. People of many cultures possess an belief in one or many deities, and often the deities are unique to that culture. The belief in a god is a mentifact-the religious building or symbols are artifacts. Cultural groups also possess sociofacts, which are the ways people organize their society and relate to one another. Taken altogether, people tend to see the whole of their culture as greater than the sum of its individual parts. Sociofacts are embodied through families, governments, sports teams, religious organizations, education systems, and other social constructs. As with artifacts and mentifacts, sociofacts may also be unique or similar to other societies. Families are the foundations of most societies, yet what constitutes the structure of a family may vary widely between cultural groups. For example, Western cultures tend to view the nuclear family, consisting of the parents and their children as the basic family unit. By contrast, in many Western African cultures the norm is the extended family, consisting of several generations and other family members such as cousins living under one roof.

Space food

As long as the birth rate of a population exceeds the death rate, the population size will continue to increase. At a steady, positive per capita growth rate, the population will add a larger number of indi- viduals with each generation. So, a population can increase rapidly with even a small growth rate. A pattern of increase in number due to a steady growth rate is called exponential growth. The observa- tion that populations can grow in this pattern is called the exponential (EKS-poh-NEN-shuhl) model of population growth. One way to understand the exponential model is to study a graph of population size over time. A graph of exponential growth makes the characteristic J-shaped curve shown in Figure 19-6. With expo- nential growth, population size grows slowly when it is small, but growth speeds up as individuals join the population. The exponen- tial model leads us to predict that the population size will increase indefinitely and by a greater number with each time period. Applying the Exponential Model A scientific model is useful if it helps to predict or explain pat- terns that can be observed in reality. Indeed, the exponential model matches observed patterns of growth of real populations, but only under certain conditions and for limited periods of time. For example, a population of microorganisms can grow exponen- tially if provided with an abundance of food and space and if waste is removed. Figure 19-7 shows the growth of bacteria in a laboratory. However, the exponential model does not apply to most popu- lations. In natural environments, populations cannot grow indefi- nitely because the resources they depend on become scarce and harmful wastes accumulate. Any factor, such as space, that restrains the growth of a population is called a limiting factor. All populations are ultimately limited by their environment.SPECIES INTERACTIONS Just as populations contain interacting members of a single species, communities contain interacting populations of many species. Many species have specific types of interactions with other species. This chapter introduces the five major types of interactions among species: predation, competition, parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism. These categories are based on whether each species causes any benefit or harm to the other species in a given relationship. PREDATION In predation (pree-DAY-shuhn), an individual of one species, called the predator, eats all or part of an individual of another species, called the prey. Predation is a powerful force in a community. The relationship between predator and prey influences the size of each population and affects where and how each species lives. Examples of predators include carnivores—predators that eat ani- mals—and herbivores—predators that eat plants. Many types of organisms can act as predators or prey. All heterotrophs are either predators or parasites or both. Predator Adaptations Natural selection favors the evolution of predator adaptations for finding, capturing, and consuming prey. For example, rattlesnakes have an acute sense of smell and have heat-sensitive pits located below each nostril. These pits enable a rattlesnake to detect warm- bodied prey, even in the dark. Many snakes use venom to disable or kill their prey. A venomous rat- tlesnake is shown in Figure 20-1. Other predator adaptations include the sticky webs of spiders, the flesh-cutting teeth of wolves and coyotes, the speed of cheetahs, and the striped pat- tern of a tiger’s coat, which provides camouflage in a grassland habitat. Many herbivores have mouthparts suited to cutting and chewing tough vegetation. A predator’s survival depends on its ability to capture food, but a prey’s survival depends on its ability to avoid being captured. Therefore, natural selection also favors adaptations in prey that allow the prey to escape, avoid, or otherwise ward off

Why should mankind explore space? Why should money, time and effort be spent exploring, investigating and researching something with so few apparent benefits? Why should resources be spent on space rather than on conditions and people on Earth? These are questions that, understandably, are very often asked. Perhaps the best answer lies in our genetic makeup as human beings. What drove our distant ancestors to move from the trees into the plains, and on into all possible areas and environments? It appears that we are driven to ensure the success and continuation of not just our own genes, but of the species as a whole. The wider the distribution of a species, the better its chance of survival. Perhaps the best reason for exploring space is this genetic predisposition to expand wherever possible. Nearly every successful civilisation has explored, because by doing so, any dangers in surrounding areas can be identified and prepared for. These might be enemies in neighbouring cultures, physical features of the area, a change in the area which might affect food supplies, or any number of other factors. They all pose a real danger, and all can be made less threatening if certain preparations are made. Without knowledge, we may be completely destroyed by the danger. With knowledge, we can lessen its effects. Exploration also allows minerals and other potential resources to be located. Additional resources are always beneficial when used wisely, and can increase our chances of survival. Even if we have no immediate need of them, they will perhaps be useful later. Resources may be more than physical assets. Knowledge or techniques acquired through exploration, or preparing to explore, filter from the developers into society at large. The techniques may have medical applications which can improve the length or quality of our lives. Techniques may be social, allowing members of society better to understand those within or outside the culture. Better understanding may lead to more efficient use of resources, or a reduction in competition for resources. We have already benefited from other spin-offs, including improvements in earthquake prediction – which has saved many lives – in satellites used for weather forecasting and in communications systems. Even non-stick saucepans and mirrored sunglasses are by-products of technological developments in the space industry! While many resources are spent on what seems a small return, the exploration of space allows creative, brave and intelligent members of our species to focus on what may serve to save us. While space may hold many wonders and explanations of how the universe was formed or how it works, it also holds dangers. The chances of a large comet or asteroid hitting the Earth are small, but it could happen in time. Such strikes in the past may account for the extinction of dinosaurs and other species. Human technology is reaching the point where it might be able to detect the possibility of this happening, and enable us to minimise the damage, or prevent it completely, allowing us as a species to avoid extinction. The danger exists, but knowledge can help human beings to survive. Without the ability to reach out across space, the chance to save ourselves might not exist. In certain circumstances, life on Earth may become impossible: over-population or epidemics, for instance, might eventually force us to find other places to live. While Earth is the only planet known to sustain life, surely the adaptive ability of humans would allow us to inhabit other planets and moons. It is true that the lifestyle would be different, but human life and cultures have adapted in the past and surely could in the future. The more a culture expands, the less chance there is that it will become extinct. Space allows us to expand and succeed: for the sake of everyone on the Earth, now and in the future, space exploration is essential.

Meaning Of Refuse Refuse are dirty substances or unwanted wastes we have used at home and are ready to be disposed. Refuse should not be kept within the home for a long time to avoid breeding space for pests and bacteria which could bring various infections and dangerous diseases. We can clear refuse by sweeping our surroundings and gathering used items such as can, food remnants, leaves, banana peel, etc. in other to avoid infections and dangerous diseases. The following are the materials used to gather refuse. 1. Brooms 2. Packers 3. Waste basket 4. Dust bins 5. Incinerators Types of Wastes 1) Organic Wastes: These are perishables wastes. They can decay easily. Examples are Yam peels, banana peels, fish wastes etc. These wastes could be burnt when dried . 2) Solid Wastes: These are non-perishable wastes. It takes a long process before these wastes can decay. Examples are cans, tins, broken glasses and bottles. These wastes can be buried. It can also be re-cycled for new things. The following are ways of disposing refuse. 1) Gather the refuse at safe distance and burn them. 2) Bury the refuse by digging hole and pouring them. 3) By recycling refuse to become fertilizer for gardening or farming.

Singapore, a city-state that imports most of its food from other countries, started experimenting with vertical farming to scale up local food production as early as 2009. Having limited land but a large population, Singapore has expanded upward by building high-rise “farm walls,” which allow plants to grow up, rather than across the land. With a population of 23 million, Taiwan should follow Singapore’s example and develop vertical farming because this farming method can address issues such as limited land, water, and agricultural workers. 2 First, the rainwater-driven rotary system in vertical farms makes better use of land and, therefore, may help deal with the farmland issue in Taiwan. Taiwan has lost a lot of agricultural land to industrial and domestic use. This land issue can be addressed by the rotary system, which allows farmers to move racks of plants—one by one—as high as nine meters up in the air to get enough sunlight. Each vertical farm in Singapore has more than 20 racks of rotating plant-growing containers, providing an efficient way to make the most of limited land space. 3 Second, aside from the efficient use of land, the rotary system helps save water, which can prevent a lack of water during water rationing. Despite the fact that Taiwan has a lot more annual rainfall than the world average, much of it quickly flows down steep mountains into the sea, which makes collecting rainwater difficult. In vertical farms, plants are watered by recycled rainwater precisely where they need to be when the racks are rotated down to the micro-sprinklers. Singapore’s urban farming has proved that this sustainable irrigation method allows plants to be grown with only 5% of the water used in traditional agriculture. 4 Third, the operation of vertical farms relies greatly on machines and thus may ease the problem of having a declining number of agricultural workers. Low pay, long hours, and tough working conditions on traditional farms mean most young people would rather choose other careers, which results in an age gap in agriculture with many more older workers than younger ones. Such a negative impact could be reduced by the highly-computerized work on vertical farms. Mostly operated by machines, the work on vertical farms is lighter. As a result, fewer workers are needed on vertical farms. 5 Given these points, vertical farming appears to be the perfect solution for Taiwan, and we are technologically prepared for this new farming method. One biotechnology company in Taiwan has been working with a Danish partner since 2020, and they have successfully run a vertical farm in Copenhagen. If we can build more vertical farms in Taiwan, many agricultural issues can be dealt with, and city citizens may be able to start growing and harvesting food sustainably at the touch of a button.

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