Climatic Regions

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What are the four main climatic regions?

Tundra, Mediterranean, Tropical Rainforest and Hot desert
Why are Rainforets being destroyed?
- For hardwood and softwood to make furniture and paper
- To make room for cattle ranches as beef is a cheap source of food
- Areas of forest are destroyed due to mining for gold, tin, iron ore, etc
- Trees are cut down to make room for roads and railway links through the forest to reach remote places
- The rainforest is also destroyed to make room for new settlements
Explain the problems that are likely to result from the destruction of the rainforest
- Global warming as burning trees releases greenhouse gases into the air
- Soil erosion - the roots of the trees which used to bind the soil together are now gone and there is no shelter from the rain so top layer of soil is washed away into nearby rivers
- Loss of animal habitat because man is cutting down the trees and shelters where animals used to live
- Some tribes have lost their old way of life because white men bring things like new diseases, guns, etc
How can we save the rainforest?
- 25% of rainforests to be given protection now
- Large-scale indutrial developments must undertake protection of top lyer of soil
- All clearing to be planted with fast-growing trees and chemical fertiliers
- Recycle paper
- Fairer trade prices paid for timebr by rich countries
What are the main causes of desertification?
- Deforestation - trees are cut down for fuel and shelter which means their roots no longer bind the soil together and the top layer of soil is blown away (soil erosion)
- Overgrazing - goats eat the grass or crops which means there are no roots to bind the soil together which leads to soil erosion
- Overpopulation - an increase in population means there is more strain on the land so more crops are grown which take all the nutrients out of the soil (which no one replaces) and people overgraze to try to keep up with the demand for food which leads to soil ersosion
- Drought - the immense heat and no rain makes the ground go solid so when it does eventually rain the ground cannot absorb the water and plants cannot be grown
What are the solutions to desertification?
- By building wells people can conserve water which they can later use to irrigate their crops - whose roots bind the soil together and prevent soil erosion
- By "protecting trees" this means that people are not cutting them down and their roots are their to bind the soil together and prevent soil erosion
- By planting grass on the sand dunes the roots will bind the soil together and prevent soil erosion
- By building fences this will prevent the goats from eating the crops which bind the soil together and prevent soil erosion
Explain the problems the climate brings to the tundra and offer solutions to these problems
- Cold temperatures make working outdoors very diffucult (workers could get frostbite) and there will be a shortage of people willing to work there so the solution would be to offer specialised clothing and pay very high wages
- Oil could stop flowing through the pipelines due to the freezing temperatures so we could heat the oil to 80 degrees
- Sea is frozen over for nine months meaning oil cannot be shipped out or food and supplies shipped in. The solution is to build Trans-Alaskan pipeline across Alaska and have food and supplies flown in
- Top layer of soil melts in summer which leads to subsidence and houses could collapse into the soil so build houses on stilts
Explain why the Mediterranean sea is heavily polluted
- Oil leaks from ships
- Industries dump radioactive waste into the sea
- Fertilisers from farms are washed into rivers which eventually reach the sea
- Raw sewage is pumped into the sea
- As it is an enclosed sea it takes around 80 years for pollution to be washed out into the Atlantic
- Fishermen leave behind old broken nets (ghost netting) that kill fish

Author

Anonymous

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Card Set

Climatic Regions

Description

Standard Grade Geography - Climatic Regions Unit

Updated

2011-04-13T12:42:58Z

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