Humans and the Physical Environment

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Humans and the Physical Environment

• Chapter 14, Section 2

• Europe and Russia

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Learning TargetsReview
I can explain how climate and location affect the
shipping industry of both Europe and Russia.
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Setting the Scene

• Its February in Barcelona, Spain. Isabella wakes
  up to a warm, sunny Saturday morning - its 65
  degrees.
• Meanwhile in Siberia it is late afternoon in
  Irkutsk. The day is clear and cold its -15
  degrees. Alexy is skiing home after visiting his
  grandma.

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Setting the Scene

• Barcelona is located on the Mediterranean Sea,
  where winters are mild and rainy and summers are
  hot and dry.
• In Siberia, winters are severe temperatures fall
  to -50 degrees. Summers are cool and short.

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Humans Adapt to the Environment

• Much of northwestern Europe, including Norway and
  Iceland has a marine climate all year.

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Humans Adapt to the Environment

• The countries that ring the Mediterranean Sea lie
  in a rain shadow from the Alpine Mountain System.
  There is little rain.

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Humans Adapt to the Environment

• Most of Eastern Europe is in the humid
  continental region. People here are prepared for
  long cold winters and very hot summers.

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Humans Adapt to the Environment

• Few people live in the climate regions of the
  subarctic and tundra areas of Europe and Russia
  because even in the summer the temperatures
  barely get above freezing.

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Modifying the Physical Environment

• Temperature, rainfall, altitude and latitude are
  factors that determine the natural vegetation of
  an area.
• Explain how each of these affects vegetation.

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Forests and Grasslands

• Deciduous forests (made up of trees that lose
  their leaves) once covered most of Europe.
• Over many years, people cleared the forests to
  create farmland and build cities.

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Forests and Grasslands

• In Northern Europe and Russia there are large
  coniferous forests, which have trees with cones.
• The central and southern parts of the North
  European Plain were once covered with prairies.
  They have also been turned into farmland.

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Russias Vegetation

• The three great vegetation zones of Russia are
• The Tundra a treeless plain where only grasses
  and mosses grow.
• The Taiga a forested region that covers 4
  million square miles. The soil is not good for
  farming
• The Steppes Russian grasslands with fertile
  black soil for farming.

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The Natural Resources of Europe

• Chapter 14, Section 3

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European Success

• Europe is a wealthy region and a world leader in
  economic development. Much of this success comes
  from its rich natural resources.
• Russia has many resources, but its size, frosty
  climate and frozen rivers make it difficult to
  turn these resources into wealth.

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Natural Resources

• The most important natural resources of Europe
  are its fertile soil, water and fossil fuels.

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Fossil Fuels

• Fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal,
  provide energy for industries.
• These fuels are nonrenewable resources once
  they are used up, they are gone.
• Millions of years ago, tiny sea plants, called
  plankton, died and settled on the sea floor. The
  plankton was covered by mud and sand.

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Fossil Fuels

• The weight of the sand and mud slowly changed the
  plankton into oil.
• Now, Europeans and Russians drill for oil below
  the sea floor using platforms.
• Most of the regions oil is in the North Sea and
  Siberia Siberian oil must be transported by
  pipeline.

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Coal

• Coal is made from ancient plants and animals that
  also changed after millions of years of pressure.
• The plants and animals first become peat, then
  brown coal, and then soft coal.
• Coal is mined in Great Britain, The Ruhr Valley
  of Germany, the Ukraine and the region of
  Silesia.
• Russia has 1/3 of the worlds coal reserves.

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Geographic Processes

• In Western Europe, water is an important resource
  for irrigating crops, transporting goods and
  supplying cities.
• People there also use their rivers to turn
  turbines, which generates hydroelectric power.
• Norway gets almost all of its power from water,
  and factories in Sweden, Switzerland, Austria,
  Spain and Portugal all run on water power.

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Geographic Processes

• Except in the southwestern part of the country,
  the frozen rivers in Russia cannot be used to
  generate hydroelectric power.
• Also, many rivers there are polluted with
  industrial waste.
• These rivers will need to be cleaned before they
  can be developed as natural resources.

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Geographic Processes

• Over thousands of years, winds have left fertile,
  dust-like soil called loess across the North
  European Plain.
• This soil, combined with plenty of rainfall and
  long growing seasons, allows Europeans farmers to
  grow a large amount of crops.
• In the Ukraine, a black soil called chernozem is
  very fertile.