Industrialization & Economic Development - AP Human Geography

“Ecotourism” is a facet of sustainable development that is particularly popular in Costa Rica. The goal of ecotourism is to direct tourists towards threatened and endangered natural regions so as to raise awareness of environmental concerns at the same time as making a profit.

The gross domestic product is one of the chief ways a nation's economy is judged. As its name implies, the GDP is a total accounting of a nation's output, including all expenditures, revenues, and profits. Any average, like the average wage, plays no part in GDP, because GDP measures a complete output by a nation.

The evolution of western economies can be mapped to the growth from primary economic activities to quaternary and quinary economic activities. It is often assumed that this process can be transferred to the developing world, but there have been some notable exceptions that suggest that not all countries will experience the same manner of progression. Primary economic activities are concerned with the harvesting of raw materials - industries like agriculture and mining.

The generation of knowledge and the sharing of research are associated with quaternary economic activities. Examples of this include teaching, tourism, and customer service. As the economies of Europe and North America have transitioned away from primary and secondary economic activities the majority of the population has become employed in quaternary or tertiary economic activities.

Quaternary economic activities include anything that has to do with research, teaching, and development. Other examples include computer and information work, consultancy, and scientific inquiry.

Of the following choices, manufacturing locations is affected by environmental laws (it may not be eco-friendly to manufacture products in certain areas), labor availability (a product should be manufactured in an area where labor is plentiful), and access to markets (a product should be manufactured in an area where it can be marketed and compete with other similar products). GDP and property tax rates are not necessarily impacted by all three factors.

Believe it or not the target year for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals was 2015. Seeing as you are reading this in either 2015, or after, you can be fairly confident that the United Nations did not meet its goals of eradicating starvation and poverty, providing universal public education, and combating malaria (as well as several others). But, these dates are often arbitrary and are more meant to serve as motivation than concrete deadlines. Progress has certainly been made in almost all areas of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals since 2000.

While India is the second most populous nation in the world, the rate of economic development is much lower compared to nations like the United States (third most populous nation), Japan (tenth most populous nation), and Australia. Nations with high population density tend to be poverty-stricken as well, due to too many people in a given area competing for resources (agricultural, financial, etc).

The least-cost theory is attributed to Alfred Weber. The least-cost theory suggests that all major corporations make their decisions about where to house their production and manufacturing facilities based on the least possible combination of costs, so as to derive the greatest possible profit. It is instrumental for understanding the nature and decision making process of multinational corporations.

The Industrial Revolution arrived in Germany during the 1850s and quickly exploded. By the 1860s Germany’s economy was fully industrial and quickly catching up to Great Britain. In 1871 the German states were finally unified and industrialization progressed more rapidly, by the turn of the century the German industrial capacity was the strongest in the world.

Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth include the following five stages: Traditional Society; Preconditions for Take-Off; Take-Off; Drive to Maturity; and Age of High Mass Consumption. Rostow's model is one of the most significant historical models of economic growth. The model does not include "Postmodern Society."

The average person in the U.S. will produce about 4 pounds of solid waste per day.

Malaria is spread by mosquitos that contain the malaria virus in their saliva. In 2013, there were an estimated 198 million cases of malaria, resulting in over 500,000 deaths (mostly children in the African region).

From the nineteenth century onwards, the industrialized world saw a remarkable improvement in mortality rates, especially among children but in all age demographics. The direct causes for this were varied, but included improved medical knowledge, better access to medical care, and improved sanitation standards. Some of the more indirect causes included more food sources due to better agricultural technology, wider social mobility, and more trust in modern science, which led there to be fewer famines and lower infection rates.

Stage 1 of the demographic transition is typically pre-historic and occurs when the infrastructure and resources to guard against famine, disease, drought, and other disasters are generally not available (no flu vaccines, no food aid programs, etc.). This results in high and fluctuating birth and death rates, because environmental conditions and epidemics have a direct impact on birth and mortality rates.

Stage 2 of demographic transition includes the formation of permanent towns and societies all the way up to the industrialization and formation of large cities. During this time, food has become more abundant due to agriculture, and humans are less susceptible to famine. In addition, medicine and healthcare become available, and hygiene improves, resulting in a decline in the mortality rate; however, birth rates are still very high during Stage 2, while the mortality rate will begin to decline. The population will also begin to increase sharply at this point.

Stage 3 of the demographic transition is the continuation of Stage 2, where the birth rate has begun to decline sharply while the mortality rate continues to decline but has begun leveling off. The continued decline in the death rate can be attributed to the increased presence of healthcare and medical facilities in matured industrial societies. The sharp decline in birth rates is attributed to the increase in accessible education for women, which tends to happen in industrialized societies.

Low fertility rates lead to population decline, reductions in the labor force, a smaller tax base, and slowed economic growth. These results actually hurt social programs benefitting the elderly (e.g. social security), which are paid for by taxes that are incurred when people work and spend. In general, a smaller tax base, which is a consequence of low fertility rates, will not facilitate increased funding for social services of any kind.

Qatar has the third-highest Gross Domestic Product per capita of any country in the world- behind only Luxembourg and Switzerland. But, it scores relatively low on the gender equity scale. This is due to the differences between Qatar’s current economic climate and its longstanding cultural traditions. Based on previous evidence we can reasonably infer that Qatar’s gender equality is likely to rise to a point more in keeping with it’s Gross Domestic Product per capita, but we cannot know this for certain.

The primary problem with the Gross National Product is that it presents the value of all economies based on the value of the US dollar. It ignores the fact that in different countries varying amounts of goods can be purchased with the same amount of money. For example, a house in New Jersey might cost you several hundred thousand dollars, in Lesotho it might cost you less than a thousand dollars. This basically means that an individual needs to earn less money to buy the same amount of goods. This distinction is reflected in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).