Human Geography Question Answer 2022

Human Geography 1
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
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Human Geography 2
QUESTION 1
Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution is the economic and social changes arising to industries in factories
powered by machinery from industries carried in the homes using simple equipment. The
transition included going to new iron production and chemical manufacturing processes from the
hand production technique. The industrial revolution marked the rise in mechanization in the
factory system, the development of machine tools, and the increase in the use of water and steam
power (Humphries & Schneider, 2018).
For example, during 1000 AD, some parts of India produced cotton textiles by use of their hand
on a small-scale together with their food crops. The cotton produced was woven and spun in
households for domestic purposes such as clothing of the family members. The Indian farmers
later started producing cotton in the factory as the demand for cotton was increasing and the
potential of exportation arises (Tomory, 2016). The large-scale production promoted the
development of machines to assist in the process of production such as cotton gin which assisted
in removing seeds.
Green Revolution
Green Revolution is defined as series of technological, development, and research transfer
initiatives, which took place between the late 1970s and 1943 in Mexico, resulting in the rise in
industrialized production in agriculture in various nations that are developed. Green revolution
stated when the Rockefeller Foundation established an institute in 1944 to promote agricultural
production of Mexican farms. This resulted in the astonishing outcome and the country improved

Human Geography 3
from importing 50% of wheat to self-sufficiency by 1956 and exported a million tons of wheat
by 1964 (Tyagi, 2016). The characteristics of the Green revolution include:
The development of agricultural techniques such as pesticides, herbicides, use of heavy
machinery, and extensive use of chemicals,
Plant transformation techniques: Hybridization, direct gene transfer methods much as
recombinant DNA.
For example, the current development of GMO crops which are crops that are genetically
engineered to increase the crop yield, then the process is revered to as green revolution.
Desertification
Desertification refers the degradation of land in drylands in which biological productivity is lost
because of human induced activities or natural processes hence fertile regions progressively
become arid. For example, the Sahara Desert in North Africa known to be the largest hot desert
in the world known to have developed from Sahara grassland to complete arid desert without any
vegetation (Verón and Paruelo, 2010).
Biodiversity
Biodiversity refers to various living species on Earth such as fungi, bacteria, animals, and plants.
Biodiversity can also be defined as the variability and variety of life on Earth determined the
variations at ecosystem species and genetics. Biodiversity is not only a variety of species like
animals and plants but also the variety of genes within those species and the variety of
ecosystems in which the species live (Chen, 2016). Ecosystems include desert, rainforest,
forest, and coral reefs.

Human Geography 4
For example, it is true to say that biodiversity is not distributed evenly but rather varies across
the world depending on geography, soil, altitude, precipitation, and temperature.
Land Degradation
This is the loss or deterioration of the productive capability of the soil for the future or present
caused by a combination of processes induced by humans such as climate change, dumping non-
biodegradable trash, monoculture, urban sprawl, overgrazing, depletion of soil nutrients through
agriculture, and land clearance. Approximately 40% of agricultural land in the world is seriously
degraded (Stringer & Harris, 2013).
For example, a farmer planting maize on a piece of land every season without crop rotation will
cause the depletion of all nutrients in the soil such that the productivity of the land will
depreciate and the crop yield will also decrease. The land is said to have experienced land
degradation through the process of mono-cropping.