Geo - Lec 4

• When analysing markets, a range of assumptions are made about the rationality of economic agents involved in the transactions
• The Wealth of Nations was written

  1776
• Rational


  (in classical economic theory) economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Rational agents will select the choice which presents the highest benefits
• Consumers act rationally by


  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by

  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• Physical Geography Lecture 4: The Development of Physical Geography
• Getting hold of references: Holden, J. (Ed.) 2017 An Introduction to Physical Geography and the Environment 4th edition (Pearson, Harlow) is available as an e-book from the University library (use DiscoverEd to access it). You can also access e-journals similarly.
• Leang Bulu Sipong 4, Maros-Pangkep, South Sulawesi 43,900 years ago (43.9 ka) Brumm et al (2021) Science Advances https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/3/eabd4648 Understanding the wider world
• Herodotus (485-425 BCE)


  'The Histories' Account of on the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars. Also contains a lot of geographic and ethnographic information. Oikoumene (known world) Description of the flow of the Nile. Indirect accounts of the circumnavigation of Africa.
• Radio 4: Great Lives – Herodotus (16/1/18) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09ly6rt
• Aristotle (384-322 BCE)


  Provided evidence of the spherical form of the Earth
• Meanwhile back in 1980 'pushing the Copernicus dope fiend dream as did the rest of the German bohemians.. and all out effort to establish the ATHEIST Spinning Ball Concept..'
• Meanwhile back in 2023 https://www.tfes.org/
• Yü Chi T'u The Map Tracing the Tracks of Yu (3rd century BCE)


  Survey of soils, agricultural products and rivers of several Chinese provinces. Produced in ~1137 CE from information in 3rd century BCE survey – drawn with grids. Also used for printing. Three physical geography themes identified: Coastal hydrography and description, Local topographies, Geographic encyclopedia.
• Eratosthenes (276-~195BCE)


  Chief librarian at Alexandria and 'Father of Geography'. Provided first accurate measurement of the circumference of the Earth. Calculated its axial tilt and introduced concept of meridians and parallels. In his 3 volume Geographika (now lost) he mapped the known world and classified it into climatic zones.
• Strabo (64BCE-~CE24)


  Compiled 17 volume Geographica largely from existing sources; survived into the Renaissance world. An early appreciation of sea-level change.
• Ptolemy (100-178)


  A Greco-Egyptian who wrote 8 volume Geography, which included a mathematical description of the Earth, a volume of maps, and the calculation of latitude and longitude (basis of European maps for the next 1400 years!)
• c15th copy of Ptolemy's map of Britain
• Al-Idrisi (1099-1180)


  Produced a descriptive geography to assist pilgrimages. Significant contributions to mathematical geography and specialist treatments of topics such as climate.
• Tabula Rogeriana (1152)


  For King Roger II of Sicily (son of a Norman). (Nuzhat al-mushtāq fi'khtirāq al-āfāq – The Book of Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands, 14th-15th century manuscript)
• Christian Geography of the Middle Ages (c. 1300)


  Early descriptive accounts to aid pilgrims. Geographies based on scripture. Encyclopedias documenting places and features. Mapp Mundi – Hereford Cathedral. As much about explaining the divine order of things (both physical and societal) as their manifestation on earth.
• Ptolemy's Geographia translated from Greek to Latin in 1407 (left 1482)


  Map based on calculations (not always correct). Medieval map makers made more "important" countries bigger. Not appropriate for navigation. European map making changed after this. Up to the 15th century, Europeans still reliant on Classical Geography.
• Cantino planisphere (1502) Shows Portuguese "discoveries" of parts of Brazil coastline and east to Asia
• James Cook (1728-1779)


  Joseph Banks (1743-1820). 1768-71, 1772-75, 1776-79. Pressed plants collected by Banks on Cook's first expedition. Cook's map of New Zealand produced on his first expedition.
• Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)


  In 1806 identifies orographic snowline. Expedition to South and Central America, 1799-1804. Enormous range of observations and measurements relevant to physical geography as well as meteorology, volcanology and geophysics, but especially to biogeography. Many publications, including the 5 volume Kosmos.
• Humboldt's climatic map of the world https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2018214
• Beck, H., Zimmermann, N., McVicar, T. et al. Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution. Sci Data 5, 180214 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.214
• Humboldt's integrative schematic cross-section of plant and environmental zonation across equatorial mountain ranges
• In his diagram Humboldt attempts to demonstrate the spatial (geographical) relationships between various natural phenomena and the plants observed.


  The columns record a range of environmental variables as they vary with elevation and latitude including: Minimum and maximum temperature, Chemical composition of the atmosphere, Lower limits of permanent snow, Presence of typical animals, Rock type (which he noted as being independent of elevation), Intensity of light, Humidity, Blueness of the sky.
• Charles Darwin


  Voyage of the 'Beagle' (1831-1836): explaining the formation of coral atolls. Captain, later Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy. Founded what became the Met Office.
• Associations of volcanic islands and coral reefs

  Fringing reef, Barrier reef, Atoll
• Darwin's Coral Reef Theory


  Theoretical underpinnings – Charles Lyell's steady-state conception of uniformity.
• Terry, J.P. and Goff, J. (2013) One hundred and thirty years since Darwin: 'Reshaping' the theory of atoll formation. The Holocene 23, 615-619. http://hol.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/12/11/0959683612463101.full.pdf+html
• Geographical (spatial) distribution


  Morphology: flanks of coral atolls much steeper than that of volcanoes. Data on vertical growth rates of reef-forming corals (up to 360 mm a-1) – compatible with plausible volcano subsidence rates. Darwin's corroborative evidence.