Humans and the Physical Environment

1. Europe and Russia Humans and the Physical Environment Chapter 14, Section 2

2. Learning Targets:Review I can explain how climate and location affect the shipping industry of both Europe and Russia.

3. Setting the Scene • It’s February in Barcelona, Spain. Isabella wakes up to a warm, sunny Saturday morning - it’s 65 degrees. • Meanwhile in Siberia it is late afternoon in Irkutsk. The day is clear and cold – it’s -15 degrees. Alexy is skiing home after visiting his grandma.

4. 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.

5. Humans Adapt to the Environment • Much of northwestern Europe, including Norway and Iceland has a marine climate all year.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Moscow’s Winter Palace Moscow’s City Palace Tower 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Russia’s 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.

13. The Natural Resources of Europe Chapter 14, Section 3

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

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

16. 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.

17. 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 region’s oil is in the North Sea and Siberia – Siberian oil must be transported by pipeline.

18. 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 world’s coal reserves.

19. Russia also has great reserves of iron ore near the Ural Mountains. This iron is used to make steel.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.