This past summer, I had the life changing experience of visiting China. The cities of Shanghai and Beijing providing examples of culture and landscape so immensely different from any that I have otherwise encountered. The idea of the trip, which I took with my parents, was to not only acquaint myself with a fascinating country but to witness first hand the economic progress and potential of China as it continues to grow itself into a global capitalist market. While touring factories and reading of new plans for foreign investment to China, I considered the environmental implications that would inevitably come with such extensive and rapid economic development. My thoughts on the subject became increasingly negative when I envisioned the impact a population of over one billion could have on a global scale. These thoughts form the foundation for my “Great Imaginations” research paper, which will focus on Carl O. Sauer and the concept of destructive exploitation.
The remainder of this paper will be written with the notion that Carl O. Sauer, with his destructive exploitation concept has identified what should be the primary concern for the human race. Sauer has additionally stimulated future generations of geographers concerned with the damage that has been done to the world’s natural resources and natural habitat. To prove this theory, I will provide a well-balanced argument. The research paper will begin with a brief biographical sketch of Carl Sauer’s career followed by his uptake and development of the destructive exploitation concept. Next, I will examine the further development of destructive exploitation by geographers influenced by Sauer’s work such as Michael Williams and Susan Kidwell. Subsequently, I will present contesting theories and criticism to Carl Sauer and his views on destructive exploitation, such as environmental determinism by Ellen Churchill Semple and “Raubwirtshaft”. Finally, the paper will end with a reflection on how Carl Sauer and destructive exploitation have shaped my own geographical imagination. This section will focus on the impending impact that destructive exploitation of natural resources and the environment will have on China in its quest towards full development. The ensuing research and analysis will provide the reader with a wealth of knowledge about Carl Sauer and the development of the destructive exploitation concept and the possible outcomes that might develop as humans continue their abuse of Earth.
The Term Paper on Carl Jung’s Theory: Personality Types and How They Help Therapists
In this essay I aim to describe and evaluate Carl Jung’s theory concerning personality types and show how they might usefully help a therapist to determine therapeutic goals. I will also look at the origins and characteristics of attitudes and functions and show how these can be related to psychological disturbance. Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung was born in 1875 to a reverend who had lost ...
Carl Sauer (1889-1975) was born in Warrenton Missouri. He became a groundbreaking American geographer whose most celebrated works were his development of cultural landscapes and criticism of environmental determinism. During his youth, Sauer’s parents sent him to school in Germany. He later returned to the United Sates to attend Central Wesleyan College, where he graduated from in 1908, shortly before his nineteenth birthday (Briney, 2010).
From there, Sauer attended Northwestern University in Illinois. While at Northwestern, Sauer studied geology and developed a keen interest of the past, this combination lead to his move to the broader subject of geography (Briney, 2010).
Within this discipline, he was primarily interested in the physical landscape and human cultural activities. He decided to further pursue an education in the vast field of geography by transferring to the University of Chicago, where he earned his PhD in 1915(Briney, 2010).
Following a brief stint in Chicago, Sauer immediately began teaching geography at the University of Michigan that lasted until 1923. From 1923 until his retirement in 1957, Sauer worked and lived at the University of California where he became the creator of the “Berkeley School”. The “Berkeley School” of geographic thought focused on regional geography being shaped around culture, landscape and history with emphasis on how humans interact with and change their environment (Briney, 2010).
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Chastelllux, Marquis de. Travels in North America the years 1780, 1781, and 1782, 2 vols. Howard C. Rice, ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist Papers. Clinton Rossiter, ed. New York: New American Library, 1961. Ingersol, Charles. "Visit to Mr. Madison," Washington Globe. 12 August 1836. "James Madison's Attitude ...
This way of thinking was instrumental in developing the concept of destructive exploitation. A concept that Sauer first wrote about in his 1938 article titled “Theme of Plant and Animal Destruction in Economic History” and continued to develop over the course of his professional career.
To introduce the theory of destructive exploitation, one can define it as the unrestrained use of natural resources that irreparably diminishes nature and leads to human want or distress. This concept sites economic process as the cause and environmental pathology as consequence (Kent and Denevan, 2009).
Carl Sauer, being a human geographer and history enthusiast became increasingly concerned by the permanent wastage of productive resources under European culture. Sauer did not share the complacency of others before him. He rejected the sense of optimism regarding destructive exploitation’s contribution to the growth of wealth in the modern world and excusing it as a necessary stage in economic development, which is supposed to give way in due time to balanced use and a permanently higher level of production (Kent and Denevan, 2009).
Sauer believed that soil devastation was the most serious and widespread liability of colonial and commercial exploitation and found little hope in a future dominated by technology and growth. A year before his death he cautioned “We know now that man is not the master of an unlimited environment, but that his technologic intervention in the physical world and its life has become the crisis of his survival and that of its co inhabitants” (William, 1977).
He stated his opinion on American life by proposing that it is rationalized by a suspect philosophy. That American life is governed by an ever-expanding economy in which capacity to produce and capacity to consume measure quality of life. Sauer believed that modern civilization has been built on the destruction of symbiosis and questioned whether it could be continued indefinitely, the whole occidental commercial system he declaimed, “looks like a house of cards” (William, 1977).
While already firmly established at the University of California, Carl Sauer published his first and perhaps most influential writing on destructive exploitation. Titled “Theme of Plant and Animal Destruction in Economic History” Sauer describes a very clear genealogy of how destructive exploitation is to be traced. According to Sauer, it is vital to first understand the history behind what made destructive exploitation significant before one can delve into and appreciate the current state of affairs. The first signs of destructive exploitation were visible as far back as 9000 B.C in Neolithic times (Sauer, 1938).
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They tried to reconcile among the Shi'a opposition. The core different was that they disagreed who the caliph should be. What was the fictional account of life at the court of the Caliph al-Rashid? The Tale of The Thousand and One Nights How did the administration of al-Rashid set a trend for subsequent Abbasid rulers? They set the trend for luxury living What was the result of the civil wars ...
This period marked a time of tremendous human achievement in plant and animal domestication and a major step forward by man in his use of nature. This triumph did not come without cost however. When compared to the ‘New World’ (Americas, Oceania, Antarctica), the ‘Old World’ (Africa, Asia, Europe) exhibits a dry interior and evident deterioration much greater than can be accounted for by climactic change. Under similar physical conditions, the New World deserts support a varied cover of vegetation whereas the Old World deserts show a tremendous waste of shifting sand and denuded rock surfaces (Sauer, 1938).
The inference therefore is that this wide discrepancy in vegetation has to do with cultural differences. Specifically, ancient overgrazing is blamed for the bareness of much of the Old World, something a time lapse spanning thousands of years has done nothing to repair (Sauer, 1938).
Besides this major exception, destructive exploitation returns when we enter the period of modern history where the transatlantic expansion of European commerce, peoples and governments takes place (Sauer, 1938).
Then begins what may be the tragic, rather than great age of man. In the late 18th century, the progressively and rapidly destructive effects of European exploitation become marked. In the space of only a century and a half, only two full lifetimes, more damage has been done to the productive capacity of the world than in all of human history preceding. The previous manner of living within the means of an area, by use of its actual surplus has been replaced by the reckless glutting of its resources for quick profit (Sauer, 1938).
The opening of the 19th century introduced cropping systems in favor of the shrinkage of organic absorbent material in the soil. With row cropping and bare fields in the non-growing season, the true soil, needing centuries for development, is removed by a few decades of farming. Even before dramatic removal of surface begins, the serious and irreversible damage is done (Sauer, 1938).
The Essay on Soil
Soil, superficial covering of most of the earths land area; an aggregation of unconsolidated mineral and organic particles produced by the combined action of wind, water, and organic decay. Soils vary widely from place to place. The chemical composition and physical structure of the soil at any given location are determined by the kind of geologic material from which it originates, by the ...
More recent examples include; the 1890’s saw the washing out of Western American grazing lands, only a decade after the last great herd of buffalo was killed. At the outbreak of World War One, the last important stand of the white pine of the Great Lakes was being cut. In the 1930’s, the topsoil from the wheat fields of the Great Plains was being carried by dust storms as far as the Atlantic in what was coined the “Great Depression” (Sauer, 1938).
From this sequential review of the destructive exploitation man has inflicted on Earth, Carl Sauer has identified three key losses that the world has sustained. Firstly, is the “extinction of species and varietal forms”. This loss, largely the result of commercial farming has meant the extinction of plant species (most notably corn) due to genetic fixation and thus drastically inhibiting the results of biological evolution (Sauer, 1938).
Secondly, is “the restriction of useful species”. This has mostly been due to overgrazing. Even if overgrazing were to be stopped at once, it would take an indefinitely long time for grass to re-grow over the useless brush that replaces it in many regions. Ecologic successions are often very slow and once a degenerative plant succession has set in, a restoration is very uncertain (Sauer, 1938).
Thirdly, and most widespread and serious of all, is “soil destruction”. The astonishing erosion of the fertility of soil has become a major problem. With a rapidly growing global population, agriculture and the importance of food production are at an all time high. The rescuing of worn land requires more labor, skill and capital than the farming of good land with associated uncertain results. “The cycle of degeneration is very, very difficult to break, and there is no salvation by any brilliant device” (Sauer, 1938).
This was a summary of some of the suicidal qualities of our current commercial economy. Our idea is one of an infinitely expanding universe, one created only for our benefit. Unfortunately, humans have not yet learned the difference between yield and loot and refuse to be economic realists (Sauer, 1938).
The Essay on In Your Opinion Are Water Resources Over Or Undervalued In The United States
In your opinion are water resources over or undervalued in the United States? Water is the most important life element to humans after oxygen. Without water human can live only up to 3 days after which they would die. Today water represents a great and profitable industry for the fact that the producers of the main US soft drinks need water, as well as the ordinary citizen who use water for their ...
On the bright side, the concept of destructive exploitation and its negative effects on the environment were brought to the forefront of geographical thought by Carl Sauer. Since his retirement in 1957 and death in 1975, there have been other prominent geographers who have expanded upon his work.
In an age of increased environmental awareness, there have been countless geographers who have expanded on the theory of destructive exploitation and used the concept to aid their own research and career. More specifically, I will focus on the work of Michael Williams “The End of Modern History” and Susan Kidwell’s “Depletion, Degradation and Recovery Potential of Estuaries and Coastal Seas”.
Written in 1998, Michael Williams’ article is developmental in its exploration of the destructive exploitation of water resources. Williams expands upon Sauer’s main focus of soil destruction saying, “ soil and water problems are, to a large extent, inseparable” (Williams, 1998).
The problem of water cleanliness in densely populated cities dates as far back to London and the Thames in the 14th century, however the growing and widespread discharge of industrial and domestic waste had made it a global problem by the 1900s (Williams, 1998).
Williams is in agreement with the notion that economic advancement has led to human gluttony of the world’s water resources stating “water withdrawals, consumption, and returns for all purposes nearly doubled, from 886 to 1,415cubic kilo- meters per year between 1900 and 1950” (Williams, 1998).
He also communicates his concern about human living patterns, such as the rapid population growth in the states of California, Nevada and Arizona, places without the natural water resources to support the increasing demand.
The article by Susan Kidwell, explores the effects of destructive exploitation of estuaries and coastal seas and its global impacts. Once again, the article is an example of a clear stepping stone from the work of Carl Sauer in that it focuses on the depletion and extinction of plant and animal species as a result of human interference. The study by Kidwell has shown that centuries of over exploitation, habitat transformation and pollution has resulted in irreversible damage to estuaries and coastal seas. Human impact has depleted the population of over 90% of animal species, destroyed 65% of sea-grass and wetland habitat, degraded water quality and accelerated foreign species invasion (Kidwell, 2006).
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1.0 Executive Summary The main purpose of this report is to give out the definition of “values” of water resources and the ways to account for it. In addition to the traditional value expressed solely in economic terms, the new concept pays more attention to the social and environmental benefits. According to the new value system, recommendations have been made to help government determine whether ...
This pervasive influence has created the potential for disaster, as demonstrated by numerous fishery collapses and the recent impacts of the 2004 Tsunami and 2005 Hurricane Katrina that were exacerbated by the historical loss of mangroves and wetlands (Kidwell, 2006).
The works of these two geographers embody the opinions of Carl Sauer and destructive exploitation. It is clear that Sauer’s views are shared among many of his peers and apprentices; however, there are some who challenge his ideas.
For most who read about the devastating effects that destructive exploitation has had on the earth, the reaction is of shame and regret. Interestingly, there are theorists who are not only unapologetic but also supportive of global destructive exploitation. German Ernst Friedrich coined the term “Raubwirtshaft” which can be translated as economic plunder, robber economy or more simply devastation (Goudie, 1981).
This concept believes that destructive exploitation of resources leads of necessity to foresight and to improvements and that after the initial phase of exploitation the result would be conservation and improvement. Friedrich stated that “devastation always brings about, not a catastrophe, but a series of catastrophes, for in nature things are dependant one upon another” (Goudie, 1981).
Thankfully, for the most part we are more caring with regard to the environment than was the case when Friedrich began his “Raubwirtshaft” theory. Around the world, there are a plethora of people and organizations interested in the purification of our world to the point of symbiosis. In some places such as China however the drive towards economic development and capitalism has overshadowed the negative effects of destructive exploitation.
As I reflect on China I continued to puzzle whether the theories of the preeminent geographers could not all apply at the same time. There is no doubt much evidence of destructive exploitation is apparent, it was inescapable. Examples of Raubwirtshaft exist any time there are short-sited entrepreneurs who rationalize their own profits ahead of their community and don’t wish to consider what impact they will leave. But how to consider the fate of hundreds of millions of people who with the advent of modern communications are only trying to live in a manner that is a fraction as comfortable as what they see in the West? It is not excusable to destroy nature with disregard, but are the symptoms we see in China motivated by the same behavior that Sauer first saw as a student? And if the motivation is different are we seeing the same phenomena?
Ten years down the road, I would like to study the ways in which the rapid development of China has led to the diminished productive capacity of its natural resources, such as soil degeneration, water quality and air pollution. To compare and quantify the results, I would use the North American standards of soil, water and air quality as a strict barometer. My hope would be that the state of China’s natural resources would be better than the ones we currently have here in North America and that they did not destroy their country as much as we Westerners did on the way to economic advancement. My hope is that my lifetime (1989-????) does not become synonymous with the destruction of Earth and man.
As one of the major figures in 20th century geography, Carl Ortwin Sauer profoundly influenced academic geography and associated fields. As scholar, teacher, and public servant, Sauer was a direct and gifted advocate of the environment. Relying in part on culture theory, he refashioned the meaning of destructive exploitation, documented the devastation of resources by civilized man, and added moral judgments of the impoverishing process. He broadened the term destructive exploitation to encompass deformation of life as well as nature. Sauer’s record of economic abuse and its consequences were limited mainly to commercial culture, colonial and contemporary. Primitive man was part of the general symbiosis and could seldom be accused of destroying the basis of his survival. Sauer’s primary concern was the depletion of man’s living resources. Sauer represented the retrospective tradition in the science of man, citing primitive and peasant ways, unhurried and balanced, as models for living with the land. His concern with the past took him into the future, a future that could hold more promise if men apply lessons from the past.
