Political Geography
Political Geography January 24th 2012
Concerning the centrifugal forces and centripetal forces that affect the state identity and how they affect a region.
There are forces that break state apart and other forces that hold that same state together. These forces constantly interact and work to either break the state apart and keep it together. In most cases these are just tendencies, attitudes and characteristics that would affect it.
Hypothetical State •
Corridor rights for land locked state o
•
Interpretation of Watershed line o
•
Demarcated boundaries made by river systems would make it difficult. These river systems are an easy thing to use but in the real world the highest ridges and highest points are disconnected making the options open for interpretation. This could cause arguments with the neighbouring state
Meandering river which change boundary o
•
The state will have difficult shipping products in and out and will want to interact with the rest of the world so it need access to the ocean such as using a corridor to allow for products entrance and exit. This might be a event that alters the export and import of goods and without this the neighbouring states may make it difficult to receive goods due to service charges. Uneconomic for business with other countries
International boundary of river would create multiple problems as in other cases due to movement
Median Line through inland lake o
Difficulty in determining the location of the boundary line. If there are islands more questions arise. These questions lead to arguments and the international boundary would make it difficult for the neighbouring states as arguments would arise
•
Upstream abstraction of water o
•
Minority group overspill from neighbour state o
•
Group trying to separate from the country as it wants to leave causing conflicts with the governing body
International Resource o
•
Group of people that constantly move between states. These people would be nomads for years, centuries even and believe they do not belong in either state. This causes problems figuring out where they belong
Internal Separatist Movement o
•
Group in state in two states, but both states believe they are independent and need their own state
Seasonal Movement of Pastoral People o
•
Minority group wanting to belong to neighbouring group as it is much larger but in different state.
Unified homeland for ethnic group o
•
The source region of water could be affected by the neighbouring state using the water. Due to the water drying up the agricultural purposes or human uses of water would be difficult to negotiate as the neighbouring state could take this water and use up the resource, making it difficult dealing with the country
Resource is near border causing arguments as others want to control that resource or use it creating conflicts.
Threat to ‘A’
o
•
Buffer zone near territory. Due to the large city near the border and this constant worry of enemy attacks. The enemy attacks could cause problems with the state so they want no military activities near the certain zone in the area.
Artificial seeding of clouds o
Small particles are used to gain the use of clouds for water in the area to help crops. This would increase the rainfall for the region due to the precipitation and the crop would do substantially better due to this. The expenses of seeding the clouds for this rainfall would do a lot better for the area while the neighbouring state would not get these potential clouds due to the lack of potential precipitation. The neighbouring state may have a drought and may get problems due to this and anger may arise due to the state seeding the clouds wanting the forceful shutdown of this practice. This is done in California.
These 12 problems would be difficult for the state, although there are only 12 there could potentially be many more problems for this state. There is a defined difference between nations and states. This difference is very important. Joel Garreau’s 9 Nations of North America is the division of the area into these separate entities. o
Foundry encompasses the Ontario region, typically known to manufacture things similar to the surrounding great lake states.
o
New England encompasses Atlantic Canada, New England states and surrounding areas. This region has similar like minded thinking in the area.
o
Quebec is basically just the Quebecois. They consider themselves a nation
o
Down in the lower South there is the Dixie nation, as even have the federate flag and similar mindset
some
o
Breadbasket is more Midwest, mostly grain growing and very important for food. The fears and worries are similar for the region
o
Mexiamerica is Spanish speaking including some parts of the US such as Arizona and California in many aspects of the attitudes
o
The Islands extends the Southern Tip of Florida (Miami) and include many of the islands. The islands have generally similar aspects of the region.
o
The Empty Quarter is very bare and does not have many recourses
o
Ecotopia is a generally more relaxed region.
If the areas did not have migration of areas these attitudes would be more and more entrenched and the people would see themselves as different from the rest of their countrymen and increasing pressure to change these boarder lines as they want their own states.
Boundaries into Ocean Space o
o
How do you extend a state’s boundary into ocean space? o
This is difficult when all the space is water due to determining areas in oceans
o
Defining these land boundaries in ocean space becomes a very difficult task for many nations
By who has the “biggest gun” o
o
Historically this has been the case with many nations using cannons on the land firing into these waters claiming that area. If the cannon could go that far then it was controlled by the range of this cannon. This determined sovereign control of the region. The 3 Nautical miles were generally accepted as the region. As cannon range increased they also had different territorial seas as there became more confusion. These states had to decided by agreement what the territorial see was for the control of the nation.
By International Agreement? o
Done with more use of treaties and more negotiations done between the nations to deal with these problems. The other way to force an agreement was to go to war with these nations.
Over the course of the centuries the distance from the coast that a state received as part of their region became larger and larger. This rule extended further and further as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) became active. The key terms for this were territorial sea, contiguous sea, and exclusive economic zone EEZ. The territorial sea is 12 miles out, the contiguous zone is 24 miles out (some activities can be done but not everything that can be done in territorial sea) and 200 nautical miles out the exclusive economic zone where some rights were established. Eventually more and more states signed onto this convention and joined. Beyond these nautical miles there are the high seas when all states can use the region. All states had no control and boarding ships would be considered piracy. The coastlines of all countries could now be drawn out 200 nautical miles outward from the region. Here is another map of these zones: In internal waters all the same rights to land were applied. Terriotrial sea had some control and slowly less and less control over the region was determined as illustrated by the diagram.
UNCLOS Internal waters: (Landward of Baselines) Subject to laws of the state. Right of passage may be suspended if vessel a threat to peace, order and security of the state. Territorial Water (seaward of baselines) sovereignty extends over waters, seabed and airspace not to exceed 12 n miles (22.44 km) vessels have right of innocent passage this may be suspended temporarily if vessel(s) a threat to state’s security. Contiguous Zone: May not extend beyond 24 n miles (44.4 km) seaward from baselines. State has right to control if a threat exists to security of state or terriotiral waters. State has right of pursuit into this zone. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) 200 n miles (370 km) from baselines- coastal state has right to conserve and manage living and non living resources. This does not include exclusive use of these resources. In areas that are ice covered coastal state has right to adopt and enforce laws and regulations for the prevention and control of marine pollution (Article 234) This allows for the other countries ships to fish in the area but they can manage how much fish they can take to manage these resources. You cannot however be partisan allowing your own citizens to use the
area while alien countries being unable to do this same activity. Article 234 became very important to Canada as they allowed for it to be put in and it became extremely important to control these Northern areas and became a sort of trump card in the end for Canada. Not every state has signed onto this but every year many more do. Very small land masses (as is common in the South Pacific Ocean) many of these countries are very close together and control regions that far exceed their land mass. They also are very spread out in the region. A small tiny island that Japan controls (consisting of only two tiny little rocks (4.7 m)) is controlled by Japan. Japan spent millions of dollars to control this area and prevent erosion as the zone that the rocks controlled was bigger than the land mass it held. These rocks were 3 meters above sea level. Japan had 400,000 square kilometers of exclusive fishing and undersea mining rights due to this so they spent 300 million dollars to prevent these rocks from sinking. Area is called Okino Tori. There is not much in the area as there is no landing strip, just a weather station, no inhabitants but this area is very important to Japan. Seaward Extension of a Boundary The line between two neighbouring states is hard to determine the exact extent of their region. The coastline could be used, the extension of a longitudinal or latitutudal line could be used. The length of the coastline is difficult to determine the amount of space. This is also difficult when the countries have projections of land sticking outwardly in the area. The two states would argue about areas in between the two regions. This could include fishing or mining in the area as they have economic value causing fro disputes. Drama on the High Seas o
This is an actual radio conversation between a United States Navy aircraft carrier and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995.
o
The radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on 10/10/95 as authorized by the Freedom of Information Act
o
Basically it was Americans arguing with a light house.
Georges Bank Overview Georges Bank is an underwater shoal, left behind by retreating glaciers thousands of years ago. The bank on its northewwestern edge is a shallow as 30 m and creates a barrier between Gulf of Maine and the northwest Atlantic Ocean. The topography and position of the bank result in upwelling of nutriet rich waters circulating in the Gulf of Maine. These nutrients introduced into the sunlit waters over the bank support very high rates of productivity including many species of commercial importance. The fish stocks of the bank supported economies on both sides of the Atlantic for three or four centuries. The innovation of the otter trawl and the advent of a very mobile international l fishing fleet combined to decimate the fish stocks of Georges Bank in the
late 20th century. With stringent fisheries controls in place, some stocks are showing signs of recovery. Others, including the historically important cod, are not. There was difficulty between Canada and US to settle the dispute. The area was rather important to control due to this. Canada and the United States tried without success to settle the dispute with a treaty providing for joint fishing and management. They eventually agreed to refer the conflict to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, Netherlands. Canada claimed slightly less than half of the disputed area; Unite States claimed the whole band. The two countries used natural elongations, historical evidence and other arguments to gain the land. In order to take this agreement to the international court, they would need an agreement that both states would acknowledge the decision. Without this agreement, the whole case would be nulled by the disagreeing country. The USA claim consisted of the whole region as the US wanted the boundary to consist of the whole region. They wanted the depth of the water to demarcate. The Canadians wanted equidistance and would have claimed half of the region in its claim. The case was to create a new boundary that was between both claims and would seem to be a compromise. This made no one really happy. The Canadians got the most productive region of the Georges Bank. This case shows that even countries that are very diplomatic with each other still have conflicts between them. The Georges Bank issue reflects many political and geographic concerns: the significance to boundaries to states and nations. This has potential to cause disputes and the growing use of authorities to claim the region. This is also seen in the Arctic region. The Beaufort Sea There are large claims of major amounts of resources in the region. It is hard to determine the territory into this area. The 141st degree marks Yukon and Alaska border and the extension of the line would mark the boundary for Canada’s claim. The Americans claimed extension of the coastline for their claim and Canada would get less. Ottawa and Washington were in a tug of war over the land and wanted the companies to bid on the land to use for drilling in the area for individual oil companies. The different companies would have predetermined boundaries and negotiate the rights to drill. This was the plan by the States to receive million to billions of dollars to allow companies to look for oil. Canada disagreed believing that some of the promised land was Canadian territory. Canada believed there was no right to sell mining rights over the area and protested the plan. This became a problem over the disputed claims and no oil companies made a claim on this area due to the worry that the US may not have the right to that land. That became the end of the dispute. In 2003, when Washington held an auction for oil and gas leases in the contested area, Ottawa filed a diplomatic protest. In the end, no bids were received, reportedly because energy companies feared the uncertainty around the border dispute.
Canada & Denmark’s Dispute Canada: It remains our firmly held position that Hans Island constitutes part of Canada’s national territory,: state Minister Pettigrew. “as longstanding allies it is our shared objective to lead by example and resolve this matter which we agree is about the island, and the island only. Minister Moller and I have agreed that our officials should meet soon to discuss how to move toward a resolution of this issue and report back to us. The Hans Island dispute obtained worldwide notoriety when it was learned that the territorial fight was being played out in cyberspace It then took on ugly turns as Denmark dispatched the naval charter “Tulugaq” and Canada flew in Canada’s Defence Minister Bill Graham. The island is between the two countries borders and there are disputes because of this boundary determining the area. Hans Island is essentially just a rock and not very important other than its location in-between the two areas. No significant resources near this island even as the location has no economic resources around it. The known manganese nodules near the area are areas that grow with minerals scattered all over the seas and has all kinds of minerals in the area. Scooping up the minerals would be ore that could potentially be refined. This could be billion worth of dollars that just needs to be scooped up but they are in the open ocean. The difficulty in obtaining these manganese resources is the amount of economics required to move the rocks take it to shore etc. But it is still difficult to determine who owns the rocks. The state, company, or someone else could all potentially have stakes in these claims for the goods. Some landlocked states would want a cut in these resources as they believe that everyone deserves a cut so international agreement is needed to decide who indeed owns these resources. At the moment, these resources are so expensive to extract more can almost be used up extracting then selling the resources. There is no effective way to extract the minerals from the sea at the moment even though there are thousands and thousands of tons of the minerals The Arctic Sea Ice region is covered entirely in ice. The Northwest passage is considerablely shorter distance then going around the southern tips or the Panama Canal as the sea ice has slowly disappeared. This region is controlled due to this importance. Over the time period the regions ice has constantly shifted and at times it is possible to go through the North West passage or go along the European routes through the region. Over time the Arctic Sea routes have become cleared allowing for movement. The minimal distance going through has decreased over in time as the September Average Extent minimum has also fallen. The shipping possibilities have opened up and more possibilities to explore the depths below the ice to examine what could be possibly taken from the region. This could be taken from the Arctic Ocean. This also has implications to climate. Going from Asia to Europe or vice versa through this passage is around 9000 km shorter than travelling to the Panama Canal so this route is ideal. This could save a fortune. This could also be done easier in avoiding the Middle East, going through the canals that may close.
Another border dispute is between China. There have been skirmishes in the area disputing the land in the area. This is in the region south of Hainan near the Paracel Islands, Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Islands. China claims that Chinese ships have claimed those islands over a very long period of time and Vietnam has also claimed the same thing of the area. The two countries are at a standstill over the area. A more recent map of China shows that the agriculture of China. In the academic journal, the authors have published something of China. In the journal they had to have the dashed lines appear in the disputed region between Vietnam and China Geopolitical concerns reduced immediately after the Cold War. New cconerns are arisingas Arctic is perceived/becoming more accessible with climate change. The key question is accessibility (transporation in Arctic). Existing international agreements weak and fragmented of the region. This is an animal instinct expressed by human kind and the control of the instinct to be limited or expressed. These issues are constantly going to be a problem for mankind.
Atmospheric Processes Part 1 The Nature of the Atmosphere The Earth’s Atmosphere Atmo-vapour
saphaira-sphere
An envelope of gases that is intimately related to all aspects of the earth’s surface which stretches from the surface of the earth to 10,000+ km (6000+ miles) into space. 10,0000 km is very high up as many satellites do not orbit that high. Atmospheric gases rapidly decrease with increasing distance from the sphere. One way of measuring this is by identifying the pressure and its difference as it starts to decrease as radius increases. Air pressure acting on the world is from all the atmospheric pressure from above. This is how the determination for atmospheric pressure works.
Mean Free Path (another way to think about atmospheric gas density) o
Distance a molecule travels before hitting another molecule (similar to dislocation)
o
At sea level free path is 6.5 to the -6 magnitude cm.
o
At 100 km elevation free path is 10 cm
o
At 160 km elevation free path is 5000cm
o
As the gas levels in the atmosphere change as they go up in the atmosphere and the pressure changes.
One man jumped from a balloon, his name was Joseph William Kittinger. The balloon was at 31,300 m from sea level. Te typical air plane flies at a third of that height. There is not much air pressure so a pressurized suit is required. During an earlier jump, he started spinning around causing some problems during the decent going 120 rpm. The g force was extreme causing him to black out and his parachute opened automatically. In his glove, there were some problems in his last attempt and his hand swelled up. His description was there was no fall at all almost and he very quickly reached a very high speed of thousands of kilometers per an hour. He accomplished this in 1960, no one has done something that high since. Kittinger owns many of these records due to these decents, he broke the sounds barrier and had absolutely no sense of falling as his indication was his view of the balloon getting smaller and smaller in the distance.
The Earth’s Atmosphere o
97% of gases within 30 km (18 miles) of the surface
o
About 90% of gases within 15km (9 miles) of the surface
o
About 50% of gases within 6 km (3.5 miles) of the surface
There are some mountains that are taller than this and extend past this point.There is a highly distorted sense of the thickness of this atmosphere. Composition o
Non-variant gases o
Over 99% of atmospheric gases
o
Nitrogen N2 78%
o
Oxygen O2 21%Argon 0.93%
o
Carbon Dioxide CO2 0.028%
o
Traces of Neon, Helium, Methane, Krypton, H2, Xe, NxOx
o
Carbon dioxide, methane and NxOx change due to the human activity done. These parts go up by a couple parts per a million every year due to these human activities. These are non-variant gases even though the carbon dioxide levels are increasing.
These non variant gases always in the proportion under 80 km (50 miles).
o
o
Variant gases o
H2O vapour is highly variable in time and place, Ozone O3, Ammonia NH3, H2S, SOx, CO.
o
Water vapour is primary source of atmospheric moisture leading to weather
o
Also important in absorption of radiant energy, concentrated in lower part of atmosphere with most below 3 km with little above 8 km.
Impurities o
Minute solid particles
o
Terrestrial dust, meteoric dust
o
Salt from oceans, pollen grains
These are very much less common but do exist in the atmosphere. They are very small particles but they do play a role in the weather system. In the States, there are multiple places that measure these different quantities in the air. The air is sampled at locations to measure these quantities and in some cases they measure over so many years and can measure smaller and smaller quantities adding to what can be measured. Vertical Zones o
Classification based on composition
o
Homosphere 80 km uniform ratio
o
Homopause transition zone, 80-88 km
o
Heterosphere 88 km and above layers arranged by molecular weights N and O2 in the lower heterosphere, He and H2 in the higher heterosphere
This layering is based on the densities of the weights. o
Classifications based on temperature
Troposphere-normal lapse rate, (decrease in temperature with increase in elevation), zone of weather
This is the most common way of classifying the atmosphere. Lapse rate is determined by the change in temperature due to the elevation and it is normal for the temperature and elevation to be inversely proportional. Tropoppause-zone above troposphere where air temperature remains constant with altitude Stratosphere-increase in air temperature with an increase in elevation. Ozone layer weatherless zone. Completely opposite to what one would initially believe would happen. Mesosphere-temperature decrease 50-100 km, normal lapse rate. Possible for clouds to appear and ice crystals. Noctilucent clouds may occur at this region as the clouds may be seen and very thin in the morning and they will occur in this region. Mesopause-zone above mesosphere Thermosphere-increase in air temperature with an increase in elevation. Heat zone, inverse (negative lapse rate, high velocity particles.
Concerning the centrifugal forces and centripetal forces that affect the state identity and how they affect a region.
There are forces that break state apart and other forces that hold that same state together. These forces constantly interact and work to either break the state apart and keep it together. In most cases these are just tendencies, attitudes and characteristics that would affect it.
Hypothetical State •
Corridor rights for land locked state o
•
Interpretation of Watershed line o
•
Demarcated boundaries made by river systems would make it difficult. These river systems are an easy thing to use but in the real world the highest ridges and highest points are disconnected making the options open for interpretation. This could cause arguments with the neighbouring state
Meandering river which change boundary o
•
The state will have difficult shipping products in and out and will want to interact with the rest of the world so it need access to the ocean such as using a corridor to allow for products entrance and exit. This might be a event that alters the export and import of goods and without this the neighbouring states may make it difficult to receive goods due to service charges. Uneconomic for business with other countries
International boundary of river would create multiple problems as in other cases due to movement
Median Line through inland lake o
Difficulty in determining the location of the boundary line. If there are islands more questions arise. These questions lead to arguments and the international boundary would make it difficult for the neighbouring states as arguments would arise
•
Upstream abstraction of water o
•
Minority group overspill from neighbour state o
•
Group trying to separate from the country as it wants to leave causing conflicts with the governing body
International Resource o
•
Group of people that constantly move between states. These people would be nomads for years, centuries even and believe they do not belong in either state. This causes problems figuring out where they belong
Internal Separatist Movement o
•
Group in state in two states, but both states believe they are independent and need their own state
Seasonal Movement of Pastoral People o
•
Minority group wanting to belong to neighbouring group as it is much larger but in different state.
Unified homeland for ethnic group o
•
The source region of water could be affected by the neighbouring state using the water. Due to the water drying up the agricultural purposes or human uses of water would be difficult to negotiate as the neighbouring state could take this water and use up the resource, making it difficult dealing with the country
Resource is near border causing arguments as others want to control that resource or use it creating conflicts.
Threat to ‘A’
o
•
Buffer zone near territory. Due to the large city near the border and this constant worry of enemy attacks. The enemy attacks could cause problems with the state so they want no military activities near the certain zone in the area.
Artificial seeding of clouds o
Small particles are used to gain the use of clouds for water in the area to help crops. This would increase the rainfall for the region due to the precipitation and the crop would do substantially better due to this. The expenses of seeding the clouds for this rainfall would do a lot better for the area while the neighbouring state would not get these potential clouds due to the lack of potential precipitation. The neighbouring state may have a drought and may get problems due to this and anger may arise due to the state seeding the clouds wanting the forceful shutdown of this practice. This is done in California.
These 12 problems would be difficult for the state, although there are only 12 there could potentially be many more problems for this state. There is a defined difference between nations and states. This difference is very important. Joel Garreau’s 9 Nations of North America is the division of the area into these separate entities. o
Foundry encompasses the Ontario region, typically known to manufacture things similar to the surrounding great lake states.
o
New England encompasses Atlantic Canada, New England states and surrounding areas. This region has similar like minded thinking in the area.
o
Quebec is basically just the Quebecois. They consider themselves a nation
o
Down in the lower South there is the Dixie nation, as even have the federate flag and similar mindset
some
o
Breadbasket is more Midwest, mostly grain growing and very important for food. The fears and worries are similar for the region
o
Mexiamerica is Spanish speaking including some parts of the US such as Arizona and California in many aspects of the attitudes
o
The Islands extends the Southern Tip of Florida (Miami) and include many of the islands. The islands have generally similar aspects of the region.
o
The Empty Quarter is very bare and does not have many recourses
o
Ecotopia is a generally more relaxed region.
If the areas did not have migration of areas these attitudes would be more and more entrenched and the people would see themselves as different from the rest of their countrymen and increasing pressure to change these boarder lines as they want their own states.
Boundaries into Ocean Space o
o
How do you extend a state’s boundary into ocean space? o
This is difficult when all the space is water due to determining areas in oceans
o
Defining these land boundaries in ocean space becomes a very difficult task for many nations
By who has the “biggest gun” o
o
Historically this has been the case with many nations using cannons on the land firing into these waters claiming that area. If the cannon could go that far then it was controlled by the range of this cannon. This determined sovereign control of the region. The 3 Nautical miles were generally accepted as the region. As cannon range increased they also had different territorial seas as there became more confusion. These states had to decided by agreement what the territorial see was for the control of the nation.
By International Agreement? o
Done with more use of treaties and more negotiations done between the nations to deal with these problems. The other way to force an agreement was to go to war with these nations.
Over the course of the centuries the distance from the coast that a state received as part of their region became larger and larger. This rule extended further and further as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) became active. The key terms for this were territorial sea, contiguous sea, and exclusive economic zone EEZ. The territorial sea is 12 miles out, the contiguous zone is 24 miles out (some activities can be done but not everything that can be done in territorial sea) and 200 nautical miles out the exclusive economic zone where some rights were established. Eventually more and more states signed onto this convention and joined. Beyond these nautical miles there are the high seas when all states can use the region. All states had no control and boarding ships would be considered piracy. The coastlines of all countries could now be drawn out 200 nautical miles outward from the region. Here is another map of these zones: In internal waters all the same rights to land were applied. Terriotrial sea had some control and slowly less and less control over the region was determined as illustrated by the diagram.
UNCLOS Internal waters: (Landward of Baselines) Subject to laws of the state. Right of passage may be suspended if vessel a threat to peace, order and security of the state. Territorial Water (seaward of baselines) sovereignty extends over waters, seabed and airspace not to exceed 12 n miles (22.44 km) vessels have right of innocent passage this may be suspended temporarily if vessel(s) a threat to state’s security. Contiguous Zone: May not extend beyond 24 n miles (44.4 km) seaward from baselines. State has right to control if a threat exists to security of state or terriotiral waters. State has right of pursuit into this zone. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) 200 n miles (370 km) from baselines- coastal state has right to conserve and manage living and non living resources. This does not include exclusive use of these resources. In areas that are ice covered coastal state has right to adopt and enforce laws and regulations for the prevention and control of marine pollution (Article 234) This allows for the other countries ships to fish in the area but they can manage how much fish they can take to manage these resources. You cannot however be partisan allowing your own citizens to use the
area while alien countries being unable to do this same activity. Article 234 became very important to Canada as they allowed for it to be put in and it became extremely important to control these Northern areas and became a sort of trump card in the end for Canada. Not every state has signed onto this but every year many more do. Very small land masses (as is common in the South Pacific Ocean) many of these countries are very close together and control regions that far exceed their land mass. They also are very spread out in the region. A small tiny island that Japan controls (consisting of only two tiny little rocks (4.7 m)) is controlled by Japan. Japan spent millions of dollars to control this area and prevent erosion as the zone that the rocks controlled was bigger than the land mass it held. These rocks were 3 meters above sea level. Japan had 400,000 square kilometers of exclusive fishing and undersea mining rights due to this so they spent 300 million dollars to prevent these rocks from sinking. Area is called Okino Tori. There is not much in the area as there is no landing strip, just a weather station, no inhabitants but this area is very important to Japan. Seaward Extension of a Boundary The line between two neighbouring states is hard to determine the exact extent of their region. The coastline could be used, the extension of a longitudinal or latitutudal line could be used. The length of the coastline is difficult to determine the amount of space. This is also difficult when the countries have projections of land sticking outwardly in the area. The two states would argue about areas in between the two regions. This could include fishing or mining in the area as they have economic value causing fro disputes. Drama on the High Seas o
This is an actual radio conversation between a United States Navy aircraft carrier and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995.
o
The radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on 10/10/95 as authorized by the Freedom of Information Act
o
Basically it was Americans arguing with a light house.
Georges Bank Overview Georges Bank is an underwater shoal, left behind by retreating glaciers thousands of years ago. The bank on its northewwestern edge is a shallow as 30 m and creates a barrier between Gulf of Maine and the northwest Atlantic Ocean. The topography and position of the bank result in upwelling of nutriet rich waters circulating in the Gulf of Maine. These nutrients introduced into the sunlit waters over the bank support very high rates of productivity including many species of commercial importance. The fish stocks of the bank supported economies on both sides of the Atlantic for three or four centuries. The innovation of the otter trawl and the advent of a very mobile international l fishing fleet combined to decimate the fish stocks of Georges Bank in the
late 20th century. With stringent fisheries controls in place, some stocks are showing signs of recovery. Others, including the historically important cod, are not. There was difficulty between Canada and US to settle the dispute. The area was rather important to control due to this. Canada and the United States tried without success to settle the dispute with a treaty providing for joint fishing and management. They eventually agreed to refer the conflict to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, Netherlands. Canada claimed slightly less than half of the disputed area; Unite States claimed the whole band. The two countries used natural elongations, historical evidence and other arguments to gain the land. In order to take this agreement to the international court, they would need an agreement that both states would acknowledge the decision. Without this agreement, the whole case would be nulled by the disagreeing country. The USA claim consisted of the whole region as the US wanted the boundary to consist of the whole region. They wanted the depth of the water to demarcate. The Canadians wanted equidistance and would have claimed half of the region in its claim. The case was to create a new boundary that was between both claims and would seem to be a compromise. This made no one really happy. The Canadians got the most productive region of the Georges Bank. This case shows that even countries that are very diplomatic with each other still have conflicts between them. The Georges Bank issue reflects many political and geographic concerns: the significance to boundaries to states and nations. This has potential to cause disputes and the growing use of authorities to claim the region. This is also seen in the Arctic region. The Beaufort Sea There are large claims of major amounts of resources in the region. It is hard to determine the territory into this area. The 141st degree marks Yukon and Alaska border and the extension of the line would mark the boundary for Canada’s claim. The Americans claimed extension of the coastline for their claim and Canada would get less. Ottawa and Washington were in a tug of war over the land and wanted the companies to bid on the land to use for drilling in the area for individual oil companies. The different companies would have predetermined boundaries and negotiate the rights to drill. This was the plan by the States to receive million to billions of dollars to allow companies to look for oil. Canada disagreed believing that some of the promised land was Canadian territory. Canada believed there was no right to sell mining rights over the area and protested the plan. This became a problem over the disputed claims and no oil companies made a claim on this area due to the worry that the US may not have the right to that land. That became the end of the dispute. In 2003, when Washington held an auction for oil and gas leases in the contested area, Ottawa filed a diplomatic protest. In the end, no bids were received, reportedly because energy companies feared the uncertainty around the border dispute.
Canada & Denmark’s Dispute Canada: It remains our firmly held position that Hans Island constitutes part of Canada’s national territory,: state Minister Pettigrew. “as longstanding allies it is our shared objective to lead by example and resolve this matter which we agree is about the island, and the island only. Minister Moller and I have agreed that our officials should meet soon to discuss how to move toward a resolution of this issue and report back to us. The Hans Island dispute obtained worldwide notoriety when it was learned that the territorial fight was being played out in cyberspace It then took on ugly turns as Denmark dispatched the naval charter “Tulugaq” and Canada flew in Canada’s Defence Minister Bill Graham. The island is between the two countries borders and there are disputes because of this boundary determining the area. Hans Island is essentially just a rock and not very important other than its location in-between the two areas. No significant resources near this island even as the location has no economic resources around it. The known manganese nodules near the area are areas that grow with minerals scattered all over the seas and has all kinds of minerals in the area. Scooping up the minerals would be ore that could potentially be refined. This could be billion worth of dollars that just needs to be scooped up but they are in the open ocean. The difficulty in obtaining these manganese resources is the amount of economics required to move the rocks take it to shore etc. But it is still difficult to determine who owns the rocks. The state, company, or someone else could all potentially have stakes in these claims for the goods. Some landlocked states would want a cut in these resources as they believe that everyone deserves a cut so international agreement is needed to decide who indeed owns these resources. At the moment, these resources are so expensive to extract more can almost be used up extracting then selling the resources. There is no effective way to extract the minerals from the sea at the moment even though there are thousands and thousands of tons of the minerals The Arctic Sea Ice region is covered entirely in ice. The Northwest passage is considerablely shorter distance then going around the southern tips or the Panama Canal as the sea ice has slowly disappeared. This region is controlled due to this importance. Over the time period the regions ice has constantly shifted and at times it is possible to go through the North West passage or go along the European routes through the region. Over time the Arctic Sea routes have become cleared allowing for movement. The minimal distance going through has decreased over in time as the September Average Extent minimum has also fallen. The shipping possibilities have opened up and more possibilities to explore the depths below the ice to examine what could be possibly taken from the region. This could be taken from the Arctic Ocean. This also has implications to climate. Going from Asia to Europe or vice versa through this passage is around 9000 km shorter than travelling to the Panama Canal so this route is ideal. This could save a fortune. This could also be done easier in avoiding the Middle East, going through the canals that may close.
Another border dispute is between China. There have been skirmishes in the area disputing the land in the area. This is in the region south of Hainan near the Paracel Islands, Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Islands. China claims that Chinese ships have claimed those islands over a very long period of time and Vietnam has also claimed the same thing of the area. The two countries are at a standstill over the area. A more recent map of China shows that the agriculture of China. In the academic journal, the authors have published something of China. In the journal they had to have the dashed lines appear in the disputed region between Vietnam and China Geopolitical concerns reduced immediately after the Cold War. New cconerns are arisingas Arctic is perceived/becoming more accessible with climate change. The key question is accessibility (transporation in Arctic). Existing international agreements weak and fragmented of the region. This is an animal instinct expressed by human kind and the control of the instinct to be limited or expressed. These issues are constantly going to be a problem for mankind.
Atmospheric Processes Part 1 The Nature of the Atmosphere The Earth’s Atmosphere Atmo-vapour
saphaira-sphere
An envelope of gases that is intimately related to all aspects of the earth’s surface which stretches from the surface of the earth to 10,000+ km (6000+ miles) into space. 10,0000 km is very high up as many satellites do not orbit that high. Atmospheric gases rapidly decrease with increasing distance from the sphere. One way of measuring this is by identifying the pressure and its difference as it starts to decrease as radius increases. Air pressure acting on the world is from all the atmospheric pressure from above. This is how the determination for atmospheric pressure works.
Mean Free Path (another way to think about atmospheric gas density) o
Distance a molecule travels before hitting another molecule (similar to dislocation)
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At sea level free path is 6.5 to the -6 magnitude cm.
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At 100 km elevation free path is 10 cm
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At 160 km elevation free path is 5000cm
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As the gas levels in the atmosphere change as they go up in the atmosphere and the pressure changes.
One man jumped from a balloon, his name was Joseph William Kittinger. The balloon was at 31,300 m from sea level. Te typical air plane flies at a third of that height. There is not much air pressure so a pressurized suit is required. During an earlier jump, he started spinning around causing some problems during the decent going 120 rpm. The g force was extreme causing him to black out and his parachute opened automatically. In his glove, there were some problems in his last attempt and his hand swelled up. His description was there was no fall at all almost and he very quickly reached a very high speed of thousands of kilometers per an hour. He accomplished this in 1960, no one has done something that high since. Kittinger owns many of these records due to these decents, he broke the sounds barrier and had absolutely no sense of falling as his indication was his view of the balloon getting smaller and smaller in the distance.
The Earth’s Atmosphere o
97% of gases within 30 km (18 miles) of the surface
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About 90% of gases within 15km (9 miles) of the surface
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About 50% of gases within 6 km (3.5 miles) of the surface
There are some mountains that are taller than this and extend past this point.There is a highly distorted sense of the thickness of this atmosphere. Composition o
Non-variant gases o
Over 99% of atmospheric gases
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Nitrogen N2 78%
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Oxygen O2 21%Argon 0.93%
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Carbon Dioxide CO2 0.028%
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Traces of Neon, Helium, Methane, Krypton, H2, Xe, NxOx
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Carbon dioxide, methane and NxOx change due to the human activity done. These parts go up by a couple parts per a million every year due to these human activities. These are non-variant gases even though the carbon dioxide levels are increasing.
These non variant gases always in the proportion under 80 km (50 miles).
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Variant gases o
H2O vapour is highly variable in time and place, Ozone O3, Ammonia NH3, H2S, SOx, CO.
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Water vapour is primary source of atmospheric moisture leading to weather
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Also important in absorption of radiant energy, concentrated in lower part of atmosphere with most below 3 km with little above 8 km.
Impurities o
Minute solid particles
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Terrestrial dust, meteoric dust
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Salt from oceans, pollen grains
These are very much less common but do exist in the atmosphere. They are very small particles but they do play a role in the weather system. In the States, there are multiple places that measure these different quantities in the air. The air is sampled at locations to measure these quantities and in some cases they measure over so many years and can measure smaller and smaller quantities adding to what can be measured. Vertical Zones o
Classification based on composition
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Homosphere 80 km uniform ratio
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Homopause transition zone, 80-88 km
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Heterosphere 88 km and above layers arranged by molecular weights N and O2 in the lower heterosphere, He and H2 in the higher heterosphere
This layering is based on the densities of the weights. o
Classifications based on temperature
Troposphere-normal lapse rate, (decrease in temperature with increase in elevation), zone of weather
This is the most common way of classifying the atmosphere. Lapse rate is determined by the change in temperature due to the elevation and it is normal for the temperature and elevation to be inversely proportional. Tropoppause-zone above troposphere where air temperature remains constant with altitude Stratosphere-increase in air temperature with an increase in elevation. Ozone layer weatherless zone. Completely opposite to what one would initially believe would happen. Mesosphere-temperature decrease 50-100 km, normal lapse rate. Possible for clouds to appear and ice crystals. Noctilucent clouds may occur at this region as the clouds may be seen and very thin in the morning and they will occur in this region. Mesopause-zone above mesosphere Thermosphere-increase in air temperature with an increase in elevation. Heat zone, inverse (negative lapse rate, high velocity particles.
