How has the Geography of the West shaped who we are?

This photo shows the theme of geography Location. I took this photo of a sign marking the last spike, in Craigellachie. I think that this photo shows Location, because the Last Spike is a very historically significant location. On my photo, I added relative and absolute location (the two sub-categories of this theme). To show absolute location, I added the exact coordinates of this sign.

Absolute Location is latitude and longitude (global location) or a street address (local location). Relative Location is described by landmarks, time, direction or distance.

I think that Location is an important theme of geography because our Location, whether relative or absolute, affects us. For example, I live in North Vancouver, which is thought of as a pretty safe place to live, but for me the absolute location of my house is really close to a very sketchy house, so I don't think North Vancouver is as safe.

This photo shows the theme Place and represents both the physical or natural and the human or cultural characteristics of Lake Minnewanka and the surrounding area. The natural characteristics are shown by the Rockies mountains in the background, and also by the lake. The cultural aspects are sort of represented by the two red chairs. At all the Canadian National Parks there are two red chairs for people to sit and enjoy the scenery.

Like mentioned above, this theme has two sub-categories, physical and nature features like landforms, flora, climate and resources and human and cultural characteristics like politics, land use and daily life.

I think that Place is one of the most impactful themes on who we are. In North Vancouver and Vancouver, we have natural areas like forests, mountains, oceans, rivers and lakes. My whole life I have spent a lot of time in these places and they have shaped my values and my worldview. Natural characteristics are affected by human characteristics, such as people going off trails and trampling on plants or littering. Across all of Canada our cultural characteristics have a strong Christian influence, for example, a lot of Christian holidays have been made statutory holidays. Another cultural aspect is the Indigenous peoples who were mistreated in inhumane ways, like having their land taken and being forced into residential schools (though that is very oversimplified). Nowadays, there is attempts for Truth and Reconciliation which is starting to influence our culture.

The theme Human-Environment Interaction is represented by this photo of a bridge near the start of the Loop Brook Trail. This photo shows Human-Environment Interaction because the bridge was not there naturally, it was something that humans built. I added the words 'modify' and 'depend', because bridges are a modification we make to the environment and especially bigger bridges like the Lions Gate, we depend on to get across unsafe terrain.

Humans interact with the environment in three ways, adapting to it, modifying it and depending it.

I think that Human-Environment Interaction is also one of the themes with the most impact on us, because it literally involves us. One main example is climate change, because our interactions with the environment are causing negative impacts. That impacts the way I interact with environment, for example eating local and organic food, get clothes made of more eco-friendly materials, turning off lights and carpooling when possible.

This is another photo from Craigellachie that represents Movement. Especially in the past, the CPR and trains were an important form of transportation for the 3 aspects show by my drawings: ideas, goods and people.

Movement's sub-categories are those three things (ideas, products and humans).

I think that movement definitely shapes our perspectives and worldviews. One way that travelling changes our worldview is giving us something to compare and make connections to and also understand what it's like in other places. For example, if I went to a super unsafe country or city, I would probably think that North Vancouver is a very safe place to live. Or when we stopped in Merritt on our way home from the Alberta trip, I had to see all the people with drug issues, it made me think of the Downtown East Side and even of the house mentioned in Location. Movement doesn't just consist of people traveling and products being shipped, but also of ideas, whether they're shared in person, online or through the mail.