User:Eedk

Thunder Bay Geography Summative
	Overview of Thunder Bay
Author	Ella
Country	Canada

Human Geography[edit]

Population: 108,359

Time Zone: North American Eastern Standard Time

Latitude: 48.3822° N

Longitude: 89.2461° W

Elevation: 183 m

Avg. Summer Temperature: June 13.9, July 17.7, August 16.4, September 11.2 =59.2/4 =14.8 degrees Celsius

Avg. Winter Temperature: December -11.3, January -15.0, February -12.8, March -5.6.

= -44.7/4

= -11.18 degrees Celsius

Primary Industries:

The prevalent primary industry in Thunder Bay is mining. Thunder Bay is renowned for its beautiful gems called purple haze amethyst. There are many logging companies, so I believe logging and forestry are also major primary sectors within Thunder Bay. Thunder Bay's history was shaped by the prevalence of logging, and for that reason, though I could not find any primary industry logging information on the internet, I have still decided to mention it.

Secondary industries:

The Thunder Bay Paper mill is a secondary industry in Thunder Bay that produces paper from wood. There are also sawmills, veneer mills, structural board plants, and lumber plants producing wood products.

Tertiary Industries:

There are several tertiary industries in Thunder Bay in categories such as: antiques, arts and crafts, bakeries, pubs, book stores, delis, farmers markets, gift shops, chain outlets, sewing shops, shopping malls, sporting shops, and specialty shops. A tertiary industry that connects to the primary industry of mining is a store that I visited that sells amethyst accessories along with other minerals and souvenirs. I forget the name, but it was a really cool store.

High Tech Industries

The closest thing to a specialized high tech industry within Thunder bay that I was able to locate is Future Shop, which is a retail industry and is not a high tech industry. I think I had such a hard time finding them because compared to Montreal and Toronto and even Ottawa, Thunder Bay is a very rural place. It isn’t as urbanized some other major Ontario cities.

2 Points[edit]

Push Factors	Pull Factors
Perceived as "boring"	Due to Fort Frances paper mill closing, the company called Resolute will be pushing employees to the saw mill in Thunder Bay
Alcoholism is somewhat prominent at certain times in the year	Employment options within Health science
Crime: domestic disputes, smashed windows, assaults, etc.	Connection to nature that isn't available in "urban towns".
Instability with paper mill due to technological advancements	Cultural acceptance to aboriginals.
Not urbanized so there are less jobs in High Tech Industries, which are very successful and allow major job opportunities	Tourist areas such as Fort William, Mount McKay, and Kakabeka Falls.

3 Points[edit]

The history of Thunder Bay's inhabitants goes back 11,000 years to Palio-Indians. There is no written proof of this, but archeologists have discovered stone tools that date back to that era. As well, copper fish hooks, knives, and gaffs belonging to residents who lived there 4000 to 5000 years ago have been discovered. Anthropological evidence shows that those inhabitants mined copper from as far back as 5000 BCE. European contact took place in the 17th Century when Ojibway peoples dominated Thunder Bay culture.

The Kaministiquia River was used in the fur trade there. In the east end of Thunder Bay, Fort William was a hub for the Canadian fur trade. Couriers des bois, Gentlemen, and Natives went there for business transactions. Fort William was a bustling community for trading partners, voyageurs and Indians, especially regarding fur. "The Depot" in Thunder Bay was chosen as a landing spot for ships in 1805.

When the rail line was made in 1882, grain became the economic groundbreaker. Then mining was prominent from the lucrative silver mined on the Sibley Peninsula. When the railway was completed, logging turned into the leading industry. Bushworkers used horse-drawn sleighs for log hauling into river banks. They were transported to Lake Superior sawmills to be put through the secondary industry there.

Developments like the Lakehead University, Confederation College of Applied Arts and Sciences, and the reconstruction of Fort William Historical Park as it existed in the early 1800s have increased the community profile as an education entree and tourist destination.

Resources and the Environment[edit]

One Point[edit]

This is my collage of images. I photographed each image seen above in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Global Connections[edit]

One Point[edit]

Two Points[edit]

Identify ways that you might be able to reduce your footprint and provide ideas about how you would do this.

Housing- When I move out, I could purchase a house that is pre-built, instead of using valuable resources to build a new one. To reduce operational costs, which have a much larger impact than construction, I could install solar panels to reduce electricity costs and benefit the environment. A less drastic approach would be lowering the heating in the winter and wearing a sweater instead, turning off faucets, and turning off lights when exiting the room. I always forget to turn off the lights, so that would be a major improvement.

Food- I could buy more organic and locally grown food. I could also buy less food altogether and focus on eating leftovers instead of having so many new meals.

Transportation- I could purchase an environmentally friendly car, though our car is already quite environmentally friendly. I could also use public transit, since that is far better for the environment, but there is no day to day public transit available for me, so that is not a legitimate option in my case.

Consumer Goods- I could buy goods without excessive packaging on them. I could buy more used clothing. I could also buy less useless items like souvenirs or knick knacks like that.

Services- The government could reduce its impact by recycling more and using less paper. (Note: You said this answer was sufficient)

Three Points[edit]

The ecological footprint system was invented by a group of ecologists at the University of British Columbia, and segregates major human activities into categories. It then converts these activities to equivalent land areas, to show the amount of space necessary to support what we do. The concept of the ecological footprint gives people a basis for understanding what they are doing to the environment and to the ability of the Earth to sustain our population. As they come to a greater understanding of their ecological footprints, they will have a basis for planning how they live their lifestyles enjoyably, while having the lives of the younger generations in mind. They will be able to better measure the impact they have on the Earth by assessing the damage done through housing, consumer goods, food, transportation, and services.

The five kinds of productive land

1. Crop land refers to the land where crops are grown and harvested. 2. Pasture land refers to the pastures where cows, pigs, or other animals roam around and graze. 3. Forested land refers the land that meets the prerequisites to fit in to the ecological characterization of a "forest". 4. Degraded land means land that used to be productive and that has been turned into land with non-productive uses such as highways or urban areas. 5. Energy land is known as virtual land. It is basically a measurement of the amount of forested land necessary in order to eliminate the carbon dioxide released by our energy consumption. It is measured by forested land because trees complete the process of photosynthesis which converts the carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen. It doesn't reflect all of the environmental impacts and costs pertaining to energy use, but it does consider its effect on global warming.

The five activities Housing-subsections: Construction, Operation. Food-subsection: None. Transportation-subsections: People (private), People (public), Goods. Consumer Goods-subsections: Packaging, Clothing, Furniture and appliances, Books and magazines, Tobacco and alcohol, Personal care (aka tobacco and alcohol), Recreation equipment. Services-subsections: Government and military, Education, Health care, Tourism, Entertainment, Other.

4 a. How much productive land would be needed to provide for all the people of Canada? Multiply 8.6 hectares by Canada's population of 35, 000, 000. 8.6 x 35, 000, 000 = 301, 000, 000.

Is there enough productive land in Canada to support our current population? Canada has about 434, 477, 000 hectares of productive land. Compare this number to your answer to A and determine the size of surplus or deficit of productive land. There is enough productive land. There is a surplus of 133, 477, 000 hectares.

Now, calculate Canada's Carrying Capacity. Divide the total productive land by 8.6 hectares. How many people could Canada support? Canada could support 50, 520, 581.4 people.

Within my local community I use transportation as a service, education as a service, and shelter as a product. Productive land such as the Central Experimental Farm is used for agriculturally productive purposes. From nearby parts of Canada, I use locally grown fruits and vegetables and other foods, to prevent exposure to chemicals from long shipping transports and to boost the local economy. From distant parts of Canada, such as the breadbasket or the Prairies, I get bread. I have also bought a cereal called "Holy Crap" that came all the way from Vancouver B.C.! (Shmuel told me about it and I just had to try it).

From foreign countries (AKA China) I get everything else. For example toys, furniture, clothing, accessories, knick knacks, etc. Outsourced labour is the best!

Four Points[edit]

If everyone used as many resources as we Canadians do, then the world as we know it will, simply put, collapse. The capitalist foundation of our society works in such a way that only a limited amount of people can fit within the carrying capacity to support the wasteful and excessive lifestyle that we Canadians have. This has supported us thus far, because for every 3.5 Earths that we use on our footprint, citizens of impoverished countries average that number down to the point where our lifestyle is possible, since theirs uses drastically less resources. If you have two people and twenty dollars, it is logical to divide it up and give each one ten. In our society however, one person would get nineteen, and the other would get one. In the end it still adds up to twenty and therefore still works. If you change the rules, and give them each nineteen when there's only twenty, the mathematical and logical foundation of the game would collapse. That is a basic analogy showing what would happen to our world. In the book 1984, they make a point that there will always be an upper, middle, and lower class. The middle class will revolt against the tyranny of the upper class, but that doesn't change anything, since the middle class become the tyrants themselves and the cycle thereon repeats itself. That is why this hypothetical situation about everyone in the world suddenly having equal privilege is frankly preposterous at this point. There would have to be several major shifts in the way humans behave before that would be possible. Well, now that I've sufficiently prodded holes in this hypothetical, I'll answer it a little better. If everyone used as many resources as us, I believe we would enter a new world war. Everyone would fight everyone for resources and since every country is really only looking out for themselves, it would turn to absolute unresolvable chaos. Before that extreme could happen, I would hope that teams of scientists would be put to work to find alternative solutions to resource issues. Also, government officials would have to institute and regulate more and more, such as energy and hydro use. It would not be a pretty picture either way, but again, due to the capitalistic system in Canada, I know that this situation just wouldn't happen within our society.

Human Geography[edit]

2 Points[edit]

3 Points[edit]

Resources and the Environment[edit]

One Point[edit]

Global Connections[edit]

One Point[edit]

Two Points[edit]

Three Points[edit]

Four Points[edit]

References[edit]