People shape the land, and the land shapes what people can do. Since site and situation showed how physical features help a place grow, a bigger question follows: how much does the environment decide how people live? Geographers have answered it in different ways over time.
Key idea
Environmental determinism said the physical environment, especially climate, decides how people and societies behave. Possibilism says the environment sets limits and offers possibilities, and people choose among them using their culture and technology. Today geographers study human-environment interaction: how people and environments shape each other, and which uses of land and resources are sustainable.
Why it works
Determinism was popular around 1900 (the American geographers Ellen Churchill Semple and Ellsworth Huntington were well-known supporters). It fell apart because it could not explain why people in the same environment live very differently, or why societies change while their climate stays the same. It also claimed that some climates made some peoples better than others, ideas that were used to justify ranking and ruling peoples. The French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blache stressed people's ways of life instead, and the historian Lucien Febvre named the idea possibilism (1922).
Worked examples
Worked example: Which view is it?
"People in hot climates are lazy, so hot countries will always be poor." Which view is this, and why do geographers reject it?
- It claims climate decides behavior and wealth: environmental determinism.
- It ignores history, trade, policy and technology, which differ among countries with the same climate.
- Hot countries such as Singapore are rich, and many cool countries have been poor; climate does not decide the outcome.
Answer: Environmental determinism; the evidence does not support it, and it was used to rank peoples unfairly.
Worked example: Possibilism in action
The Netherlands drained shallow seas and marshes to make farmland. How does possibilism describe this?
- The environment set a limit: low, wet land often flooded by the sea.
- People chose a response using technology: dikes, windmills and later pumps.
- The same environment could have led to other choices, such as fishing or moving away.
Answer: The environment offered limits and options; Dutch society chose to reclaim land.
Common mistake
Students sometimes present environmental determinism as an accepted explanation. Geographers set it aside long ago: it ignored culture and choice, and it was used to rank peoples unfairly. You should know it as a historical idea. That does not mean the environment does not matter. Rainfall, soil and slope do limit farming; the point is that people respond in many different ways.