Environmental Determinism

        Environmental determinism is the idea that the natural environment determines all the varieties of human society and culture (Cresswell 2013).  Environmental determinists argue that aspects of human behavior and society are not innate, but due to environmental factors like climate and landscape.  The environment is seen as limiting cultural development by placing natural barriers on ambiguous human qualities like ethics and intelligence (Cambridge).  Though environmental determinism was a popular academic position in the past, its critics stressed that such ideas supported colonialism and racism, causing it to lose merit through the 20^th century.  Because it sounded scientific enough that people didn’t have to fully investigate it themselves, it held tremendous power in persuading large groups of people about human behavior.

            According to Onal (2018), environmental determinism argues that “in order to be successful in their struggle for life, man has to adapt to the rules of nature”.  Superficially this makes sense because humans can’t live without basic resources like air, water, and a moderate temperature.  However, it also suggests that the variability of these resources is what determines the degree of behavior in a society. 

Its rise to the forefront of geography in the early 19^th century was a consequence of Darwin’s theory of evolution, which posited that changes to body plans occur by natural selection, or the process of weeding out ones that are no longer sustainable in changing environmental conditions.  Thus, the environment was deterministic in the sense that it created favorable conditions for certain body types.  For instance, northern climates are beneficial for people with white skin because they are more sensitive to sunlight (due to having less melanin).  This gives them the advantage of being more efficient with vitamin D production over those with darker skin, who would find it more of a challenge in northern climates.

            This was seemingly good science until some geographers started arguing that environmental determinism was responsible for character traits as well as body traits, for which there is no evidence.  There is a long historical tradition of using this flaw in reasoning to justify discrimination of character.  For example, Thomas Jefferson suggested tropical climates induced laziness and degenerate societies, while cooler climates induced a harder work ethic and more civilized societies (Jefferson 1775).  When some geographers adopted these stale arguments, and reinforced them by using Darwin’s theory, it imposed racial stereotypes on whole societies.  In cases where a superior power subjugated a lower one, often by colonialism, or worse- slavery and genocide- determinism was used to rationalize exploitation and war (Shirlow et al 2009).  The plight of environmental determinism rests in the role it has played in the biased judgment of tropical peoples, causing a widely imbalanced socioeconomic world system.  Environmental determinism did not survive this major shortcoming, as the emergence of regional geography and spatial science took its place later in the 20th century.

            Though largely discredited, environmental determinism is still studied in universities, mainly from an historical perspective to show students how it is an erroneous way of thinking.  One way it is discredited is by looking at regions that are physically similar but dissimilar socially, such as British Columbia, Tasmania, and Chile (Cresswell 2013).  Each of these places are so different socially that it would be nonsensical to apply environmental determinism in all situations.  Climate and terrain certainly play some part in the development of a society, but not all of it.  Possibilism is a better way of describing the course a society takes, for it acknowledges the major role the environment plays in social development but leaves the door open on how cultures respond.

Cresswell, T. 2013. Geographic Thought: A Critical Introduction. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Jefferson, T. 1998. Notes on the State of Virginia. Penguin Classics S. Harlow, England: Penguin Books.

Önal, H. 2018. Reflections of Environmental Determinism in the Questions Prepared by Geography Teacher Candidates. Review of International Geographical Education Online (RIGEO). Retrieved Oct 3, 2023 (http://www.rigeo.org/vol8no1/Number1Spring/RIGEO-V8-N1-4.pdf)

Shirlow, Peter, Gallaher, Carolyn, Gilmartin, Mary. 2009. Key Concepts in Political Geography. SAGE Publications Ldt.

The Cambridge Dictionary.  “Environmental Determinism.”  Retrieved Oct 3, 2023 (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/environmental-determinism#google_vignette)