Why is South America's popluation concentrated near the coast? Are there any disadvantages to this?

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JoshBZ

It's not just South America. Look at Australia or even the west coast of the united states for example it's the same for those places and others too.

Here in San Diego the ocean gives lots of help in the weather. The further you drive away from the water the hotter and hotter it gets.

The ocean is also a great suplly of food for people.

People love to live by the coast, it's beautiful.

But, my guess as to the main reason why populations live close to the ocean: the ocean is like a vast highway conecting the people of the earth for trade and travel.

sisoyme

Because the industries are concentrated on exporting and importing and those need to be near the coast.

nospamcwt

For the same reason that's true just about everywhere else! People prefer to be near water. It moderates climate and it's just more fun to be near.

The biggest disavantages would have to be hurricanes and tsunamis.

Nikki

I am taking World Geo right now....we just studied South America. There are several factors as to why the population is concentrated along the coast. For starters the rainforests are not good for farming...there is no nutrients in the soil to sustain agriculture ( all of the nutrients are in the native vegetation) Another reason why people live along the coast is because major cities are along there. People migrate to the cities to look for work because the poor have no farmland and they need jobs to make a living. Alot of the good farmland is still held in large estates by the rich, which was passed down from generation to generation from when South America was being colonized by the Spanish and the Portugese. Right now some countries are going through agrarian reform in hopes that the farmland can be split up amongst the poor to farm. Another reason is that farmers on a small level cannot compete with the Industrialized farming that takes place by the wealthy. They can't make money so they move to the cities or places along the coasts where they can fish, trade, work in manufacturing plants...etc. I hope I didn't ramble too much and that this made some sense.

Disadvantages is overpopulation ,obviously, and the fact that the people who migrate to the 3 major river basins and coastal areas are more susceptable to natural disasters and flooding.

Laissez_Faire

They don't want to live in Jungles, which is what covers all of the land inside South America. The disadvantage is that they can be attacked easily from sea and they have to travel inland for much of their natural resources.

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