Final answer:
The statement "Carmel is more like Salinas than it is like Bakersfield" is an example of distance decay in geography.
Step-by-step explanation:
In geography, the statement "Carmel is more like Salinas than it is like Bakersfield" is an example of distance decay. Distance decay is the tendency for similarities between places to decrease as the distance between them increases. In this case, it means that Carmel, which is closer to Salinas, is more similar to Salinas than it is to Bakersfield.