GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

California has enough water—that’s not the problem, says Terry Tamminen. So here’s how you solve the drought crisis.

Source: www.cnbc.com

There is no easy fix to a complex problem such as the water shortage in California.  Some coastal cities are considering desalinization projects while others want to reduce environmental regulations that protect wetland ecosystems to harness all of the freshwater available.  One of the issues is that most of California’s precipitation occurs during a very short time frame.  Before the water crisis, these potential flood waters were diverted into concrete management canals but this article advocates to build more underground cisterns to capture excess rainfall before it flows to the ocean.   

Tags: consumption,  California, water, environment, resources, environment depend, urban ecology.

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” ~Benjamin Franklin

“To get to the bottom of what qualifies as ‘badly designed,’ we picked the brains of several urban planners to highlight the flaws of some of the world’s biggest cities. In the end, that birthed a list of nine cities that, for various reasons, are gigantic messes in some way or another.”

On the list: Jakarta, Dubai, Atlanta, Naypyidaw, São Paulo, Boston, Brasilia, Missoula and Dhaka. 

Tags: urban, planning, urbanism.

Source: www.thrillist.com

“The Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 is the largest accidental marine spill in U.S. history: these are the pivotal discoveries scientists and environmentalists have learned from researching it.  While researching the spill, scientists tracked deep-sea sharks, found new mud dragons, and discovered a new type of ocean current.”

Tags: water, conservation, physical, biogeography, environment, pollution, resources.

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Such as a simple, powerful comic strip to teach the importance of scale.   If you prefer an image with a ‘paper’ look to it, try this image of the April 19, 2015 post of Mutts. 

Tags: scale, K12, location, fun.

Source: muttscomics.com

“As attacks against foreigners and their businesses rage on, killing at least six people this week, other nations in the continent are scrambling to evacuate their citizens from South Africa. But this is not the first time xenophobic violence has exploded in a country that tries to portray itself as a diverse ‘rainbow’ nation.

What triggered this week’s attacks? They started after Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini said at a recent gathering that foreigners ‘should pack their bags and go’ because they are taking jobs from citizens, local media reported. Shortly after his comments, violence against immigrants erupted in the port city of Durban.”

Tags: South Africa, Africa, conflict, racism, ethnicity, migration.

Source: edition.cnn.com

“Despite predictions that religion will go the way of dinosaurs, the size of almost every major faith — sorry, Buddhists — will increase in the next 40 years, according to a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. The biggest winners, Pew predicts, will be Islam and Christianity.”

Source: www.cnn.com

Untrammeled oases beckon, once-avoided destinations become must-sees, and familiar cities offer new reasons to visit.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Most geographers have more than a little bit of wanderlust.  Maybe we don’t all have the pocketbook for it, but so many people have the desire to explore, travel and see parts of the world that feel as if they are mythical.  For students that have the curiosity, it our mission as educators to cultivate that and help them frame the world into a geographic perspective.  I’ve always felt that window-seat flyers are have the seed of a geographer embedded within them…let’s make sure those seeds can grow. 

Tags: place, tourism.