GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

For the first time in generations, more investment than foreign aid is pouring into Africa. But is that growth enough to change its future?

This is the first article in six-part series designed to investigate the changing economic and developmental possibilities that are facing the African continent.  As more foreign investors are exploring potential windfalls in Africa, it is making places that were on the margins of a global economy more directly tied to the process of globalization. 

Tags: Africa, development, globalization, economic, NGOs, unit 6 industry. 

See on www.theglobeandmail.com

The green revolution has impacted almost every sector of the economy. Now, eco-friendly technology is revolutionizing the way we think about architecture. Every part of the architectural process is undergoing huge changes.

When people think of green architecture, they often picture simple modifications, such as the substitution of environmentally friendly materials for less sustainable ones. While this can certainly be a viable means of reducing a project’s carbon footprint, it is by no means the only way to make a positive impact. The best green projects are the ones that go above and beyond, completely altering the way people think of architecture as a whole. The following are just a few of the spectacular developments taking place in architecture today.

1. Vertical Gardens
2. Disaster-Resisant Buildings
3. Walkable Roofs
4. Garden Skyscrapers

Tags: urban, urban ecology, sustainability, unit 7 cities.

See on greenbuildingelements.com

Tags: scale, K12, location. 

See on lifewithmoorebabies.blogspot.fr

When guerrilla-geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison travels, he always keep his eyes peeled for unexpected works of art that creatively subvert culture, rules, and politics and force us to see…

Not all cultural landscapes are officially sanctioned by city planners or government officials.  These landscapes of resistance are often poignant critiques on society and represent the mulitplicity of voices within places.  There isn’t one “Geography” with a capital G of a given place, but many geographies.  Many people and demographic groups interact and use the same place in distinct ways and the meaning of that place is socially mediated within the cultural landscape.   

Tags: art, landscape, culture, place, unit 3 culture.

See on intelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com

TS: The creation of a new congressional district, or the loss of an old one, affects every district around it, necessitating new maps. Even states not adding or losing congressional representatives need new district maps that reflect the population shifts within their borders, so that residents are equally repre­sented no matter where they live. This ritual carving and paring of the United States into 435 sovereign units, known as redistricting, was intended by the Framers solely to keep democracy’s electoral scales balanced. Instead, redistricting today has become the most insidious practice in American politics—a way, as the opportunistic machinations following the 2010 census make evident, for our elected leaders to entrench themselves in 435 impregnable garrisons from which they can maintain political power while avoiding demographic realities.

Tags: political, gerrymandering, mapping, unit 4 political.

See on www.theatlantic.com

From TD-architects Theo Deutinger Rotterdam.

Rome was the first city with one million residents, with that occuring in 5 BC.  Over a thousand years later, London and Beijing joined that group as industrialization became the impetus for wide-scale urbanization.  Today we are seeing an explosion of “million cities” throughout the world. 

Tags: urban, megacities, unit 7 cities.

See on td-architects.eu

Projections of urban growth indicate areas where biodiversity is at high risk.

The AAG Smart Brief is a fantastic source of geographic news.  This is what they said about this article:  “Areas such as tropical Africa and eastern China are expected to be hot spots of urbanization during the next several years, according to researchers, who used satellite imagery and other data to project future urban expansion through 2030. ‘We’re not forecasting population, we’re forecasting the expansion of urban space,’ said Yale University geographer Karen Seto. Their efforts could be used to assist conservation initiatives, Seto noted.”

Tags: AAG, urban, sprawl, land use, urban ecology, biogeography, unit 7 cities, environment.

See on www.nature.com

This is another old classic image that I might have shared earlier but it merits repeating. As Salvatore Natoli (a leader in geography education) once said, “In our society we unconsciously equate size with importance and even power.” This is one reason why many people have underestimated the true size of Africa relative to places that they view as more important or more powerful.

Tags: mapping, Africa, perspective, images.

See on www.informationisbeautiful.net