GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

“Andrea Wulf’s new book The Invention of Nature reveals the extraordinary life of the visionary German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and how he created the way we understand nature today. Though almost forgotten today, his name lingers everywhere from the Humboldt Current to the Humboldt penguin. Humboldt was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. Perceiving nature as an interconnected global force, Humboldt discovered similarities between climate zones across the world and predicted human-induced climate change. Wulf traces Humboldt’s influences through the great minds he inspired in revolution, evolution, ecology, conservation, art and literature.  In The Invention of Nature Wulf brings this lost hero to science and the forgotten father of environmentalism back to life.”

Source: vimeo.com

Three decades later, it’s not certain how radiation is affecting wildlife—but it’s clear that animals abound.

It may seem strange that Chernobyl, an area known for the deadliest nuclear accident in history, could become a refuge for all kinds of animals—from moose, deer, beaver, and owls to more exotic species like brown bear, lynx, and wolves—but that is exactly what Shkvyria and some other scientists think has happened. Without people hunting them or ruining their habitat, the thinking goes, wildlife is thriving despite high radiation levels.

Tags: National Geographic, physical, biogeography, environment, ecology, environment modify, disasters.

Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

The 50-state model is holding the country back. It needs a new system, built around urban corridors.

Source: www.nytimes.com

This is a great article to get students thinking about the spatial network of cities, not just the internal structure of particular cities based on some models. In this article, Parag Khanna argues that the United States is stuck in “an antiquated political structure of 50 distinct states” that isn’t aligned with growing urban regions that shape our internal and external economic linkages. He proposed that our infrastruture should strengthen these networks that cut across state boundaries more so than it currently does. “Federal policy should refocus on help these nascent [urban] archipelagos prosper, and helping other emerge…collectively forming a lattice of productive metro-regions efficently through better highways, railways, and fiber-optic cables: a United City-States of America.” 

Questions to Ponder: What political obstacles would this proposal receive?  Demographically, who would support/oppose this type of restructuring?  How would this impact the economic geographies of the United States? 

Tags: op-ed, regions, urban, transportation, economic, planning.

Source: www.lukesurl.com

This is brilliant.  I can’t say how much I love this. 

Tags:  physical, fluvial, geomorphology, landscape, fun, art.

On April 26, 1986, a routine safety test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine spiraled out of control. Follow the dramatic events that led to the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster.

Source: www.youtube.com

Today marks 30 years since the worst nuclear accident in history.  The disaster reshaped Ukraine and Belarus as radioactive material spread throughout Europe; liquidators went in to clean up, putting themselves at great personal risk while the Soviet media reports tried to act as if things were under control.  Learn more by reading these articles from the BBC, Global News, and the Washington Post; you can also view videos of an extended academic talk and documentary about the Chernobyl disaster.  Today the wildlife in the regions is surging forward as people are staying out of the region.   

Tags: disasters, environment, Ukraine, Russia.  

Every 10 years, the Census Bureau calculates the exact center of the US population. Here’s what that statistic shows about our history.

Source: www.youtube.com

Every 10 years the centroid (the center of U.S. population) is calculated using the latest census data.  As the video above shows, the centroid has continued moved west throughout history, but in the last 60 years has moved to the south and west.  The recent shift to the south coincides with the mass availability of air conditioning (among other factors) which opened up the Sun Belt.  In this article in Orion Magazine, Jeremy Miller discusses the historical shifts in the spatial patterns of the U.S. population and the history of the centroid.  you can listen to the podcast version of the article or a shorter podcast by NPR. 

Questions to Ponder:  Would the centroids of other countries be as mobile or predictable?  Why or why not?  What does the centroid tell us?

Tags: statistics, census, mapping, migration, population, historical, USA.

“The 2015 Global Peace Index reveals a divided world, with the most peaceful countries enjoying increasing levels of peace and prosperity, while the least peaceful countries spiral into violence and conflict. Explore the state of world peace on the interactive Global Peace Index map. www.visionofhumanity.org “

Source: www.youtube.com

The Middle East and North Africa is now the world’s least peaceful region for the first time since the Index began, due to an increase in civil unrest and terrorist activity while Europe, the world’s most peaceful region, has reached historically high levels of peace.  This might not seem shocking, but there is a great richness to this dataset that can provide detailed regional information as well as answer some big questions about global security.  Explore the data on your own with this interactive map of Global Peace or also of the states within the United States. 

Tags: political, terrorism, conflict, development, statistics, visualization, mapping, governance.

This series of images shows the extent of China’s pollution problems and the human toll of exponential growth on local communities in China’s vast and severely damaged northern region

Source: www.theguardian.com