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
Ghazlan Mandukai, 52, left, looks out over the vast, toxic tailings lake beyond the industrial city of Baotou, Inner Mongolia. He farmed in this area for 40 years until the influx of steel and rare earth metal factories rendered local lands infertile. Poisonous waste that results from refining rare earths is continually dumped into the Weikuang Dam, as seen here.
Tags: pollution, China, East Asia, industry, sustainability, images, art, landscape.
Source: www.theguardian.com
The amount of rainfall a place gets isn’t the only factor in how much water is available to it. These major urban areas show how dire the coming global freshwater shortage could get.
Source: www.takepart.com
Seen from space, this planet is a blue marble, a world where the surface is dominated by water. The Pacific Ocean alone is nearly half of the surface area of our planet. Add in polar ice caps and the rivers and lakes, we can see that water profoundly impacts Earth. Yet most of that water is salt water (97%) and two-thirds of our non-salty water locked away in ice sheets (2% of the global water). Everything else, rivers, lakes, marshes, aquifers, and reservoirs represent that remaining 1% of the Earth’s water supply–and that 1% of water is what sustains human settlements and allows for agricultural expansion. The geography of this 1% is highly uneven and a huge water crisis can cause governments crumble–the fact that this precious resources has been wasted and polluted becomes more frustrating as water resources are being strained in so many places. In this article, it describes 8 major metro areas where water is being depleted rapidly — Tokyo, Miami, London, Cairo, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Bangalore and Mexico City.
Tags: urban, water, land use, megacities, urban ecology, consumption, environment, resources.
“Have you ever dreamed of seeing Mount Everest or fantasized about hiking through the peaks and valleys of the Himalayas? This video, by Teton Gravity Research, might be even better.“
Source: vimeo.com
Simply stunning. Sometimes and earth-bound perspective and it’s inherent limitations make me want to be able to soar overhead. Until I get wings, this virtual tour will have to do. These mountains and the communites that live so close to their heights both invoke a great sense of awe and wonder in me about the beauties of this world.
“Aerial photography has always been a key component in map production,” says Chris. “It’s the medium you use to extract the information that ultimately finds its way to a map.”
Tags: mapping, cartography, geospatial, New Zealand.
Source: www.radionz.co.nz
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION 