GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

“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

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.   

Tags: Nepal, physical, video, landscape, images.

Source: www.gocomics.com

“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

Diverting more water could pose serious health and economic threats to Utah.

Source: www.citylab.com

Follow-up: The drying up of the lake can’t be blamed on the current drought, this is a human-induced modification of the environment.  This lake is not exceptional, even if the imagery is startling.  Like many lakes in dry climates with growing populations, the people are using the freshwater flow into the lakes more extensively than they have in the past.  The Great Salt Lake, the Aral Sea, Lake Chad, Lake Urmia, and the Dead Sea are all drying up.  

Tags: physical, Utah, environment modify, environment, water.

“The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has compiled some of the more stunning examples into a traveling art exhibition called Earth as Art 4, the fourth in a series of shows since 2002. The collection, which can be viewed in full online, debuted at USGS headquarters in Reston, Virginia.”

Tags: remote sensing, land use, environment, geospatial, images, art, landscape.

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

“37 mind-boggling Great Lake facts.”

Tags: physical, environment, water.

Source: www.buzzfeed.com