GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

Human activity is playing a role in the dwindling size of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, according to new research.While the research group acknowledged the role that climate fluctuations, such as droughts and floods, have played in the shift of the lake’s water levels over time, the decrease in the lake’s size is predominantly due to human causes. According to the report, the heavy reliance on consumptive water uses has reduced the lake level by 11 feet and its volume by 48 percent.

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

Source: www.accuweather.com

“Early American wilderness photographers were snapping gorgeous vignettes of mountain peaks and sunrises before Instagram’s 1977 filter was even a thing. But, aside from their timeless appeal, the true value of these nineteenth-century photographs is derived from their role in the American conservation movement.”

Source: wilderness.org

Many National Parks (especially Yellowstone and Yosemite) are special to me because my grandparents took me there–these trips inspired in me a deep awe for the wonders of this Earth.    We owe a great debt of gratitude to these early photographers whose work captivated a nation to start a conservation ethos to protect wilderness.

Tags: place, images, art, landscape, California.   

Audio http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

Source: www.youtube.com

On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.   Shared above is his last speech given the day before he died in Memphis, Tennessee.

Tags: historical, race, poverty. 

“A college-educated, manufacturing engineer makes $1,500 a month working the production line at a GE plant in Mexico (about $75 a day). A typical manufacturing engineer that works for GE in the United States makes nearly $75,000 a year, (about $312 a day … or 4X the rate in Mexico).  That wage gap can easily explain why so many manufacturing jobs have left the United States. Since 2000, the U.S. has lost about 5 million manufacturing jobs.  Manufacturing has crossed the Rubicon — or Rio Grande — and it’s hard to see those jobs returning to the U.S.”

Source: money.cnn.com

A huge wage gap between American and Mexican workers stands center in the debate over how the U.S. has lost so many blue collar jobs.  We can bemoan the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States, but it is incredibly unlikely that low-skilled manufacturing will become a viable means to achieve a middle class income in the future because of fundamental shifts in economic geography.  

Tags: industry, manufacturing, economic, North America, labor, USA, Mexico, globalization, technology.  

The showrooms appear to always be empty — how do they stay open?

Source: wreg.com

It is a sorry state of affairs when voters are tired of hearing about the U.S. presidential candidates and would prefer to discuss the seemingly inexplicable proliferation of mattress stores.  Seriously though, this is a good example of a spatial question that explains things about the world. 

Tags: spatial, industry, economic.

Buddy Hield grew up in the Bahamas with six siblings, building his own hoop as a youngster. His sister, Coco, says Hield “brought life to all of us.”

Source: espn.go.com

Here is some geographic context for the biggest star in the NCAA’s Final Four basketball tournament. 

Tag: sport, Bahamas.

Our world is a complex network of people, places and things. Here are 32 maps will teach you something new about our interconnected planet.

Source: twistedsifter.com

Some of these maps are more compellling than others (like all lists like this) but some are really telling.  The map above shows the dense concentration of tech corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley/San Francisco. 

Tags: technology, map, map archive. 

After years of teaching, speaking and publishing in an effort to convey the breadth and nuance of Africa’s thousands of cultural groups, earlier today, two weary professors gave up the fight to convince Americans that Africa is not, in fact, a country.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

This was the best of the April Fool’s Day articles.  And no, will we never concede and we will fight on, because that’s what teachers do.

“The Popocatépetl volcano, situated in Puebla, Mexico, erupted between March 28 and 29, spewing hot ash and gas into the atmosphere. According to reports, a 7-mile exclusion zone was put in place around the volcano.” Credit: www.webcamdemexico.com

Source: www.youtube.com

This visually spectacular (but in terms of damage, fairly harmless) eruption is a sight to behold…especially knowing that Puebla and Mexico City aren’t too far from the smoldering giant.   If your students have ever asked, “What does a volcanic eruption look like?” then you’ve got something ready to go.   

Tags: disasters, Mexico, physical, volcano.