Geography is what geographers do. As I have reorganized this site, I decided that the rest of this main page should include a few specific examples of what geography is all about. For more detailed discussion, see my " What is Environmental Geography ?" page or the PodCast I recorded with colleagues Harm de Blij and Vernon Domingo. For more examples, see Ten Geographic Ideas , which I adapted from the book by Susan Hanson.

Rain Forest Geography

I got started in environmental geography in the 1980s when a friend talked me into taking a single course, in which I ended up learning quite a bit about deforestation in the Amazon Basin. Eventually, I went to Rondonia, one of the most damaged parts of the Brazilian rain forest. The two LANDSAT images above provide a wealth of environmental geography lessons; I have used these images when teaching about biodiversity, the geography of Latin America, and the applications of remote sensing. The image on the left shows a part of central Rondonia in 1975; the same area is shown in 1992 on the right. During these years, the Brazilian government funded the building of small roads at 10-kilometer intervals along BR-364, the main highway that runs from the SE corner to the northern part of each image. By 1992, it is difficult to see the highway because of all the clearing that ensued. Learn more about what happened in the Rondonia Web portion of this site. It includes links to a USGS site about the images themselves, to an online photodocumentary by my friend Lee Clockman, and all of my writings about the area.

John Snow

Geographers like to site the work of John Snow , a nineteenth-century London physician, when explaining the value of a spatial perspective. By mapping the incidence of cholera, he was able to identify the water supply as a source of transmission, and saved lives by having the handle removed from a particular well. A similar technique was used to discover the grave problems at Love Canal near Niagara Falls more than a century later. The image above comes from an article about Snow posted by the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science at UC-Santa Barbara.


Some consider Hurricane Katrina to be the worst natural disaster in recent U.S. experience. Many geographers do not consider it a "natural" disaster at all, but rather as a terrible event that exposed a variety of underlying problems. It may be the case that human-induced climate change contributed to the severity of the storm. It is definitely the case that human-induced climate change has raised sea levels, so that the storm surge occurred from a higher base elevation. More importantly, human-induced coastal erosion had removed protective physical barriers. Understanding Katrina is a collection of essays by geographers and other social sciences that examines what Katrina has revealed about our society.

For a brief explanation of why Katrina cannot be more directly attributed to climate change, see the brief article on Katrina from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Although climate change cannot be "blamed" for this disaster, geographers understand that climate change are likely to make such events even more problematic into the future.



This example -- an aerial view of the Silver City Galleria Mall in Taunton, Massachusetts --  is closer to home and illustrates several interesting things. First, geographic information is increasingly easy to obtain, especially in areas where government agencies (such as MassGIS) have generously supported the free publication of data. Second, it is often possible to learn something about local geography from place names. In this case, Silver City refers to Taunton's past as an important center for the production of fine silver pieces. Third, this is a fine example of the attraction of transportation nodes. A large piece of open land near the intersection of two major highways is unlikely to remain open for long, as the value at such a site will eventually make development too attractive to resist.

Finally, notice the white bar on the eastern side of the complex. It measures 600 feet from the entrance to the food court to the overflow parking area. This is a figure I learned from Edge City , Joel Garreau's classic book on suburban sprawl: It is the maximum distance a U.S. resident will voluntarily walk without being tricked. A perfect example is in the mall itself. The white stripe in the center of the mall is a skylight in the main concourse. The fact that the concourse is a total of one thousand feet long might be cited as evidence to contradict Garreau, except for one thing: the dog-leg in the center of the mall -- clearly visible in this image -- is a visual trick that induces customers to walk the "entire" length. Geography is concerned with the many implications of this simple observation. Over a period of five to six decades, the United States has developed a dependency on the automobile that is self-perpetuating. Things must be spread out to make room for cars, and cars are needed to navigate the spread-outness of suburbia. The fact that this aspect of "progress" is now becoming common in developing countries was one of my motivations in establishing the U.S.-Brazil Consortium in Urban Development, which gives students at BSC and partner universities the opportunity to study these problems in detail.

Also, see my Geography of Suburban Sprawl page, which is based on a presentation I made to the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissioners.



I took this photo in suburban Maryland in the summer of 2007, because this single, back-yard vista so thoroughly captures much of what is wrong with the suburban geography of the United States today. First, Americans are increasingly moving away from each other, even in individual neighborhoods. The space between houses is the result of mandated low density, which is intended to reduce the impact of development. In fact, however, it increases the need to drive for most errands. (In fairness, I was standing on the edge of a newly-constructed shopping area that intends to serve some of the routine needs of these houses -- including ready-to-heat dinners for families who no longer cook, though they have state-of-the art kitchens.)

What has become "normal" in house sizes would have been considered ostentatious only a couple of generations ago. Much of the extra space is devoted to storing the stuff acquired on shopping excursions, aimless shopping having become the nation's leading pastime. Typically, families in such over-sized houses find that they "cocoon" in a few comfortable rooms, though they furnish, heat, and air condition up to three or four thousand square feet of space. The playgrounds themselves exemplify the costs of a diminished sense of community, along with a rigid opposition to taxation. Many Americans would now rather spend a few thousand dollars on the play structures their own children demand than contribute a few hundred extra dollars to neighborhood facilities. The inward focus, combined with a general fear of letting children out of sight, leads to vast areas of land devoted to unused, single-family playgrounds and an increasing sense of isolation. Notice the distinct lack of children in this photograph! New urbanism is an effort to reverse these pernicious trends, by bringing people back in close proximity to each other, with architecture that is interesting, services that are available, and community goods that create a shared experience. I live in such a neighborhood in Massachusetts, on 0.31 acres, with playgrounds and shops we can walk to, but even in my town it would be illegal to build such a neighborhood today! The result of this imbalance is increased time spent in cars, decreased time spent with neighbors, huge amounts of money spent on fossil fuels, and a worsening climate.

Place-Name Game	As should be clear from the examples above, geography is about much more than memorizing place names. Learning where things are is fun, however, and the abandonment of geographic education in the United States has led to profound ignorance of where things are. The Lufthansa game to the left is a fun way to learn some places and develop map-reading skills. I played for part of an evening and moved from the middle of the player population to the 98th percentile. I might do a bit better if I study a Lufthansa map of Europe. Sheppard Software has an incredible array of engaging games to help children and adults learn place-name geography, ecology, and many other areas of science, math, and history.
Sadly, our failures to learn are not limited to geography, as this frightening piece makes clear: We are witnessing the "perfect storm" of consumerism, xenophobia, and education "reform." The scariest part of the story is the pride people are taking in their ignorance. It is encouraging, though, to see that the fifth grader in the clip is as dismayed as I am! There is hope, though: see My Wonderful World!

   

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