Concept Caching: Hydrothermal features in Iceland

From our Concept Caching image cache that hopes to promote student spatial awareness by relating specific features on the Earth’s surface with their visual character and GPS coordinates. Through the site photographs and GPS coordinates demonstrate core concepts in geography.  Images are “cached” for viewing by core concept and by region.  Images are certainly useful for introducing visual content to students in all Geography classes.

The Icelandic landscape is one of the most unique and interesting on Earth.  One of the few land-based rift zones, it is a standard discussion in any Physical Geography or Geology course.  Geothermal features are not only observed and studied, but they are harnessed for energy.  These geothermal features have also proved a “harsh reminder” for the power of the Earth, as discussed in the post, Geography Directions: Eyjafjallajökull: Geography’s Harsh Reminder. The March 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano had upset the operation of transportation and economic networks that bridged the Atlantic.  The costs, in time and money, were staggering.  Even more unnerving is the nature of such a geologic event, as it was virtually impossible to predict and to mitigate.

Geography Directions: Eyjafjallajökull: Geography’s Harsh Reminder

From our Geography Directions site reviewing Wiley-Blackwell’s Geography Compass review journal covering the entire discipline.  Keep up with cutting edge academic geography.  These articles may be useful for introducing students to the discipline or may be appropriate for upper division Geography classes.

The eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull on 20 March 2010 caught Europe dangerously off-guard. For two months, waves of ash closed some of the world’s busiest airspace. An estimated ten million passengers were left stranded, international train services collapsed under the heightened strain of people seeking alternate transportation, and governments were left to deal with angered airlines seeking to regain some portion of lost revenue. In total, over one hundred thousand flights were cancelled. The legal and political fallout of Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption continues today. A fundamental questions lies at the heart of this debate: why wasn’t Europe better warned or prepared? Amy R Donovan and Clive Oppenheimer (University of Cambridge) highlighted this problem in their March 2011 Geographical Journal commentary. The danger such natural events as Eyjafjallajökull pose, as Donovan and Oppenheimer argue, is that they lie outside the traditional realm of managerial governance.

Many natural events, however dangerous, lend governments two favours: first, relatively ample warning; second, comparatively localised impact. Hurricanes are an excellent case-in-point. Every summer NOAA, the United States’s oceanographic and atmospheric monitoring agency, continuously tracks existing storms and recalculates their future projectories. Excepting such hurricanes as Andrew and Katrina–most hurricanes cause damage across a limited geographic expanse before weakening significantly in strength. The snowstorms that rack the American northeast are similarly tracked in advance so that appropriate precautions can be taken (even if, in the event, those precautions prove inadequate).

The Eyjafjallajökull eruption, much like the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, presents a very different scenario. Such events are difficult to forecast, even more difficult to contain, and–like other natural events–impossible to prevent. But, as The Geographical Journal commentary noted, preventative steps could have been taken. Although the Met Office’sVolcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC), clearly noted the airspace risks posed by Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull volcanoes, this information was not included in the annual National Risk Register, nor did it predicate the implementation of ‘sophisticated, integrated UK or EU policy in advance of the recent volcanic activity’ (p. 2). One hopes that the Eyjafjallajökull airspace fiasco will serve as a reminder of our inability to tame the extremes of physical geography.

By Benjamin Sacks

To view the original article please visit the Geography Directions Blog.

Concept Caching: Seoul Korea

From our Concept Caching image cache that hopes to promote student spatial awareness by relating specific features on the Earth’s surface with their visual character and GPS coordinates. Through the site photographs and GPS coordinates demonstrate core concepts in geography.  Images are “cached” for viewing by core concept and by region.  Images are certainly useful for introducing visual content to students in all Geography classes.

"From the observation platform atop the Seoul Tower one would be able to see into North Korea except for the range of hills in the background: the capital lies in the shadow of the DMZ (demilitarized zone), relic of one of the hot conflicts of the Cold War." H.J. de Blij

East Asian regional politics has long been politically contentious.  As discussed in the post, Regional Politics in East Asia: Koreas, China and Beyond, geopolitics and political geography are responsible for subtle simmering tensions that at times burst into real conflict.  Not only is North Korea concealed beyond the hills that make up the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), but it would be unrecognizable in comparison to its peninsular neighbor as evidence in the capital city of Seoul.  The vast differences between the two states has its legacy in the same period that spawned the DMZ and its maritime other, the Northern Limit Line (NLL).  Such historical divisions and the ideological alliances on either side, have led to the departures in economic, urban and social geographies.

Regional Politics in East Asia: the Koreas, China and Beyond

East Asia is a region of contrasts: political, economic, social, and cultural.  Today such contrasts weave a complicated web of linkages and alliances between states in the region and beyond.  Within the region, competition and cooperation are balanced alongside periodic conflict and contention.  Nowhere is this more evident than on the Korean Peninsula, with its long history as an East Asian crossroads between Chinese and Japanese influence, but also as a pivot point between global geopolitical maneuvers.  The story begins in the post-World War II period that deteriorated into the bipolar Cold War world that specifically shaped the Koreas.  Today, the Korean Peninsula is just as affected by global powers as ever.  The events of 2010 provide a case in point.  In March, a South Korean warship was sunk allegedly by the North, although they denied responsibility.  In November, the disputed South Korean island of Yeonpyeong was shelled by the North.  Reviewing the diplomatic interactions between the Koreas and their allies following that latest incident reveals the touchy nature of current global and regional politics.

A political geography perspective investigates the spatiality of political activities and can be applied to the background of the peninsula.  Following the end of World War II, the peninsula was administratively divided between the United States in the South and the Soviet Union in the North.   The division lasted into the Cold War and effectively split Korea into a communist North and non-communist South.  War broke out when the communist North sought to unify the peninsula by invading the South in 1950.  After three years of war the agreed cease-fire line, known on land as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and over the ocean as the Northern Limit Line (NLL) both near the 38^th parallel, has continued to mark the current political boundaries between North and South Korea.  Both of these boundaries have been disputed by the North and served as a pretext for military action, especially the NLL recently. The NLL as maritime boundary was set by the United Nations, a supranational organization, in 1953 and gave control of several offshore islands to South Korea despite their being dangerously adjacent to the North Korean mainland.  The North was forced to relinquish the islands during the war because it lacked capable naval power to retain them.

These boundaries continue to represent global ideological and political divisions, as today’s regional alliances link up North Korea with its contemporary communist ally, China, and South Korea with the democratic, capitalist United States, outside the region, as well as Japan in East Asia.  Beginning in 2003, these players together with Russia convened the Six Party Talks to address concerns over the threat of North Korea’s nuclear program.  Although the talks led to little agreement, the Six Party format became the de facto forum for East Asian stability in 2010.  However, the six parties did not actually sit down to talk, instead they were making public statements and symbolic acts without actually sitting down together.  First, hostile rhetoric was exchanged between North and South and many feared that war was inevitable.  Then, in support of South Korea, a “tri-lateral” meeting in Washington was convened between the United States and South Korea, symbolizing their “mutual defense” alliance from the end of the Korean War, but also with Japan.  They also demonstrated the strength of the alliance as the US-South Korean “war games” and the US-Japanese military drills that were observed by South Korea.  On the side of North Korea, however, the strength of the alliance with China was not so clear.  Their support was gleaned more from what its diplomats chose not to say: the Chinese government preferred not to publicly denounce the shelling.  Some understood this as China effort to maintain the façade of support for its ally because of the strategic importance of North Korea as a buffer state protecting China from the democratic, American-leaning South.  Lately, however, Wikileak documents revealed that their alliance has been tested as China is unhappy with North Korea’s actions and has considered the possible reunification of the Koreas, which would likely manifest as a larger South Korea.

Regardless, much of the diplomatic international community, led by US influence in the United Nations, was unsatisfied with China’s lackluster response.  Many have called for the Chinese to act more like the rising regional and international power that it is.  In particular, this reflects the 21^st century world system and the subtle tensions between two of its powers, United States and China.  China’s strongest symbolic statement following the shelling of Yeonpyeong was to caution the US against participating in the South Korean military drills.  From China’s perspective they clearly took place within its sovereignty sphere.  Regardless of the various boundaries of that sphere, being its territorial waters or the wider exclusive economic zone (EEZ).  Ultimately, beyond the rising tensions between the Koreas, the recent diplomatic events reveal a possible degradation of US-Chinese relations.

A geopolitical perspective examines the relationships of geography, global politics and actors, and helps to understand some of the political motivations behind the six party diplomatic interactions.  Back at the regional scale, North Korea has consistently kept the international community guessing.  Whether it is about its nuclear program, succession or just about its society, the North has been consistently secretive and its motives elusive.  For example, the North had made threats that if the South carried out its planned military drills that it would retaliate with “brutal consequences beyond imagination.”  And yet, when the South went ahead, the North answered that it was “not worth reacting.” An interesting possible reason behind North Korean military flexing over disputed borders or nuclear programs is their desperate need for foreign aid and investment.  There are drastic differences in the levels of economic and social development between North Korea and its East Asian neighbors.  The North Korean society is characterized by inequality, isolation, famine and general economic backwardness.  It is completely reliant on China for aid and investment.  The military provocation could also be seen as a strategic ploy to get the US and South Korea into talks where they might make concessions, like easing sanctions or providing food aid. On New Year’s Eve, the North requested “dialogue” with the South “as soon as possible”. Although being rejected by South Korea, the US did seem to come around to making the talks happen.

The regional politics in East Asia reveal much about global geopolitics and diplomacy today.  The Cold War history of the two Koreas shaped the contemporary world system, in which diplomatic actions take place.  Expected proximity geographies of regional neighbors are expanded beyond the East Asia realm with mutual defense alliances and ideological allies.  Diplomacy in today’s post-Cold War system, which is more about rhetorical combat than armed battles, is still as careful and coded as it was in the days of spies and the threat of nuclear annihilation.

Concept Caching: El Salvador Pan American Highway Virtual Field Trip

From our Concept Caching image cache that hopes to promote student spatial awareness by relating specific features on the Earth’s surface with their visual character and GPS coordinates. Through the site photographs and GPS coordinates demonstrate core concepts in geography.  Images are “cached” for viewing by core concept and by region.  Images are certainly useful for introducing visual content to students in all Geography classes.

The link between food and land has been a crux of human-environment interaction.  Today that relationship is increasingly complex and abstract with many modern humans having no direct experience or conception of the land from which their food came.  The post Geography Directions: Eat to be healthy and save the planet provides an example of that disconnect.  Increasingly, the food we eat (recognizably that “we” is not an even, inclusive global “we”) is affecting many diverse environments across the globe, which aggregates into a significant scale global environmental problem.  Also in the post is the world’s development divide.  Increasingly, it is the diets of the developed world that ruin the environments in developing world or in emerging economies.  This image of the El Salvador environment reveals such an example as the legacy of global coffee demand among other globalized connections is evident on the landscape.  However, with the rise of truly global-scale environmental problems, like climate change, the world’s affluent are eating away (yes, pun intended) at their own future.  For starters, we should reconsider the phrase, “You are what you eat,” accounting for the indirect environmental consequences.

Geography Directions: Eat to be healthy and save the planet

From our Geography Directions site reviewing Wiley-Blackwell’s Geography Compass review journal covering the entire discipline.  Keep up with cutting edge academic geography.  These articles may be useful for introducing students to the discipline or may be appropriate for upper division Geography classes.

It is well documented that around the world pristine environments are being destroyed to produce some of the food that we eat in the United Kingdom. For instance, the Brazilian savannah or Cerrado is currently being destroyed faster than the Amazon; this is largely due to soy production (most of which is fed to the animals we eat), beef and other agriculture. A further example is that of Borneo whose tropical forests are being cleared to plant palm trees to produce palm oil for biscuits and fish fingers. If everyone in the world lived as we do in the UK we would require two planets by 2030. But now we may be able to save the planet over lunch. Researchers believe that we can and they say that if we all ate what they would like to see on our plates, Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions could be cut by a quarter, our meat consumption would be reduced drastically and we would be a lot healthier at the same time.  All this comes in the guise of the Livewell Diet, which is a weekly menu assembled by nutritionists, which sets out the best ingredients to balance healthy eating with sustainable food production. The average weekly cost of the diet would be £29 per person.

At present an estimated 79kg of meat a year are consumed by the average UK resident and the Livewell 2020 diet is expected to reduce this to 10kg a year; thus reducing the pressure on natural resources.  Scientists from the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at Aberdeen University have produced the diet commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) which is designed to be familiar and normal. The diet is based on nutritional guidelines from the government for eating healthily. It will also help us meet the 2020 targets for greenhouse gas reductions, as laid out the in UK Climate Change Act by steering away from processed food (whose environmental impacts are due to their extra production, packaging, transportation and energy consumption) and meat.

For a more complete discussion and explanation of the complicated interplay between  human diet, energy, climate change, the financial crisis and the socially and environmentally unsustainable grain–livestock relationship it is recommended to read, Energy, Climate Change, Meat, and Markets: Mapping the Coordinates of the Current World Food Crisis in the Geography Compassjournal. In the meantime the WWF will lobby the government and the food industry to use the Livewell diet as a blueprint and if we just adapt our diets slightly by eating less meat and fewer processed foods, and replacing them with more fruit, vegetables and grains, we’ll be making a positive difference for ourselves and the planet.

By Paulette Cully

To view the original article please visit the Geography Directions Blog.

Geography Directions: Brave New World for Egypt

From our Geography Directions site reviewing Wiley-Blackwell’s Geography Compass review journal covering the entire discipline.  Keep up with cutting edge academic geography.  These articles may be useful for introducing students to the discipline or may be appropriate for upper division Geography classes.

As the dust begins to settle in Cairo the people of Egypt are jubilant at the success of their 18 day revolution in effecting regime change and toppling the government led by Hosni Mubarak for 3 decades.   Now, as they prepare to play the long game waiting for free elections in September, the people, the revolutionary council and the ruling military must walk the tightrope of civic peace. Throughout the peaceful protests, distinctly multicultural and bursting with references to gender equality, poverty, religion, state-led violence and political freedom the activists displayed visual representations of the state through the lens of the working classes.  Why do I mention this? Amidst the macro-scale geopolitik at play and the roar of the oppressed and unheard there is also subtle resistance at work here. The use of imagery on banners and placards and voices on facebook became the ‘weapons of the weak’ (Hammett 2010:6) , weapons that became available in the face of unequal access to public resources, corrupted state-owned t.v./radio/newspapers. The script and symbolism in the banners, facebook pages and tweets began the process of self-assertion of nation and in the interim, this meant a disconnect with the previous regime. It is a media that can reach beyond borders and through societal strata, one that the ageing clunky oppressor was ill-equipped to outrun. Increasingly there is a call for a more critical reading of the role of visual metaphors in the construction of ‘nation’ and the sentiment behind national identities (Dittmer 2005:628). In the image below, the use of comic book imagery is clearly anything but innocent or child-like, indeed it is a powerful and effective political tool in it’s cause of freedom from tyranny.

Throughout the protests, the activists have repeatedly expressed their unity, Christians protecting Muslims as they prayed from pro-Mubarak forces and clearly chanting ‘Egypt for the Egyptians’.  There are many accounts of people watching events unfold around the world on T.V.’s, computers and listening to radios choked by the solidarity of this multicultural society overcoming everyday, that which so often divides and disables cohesion in the western world.

Indeed there is no doubt that these events have been an outstanding victory for the people of Egypt, for human dignity in the Arab world and for freedom of expression more widely. However, in time the ousting of the autocratic leader may prove to have been the easy part. The vision of Egypt as portrayed by the government was one of submission and secularism, there was no room for dissent or protest and public displays of religiosity were banned, all under the state of emergency since 1981 (but periodically dating back to 1967). With two thirds of the nation under the age of 30 for many this is the only Egypt in living memory, an Egypt ruled by a military government whose hand reaches into every area of governance, commerce (from petroleum to bakeries), media and education. It is difficult therefore to imagine the magnitude of the economic and political loss in status to the military if it is replaced by a civic democratic system of governance based on merit and a public mandate. Whilst these concerns are bound to dominate in future months, we will remember for some time, the courage of the Egyptian people, oppressed and thwarted for too long, circling in squares and squaring the circle.

By Michelle Brooks

To view the original article please visit the Geography Directions Blog.

Concept Caching: Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

From our Concept Caching image cache that hopes to promote student spatial awareness by relating specific features on the Earth’s surface with their visual character and GPS coordinates. Through the site photographs and GPS coordinates demonstrate core concepts in geography.  Images are “cached” for viewing by core concept and by region.  Images are certainly useful for introducing visual content to students in all Geography classes.

Egypt.  Images such as this are what make up many in the world’s geographic imagination of the Egyptian landscape.  However, a new set of images from the last few weeks have entered into modern imaginations.  As referred to in the post Geography Directions: Brave New World for Egypt, there has been much effort to overturn the political conventions that had defined the ‘modern’ Egyptian state.  The post mentions the scales behind the protests, of where resistance was directed versus where resistance was communicated.   It also discusses a future for Egypt, and how democracy will interact with military in the interim.  What will play out in the coming months beneath the shadows of the pyramids and Egypt’s authoritarian history?

Concept Caching: Tower houses of Sanaa, Yemen

From our Concept Caching image cache that hopes to promote student spatial awareness by relating specific features on the Earth’s surface with their visual character and GPS coordinates. Through the site photographs and GPS coordinates demonstrate core concepts in geography.  Images are “cached” for viewing by core concept and by region.  Images are certainly useful for introducing visual content to students in all Geography classes.

Yemen has gained global attention as one of the latest centers for terrorists networks as discussed in the post Yemeni Geographies and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. One of the challenging factors behind Yemen’s terrorist predicament is its divided history.  There were long two distinct political societies that are now together within shared borders.  Different historical trajectories defined North or South with different rulers, political philosophies, economic and social development legacies, urban networks, and environmental destinies.  Sanaa was the capital city of North Yemen, as it is now commonly known but also held several other names and historical manifestations.  The city has a unique urban form that is not quite reflected in its Yemeni sister city of Aden in the South.  The two cities do embody the divided history of Yemen, and structure some of the economic and social differences that contribute to rebellions, secessionist movements and general instability in the country.

Yemeni Geographies and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Yemen has emerged as a significant node in global terrorist networks since its connection to the 2009 “underwear bomber” and the 2010 printer bomb plots.  However, it has long been a terrorist hotbed, as the bombing of a U.S. warship in 2000 and subsequent attacks would attest.  Yemen is the center for the group known as “al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula.” This offshoot group has a surprising level of cunning shown in the printer bomb plot and organizational sophistication and egregiousness, as evidence in their newsletter Inspire and the.  Understanding why this little known country has become such a focal point in world security discourse is to the task of Geography.  Yemen has all the unfortunate qualities of a terrorist breeding ground.  A Time Magazine video report reveals some of geographic context for this during a road trip from North to South Yemen.  The Time video, along with BBC and Reuters articles, provide some evidence for Yemen’s historical and present-day social, economic and political geographies as necessary background for analyzing this Southwest Asian country’s long propensity for terrorist activity.

As the poorest country in the Arab world, just about 45% of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day.  Not only does that widespread poverty sow discontent, but Yemenis are also nearly equally divided among Shi’ites and Sunnis; itself a troublesome rift that is seen elsewhere in the region.  As a result, the country has been struggling for political stability.  Yemen was once two separate countries, the Yemen Arab Republic or North Yemen and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen or South Yemen.  Both were united into the present state of Yemen in 1990.  The current government is widely seen to be ineffective by many Yemenis.  Some see it as corrupt and useless; unable to provide basic services for its citizens or support its flailing economy.  Some even see it as an illegitimate Western sell out, taking money and orders from outside interests.  The governments’ authority is also weakened by the continuing centrifugal forces that act within the country: the Shi’ite rebellion being waged in the North; the secessionist movement in the South; and the ongoing arms market and terrorism activities among fundamentalist and disaffected Yemenis.  In this context, political instability begets economic stagnation and collapse of authority.  Northern Yemenis have little to nothing in the way of development or an actual economy to provide jobs or services.  Southern Yemenis have some promise that comes from oil fields, tourism, and global shipping networks; however, this limited prosperity is what fuels their calls for secession.  In addition to all this is Yemen’s location as a well positioned country for terrorist activity.  It is located on the edge of Saudi Arabia – al Qaeda’s Arab enemy.  It controls half of one of the world’s most important geographic choke points, the Bab-el-Mandeb connecting the Red and Arabian Seas.  And, it is adjacent to another terrorist haven and failed state, Somalia.

A confluence of site and situation, Yemen has now captured the world’s attention as the latest terrorist stronghold.  What has magnified this further is the release of US diplomatic cables, or communications, on the site Wikileaks.  Without getting into the Wikileaks story on its own, the release of these relatively secret documents has revealed a surprisingly detailed underside of global diplomacy.  Not many places in the world were left unaffected by this event.  For Yemen, the Wikileaks cables revealed the strategies, alliances and troubles of the “war” against al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula.  Available for all to see are the connections between the Yemeni government and the United States and the role of the Saudis in fighting al Qaeda at the expense of the Yemeni government.  What is more is the unfortunate side effect of also exposing these connections for al Qaeda operatives, themselves, who may take the information as a propaganda opportunity to further delegitimize the government and enlist more recruits, in Yemen and beyond.

Yemen’s designation as a source of terrorism can certainly be explained by its regional geographic context.  However, it is merely one spoke in a global network of terrorism groups.  Like the other terrorism hotbeds in the world, globalization itself provides the tools and the targets for such extremist activities.  Terrorist groups rely on the same networks of global communications and transportation that they seek to disrupt with bomb plots.  And now, courtesy of Julian Assange, the globalization of political transparency in Wikileaks provides another tool for terrorists to potentially exploit.

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