Latitude by the Glass

In his recent article Chardonnay with Latitude, Boston Globe wine and food writer Stephen Meuse draws attention to the geography of wine. As with anything that varies spatially (such as coffee), geography can be used to learn about wine, just as wine can be used to learn about geography. The clever title of Meuse’s article reflects his decision to write about several wines whose common characteristic is particularly geographic: they are all made from grapes of the Chardonnay variety, but from the northernmost extremity of that grape’s geographic range.

Meuse describes the influence of both soil mineralogy and climate on grapes, and then provides tasting notes and retail information for a number of wines from close to 50 degrees North latitude. All of these wines are found in Europe, five degrees or more north of the northernmost wines in the Americas, though Meuse does not explain this difference, which has to do with the directions of currents in the north Atlantic Ocean. Northwestern Europe is warmed by the Gulf Stream, just as northeastern North America is cooled by the Labrador Current.

In his book The Geography of Wine, geographer Brian Sommers explains not only the geographic factors underlying terroir; he also examines the economic and social geographies of wine consumption and distribution. Wine, in fact, is of such interest to geographers that an entire specialty group of the Association of American Geographers is dedicated to wine scholarship.

Suggested activity:

Working as individuals or small groups in a class, identify common food or beverage items. What ingredients are required to produce each item? What factors determine where those ingredients can be produced? To what extent has human geography — such as patterns of trade or migration — influenced the location of these ingredients? What patterns of transportation are involved in producing the ingredients, processing the food or beverage, and delivering the product to consumers?

Climate Change in the Pacific: State of Emergency

As outlined in a previous post, “Climate Change in the Pacific:  Help we’re drowning,” Pacific islands are bearing the first clear environmental shifts of global climate change.  Not only are the islands being threatened by rising sea levels, their territory and societies ‘drowning’ in the process; but, climate change is combining with other environmental conditions to jeopardize the essential fresh water sources that these insular societies depend on.

On October 2011, the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu declared a national state of emergency.   The emergency is that the country’s fresh water sources are running out and others are unfit for consumption.  Some areas of the island were projected to completely run out of potable, fresh water within two days of the declaration.  The conditions that led to the state of emergency are related to the longer term climate changes, but also to seasonal shifts.  A seasonal, La Niña weather pattern has been causing drought in Tuvalu.  Below-average rainfall has been experienced since June or at least and is projected to continue into December.  Most of the country’s fresh water supply comes from collected rainwater.  Another source of freshwater lies under the ground.  Yet, this source is limited.  Tuvalu is a series of low-lying coral atolls.  The geology of coral atolls does not support deep groundwater sources.  Further, the shallow groundwater that is found on these islands is being compromised by rising sea levels as salt water infiltrates the groundwater supply.  A reporting of animals deaths leads Tuvaluan Red Cross officials to question the safety of the groundwater supply for consumption.  Considering the nature of groundwater recharge, and most acute in Tuvalu, the lack of rainfall is accelerating the infiltration of seawater into subterranean water features.  The impacts of water shortages are felt in the islands’ traditional subsistence agriculture activities as well as water rationing affecting basic water services.  Tuvalu’s neighbor and New Zealand territory, Tokelau followed up soon after with its own state of emergency declaration.

The relief is coming from international organizations like the Red Cross as well as from the government of New Zealand.  The people of Tuvalu and Tokelau are being aided with water collection supplies, desalinization units and plenty of bottled water.  The larger affects are still yet to come.  In particular, questions about the long-term settlement of many low-lying Pacific islands have implications for nationhood, cultural traditions, economic rights, and logistics of mass migration.

 

Geo-STEM

Although education reform efforts in the United States have focused on basic writing and math literacy, many leaders are increasingly concerned about the erosion of the country’s leadership in the STEM disciplines:  Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. For this reason, STEM education is increasingly the focus of education reformers and stakeholders from regional business groups to state governments to the White House science advisors.

In my own outreach work with K-12 students (mainly at the middle school level), the relationship between geography education and STEM education is increasingly clear. Because geography is both a social science and a physical science, the relationships between geography and STEM are sometimes less than clear.

In a recent letter to Dr. John Holdren, one of President Obama’s top science advisors, a coalition of geography organizations makes a strong case for geography and geospatial education as part of a national STEM-education policy. The Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) includes both the Association of American Geographers and many organizations with more specific, technical missions, such as the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

All of the groups agree that the current state of thinking on STEM is too narrow in its exclusion of geography. Specifically, they make the case for geographic education, which they note is missing from the PCAST report Prepare and Inspire: K-12 STEM Education for the Future. They make the following arguments for its inclusion:

• A 2009 White House budget calls for placed-based policies and programs
• A 2006 Department of Labor report identified geospatial technologies as one of twelve New and Emerging Occupations
• In 2010, the Department of Labor identified geography as a Knowledge and Skill Area central to employment involving the geospatial technologies it had previously identified
• The National Science Foundation provided $7 million in funding to geography research projects in 2009-2010
• National Geospatial Technology Center for Excellence is funded in part by NSF for the purpose of improving university-level geography education; strong geography education in the K-12 sector is a prerequisite for success in these efforts
• President Obama has said, “We must educate our children to compete in an age where knowledge is capital, and the marketplace is global.”
• The PCAST report itself warns that methods for teaching STEM disciplines must be developed that allows students to apply what they learn to real-world problems. Geography is an integrative discipline that is well-suited to this critical need.

The case for geographic education is not limited to careers and technology, of course; as I have argued before my own state government’s education officials, geography is an essential foundation for cultural literacy and public diplomacy as well, and are good preparation for a wide range of both STEM and non-STEM careers.

Suggested activities

1. Contact education leaders in your state – perhaps starting with the state’s Geographic Alliance – to learn the current status of geographic education in the state.
2. Review the 18 standards for geography education identified in the Geography for Life project. Which of these are most relevant to the geospatial careers for which the COGO group advocates?
3. Make a list of the geospatial technologies on which you rely – directly or indirectly – each day. How many e-commerce web sites, for example, employ Geographic Information Systems as part of their interface with potential customers?

It’s Carmageddon!?

Is everything in LA so over-dramatized?  Uh, yes.  Even a two-day 10 mile closure of the 405 freeway connecting the South Bay, Westside and Valley on July 15-18 for about 50 hours is big, big, everyday news in the Southland.  There have been billboards, announcements, television and radio programs, websites, apps, and nearly everything you can imagine to prepare, navigate, and well, survive this weekend.

Here’s a screenshot of a typical 9am weekday look of LA area freeways:

This is an interesting phenomenon to a Geographer because of the intersections of the material infrastructure with the culturally ingrained car society.  Remember Missing Persons’ song, “Walking in LA”?  Well, according to that tune, “Nobody walks in LA,” and it’s pretty true.  Southern Californians are all driving the freeways to get around or they are jamming up the main city arteries alone in their cars or on the notoriously inefficient bus system.  Los Angeles’s urban development was historically driven by real estate and transportation (and water, too).  Early on, there was a prescient design for freeways and boulevards to connect the suburban sprawl.  Resultantly, the LA transportation network is denser than any other US city.  This is confirmed in a 2009 article published by the University of California’s Transportation Center that delves into the problem of traffic congestion in Los Angeles.  The area’s nearly endless freeways, all conspicuously titled as the one and only, The 5, The 101, The 10 and so on reveal the centrality of transportation in Southern California Life.

So, it is no wonder that Carmageddon is such a big deal.  Caltrans, the State of California’s Transportation Department, launched a public relations campaign that started months out.  Prominent figures, from local politicians to celebrities, have been doing their part to remind Southern Californians to plan ahead, stay away, or better yet, stay home.  But, can Southern Californians really stay away?  According to some of the dialog outside of the official PR campaign, they might not be able to.  One commentator on a local network news website blatantly said, “I know myself and a lot of people from the San Gabriel Valley, and the Inland Empire, are planning on driving into L.A. to witness this spectacle and simply add to the chaotic fray.”  Other exchanges illustrate the car-centric navigational-hubris of Los Angelinos.  Some think they know the secret routes, that they own the freeways (if you’ve ever driven here, you’ve seen them charging up your rear view mirror, gesturing wildly at you, driving in service lanes, etc.).  They have created apps to show real-time traffic on those supposed secret, alternate routes.  Some of these alternate routes will not be found on the ground, and hook up with another high-in-the-sky transportation network: air.  The airline JetBlue is selling $4 one-way fares as their “Over-the-405” special going from Long Beach in the South Bay to Burbank in the east Valley.  The 600 seats sold out in a matter of hours.  Another Southern California entrepreneur will be taking up patrons in a helicopter for a bird’s-eye view of the closure.  If anything, the high-fliers seem to be more interested in seeing a vacant freeway, a blue-moon, hell-froze-over type of experience.

As for me, I’ll be staying at home in North Orange County observing; ready to capture an epic screenshot of a clogged Southland.  Check back to find out if Southern California, “Survived Carmageddon.”

Concept Caching: Glacier Bay

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.

Climate change, climate change, climate change.  It certainly bears repeating, if a refrain leads to awareness.  This seems like the dominant discourse to engendering climate change awareness.  Climate change will have (and is having) wide-reaching consequences, some we can predict and many others we cannot.  And of stories of affected landscapes, the high-elevation and high-latitude environments are the most often mentioned.  The post, Geography Directions: Permafrost, carbon and thermokarsts: the Arctic importance offers a slightly different spin on the hackneyed talk of glacial melt.  Instead of continuing to focus on the changes in quintessential landscapes-under-threat, like this one of Glacier Bay, Alaska, the article discusses carbon storage processes in periglacial landscapes.  By focusing on periglacial carbon storage, the article provides another avenue for understanding the Earth’s Carbon Cycle.  Further, periglacial landscapes are also undergoing transformation; however, these areas are also landscapes of human settlement and activity.  If periglacial, permafrost and thermokarsts aren’t sexy enough, then subsiding lands, sinking buildings, and trucks mired in mud should offer some tantalizing bases for climate change mitigation.

 

Concept Caching: Cairo, 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.

"Central Cairo is full of the multi-story buildings, transportation arteries, and commercial signs that characterize most contemporary big cities. ..." Alexander B. Murphy

The cities of Egypt, and the larger Southwest Asia/Middle East and North Africa region, are seen as oases surrounded by a harsh environment, as bustling hubs of economic activity, as seats of political and cultural power, and as magnets for populations seeking anything from opportunity to refuge.  Of course, this is not unique to the region and the same can be said for cities the world over.  However, in the region, the urban context provides the stage by which other trends play out.  As discussed in the post, Investigating the Geographies of the Arab Spring, students are able to identify the interaction of climate, water, settlement, urbanization, population density, political-economic trends, cultural conventions, and global flows as they together contribute to the Arab uprisings in the spring of 2011.  Viewing the skyline of Cairo, Egypt would be a powerful visual of what was described by an Atlantic Monthly article as making “cities veritable cauldrons, in which political energy and activism are pressurized and brought to a boil.”  Further, that visual would be able to spark discussion over Egypt’s susceptibility to revolution and, perhaps, evaluations of its future.

Investigating the geographies of the Arab Spring

The Arab uprisings in Southwest Asia/Middle East and North Africa offer an excellent example in lower division undergraduate Geography courses for modeling the investigation of geographic context and processes.  There have been many exceptional sources covering the so-called, “Arab Spring” that provide relatively simple and direct explanations of various background geographies.  Reviewing these sources along with the textbook is an exemplary exercise for ‘doing’ geography.

An introductory exercise can be completed by analyzing an outstanding graphic from Slate Magazine.  The flash media graphic marries time and space by chronicling events in various countries of the region as a timeline in the format of a choropleth map with labeled boxes.  By either navigating by clicking day-by-day or as an automatic animation, each country that had a major event is highlighted and labeled with a brief explanation of the event.  By moving from December to April (and perhaps beyond, as the map is occasionally updated), we “relived” the events.  It became an exercise when the students were asked to identify context themes by using simple investigation questions, like Who, Where and Why.  They collected context information about who was protesting (youth, women, etc.), who was being protested against (dictators, presidents, kings/princes, etc.).  They collected context information about where protests were located (i.e. urban, universities, public squares).  They collected context information about why people were protesting (i.e. unemployment, rising food prices, political oppression, etc.).  This information can be used in a variety of ways: as content for exams or papers; as information to connect to other news sources; or as discussion points that can take the class to a variety of ‘places’.

Another exercise combined assigned current event articles with a World Regional textbook to fill out some of the geographies behind the events.  Students used their textbooks to investigate the human-environment background by connecting the geographies of climate/aridity, water resources, and resulting human settlement.  By understanding the patterns of settlement as an overlapping of climate and hydro- geographies, students can then further discuss resulting patterns of urban geographies.  Students can review the terms and statistics for the region of urbanization, urbanized population, and population density.  These urban dynamics are described in an article titled, “How Cities Stir Revolution” in the Atlantic Monthly.  The article does begin to speak broadly about cities as the historical site of revolution, but it offers specific statistics, maps and graphics about the urban character of the region; tying in nicely to population and urban geography concepts from World Regional textbooks.  Another topic that students investigate is the population geographies that have contributed to the Arab Spring.  NPR’s All Things Considered provides an audio interview and transcript that describes the “youth bulge” that exists in many Arab countries.  This “youth bulge” concept can then be connected to the tenants of the demographic transition model and further evaluated using demographic indicators.  A Guardian graphic is also helpful in the investigation of the demographic background of the region’s countries, as it provides visual comparisons of the total population, percent under 30 years of age (effectively, the “youth bulge”), and the total unemployment.  The role of unemployment is also discussed in a Guardian article, titled “Young Arabs who can’t wait to throw off shackles of tradition.” The article provides some powerful anecdotes for the political economy geographies in the region as the major catalysts for protest, namely the intersection of un- and under- employment, political oppression and ‘traditional’ political-economic cultures.  Further, this article creates a moment of reflexivity for students in the United States (and other similar societies) as it narrates more accounts of Arab Youth and Facebook, rap music, and managing idleness.

These events not only illustrate the fairly simple, introductory-level application of key terms, but it also provides students with an opportunity to think critically about contemporary, “21st century” politics.  They are able to internalize and reflect on the concerns that these youth from thousands of miles away have and to connect them to their own.  They are able to evaluate the current state of affairs in the United States (and, again, in other developed/affluent societies) by using the Arab Spring as a lens from which to compare and contrast.  Reflecting on the event by this way left my students feeling empowered and activated.

Concept Caching: The Harbor in Sydney, Australia

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.

"See a scene like this, and you realize why Australians refer to their land as 'the lucky country' Australia's periphery has much magnificent scenery ranging from spectacular cliffs to dune-lined beaches, but nothing matches Sydney Harbor on a sunny, breezy day when sailboats by the hundreds emerge from coves and inlets and, if you are fortunate enough to be on the water yourself, every turn around a headland presents still another memorable view. Ask the captains of ocean liners plying the world what port is their favorite, and most will point to this magnificent estuary with its narrow entrance and secluded bays as the grandest of all." (c) H. J. de Blij

As discussed in the posts, The Ironies of Australian Immigration Part One and Part Two, Australia is a demographically diverse society.  It is not a surprise when considering its economic and social indicators, which squarely position it as a developed country.  The opportunities it offers are on par with North America and Western Europe, and it is no wonder that immigrants from all its adjacent corners see Australia as a destination for a new life.  However, it is a challenge to balance the needs of its economic growth with the realities of its physical environment limits.  Sydney has an unparalleled gravitational pull on economic and demographic growth, which it’s sprawl, congestion, and social troubles attest to.  At the heart of the debate over the “Big Australia” policy, is also a question of how “big” Sydney itself can get.

 

The Ironies of Australian Immigration: Part Two

Continued from the post, “The Ironies of Australian Immigration: Part One.”

Economic growth is the second issue behind the “Big Australia” debate.  Economists argue in Business Week that reducing immigration may increase inflation (rise of prices) by reducing the supply of workers which would drive up wages.  This also has several scale implications.  Within the country, Western Australia would be particularly hard hit as the booming mining sector is in desperate need of workers.  Currently, this creates wage tensions between urban markets on either coast, as reported by The Australian.  Western Australia is forced to increase wages to get workers from the east to move out, thus draining the eastern urban areas of workers, which will then drive up wages there.  This will then lead to a “wage blowout” in Australia, if the country’s regions keep competing with one another.  Further, since that boom in mining is driven by global demands, especially by China.  Any increase in wages in mining would increase prices on those commodities and reduce Australia’s competitiveness, impacting its national economic growth.  Such a situation would have considerable economic costs as the mining sector in Australia is one of its largest export industries.

Another significant Australian export that is already being impacted by immigration issues is higher education, which is chosen by many international students.  A New York Times article reports on the current condition and future of Australia’s third-largest export industry.  Australian universities and education programs are impaired by the strong Australian dollar relative to other currencies that makes an Australian education more expensive.  There is also global competition for these international students that is pitting Australia against better known US and Canadian universities.  Ultimately, it is the tough visa requirements and long wait times of Australian immigration policy that have affected the export of foreign students.  This has led one institution to pursue legal action against the Governments’ current immigration policy.

In the end, the environmental restrictions and discourse on sustainability, combined with the demands of the globalized Australian economy, have led to some ironic socio-economic consequences.  Since population growth needs to be “sustainable” (i.e. limited) and immigration is necessary for economic growth, the compromise is to have immigration policy where not all migrants are created equal.  According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian government manages immigration numbers in two main flows: as permanent migrants or temporary migrants.  The permanent flows include skilled migrants, migrants joining Australian family members, and humanitarian migrants, including asylum-seekers and refugees.  In the terms of Australia’s immigration debate, these are the immigrant groups that are understood to account for population growth.  However, it is the short-term flows of student and business visa holders that are responsible for a significant number of people that end up staying permanently, by applying for residency and thus, adding to Australia’s population.

That situation makes the politics behind the debate more complex.  Officially, the compromise proposed by the government is to highlight the importance of skilled immigration.  Yet, despite that, recent immigration policy has actually made it more difficult to admit skilled immigrants, at least under visas.  The number of skilled professions eligible for visas has been significantly decreased and an updated test for incoming migrants has made English levels, skills qualifications and work experience requirements more stringent.  Both of these impact the numbers of skilled immigrants for business and higher education.  And yet, even those skilled migrants that do arrive with education and training matching or exceeding most native Australians, their skills are being wasted.  Social barriers, like lack of specifically Australian experience, lack of recognition for non-Australian qualifications, or language difficulties, force many “skilled” migrants into low- or medium-skilled occupations.

Moreover, a Telegraph article mentions how most Australians are inundated with news reports about illegal immigrants, “boat people” and detention centers.  This contributes to a belief that illegal immigration is responsible for “overcrowding.”  Although clearly a contentions aspect of Australian immigration, it does not actually have any significant bearing on population growth.  The permanent flow of humanitarian migrants only amounts to 14,000 people, compared to 114,000 for skilled permanent migrants.  Moreover, only 3,000 of those humanitarian migrants are admitted as refugees or asylum-seekers once they reach Australian shores.  Most “boat people” await deportation in detention centers throughout Australia and the Oceania region.

All of this is beyond the concern of many Australians who are worried over the increased the pressures on the existing urban centers with rising housing costs and congestion.  It is these average Australians that pressure the government by polling their opposition to population growth (i.e. immigration).  Since most Australians are located in the densely urbanized East, they form a significant bloc of voters that oppose immigration because of their experience or perception of its ills.  It is eastern Australians that want sustainable population growth and resultantly stifle economic growth for western mining and the international education sector.  The ironies of Australian immigration are found at the intersection of economic growth and environmental sustainability; and they offer no path to please all sides.

Geography Directions: East Side Gallery and the Contested Geographies of Graffiti

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.

Following on from Fiona’s entry today (below) about a flâneur’s encounter with graffiti in Toulouse, I was struck by one of this week’s news stories [Guardian May 3, 2011 and May 4, 2011].  Tensions over the East Side Gallery – a series of graffiti based images on a particular stretch of the Berlin Wall – have triggered long-standing debates about the role of graffiti/public art in cities.  The Gallery was originally created after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to bring together (unpaid) artists from East and West Germany in a creative project.  Controversially, a number of pieces have been whitewashed and overlaid with copied images in a recent renovation, described by one commentator as a “faked-up’ pastiche of itself…a Disneyesque, postmodern reconstruction of the art of the Wall designed to please tourists”.  A number of the original artists are now suing the city council over issues of copyright and the reproduction of images without the artists’ permission.

These ethical and legal issues over the display and ownership of graffiti, in this case embroiled with political symbolism and significance, highlights a broader set of complex geographies that interweave ideas of creativity, art, public space, urbanism and place-making.  In the context of this news story, McAuliffe and Iveson’s article in Geography Compass (see Fiona’s entry) also offers valuable insight into the tensions surrounding graffiti, which they describe as “a modern touchstone of urban discontent, a global popular culture phenomena that drives urban managers to distraction” (2011: 128).  In providing a critical review of the literature, they aim to uncover the complexity of graffiti’s dynamic and contested geographies and explore the tensions surrounding public graffiti, which are so clearly demonstrated in the ongoing debates surrounding the East Side Gallery.

By Sarah Mills

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

 

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