Geography Directions: Urban Geography: a flâneur’s encounter with Graffiti in Toulouse

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.

Strolling through Toulouse at the weekend, I was seeking to observe and understand the city through the eyes of a flâneur.  Baudelaire describes a flâneur as “a person who walks the city in order to experience it”; a concept not dissimilar from the methodological practice of participant observation.  Flâneur comes from the French verb flâner meaning “to stroll”, so it seemed an appropriate means of engaging with Toulouse on a Sunday afternoon.

During my exploration, I stopped to observe displays of graffiti across the city’s fabric, some of which are testimony to Toulouse’s thriving contemporary art scene.  The walls, ceilings and transport thoroughfares of the city have provided the canvas for famous graffiti artists, such as Miss Van who also exhibits her work internationally in galleries (see, Miss Van).  Her career has influenced many other Toulousians and the city hosts a range of galleries to showcase the latest work (Fatcap, 2011).

Urban graffiti is the subject of McAuliffe and Iveson’s (2011) article in Geography Compass.  They acknowledge diverse perspectives on graffiti, between expressions of art and forms of crime, and argue that this complex terrain provides a lens through which to understand contested urban geographies.  Their paper argues that the presence (and absence) of graffiti might be understood through multiple analytical frameworks, partly seeking to capture multiple subjectivities inherent in these displays.

Subsequently, in attempting to conceptualise myself as a flâneur, McAuliffe and Iveson persuade me that I may learn a lot about Toulouse and some of its inhabitants just through looking more closely at its rich geography of graffiti.

By Fiona Ferbrache

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

 

Concept Caching: Alice Springs, 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.

"My most vivid memory from my first visit to Alice Springs is spotting vineyards and a winery in this parched, desert environment as the plane approached the airport. I asked a taxi driver to take me there, and got a lesson in economic geography." (c)H. J. de Blij

Australia is a land of striking contrasts, especially in regards to human-environment patterns.  As the post, The Ironies of Australian Immigration describes, there is an inherent tension between growing populations, sprawling settlements and the economic activities that must sustain them.  This image of Alice Springs speaks to that tension.  This city is located in the heart of the Australian Outback, an incredibly vast arid landscape.  It seems as if its environmental context both economically supports the city and keeps its growth in check.  The city services its historically dominant pastoral and mining sectors, while also incorporating a significant tourist industry.

 

The Ironies of Australian Immigration: Part One

Australia is very well known for its history as a nation of immigrants, from its start as a British penal colony to its contemporary diverse immigrant society.  As with much of the developed world, Australia is a significant destination for immigrants.  Its arrivals come from the regions of Oceania, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Southwest Asia.  The demands of an immigrant destination are particularly acute for Australia.  The island continent’s predominantly arid climate has placed somewhat of a limit on population and settlement.  Its citizens are unevenly distribution over its vast land mass, and they are concentrated in the cities of its temperate coastal areas.  Any growth in its population certainly means further stresses on the fragile environment.  However, population growth, including immigration, has long been a driver of economic growth, in Australia and elsewhere.  Many have argued that immigration is necessary to sustain the growth required in a developed world society.  For Australia, it is this quandary between environment and economy, that immigration policy is currently being debated.  Focused on a proposed policy called “Big Australia,” the question is whether to increase or decrease current immigration flows.  The debate over this policy is especially relevant to geographers because of its spatial considerations:  the human-environment aspect and the discourse of sustainability; the socio-economic consequences of an immigration policy where not all migrants are created equal; and the politics behind Australian decision-making on immigration that stems from existing geographies.

First it is important to understand Australia’s current demographic situation.  According to an article in the Economist, Australia’s population will grow almost two-thirds to 36 million by 2050.  An article from the Sydney Morning Herald explains how most of this growth has not come from natural increase, but from immigration, accounting for 65% of population growth in the last 10 years.  Australia’s fertility rate, providing the births as one half of the natural increase rate, is a modestly high 1.9 births per woman; yet, it is still below the replacement level of 2.1 births.  So, as with other developed countries, Australia’s native population is also getting older.  The Economist article states that the number of Australians between the ages of 65 and 84 will double and those over 85 will quadruple, also in the next 40 years.  This will increase the country’s dependency ratio, which is the number of persons not of working age for each person of working age.  The dependency ratio has significant social and economic implications for a society.  Ultimately, Australia’s current population growth is already faster than most developed countries, due to immigration.  And, it will also be facing a difficult future with an ageing population that will disproportionately consume social services without contributing to the tax base that pays for them.

The first issue, however, behind “Big Australia” is that of environmental sustainability.  This vast landmass is dominated by an arid climate, where rainfall and vegetation is scarce.  Such a landscape has a limited carrying capacity and simply cannot support agriculture or settlement on the scale of Australia’s population growth.  Fresh water supplies are being exhausted and biodiversity is under threat. Already, Australian population is over 80 percent urban and densely clustered along the temperate eastern coastlines.  Allowing more migrants would mean adding more people to a landscape that is at its settlement threshold.  Suburban sprawl is already creeping out of eastern Australia’s urban centers. This even adds to climate change concerns, as these urban “heat islands” are also congested with people and cars.  It is this line of reasoning behind the current Prime Minister’s slowing of immigration in the interest of sustainability.

The biggest critic of the limiting immigration in favor of sustainability is the business sector, in particular the property development industry.  A lobbyist for the property sector interviewed in a BBC report points to the “Big” in “Big Australia,” with spatial rhetoric: the size of Australia versus the size of Australian cities; using space more efficiently; and there being “room for growth.” Ultimately, he argues that growth, historically and today, has a direct relationship with immigration: the larger the immigration, the faster the economic growth.  However, it must be said that it is property corporations that would stand to gain the most if there were more people and business demanding “room” in a growing Australia.

Stay tuned for the next Part of “The Ironies of Australian Immigration”, which will discuss more issues in Australian immigration policy.

Concept Caching: Istiqlal Mosque–Jakarta, Indonesia

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.

 

Many students do not firstly associate Southeast Asia with Islam, nor do they imagine that the region includes some of the world’s relatively stable (in the regard that they have not been overturned) Islamic governments.  Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population within the structures of an Islamist state.  The image of the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta holds testament to the extent of Islam within Indonesia’s capital city.   As students discover further, these Islamic states are not populated entirely by Muslims, but include a great degree of religious diversity.  This diversity has not coexisted without tension and violence, as discussed in the post, Religion and Society in Southeast Asia.  For the past few decades, there have been periodic outbreaks of violence within Southeast Asia’s religiously diverse society.  Reports of violence between Muslims and Christians seem to be a dominant theme; however, there are also tensions between Islamic groups and sects and between various cultural/ethnic groups within the same religion (both as evidence in Malaysia).  The cultural politics of religion exists at the national level as ambivalent policy and enforcement.  Yet, it is at the local level that groups fight over the religious character of urban spaces and suburban neighborhoods, in places like Jakarta and throughout the region.

Religion and Society in Southeast Asia

Political Islam is a term that refers specifically to the formation of an Islamic state, one in which religion ultimately provides the context for political institutions and social lives.  Political Islam is most associated in popular discourse with extremism, and even terrorism, in Southwest Asia and North Africa region.  However, the link between extremist Islam and political Islam is specious, just as the link between Southwest Asia and North Africa is myopic.  Islamist states are also found in Southeast Asia, with the two most significant Islamist states being Malaysia and Indonesia.  In fact, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world as of 2009.  It will be left to scholars and analysts to argue the merits or evils of political Islam as opposed to more secular Muslim states.  As geographers we can impartially investigate the interconnections between culture/religion, politics and society in the Southeast Asian region, especially within these Islamist states.  An interesting, although troubling, trend is the future of religious diversity in the Islamic states of Southeast Asia.  Both Indonesia and Malaysia are majority Muslim, but certainly not exclusively Muslim.  Each country has varying size populations of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and animists.  The interaction between the various religious groups and the Islamic governments provides an interesting case for social politics in the region, and for other Muslim societies beyond.

An article for the International Relations and Security Network describes how both Indonesia and Malaysia have had similar histories marked by colonial domination, violent independence, and repressive dictators.  Throughout the years, Islam was either restricted or exploited by the various powers or governments.  In particular, it was the post-independence periods that saw Islamic social and political organizations become selectively integrated by dictators into secular states.  In both countries, Islam was used for political gain in ‘divide and rule’ approaches: in Indonesia, the “New Order” rule of Suharto fragmented Islamic groups into alliances to bolster his control; in Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad intertwined being Muslim exclusively with the majority Malay ethnic group, politically privileging that group over Chinese and Indian ethnicities as well as over other religious groups as well.  It is this context in which struggles over religious freedom are waged within both of these Southeast Asian countries.

In Indonesia, there have been significant clashes between Muslims and Christian groups since the end of the New Order government and the democratization of politics in the 1990s.  Although the democratic constitution guarantees religious freedom, the Islamic government has not decisively intervened on behalf of Christians or other ostracized groups in the face of “hard-line” or “vigilante” Islamic groups.  Groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) have been targeting Christian congregations in the sprawling suburbs around Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta.  Behind all of these clashes are battles over place.  At the national scale, the FPI warns of the “Christianization” of Indonesia, as “Christians are up to something.” Vigilantism takes place at the local level, as FPI and other “hard-liners” target neighborhood congregations claiming the “Christianization” of their neighborhoods by Christian proselytization or the building of churches.  One protestant congregation was attacked and two of its leaders stabbed and beaten.  The group was forced to hold services in an empty lot despite “warning signs” posted by Muslim residents.

In Malaysia, there have also been clashes between the Muslim majority and minority Christian groups.  In particular was the cultural clash over the use of the word “Allah” to refer to the Christian god in a Malaysian language bible.  There was ambivalence within the government as it initially banned the use of the word, yet its ruling was overturned by the court.  The conflict did materialize into actual hostilities as Christian churches were vandalized or burned, and pig heads left at two mosques in retaliation.  The conflict over a single word illustrates the depth of racial politics, as the Malay ethnicity and language are conflated with the Muslim faith in state politics.  Further, Malaysian religious freedom also does not apply to all Muslim sects within the country.  Since 1996, the Shiite sect of Islam was definitively banned by the Malaysian government.  The sect is viewed by the government as a “threat to Muslim unity in Malaysia” and “could give rise to fanatics as it permits the killing of Muslims from other sects,” even going as far as directly linking it to the majority Shiite state of Iran.  A raid on a Shiite hauzar, or “house of knowledge,” was slanted by the media as an “anti-terror operation,” although the police were not involved in the raid.  The detention of Shiites from the raid is being appealed to the Malaysian Human Rights Commission, an advisory body to the government.  It will be unclear how the Commission will advise a government which already seems convinced that the Shiites are a national threat.

The complexities of political Islam in Southeast Asia are found from the national scale through to the local scale.  The seeming incongruity of the religious diversity of Southeast Asian societies is set within the social and philosophical control of the government by one religion.  Tensions within countries like Indonesia and Malaysia are experienced by people on the ground, as they struggle with one another and as they interact with the government at large.  Tensions are also existent in the political mores established by Southeast Asian governments, as constitutional or ‘human’ rights, which are transgressed or unsupported by various governmental institutions and agencies.

Daylight Saving Time: Why it took nearly two weeks for this post

There are many things in life that our students often taken for granted; they accept without understanding, or just asking “Why?”  It is in our Geography courses that we can inspire students to think critically and consider options thoughtfully.  Daylight saving time (DST) is of these ubiquitous, yet unquestioned practices.  DST is an unwelcome change for many; literally, a loss of our most important asset.  The adjustment is more difficult for all those who are not morning people, and is compounded for those with small children and others with sensitive body clocks.  While we are forced to adjust, not many of us question why we have to set our clocks forward anyway.  A recent National Geographic article has provided some interesting DST background to aid our understanding.  DST has inherently spatial relationships that engage our individual and societal dependence on the rhythms of the Earth-Sun relationship.  Studying this method reveals underlying geographies in its implementation, execution and implications.  More importantly, however, studying DST has also helped to understand why this post took two weeks to complete.

The creation of DST schemes was centered on saving valued resources.  These resources, like today, were the energy commodities essential to productivity, allowing people to work after dark and indoors.  The National Geographic article sites a book by David Prerau, Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time, that tells the stories of DST.  It was the need for war-time conservation of coal that actually saw DST implemented during World War I, again in World War II, and again during the Oil Embargo of 1973-4.  In 2007, a U.S. energy bill was implemented starting DST earlier and ending it later, adding an extra month to DST.  The same arguments about energy saving were reiterated.  Other benefits were also claimed, like reduced crime and traffic fatalities, and increased productivity, recreation and “smiles.”

Beyond states of emergency, DST has not been mandatory, with U.S. states like Arizona and Hawaii choosing not to observe it.  Such optional geographies of DST provide an unexpected opportunity for studying the cost-benefit of DST schemes.  A study of three different Australian states’ power-use data during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games found that ultimately any power-saving was cancelled out as energy demand in the mornings cancelled out any savings from the evenings.  A U.S. study in Indiana had similar findings, which saw that energy-consumption from not just lighting, but also air conditioning contributed to increased afternoon demand.  The study found that consumers’ electric bills were actually higher during DST, as people used their air conditioners more during the warmer spring and summer evenings.  Yet, the spatial analysis of DST seems to also offer evidence to the contrary.  Another study of the entire U.S., commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, shows that at the national scale there were small reductions in overall energy consumption, which still added up to significant energy savings.  The study also found that DST had uneven benefits.  For example, California benefits the most from DST because of its mild weather, not requiring year ‘round climate control appliances.  Northern states also benefit more during DST months relative to Southern states because they do not necessarily need as much air conditioning, which is a major energy consumer.  These studies reveal some of the flaws within such standardized time schemes.

The National Geographic article also describes some of the interesting connections to DST and lifestyles.  As mentioned in the 2007 energy bill, one group argues that the daylight shuffling in DST encourages lifestyles that are more active.  A study mentioned in the article does support that view; during DST people were more likely to include more active outdoor activities, rather than more languid indoor activities.  However, a “chronobiologist” argues that our body clocks never adjust to DST.  A result of that is decreased productivity, increased susceptibility to illness and being frequently tired, all symptoms of “social jet lag.”  He argues that the shift in daylight toward the evening only serves to delay the body clock, affecting sleep schedules and leading to overtiredness.  This overtiredness could also have more serious consequences.  A 2008 Swedish study showed that the risk of heart attack actually increased following the switch to DST.  The study’s author found the most likely explanation for the findings were again related to body clocks and sleep rhythm.

In the end, DST works for some and not for others.  Body clocks or sundials, it is nearly impossible to standardize savings uniformly, whether they are of day light or of resources.  However, to this author, DST is now a fitting seasonal scapegoat for procrastination or listlessness.

 

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.

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