Geography Directions: Permafrost, carbon and thermokarsts: the Arctic importance

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 Arctic covers 5% of the total land mass of the earth and reaches across every longitude: it is important. It is estimated that 1.4 times more carbon is stored in permafrost than is currently circulating in the atmosphere, and there is 1.5 times more carbon in permafrost than is currently being stored in all the earth’s vegetation. William Bowden (2010) outlines this in a Geography Compass article, and explains the relationships between permafrost, thermokarsts and climate change.

Permafrost is soil or rock which remains below 0^oC for at least 2-3 years at a time. When permafrost thaws it loses its internal structure and subsides unevenly, and the resulting formation is called thermokarst. The transition from permafrost to thermokarst has important hydrological, geomorphological, biogeochemical and ecological importance to arctic landscapes. Globally, this transition may also release the stored carbon which, due to microbial processes, may be released as carbon dioxide or methane.

In April, a special edition on climate change was published by the journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. It outlined key research questions required to better understand the impact of greenhouse gases on climate change. The arctic was prominently featured, and in particular the concern over permafrost melt and potential methane release. Scientists seem to agree that research is needed to understand the transitional process from permafrost to thermokarsts and the possible implications on the global climate.

By Caitlin Douglas

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

 

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.

 

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.

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