Doing Geography
- What is geography?
Geography is the science of space and place on earths surface.
- What does geography do?
It is an integrative discipline that brings together the physical and
human dimensions of the world in the study of people, places, and
environments. Its subject matter is earths surface and the processes that
shape it, the relationships between people and environments, and the
connections between people and places.
- How do we do geography?
Geography is not a collection of arcane information. Rather, it is the
study of the spatial aspects of human existence. People everywhere need to
know about the nature of their world and their place in it. Geography has
much more to do with asking questions and solving problems than it does
with rote memorization of isolated facts.
- What is the value of geography?
The power and beauty of geography allow us to see, understand, and
appreciate the web of relationships between people, places, and environments.
- Geography at the local level . . .
At the everyday level, for example, a geographically informed person can
appreciate the location dynamics of street vendors and pedestrian traffic
or fast-food outlets and automobile traffic; the routing strategies of
school buses in urban areas and of backpackers in wilderness areas;
the land-use strategies of farmers and of real estate developers.
- Geography at the regional level . . .
At a more extended spatial scale, that same person can appreciate the
dynamic links between severe storms and property damage or between summer
thunderstorms and flash floods; the use of irrigation systems to compensate
for lack of precipitation or the connections between temperature inversions
and urban air pollution episodes; the seasonal movement of migrant laborers
in search of work and of vacationers in search of sunshine and warmth.
- Geography at the global level . . .
At a global level, the geographically informed person can appreciate the
connections between cyclical drought and human starvation in the Sahel or
between the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the long-term consequences to
human health and economic activities throughout eastern and northwestern
Europe; the restructuring of human migration and trade patterns as the
European Union becomes increasingly integrated or as the Pacific Rim
nations develop a commonality of economic and political interests; and
the uncertainties associated with the possible effects of global warming
on human society or the destruction of tropical rain forests on global
climate.
To the Geography Education Program.
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©1996 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
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