Geography Education

According to a study published in the June 2003 issue of "Conservation Biology," there are 561 known butterfly species in the U.S. and Canada.

"Not only are these insects beautiful, they're important pollinators and vital to the health of their natural habitats. You can encourage these gentle creatures to visit your yard by using easy-to-make butterfly food and feeders."

Water scarcity's effect on food production means radical steps will be needed to feed population expected to reach 9bn by 2050...

This article represents a good example of neo-Malthusian ideas concerning population growth and food production.  The recent drought and subsequent food shortage/spike in global food prices has renewed interest in these ideas.

What did the Delta look like 200 years ago? See an interactive map of the historical habitat and present day landscape, as well as the old photos, maps and journals used by historical ecologists to answer that question.

This interactive module has over 20 different maps and perspectives to show both the physical and human geography of a particular environment.  As the delta's ecosystem has been failing, the importance of understanding the interconnections between people, places and our environment becomes all the more critical.

In the lush rainforests of Africa's Congo Basin, hundreds of thousands of indigenous people live as hunter gatherers, depending on the forest's natural resources for their survival.

The "Mapping for Rights" program trains people in the Congo to map the land they live on using GPS and other geospatial technologies.  This can assist the to produce documents to politically protect their land from encroachment and preserve their access to the forest.  Globalization can blur many of the modern/traditional narratives as the world becomes interconnected in complex ways.     

The cover package of this week's TIME—which should still be on newsstands—detailed the 10 ideas that are changing your life. What kind of ideas, you ask?

"Welcome to the Anthropocene. It’s a new geological epoch, one where the planet is shaped less by natural forces then by the combined activity, aspirations—and emissions—of more than 7 billion human beings."  Humanity's technological advancements and impact on the Earth's planetary systems is significant enough that many scientists agree that it has fundamental shifted the geologic paradigm. 

Methane from a landfill will flow to a power plant, helping to keep the lights on in the city.

When Mexico City’s government shut down the giant Bordo Poniente landfill last December, officials announced that they had a full-blown plan for the site...the city aims to capture the methane gas produced by the landfill to fuel a power plant that could supply electricity to as many as 35,000 homes. 

Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu.

This is a compelling analysis of the agricultural food system through the case-study of fish farms.  If we fish the seas like we clear-cut forests, the biodiversity of the world's waters will be seriously depleted.  That has been the economic model for fishing for hundreds of years and it is obviously not sustainable given the growing population and demand for fish.   However, not all "sustainable" fish farming businesses are equal, and this TED talk demonstrates some of the best practices to restructure the food industry for the best food and environmental results.

App-ly Yourself to Tackle Today's Scientific Challenges

In an impoverished country, elephant poaching is a quick way to make big money. A pair of poachers explain how they track and kill elephants in one of Africa's top game reserves.

The illegal sale of ivory in places such as Asia drive the elephant poachers to prey on Elephants in protected game reserves and national parks.  The Selous Game Reserve is larger than Switzerland and yet they only have 10 rangers to protect and patrol the wildlife. 

Tags: biogeography, poverty, globalization, Africa, consumption, resources, ecology, podcast.

Our modern society depends on greater connectivity between places.  Regionalized economies, politics and transportation networks are increasingly integrated with far-flung places now more than ever before.  Our biosphere and natural environments are exceptions to this pattern.  Wilderness areas are 'islands' in an ocean of human controlled environments.   We create transportation linkages that unite people economies and cities, but separate herds from there extended habitat. 

We've all seen road kill on major highways.  Species like deer, elk, and grizzly bears and other large-bodied animals need a wide range for numerous ecological reasons.  These bridges are an attempt to ameliorate some of the problems that our roads pose for the non-human species that still call Earth home.  From a purely economic standpoint, many argue that these bridges save society money given the accidents and property damage that can be avoided. 

UPDATE: This is a hilarious/painful video of a woman who clearly doesn't understand these principles.

Tags: biogeography, transportation, environment, land use, sustainability, environment adapt.

By bringing together all types of information about species distributions, providing model-based integration, and providing a system for users to build upon our knowledge, the Map of Life project hopes to support our community in understanding and...

This site stores an online database of the spatial distribution of over 25,000 species, and with GIS layer tools, allows users to map biogeographical patterns.  If you want to teach geography in collaboration with a biology project, this is the perfect tool.  For a press release about the project funded by Yale, UC Boulder, NASA, WWF and others, see: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/filling-in-the-blanks-on-a-map-of-life/ ;

Venice, by virtue of its geographic situation will always be sinking as a course of nature.  A research team from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the UCSD has recently concluded that Venice is sinking 2 millimeters per year...not catastrophic on a single year basis, but threatens the long-term viability and sustainability of the location. 

Urban ecology: what economic forces created the rationale for building Venice?  What environmental factors are currently threatening it?  Will economic or environmental forces win out? Location: do the economic advantages of a location outweigh the environmental liabilities of the location?  How do these competing factors influence the development of a city?  For additional information on this story see: http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-venice-hasnt.html

The insect is so large — as big as a human hand — it's been dubbed a "tree lobster." It was thought to be extinct, but some enterprising entomologists scoured a barren hunk of rock in the middle of the ocean and found surviving Lord Howe Island...

Island Biogeography is endlessly fascinating and provides some of the most striking species we have on Earth.  The physical habitat is fragmented and the genetic diversity is limited.  Within this context, species evolve to fill ecological niches within their particular locale.  This NPR article demonstrates the story of but one of these incredible species that never could have evolved on the continents.  In modern society, more extinctions are happening on islands than anywhere else as 'specialist' species are in greater competition with 'generalists.'