Geography For Dummies. Jerry T. Mitchell

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Introduction

      Has there been a better teacher of geography than COVID-19? I don’t mean that as a joke. That deadly serious disease showed how interconnected our world has become. Within a matter of months, people worldwide were exposed to something that they could not see that up-ended everything else that they could.

      I was in Sweden in March 2020 when the world was shut down. I was traveling with colleagues to several universities to explore partnerships, discuss joint research opportunities, and so on. Being in charge of 14 other people is a challenge by itself, but managing them after being forced home by one’s government as airlines cancel flights is quite another. Gothenburg to Charlotte via Frankfort was the original plan. Then Frankfort fell out. Agents suggested routes home via Brazil (!) and then Canada. Finally, an option opened through Brussels, but a stop in Washington D.C. was necessary as the government declared only a few airports could accept international travelers. How we organize travel networks across space — and what can happen when links within them fail — is of crucial geographic importance, as you can see.

      Later we learned of the intricacy of spatial business connections as supply chains were stressed, and then political scale (who is responsible for public health decisions? The state or federal government?), and then spatial ethics as well-off countries secured vaccine supplies in numbers far greater than their poorer neighbors. COVID-19 laid bare how understanding where, why there, and why should I care — the essence of geographic thinking — is paramount in living on 21st century Earth.

      Even at its worst — such as in the middle of a global pandemic — Earth is a very fascinating place. The purpose of geography is to convey the wonderment of it all and to explain how the world works. In this book I emphasize the interactions between the various things that characterize Earth’s physical and human features and how they relate to everyday life.

      Hopefully, the chapters that follow will instill in you some measure of the excitement I have for understanding our home, and whet your appetite for more.

About This Book

      Introductory books on geography generally come in two varieties. This one takes a topical approach to the subject. That means the chapters focus on topics of interest to geography, such as maps, climate, population, and culture. I wanted this book to focus on the key concepts of geography and introduce you to a wide range of geographic information. Basically, I thought those goals could best be achieved by taking a topical approach.

      The alternative was to take a regional approach to geography, which is like a world tour. You know what I mean, right? Chapter 4: Europe. Chapter 5: Africa. And so forth. In all candor, I didn’t think I could give you a decent world tour in the allotted pages. Besides, books like that are already on the market, so why reinvent the wheel?

      More importantly, I wanted Geography For Dummies to emphasize geography rather than the world per se. That may cause you to say, “Wait a minute! Isn’t geography all about the world?” The answer is yes, but in a larger sense, geography is about a whole lot more. Specifically, it’s about concepts and processes and connections between things, plus maps and tools and perspectives that combine individual “world facts” and give you big pictures that are so much more meaningful than their myriad components.

      Parenthetically, there’s a curious thing about those geography-as-world-tour books. They all seem to start by telling you geography is so much more than facts about the world, and then spend 350 pages telling you facts about the world.

Foolish Assumptions

      I’m going to assume that you are an average person who is curious about the world but who just happens to have a limited background in geography. And I firmly believe “average” means intelligent, so nothing is out of bounds because of the gray stuff between your ears. Instead, in my view, you are completely capable of digesting the stuff of geography. You may be 14, or 44, or 84. It doesn’t matter. As far as I am concerned, you’re ready for prime-time geography. Please understand I’m not talking wimpy stuff like “What’s the capital of Nevada?” No way. I’m talking big league stuff like how you can have a rainforest on one side of a mountain range and a desert on the other; or how to choose a good location for a wind farm; or how ocean currents help to determine the geography of climates.

I’m also going to assume that, generally speaking, you know your way around the world. Thus, when you see terms like Pacific Ocean, Nile River, Europe, or Japan, some kind of mental map pops up inside your head and allows you to “see” where they are located. On the other hand, when you meet up with terms like Burkina Faso or Myanmar, you may need some outside help. For that reason, it will be helpful to have an atlas or online reference handy.

      Finally, if this book were a beer, then I’m assuming you went to your bookstore to pick up some Geography Lite. That is, you want the real thing, but figure you don’t need all the calories. One of my goals is to make this book a painless — and indeed a pleasurable — experience. A lite-hearted read, if you will, that also communicates some serious geography and leaves you with a well-rounded exposure to the subject. If that sounds about right, then I invite you to keep reading.

Icons Used in This Book

      From time to time you will encounter icons in the margin of the text. The purpose of these icons is to alert you to the presence of something that is comparatively noteworthy amidst the passing prose. That may be something I regard as particularly important, or something you may wish to take your time to think about, or something you may wish to skip. In any event, here are the icons and their meanings.

      

This icon identifies a major concept or helps to make sense of something. Likewise, you will sometimes come across a sentence or phrase that captures the essence of a principle or the theme of a chapter or of the entire book. Those kinds of tidbits are especially worth remembering and are identified by this icon. If you take away from this book only the information flagged with this icon, you’ll have the basics of geography in your pocket.

      

Like many subjects, geography contains some specialized and perhaps arcane vocabulary terms that cause normal, well-adjusted people like you to scratch their heads. I could bypass this geo-jargon altogether, but then you really wouldn’t be discovering more about geography, would you? In addition, geography involves elements of math, science, technology, ecology, modeling, and other technical stuff. Some will show up in this book because they are relevant to a well-rounded geographic education even at this introductory level. I do appreciate, however, that some people may find these a bit too complicated, so this icon alerts you to the presence of such technical stuff. You can skip it if you wish.

Some aspects of geography are a little involved, so it’s always nice to encounter information that helps you simplify a process or make things easier to comprehend. Those are the kinds of items this icon pinpoints.

Beyond the Book

      In