Geography Blog

Year: 2013

  • Monitoring environmental impact: The satellite revolution

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    averslui

    Here’s an article in the Washington Post that features SkyTruth, an organization that is using satellite technology to monitor environmental impacts of mining and other extractive industries. “This is the world we’ve built for ourselves — the modern world runs on hydrocarbons — but you have to wonder, floating in a little metal box thousands…

  • Drugs, Guns, and US Policies in Mexico

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    averslui

    Gustavus is proud to host human rights activist Francisco Cerezo in a talk presented by Witness for Peace of the Upper Midwest and sponsored by LALACS. What: “Drugs, Guns and U.S. Policies in Mexico” When: October 9 at 7 pm Where: Confer 127, Gustavus Adolphus College When Francisco Cerezo’s three brothers were arrested in Mexico for…

  • Why geographic knowledge is more important than ever

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    averslui

    Michigan State Geography Professor Kirk Goldsberry makes the case for the importance of geographic education and spatial thinking: “In its 375 years, Harvard has only ever eliminated one entire academic program. If you had to guess, what program do you think that was and when was it killed off? “The answer: Harvard eradicated its Geography…

  • Geography scholar Abdi Samatar to lecture on pirates

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    averslui

    University of Minnesota Professor of Geography Dr. Abdi Samatar will present a lecture titled “The Politics of Piracy in Somalia” at 7 p.m. Monday, October 7 in Wallenberg Auditorium, Nobel Hall, Gustavus Adolphus College. Dr. Samatar’s research focuses on the relationship between democracy and development in the Third World and Africa in particular. The lecture…

  • Welcome, Dr. Joaquín Villanueva

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    averslui

    By Mitch Nelson (’14), Geography and Economics Major Join in a welcome for the new Visiting Assistant Geography Professor, Dr. Joaquín Villanueva. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dr. Villanueva achieved his B.A. in French and Italian with a minor in Geography from the University of Puerto Rico.  During his time at the…

  • China signs deal to farm 5% of Ukraine

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    averslui

    Earlier this year, China signed a deal that will allow China to lease and farm 3 million hectares of agricultural land in Ukraine, or five percent of Ukraine. With fertile plains and a climate similar to the wheat-growing regions of Manitoba, Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain-producing countries. According to Mandy Zuo of…

  • Not your typical soil probe

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    averslui

    What happens when you ask a local farmer if you can take a soil sample from his field? He says he has something better than a soil probe: he has an excavator and he’ll dig you a 6-foot trench. So students in GEG-105 Physical Geography: Earth System Science this week were treated to a view…

  • Geography student completes GIS internship for engineering firm

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    averslui

    Geography and Environmental Studies major Meg Wika (’14) spent this past summer working for Barr Engineering in Minneapolis as a GIS intern. Her internship is currently being featured on the Gustavus homepage here.

  • “Overpopulation is not the problem”

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    averslui

    This recent op-ed piece in the New York Times by geographer and environmental scientist Erle Ellis sums up perfectly last week’s lesson in GEG/ENV-250 Nature & Society. Here’s an excerpt: “Unable to explain how [human] populations grew for millenniums while increasing the productivity of the same land, I discovered the agricultural economist Ester Boserup, the…

  • Welcome Geographers

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    rbergstr

    Welcome geographers and friends of geography to the 2013 academic year at Gustavus Adolphus College. The Department of Geography is proud to welcome back Anna Versluis as Department Co-Chair, Visiting Instructor Lencho Bati, Visiting Assistant Professor Ryan Bergstrom, Professors Emeriti Bob Douglas and Bob Moline, and Administrative Assistant Judy Helmeke.  We are especially excited to…