Author: averslui
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“Overpopulation is not the problem”
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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…
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An island disappears from GoogleEarth
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Jura, a small island off the Atlantic coast of Scotland with a population less than 200, disappeared from GoogleEarth in early July 2013. Instead of showing the 144-square-mile island, GoogleEarth depicts Jura’s single road running through the ocean. The loss of the island is not due to sea level rise but a glitch in digital…
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West Lakes AAG Meeting
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Geography students at Gustavus may be interested in attending or presenting research at the regional Association of American Geographers (AAG) conference. The West Lakes Association of American Geographers will hold their 2013 meeting 17-19 October 2013 at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire campus, a 2.5-hour drive from Saint Peter, MN. Student registration is…
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Online cartography class enrolls nearly 30,000
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Geography Professor Anthony Robinson of Penn State is offering an online digital cartography course called Maps and the Geospatial Revolution. Nearly 30,000 have enrolled. Wired.com recently featured Dr. Robinson and his course in an interview here. Robinson says “I started my undergraduate education as an electrical engineering major. Then I just randomly took a human…
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Maps of the world’s urban bike share programs
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Many cities around the world have bike share programs. Here, the bike docking stations for 29 of these cities are mapped, all at the same scale. “The geographic footprint of a city’s bike-sharing system can reveal both the municipality’s level of commitment to transportation alternatives as well as the topography of the surrounding area,” writes…
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Congratulations, Graduates!
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Congratulations to the Gustavus Class of 2013, especially our 13 geography majors who graduated this spring! We will miss you. As you continue on life’s path, we wish you success, health, beauty, delight, and meaningful work and relationships. Here are some words of wisdom from Jim Wallis, the founder and president of Sojourners, to “make…
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Minneapolis parks rated top in the nation
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USA Today reports a study that ranks the Minneapolis city park system as the best in the nation. Click here for the full article, including a map of the best and worst city park systems in the U.S. Did you know that 94% of Minneapolis’ residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park? (By…
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Mental maps: Somali perceptions of the Twin Cities
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Here’s an interesting project on “Mental Maps: Gaining Insight Into the Diverse Somali Perceptions of Residential Desirability in the Twin Cities” by Fartun Dirie, a geography student at the University of St. Thomas. The text below is excerpted from a St. Thomas newsroom piece by Kelly Engebretson. “Last semester, Fartun Dirie, a junior geography major, got…
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Annual income of richest 100 people enough to end global poverty four times over, says Oxfam
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An Oxfam report, The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all, argues that while “a certain level of inequality may benefit growth by rewarding risk takers and innovation, the levels of inequality now being seen are in fact economically damaging and inefficient” as well as a threat to democracy, socially divisive,…
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St. Peter bridge: Second bridge over the Minnesota River
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According to a 26 May 2013 Mankato Free Press article by Nicollet County Historical Society Collections Manager Bob Sandeen, the Saint Peter bridge on Broadway Avenue, built in 1871, was only the second bridge to cross the Minnesota River. (The other bridge was a railroad bridge near Fort Snelling.) Prior to bridges, people relied on…