Category: Geographic research and news
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Climate and human migration
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What does climate change mean for human migration? Will the world be overrun with climate refugees? Wilfrid Laurier University geographer Robert McLeman, the author of the recent book Climate and Human Migration, provides an interesting interview in the weekly news magazine Maclean’s. “People are already on the move, in the same way they’ve always responded…
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Earth wind map
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You may remember this very cool map of real-time winds over the U.S. Now here is the same idea for the entire earth. (Click on the word “Earth” to see a legend and change values.) Brrr. Just look at that Arctic air traveling over Minnesota!
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Mining the Moon
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Last month a Nevada-based company filed a request with the U.S. government to gain rights to eventually mine the moon. The moon could be source of platinum, titanium, and other rare earth materials. Read more at this National Geographic Daily News article.
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Student Debt: Where in the U.S. is it Highest and Lowest?
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A recent report by the Institute for College Access and Success provides information on student debt, including data on student debt by state and region. Nationwide, both the amount of student debt and the percentage of students graduating with debt are increasing. In 2013, 71 percent of graduates had debt and the average debt was…
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Why do the tropics have the highest biodiversity?
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A long-standing problem in biogeography is to explain the gradient of biodiversity that decreases as latitude increases. Why do the tropics have the world’s greatest biodiversity while polar, Arctic, and Antarctic biomes have lower species diversity? A recent study of mammalian and avian biodiversity compared with weather and climate data, summarized here, suggests that “the…
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Global map of deforestation, 2000-2012
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Geographers working with Google cloud computing experts have released a new interactive map of forest losses and gains between 2000 and 2012.The map is created from Landsat satellite imagery. Humans are the main cause of forest lost, followed by fire, especially in temperate boreal forests. Nearly a third of deforestation occurred in the tropics, with…
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As Climate Warms American West, Iconic Trout In Jeopardy
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As readers might recall, I suffer from weather-mania, an affliction inherited from my father. However, I also suffer from trout-mania, an affliction equally inherited from my father that was born on the small streams of Franconia, Minnesota, and matured on the blue-ribbon streams of southwestern Montana. Today, the very trout that have brought me so…
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How the Los Angeles Aqueduct began
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A recent Los Angeles Post feature article provides a history of the L.A. Aqueduct and its visionary, colorful, water chief William Mulholland, celebrated as a hero in Los Angeles but vilified as a thief in California’s Owens Valley, from where the water is diverted.
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Guess the Scale: Macro or Micro?
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If you love the concept of scale as much as the next geographer, you should check out this Smithsonian website. It contains images collected at the macro scale by a geographer (using remote sensing) and at the micro scale by a herpetologist (using a microscope). Can you guess which are the macro images and which…
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Sri Lankan beach tourism: Sustainable development of the coastline
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When Sri Lanka’s internal conflict ended in 2009, miles of tropical beaches became ripe for international development and tourism. In this Al Jazeera opinion piece, Geographers William Moseley and Vinad Malwatte argue that tourism development in Sri Lanka must take into account local communities and environmental impacts. They critique current plans for large resort-style hotels…