The geography editor of "Good Morning America" looks at how geography will influence the future.

"I cannot imagine a better guide to the transition between school and undergraduate geography than this short, informative and confidently-argued book. Written without fuss but based on solid learning and clear thinking, it tackles head-on a question many professional academic geographers would rather avoid." - Alisdair Rogers, University of Oxford "A beautiful little book that helps to introduce the core concepts of geography and provides an ideal framework for relating other fields of knowledge and academia." - Stefan Zimmermann, University of Osnabruck What is Geography? Geography is a fundamental fascination with, and a crucial method for, understanding the way the world works. This text offers readers a short and highly accessible account of the ideas and concepts constituting geography. Drawing out the key themes that define the subject, What is Geography? demonstrates how and why these themes - like environment and geopolitics- are of fundamental importance. Including discussion of both the human and the natural realms, the text looks at key themes like environment, space, and place - as well as geography′s methods and the history of the discipline. Introductory but not simplified, What is Geography? will provide students with the ability to understand the history and context of the subject without any prior knowledge. Designed as a key transitional text for students entering undergraduate courses, this book will be of interest to all readers interested in and intrigued by the "geographical imagination".

Geography is a component of Encyclopedia of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Geographical perceptions can be traced from very ancient cultures, although geography as a science started its development during the eighteen century, it was firmly established after the Darwinian revolution and many of its fundamentals appeared during the nineteenth century. The history of geography is closely connected with the history of human society Geography embraces both the physical and human worlds, and aims to bridge natural and human sciences. For a geographer, although the environment and its conservation is a crucial item, it is also fundamentally concerned with the living standards of humankind. Although its wide embrace may be seen as a weakness, diversification is also strength and an attraction. Approaches are multidisciplinary, exploring the complex linkages between the cultural and the natural. These favor cross-cultural communication and mutual understanding at a global scale. There is a geographical basis to most of the outstanding political problems, and geographical reasons to explain them. The subject matter of the geography theme is presented basically on how the subject matter is taught presently at the universities, and following the many paths its practitioners are following in doing research. It introduces modern subject matters and goes much further than a simple description of places and travels. The theme has been divided into four main topics: Foundations, Physical Geography, Human Geography, and Technical matters. The scope of the foundation topic is to present an overview of the basis of the geographical field, its scope, history, methods, and its importance in education. The chapters included are Main Stages of the Development, Theory and Methods, and Geographical Education. The Physical Geography topic includes the historical background of the geographical study of the Earth natural environment, and the main fields cultivated by geographers. It consists of eight chapters on basic research fields, which are Geomorphology, Climatology, Hydrology, Biogeography, Soil Geography, Coastal Systems, Ocean Geography, Mountain Geoecology, and two chapters on environmental issues: Natural Hazards and Land Degradation and Desertification. In the Human Geography topic six chapters discuss the more current fields, that is: Population, Cultural and Social, Agricultural and Rural, Industries and Transport, Economic Activities and Urban Geography. Three chapters present subjects developed more recently: Medical, Political and Tourism geographies. Finally, the Regional approach is presented as the most traditional and integrative field. These volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

The world is not as mobile or as interconnected as we like to think. As Harm de Blij argues in The Power of Place, in crucial ways--from the uneven distribution of natural resources to the unequal availability of opportunity--geography continues to hold billions of people in its grip. We are all born into natural and cultural environments that shape what we become, individually and collectively. From our "mother tongue" to our father's faith, from medical risks to natural hazards, where we start our journey has much to do with our destiny. Hundreds of millions of farmers in the river basins of Asia and Africa, and tens of millions of shepherds in isolated mountain valleys from the Andes to Kashmir, all live their lives much as their distant ancestors did, remote from the forces of globalization. Incorporating a series of persuasive maps, De Blij describes the tremendously varied environments across the planet and shows how migrations between them are comparatively rare. De Blij also looks at the ways we are redefining place so as to make its power even more potent than it has been, with troubling implications.