Geography For Dummies

Jerry T. Mitchell, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina and an avid world traveler.

• Introduction 1About This Book 2Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 3Beyond the Book 4Where to Go from Here 4Part 1: Getting Grounded: The Geographic Basics 5Chapter 1: Geography: The Why of Where and Why You Should Care 7Geography: Making Sense of it All 8From ancient roots 8To modern discipline 9Exposing Misconceptions: More Than Maps and Trivia 11The Geographic Advantage 11What is the capital city of Indonesia? 12Why is Jakarta the capital of Indonesia? 12Getting to the Essentials 13Where things are in the world: The world in spatial terms 14What locations are like: Places and regions 15Why things are the way they are: Physical systems 16Giving that human touch: Human systems 16Interacting with the world around us: Environment and society 17Putting geography to use: Uses of geography 18Chapter 2: Thinking Like a Geographer 19Changing the Way You Think — Geographically 20Case Study #1: Where Something is Located 21A fraction of its former self 22Where lions hang out 23What gives with grasslands? 23Extinction made easy 24Fewer lions? So what? 25Summing up 26Case Study #2: Where Something Should be Located 26Summing up 27Looking ahead 28Chapter 3: Lining Up Locations 29Welcome to Gridville 29Feeling Kind of Square 30Telling Someone Where to Go 31Relative location 31Absolute location 32The best location to use 32The Global Grid: Hip, Hip, Hipparchus! 32Avoiding gridlock 33The naming game 34Getting Lined Up 36Latitude 36Longitude 38Graticule 39Minutes and seconds that don’t tick away 40Chapter 4: Truthiness in Mapping 41Seeing the Light: Map Projections 42Realizing Exactly How Flat Maps Lie 44Singapore, please And step on it! 45Wading through lies in search of the truth 47Isn’t there a truthful map anywhere? 48The one and only honest map: The globe! 49Honesty is the best policy, except 49Telling the truth, but telling it skewed 50Different Strokes for Different Folks: A World of Projections 51All in the (map) family 52Five noteworthy liars 53Mapping a Cartographic Controversy! 57Chapter 5: Telling a Spatial Story 59Why We Need Tal(l) Dogs 60Taking It to Scale 61Going the distance 61Comparing Earth at different scales 62Showing the Ups and Downs: Topography 65Spot heights 65Contour lines 66Shading or Color 66Using Symbols to Tell the Story 67Point symbols 68Line symbols 68Area symbols 70New Ways of Seeing: How Technology has Changed How we Make and Use Maps 72Geographic Information Systems 72Global Positioning Systems 74Remote sensing 75Making Maps Yourself! 77Part 2: Let’s Get Physical: Land, Water, and Air 79Chapter 6: Shape-shifting Earth 81Starting at the Bottom: Inside Earth 82Moving Continents: Big Pieces of a Big Puzzle 84Where have you gone, Gondwanaland? 85Alfred Wegener, mover and shaker 85Puzzle solved! 86Getting Down to Theory 86Making Mountains Out of Molehills 88Folding the crust 88Whose “fault” is it? 90Plate tectonics: A four-letter word! 91Experiencing Earthquakes: Shake, Rattle and Roll! 92Splitsville in California 92People at risk 93How earthquakes kill and maim 94A matter of magnitude 96Subducting Plates: Volcano Makers 98“The Ring of Fire” 98Subduction: Another four-letter word? 99Categorizing Tectonic Processes 102Chapter 7: A Nip and a Tuck: Giving Earth a Facelift 103Getting Carried Away 104Weathering Earth 105Wasting away 108Changing the Landscape 109Staying grounded: Gravity transfer 109Going with the flow: Water 110The chill factor: Glaciers 115Making a deposit: Wind 117Chapter 8: Making a Splash on Earth 119Taking the Plunge: Global Water Supply 120Those ice caps are really cool! 121Getting out: Oceans, seas, gulfs, and bays 122Coming inland: Lakes 123Shaping Our World: Oceans 124Going where the action is: The continental shelves 124Claiming ocean ownership 126Getting a rise out of oceans 128Getting Fresh with Water 129The stages of the water cycle 131Run-off: Going with the flow 132Infiltration: Out of sight, not out of mind 132Good to the very last drop 134Chapter 9: Warming Up and Chilling Out: Why Climates Happen 137Getting a Grip on Climate 138Playing the Angles 139Making hot and cold 139Making rain and snow 140Tilt-a-World: The Reasons for the Seasons 141Special lines of latitude 141Defining the seasons 142Special lines of latitude revisited 144Hot or Cold? Adjust Your Altitude 145Warming the atmosphere 145Weighty matter 145Seeing (and feeling) is believing 145The lapse rate 146Windward slope, leeward slope 147Gaining Heat, Losing Heat 148Afternoon versus evening 148Summer versus winter 149Oh, How the Wind Blows 150Going with the Flow: Ocean Currents 150Warm currents, cold currents 151Going against the norm: El Niño and La Niña 152Living Under Pressure 154Pressure belts 155Monsoons 155Chapter 10: Connecting Climates and Vegetation 159Giving Class to Climates 160Mixing Sun and Rain: Humid Tropical Climates 162Tropical rainforest 163Tropical monsoon 165Savanna (tropical wet and dry) 165Going to Extremes: Dry Climates 167Desert 168Semi-desert (steppe) 169Enjoying the In-between: Humid Mesothermal Climates 172Humid subtropical 172Mediterranean 172Marine west coast 173Cooling Off: Humid Microthermal Climates 174Humid continental 175Subarctic 175Dropping Below Freezing: Polar Climates 176Tundra 176Ice cap 178Part 3: Peopling the Planet 179Chapter 11: Nobody Here But A Few Billion Friends 181Going by the Numbers 182Opportunity for livelihood 183Urban growth 185Going Ballistic: Population Growth 185Checking Behind the Curve: Population Change 187Dealing with births and deaths: Natural increase 187Increasing for a reason: The demographic transition model 189Making connections 193Considering “Overpopulation” 196Neo-Malthusians 197Cornucopians 199Chapter 12: Shift Happens: Migration 203Populating the Planet 204Bridging the oceans 204Voyaging afar 205Making colonial connections 206Forcing involuntary migration 207Choosing to Migrate 207Coming to America 208Migrating at home 210Relocating within America 211Giving a Good Impression 214Playing the mental game 214Getting an image adjustment 216Putting your best image forward 216Chapter 13: Culture: The Way We Live 219Being Different Thousands of Times Over 220Counting cultural diversity 221Isolating people 222Adapting to new surroundings 222Spreading the Word on Culture 223Relocating one’s culture 224Coming down with culture 224Doing what the big boys do 226Calling a Halt: Barrier Effects 226Getting physical 227Socializing effects 229Getting Religion: How It Moves and Grows 230Putting diffusion to work 231Getting effects into action 232Creating local character 232Getting in a Word about Language 234Diffusing languages 235Checking the physical effects 236Playing the landscape naming game 236Creating a Single Global Culture 237Promoting cultural divergence 238Promoting cultural convergence 238Chapter 14: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors 239Drawing and Re-Drawing the Boundaries of the World 240Typecasting Boundary Lines 241Ethnic boundaries 242Natural (physical) boundaries 243Geometric boundaries 244Living with the Consequences 245Ethnic intrigues 245Positional disputes 248Functional disputes 250Resource disputes 251Land-locked states 252Questions of size and shape 254Drawing Electoral District Boundaries 256Gerrymandering: Rigging the outcome 257Meeting the letter and spirit of the law 259Part 4: Putting the Planet to Use 261Chapter 15: Takin’ Care of Business 263Categorizing Economic Activity 264Primary activities 264Secondary activities 265Tertiary activities 265Quaternary activities 266Activity distribution around the world 266Putting Economic Systems into Place 267Subsistence economies 267Commercial economies 268Understanding Location Factors 269Proximity to raw material(s) 272Proximity to market(s) 272Cost of labor 274Accessibility 275Cost of land/rent 279Taxes 279Climate 280Chapter 16: Earth’s Resources: Always Hungry for More 283Defining Resources and Assessing Their Importance 284The central role of culture 284Culture change, resource change 285Resources and power 286Resources and wealth 287Differing Life Spans: Which Resources Are Here Today or Gone Tomorrow 288Non-renewable resources 289Renewable resources 294Perennial resources 295Trading-off Resources: The Consequences of Resource Use 298Chapter 17: Downtown to the ‘Burbs: Urban Geography 301Studying the Urban Scene 302Getting a Global Perspective 303Getting Started: Urban Hearths 305Finding Sites for Cities 306Confluence 307Protected harbor 307Head of navigation 308Defensive sites 308Getting Big: Urban Growth 309Rural-to-urban migration 309Changing means of transportation 310Automobile ownership 311Low-cost fuel 311Home mortgage deductibility 312Looking Inside the City 312The central business district (CBD) 313Residential areas 314Leaving Downtown, Living Downtown 317Moving out of downtown 317Moving back downtown 319Facing up to Environmental Issues 320Chapter 18: Only One Home: Impacts on the Environment 323Grasping the Basics — Environmentally Speaking 325Contributing Factors: Pollution on the Move 326Making an impact 326Spreading the mess 326Focusing on food chains 329Going Global: Environmental Issues Affecting Us All 332Deforestation 333Biodiversity loss 333Soil degradation 333Ocean acidification 334Overfishing 335Acid precipitation 335Climate change 339Taking on the Challenges of Tomorrow 342Part 5: The Part of Tens 343Chapter 19: Ten Organizations for Geography in Action 345American Association of Geographers (AAG) 345American Geographical Society (AGS) 346National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 346National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) 347National Geographic Society (NGS) 347National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 348Population Reference Bureau (PRB) 348Royal Geographical Society (RGS) 349United States Census Bureau 349United States Geological Survey (USGS) 350Chapter 20: Ten Interesting Career Paths for Geographers 351Area Specialist 351Educator 352Environmental Manager 352GIS Technician 353Health Services Planner 353Location Analyst 353Market Analyst 354Remote Sensing Analyst 354Transportation Planner 355Urban Planner 355Chapter 21: Ten Things You Can Forget 357The Bermuda Triangle 357Cold Canadian Air 358“Coming Out of Nowhere” 359“The Continent” 359The Democratic Republic of 360The Flat Earth Society 360Land of the Midnight Sun 361“The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly on the Plain” 361The Seven Seas 362Tropical Paradise 362Chapter 22: Ten Great Places for Online Geography 365Any County/Local GIS Department 365Geocaching 366Geoguessr 366Geoinquiries 367Google Earth 367Google Lit Trips 368Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection 368World Bank Open Data 369World Factbook 369Your State’s Geographic Alliance 369Index 371