nature geography essay

Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments.

Earth Science, Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography

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Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it. They also examine how human culture interacts with the natural environment, and the way that locations and places can have an impact on people. Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time.

Ancient Geographers

The term "geography" was coined by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes in the third century B.C.E. In Greek, geo- means “earth” and -graphy means “to write.” Using geography, Eratosthenes and other Greeks developed an understanding of where their homeland was located in relation to other places, what their own and other places were like, and how people and environments were distributed. These concerns have been central to geography ever since.

Of course, the Greeks were not the only people interested in geography, nor were they the first. Throughout human history, most societies have sought to understand something about their place in the world, and the people and environments around them. Mesopotamian societies inscribed maps on clay tablets, some of which survive to this day. The earliest known attempt at mapping the world is a Babylonian clay tablet known as the Imago Mundi. This map, created in the sixth century B.C.E., is more of a metaphorical and spiritual representation of Babylonian society rather than an accurate depiction of geography. Other Mesopotamian maps were more practical, marking irrigation networks and landholdings.

Indigenous peoples around the world developed geographic ideas and practices long before Eratosthenes. For example, Polynesian navigators embarked on long-range sea voyages across the Pacific Islands as early as 3000 years ago. The people of the Marshall Islands used navigation charts made of natural materials (“stick charts”) to visualize and memorize currents, wind patterns, and island locations.

Indeed, mapmaking probably came even before writing in many places, but ancient Greek geographers were particularly influential. They developed very detailed maps of Greek city-states, including parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. More importantly, they also raised questions about how and why different human and natural patterns came into being on Earth’s surface, and why variations existed from place to place. The effort to answer these questions about patterns and distribution led them to figure out that the world was round, to calculate Earth’s circumference, and to develop explanations of everything from the seasonal flooding of the Nile to differences in population densities from place to place.

During the Middle Ages, geography ceased to be a major academic pursuit in Europe. Advances in geography were chiefly made by scientists of the Muslim world, based around the Middle East and North Africa. Geographers of this Islamic Golden Age created an early example of a rectangular map based on a grid, a map system that is still familiar today. Islamic scholars also applied their study of people and places to agriculture, determining which crops and livestock were most suited to specific habitats or environments.

In addition to the advances in the Middle East, the Chinese empire in Asia also contributed immensely to geography. Around 1000, Chinese navigators achieved one of the most important developments in the history of geography: They were the first to use the compass for navigational purposes. In the early 1400s, the explorer Zheng He embarked on seven voyages to the lands bordering the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, establishing China’s influence throughout Southeast Asia.

Age of Discovery

Through the 13th-century travels of the Italian explorer Marco Polo, European interest in spices from Asia grew. Acquiring spices from East Asian and Arab merchants was expensive, and a major land route for the European spice trade was lost with the conquering of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire. These and other economic factors, in addition to competition between Christian and Islamic societies, motivated European nations to send explorers in search of a sea route to China. This period of time between the 15th and 17th centuries is known in the West as the Age of Exploration or the Age of Discovery.

With the dawn of the Age of Discovery, the study of geography regained popularity in Europe. The invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s helped spread geographic knowledge by making maps and charts widely available. Improvements in shipbuilding and navigation facilitated more exploring, greatly improving the accuracy of maps and geographic information.

Greater geographic understanding allowed European powers to extend their global influence. During the Age of Discovery, European nations established colonies around the world. Improved transportation, communication, and navigational technology allowed countries such as the United Kingdom to establish colonies as far away as the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Africa. This was lucrative for European powers, but the Age of Discovery brought about nightmarish change for the people already living in the territories they colonized. When Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, millions of Indigenous peoples already lived there. By the 1600s, 90 percent of the Indigenous population of the Americas had been wiped out by violence and diseases brought over by European explorers.

Geography was not just a subject that enabled colonialism, however. It also helped people understand the planet on which they lived. Not surprisingly, geography became an important focus of study in schools and universities.

Geography also became an important part of other academic disciplines, such as chemistry, economics, and philosophy. In fact, every academic subject has some geographic connection. Chemists study where certain chemical elements, such as gold or silver, can be found. Economists examine which nations trade with other nations, and what resources are exchanged. Philosophers analyze the responsibility people have to take care of Earth.

Emergence of Modern Geography

Some people have trouble understanding the complete scope of the discipline of geography because geography is interdisciplinary, meaning that it is not defined by one particular topic. Instead, geography is concerned with many different topics—people, culture, politics, settlements, plants, landforms, and much more. Geography asks spatial questions—how and why things are distributed or arranged in particular ways on Earth’s surface. It looks at these different distributions and arrangements at many different scales. It also asks questions about how the interaction of different human and natural activities on Earth’s surface shape the characteristics of the world in which we live.

Geography seeks to understand where things are found and why they are present in those places; how things that are located in the same or distant places influence one another over time; and why places and the people who live in them develop and change in particular ways. Raising these questions is at the heart of the “ geographic perspective .”

Exploration has long been an important part of geography, and it’s an important part of developing a geographic perspective. Exploration isn’t limited to visiting unfamiliar places; it also means documenting and connecting relationships between spatial, sociological, and ecological elements.

The age-old practice of mapping still plays an important role in this type of exploration, but exploration can also be done by using images from satellites or gathering information from interviews. Discoveries can come by using computers to map and analyze the relationship among things in geographic space, or from piecing together the multiple forces, near and far, that shape the way individual places develop.

Applying a geographic perspective demonstrates geography’s concern not just with where things are, but with “the why of where”—a short but useful definition of geography’s central focus.

The insights that have come from geographic research show the importance of asking “the why of where” questions. Geographic studies comparing physical characteristics of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, for instance, gave rise to the idea that Earth’s surface is comprised of large, slowly moving plates—plate tectonics.

Studies of the geographic distribution of human settlements have shown how economic forces and modes of transport influence the location of towns and cities. For example, geographic analysis has pointed to the role of the United States Interstate Highway System and the rapid growth of car ownership in creating a boom in U.S. suburban growth after World War II. The geographic perspective helped show where Americans were moving, why they were moving there, and how their new living places affected their lives, their relationships with others, and their interactions with the environment.

Geographic analyses of the spread of diseases have pointed to the conditions that allow particular diseases to develop and spread. Dr. John Snow’s cholera map stands out as a classic example. When cholera broke out in London, England, in 1854, Snow represented the deaths per household on a street map. Using the map, he was able to trace the source of the outbreak to a water pump on the corner of Broad Street and Cambridge Street. The geographic perspective helped identify the source of the problem (the water from a specific pump) and allowed people to avoid the disease (avoiding water from that pump).

Investigations of the geographic impact of human activities have advanced understanding of the role of humans in transforming the surface of Earth, exposing the spatial extent of threats such as water pollution by artificial waste. For example, geographic study has shown that a large mass of tiny pieces of plastic currently floating in the Pacific Ocean is approximately the size of Texas. Satellite images and other geographic technology identified the so-called “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

These examples of different uses of the geographic perspective help explain why geographic study and research is important as we confront many 21st century challenges, including environmental pollution, poverty, hunger, and ethnic or political conflict.

Because the study of geography is so broad, the discipline is typically divided into specialties. At the broadest level, geography is divided into physical geography, human geography, geographic techniques, and regional geography.

Physical Geography

The natural environment is the primary concern of physical geographers, although many physical geographers also look at how humans have altered natural systems. Physical geographers study Earth’s seasons, climate, atmosphere, soil, streams, landforms, and oceans. Some disciplines within physical geography include geomorphology, glaciology, pedology, hydrology, climatology, biogeography, and oceanography.

Geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes that shape them. Geomorphologists investigate the nature and impact of wind, ice, rivers, erosion, earthquakes, volcanoes, living things, and other forces that shape and change the surface of Earth.

Glaciologists focus on Earth’s ice fields and their impact on the planet’s climate. Glaciologists document the properties and distribution of glaciers and icebergs. Data collected by glaciologists has demonstrated the retreat of Arctic and Antarctic ice in the past century.

Pedologists study soil and how it is created, changed, and classified. Soil studies are used by a variety of professions, from farmers analyzing field fertility to engineers investigating the suitability of different areas for building heavy structures.

Hydrology is the study of Earth’s water: its properties, distribution, and effects. Hydrologists are especially concerned with the movement of water as it cycles from the ocean to the atmosphere, then back to Earth’s surface. Hydrologists study the water cycle through rainfall into streams, lakes, the soil, and underground aquifers. Hydrologists provide insights that are critical to building or removing dams, designing irrigation systems, monitoring water quality, tracking drought conditions, and predicting flood risk.

Climatologists study Earth’s climate system and its impact on Earth’s surface. For example, climatologists make predictions about El Niño, a cyclical weather phenomenon of warm surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. They analyze the dramatic worldwide climate changes caused by El Niño, such as flooding in Peru, drought in Australia, and, in the United States, the oddities of heavy Texas rains or an unseasonably warm Minnesota winter.

Biogeographers study the impact of the environment on the distribution of plants and animals. For example, a biogeographer might document all the places in the world inhabited by a certain spider species, and what those places have in common.

Oceanography, a related discipline of physical geography, focuses on the creatures and environments of the world’s oceans. Observation of ocean tides and currents constituted some of the first oceanographic investigations. For example, 18th-century mariners figured out the geography of the Gulf Stream, a massive current flowing like a river through the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery and tracking of the Gulf Stream helped communications and travel between Europe and the Americas.

Today, oceanographers conduct research on the impacts of water pollution, track tsunamis, design offshore oil rigs, investigate underwater eruptions of lava, and study all types of marine organisms from toxic algae to friendly dolphins.

Human Geography

Human geography is concerned with the distribution and networks of people and cultures on Earth’s surface. A human geographer might investigate the local, regional, and global impact of rising economic powers China and India, which represent 37 percent of the world’s people. They also might look at how consumers in China and India adjust to new technology and markets, and how markets respond to such a huge consumer base.

Human geographers also study how people use and alter their environments. When, for example, people allow their animals to overgraze a region, the soil erodes and grassland is transformed into desert. The impact of overgrazing on the landscape as well as agricultural production is an area of study for human geographers.

Finally, human geographers study how political, social, and economic systems are organized across geographical space. These include governments, religious organizations, and trade partnerships. The boundaries of these groups constantly change.

The main divisions within human geography reflect a concern with different types of human activities or ways of living. Some examples of human geography include urban geography, economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, social geography, and population geography. Human geographers who study geographic patterns and processes in past times are part of the subdiscipline of historical geography. Those who study how people understand maps and geographic space belong to a subdiscipline known as behavioral geography.

Many human geographers interested in the relationship between humans and the environment work in the subdisciplines of cultural geography and political geography.

Cultural geographers study how the natural environment influences the development of human culture, such as how the climate affects the agricultural practices of a region. Political geographers study the impact of political circumstances on interactions between people and their environment, as well as environmental conflicts, such as disputes over water rights.

Some human geographers focus on the connection between human health and geography. For example, health geographers create maps that track the location and spread of specific diseases. They analyze the geographic disparities of health-care access. They are very interested in the impact of the environment on human health, especially the effects of environmental hazards such as radiation, lead poisoning, or water pollution.

Geographic Techniques

Specialists in geographic techniques study the ways in which geographic processes can be analyzed and represented using different methods and technologies. Mapmaking, or cartography, is perhaps the most basic of these. Cartography has been instrumental to geography throughout the ages.

Today, almost the entire surface of Earth has been mapped with remarkable accuracy, and much of this information is available instantly on the internet. One of the most remarkable of these websites is Google Earth, which “lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean.” In essence, anyone can be a virtual explorer from the comfort of home.

Technological developments during the past 100 years have given rise to a number of other specialties for scientists studying geographic techniques. The airplane made it possible to photograph land from above. Now, there are many satellites and other above-Earth vehicles that help geographers figure out what the surface of the planet looks like and how it is changing.

Geographers looking at what above-Earth cameras and sensors reveal are specialists in remote sensing. Pictures taken from space can be used to make maps, monitor ice melt, assess flood damage, track oil spills, predict weather, or perform endless other functions. For example, by comparing satellite photos taken from 1955 to 2007, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discovered that the rate of coastal erosion along Alaska’s Beaufort Sea had doubled. Every year from 2002 to 2007, about 13.7 meters (45 feet) per year of coast, mostly icy permafrost, vanished into the sea.

Computerized systems that allow for precise calculations of how things are distributed and relate to one another have made the study of geographic information systems (GIS) an increasingly important specialty within geography. Geographic information systems are powerful databases that collect all types of information (maps, reports, statistics, satellite images, surveys, demographic data, and more) and link each piece of data to a geographic reference point, such as geographic coordinates. This data, called geospatial information, can be stored, analyzed, modeled, and manipulated in ways not possible before GIS computer technology existed.

The popularity and importance of GIS has given rise to a new science known as geographic information science (GISci). Geographic information scientists study patterns in nature as well as human development. They might study natural hazards, such as a fire that struck Los Angeles, California, United States, in 2008. A map posted on the internet showed the real-time spread of the fire, along with information to help people make decisions about how to evacuate quickly. GIS can also illustrate human struggles from a geographic perspective, such as the interactive online map published by the New York Times in May 2009 that showed building foreclosure rates in various regions around the New York City area.

The enormous possibilities for producing computerized maps and diagrams that can help us understand environmental and social problems have made geographic visualization an increasingly important specialty within geography. This geospatial information is in high demand by just about every institution, from government agencies monitoring water quality to entrepreneurs deciding where to locate new businesses.

Regional Geography

Regional geographers take a somewhat different approach to specialization, directing their attention to the general geographic characteristics of a region. A regional geographer might specialize in African studies, observing and documenting the people, nations, rivers, mountains, deserts, weather, trade, and other attributes of the continent. There are different ways you can define a region. You can look at climate zones, cultural regions, or political regions. Often regional geographers have a physical or human geography specialty as well as a regional specialty.

Regional geographers may also study smaller regions, such as urban areas. A regional geographer may be interested in the way a city like Shanghai, China, is growing. They would study transportation, migration, housing, and language use, as well as the human impact on elements of the natural environment, such as the Huangpu River.

Whether geography is thought of as a discipline or as a basic feature of our world, developing an understanding of the subject is important. Some grasp of geography is essential as people seek to make sense of the world and understand their place in it. Thinking geographically helps people to be aware of the connections among and between places and to see how important events are shaped by where they take place. Finally, knowing something about geography enriches people’s lives—promoting curiosity about other people and places and an appreciation of the patterns, environments, and peoples that make up the endlessly fascinating, varied planet on which we live.

Gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographic dictionary. Gazetteers, which have existed for thousands of years, usually contain some sort of map and a set of information. Some gazetteers may contain a list of capital cities or areas where a specific resource is found. Other gazetteers may contain information about the local population, such as languages spoken, money used, or religious beliefs.

Old Maps People have been making maps for thousands of years. One of the oldest known maps was found near the city of Kirkuk, Iraq. Most geographers say it dates from 2500 B.C.E. It is a palm-sized block of clay depicting an area with two hills and a stream. (Some geographers think the stream is a canal made by people for irrigation.) Geographers have identified one of the towns on the map. However, they are not sure exactly what the hand-held map represents. Ancient maps could also be quite large. A nine-foot wall painting in Catal Hyuk, Turkey, was made about 6000 B.C.E. It is a map of a busy city, complete with crowded housing and even an erupting volcano. However, some scientists believe this "map" is decorative and not an accurate representation of what was there.

Wrong-Way Corrigan The American aviator Douglas Corrigan is often nicknamed "Wrong-Way Corrigan" because of a navigational error he made on a flight in 1938. Corrigan had just piloted a very impressive flight from the U.S. cities of Long Beach, California, to New York, New York. He was scheduled to fly back to Long Beach. Instead, with the sky covered in clouds, Wrong Way Corrigan flew to Dublin, Ireland.

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How to Write Geography Essay: Topics and Examples

Table of contents

• 1 What Is Geography Essay
• 2 Choosing a Topic
• 3 Research and Data Collection
• 4 Planning the Essay
• 5 Writing the Essay
• 6 Examples of Geography Essays
• 7 Unlocking the World: Key Insights from Our Geographic Exploration

Welcome to the dynamic world of geography essays, where understanding the Earth’s surface becomes an enlightening journey. This article serves as a comprehensive guide to writing a geography essay, starting with the crucial step of selecting a captivating topic. We’ll navigate through various popular topics, emphasizing the importance of effective research and data collection.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• How to select engaging and relevant geography essay topics.
• The importance of thorough research and effective data collection methods.
• Strategies for planning and organizing your geography essay for clarity and impact.
• Tips for writing a compelling geography essay, including structuring and presenting arguments.
• Analyzing examples of successful geography essays to guide and inspire your work.

As we transition into the details, prepare to enhance your understanding and skills in geography essay writing.

What Is Geography Essay

As we delve into the essence of a geography essay, it’s important to understand that it meticulously examines Earth’s landscapes and human activities. Furthermore, it aims to analyze how these two aspects interact, focusing on spatial relationships and patterns. Transitioning into the specifics, such essays often delve into particular geographic issues, aiming to broaden our comprehension of the world.

Moreover, when writing a geography essay, one must include accurate geographical data. This data, encompassing maps, statistics, and case studies, is crucial for a well-grounded analysis. Consequently, the essay should present facts and interpret them, offering fresh insights into the discussed topic.

Additionally, it’s noteworthy that an essay on geography stands out from others due to its unique subject matter approach. It demands a keen eye for detail and a profound understanding of the world’s physical and human dimensions. This requirement makes crafting such an essay a challenging yet fulfilling endeavor.

Lastly, the primary goal of a geography essay is to enlighten and inform. It persuades readers to view the world through a geographical lens, grasping the complex interplay between humans and their environment. This type of essay transcends mere academic exercise, serving as a means to foster a deeper appreciation for our world and its complex dynamics.

Choosing a Topic

The crucial point for a successful geography essay is selecting an engaging and appropriate topic. To choose a topic that resonates, consider current events, your interests, and the scope of your assignment. A good topic should captivate your interest and offer sufficient scope for in-depth study and analysis.

Popular geography essay topics often revolve around climate change , urban development, and cultural landscapes. These topics provide a rich ground for exploration and allow for diverse perspectives and interpretations. For example, a thematic essay on geography could focus on how urbanization affects local ecosystems or how cultural practices shape landscape use.

• Analyzing the Direct Impact of Climate Change on the Amazon Rainforest’s Biodiversity
• Urbanization in Mega Cities: Environmental Consequences and Sustainable Solutions
• Wind and Solar Power: Pioneers of Sustainable Energy Landscape
• Managing Water Scarcity in the Middle East: Strategies and Challenges
• The Amazon Deforestation Crisis: Causes, Impacts, and Global Responses
• Spatial Inequality: A Detailed Look at Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa
• The Dynamics of Population Growth and Overconsumption in Asia
• Cultural Preservation of Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon Basin
• Earthquakes in Japan: Analyzing Causes, Effects, and Preparedness Strategies
• Geography’s Role in the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Implementing Sustainable Agricultural Practices in India for Food Security
• The Kashmir Conflict: A Geopolitical Analysis of Border Disputes
• The Growing Crisis of Climate Refugees in the Pacific Islands
• The Importance of Urban Green Spaces in New York City’s Environmental Health
• The Impact of Globalization on Maori Culture in New Zealand
• Ecotourism in Costa Rica: Balancing Economic Benefits and Environmental Preservation
• Addressing Ocean Plastic Pollution: Case Studies from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• The Nile River Conflict: Water Politics in a Changing Climate
• Preventing Desertification in the Sahel: Strategies and International Cooperation
• GIS in Disaster Management: Case Studies of Earthquake Response and Recovery
• Measuring the Effects of Glacial Melting on Greenland’s Coastal Communities
• Tracing the Economic Geography of the Silk Road in the 21st Century
• The Health Impacts of Air Pollution in Beijing: Urban Policies and Challenges
• Vulnerable Communities: Assessing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Climate Change in Bangladesh
• The New Face of Migration: Syrian Refugees and European Response
• The Critical Role of Metropolitan Areas in Combating Global Warming
• Saving Madagascar’s Rainforest: Conservation Strategies and Challenges
• The Transition to Renewable Energy in Germany: A Model for the World?
• Satellite Imagery in Land Use Changes: A Study of the Brazilian Amazon
• Arctic Sovereignty: The Geopolitical Implications of Melting Ice Caps for Global Powers

To guide and inspire your topic selection, you can use geography essay examples. These examples showcase a range of topics and approaches, helping you understand what makes a topic both engaging and feasible for study. Remember, a well-chosen topic is the first step toward a compelling and insightful geography essay.

Research and Data Collection

To talk about thorough research, it is the backbone of any geography study, providing the factual and theoretical foundation to understand complex geographical phenomena. To explain why the study of geography is important, one must delve into diverse and reliable sources that offer insights into how geographical factors shape our world and affect our lives. This research underpins the type of geography being studied, whether physical, human, or environmental.

Collecting geographical data can be done through various methods. Firstly, fieldwork is essential, especially for physical geography, as it allows for the direct observation and measurement of geographical features and processes. For human geography, surveys and interviews can yield valuable data on human behaviors and social patterns. Moreover, a thorough literature review also helps understand existing research and theories, providing a critical context for new findings.

Furthermore, evaluating sources for their credibility and relevance is vital. This involves checking the qualifications of the authors, the rigor of their methodologies, and the recency of their findings. Reliable sources are peer-reviewed and come from reputable academic or scientific institutions. What is more, ensuring the credibility of sources strengthens the arguments made in a geography essay and enhances the overall understanding of the topic.

In summary, comprehensive research and careful data collection are fundamental in geography. They enable a deeper understanding of how geographical aspects shape our environment and lives, which is central to the discipline.

Planning the Essay

When you start planning a geography essay, it begins with creating an outline to organize thoughts and research. This step is crucial as it helps structure the essay logically, ensuring a smooth flow of ideas. Start by listing major points and supporting evidence. This framework guides the writing process and maintains focus on the chosen topic. Planning involves outlining the essay and crafting a compelling thesis. Planning involves outlining the essay and crafting a compelling thesis. This process ensures the essay remains focused and coherent, addressing the chosen geography topic. By establishing a clear roadmap for the essay, writers can navigate their arguments and evidence with precision, avoiding common pitfalls such as digression or ambiguity. Now, with our plan in place, let’s transition to examining the structure more closely, exploring how to effectively organize our thoughts and research into a well-structured essay that engages and informs the reader.

Writing the Essay

When you finally start writing, a geographical essay involves several key steps, each demanding attention to detail and a balance between descriptive and analytical writing. This balance is crucial in creating an essay about geography that informs, engages, and persuades.

The introduction sets the stage. Start with a hook that grabs the reader’s attention, followed by background information that provides context to the topic. This section should conclude with a clear and concise thesis statement that guides the rest of the essay.

In the body, organize paragraphs thematically or chronologically , depending on the essay’s focus. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence that relates to the thesis. Following this, present your arguments and support them with geographical theories and data. This is where you incorporate detailed information from your research, including statistics, case studies, and examples. Make sure to explain how this data supports your arguments. A geography research paper demands precision in presenting data and clarity in its interpretation.

When discussing geographical theories, link them directly to your topic. This shows your understanding of the subject and how these theories apply to real-world scenarios. Remember, each paragraph should have a smooth transition to the next, maintaining a coherent flow of ideas.

In the conclusion, summarize the key points of your essay. Restate the thesis in light of the arguments and evidence presented. The conclusion should not introduce new information but encapsulate what the essay has covered. It’s also an opportunity to emphasize the importance of the topic, suggesting potential areas for future research or implications of your findings.

Throughout the essay, maintain a balance between descriptive and analytical writing . Descriptive writing helps paint a picture for the reader, making the data and theories more relatable. Analytical writing, on the other hand, demonstrates your ability to think critically about the topic, evaluating and interpreting the information in a meaningful way.

Examples of Geography Essays

Diversity in style and approach marks the essence of geography writing. A popular method is the comparative approach, contrasting different geographical phenomena. This method often appears in works comparing landscapes or urban vs. rural areas. Another common technique is the case study, focusing on a specific location or event for in-depth analysis of a particular issue.

Thematic approaches cover broader topics like climate change, globalization, or human migration, weaving together various theories and data for a comprehensive view. Additionally, argumentative compositions present a thesis supported by geographical evidence, frequently seen in discussions about environmental policies or land use conflicts.

Each style offers unique insights, providing varied ways to explore and understand geographical concepts and issues. For an in-depth exploration and diverse perspectives on these topics, consider reviewing geography essay examples. This resource can enrich your understanding and offer a broad spectrum of approaches to geographical analysis, from case studies on environmental conservation to essays on urban development and spatial inequalities.

• Geography Unveiled: Costa Rica’s Absolute Location Revealed
• Geography Unveiled: Navigating Earth’s Spatial Tapestry through Five Themes
• The Ever-Changing Canvas of New England Weather
• The Mystique and Marvels of the Desert Biome
• The Impact of Geography on the Development of Egypt

Unlocking the World: Key Insights from Our Geographic Exploration

This journey through the realm of geography reveals the field’s depth and complexity. From initial planning to diverse writing methods, the main insight stands out: geography compositions are more than maps and data; they are about comprehending our world’s rich tapestry. They balance descriptive narrative and critical analysis, backed by meticulous research and credible sources.

Whether exploring climate change impacts, urban developments, or cultural landscapes, these works offer a lens to see and understand the world anew. They prompt critical thinking about our environment and our place in it. Navigating various geographic topics brings not just academic insights but also life lessons in appreciating our world’s complexity and beauty.

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How to Write a Geography Essay that Transcends Borders

Have you ever found yourself floating effortlessly in the Dead Sea, that magical stretch of water between Israel and Jordan? It's the saltiest lake globally, turning you into a buoyant bobber without much effort. Now, just as geography unveils such fascinating quirks about our planet, writing an essay on this subject can be an equally intriguing venture.

Let's take a stroll through the world of geography essays together. We'll start by figuring out what exactly makes up a geography essay definition and then dive into the secrets of writing a great one. Along the way, we'll share some helpful tips, break down the important parts, and talk about why geography matters in today's world. Whether you're a student trying to do well in your geography class or just curious about why geography is important, this article is here for you. Let's get started!

Ready to Turn Your Passion for Places into an Epic Essay?

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Essential Factors When Writing a Geography Essay

A great essay comes from a good understanding of the topic. Let's share some tips to help you create an impressive essay.

• Stick to What You Know : Pick geography topics that you're familiar with.
• Think Global : Show how your chosen topic connects to bigger issues like climate change or cultural diversity.
• Grab Attention : Choose a topic that interests you and your readers.
• Show with Examples : Use real examples to explain geography concepts in your essay.
• Stay on Track : Make sure everything in your essay relates to the main message.
• Use Sources : Share your thoughts based on what reliable sources say.
• Make it Real : Describe landscapes in a way that brings them to life for your readers.

In the next parts, our skilled writers, who you can buy essay from, will share a simple guide to help you write essays successfully!

Exploring What Is a Geography Essay

In simple terms, a geography essay is a well-organized explanation of geographic topics and ideas. It's more than just listing facts—it's a chance for you to showcase what you understand about geographical principles, processes, and their real-world impacts.

• Keep it Focused : Your essay should revolve around a specific topic or question in geography. This focus helps you stay on track and make your writing clear and relevant.
• Grasp the Concepts : Geography essays should include important geographical ideas like spatial relationships, scale, location, and interactions. These concepts give you the tools to understand and explain the world.
• Use Data : Geography relies on data and evidence. Bring in facts, maps, visuals, and statistics to support your points and show geographical patterns.
• Think Critically : A good essay doesn't just share information; it digs into the details. Explore the nuances, root causes, and broader impacts to give a deeper insight. ‍
• Connect to Reality: These essays often link theory with real-world issues. Whether you're talking about global warming, urbanization, cultural landscapes, or geopolitical shifts, these essays show why geography matters in our interconnected world.

How to Start a Geography Essay

Starting your essay in the right way not only grabs your readers' attention but also sets the stage for a well-organized and interesting exploration of your selected geography research essay topics .

• Establish the Geography : Kick-off by placing your topic in a geographic context. Explain where and why this topic matters, considering both local and global perspectives.
• Spark Interest : Draw your readers in by asking a thought-provoking question or sharing a surprising statistic related to your geography essay topics.
• Give Background Info : Provide a quick overview of the subject to make sure your readers have the basic knowledge needed to follow your arguments.
• Include a Quote : Think about using a fitting quote from a well-known geographer, researcher, or historical figure to add depth and credibility to your introduction.
• Set the Tone : Decide on the tone of your essay—whether it's informative, analytical, or persuasive—and let that tone shine through in your introductory language and style.

Select a Subject You're Comfortable Discussing

Picking the right research paper topic in geography is a big deal—it can really shape how the whole writing journey goes. One smart move to kick off your research paper well is to go for a subject you genuinely feel comfortable talking about. Here's why it matters:

• Expertise Shines : When your research paper topic matches what you already know and enjoy, your expertise shines through. You can use what you know to analyze and explain the subject better.
• Stay Motivated : Choosing a topic that genuinely interests you, like doing a geography essay about earthquakes, can be a great source of motivation. This inner drive helps you stay engaged during the whole research and writing process, leading to a better end result.
• Research Efficiency : Knowing your topic makes the research process smoother. You know where to find good sources, what keywords to use, and how to tell if information is reliable.
• Confident Analysis : Understanding your topic well, say, when dealing with a geography essay about global warming, gives you confidence. This confidence comes through in your analysis, making it more convincing.
• Boosted Creativity : Being comfortable with your topic can boost your creativity. You're more likely to come up with new ideas and unique perspectives when you're discussing something you're familiar with.

Let's explore a range of research topics that provide plenty of chances for thorough investigation and analysis. Feel free to choose the one that aligns with your interests and fits the particular focus of your research.

• Microclimates in Urban Spaces: Analyzing Local Community Impacts
• Geopolitics of Water Scarcity: Transboundary Water Conflict Case Study
• Ecotourism in Unexplored Territories: Balancing Conservation and Development
• Digital Cartography's Influence on Public Perception of Geographic Information
• Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Sustainable Resource Management
• Urban Heat Islands: Assessing Heat-Related Risks in Growing Cities
• Climate Change Impact on Traditional Agricultural Practices in Vulnerable Regions
• Geography of Infectious Diseases: Spatial Analysis of Disease Spread
• Patterns of Renewable Energy Adoption: A Global Comparative Study
• Cultural Landscapes in Transition: Globalization's Impact on Local Identities

Geography Essay Example

For a closer look at how to structure and compose an effective geography essay, we've put together a compelling example for your review. As you go through it, you'll discover the essential elements that contribute to making an essay both informative and engaging.

Exploring the Impact of River Dams on Ecosystems

Introduction:

Rivers are the lifeblood of many ecosystems, shaping landscapes and sustaining diverse forms of life. This essay delves into the intricate relationship between river dams and ecosystems, aiming to unravel the multifaceted consequences that altering natural watercourses can bring. By examining case studies and ecological principles, we seek to shed light on the complex web of interactions that define the impact of river dams on the environment.

River dams significantly modify the natural flow of water, creating reservoirs and altering the hydrological patterns downstream. This transformation often leads to changes in habitat availability for aquatic species. Case studies from various dam projects will be explored to illustrate the tangible effects on biodiversity and ecosystem structure.

Furthermore, many fish species rely on river systems for migration and spawning. Dams can present barriers to these natural processes, affecting fish populations and, consequently, the predators and prey in the broader food web. This section will examine how dams disrupt fish migration and explore potential mitigation strategies to minimize ecological consequences.

What's more, the alteration of river flow caused by dams influences water quality and sediment transport downstream. Sediment accumulation in reservoirs can have cascading effects on aquatic ecosystems. This part of the essay will delve into scientific studies highlighting changes in water quality and sedimentation patterns due to dam construction.

Beyond the ecological realm, the construction of river dams often has social and economic repercussions. Local communities dependent on rivers for their livelihoods may face challenges due to altered water regimes. Investigating case studies, we will explore the human dimension of the impact of river dams on communities and economies.

Conclusion:

In summary, the complex interplay between river dams and ecosystems demands thoughtful reflection. This essay has offered a glimpse into the diverse outcomes that come with changing natural watercourses, underscoring the importance of a comprehensive grasp of the ecological, social, and economic aspects at play. By delving into the intricate realm of river dam impacts, we acquire valuable insights into the nuanced equilibrium between human progress and environmental sustainability.

How to Write a Geography Essay: Insights and Pointers

When it comes to writing geography essays, it's not just about throwing out facts and figures. It's about digging deeper into geographical ideas, understanding how things relate, and sharing your findings in a way that makes sense. Our paper writing service experts are here to give you some handy tips:

• Dig Deep with Research: Start by really getting into your topic. Collect data, look at maps, and read up on what others have to say about it.
• Sort Your Thoughts: Organize your essay so it's easy to follow. That usually means having an intro, some main parts, and a wrap-up at the end. Keep it logical.
• Think and Talk Analysis: Get into the nitty-gritty of your analysis. Use geography ideas to explain your data and give your own take on things.
• Show Your Proof: Back up what you're saying with proof. Throw in maps, charts, or stories to make your points and show patterns.
• Question Everything: Think hard about different opinions and what your findings might mean in the big picture. Don't be afraid to question things and see where it takes you.

Breaking Down the Geography Essay Structure

A well-formatted geography essay structure is like a well-organized map – it guides readers through your analysis with clarity and purpose. To effectively break down the structure, consider the following key insights:

• Geographical Essence: Always consider the geographical context when framing your essay format . How does the landscape influence the subject, and in turn, how does it fit into the broader global narrative?
• Tailored Tone for Audience: Reflect on your audience. Are you speaking to geography enthusiasts, educators, policymakers, or the general public? Adjust your language and explanations to match their level of familiarity and interest.
• Conciseness and Wordplay: Maintain clarity by adhering to word limits and embracing conciseness. Focus on delivering pertinent information with a touch of engaging wordplay to captivate your readers.
• Innovative Perspectives: Aim for innovation in your analysis. While leveraging existing research, offer a fresh viewpoint or a unique twist on the topic to keep your essay from blending into the background.
• Ethical Dimensions: If your research involves human subjects, sensitive data, or fieldwork, be conscientious of ethical considerations. Seek necessary approvals, ensuring that your research adheres to ethical standards.
• Geographic Fluency: Demonstrate a keen grasp of geographic fluency in your essay. Showcase not just knowledge of concepts but an understanding of the interconnectedness of regions, adding depth to your exploration.
• Visual Appeal: Consider incorporating visual elements such as maps, charts, or images to enhance your essay's visual appeal. A well-chosen visual can often communicate complex geographical information more effectively.
• Future Implications: Extend your analysis to contemplate the future implications of the geographical factors you're discussing. How might current trends shape future landscapes, and what role does your topic play in this evolving narrative?

Geography Essay Introduction

The introductory paragraph is the starting point of your essay, where you contextualize, captivate your audience, and introduce your central thesis statement.

For instance, if your essay explores the effects of rising sea levels on coastal communities, your introduction could commence with a striking observation: ' In the coastal realms, where communities have thrived for generations, the encroaching rise of sea levels is transforming the very landscapes that have long shaped human existence. This unsettling shift is a direct consequence of global warming, a phenomenon casting profound implications across the globe .'

The core section of your essay, the main body, encompasses several paragraphs that house your analysis, arguments, evidence, and illustrations.

Within a segment examining the consequences of industrial pollution on river ecosystems, you might assert: ' Industrial effluents discharged into rivers represent a significant contributor to pollution. As evidenced by studies [cite], the toxic chemicals and pollutants released into water bodies pose severe threats to aquatic life, disrupting ecosystems and endangering the delicate balance of river environments. '

Geography Essay Summing Up

When wondering how to write a conclusion for an essay , remember that it acts as the final chapter, summarizing crucial findings, reiterating your thesis, and offering concluding insights or implications.

In a conclusion addressing the impact of desertification on agricultural communities, you might recapitulate: ' Surveying the intricate interplay between environmental degradation and agricultural sustainability in regions affected by desertification reveals a nuanced narrative. Despite the adversities posed, there exists an imperative for innovative solutions and adaptive strategies to ensure the resilience of agricultural communities in the face of advancing desertification. '

More Tips for Writing a Geography Essay

Here are some special tips on writing a geography essay that can enhance the depth and sophistication of your entire piece, showcasing a thorough grasp of geographic concepts and methods.

• Embrace diverse viewpoints – consider cultural, economic, and environmental angles for a richer analysis.
• Use geospatial tools like maps and satellite imagery to visually enhance your essay and emphasize spatial relationships.
• Bolster your arguments with real case studies to illustrate the practical application of your geographical analysis.
• Integrate recent global events into your essay to showcase relevance and stay aligned with the dynamic nature of geography.
• Explore intersections with other disciplines, providing a more comprehensive understanding of your topic.
• Highlight how local phenomena contribute to broader global narratives, emphasizing interconnectedness.
• If you're writing a cause and effect essay , compare urbanization trends in different cities to show the reasons and outcomes.

Why Geography Matters as a Subject of Study

Geography goes way beyond just maps and names of places; it's a lively and important field that helps us make sense of the world. Here's why geography matters:

• Knowing Spaces: It helps us understand how places, regions, and landscapes connect. This understanding is crucial for making smart choices about things like where to put resources, plan cities, and handle emergencies.
• Being a Global Citizen: It encourages us to appreciate different cultures and how we're all connected. It helps us see how big events, like climate change or pandemics, affect countries locally and globally.
• Taking Care of Nature: This subject gives us insights into environmental problems and solutions. It teaches us about issues like cutting down forests, losing habitats, and climate change so we can make choices that help our planet.
• Thinking Smart: Geography makes us think critically. It involves looking at complex information, considering different opinions, and drawing smart conclusions. These skills are handy in lots of jobs.
• Fixing Real Problems: What we learn in geography helps us solve actual problems – from designing better roads to managing water wisely and dealing with natural disasters.
• Making Rules and Plans: It has a say in making rules and plans. It guides decisions about how to use land, build things, and take care of resources.
• Loving Different Cultures: Geography helps us appreciate all kinds of cultures and how they relate to the environment. It lets us understand why places are important and how their histories have shaped them.

Ready to Explore the World without Leaving Your Desk?

Let our expert writers be your guides on this geographical voyage and map out your academic success together!

To sum it up, geography gives you the knowledge and skills to navigate our complex and connected world. Writing a geography essay helps you make smart choices, promote sustainability, and face global challenges. Whether you're exploring local landscapes or looking at global issues, geography lays the groundwork for understanding our planet and its diverse inhabitants through the art of essay writing.

Daniel Parker

is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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Essay on Nature: In 100 Words, 200 Words, 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 13, 2023

Nature is the intricate web of life that surrounds us, encompassing everything from the air we breathe to the majestic landscapes we admire. It includes the delicate balance of ecosystems, the diversity of flora and fauna, and the natural resources that sustain all living beings on Earth. Exploring the beauty and significance of nature is not only a pleasurable endeavour but also a crucial one, as it reminds us of our responsibility to protect and preserve our environment.

Table of Contents

• 1 Tips to Write the Best Essay
• 2 Essay on Nature in 100 Words
• 3 Essay on Nature in 200 Words
• 4 Essay on Nature in 300 Words

Tips to Write the Best Essay

Here are some tips to craft an exceptional essay:

• Understand the Topic: Grasp the essence of the topic and its different aspects before you start writing.
• Structure: Organize your essay coherently, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• Thesis Statement: Formulate a strong thesis statement that summarizes the main point you want to convey.
• Use Vivid Language: Employ descriptive language to bring the beauty of nature to life for your readers.
• Supporting Evidence: Back up your points with facts, statistics, and examples to make your essay more convincing.
• Variety of Ideas: Discuss different perspectives and dimensions of the topic to showcase a comprehensive understanding.
• Proofread: Edit your essay for grammar, punctuation, and clarity before submitting it.

Essay on Nature in 100 Words

Nature is a precious gift, encompassing all living and non-living entities. It provides us with air, water, food, and shelter. The beauty of nature soothes our souls and brings us closer to the marvels of creation. However, human activities are threatening the delicate balance of ecosystems, leading to pollution, deforestation, and climate change. It’s our responsibility to protect and preserve nature for future generations to enjoy its wonders.

Essay on Nature in 200 Words

Nature is the ultimate source of inspiration and sustenance for all life forms on Earth. From the smallest microorganisms to the tallest trees, every aspect of nature plays a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance of our planet. The diversity of flora and fauna, the intricate ecosystems, and the natural resources provide us with food, shelter, and even the air we breathe.

Despite its undeniable importance, human activities are wreaking havoc on nature. Deforestation, pollution, and excessive use of natural resources are causing irreparable damage to our environment. Climate change, triggered by human-induced factors, is resulting in extreme weather events and rising sea levels, endangering both human and animal habitats.

Preserving nature is not a choice; it’s a necessity. The responsibility to conserve nature lies in the hands of every individual. Planting trees, reducing waste, using sustainable resources, and raising awareness about the importance of nature are steps we can take to mitigate the damage.

Nature has provided us with boundless beauty and resources, but it’s up to us to ensure its survival. By respecting and nurturing the natural world, we can secure a healthier and more vibrant planet for current and future generations.

Essay on Nature in 300 Words

Nature is a symphony of vibrant life forms and dynamic ecosystems that create a harmonious and intricate web of existence. The lush greenery of forests, the tranquil blue of oceans, the diverse habitats of animals, and the breathtaking landscapes remind us of the sheer magnificence of the world we inhabit. It’s a world that offers us both solace and sustenance, making our survival intertwined with its preservation.

The ecosystem services provided by nature are immeasurable. The forests act as the lungs of the Earth, producing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide. Wetlands filter our water, providing us with clean and fresh sources of hydration. Bees and other pollinators enable the growth of crops, contributing to global food security.

However, the rampant disregard for nature’s delicate balance is leading to alarming consequences. The relentless deforestation for urbanization and agriculture is causing habitat loss, leading to the extinction of numerous species. The excessive emission of greenhouse gases is driving climate change, with rising temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns threatening vulnerable communities.

To ensure the well-being of our planet and future generations, conservation and sustainable practices are imperative. Afforestation and reforestation efforts must be intensified to restore lost ecosystems. Transitioning to renewable energy sources can reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change. Moreover, raising awareness and fostering a deep connection with nature can instil a sense of responsibility and inspire positive action.

In conclusion, nature is not merely a resource for human exploitation; it’s a complex and interconnected system that sustains life in all its forms. We must recognize our role as custodians of the environment and act with diligence to protect and preserve it. By embracing sustainable practices and fostering a profound respect for nature, we can secure a future where the world’s natural wonders continue to thrive.

Nature encompasses the entirety of the physical world and its components, including landscapes, flora, fauna, air, water, and ecosystems. It encompasses the natural environment and all living and non-living elements that shape and sustain life on Earth.

Nature is vital for our survival, providing resources like air, water, and food. It maintains ecological balance, supports biodiversity, and offers inspiration and solace. However, human activities threaten its delicate equilibrium, necessitating conservation efforts.

Saving nature requires planting trees, reducing waste, using sustainable resources, and raising awareness about its importance. Adopting renewable energy sources, practising responsible consumption, and fostering a connection with nature are crucial steps in its preservation.

We hope that this essay blog on Nature helps. For more amazing daily reads related to essay writing , stay tuned with Leverage Edu .

Manasvi Kotwal

Manasvi's flair in writing abilities is derived from her past experience of working with bootstrap start-ups, Advertisement and PR agencies as well as freelancing. She's currently working as a Content Marketing Associate at Leverage Edu to be a part of its thriving ecosystem.

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Nature Essay for Students and Children

500+ words nature essay.

Nature is an important and integral part of mankind. It is one of the greatest blessings for human life; however, nowadays humans fail to recognize it as one. Nature has been an inspiration for numerous poets, writers, artists and more of yesteryears. This remarkable creation inspired them to write poems and stories in the glory of it. They truly valued nature which reflects in their works even today. Essentially, nature is everything we are surrounded by like the water we drink, the air we breathe, the sun we soak in, the birds we hear chirping, the moon we gaze at and more. Above all, it is rich and vibrant and consists of both living and non-living things. Therefore, people of the modern age should also learn something from people of yesteryear and start valuing nature before it gets too late.

Significance of Nature

Nature has been in existence long before humans and ever since it has taken care of mankind and nourished it forever. In other words, it offers us a protective layer which guards us against all kinds of damages and harms. Survival of mankind without nature is impossible and humans need to understand that.

If nature has the ability to protect us, it is also powerful enough to destroy the entire mankind. Every form of nature, for instance, the plants , animals , rivers, mountains, moon, and more holds equal significance for us. Absence of one element is enough to cause a catastrophe in the functioning of human life.

We fulfill our healthy lifestyle by eating and drinking healthy, which nature gives us. Similarly, it provides us with water and food that enables us to do so. Rainfall and sunshine, the two most important elements to survive are derived from nature itself.

Further, the air we breathe and the wood we use for various purposes are a gift of nature only. But, with technological advancements, people are not paying attention to nature. The need to conserve and balance the natural assets is rising day by day which requires immediate attention.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conservation of Nature

In order to conserve nature, we must take drastic steps right away to prevent any further damage. The most important step is to prevent deforestation at all levels. Cutting down of trees has serious consequences in different spheres. It can cause soil erosion easily and also bring a decline in rainfall on a major level.

Polluting ocean water must be strictly prohibited by all industries straightaway as it causes a lot of water shortage. The excessive use of automobiles, AC’s and ovens emit a lot of Chlorofluorocarbons’ which depletes the ozone layer. This, in turn, causes global warming which causes thermal expansion and melting of glaciers.

Therefore, we should avoid personal use of the vehicle when we can, switch to public transport and carpooling. We must invest in solar energy giving a chance for the natural resources to replenish.

In conclusion, nature has a powerful transformative power which is responsible for the functioning of life on earth. It is essential for mankind to flourish so it is our duty to conserve it for our future generations. We must stop the selfish activities and try our best to preserve the natural resources so life can forever be nourished on earth.

{ “@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@type”: “FAQPage”, “mainEntity”: [ { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “Why is nature important?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “Nature is an essential part of our lives. It is important as it helps in the functioning of human life and gives us natural resources to lead a healthy life.” } }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “How can we conserve nature?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “We can take different steps to conserve nature like stopping the cutting down of trees. We must not use automobiles excessively and take public transport instead. Further, we must not pollute our ocean and river water.” } } ] }

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How to Write a Geography Essay Step by Step

Table of Contents

Introduction to Geography Essays

Importance of essay writing in geography.

Essay writing in geography is crucial as it allows students and researchers to explore complex environmental, physical, and societal issues. It enables the synthesis of empirical data and theoretical frameworks, fostering critical thinking and communication skills.

Brief Overview of Common Types of Geography Essays

Geography essays come in various forms, each serving a different purpose:

• Research Papers: These involve in-depth analysis of geographic phenomena using primary and secondary data.
• Comparative Essays: They examine the similarities and differences between two or more geographic entities.
• Argumentative Essays: These essays present a stance on a geographic issue, supported by evidence and logical reasoning.

Understanding the Essay Question

How to interpret essay prompts.

To correctly interpret essay prompts, one must read the question carefully, noting any specific instructions or scope defined. Break down the prompt to understand what the examiner is asking for.

Identifying Key Terms and Directives

Key terms are the concepts central to the question, while directives are action words like “discuss,” “compare,” or “analyze” that dictate the approach to be taken. Identifying these helps in aligning your essay with the expectations of the question.

Research and Sources

Finding reputable sources for geographic data and theories.

Utilize academic databases, government publications, and verified online resources to gather reliable geographic data and theoretical perspectives. Libraries and academic journals are also invaluable sources.

Evaluating and Citing Sources Properly

Assess the credibility of sources by checking the author’s credentials, publication date, and the publisher’s reputation. Cite sources using the appropriate academic style guide to avoid plagiarism.

Balancing Quantitative Data with Qualitative Insights

Incorporate statistical data to support claims while also providing qualitative observations for a well-rounded argument. This balance ensures a comprehensive exploration of geographic issues.

Planning the Essay

Creating an outline to structure thoughts and research.

An outline serves as a roadmap for your essay. Start with the introduction, then detail each body paragraph’s main idea, and conclude with a summary of your argument and findings.

The Significance of a Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is the centerpiece of your essay. It should clearly express the main argument or claim of your essay and guide the development of your supporting points. It is usually placed at the end of the introduction.

Writing the Essay

Crafting an engaging introduction.

Begin with a hook that captures the reader’s interest. Provide context for your topic, and establish the relevance of the essay. End the introduction with a clear thesis statement that outlines your argument or perspective.

Body Paragraphs

Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that introduces the main idea. Build your argument by integrating evidence, data, and geographic models or theories. Ensure each piece of evidence is analyzed and connected back to your thesis.

Concluding Effectively

The conclusion should restate your thesis, summarize the main points of your body paragraphs, and highlight the broader implications of your findings. Avoid introducing new information; instead, close the essay by reflecting on its significance.

Referencing and Bibliography

Overview of citation styles common in geography.

Geography papers commonly use APA or Chicago citation styles. Familiarize yourself with the one required for your essay, as each has specific rules for formatting in-text citations and bibliography entries.

Importance of Avoiding Plagiarism

Always credit the original authors of your sources. Use quotations for direct citations and paraphrase information with proper attribution. Plagiarism undermines your credibility and can have serious academic consequences.

Editing and Proofreading

Strategies for effective editing.

Review your essay multiple times, focusing on different aspects: content, structure, and clarity. Check for coherence in your arguments and the seamless integration of evidence.

Tips for Grammar, Punctuation, and Stylistic Consistency

Use tools like grammar checkers, but also manually review your essay. Pay attention to sentence structure, punctuation, and ensure stylistic consistency throughout the document.

Presentation and Submission

Adhering to format guidelines.

Follow the specified guidelines for font size, margins, spacing, and headers. Consistent formatting contributes to the professionalism and readability of your essay.

Importance of Visual Elements in Geography Essays

Visual elements like maps and graphs are crucial. They should be clear, well-labeled, and referenced in the text. Ensure they are relevant and enhance the reader’s understanding of your argument.

Examples and Resources

Examples of strong thesis statements and well-structured paragraphs.

• Thesis Statement: “The impact of climate change on coastal cities is multifaceted, leading to not only physical changes but also socio-economic challenges.”
• Paragraph Structure: Start with a clear topic sentence, followed by evidence and analysis, and conclude with a sentence that ties back to the essay’s thesis.

List of Resources for Further Support

• Writing Centers: Many educational institutions offer writing support services.
• Online Tools: Grammarly for proofreading, Zotero for managing citations, and Purdue OWL for style guidelines.
• Academic Journals: Access through your institution’s library for examples of scholarly work.

Remember, writing a geography essay is as much about showcasing your knowledge as it is about effective communication. Ensure that each part of your essay works towards clearly presenting your findings and analysis.

Rediscovering Geography: New Relevance for Science and Society (1997)

Chapter: 3 geography's perspectives, 3— geography's perspectives.

Geography's relevance to science and society arises from a distinctive and integrating set of perspectives through which geographers view the world around them. This chapter conveys a sense of what is meant by a geographic perspective, whether it be applied in research, teaching, or practice. Due to space limitations, it does not attempt to cite the many excellent examples of research illustrating geography's perspectives; the citations refer mainly to broad-ranging summaries of geographic research that are intended as resources for further reading.

Taking time to understand geography's perspectives is important because geography can be difficult to place within the family of academic disciplines. Just as all phenomena exist in time and thus have a history, they also exist in space and have a geography. Geography and history are therefore central to understanding our world and have been identified as core subjects in American education. Clearly, this kind of focus tends to cut across the boundaries of other natural and social science disciplines. Consequently, geography is sometimes viewed by those unfamiliar with the discipline as a collection of disparate specialties with no central core or coherence.

What holds most disciplines together, however, is a distinctive and coherent set of perspectives through which the world is analyzed. Like other academic disciplines, geography has a well-developed set of perspectives:

• geography's way of looking at the world through the lenses of place, space, and scale;
• geography's domains of synthesis : 1 environmental-societal dynamics relating human action to the physical environment, environmental dynamics linking physical systems, and human-societal dynamics linking economic, social, and political systems; and
• spatial representation using visual, verbal, mathematical, digital, and cognitive approaches.

These three perspectives can be represented as dimensions of a matrix of geographic inquiry as shown in Figure 3.1 .

The matrix of geographic perspectives. Geography's ways of looking at the world—through its focus on place and scale (horizontal axis)—cuts across its three domains of synthesis: human-societal dynamics, environmental dynamics, and environmental-societal dynamics (vertical axis). Spatial representation, the third dimension of the matrix, underpins and sometimes drives research in other branches of geography.

Geography's Ways of Looking at the World

A central tenet of geography is that "location matters" for understanding a wide variety of processes and phenomena. Indeed, geography's focus on location provides a cross-cutting way of looking at processes and phenomena that other disciplines tend to treat in isolation. Geographers focus on "real world" relationships and dependencies among the phenomena and processes that give character to any location or place. Geographers also seek to understand relationships among places: for example, flows of peoples, goods, and ideas that reinforce differentiation or enhance similarities. Geographers study the "vertical" integration of characteristics that define place as well as the "horizontal'' connections between places. Geographers also focus on the importance of scale (in both space and time) in these relationships. The study of these relationships has enabled geographers to pay attention to complexities of places and processes that are frequently treated in the abstract by other disciplines.

Integration in Place

Places are natural laboratories for the study of complex relationships among processes and phenomena. Geography has a long tradition of attempting to understand how different processes and phenomena interact in regions and localities, including an understanding of how these interactions give places their distinctive character.

The systematic analysis of social, economic, political, and environmental processes operating in a place provides an integrated understanding of its distinctiveness or character. The pioneering work of Hägerstrand (1970), for example, showed how the daily activity patterns of people can be understood as the outcome of a process in which individuals are constrained by the availability and geographic accessibility of locations with which they can interact. Research in this tradition since has shown that the temporal and spatial sequences of actions of individuals follow typical patterns in particular types of environments and that many of the distinctive characteristics of places result from an intersection of behavioral sequences constrained by spatial accessibility to the opportunities for interaction. Such systematic analysis is particularly central to regional and human geography, and it is a theme to which much geographic research continually returns. When such systematic analysis is applied to many different places, an understanding of geographic variability emerges. Of course, a full analysis of geographic variability must take account of processes that cross the boundaries of places, linking them to one another, and also of scale.

Interdependencies Between Places

Geographers recognize that a "place" is defined not only by its internal characteristics but also by the flows of people, materials (e.g., manufactured

goods, pollutants), and ideas from other places. These flows introduce interdependencies between places that can either reinforce or reduce differences. For example, very different agricultural land-use practices have evolved under identical local environmental conditions as a result of the distance to market affecting the profitability of crops. At a macroscale, the widespread and global flow of Western cultural values and economic systems has served to reduce differences among many peoples of the world. An important focus of geography is on understanding these flows and how they affect place.

The challenge of analyzing the flows and their impacts on place is considerable. Such relationships have all the characteristics of complex nonlinear systems whose behavior is hard to represent or predict. These relationships are becoming increasingly important for science and decision making, as discussed in Chapters 5 and 6 .

Interdependencies Among Scales

Geographers recognize that the scale of observation also matters for understanding geographic processes and phenomena at a place. Although geography is concerned with both spatial and temporal scales, the enduring dimension of the geographic perspective is the significance of spatial scales, from the global to the highly local.

Geographers have noted, for example, that changing the spatial scale of analysis can provide important insights into geographic processes and phenomena and into understanding how processes and phenomena at different scales are related. A long-standing concern of geographers has been the "regionalization problem," that is, the problem of demarcating contiguous regions with common geographic characteristics. Geographers recognize that the internal complexity and differentiation of geographic regions is scale-dependent and, thus, that a particular set of regions is always an incomplete and possibly misleading representation of geographic variation.

Identifying the scales at which particular phenomena exhibit maximum variation provides important clues about the geographic, as well as the temporal, scope of the controlling mechanisms. For example, spectral analyses of temperature data, revealing the geographic scales at which there is maximum similarity in temperature, can provide important clues about the relative influence of microclimates, air masses, and global circulation on temperature patterns. A global rise in average temperature could have highly differentiated local impacts and may even produce cooling in certain localities because of the way in which global, regional, and local processes interact. By the same token, national and international economic and political developments can have highly differentiated impacts on the economic competitiveness of cities and states. The focus on scale enables geographers to analyze the impact of global changes on local events—and the impact of local events on global changes.

Domains of Synthesis 2

Geography's most radical departure from conventional disciplinary specializations can be seen in its fundamental concern for how humans use and modify the biological and physical environment (the biophysical environment ) that sustains life, or environmental-societal dynamics. There are two other important domains of synthesis within geography as well: work examining interrelationships among different biophysical processes, or environmental dynamics, and work synthesizing economic, political, social, and cultural mechanisms, or human-societal dynamics. These domains cut across and draw from the concerns about place embedded in geography's way of looking at the world.

Environmental-Societal Dynamics

This branch of the discipline reflects, perhaps, geography's longest-standing concern and is thus heir to a rich intellectual tradition. The relationships that it studies—the dynamics relating society and its biophysical environment—today are not only a core element of geography but are also of increasingly urgent concern to other disciplines, decision makers, and the public. Although the work of geographers in this domain is too varied for easy classification, it includes three broad but overlapping fields of research: human use of and impacts on the environment, impacts on humankind of environmental change, and human perceptions of and responses to environmental change.

Human Use of and Impacts on the Environment

Human actions unavoidably modify or transform nature; in fact, they are often intended specifically to do so. These impacts of human action have been so extensive and profound that it is now difficult to speak of a "natural" environment. Geographers have contributed to at least three major global inventories of human impacts on the environment (Thomas, 1956; Turner et al., 1990; Mather and Sdasyuk, 1991) and have contributed to the literature of assessment, prescription, and argument regarding their significance. Studies at local and regional levels have clarified specific instances of human-induced landscape transformation: for example, environmental degradation in the Himalayas, patterns and processes of deforestation in the Philippines and the Amazon, desiccation of the Aral Sea, degradation of landscapes in China, and the magnitude and character of pre-Hispanic environmental change in the Americas.

Geographers study the ways in which society exploits and, in doing so,

degrades, maintains, improves, or redefines its natural resource base. Geographers ask why individuals and groups manipulate the environment and natural resources in the ways they do (Grossman, 1984; Hecht and Cockburn, 1989). They have examined arguments about the roles of carrying capacity and population pressures in environmental degradation, and they have paid close attention to the ways in which different cultures perceive and use their environments (Butzer, 1992). They have devoted considerable attention to the role of political-economic institutions, structures, and inequities in environmental use and alteration, while taking care to resist portraying the environment as an empty stage on which social conflicts are acted out (Grossman, 1984; Zimmerer, 1991; Carney, 1993).

Environmental Impacts on Humankind

Consequences for humankind of change in the biophysical environment—whether endogenous or human-induced—are also a traditional concern for geographers. For instance, geographers were instrumental in extending the approaches of environmental impact analysis to climate. They have produced important studies of the impact of natural climate variation and projected human-induced global warming on vulnerable regions, global food supply, and hunger. They have studied the impacts of a variety of other natural and environmental phenomena, from floods and droughts to disease and nuclear radiation releases (Watts, 1983; Kates et al., 1985; Parry et al., 1988; Mortimore, 1989; Cutter, 1993). These works have generally focused on the differing vulnerabilities of individuals, groups, and geographic areas, demonstrating that environmental change alone is insufficient to understand human impacts. Rather, these impacts are articulated through societal structures that give meaning and value to change and determine in large part the responses taken.

Human Perceptions of and Responses to Environmental Change

Geographers have long-recognized that human-environment relations are greatly influenced not just by particular activities or technologies but also by the very ideas and attitudes that different societies hold about the environment. Some of geography's most influential contributions have documented the roots and character of particular environmental views (Glacken, 1967; Tuan, 1974). Geographers have also recognized that the impacts of environmental change on human populations can be strongly mitigated or even prevented by human action. Accurate perception of change and its consequences is a key component in successful mitigation strategies. Geographers studying hazards have made important contributions to understanding how perceptions of risk vary from reality (Tuan, 1974) and how communication of risk can amplify or dampen risk signals (Palm, 1990; Kasperson and Stallen, 1991).

Accurate perceptions of available mitigation strategies is an important aspect

of this domain, captured by Gilbert F. White's geographic concept of the "range of choice," which has been applied to inform policy by illuminating the options available to different actors at different levels (Reuss, 1993). In the case of floodplain occupancy, for instance, such options include building flood control works, controlling development in flood-prone areas, and allowing affected individuals to absorb the costs of disaster. In the case of global climate change, options range from curtailing greenhouse gas (e.g., carbon dioxide) emissions to pursuing business as usual and adapting to change if and when it occurs. Geographers have assembled case studies of societal responses to a wide variety of environmental challenges as analogs for those posed by climate and other environmental change and have examined the ways in which various societies and communities interpret the environments in questions (Jackson, 1984; Demeritt, 1994; Earle, 1996).

Environmental Dynamics

Geographers often approach the study of environmental dynamics from the vantage point of natural science (Mather and Sdasyuk, 1991). Society and its roles in the environment remain a major theme, but human activity is analyzed as one of many interrelated mechanisms of environmental variability or change. Efforts to understand the feedbacks among environmental processes, including human activities, also are central to the geographic study of environmental dynamics (Terjung, 1982). As in the other natural sciences, advancing theory remains an overarching theme, and empirical verification continues to be a major criterion on which efficacy is judged.

Physical geography has evolved into a number of overlapping subfields, although the three major subdivisions are biogeography, climatology, and geomorphology (Gaile and Willmott, 1989). Those who identify more with one subfield than with the others, however, typically use the findings and perspectives from the others to inform their research and teaching. This can be attributed to physical geographers' integrative and cross-cutting traditions of investigation, as well as to their shared natural science perspective (Mather and Sdasyuk, 1991). Boundaries between the subfields, in turn, are somewhat blurred. Biogeographers, for example, often consider the spatial dynamics 3 of climate, soils, and topography when they investigate the changing distributions of plants and animals, whereas climatologists frequently take into account the influences that landscape heterogeneity and change exert on climate. Geomorphologists also account for climatic forcing and vegetation dynamics on erosional and depositional process. The three major

subfields of physical geography, in other words, not only share a natural science perspective but differ simply with respect to emphasis. Each subfield, however, will be summarized separately here in deference to tradition.

Biogeography

Biogeography is the study of the distributions of organisms at various spatial and temporal scales, as well as the processes that produce these distribution patterns. Biogeography lies at the intersection of several different fields and is practiced by both geographers and biologists. In American and British geography departments, biogeography is closely allied with ecology.

Geographers specializing in biogeography investigate spatial patterns and dynamics of individual plant and animal taxa and the communities and ecosystems in which they occur, in relation to both natural and anthropogenic processes. This research is carried out at local to regional spatial scales. It focuses on the spatial characteristics of taxa or communities as revealed by fieldwork and/or the analysis of remotely sensed images. This research also focuses on historic changes in the spatial characteristics of taxa or communities as reconstructed, for example, from land survey records, photographs, age structures of populations, and other archival or field evidence. Biogeographers also reconstruct prehistoric and prehuman plant and animal communities using paleoecological techniques such as pollen analysis of lake sediments or faunal analysis of midden or cave deposits. This research has made important contributions to understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of biotic communities as influenced by historic and prehistoric human activity as well as by natural variability and change.

Climatology

Geographic climatologists are interested primarily in describing and explaining the spatial and temporal variability of the heat and moisture states of the Earth's surface, especially its land surfaces. Their approaches are quite varied, including (1) numerical modeling of energy and mass fluxes from the land surface to the atmosphere; (2) in situ measurements of mass and energy fluxes, especially in human-modified environments; (3) description and evaluation of climatically relevant characteristics of the land surface, often through the use of satellite observations; and (4) the statistical decomposition and categorization of weather data. Geographic climatologists have made numerous contributions to our understanding of urban and regional climatic systems, and they are beginning to examine macroscale climatic change as well. They have also examined the statistical relationships among weather, climate, and sociological data. Such analyses have suggested some intriguing associations, for example, between urban growth and warming (Oke, 1979) and the seasonal heating cycle and crime frequency (Harries et al., 1984).

Geomorphology

Geomorphological research in geography emphasizes the analysis and prediction of Earth surface processes and forms. The Earth's surface is constantly being altered under the combined influences of human and natural factors. The work of moving ice, blowing wind, breaking waves, collapse and movement from the force of gravity, and especially flowing water sculptures a surface that is constantly being renewed through volcanic and tectonic activity.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, geomorphological research has focused on examining stability in the landscape and the equilibrium between the forces of erosion and construction. In the past two decades, however, emphasis has shifted toward efforts to characterize change and the dynamic behavior of surface systems. Whatever the emphasis, the method of analysis invariably involves the definition of flows of mass and energy through the surface system, and an evaluation or measurement of forces and resistance at work. This analysis is significant because if geomorphologists are to predict short-term, rapid changes (such as landslides, floods, or coastal erosion in storms) or long-term, rapid changes (such as erosion caused by land management or strip mining), the natural rates of change must first be understood.

Human-Societal Dynamics: From Location Theory to Social Theory

The third domain focuses on the geographic study of interrelated economic, social, political, and cultural processes. Geographers have sought a synthetic understanding of such processes through attention to two types of questions: (1) the ways in which those processes affect the evolution of particular places and (2) the influence of spatial arrangements and our understanding on those processes. Much of the early geographical work in this area emphasized locational decision making; spatial patterns and their evolution were explained largely in terms of the rational spatial choices of individual actors (e.g., Haggett et al., 1979; Berry and Parr, 1988).

Beginning with Harvey (1973), a new cohort of scholars began raising questions about the ways in which social structures condition individual behavior and, more recently, about the importance of political and cultural factors in social change (Jackson and Penrose, 1993). This has matured as an influential body of work founded in social theory, which has devoted considerable effort to understanding how space and place mediate the interrelations between individual actions and evolving economic, political, social, and cultural patterns and arrangements and how spatial configurations are themselves constructed through such processes (e.g., Gregory and Urry, 1985; Harvey, 1989; Soja, 1989; Wolch and Dear, 1989).

This research has gained wide recognition both inside and outside the disci-

pline of geography; as a result, issues of space and place are now increasingly seen as central to social research. Indeed, one of the principal journals for interdisciplinary research in social theory, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, was founded by geographers. The nature and impact of research that has sought to bridge the gap between social theory and conceptualizations of space and place are evident in recent studies of both the evolution of places and the interconnections among places.

Societal Synthesis in Place

Geographers who study societal processes in place have tended to focus on micro- or mesoscales. Research on cities has been a particularly influential area of research, showing how the internal spatial structure of urban areas depends on the operation of land markets, industrial and residential location decisions, population composition, forms of urban governance, cultural norms, and the various influences of social groups differentiated along lines of race, class, and gender. The impoverishment of central cities has been traced to economic, social, political, and cultural forces accelerating suburbanization and intraurban social polarization. Studies of urban and rural landscapes examine how the material environment reflects, and shapes, cultural and social developments, in work ranging from interpretations of the social meanings embedded in urban architecture to analyses of the impacts of highway systems on land uses and neighborhoods (Knox, 1994).

Researchers have also focused on the living conditions and economic prospects of different social and ethnic groups in particular cities, towns, and neighborhoods, with particular attention recently to how patterns of discrimination and employment access have influenced the activity patterns and residential choices of urban women (e.g., McDowell, 1993a, b). Researchers have also attempted to understand the economic, social, and political forces reinforcing the segregation of poor communities, as well as the persistence of segregation between certain racial and ethnic groups, irrespective of their socioeconomic status. A geographical perspective on such issues ensures that groups are not treated as undifferentiated wholes. By focusing attention on disadvantaged communities in inner cities, for example, geographers have offered significant evidence of what happens when jobs and wealthier members of a community leave to take advantage of better opportunities elsewhere (Urban Geography, 1991).

Geographical work on place is not limited to studies of contemporary phenomena. Geographers long have been concerned with the evolving character of places and regions, and geographers concerned with historical developments and processes have made important contributions to our understanding of places past and present. These contributions range from sweeping interpretations of the historical evolution of major regions (e.g., Meinig, 1986 et seq.) to analyses of the changing ethnic character of cities (Ward, 1971) to the role of capitalism in

urban change (Harvey, 1985a, b). Studies along these lines go beyond traditional historical analysis to show how the geographical situation and character of places influence not only how those places develop but larger social and ideological formations as well.

Space, Scale, and Human-Societal Dynamics

Studies of the social consequences of linkages between places focus on a variety of scales. One body of research addresses spatial cognition and individual decision making and the impact of individual action on aggregate patterns. Geographers who study migration and residential choice behavior seek to account for the individual actions underlying the changing social structure of cities or shifting interurban populations. Research along these lines has provided a framework for modeling the geographical structure of interaction among places, resulting inter alia in the development of operational models of movement and settlement that are now widely used by urban and regional planners throughout Europe (Golledge and Timmermans, 1988).

Geographers also have contributed to the refinement of location theories that reflect actual private and public decision making. Initially, much of this research looked at locational issues at particular moments in time. Work by Morrill (1981) on political redistricting, for example, provided insights into the many ways in which administrative boundary drawing reflects and shapes political ideas and practices. More recent work has focused on the evolution of industrial complexes and settlement systems. This work has combined the insights of location theory with studies of individual and institutional behavior in space (Macmillan, 1989). At the interurban and regional scales, geographers have studied nationwide shifts in the location and agglomeration of industries and interurban migration patterns. These studies have revealed important factors shaping the growth prospects of cities and regions.

An interest in the relationship between individual behavior and broader-scale societal structures prompted geographers to consider how individual decisions are influenced by, and affect, societal structures and institutions (e.g., Peet and Thrift, 1989). Studies have tackled issues ranging from human reproduction and migration decisions to recreation and political protest. Researchers have shown how movement decisions depend on social and political barriers, the distribution of economic and political resources and broader-scale processes of societal restructuring. They have examined how the increased mobility of jobs and investment opportunities have affected local development strategies and the distribution of public resources between firms and households.

Indeed, there is new interest in theorizing the geographical scales at which different processes are constituted and the relationship between societal processes operating at different scales (Smith, 1992; Leitner and Delaney, 1996). Geographers recognize that social differences from place to place reflect not only differ-

ences in the characteristics of individual localities but also differences in how they are affected by societal processes operating at larger scales. Research has shown, for example, that the changing growth prospects of American cities and regions cannot adequately be understood without taking into account the changing position of the United States in the global system and the impact of this change on national political and economic trends (Peet, 1987; Smith and Feagin, 1987).

Geographic research also has focused explicitly on the spatial manifestations of institutional behavior, notably that of large multilocational firms; national, state, and local governments; and labor unions. Research on multilocational firms has examined their spatial organization, their use of geographical strategies of branch-plant location and marketing in order to expand into or maintain geographically defined markets, and the way their actions affect the development possibilities of different places (Scott, 1988b; Dicken, 1992). Research into state institutions has focused on such issues as territorial integration and fragmentation; evolving differences in the responsibilities and powers exercised by state institutions at different geographical scales; and political and economic rivalries between territories, including their impact on political boundaries and on geopolitical spheres of influence. Observed shifts in the location of political influence and responsibility away from traditional national territories to both local states and supranational institutions demonstrate the importance of studying political institutions across a range of geographical scales (Taylor, 1993).

Spatial Representation

The importance of spatial representation as a third dimension of geography's perspectives (see Figure 3.1 ) is perhaps best exemplified by the long and close association of cartography with geography (see Chapter 4 ). Research emphasizing spatial representation complements, underpins, and sometimes drives research in other branches of geography and follows directly from the thesis that location matters. Geographers involved in spatial representation research use concepts and methods from many other disciplines and interact with colleagues in those fields, including computer science, statistics, mathematics, geodesy, civil engineering, cognitive science, formal logic, cognitive psychology, semiotics, and linguistics. The goals of this research are to produce a unified approach to spatial representation and to devise practical tools for representing the complexities of the world and for facilitating the synthesis of diverse kinds of information and diverse perspectives.

How geographers represent geographic space, what spatial information is represented, and what space means in an age of advanced computer and telecommunications technology are critical to geography and to society. Research linking cartographic theory with philosophies of science and social theory has demonstrated that the way problems are framed, and the tools that are used to structure and manipulate data, can facilitate investigation of particular categories of prob-

lems and, at the same time, prevent other categories of problems from even being recognized as such. By dictating what matters, representations help shape what scientists think and how they interpret their data (Sack, 1986; Harley, 1988; Wood, 1992).

Geographic approaches to spatial representation are closely linked to a set of core spatial concepts (including location, region, distribution, spatial interaction, scale, and change) that implicity constrain and shape how geographers represent what they observe. In effect, these concepts become a priori assumptions underlying geographic perspectives and shaping decisions by geographers about how to represent their data and what they choose to represent.

Geographers approach spatial representation in a number of ways to study space and place at a variety of scales. Tangible representations of geographic space may be visual, verbal, mathematical, digital, cognitive, or some combination of these. Reliance on representation is of particular importance when geographic research addresses intangible phenomena (e.g., atmospheric temperature or average income) at scales beyond the experiential (national to global) and for times in the past or future. Tangible representations (and links among them) also provide a framework within which synthesis can take place. Geographers also study cognitive spatial representations—for example, mental models of geographic environments—in an effort to understand how knowledge of the environment influences peoples' behavior in that environment and make use of this knowledge of cognitive representation in developing approaches to other forms of representation.

Visual representation of geographic space through maps was a cornerstone of geographic inquiry long before its formal recognition as an academic area of research, yet conventional maps are not the only visual form used in geographic research. Figure 3.2 shows that conventional maps occupy a midpoint along a continuum of visual representation forms. This continuum can be defined by a dimension scale, which ranges from atomic to cosmological, and abstractness level, which ranges from images to line drawings.

Due to the centrality of geographic maps as a means for spatial representation, however, concepts developed for mapping have had an impact on all forms of spatial representation. This role as a model and catalyst for visual representation throughout the sciences is clear in Hall's (1992) recent popular account of mapping as a research tool used throughout science, as well as the recognition by computer scientists that maps are a fundamental source of many concepts used in scientific visualization (Collins, 1993).

An active field of geographic research on spatial representation involves formalizing the ''language" for visual geographic representation. Another important field of research involves improved depiction of the Earth's surface. A notable example is the recent advance in matching computational techniques for terrain shading with digital elevation databases covering the conterminous United States (see Sidebar 3.1 ).

The conventional map is one of many visual representations of space used by geographers and other scientists. As one of a continuum of spatial representations, maps occupy a "fuzzy" category defined by an "abstractness level" (horizontal axis) and a "scale dimension" (vertical axis).

Source: After MacEachren (1995, Figure 4.3 ).

Verbal representation refers to attempts to evoke landscapes through a carefully constructed description in words. Some of the geographers who have become best known outside the discipline rely almost exclusively on this form of representation. Geographers have drawn new attention to the power of both verbal and visual representations, exploring the premise that every representation has multiple, potentially hidden, and perhaps duplicitous, meanings (Gregory, 1994).

A current field of research linking verbal and visual forms of spatial representation concerns hypermedia documents designed for both research and instructional applications. The concept of a geographic script (analogous to a movie script) has been proposed as a strategy for leading people through a complex web of maps, graphics, pictures, and descriptions developed to provide information about a particular issue (Monmonier, 1992).

Mathematical representations include models of space, which emphasize location, regions, and distributions; models of functional association; and models of process, which emphasize spatial interaction and change in place. Visual maps, of course, are grounded in mathematical models of space, and it can be demonstrated that all map depictions of geographic position are, in essence, mathematical transformations from the Earth to the plane surface of the page or

computer display screen. The combination of visual and mathematical representation draws on advantages inherent in each (see Plate 2 ).

A good example of the link between mathematical and visual representation is provided by the Global Demography Project (Tobler et al., 1995). In this project more than 19,000 digitized administrative polygons and associated population counts covering the entire world were extrapolated to 1994 and then converted to spherical cells. The data are available as a raster map, accessible on the World Wide Web from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Consortium for the International Earth Science Information Network, Socioeconomic and Economic Data Center, which supported the project.

Cognitive representation is the way individuals mentally represent information about their environment. Human cognitive representations of space have been studied in geography for more than 25 years. They range from attempts to derive "mental maps" of residential desirability to assessing ways in which knowledge of spatial position is mentally organized, the mechanisms through which this knowledge expands with behavior in environments, and the ways in which environmental knowledge can be used to support behavior in space. The resulting wealth of knowledge about spatial cognition is now being linked with visual and digital forms of spatial representation. This link is critical in such research fields as designing interfaces for geographic information systems (GISs) and developing structures for digital geographic databases. Recent efforts to apply the approaches of cognitive science to modeling human spatial decision making have opened promising research avenues related to way finding, spatial choice, and the development of GIS-based spatial decision support systems. In addition, research about how children at various stages of cognitive development cope with maps and other forms of spatial representation is a key component in efforts to improve geography education.

Digital representation is perhaps the most active and influential focus of representational research because of the widespread use of GISs and computer mapping. Geographers have played a central role in the development of the representational schemes underpinning GISs and computer mapping systems. Geographers working with mathematicians at the U.S. Census Bureau in the 1960s were among the first to recognize the benefits of topological structures for vector-based digital representations of spatial data. This vector-based approach (the Dual Independent Map Encoding system, more recently replaced by the Topologically Integrated Geographical Encoding and Referencing system, or TIGER) has become the linchpin of the Census Bureau's address-matching system. It has been adapted to computer mapping through an innovative system for linking topological and metrical geographic representations. Related work by geographers and other scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Mapping Division led to the development of a digital mapping system (the Digital Line Graph format) and has allowed the USGS to become a major provider of digital spatial data.

Geographers working in GIS research have investigated new approaches to raster (grid-based) data structures. Raster structures are compatible with the structure of data in remote sensing images, which continue to be a significant source of input data for GIS and other geographic applications. Raster structures are also useful for overlying spatial data. Developments in vector and raster data structures have been linked through an integrated conceptual model that, in effect, is eliminating the raster-vector dichotomy (Peuquet, 1988).

U.S. geographers have also played a leading role in international collaboration directed at the generalization of digital representations (Buttenfield and McMaster, 1991). This research is particularly important because solutions to key generalization problems are required before the rapidly increasing array of digital georeferenced data can be integrated (through GISs) to support multiscale geographic analysis. Generalization in the digital realm has proved to be a difficult problem because different scales of analysis demand not only more or less detailed information but also different kinds of information represented in fundamentally different ways.

Increasingly, the aspects of spatial representation discussed above are being linked through digital representations. Transformations from one representation to another (e.g., from mathematical to visual) are now routinely done using a digital representation as the intermediate step. This reliance on digital representation as a framework for other forms of representation brings with it new questions concerning the impact of digital representation on the construction of geographic knowledge.

One recent outgrowth of the spatial representation traditions of geography is a multidisciplinary effort in geographic information science. This field emphasizes coordination and collaboration among the many disciplines for which geographic information and the rapidly emerging technologies associated with it are of central importance. The University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), a nonprofit organization of universities and other research institutions, was formed to facilitate this interdisciplinary effort. UCGIS is dedicated to advancing the understanding of geographic processes and spatial relationships through improved theory, methods, technology, and data.

Geographic Epistemologies 4

This survey of geography's perspectives illustrates the variety of topics pursued by geography as a scientific discipline, broadly construed. The methods and approaches that geographers have used to generate knowledge and understanding of the world about them—that is, its epistemologies—are similarly broad. The post-World War II surge in theoretical and conceptual geography, work

that helped the discipline take its place alongside other social, environmental, and natural sciences at that time, was triggered by adoption of what has been termed a "positivist" epistemology during the quantitative revolution of the 1960s (Harvey, 1969). Extensive use is still made of this approach, especially in studying environmental dynamics but also in spatial analysis and representation. It is now recognized, however, that the practice of such research frequently diverges from the ideals of positivism. Many of these ideals—particularly those of value neutrality and of the objectivity of validating theories by hypothesis testing—are in fact unattainable (Cloke et al., 1991; Taaffe, 1993).

Recognition of such limitations has opened up an intense debate among geographers about the relative merits of a range of epistemologies that continue to enliven the field (Gregory, 1994). Of particular interest, at various points in this debate, have been the following:

• Approaches stressing the role of political and economic structures in constraining the actions of human agents, drawing on structural, Marxist, and structurationist traditions of thought that emphasize the influence of frequently unobservable structures and mechanisms on individual actions and thereby on societal and human-environmental dynamics—carrying the implication that empirical tests cannot determine the validity of a theory (Harvey, 1982).
• Realist approaches, which recognize the importance of higher-level conceptual structures but insist that theories be able to account for the very different observed outcomes that a process may engender in different places (Sayer, 1993).
• Interpretive approaches, a traditional concern of cultural geography, which recognize that similar events can be given very different but equally valid interpretations, that these differences stem from the varying societal and geographical experiences and perspectives of analysts, and that it is necessary to take account of the values of the investigator rather than attempting to establish his or her objectivity (Buttimer, 1974; Tuan, 1976; Jackson, 1989).
• Feminist approaches, which argue that much mainstream geography fails to acknowledge both a white masculine bias to its questions and perspectives and also a marginalization of womens' lives in its analysis (McDowell, 1993b; Rose, 1993).
• Postmodernist or "countermodernist" approaches, which argue that all geographic phenomena are social constructions, that understandings of these are a consequence of societal values and norms and the particular experiences of individual investigators, and that any grand theory is suspect because it fails to recognize the contingent nature of all interpretation. It is argued that this has resulted in a "crisis of representation," that is, a situation in which the relative "accuracy" of any representation of the world becomes difficult to adjudicate (Keith and Pile, 1993). Feminist and postmodern scholars argue that it is necessary to incorporate a diverse group of subjects, researchers, and ways of knowing if the subject matter of geography is to embrace humankind.

Geographers debate the philosophical foundations of their research in ways similar to debates among other natural scientists, social scientists, and humanists, although with a particular emphasis on geographical views of the world and on representation. These debates have not been restricted to the philosophical realm but have had very practical consequences for substantive research, often resulting in contrasting theoretical interpretations of the same phenomenon. For example, neopositivist and structural accounts of the development of settlement systems have evolved through active engagement with one another, and debates about how to assess the environmental consequences of human action have ranged from quantitative cost-benefit calculations to attempts to compare and contrast instrumental with local and indigenous interpretations of the meaning and significance of nature. In subsequent chapters we have not attempted to mark these different perspectives, choosing instead to stress the phenomena studied rather than the approaches taken. We attempt selectively to include leading researchers from different perspectives working on a particular topic, to the extent that their work can be constituted as scientific in the broad sense that we use that term (see Sidebar 1.1 ).

While we recognize that different perspectives frequently lead to intense debates engaging very different views of the same phenomenon, there is no space in this report to detail these debates. Such often vigorous interchanges and differences strengthen geography as both a subject and a discipline, however, reminding researchers that different approaches may be relevant for different kinds of questions and that the selection of any approach shapes both the kind of research questions asked and the form the answers take, as well as the answers themselves.

As political, economic, and environmental issues increasingly spread across the globe, the science of geography is being rediscovered by scientists, policymakers, and educators alike. Geography has been made a core subject in U.S. schools, and scientists from a variety of disciplines are using analytical tools originally developed by geographers.

Rediscovering Geography presents a broad overview of geography's renewed importance in a changing world. Through discussions and highlighted case studies, this book illustrates geography's impact on international trade, environmental change, population growth, information infrastructure, the condition of cities, the spread of AIDS, and much more.

The committee examines some of the more significant tools for data collection, storage, analysis, and display, with examples of major contributions made by geographers.

Rediscovering Geography provides a blueprint for the future of the discipline, recommending how to strengthen its intellectual and institutional foundation and meet the demand for geographic expertise among professionals and the public.

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Earth Day is celebrated around the world on April 22. The relationship between people and the natural environment is a rich geographic topic, one addressed by authors of fiction , nonfiction , and memoir . Here are some books about conservation and the relationship between people and the natural environment , recommended by National Geographic staff. Young Readers The Lorax , by Dr. Seuss. “This book for all ages uses the geographic perspective to talk about global systems, interconnectedness, economy, and the environment.” —Mary Crooks, illustrator Make Way for Ducklings , by Robert McCloskey. “One of the most beautiful picture books ever published tells the story of how nature finds its way—with a little help from friendly policemen—even in the big, busy city of Boston.” —Caryl-Sue, senior writer/editor Young Adult My Side of the Mountain , by Jean Craighead George. “This coming-of-age story uses a boy's daily journal to show his experiences living alone in the wilderness. His survival adventures and descriptions of the natural world are an inspiring display of youth, competence, and independence.” —Julie Brown, ocean education specialist The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind , by William Kamkwamba. “Growing up amid famine and poverty in rural Malawi, 14-year old William Kamkwamba realizes that there is one resource that is constantly available—wind. The book chronicles William's self-taught attempts to make a windmill from salvage-yard finds. The book also shows William working to improve life for his family and village, surviving starvation, and enduring attacks from enemies and the teasing of his peers for his strange ideas. An inspiring look at the human spirit and a fascinating account of overcoming a difficult life in a famine-stricken nation.” —Kim Hulse, director (geography education programs) A Sand County Almanac , by Aldo Leopold. “A short, nonfiction book of essays and field notes about Leopold's natural observations around his homeland in Sauk County, Wisconsin. Leopold is an advocate for ‘land ethics’ and building strong and responsible relationships between people and their natural environment. Leopold’s idea is that land is not a commodity to be possessed; rather, humans must have mutual respect for Earth in order to not destroy it." —Heather Hoelting, intern, education programs Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness , by Pete Fromm. "Thrust forward in life helter-skelter, Fromm recounts how he left college in his junior year at the University of Montana to work for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Fromm leaves on a romantic whim, perusing the mountain man lifestyles of Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger for the seven months that he watched over a remote salmon hatchery in the Idaho wilderness. His official duties taking just minutes a day to complete, Fromm delves into hunting, trapping, and embracing the isolation and stark beauty of his time in the Idaho winter." —Zach Michel, contractor (oceans)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , by Barbara Kingsolver. "This book chronicles the year that Barbara Kingsolver, along with her husband and two daughters, made a commitment to become locavores—those who eat only locally grown foods. A lighthearted read written by three of the four family members who are passionate about their mission but don't take themselves too seriously, this is a great book for anybody who is interested in how their personal choices affect the world around them, budding environmentalists—or just anybody who likes to eat, because the recipes are also fantastic." —Justine Kendall, partnerships and communications coordinator Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism, the Belief System That Enables Us to Eat Some Animals and Not Others , by Melanie Joy. “Remember the moment in the movie Babe, where the cat purrs malevolently at our porcine hero, ‘Sometimes animals that seem to have no purpose really do have a purpose’? This book puts a name to The Way Things Are and what you can do to reject the status quo. With the book not much longer than the title, it's all the more reason to pick it up. Thoughtful, informative, life-changing.” —Mary Schons, reporter Students The Pie Man , by Gerry FitzGerald. “Charlie, a successful engineer at one of the largest firms in New York, finds himself in the rugged and rural landscape of McDowell County, West Virginia. As he tries to seal the deal on a multi-million dollar coal-fired power plant, Charlie realizes that the community and culture of Red Bone, West Virginia, will be changed forever if the deal goes through.” —Nina Page, web specialist The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon , by David Grann. “This is a nonfiction account of British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett, who disappeared in 1925 on one of his many quests to find an ancient civilization deep in the Amazon jungle. For nearly two decades, Fawcett, unlike many of his peers, ventured into the wilderness with only the bare minimum he would need to survive. He had great respect for the Amazon and the ideals of exploration, and by the end of the book, I did, too.” —Jeannie Evers, copy editor Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement , edited by Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C. Pezzullo. “This collection of essays gives a great introduction to the concept and history of environmental justice and how it differs from mainstream environmentalism. A must-read for anyone interested in social issues pertaining to the environment!” —Samantha Zuhlke, contractor (oceans)

Desert Solitaire , by Edward Abbey. “In this 1968 literary non-fiction work, Abbey details his work as a park ranger in Utah’s Arches National Park. Abbey clearly holds the natural world in high esteem, even though he rails against humanity’s relationship with the environment. At one point, he calls wilderness ‘not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.’” —Stuart Thornton, reporter The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places , by Gary Paul Nabhan and Stephen Trimble. “These two authors share their own stories, as well as observations of their children, about how and why nature becomes important during the growing years. I found myself reliving some of my own old styles of play and connection to wild places while reading. I highly recommend it.” —Anna Switzer, program manager (outdoor and experiential education) The Monkey Wrench Gang , by Edward Abbey. “Published in 1975, this book is basically a how-to for those who want to be, and became, eco-saboteurs. Excellent writing with thought-provoking, emotional, and often gut-wrenching views of the changes made to the environment in the name of progress and need.” —Valerie Ostenak, artist The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific , by J. Maarten Troost. “Nothing in the book actually relates to the title! It's a really funny take on Troost’s two-year stay on the island of Tarawa. It made me think a lot about how influenced we are by the places that are (and aren't) around us.” —Tricia B. Kane, director (business practices)

Join a Book Club Book clubs are a great way to discover more about the books you love, the books you loathe, and if the book was really better than the movie. Some book clubs are focused on a particular type of book: science fiction, graphic novels, classics. Other book clubs are free-for-alls. Book clubs also offer insight into your own community and the people who live thereyou will not believe the characters in your own neighborhood. Public libraries are usually an excellent source of information on local book clubs, and often host book club meetings themselves. Most book clubs are free, welcome new members , and meet about once a month.

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Essay on the Geography of Plants

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Essay Samples on Geography

Exploring why geography is important.

Why is geography important? This question beckons us to recognize the pivotal role that geography plays in shaping our understanding of the world around us. Geography extends beyond mere maps and coordinates—it encompasses a diverse range of concepts that impact our lives, societies, and the...

Exploring the Dimensions of "What is Geography"

What is geography? This seemingly simple question opens the door to a world of complexity, discovery, and understanding. Geography is not merely about memorizing maps or reciting the names of countries—it is a multidimensional field that delves into the interactions between people, places, and the...

Physical Geography: Exploring Earth's Natural Marvels

Physical geography is a captivating field that delves into the natural processes and features that shape our planet's surface. It investigates the forces that have sculpted mountains, carved valleys, shaped coastlines, and molded landscapes over millions of years. In this essay, we embark on a...

Exploring the 5 Themes of Geography: Understanding the Earth's Complexities

The 5 themes of geography provide a comprehensive framework for studying and interpreting the diverse landscapes, cultures, and interactions that shape our planet. Developed by geographer Jean-Pierre De Bar in 1986, these themes serve as a guide for exploring the complexities of our world. In...

The Need for Geography Study in the Context of Today’s World

Geography entails the study of the earth and it’s atmosphere, as well as the human activities that it affects and is affected by – a great portion of this has to do with the distribution of populations and resources and political and economic activities. It...

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Discovering Problematic Issues During the History of Geography

Geography as a discipline has progressed dramatically since its colonial roots (pre-1700s) and has proceeded to become one of the most important studies in world history, being utilized in wars and everyday politics. Geography, however, has also been one of the most divided studies, in...

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In-Depth Explanation of the Main Concepts of Political Geography

During this essay, political geography will be explained, with the different types of politics outlined, as well as how politics have altered the history of Belfast. This essay will also provide an in-depth explanation of the key geographical concepts that are place, territory and identity,...

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Analysis Of The Geographical Position And Features Of Egypt

In this essay I going to speak about Egypt's geography, its latitude and longitude coordinates are 26.8206° N, 30.8025° E and Cairo (the capital city) is 30° 2' N, 31° 14' E. It is located in North-East Africa, and it has borders with the Red...

Best topics on Geography

1. Exploring Why Geography is Important

2. Exploring the Dimensions of “What is Geography”

3. Physical Geography: Exploring Earth’s Natural Marvels

4. Exploring the 5 Themes of Geography: Understanding the Earth’s Complexities

5. The Need for Geography Study in the Context of Today’s World

6. Discovering Problematic Issues During the History of Geography

7. In-Depth Explanation of the Main Concepts of Political Geography

8. Analysis Of The Geographical Position And Features Of Egypt

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A Multitude of Hands: My new essay for National Geographic

In the May issue of National Geographic , I contemplate the hand. Human hands are unique and versatile–and yet we are far from the only animals with them. By looking at the variety of hands in nature, we can see some of the most striking evidence of how evolution tinkers in all sorts of unexpected way. Check it out.

The print version is accompanied by lovely sketches of a wide range of hands. If you read the story online, you can see an animation of the human hand. And if you have the National Geographic iPad app , you can see videos of other hands, from frogs to aye-ayes.

[Image: White -handed gibbon by Ingo Arndt, on Arkive.]

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Opinion ‘Michelle Cottle

The ‘Philly Girl’ Shielding Biden From the Bad News

Credit... Damon Winter/The New York Times

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By Michelle Cottle

Michelle Cottle writes about national politics for Opinion and is a host of the podcast “Matter of Opinion.”

• July 3, 2024

Amid the public fretting and finger-pointing rage over how to deal with a Democratic presidential nominee who most Americans think is too old for the job, some of the frustration is being directed at the first lady, Jill Biden. Which has me thinking back to one of the viral moments from her husband’s 2020 campaign.

On the night of Super Tuesday, as Joe Biden was delivering his celebratory speech at a rally in Los Angeles, two anti-dairy demonstrators rushed the stage , only to run smack up against the protective wall of Dr. Biden. With impressively fleet feet — rocking metallic sling-back pumps, no less — she inserted herself between her man and potential harm. There is an amazing photo of her grimacing and holding a protester at bay by the wrists as Mr. Biden looks on with concern. “We’re OK,” she assured everyone once the spectacle was over. “We’re OK.”

Notably, this was not the first time the candidate’s wife had served as a human shield for him in that race. Less than a month earlier, on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, she blocked an aggressive heckler and then showed him the door, joking afterward , “I’m a good Philly girl.”

Philly tough. That is who Dr. Biden is, fiercely and reflexively, when it comes to protecting and supporting her husband. This has been her role since the couple’s courting days, when he was a young senator struggling to recover from losing his first wife and baby daughter in a car crash. And those looking to recruit her to encourage Mr. Biden to reconsider his presidential bid may sorely misunderstand her — and their marriage.

“She gave me back my life,” he gushed of Dr. Biden in his 2007 memoir, “Promises to Keep.” Even before officially joining the family, she became a surrogate mother to his two young sons. And for nearly half a century since, she has sustained her husband through enough high-intensity drama to shatter a lesser spouse: his near-fatal aneurysm, the death of his oldest child, the disastrous drug addiction of his younger son, multiple presidential runs.

Which means that if Mr. Biden is determined to stay in this race, Jilly, as he calls her, is going to have his back. Period. Even if much of his own party suspects that he is very much not OK. In fact, the more that elite establishment types clamor for him to move aside, the more Dr. Biden is likely to get her back up.

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• 03 July 2024

Daily briefing: Western scientists get rejected papers published faster

• Flora Graham

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A tumour (artificially coloured) fills the alveolus of a human lung. Some evidence suggests that risk of these cancers decreases with age. Credit: Moredun Animal Health Ltd/Science Photo Library

Why lung cancer risk declines in old age

Lung cells in old mice behave as if they were iron deficient, which limits their ability for rapid, cancerous growth. This could explain why lung tumours in older mice are smaller and less frequent than in younger mice. The protein that affects the iron metabolism in mice also exists in humans, which could hint at why people over 75 are less likely to get lung cancer . But it’s important to note that the mice’s cancer was triggered suddenly with a genetic switch: in humans, cancer-causing mutations usually accumulate over decades, says molecular oncologist Ana Gomes.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: bioRxiv preprint 1 & preprint 2 (not peer reviewed)

Western scientists publish rejects faster

Authors in Western countries are almost 6% more likely than those based in other parts of the world to successfully publish a paper after it has been rejected , according to an analysis of 126,000 rejected manuscripts. These authors also found a home for their rejected manuscripts 23 days faster on average. “Maybe it’s something about being in the right networks and being able to get the right kind of advice at the right time,” says sociologist Misha Teplitskiy. Other factors playing into the discrepancy could be cultural. For instance, many journals are written in English, which puts some researchers at a disadvantage.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: SSRN preprint (not peer-reviewed)

Ants perform life-saving amputations

Florida carpenter ants ( Camponotus floridanus ) bite off injured nest mates’ limbs to save them from deadly infections. It’s the first example of animals other than humans performing such life-saving amputations . “The ant presents its injured leg and calmly sits there while another ant gnaws it off,” explains animal ecologist and study co-author Erik Frank. “As soon as the leg drops off, the ant presents the newly amputated wound and the other ant finishes the job by cleaning it.”

The New York Times | 5 min read

Reference: Current Biology paper

Features & opinion

Climate change worsens the housing crisis.

Thousands of people are being displaced across the Arctic as wildfires, floods and other symptoms of climate change threaten housing and infrastructure. To tackle both the housing and the climate crisis, governments must listen to Indigenous and local communities , argues geographer Julia Christensen. “Northern communities should be equipped to respond to their own needs through self-building, self-repair and community-led housing planning.”

Science priorities for the next UK government

Tomorrow voters in the United Kingdom go to the polls. The incoming government must reconnect with the scientific community, argues a Nature editorial . It recommends that ministers take a global view of science, address a growing crisis in university finances and guarantee research autonomy.

RNA pesticides promise precision killing

RNA-based pesticides promise to defend crops with less damage to the environment and human health than traditional poisons. By targeting the genes in specific pests, they can leave pollinators and other species unscathed . The technology first hit the market in the US last year with SmartStax Pro, a corn variety that produces double-stranded RNA that disrupts a gene in corn rootworm ( Diabrotica spp.). And a pesticide sold as Calantha, approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency in January, uses RNA interference to discombobulate a gene unique to the Colorado potato beetle ( Leptinotarsa decemlineata ) and its close relatives. Critics say more work needs to be done to ensure that RNA-pesticides don’t harm non-target species.

Science | 12 min read

Where I work

N. M. Ganesh Babu heads the Centre for Herbal Gardens at the University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology in Bengaluru, India. Credit: Sayan Hazra for Nature

Field botanist N. M. Ganesh Babu conducts botanical surveys in forests all over India with the help of local communities. His team includes doctors in traditional medicine who know the cultural significance of the plants that they work with. “My grandparents and my mother had a tremendous knowledge of plants,” he says. “So much inherited wisdom of this kind has already vanished.” Babu and his colleagues have developed techniques to propagate almost 800 wild species from seed, and have created an ethnomedicinal garden spanning 20 acres that showcases the vast array of plant species used in various traditional health practices — as well as a native-plant landscaping business at the university.

( Nature | 3 min read ) (Sayan Hazra for Nature )

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“racism is more complex than holding simple beliefs, such as ‘i don’t like black people.’”.

Some international development partners come to Africa with a ‘Western supremacy’ attitude, says paediatrician and former Rwandan health minister Agnes Binagwaho: they think the way things are done in the Western world should be the gold standard in collaborations. ( Nature | 7 min read )

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02216-9

Today I’m jumping for joy at the news that hippos can fly — sort of. When running full-tilt, Hippopotamus amphibius have four feet off the ground about 15% of the time . Hats off to evolutionary biologist John Hutchinson and his colleagues, who took on the “mind-numbing”, “boring” and “agonizing” work of analysing video footage of running hippos frame by frame.

Help this newsletter reach unexpected heights — please share your feedback at [email protected] .

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Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing

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