Month: January 2011

Classroom Ideas, Take Action

MLK Day, and a Memorial on the Horizon

Thumbnail image for washington_mlkmemorial_map.jpgMap of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial site, courtesy MLKmemorial.org and Roma Design Group

It is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday for celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., and his Civil Rights Movement contemporaries.

Never having participated–I’m ashamed to say–in any MLK Day events here in the nation’s capital in my 3+ years in Washington, this year I resolved to get out and participate. But, unfortunately, a morning departure of my roommate–and now former National Geographic colleague–to her native New Zealand, a rapid-onset cold, and a doctor’s appointment, derailed my plans.

Luckily, I won’t have to wait another year to pay homage to the Civil Rights leader and his compatriots. This summer, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial will open on the Mall here in Washington, D.C. (if all goes according to plan).

In lieu of leaving the confines of my warm row house this afternoon to honor Civil Rights, I paid a visit to the official Memorial website to see what I could find out about the site, and particularly its unique design and geography.

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Geography In the News

Haiti Earthquake One-Year Anniversary: Geography of a Disaster

 

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 Photograph by Benjamin Cole, My Shot

For me, January 12 has always been significant as my mother’s birthday. So, Happy B-day, Mom!

For most of the world, however, today is a grim anniversary, a cause for somber reflection rather than joyful celebration. It was just one year ago that a devastating earthquake rocked Haiti.

The Caribbean nation, the most impoverished in the Western Hemisphere, is still struggling mightily to recover a year later. Even now dead bodies are being unearthed, and experts estimate that less than 5% of the rubble from the earthquake has been removed. Millions of Haitians are still without homes, stranded in makeshift camps.

On the anniversary of the disaster, MWW joins others in reviewing a year of relief efforts and assessing the current state of affairs. However, our unique approach is to surface resources that offer answers to some of the most compelling geographic questions surrounding the quake and its aftermath.

*PLEASE note that these resources are not meant to be exhaustive in covering all angles of any one issue, but rather are intended to serve as initial steps for further research these geographic questions.

Keep reading to dig into the geography of the Haitian earthquake!

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Geography In the News

Top Geographic Events of 2010

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Each year our friend Matt Rosenberg over at About.com’s Geography hub compiles his list of the top geographic events.

Of course, we all love a good list, especially an annual retrospective–and really, what better way is there to make use of the downtime between Christmas and New Year’s (for those of us who celebrate those holidays) than to reflect on the previous 360 days of highs and lows?

Please read the list, and then tell us: What do you think? Are there other events you would have liked to see included?

[I’m a bit embarrassed to be posting this article so late–sorry Matt! I guess 2011 just got ahead of me. Anyway, here it is without further ado!]

CLICK HERE to see the list of the Top 5 Geographic Events of 2010

Here are some items I might add:
 

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Geography In the News, Take Action

7 Billion Strong…and Still Growing

If you read my previous post about maps for Haitian schoolchildren, you heard me allude to a new, short video about the global human population, produced by National Geographic.

The core of the message is probably old news to many of you: Global population has been growing at meteoric rates since the Industrial Revolution and will become increasingly problematic in coming years–even though growth rates are not as high as they once were in most areas of the world, and even though birth rates are in fact below replacement levels in many parts of Western and Eastern Europe. Still, we’re all going to starve and die, blah blah.

But, in fact, it appears we might not–that is, starve and die.

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Geography In the News

Weekly Reminder of Why I Come to Work Every Day

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I began a new year of work Monday with a computer that I could not log into and a phone line that went straight to voicemail and would not receive incoming calls. A frustrating way to kick off 2011, no doubt, but in a large organization, I suppose you are bound to have the occasional hardware malfunction. And so I tried to make lemonade out of lemons, spending a good portion of the day getting around to those crucial tasks I never seem to find time for: cleaning up my workspace, sorting through old files, reading bygone reports, etc. It turned out to be a very productive day; I was pleased with my own patience and adaptability. And it sure was nice to arrive to a sparkling office Tuesday morning.

When I logged onto my computer (already off to a blazing start compared with the previous day), I encountered this story on the Insider, National Geographic’s intranet portal:

NG [Nat Geo] Maps Travel to Haiti

The brief article read:

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