Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America: Climate Change, the Rise of China, and Global Terrorism

by H.J. de Blij

Book Overview

Over the next half century, the human population, divided by culture and economics and armed with weapons of mass destruction, will expand to nearly 9 billion people. Abrupt climate change may throw the global system into chaos; China will emerge as a superpower; and Islamic terrorism and insurgency will threaten vital American interests. How can we understand these and other global challenges? Harm de Blij has a simple answer: by improving our understanding...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195183010
• ISBN13: 9780195183016
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 9.4" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Good read for anyone

I teach AP Human Geography and every time I pick this book up I find a little more to share with my students. Of course, I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the world today.

Important book

This is an exceptional and needed introduction to Geography and how it relates to world problems.

An interesting book

Suppose the University of Michigan loses a football game to Nebraska by a score of 32 to 28. What do you think the reaction will be of Wolverine fans in those little villages one can spot on a map, Goblu and Beatosu? As this book explains, there won't be any. Some impish cartographer simply made these hamlets up! And there's a moral to this story. Maps can be used to deceive people, or simply tell outright lies. Yes, geography can be important! However, the main thrust of this book is to cover a huge amount of ground in trying to put three main issues into geographic perspective. The issues are, of course, climate change, the rise of China as a global force, and the threat of Islamic terrorism. That means understanding the geography of the present, so that one can assess what may be happening. This book does cover plenty of ground, and I'm sure there will be quite a few people (including myself) who feel the author has not only made a bunch of minor errors here and there but has also taken a number of interesting and controversial stands without being completely convincing. For example, just how solid is the evidence for a link between the Uralic languages and Japanese? And how sure are we that around 10,000 years ago, an enormous ice sheet slid into the Atlantic, sending a wall of water into the Mediterranean and then into the Black Sea which caused the water to rise at a rate of 6 inches per day, until the water level was 500 feet higher? Still, I think de Blij has some useful and valuable material about the three main questions. He does a good job of telling about the ice ages of the past 400,000 years. Basically, there have been four ice ages, with an average length of about 80,000 years, with warm periods between them lasting about 20,000 years. That is the big picture. And it means that we probably ought to think about what sorts of climate changes the several billion people on this planet may need to get ready for. The next interesting topic is demographics. Just what population changes seem to be occurring right now? Only a generation ago, many folks assumed that the world's population would grow catastrophically until some disaster stopped it. Now it appears that this may not be the case: in many areas, populations are declining right now. Italy and Germany are good examples of this phenomenon, and de Blij predicts that the total population of the anticipated 27 nations of the European Union will drop during the next 50 years and more, staying under 500 million. That means that the political and military influence Europe, which used to dominate the world, may continue to decrease. And the author shows us plenty of maps of portions of Europe which put some of its issues into much better perspective. We also see maps of Russia (another nation with a declining population) and China, and some interesting speculations about their futures. And there is a map showing the "front" between the Islamic and non-Islamic p

A brilliant work

This quite brilliant study uses maps to explain the challenges to America and the world. He analyzes the truth about global warming and delves into the topics such as the decline of Europe and Russia, the mess of Africa and the Islamist and Chinese threat to the world. He looks at the conflict potential of powerful china vis-à-vis America. Then he looks at the `front line' of Islam, in Africa and elsewhere. We see here the true front of terror, the countries where Islam is a border state suffer the most terrorism, i.e Sudan, Nigeria, Phillipines, Israel, Yugoslavia, Russia, China. This is a concise geographers view of the world, for those who feel most books don't include enough maps this is a wonderful change, the maps here are excellent and help prove the point and enlighten the reader. Highly recommended, this book completes the set of new books to detail the new world order(Clash of Civilizations and Pentagons New Map). A wonderfully written, daring and original work. Seth J. Frantzman

Indispensable guide to the contemporary world

H.J. de Blij is one of those rare academics and writers who has never lost focus on real issues and challenges affecting our world. As a veteran and highly skilled geographer he is diligently observant, seeks connections and relationships between issues, and places them into an essential geographic context. This is a book about three major challenges facing the US (and the world)- Climate Change, the Rise of China and Islam . It's a book that (thankfully) challenges the sterile prevailing world view and propaganda peddled by many politicians in the US and elsewhere. It is insightful, honest, extremely thought-provoking and says what needs to be said in carefully analyzed and logical sections. Finally, it is beautifully written and easy to read in a style that is engaging, interesting and rich with facts. Highly recommended. Buy it and I guarantee, you will never quite look at these specific challenges or the world in the same way again. It paints a future that is difficult and uncertain and dark in some respects. But far from hopeless. The question is whether the decision and policy makers will rise to these challenges in an enlightened and serious manner? H. J de Blij lays out the challenges in no uncertain terms - how they will be addressed by the international community and the US in particular, remains to be seen. The stakes are very high indeed.