WKU Geography and Geology Blog

With the International Polar Year underway, more research attention is being focused on the implications of global climate change for the planet’s polar regions. Missing from the discourse, however, is any serious consideration of the policy implications of global climate change for these regions. In a recent Op Ed column, I argue that a failure to consider the geopolitical, environmental, and resources implications of a melting Arctic could have serious implications for the U.S. and its neighbors. Clashes between Russia, Canada, and the US could develop over trans-Arctic shipping. As the Arctic ice melts, it will be easier for large ships to travel across the Arctic Ocean between Asia, Europe, and North America. More shipping in this environmentally sensitive region raises important concerns about territorial sovereignty, pollution, piracy, and new infrastructure. The US needs to take the lead on starting a dialogue that can begin to address these critical long-term policy implications of global climate change.

Despite recent advances in the teaching of geography in the K-12 and university classrooms across the U.S., most Americans remain woefully ignorant of the world around them. Assessments of geographical knowledge in general education classes at WKU, for example, routinely reveal a level of ignorance about the world’s basic geography. Less than 20 percent of students tested typically are able to find places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, or Vietnam on a map, and far fewer are able to provide geographically informed analyses of key issues such as global climate change, conflict, environmental damage, or resource use.
My recent OP ED column on this topic for the American Geographical Society’s Writers Circle calls for a No American left Geographically Ignorant Act to go along with the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act. This commentary was published in the Henderson (KY) Gleaner and in the Northwest Arkansas Times. Americans cannot succeed in a global economy, nor can they vote wisely about issues that have global implications, without a basic level of understanding of the world around us!