tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57635392024-03-15T21:12:23.854-04:00Environmental Geography<img src="http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/coffee/atitlanreserva-sm.jpg" align="left" hspace="10"><big>Geography asks three questions:</big><br> Where is it? Why is it there? So what?
<br>~~~<br>Geographers apply spatial understanding to the real world.James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.comBlogger1212125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-25066776771043319572024-02-21T09:09:00.001-05:002024-02-21T09:09:26.764-05:00Modest Relief<p>NPR's coverage of the <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/21/1232818472/student-loan-balances-wiped-for-the-first-batch-of-borrowers-in-bidens-save-plan" target="_blank">latest effort to reduce student-loan debt</a></b> got some things right: Congress and the courts are making any such relief difficult and such relief programs benefit the entire economy. </p><p>But then the discussion turned toward the "moral hazard" of such programs. Steve Inskeep is a good journalist, so I was surprised to hear him just nodding along with the secretary's nonsense talking points. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcS4mjQiBzXSS6SpKxnzB3qfrdSJJ0bnrKcftMufUgCP_v6IIzgPsP9H-f3kS_9i-5Yn3Wd0sPhlfQ2ROdqxn5r7di0xG6rKecFd9BsijdHg1UIeyr5HUv_0qDZX7oBee9S2vIvHkulEZeXrQDW4mzPn8Wgn_gw5URxp0OyX78Hza5km4DtrCJAA/s1600/Cardona-education.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcS4mjQiBzXSS6SpKxnzB3qfrdSJJ0bnrKcftMufUgCP_v6IIzgPsP9H-f3kS_9i-5Yn3Wd0sPhlfQ2ROdqxn5r7di0xG6rKecFd9BsijdHg1UIeyr5HUv_0qDZX7oBee9S2vIvHkulEZeXrQDW4mzPn8Wgn_gw5URxp0OyX78Hza5km4DtrCJAA/s320/Cardona-education.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Education Secretary Miguel Cardona</td></tr></tbody></table><p>]I was not surprised to hear Sec. Cardona blame universities for the student-debt crisis, but I expected Steve Inskeep to point out the important role of state governments. Instead, he agreed with the Secretary's language of "moral hazard" as if universities just enjoy raising prices. </p><p>Since the days of Reagan and Clinton, public-sector higher education has been under attack by both parties, shifting the 80/20 sharing of costs that people of my age enjoyed to the 20/80 (at best) sharing that exists today. Public universities are public in name only these days; we get a sliver of our budget from public funds, with students paying/borrowing most of what it takes to run a school.</p><p>This is why the anti-intellectual language of "ROI" has gained such traction, even among smart people like Mr. Inskeep.</p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-34221834138144130832024-01-30T07:37:00.006-05:002024-01-30T07:37:54.220-05:00Sir EGGOT<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ6On4JFHjNAHlJVHAbv0PWd1nIBHBn10xMyde0fYW4LTuQMnGL09BL-sUSZ11qVwedDkkOLEMI-8TJ0YfHpB9aOes8bxmBdZfwvi_mWmv32LryfSjrph3mq25ycIoY7VR5BSj3g4BTMMtI8wBznFUvQGvaSnKuUjdmexWoaE2dF6_eXrxuUdSBQ/s300/madman.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ6On4JFHjNAHlJVHAbv0PWd1nIBHBn10xMyde0fYW4LTuQMnGL09BL-sUSZ11qVwedDkkOLEMI-8TJ0YfHpB9aOes8bxmBdZfwvi_mWmv32LryfSjrph3mq25ycIoY7VR5BSj3g4BTMMtI8wBznFUvQGvaSnKuUjdmexWoaE2dF6_eXrxuUdSBQ/w200-h200/madman.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">I remember where I was when I first saw this album. Even the name of the album seemed a bit transgressive to the sheltered kid I was at the time.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">My father's youngest brother and sister were still teenagers when Elton John released <i>Madman Across the Water</i>. According to my fuzzy memories, my brother and I were in the back yard of our grandparents' home listening to a transistor radio when we learned about the album itself -- I don't remember knowing of any other rock albums before this.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">So this morning I treated myself to this jazzy rendition that he had played for BBC television a week after it was released, and presumably a couple of months before I learned about it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B8_xkuGbPhY?si=uCMGzHYUC09A8PEk" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The occasion was Sir Elton's latest honor, this time at the instigation of my country's top librarians. Long after being knighted and shortly after becoming only the 19th person to achieve <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_EGOT_winners" target="_blank">EGOT</a></b> status (Emmy-Grammy-Oscar-Tony), the Librarians of Congress have granted Elton John and his writing partner Bernie Taupin its prestigious <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gershwin_Prize" target="_blank">Gershwin Prize for Popular Song</a></b>. Named for George and Ira Gershwin, the first honoree was Stevie Wonder. Joni Mitchell was the most recent winner, and <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRjZoRtu0Y" target="_blank">the tribute performance of Big Yellow Taxi was captivating</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">As of this writing, even the <b><a href="https://www.loc.gov/events/gershwin-prize" target="_blank">Gershwin Prize page at LOC</a></b> does not yet divulge the news, which I learned early this morning from <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/30/1227163535/sir-elton-john-and-bernie-taupin-win-the-2024-gershwin-prize-for-popular-song" target="_blank">NPR journalist Neda Ulaby</a></b>. who clearly enjoyed telling the story and who gets credit for the EGGOT acronym.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyy-3Ug-NMj6glL1fnz9LkqHx5HcrX1MnoGrA2tkt3G1bGDcBb5zqp1lM6kz6WY3dAeq7ouCT_3oH6vHRW5bpJX_X73GCyVSlvmuTqQw9-VoaC2N8K7R9DDGQ3GfDeNVUWIt-iD14DCx39NK4oWX4XcGGUQ3XWEOADoIFjFxtk-3BmqO7PFI4nMA/s1600/eltonandbernie.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyy-3Ug-NMj6glL1fnz9LkqHx5HcrX1MnoGrA2tkt3G1bGDcBb5zqp1lM6kz6WY3dAeq7ouCT_3oH6vHRW5bpJX_X73GCyVSlvmuTqQw9-VoaC2N8K7R9DDGQ3GfDeNVUWIt-iD14DCx39NK4oWX4XcGGUQ3XWEOADoIFjFxtk-3BmqO7PFI4nMA/s320/eltonandbernie.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Words & Music: Bernie & Elton<br />Photo: Loic Venance</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-60622996692799554872024-01-28T10:01:00.012-05:002024-03-06T08:21:09.446-05:00Cabo Verde Photos<p>This embedded slideshow is the best way I know to share all of the photos from my recent travel course in Cape Verde. This is captured from my <b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhayesboh/albums/72177720313869307" target="_blank">Fogo 2024 album on Flickr</a></b>, which is another way to view the same images and to capture them individually (with attribution, please). To view below, simply click < or > and click on the ... at the bottom to expand text. </p><p>As those who know about my teaching are aware, I use coffee as a way to learn more about geography and geography as a way to learn about coffee. As I mentioned to a friend recently, coffee is the wedge -- we are always going to learn about a lot of things when we study it as geographers!</p><p><b><a data-flickr-embed="true" data-footer="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhayesboh/albums/72177720313869307" title="Fogo 2024"><img alt="Fogo 2024" height="540" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53446895086_31c0395148_c.jpg" width="720" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script></b></p><p><b>Background</b>: In January 2024, I was delighted to travel to Cape Verde to co-lead my 16th international travel course and my first one since going to <b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhayesboh/albums/72157712518997492/" target="_blank">Costa Rica in January 2020</a></b> just before the world closed. I always use the term "co-lead" even though I have been the academic instructor of record for all of these journeys. For most of my courses in Central America, I have relied on the expert guidance of <b><a href="https://matagalpatours.com/" target="_blank">Matagalpa Tours</a></b>. </p><p>For this visit to Cape Verde, I worked closely with experts on my own campus before, during, and after the travel -- just as I had done for the <b><a href="https://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/caboverde/" target="_blank">sustainability tour I led there in 2006</a></b>. This time my colleagues at BSU's <a href="https://www.bridgew.edu/center/capeverdeanstudies/pedro-pires-institute-cape-verdean-studies" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Pedro Pires Institute for Cape Verean Studies</a> developed this program with me over the past five years, introducing me to some of the people we were to meet on the journey.</p><p>For all of these classes, we have also relied heavily on our Office of Study Abroad to promote the courses, organize the travel, and provide assistance from home during travel. The success of these courses really do depend on many collaborators, especially those who welcome us to their home communities where group travel may not yet be commonplace. </p><p>During the course, I gave public lectures about the geography of coffee to audiences that included our own BSU students, local high school students, local dignitaries, the general public, and some experts who are themselves involved in coffee or coffee research. The idea was to provide some. context for a global industry that many in the audience already understood from an intimate, local level. Slides from these presentations are provided on the <b><a href="http://www.doctor.coffee/2024/01/cafe-no-fogo.html" target="_blank">Café no Fogo</a></b> post on my Coffee Maven blog, along with materials presented by Carolyn King, a recent BSU graduate who has done remarkable work on connections between <b><a href="https://seagrant.whoi.edu/cccv/" target="_blank">Cape Verde and Cape Cod</a></b>.</p><p>This led to exactly the kinds of exchanges of insights that I was hoping to have, and prepares us for further collaboration in the future. The constraints of our academic calendar caused us to take this trip during a relatively quiet time of the year for local coffee activities; I look forward to returning when the harvest and processing are more active.</p><p><b>Lagniappe</b> </p><p>I have more to say about the background and significance of this journey in a <b><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/18Bf1nU8nlb2OrIpIr4W4fq-RFnEfCIGSVGUNs80KrDI/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">draft article</a></b> I have written for the Pedro Pires Institute newsletter.</p><p><br /></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-14958639521796245512024-01-15T11:55:00.001-05:002024-01-15T11:55:14.474-05:00Îles de France<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNTYdmIecjX0sCM4jjw1pC1CFgbxxC54MnKOjuQIxBTA_ncTrEzqejTv9dM29rUeXkQMFTeYnNIYs4WnGmfTfs6QuhMKB8T8S5LUc2XmqKqWZ3B3x9TXTfO4s2-eZ0H7EIjorswGf9N1ZoUyPU8viPxqp8xR04rDxK-8_0MJORnDhfLoFxoRs3Q/s2048/france-islands.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1857" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNTYdmIecjX0sCM4jjw1pC1CFgbxxC54MnKOjuQIxBTA_ncTrEzqejTv9dM29rUeXkQMFTeYnNIYs4WnGmfTfs6QuhMKB8T8S5LUc2XmqKqWZ3B3x9TXTfO4s2-eZ0H7EIjorswGf9N1ZoUyPU8viPxqp8xR04rDxK-8_0MJORnDhfLoFxoRs3Q/w580-h640/france-islands.jpeg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">50 Largest Islands of France<br />(Click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>A fellow geographer recently shared this graphic representing the <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_France" target="_blank">geography of French islands</a></b>. As with any map, the cartographer has made some choices, in this case depicting shape and size correctly but ignoring distance and location. <div><br /></div><div>A nod toward location is made, however, by shading the islands according to the oceans. and seas in which they are found. Even though some of these islands are considered "Antarctic Lands," they are not in the Southern Ocean which begins about 10 degrees further south. <div><br /></div><div>The largest of these islands is a bit bigger than Connecticut; the smallest is about half the size of Manhattan. <br /><p></p><div>I appreciate this map, but followers of this blog will know that <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2023/06/google-mymaps.html" target="_blank">I cannot resist making a Google map</a></b> whenever I see a spatial list of this kind. The combination of perspectives is, I think, instructive. </div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=125mJhG0gLEo0nBjb4brcfnRlfwuyV6A&ehbc=2E312F" width="640" height="480"></iframe></div><div><br /></div>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-17867683635314909782023-12-18T22:55:00.004-05:002023-12-18T22:55:43.260-05:00So Goes the Colorado<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW08jGKt1xEgzeMgzislqcHylhQSKtrgoaIyiApdK_G7ybaT6MEIxnp0L-IfnVq1gZItWdqb_h85kPPnKdpnMBnG1UFW9OLKR2Olz-NToEbCqfPWzNlvhKU9n1WrQJY_TrBywQXVQNpjafy8QzzJ1LHpRTmPzI2AT0EObm6gr30RgrDHNQCrmblg/s960/colorado-basin.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="889" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW08jGKt1xEgzeMgzislqcHylhQSKtrgoaIyiApdK_G7ybaT6MEIxnp0L-IfnVq1gZItWdqb_h85kPPnKdpnMBnG1UFW9OLKR2Olz-NToEbCqfPWzNlvhKU9n1WrQJY_TrBywQXVQNpjafy8QzzJ1LHpRTmPzI2AT0EObm6gr30RgrDHNQCrmblg/w593-h640/colorado-basin.jpeg" width="593" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Click to enlarge -- notice the tan hash-marked areas.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I follow the Facebook page <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/GeomorphologyRules" target="_blank">Geomorphology Rules</a></b> because it so often features maps like this one -- maps that tell a provocative story. I also follow it because my master's research was in fluvial geomorphology and I enjoy staying in contact (pun intended) with that quirky discipline that lies at the juncture of geography and geology. Plus which, <b><a href="https://faculty.utah.edu/u0545777-KATHLEEN_NICOLL/teaching/index.hml" target="_blank">geographer Kathleen Nicoll</a></b> runs the site with equal measures of wit and wisdom.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first thing I noticed about this map is that it identifies the Grand Canyon as a convenient divide between the upper and lower portions of the Colorado River drainage basin. I later noticed that this map (or perhaps it is a map excerpt) has no title or discernible producer.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But the most important thing about this map is that it explains why the Colorado River does not reach the sea most of the time. Most maps show it connecting to the Gulf of California, but in real life this is rare. Where Arizona, California, and Baja California meet, the river is scarcely 100 feet wide; immediately south of that it is not much wider than the small living room in which write this. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And a few miles south of that, the bridge ("puente") that carries Mexico's Route 2 over the river is bridge over sand most of the time.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP6yEXIzfWgrHNS4Yy59_ANGVbnAl6aDwzKH4q-QHkbpYm2poXFP2Kqhpt6RDTaNY4DFZCHrbiMtvMq_YwAtOONuny9QuSMA-aE0rGXNNkJQLh-SAdZprj3UudW7-UgEd1iJ8sXk5jaTRfc11251PxSMfQfLF6r71aKrsBjENxy9sdih_67sN9PQ/s1178/Screenshot%202023-12-18%20at%2010.35.38%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1178" data-original-width="976" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP6yEXIzfWgrHNS4Yy59_ANGVbnAl6aDwzKH4q-QHkbpYm2poXFP2Kqhpt6RDTaNY4DFZCHrbiMtvMq_YwAtOONuny9QuSMA-aE0rGXNNkJQLh-SAdZprj3UudW7-UgEd1iJ8sXk5jaTRfc11251PxSMfQfLF6r71aKrsBjENxy9sdih_67sN9PQ/w331-h400/Screenshot%202023-12-18%20at%2010.35.38%20PM.png" width="331" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">I have often explained this in terms of the unfair division of the river's water resources between the upstream and downstream neighbors. Octavio Paz famously lamented, "Alas, poor Mexico! So far from God and so close to the United States!" A century ago, the neighbors agreed to go "halfsies" on the basin's water, with each being allocated 7 million acre-feet of the total 14 million discharged annually. The agreement was made during an unusually wet period, but the U.S. always takes its half, since Mexico cannot come upstream to get it. Agribusiness and urban areas in the basin -- including the one I was living in when I learned all of this -- reduce the river to a trickle.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The maps makes clear, however, that this is not a full explanation of the problem. Rather, it is the interbasin transfers to the relatively small areas that essentially surround the basin. These are small regions to which water that would otherwise be making its way toward the aforementioned bridge is instead crossing the divide to supply cities, farms, or both in other basins.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The most notorious of these arrangements is the focus of the 1974 film <b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/reference/" target="_blank">Chinatown</a>,</b> but Los Angeles is far from the only culprit at this stage.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-67490989253088640292023-10-29T15:07:00.005-04:002023-10-29T15:07:50.815-04:00Blue Zone Living<p><span style="font-size: medium;">While driving home recently, I heard a sliver of <b><a href="https://theworld.org/media/2023-10-23/bobi-world-s-oldest-dog-dead-age-31" target="_blank">delightful, bittersweet radio</a></b> amidst the sad litany of suffering and violence that has dominated the news of late. I made a point of finding the story online when I got home so that I could share it with my family. I then found a print version because in this case, radio was not quite enough! </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It was the story of a Portuguese dog named Bobi -- not a famous dog of a fancy Portuguese breed, but a regular dog living in Portugal. Bobi lived, in fact, more years than any dog has ever been known to have lived -- and lived those years very well. He was an ordinary dog that was extraordinarily loved and cared for. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0c6dModNcvMa-7TemiBB9rwe7atrsxod117tDMycErxrnqzHmZr0ZeZSOpzwuoD4nF2WnFdz5x2geZrzvFtr800Xs4iy3lHfUkZsJ9dZjX4dHQHK8-BwHXwVqRto93WdLFWNhj-9oGYG5kXbctCtvvN1hD2cMLovLrj9PeOdHP4tqQbO1FKAX-Q/s976/bobiandcat.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0c6dModNcvMa-7TemiBB9rwe7atrsxod117tDMycErxrnqzHmZr0ZeZSOpzwuoD4nF2WnFdz5x2geZrzvFtr800Xs4iy3lHfUkZsJ9dZjX4dHQHK8-BwHXwVqRto93WdLFWNhj-9oGYG5kXbctCtvvN1hD2cMLovLrj9PeOdHP4tqQbO1FKAX-Q/w640-h360/bobiandcat.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: Guiness Book via BBC</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">His community was the key to Bobi's success, and the same is true for us humans. After hearing the story, we watched a limited series that had been on our list for a while. In four parts, <i><b><a href="https://www.bluezones.com/documentary/" target="_blank">Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones</a></b></i> describes the ways in which several communities in vastly different parts of the world have come to include high proportions of people living very long lives. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The show is a reminder to do more of some things we already know we should by way of diet, exercise, habits of mind, and relationships with our fellow humans. These are gentle reminders of how to lead a dog's life. A happy dog's, that is. </span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-69901877096047658172023-10-02T06:46:00.004-04:002023-10-02T07:52:50.106-04:00Think Before You Redwood<p><span style="font-size: medium;">This video addresses a landscaping trend of which I was unaware: the rampant planting of redwoods in places they are not meant to grow. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Our hero Griff of <b><a href="https://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/ourhouse.htm" target="_blank">Redwoods Rising</a></b> cultivates redwoods for a living, but he warns against buying them for planting in the wrong places. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@redwoodsrising/video/7276484279834660138" class="tiktok-embed" data-video-id="7276484279834660138" style="max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <section> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@redwoodsrising?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="@redwoodsrising">@redwoodsrising</a> plant the plants that are native to your area. don't plant redwood trees unless you have the area <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/redwood?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="redwood">#redwood</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/gardening?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="gardening">#gardening</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/landscaping?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="landscaping">#landscaping</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/learnontiktok?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="learnontiktok">#learnontiktok</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/naturevibes?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="naturevibes">#naturevibes</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7276484324940188462?refer=embed" target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Redwoods Rising">♬ original sound - Redwoods Rising</a> </section> </span></blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;"> <script async="" src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Those wrong places, he argues, would be any places not highlighted on this map of western California ... and a few nearby spots in Oregon.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">He teaches so many applied ecology lessons in four minutes that I do not need to add much to what he says, except to include a range map and links to the web sites he mentions.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSlrPxhfze0iMhDtEZmaKSnB5RQvrOkNUIiSaiDFB4qJfx6VgmIuEkfZH9Ie6-HxkRRJnRZurKFccpvV15KvU_QWzodoEs5xBgkVX4ZOLG53y3I1DHRfEmcw394X_cmU0DlQRJ7XJeLIaJZQQJHZi-w5MU-VOe89U6IDXd6q_Yka-U8H-Of2Hdw/s800/coastalredwoods.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="618" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSlrPxhfze0iMhDtEZmaKSnB5RQvrOkNUIiSaiDFB4qJfx6VgmIuEkfZH9Ie6-HxkRRJnRZurKFccpvV15KvU_QWzodoEs5xBgkVX4ZOLG53y3I1DHRfEmcw394X_cmU0DlQRJ7XJeLIaJZQQJHZi-w5MU-VOe89U6IDXd6q_Yka-U8H-Of2Hdw/w494-h640/coastalredwoods.jpeg" width="494" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map: <b><a href="https://www.savetheredwoods.org/redwoods/coast-redwoods/" target="_blank">Save the Redwoods League</a></b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One thing I will add to his commentary is that when he refers to areas cleared by commercial logging operations, he hints at a bit of greenwashing engaged in by some in the industry. Forests are renewable, and all logging operationg replant the areas that they clear. The quality of that replanting can vary so much that his organization has to re-replant many clearings to maintain anything like a healthy forest.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As for the websites, his own <b><a href="https://www.savetheredwoods.org/project/redwoods-rising/" target="_blank">Redwoods Rising project</a></b> is now described on the Redwoods League page; the original URL he mentions is no longer operable.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Even in California, redwoods are not appropriate everywhere. He recommends <b><a href="http://calscape.org">calscape.org</a></b> for information on more appropriate plantings in California. For the rest of the United States, he recommends <b><a href="https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/" target="_blank">Native Plant Finder,</a></b> a beta site operated by National Wildlife Federation. The final site he mentions is <b><a href="https://homegrownnationalpark.org/" target="_blank">Homegrown National Park</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">NWF, by the way, is the reason that WWE has its current name -- the wrestling people lost a trademark battle with the wildlife people. It is also the organization that <b><a href="https://www.nwf.org/CERTIFY" target="_blank">certified the habitat restoration efforts</a></b> on my family's 0.31 acre of <b><a href="https://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/ourhouse.htm" target="_blank">land in Bridgewater</a></b>. </span></p><p>Thanks to our son Harvey -- artist, foodie, and budding naturalist -- for finding this video!</p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-6509084478030373112023-09-26T17:21:00.002-04:002023-09-26T17:21:44.799-04:00Pueblos Oaxaqueños<p><span style="font-size: medium;">While scrolling social media (as I too often do) earlier today, I was struck by this marvelous map, courtesy of the site <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Estadodeoaxaca" target="_blank">Estado de Oaxaca</a></b>. It is entitled Peoples and Nations of Oaxaca. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoi0y3pwsHsctIqqLfHp-YMfL_QvaQrLl7pn0Kxo2S2zyaGdzPyZ4FwK-wrz1MO8onsa_AMCI4aQqUoz7xwb1ixrEgHMCkyzWnIIvQXvFTbBIOS7HZsCjbMcz_rzKZmDny7PFZLhVKG5gqH_A_lrZnf7hoWvrI1_G-qr_gabg5xj2PExgqwcRWtg/s720/PueblosDeOaxaca.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="720" height="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoi0y3pwsHsctIqqLfHp-YMfL_QvaQrLl7pn0Kxo2S2zyaGdzPyZ4FwK-wrz1MO8onsa_AMCI4aQqUoz7xwb1ixrEgHMCkyzWnIIvQXvFTbBIOS7HZsCjbMcz_rzKZmDny7PFZLhVKG5gqH_A_lrZnf7hoWvrI1_G-qr_gabg5xj2PExgqwcRWtg/w640-h518/PueblosDeOaxaca.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I was immediately taken back to the summer of 1989, the only time (so far) that I have visited the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. My favorite librarian and I were <b><a href="http://webhost.bridgew.edu/phayesboh/Mexico/Cholula.htm" target="_blank">spending the whole summer in the central Mexican state of Puebla</a></b> as part of a study-abroad program. From our base in Cholula, we had the opportunity to travel to several other places, including both Oaxaca to our south and Mexico City to our northwest.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Two highlights of that summer were dance variety performances to which troupes had traveled considerable distances to participate. In Mexico City, dancers took to the main stage of the <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/palaciobellasartesoficial" target="_blank">Palacio de Bellas Artes</a></b> (Palace of Fine Arts) from many of the country's 32 states. It was a fabulous experience, made all the more remarkable by the <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2017/09/tales-of-popo-and-itza.html" target="_blank">stage curtain</a></b> itself.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1Blc2j5TZCAjWgwM625V9Tr2INPw2NcVjtToD35ajbnUT2bOqs2QTqbdMOIdeK25NmqHc-zgDcZl2KqRSFLBxBReBE3tR8HI1Fzlqeos4F3dvn3Qv6CboBelm1yEi_X0aUUgQC81rxefhCkLCZc3eRzrKDtAgxAKLw8pemibFtBbKjJBkM1xtg/s960/BellasArtes.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="773" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1Blc2j5TZCAjWgwM625V9Tr2INPw2NcVjtToD35ajbnUT2bOqs2QTqbdMOIdeK25NmqHc-zgDcZl2KqRSFLBxBReBE3tR8HI1Fzlqeos4F3dvn3Qv6CboBelm1yEi_X0aUUgQC81rxefhCkLCZc3eRzrKDtAgxAKLw8pemibFtBbKjJBkM1xtg/w516-h640/BellasArtes.jpeg" width="516" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: Circulating on Facebook 2023</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">We had the privilege of attending a similarly organized performance when we visited the capital of Oaxaca at the time of its annual </span><b style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guelaguetza" target="_blank">Guelaguetza</a></b><span style="font-size: large;">. A similar event played out at a different spatial scale -- with music, dance, and clothing as varied at the level of the state as they had been at the national level. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Coming from all over Oaxaca, many groups performed in an open hilltop stadium on two consecutive Mondays (Los Lunes del Cerro). Unlike the indoor performance, each of these groups ended its performance by tossing gifts into the stands. Most impressive were the clay pots and the pineapples!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">I had thought that the timing of the dances -- literally two extended sets of dances a week apart -- a bit odd. It was not until our son visited Oaxaca years later that I realized the reason for the timing is that these public performances were part of a cultural gathering that was extending over the entire week. We were privileged just to have a glimpse as outsiders. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fun language fact:</b> This city of Oaxaca is one of my favorite place names. With the abbreviation of the state name, it is written Oaxaca, Oax and pronounced something like Whuh-HAK-ka-Wok.</span></div><p></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-69561871686364649702023-09-11T12:43:00.009-04:002023-09-11T13:49:35.299-04:00Big Yellow Taxi<span style="font-size: medium;">I <span>was already teaching environmental geography when I gradually realized the relevance of Big Yellow Taxi to my chosen field. It is a 1970 song by the incomparable <b><a href="https://jonimitchell.com/" target="_blank">Joni Mitchell</a></b>, a Canadian singer-songwriter-genius who is a contemporary of my father. </span></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I start most of my university courses with music, and lately I have decided that this song is essential for the first day in both my survey course and my course focused on land protection. (For the latter, I play <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc" target="_blank">The Trees</a></b> even before Taxi.)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I have been using two versions of Big Yellow Taxi:</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">A <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoqSZktN5PU" target="_blank">2023 tribute recording</a></b> on the occasion of her winning the <b><a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2023/03/joni-mitchells-gershwin-prize-concert-showcases-her-music-and-influence/" target="_blank">Library of Congress Gershwin Award</a></b>. Joni Mitchell listens as Angelique Kidjo, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Brandi Carlile, Lidisi, and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_(band)" target="_blank">Lucius</a></b> perform the song with great energy. I get particularly emotional at this rendition, both because of Joni's reaction throughout and because I have been lucky enough to see two of these performers (Kidjo and Lauper) in person. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>and </span><span><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgMEPk6fvpg" target="_blank">Joni Mitchell in Concert 1970</a></b>, a perfect version despite the fuzziness of the video.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8Z41OvNswCWOgwEdVVsO_0pYcp9JlFZPoGZR6B13p6I9-K-y1KEX8P7XD2a3G6nFHHUz5IcYOy9iZI0fXlq8jidppamKMcQJo9kbiwYaa5nnGOjpUlD7cYI2_4xgVLG-RHOrp6teF-_nH7trqLSo0RHk47pdkBI2f-_PuVOUKj0dF7vewqT-lQ/s1710/Screenshot%202023-09-11%20at%2012.42.47%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="1710" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8Z41OvNswCWOgwEdVVsO_0pYcp9JlFZPoGZR6B13p6I9-K-y1KEX8P7XD2a3G6nFHHUz5IcYOy9iZI0fXlq8jidppamKMcQJo9kbiwYaa5nnGOjpUlD7cYI2_4xgVLG-RHOrp6teF-_nH7trqLSo0RHk47pdkBI2f-_PuVOUKj0dF7vewqT-lQ/w400-h191/Screenshot%202023-09-11%20at%2012.42.47%20PM.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: from the <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2595abcvh2M" target="_blank">more-or-less official video</a></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">This simple song -- written, indeed, in the form of a children's lullaby -- has been covered more than almost any other -- over 400 and counting. In just a few minutes, she outlines much of what was wrong on our planet a half century ago -- and much of what continues to ail us. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Writing for the <i>Financial Times </i>in 2019, <b><a href="https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/big-yellow-taxi.html" target="_blank">journalist Charles Morris explains</a></b> that part of the appeal of this song is Mitchell's ability to connect the political and the personal in just a few, simply worded lines -- without hubris. His article explains the history of the song -- both origin and aftermath -- with deftly embedded audio clips.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Lagniappe</b> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Before really listening to Big Yellow Taxi, I had been most familiar with Mitchell's 1994 <i>Turbulent Indigo</i>, which I had heard while staying with an American-Brazilian friend for a few days in the Amazon in 1996. The CD became a staple in our household for years, and is a rich, lyrical tapestry. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">It includes Magdalene Laundry, an ode to the victims of a brutal institution to which Sinead O'Connor's bravely brought global attention with <b><a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2023/07/27/remembering-sinead-oconnor" target="_blank">her 1992 protest</a></b> on <i>Saturday Night Live</i>.</span></div></div>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-73198770750096757122023-08-18T07:14:00.003-04:002023-08-18T07:39:10.095-04:00Madeira Voyage Photos<p><span style="font-size: medium;">I finished editing all of the photos and videos from my recent visit to the Amazon, during which my friend Miguel and I traveled <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2023/07/down-creek.html" target="_blank">Down the Creek</a></b> from Porto Velho to Manaus. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The videos are interspersed here but might make more sense in the <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2023/07/madeira-playlists.html" target="_blank">Madeira Playlists</a></b> I created on YouTube. You can browse the photos in this slideshow or visit the <b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhayesboh/albums/72177720309874198" target="_blank">Rios Madeira & Amazon album</a></b> on Flickr.</span></p><p><a data-flickr-embed="true" data-footer="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhayesboh/albums/72177720309874198" title="Rios Madeira & Amazon 2023"><img alt="Rios Madeira & Amazon 2023" height="480" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53045078326_4e0634aa56_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It has been a great blessing this summer to spend time in the place where I became a geographer -- both literally visiting the Amazon for the fifth time and devoting much of my summer to reading and writing about it. I am currently working on several related teaching and writing projects, which will linked to the <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2023/07/down-creek.html" target="_blank">Down the Creek</a></b> post mentioned above.</span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-55108003203338714492023-08-16T11:50:00.002-04:002023-08-16T11:50:18.573-04:00Maui Tourism Considerations<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaTa8oRRlgcwJvI3Hsc5KHzuSXqKKsQOhvXmxihIpVfXJTgWEYbphyaiAwGeOE2YXDM1OpYrTrbipUjim628bRexWuvfcvQbE4Scz1_8lW4MbltMk3-5YOnq5jtI-qBdqh8kuEKmbnkG6qtZrXxE-2out8loZ_xg_E-0nEoaZb3_C-7ycatjLCA/s1024/Lahaina-fire-aerial-from-DLNR-1024x618.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="1024" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaTa8oRRlgcwJvI3Hsc5KHzuSXqKKsQOhvXmxihIpVfXJTgWEYbphyaiAwGeOE2YXDM1OpYrTrbipUjim628bRexWuvfcvQbE4Scz1_8lW4MbltMk3-5YOnq5jtI-qBdqh8kuEKmbnkG6qtZrXxE-2out8loZ_xg_E-0nEoaZb3_C-7ycatjLCA/w640-h386/Lahaina-fire-aerial-from-DLNR-1024x618.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />Damage in Lāhainā village Maui. Photo: Hawai‘i Department of<br />Land and Natural Resources via <i><a href="https://bigislandnow.com/2023/08/12/new-damage-assessment-map-shows-2207-structures-damaged-or-destroyed-in-lahaina-death-toll-in-maui-wildfires-stands-at-80/" target="_blank">Big Island Now</a></i><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;"> </span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Recovery operations are still underway in Maui as an important debate unfolds. It is unseemly to enjoy a vacation when bodies of victims are still being found, and the care and feeding of tourists diverts resources that may be needed by those in need of aid.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Canceling vacations, however, damages the economy and denies income to local workers who need funds now more than ever. For this reason, as reported by NPR this morning, <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/16/1194115167/maui-county-tells-tourists-to-come-back-just-stay-out-of-the-burn-zone" target="_blank">Maui County tells tourists to come back — just stay out of the burn zone</a></b>, even though officials had been asking people to stay away just a couple of days ago. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One one level, this story is a worthwhile examination of a real conundrum faced by those who have vacations planned on the island in coming days or weeks. I will never being staying at the Ritz in Maui, but I am fortunate enough to travel in such a way that I might face this exact circumstance some day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">On another level, though, the story could be entitled "The Fragility of Tourist Economies." We talk about tourism or other industries as "good for the economy" without considering what this might actually mean. A "good" economy would give people not only a paycheck but also the ability to take some time off to recover from trauma. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The tourist economy provides almost no resilience to the vast majority of workers on which it relies. T</span><span style="font-size: large;">his observation is not limited to tourism, of course. The social safety net is frayed to the point that self-care has become a luxury. </span></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">Helping</b></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Whatever our thoughts on the economy of tourism, of course, outside help is needed. I chose to support the efforts of <b><a href="https://convoyofhope.org/disaster-services/2023-maui-wildfire/" target="_blank">Convoy of Hope</a></b>, because a friend who spends a lot of time in Hawai'i and with the national leaders of this organization recommend it.</span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-45835176394089469092023-07-29T13:30:00.008-04:002023-07-29T15:18:13.463-04:00Madeira Playlists<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> As described in more detail in <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2023/07/down-creek.html" target="_blank">Down the Creek</a></b>, I had the good fortune this month of taking a long-awaited voyage on a cargo ship from Porto Velho, Rondônia to Manaus, Amazonas. My photos from the entire trip (including time in each city and on the rivers in between) is in my <b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhayesboh/albums/72177720309874198" target="_blank">Rio Madeira 2023</a></b> folder on Flickr. I promise, this is an edited set of photos, with all (or most) of the duds removed). I am gradually adding annotations to many of those photos.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcUGXrSGKrpysgSOdstxHWaxNUSxL54LIRHNL4pOx7WY0HATKdIZRWYwjwlMOWEzVdPmFni2lFcBHH1oGyfUr3ArgwpHNiV6BS6_pu5r-P9CKxbJJrafDTyQQG_yUZBdLxDGhx5rW_6jIGL8JN52O76GTRIKaDeHSK4thdsKyFrL171nH4XyrNJA/s2048/53044496517_fbb44723ca_k.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcUGXrSGKrpysgSOdstxHWaxNUSxL54LIRHNL4pOx7WY0HATKdIZRWYwjwlMOWEzVdPmFni2lFcBHH1oGyfUr3ArgwpHNiV6BS6_pu5r-P9CKxbJJrafDTyQQG_yUZBdLxDGhx5rW_6jIGL8JN52O76GTRIKaDeHSK4thdsKyFrL171nH4XyrNJA/w400-h300/53044496517_fbb44723ca_k.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: JHB (see note below)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Meanwhile, I realized that I had recorded more than the usual number of videos along with the many still photos I took. I probably made more videos (from a few seconds to three minutes in length) than I usually do in a typical year. They are visible within the Flickr folder above, but that is a bit awkward. I have therefore gathered them into small playlists on YouTube, so that a person visiting </span><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHWuvQENlMqYQBSYBAwgHjw" target="_blank">my channel</a></b><span> can find them all, or can click to each playlist from this metaplaylist below. In each case, viewers will see a brief description of the list as a whole, and the clips (5-10 in each group) will play in succession. </span></span><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMAw9wTkkg3mlMgqjbeYO67x" target="_blank">Intro</a> </b>(for some reason I did this single clip in Portuguese)</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMCIuOqZx1OycFkfaC1TJfgX" target="_blank">Animals</a></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMCr2uzhi1PzvO-6IN2lK51E" target="_blank">Watermelons</a></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMBTLu8rLFM8O6EwDero3-hr" target="_blank">River</a></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMCOwkSB15TSNOyGgfT51Bbl" target="_blank">Boats</a></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMAxHIBVHjqrGXtz0FQx71AR" target="_blank">People</a></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMDB13J2xOH6ELkPWbleFZCj">Amazon</a></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMCdiWk0K2G0urnuhppfTLZv" target="_blank">Wedding of the Waters</a></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMBK0LJHFQen9xKOoudGFe1O" target="_blank">Botos</a></b></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Madeira 2023 - <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh09ujgSweMAEErDfk_cDbbDiOPReNMzc" target="_blank">Manaus</a></b></span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I hope you enjoy these. Please alert me to any glitches!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A note about the photo above: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For those who DO know the city, its three water towers -- As Três Caixas D'Água -- are a favorite symbol. So when I was waiting for Miguel to do some work downtown on my first day, I walked a few blocks to get a selfie. I must say I'm proud of myself, because it is really tricky to get them all in the frame! They were built at the same time as the city itself, from 1910-1912, and they are made of material similar to the locomotive engines that were brought here from Philadelphia, London, and Bremen as part of the rubber trade. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The railroad failed, but the town persisted. That is a century of history in six words; it's more complicated. A mural on the plaza adjacent to the towers depicts much of that history -- the "Introduction" video above is my attempt to describe that mural in Portuguese. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><br /></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-81916374623717674052023-07-18T21:08:00.006-04:002023-08-01T12:16:24.549-04:00Down the Creek<p><span style="font-size: medium;">The <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira_River" target="_blank">Madeira River</a></b> is arguably* the longest of the Amazon River's 1,000-plus tributaries. It is also the route I was privileged to travel this summer (July 19-22) with my good friend Dr. Miguel Nenevé. It is highlighted in pink on this map of the Amazon Basin -- a path that coincides with most of the route we took from Porto Velho (near its formation) to Manaus (just upstream of its confluence with the Amazon River. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I spent almost a week in Porto Velho before our voyage and two days in Manaus afterward. Photos and videos from the entire experience can be found on Flickr and YouTube through my <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2023/07/madeira-playlists.html" target="_blank">Madeira Playlists</a></b> article. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRct2r_SLIsTpw_nUp5eueIosLCXPoWfRM7pQ7p2hA1Y0dDFeI4_DFNIqAkf5FVKPpLiKVNLK_AehUK9LbR_jQVG0B70dKIKAxVE7X_HQbjoz-BIJqQ6A_Dq-9u4HbuDSp0tCXBN9cUGXvw-1GI5jnxpMqgikcG_U2e7QQQ_VayhTIjf8FBocVDA/s1000/Madeirarivermap.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: large; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRct2r_SLIsTpw_nUp5eueIosLCXPoWfRM7pQ7p2hA1Y0dDFeI4_DFNIqAkf5FVKPpLiKVNLK_AehUK9LbR_jQVG0B70dKIKAxVE7X_HQbjoz-BIJqQ6A_Dq-9u4HbuDSp0tCXBN9cUGXvw-1GI5jnxpMqgikcG_U2e7QQQ_VayhTIjf8FBocVDA/w640-h640/Madeirarivermap.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira_River" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">It is worth finding <b><a href="https://goo.gl/maps/5y8ukbt8SVa3HuR36" target="_blank">Porto Velho on Google Maps</a></b> or in an atlas. Even though it is a city of a half-million people in an area with no other big cities, many Brazilians are barely aware of it. At an airport, for example, I will find an employee who has never checked in a passenger with "PVH" on their documents, and does not know what to make of it. </span><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">*Lengths of rivers is always arguable, as the Wikipedia article </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_river_systems_by_length" target="_blank">List of river systems by length</a></b> makes clear. Just as no river has a single source, it is often difficult to determine exactly how to measure the length. Notice in this article that many of the familiar names (such as Nile, Amazon, and Mississippi) are joined by hyphens to names that most readers will not recognize. Hydrologists can often find a longer river by following channels that do not bear the name of the "main" river.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Amazon River has a thousand named tributaries, about a dozen that measure a thousand miles or in their own right, and and unknown number of nameless tributaries. The most important of these is the Solimões, which most maps label "Amazon" and which Wikipedia does not even mention in its river-length article.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The word "arguably" above refers to the fact that the Tocantins-Araguaia system is mapped as part of the Amazon Basin, but joins it in the delta, not along the main channel. Does that make it a tributary? Perhaps.</span></p><div>dd</div>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-28184707803543567352023-07-18T19:10:00.004-04:002023-07-18T19:10:25.312-04:00Detroit Recovery<p><span style="font-size: medium;">It has been a decade since the City of Detroit declared bankruptcy, leaving its "citizenry" vulnerable to the whims of fiscal overseers. The scare quotes in the previous sentence are made necessary because citizens whose municipal affairs have been placed in the hands of unelected outsiders are not fully enfranchised. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcw8koRtWVTivyfBxH1TKSfKv_HJzu-5exBxcxxFE9BGiDXuALTKpuNcR2GtCPLFsElrF5DHOUcEGOvDLHYMsdL1MUI1xhleCzEQJF12p22E2833_tlwYUQlRuE2EwhA06OPZV_-UScf9ez3IVCPUMHO2eg3rI6cc6q5vFrQVtKTAd8yJvzsFFEQ/s1280/detroitlibrary.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcw8koRtWVTivyfBxH1TKSfKv_HJzu-5exBxcxxFE9BGiDXuALTKpuNcR2GtCPLFsElrF5DHOUcEGOvDLHYMsdL1MUI1xhleCzEQJF12p22E2833_tlwYUQlRuE2EwhA06OPZV_-UScf9ez3IVCPUMHO2eg3rI6cc6q5vFrQVtKTAd8yJvzsFFEQ/w400-h225/detroitlibrary.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <b><a href="https://detroitpubliclibrary.org/" target="_blank">Detroit Public Library</a></b> is one of the city's treasures;<br />so to are its librarians, who were among the public<br />employees whose pensions were raided by the<br />bankruptcy managers.</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I began following the progress of Detroit around that time for several reasons. First, its fiscal demise had a very specific kind of spatial dimension, as population loss sharply reduced population density, which then made the provision of services increasingly expensive on a per-capita basis. This dismal feedback loop ultimately led to the bankruptcy. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was further interested because of the important insight my son shared in an undergraduate research paper about three years into the bankruptcy. The suits (that is as polite a term as I can muster) decided that a city with fiscal difficulties did not deserve great art. That is, the city's financial overseers threatened to sell off the treasures of the Detroit Institute of Art and other city assets, placing the short-term interest of creditors ahead of the long-term interests of the citizens.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This is all prelude to Quinn Klinefelter's report on today's NPR <i>Morning Edition</i>, entitled <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/18/1188244106/how-is-detroit-doing-10-years-after-it-filed-for-bankruptcy" target="_blank">How is Detroit doing 10 years after it filed for bankruptcy</a>? </b>Please listen to his comments, which I would describe as </span><span style="font-size: large;">Detroit coming back slowly and unevenly from its low ebb a decade ago. In my view, the unevenness of this recovery is a microcosm of inequity in the country as a whole. From my <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2022/07/detroit-museum-visit.html" target="_blank">very brief visit last summer</a></b>, I can confirm that the entertainment district described in this story is doing much better than the rest of the city. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To the degree that the finances of the city itself have recovered, it has been on the backs of public workers. Teachers, librarians, and other municipal workers had their retirement benefits stolen. Even uniformed public employees (police and fire) were ripped off, though not as deeply. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For those who are interested, a <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/search?q=detroit" target="_blank">search for Detroit on this blog</a></b> points to some resources about this most important of American cities.</span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-51439130437921507132023-06-21T10:43:00.002-04:002023-06-21T10:43:23.977-04:00Resilience Force<p><span style="font-size: medium;">In recent years, my <b><a href="https://www.bridgew.edu/department/geography" target="_blank">academic geography department</a></b> began to incorporate the word "resilience" into the names of some of our programs and courses. In part, this reflects some evolution in how and what we teach, but it is also a recognition that what many now call "climate resilience" is deeply intertwined with what many geographers do. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpJt1CY76Wn1JBYdW6Q-f4rvrnU2xzsr4Cgam7b1XIxVUegmp-_S4am5ps9y42O2eq7xBJbiWp4RZehH5jB3AIYcQ7urN5DwgsRG7hqeFg7cflla2l1Qc7qL9KIfWkMBBfVqgphUAAcrTeoYD9mPn67ccYtzgEWVd2mpcW3-aCYzJF63_L9DXG_Q/s1166/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%209.49.05%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1166" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpJt1CY76Wn1JBYdW6Q-f4rvrnU2xzsr4Cgam7b1XIxVUegmp-_S4am5ps9y42O2eq7xBJbiWp4RZehH5jB3AIYcQ7urN5DwgsRG7hqeFg7cflla2l1Qc7qL9KIfWkMBBfVqgphUAAcrTeoYD9mPn67ccYtzgEWVd2mpcW3-aCYzJF63_L9DXG_Q/w400-h308/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%209.49.05%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo montage from <b><a href="https://resilienceforce.org/" target="_blank">Resilience Force</a></b></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This all came to mind last weekend as I listened to <b><a href="https://www.climateone.org/audio/saket-soni-people-who-make-disaster-recovery-possible" target="_blank">Rewind: Saket Soni on the People Who Make Disaster Recovery Possible</a></b>, the first episode I had heard of the radio program/podcast <b><a href="https://www.climateone.org/" target="_blank">Climate One</a></b>. I look forward to more from this program, which I had first encountered on <a href="https://www.capeandislands.org/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">WCAI 90.1 FM</a>. That is the New Bedford-area frequency for Cape & Islands Radio, a fantastic mid-sized public-radio station, one of three to which I listen regularly. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I recommend the hour-long recording itself and the ancillary materials posted with it -- I stole the image above from one of them. This discussion and the ongoing work behind it reflect a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of humans and the natural environment. The term "climate resilience" is itself a recognition of the compounding and confounding interplay among consumerism, racism, carbon pollution, transportation, housing, and more. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Guests Saket Soni and Daniel Castellanos go even further, connecting all of the above to the problems of human trafficking and the inhumanity of migration politics in the United States. But this is in the end a broadcast/podcast that brings me hope, because their <b><a href="https://resilienceforce.org/" target="_blank">Resilience Force organization </a></b>is not only rescuing trafficked workers and organizing them for better treatment; it is also educating communities, exposing the crimes that are obscured by layers of subcontractors, and working toward a vision of a professionalized cadre of resilience workers worldwide.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In our educational endeavors around resilience, we are preparing people for citizenship and possibly employment related to big-picture concepts such as urban planning, supply-chain management, and environmental policy. Soni and Castellanos inform us that this kind of education is not enough: we also need vocational training, career development, and worker support for resilience workers who might be called second responders -- those who arrive 48 hours after a fire, flood, or storm and remain until people can sleep in their own beds and return to work or school.</span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-62166076269748107122023-06-20T15:07:00.031-04:002023-10-25T13:16:23.165-04:00Google MyMaps<p><span style="color: #ff00fe;">Version of June 23, 2023. This page is very much a work in progress.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For as long as Google has been Google, I have been using Google, because we early web users were happy to have it and we enjoyed <b><a href="http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/google/index.htm" target="_blank">playing with the DMOZ pages</a></b> that initially guided its searches.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And for as long as users have been able to make Google Maps, I have been making Google Maps, embedding them on many web sites and blog posts. My most ambitious Google Map, in fact, has been a collaboration among seminar students and myself over close to a decade. That one is, naturally, coffee-related.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIwWOwz_a1HZASFTjssG8gwqhyS5JkBdsEZW79ZXbYmS7wYNBiTJSO2byq5ozchl7QEU5YcDH3Dp3hncQLZ2rOs_V5-k2MH1Uu6IZXBAGWzLRXD5ZLrboGjazk3788JFoqooRt3FkBKVZ_GIYop3sC_jR7WXxXfQnec7Dzo2nFYLh9HjcNH8m7A/s1280/mymaps.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIwWOwz_a1HZASFTjssG8gwqhyS5JkBdsEZW79ZXbYmS7wYNBiTJSO2byq5ozchl7QEU5YcDH3Dp3hncQLZ2rOs_V5-k2MH1Uu6IZXBAGWzLRXD5ZLrboGjazk3788JFoqooRt3FkBKVZ_GIYop3sC_jR7WXxXfQnec7Dzo2nFYLh9HjcNH8m7A/w400-h225/mymaps.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image shamelessly lifted from 2023 <b><a href="https://youtu.be/AYetzQ-InXo" target="_blank">Google MyMaps</a></b>,<br />a 45-minute tutorial from GeoDelta Labs.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When it first emerged, my experience with actual GIS software was fairly recent. I had been the first person to teach it at the University of Arizona and had been taking some online courses to remain current. Over time, though, my GIS skills have faded, so that I have relied on colleagues and students when spatial analytic heavy lifting is needed. Google Maps works only with point data, after all, and has no analytic capacity beyond measuring the distances between them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For many instructional purposes and planning purposes, however, it is just what the doctor ordered (in this case, a doctor of geography). And order it I have -- for tracking personal life lists, planning family trips, illustrating stories or song lyrics, and much more. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A beautiful thing about these maps is that they are easy to update, and old links will take users to the most recent information.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(NOTE: My high praise does not mean that I believe Google is always correct. On two occasions, I<b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2013/02/google-in-google-out.html" target="_blank"> have provided the company with corrections</a></b> where map errors might cause problems for users not familiar with the locations involved.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I recently decided that I would like to be able to send readers to the "My Maps" screen from which I can access all of my maps, but apparently this is not possible, and Google has not yet responded to my suggestion to make it easy. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So I'm providing a lightly annotated, slightly kludgy version of my directory, in no particular order. The thumbnails and descriptions below are augmented by more complete descriptions on the map pages themselves. And MANY of the locations on the maps include links to site-specific information I have created. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Please enjoy these and let me know if you create any maps of your own.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9rRq-WEABRPmc0o8-SwBbZJi_dTVVt7heqpooiVtoZkr6sT9z1E6nVK25iF2x6H8Ayfw9xFF36Hu0rhfpIJXwEuPukHJjMGWL6BZwkeUoGoBmgD5LqazlCOVj2Ki4t1qRsZDJQxJkuDQo-E91PqwdBmf7ORhdjlkS998vbiap5v1gRIYnblZOsA/s436/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%202.09.48%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="436" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9rRq-WEABRPmc0o8-SwBbZJi_dTVVt7heqpooiVtoZkr6sT9z1E6nVK25iF2x6H8Ayfw9xFF36Hu0rhfpIJXwEuPukHJjMGWL6BZwkeUoGoBmgD5LqazlCOVj2Ki4t1qRsZDJQxJkuDQo-E91PqwdBmf7ORhdjlkS998vbiap5v1gRIYnblZOsA/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%202.09.48%20PM.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A "busman's holiday" refers to a vacation taken by a person to a place involved in their own professional work, as with a tour-bus driver going on a bus tour. We use a similar term whenever My Favorite Librarian visits a library while we are traveling. <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1pzh5hnv8x_ccerO7luchILE84MdiqFYn&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Bus Person's Libraries</a></b> is a partial life list -- mainly for Pamela -- that includes at least one memorable library I have visited without her.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF7dD43LpuuJ0agMX2b67-jb4g8SbKb1IKg9p7f0DFsJU7hksawnWKM6rYgRljR9ahvjZJIhLricFclJVbiMWHtFmoZtBte_T0miMbzsytg9QBuqszDFK-Os5rM2s01JzQHMCPV_omU8iUZdsnHYM1L96_fRToHxm7mPmO1gwWyPiz2o6bOnclSQ/s442/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%202.09.37%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="442" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF7dD43LpuuJ0agMX2b67-jb4g8SbKb1IKg9p7f0DFsJU7hksawnWKM6rYgRljR9ahvjZJIhLricFclJVbiMWHtFmoZtBte_T0miMbzsytg9QBuqszDFK-Os5rM2s01JzQHMCPV_omU8iUZdsnHYM1L96_fRToHxm7mPmO1gwWyPiz2o6bOnclSQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%202.09.37%20PM.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1Vi6r7qsPoK9byirdppeNMriO1aE&usp=sharing" target="_blank">GeoCafes</a></b> is the most ambitious of my Google Maps and the one mentioned above. It is the companion toe the eponymous <b><a href="https://geocafes.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">GeoCafes blog</a></b>, to which well over 100 students have contributed since 2012. Most of the map entries point to reviews by those students. I often rely on this to find local cafes while traveling, especially in Massachusetts.</span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOMnyHCA3jQuGLmGQZUVhYK5xyJRmPxrWvpy9IGdPX-P8gqXGUDNREG4fqxcDDxgtF1ioHFAcEUrz5StUWQtFrBHf3xXY4WR2Nth9Jl7z8mG0cyV_dIgkrYcZNeu96atOo1FpWEI3o9Ut5_dZRRCz1PluilTW3rJijjt3VtyS4jIBtn_UihKxCKQ/s432/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%202.09.29%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="432" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOMnyHCA3jQuGLmGQZUVhYK5xyJRmPxrWvpy9IGdPX-P8gqXGUDNREG4fqxcDDxgtF1ioHFAcEUrz5StUWQtFrBHf3xXY4WR2Nth9Jl7z8mG0cyV_dIgkrYcZNeu96atOo1FpWEI3o9Ut5_dZRRCz1PluilTW3rJijjt3VtyS4jIBtn_UihKxCKQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%202.09.29%20PM.png" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Many people say that they never visit local sites of interest unless company comes from far away. Geographers are not those people -- as a group, we love exploration, locally and globally. The <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1ZX3lwvQpKBrBEJRG-9106utDSP8&usp=sharing" target="_blank">GeoDates Map</a></b> grew from a conversation with a colleague and is a detailed guide to places our own Bridgewater geography students can visit, most of them at low cost and with less than two hours driving from campus. It accompanies the <b><a href="http://bsc-geography.blogspot.com/2015/04/geodates.html" target="_blank">GeoDates blog post </a></b>that provides many more details.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWI6fnGtppJH8ZlVFf1-cTaSq-vxah0CGSrQ0caRgpOiKaZMZ-KGb2aciMQjjGvX68r6Vjbc0T4TYSAMWNN2DnFhQZNLy9Bm1ZhEwDT06_fHMnEuZrqyQkEGMrxs8G-Cl2h6CECgjLjCj0vuItZhuQllwqe72GNOs9UozU3ZWpD8PTYyhgAOvdHA/s438/Screenshot%202023-10-25%20at%201.05.01%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="438" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWI6fnGtppJH8ZlVFf1-cTaSq-vxah0CGSrQ0caRgpOiKaZMZ-KGb2aciMQjjGvX68r6Vjbc0T4TYSAMWNN2DnFhQZNLy9Bm1ZhEwDT06_fHMnEuZrqyQkEGMrxs8G-Cl2h6CECgjLjCj0vuItZhuQllwqe72GNOs9UozU3ZWpD8PTYyhgAOvdHA/s320/Screenshot%202023-10-25%20at%201.05.01%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1HoddlNyW-Zgt4ZlaAGL4GBbkCo4VvqYZ&usp=sharing" target="_blank">The National Park Life List</a></b> map is a life list that I started during the pandemic, as I reflected on some of the places I've been lucky enough to visit -- National Parks of the United States and a few other countries. Along with National Parks, I include other kinds of sites managed by the National Park Service. As a practical matter, the distinctions are mostly minor. The only important distinction is that National Monuments are named by Executive Order rather than Acts of Congress and as a result may be removed from NPS oversight by subsequent presidents. Fortunately, we have only had one president petty enough to do such a thing, and he is out of office. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYvlyZlcjV-y8VOj1WCyYyncegF-BOum9N4CYv972yQLCOm35gvy3BNvNFi5VM5hgXOyN2YpW_REiEAQsBQY5TJbhaUSLW3vex-FrgqQo6vhyBZgA11bzAxxTdyTtuXC8oOmFKVoNp7soYqocO3nWHnBVHBL3MAHPFUPblCZ-C-bxILla84GfeA/s422/Screenshot%202023-10-25%20at%201.11.32%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="422" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYvlyZlcjV-y8VOj1WCyYyncegF-BOum9N4CYv972yQLCOm35gvy3BNvNFi5VM5hgXOyN2YpW_REiEAQsBQY5TJbhaUSLW3vex-FrgqQo6vhyBZgA11bzAxxTdyTtuXC8oOmFKVoNp7soYqocO3nWHnBVHBL3MAHPFUPblCZ-C-bxILla84GfeA/s320/Screenshot%202023-10-25%20at%201.11.32%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(October 25, 2023 update) An earlier version of this blog post showed a combined national parks and museum list, because for</span><span style="font-size: large;"> some reason, I decided to make museums a separate layer on the same map. I recently decided to give each category its own map, but it is still possible to do </span><span style="font-size: large;">a bit of very low-key spatial analysis -- when viewed at the continental scale, it seems clear that I have found many more museums to visit in the East and many more NPS sites in the West.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Another October 25 update is that a student asked about museums in western Massachusetts yesterday and I realized that I was missing THREE in western Massachusetts and one in Connecticut, including the Eric Carle, which I had been to a half-dozen times. All better now, thanks to Taylor's question!</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XKdSFeIBD6-Wn39FG6qR22RmywqmHI4Ei06m1xbc04xwlw7PQCQqLkxKLGB7ynMVWcvwfPondWJSZCBl2w_9EuuuZ5WgWUTSN7pD_cXrY-XVwU11gQPTvYKWjBdSo23SLl7SndLMPmz6LyozDcZBsBhS-2vxVjrVC6X0lczUGdTivR6Hid6R5g/s428/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.11.58%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="428" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XKdSFeIBD6-Wn39FG6qR22RmywqmHI4Ei06m1xbc04xwlw7PQCQqLkxKLGB7ynMVWcvwfPondWJSZCBl2w_9EuuuZ5WgWUTSN7pD_cXrY-XVwU11gQPTvYKWjBdSo23SLl7SndLMPmz6LyozDcZBsBhS-2vxVjrVC6X0lczUGdTivR6Hid6R5g/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.11.58%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Good friends of ours in Bridgewater moved north about a decade ago to fulfill their dream of becoming innkeepers. In visiting their lovely inn over the years, we learned that many of there summer guests were on a 40-mile trek among four inns in their area, and that <b><a href="https://www.vermontinntoinnwalking.com/" target="_blank">Vermont Inn Walking</a></b> was an inn-walking tour that had been operating in the past and had been revived by a new generation of owners at the participating inn. We used <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1XOaO7eta8TWa_PkU_AOBrclvCeinAu5Q&usp=sharing" target="_blank">this map</a></b> better to envision our May 2023 journey and also to figure out which nearby sites we might be able to visit on the way to or fro. (Note: I deleted the homes of two friends in the area, one of which we did manage to visit.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh459H8EDvyMK2jJwX9yffC-HfC8JsDhKPoiu2LbmXZl6ejVvSypCl761YZNPKTonYTzxVDjHMY-39a842yqRcRmIAjfNhim0RWOLyX3Q0-K6K2qx7hyLhOrB9JVFcr_0KAJ44AaAARoXiw8Ao-o0trYmHnWcKFLsUp3DIjjiAdI_R9kMO7OnFRA/s432/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.11.34%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="432" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh459H8EDvyMK2jJwX9yffC-HfC8JsDhKPoiu2LbmXZl6ejVvSypCl761YZNPKTonYTzxVDjHMY-39a842yqRcRmIAjfNhim0RWOLyX3Q0-K6K2qx7hyLhOrB9JVFcr_0KAJ44AaAARoXiw8Ao-o0trYmHnWcKFLsUp3DIjjiAdI_R9kMO7OnFRA/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.11.34%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My father was not just an elevator mechanic; in many ways he was <i>the </i>elevator mechanic -- the GOAT of elevator mechanics. During the State of the Union Address, he sometimes sat in the Capitol, just in case. When the president of the United States needed a new elevator, he swapped shifts with another mechanic around the clock to get it done. Twice. Nobody could make a map of every place Jim Bohanan installed, maintained, or replaced an elevator. But since my mother's passing in 2020, I spend long mornings on the phone with him each week, often talking about his former work. And when a notable site comes up, I add it to <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1YNUvLty-p5r5cE7_LnXbDUHjeaSIi3E&usp=sharing" target="_blank">this map</a></b>.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilleSbjXn3QW47L-Vj9xjbGgBN3M5JhnAi5DseGyKz7OiPtqZW-NRpErIzZoIjyg_LnjPyRLQqhcvMviWxH2FDiGy8Hj8D4eYov89_z15xsnH1M_cV7AGF-u-zP-KD3-pakomklJjHQRb3WHNSlXabdsrl97f5Q19Ui9Fi3-YMTkRlKWbCHUQJew/s444/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.11.25%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="444" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilleSbjXn3QW47L-Vj9xjbGgBN3M5JhnAi5DseGyKz7OiPtqZW-NRpErIzZoIjyg_LnjPyRLQqhcvMviWxH2FDiGy8Hj8D4eYov89_z15xsnH1M_cV7AGF-u-zP-KD3-pakomklJjHQRb3WHNSlXabdsrl97f5Q19Ui9Fi3-YMTkRlKWbCHUQJew/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.11.25%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My wife Pamela and I <b><a href="https://perrylaperra.blogspot.com/2013/05/those-lean-years-were-early.html" target="_blank">famously met in Maryland</a></b>, where she had grown up and where Rachel Carson had done much of her scientific research and writing. Because Rachel Carson died the month before Pamela was born <i>and</i> they share a birthday, we think of them as perhaps sharing a mystical connection. Carson is mentioned in many contexts on Pamela's <b><a href="https://liberrybooks.blogspot.com/search?q=rachel+carson" target="_blank">library-books blog</a></b> and on <a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/search?q=rachel+carson" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">this environmental blog</a>, and comes up frequently in our teaching and outreach. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All of which is to say that Rachel Carson is an important figure in the Hayes-Boh household, but until very recently we had never visited any of the landmarks associated with her life and work. Her residence in Maryland was in the vague suburbs north of D.C. and her work was in an oddly rural zone intertwined with the sprawl of Baltimore, Washington, and a Naval Air Station. So when the whole family found ourselves staying at an Airbnb in the area in 2021, I decided to find those Maryland landmarks, and ultimately to <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1cArGOhO0KfER8qirCbk8e5ODFkFuAUg&usp=sharing" target="_blank">map all of the Rachel Carson sites</a></b> that I could find.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJv_CBMOO7mviF16c3ceBMBz3shUDiqjrDnO2bqzSPiEGgwar3m1yViOlfdwURInt8mFGnlN__5WFwEPeFv2s_xvGpHhQBHLIJyCUpKJFihdW3cV3eHKz0u-18uzWfTvCvpB_kvQRczL10c_NawU5UxefZOSY0H9GfLuImfpbTA8lJnRls__VZAQ/s430/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.11.16%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="430" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJv_CBMOO7mviF16c3ceBMBz3shUDiqjrDnO2bqzSPiEGgwar3m1yViOlfdwURInt8mFGnlN__5WFwEPeFv2s_xvGpHhQBHLIJyCUpKJFihdW3cV3eHKz0u-18uzWfTvCvpB_kvQRczL10c_NawU5UxefZOSY0H9GfLuImfpbTA8lJnRls__VZAQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.11.16%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I first crossed the U.S.-Mexico border from San Ysidro to Tijuana as part of a very brief visit to Ensenada in 1985, a year after a massacre at a McDonald's on the U.S. side. The place had been very much in the news that year, but I did not realize how very close to Mexico it was until my friend Mike and I drove to the empty lot that had been the restaurant.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I next crossed the border at the very opposite end in 1989, when I had the opportunity to inspect a dry cleaner in the town of Mercedes, Texas. Several of us were qualified to do the work, but I asked for the assignment because I was beginning to become a bit specialized in the operations of dry cleaners and more importantly Pamela and I had spent the previous summer in central Mexico, and I was interested in returning to the country. As I often did on such inspection trips, I got a room and a car for several days, and did as much exploring as I could after hours, and I managed to find a place to park in Brownsville and walk across the border to Matamoros. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">Little</span> did I realize that the next year I would begin seven years of living in the border zone, during which I would <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1HFBiWHknF0qnih_ZOvoee7gQYM8&usp=sharing" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">make more than half of the crossings between these east and west extremes</a>. It is a bit difficult to count, since some crossings have opened and others have closed over the past few decades. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Author Tom Miller (for whom Pamela would eventually work as a research assistant) had made a point of making absolutely every crossing as he prepared his 1981 masterpiece <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2196518344" target="_blank">On the Border: Portraits of America's Southwest Frontier</a></i>. </span><span>My experience will never be as complete as Miller's had been, nor would I enjoy trying to fill the remaining gaps in my own map. Both Miller and I (and Pamela -- who has crossed everywhere I have, except San Ysidro) crossed, the United States was still a country that greatly valued freedom of movement. Crossings were always subject to inspection, of course, but the militarization of the border did not begin until the 1990s, and of course it was amplified after September 11, 2001. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Thanks to those readers who have stayed with this map description for so long. I only spent about a tenth of my life (so far) in the borderlands, but the experience was profound. </span><span>Since moving more than 2,000 miles from the nearest point along the border, I have made it my mission to inform other folks in the U.S. about its myths and realities. A search of my phrase</span><span> </span><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/search?q=human+sieve" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">human sieve</a><span> on this blog points to more than a dozen entries about the complexities of that line. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For now I will add that a writer were were privileged to know during our time in Arizona helped me to think more positively about the region, despite the efforts of politicians, criminals, and pundits to make it something different. In <b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2060886032" target="_blank">Border People</a></i></b>, Oscar Martínez describes a zone that is neither exactly Mexico nor exactly the United States. I read the book when I knew Oscar and lived in the region; I think it might read today more as history than anthropology, as many of the comings and goings he describes would now be difficult if possible at all.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-PQw1k97b7f7qRFMxqf6tR41Gi8esQraLtTR86qFzDKt_PK43dDUmACy5XnU0rnJfemmE4U3HF3i5rpj4eyzr-zPH2YBX2-zBCkXe0xaMcD3s9zjLzUvhlBsrBe0GPAQLv1eyteZ2EkauIxn9KK5rn9TVE8WkXDbk-rHOsiaf5z-rInPYKQ9gsw/s428/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.10.57%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="428" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-PQw1k97b7f7qRFMxqf6tR41Gi8esQraLtTR86qFzDKt_PK43dDUmACy5XnU0rnJfemmE4U3HF3i5rpj4eyzr-zPH2YBX2-zBCkXe0xaMcD3s9zjLzUvhlBsrBe0GPAQLv1eyteZ2EkauIxn9KK5rn9TVE8WkXDbk-rHOsiaf5z-rInPYKQ9gsw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.10.57%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Among the many, many disappointments in 2020 was the postponement and eventual cancellation of our nieces fancy wedding in Scotland. I have not been in western Europe at all (outside of Heathrow Airport) and Pamela had not been since the 1980s. So we had extensive plans to explore while "in the neighborhood" for a wedding that would have taken place where my forebears lived in the seventeenth century. I am holding on to the <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=11vz79NSF2LWN6HGNzNtt2ayk5Y_04JlG&usp=sharing" target="_blank">wedding travel map</a></b> against the day we make this a retirement outing.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1MUcsrtBAy7fmapzRfO0US6oxKvAkwS2SzijFvSp09Y5ZcKBorjAu1mZNrvktw4umiNSmH60WgGhUfPDwQHanOc6SB3ShA7p1DUAuLBiwFZm0KwWDaxt-TkSM9rD3EjFH0UZ2rmnYkGoYqYObg2H6GcRwkGD5vtG2o_q4qfd4PgpCU2LxoA9X-A/s434/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.10.42%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="434" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1MUcsrtBAy7fmapzRfO0US6oxKvAkwS2SzijFvSp09Y5ZcKBorjAu1mZNrvktw4umiNSmH60WgGhUfPDwQHanOc6SB3ShA7p1DUAuLBiwFZm0KwWDaxt-TkSM9rD3EjFH0UZ2rmnYkGoYqYObg2H6GcRwkGD5vtG2o_q4qfd4PgpCU2LxoA9X-A/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.10.42%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since 2008, I have been part of a geography outreach project we call <b><a href="https://www.bridgew.edu/center/case/earthview" target="_blank">Project EarthView</a></b>, in which we take a giant inflatable globe -- a sort of portable geography classroom -- to schools. The program later expanded to include giant floor maps, and has given us the chance to talk about geography with well over 100,000 students, their parents, teachers, local officials, and reporters. A few years into the project, I decided we should map the places we have been. I have done my best -- with the assistance of colleagues who have been part of the program -- to include every place we have taken the globe on the <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1_lotY0zfcimDxs1Cp92wwZPOypE&usp=sharing" target="_blank">EarthView Experience map</a></b>. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fun fact about scale: to avoid any ambiguity, wherever possible, I have placed the Google location marker precisely on the building -- and the part of the building -- where we set up the globe. At a small scale, a viewer can see which towns we have visited. Zoom in to a larger scale, and one might see that we were in the eastern half of a big gymnasium.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbVysInyFM_P99SZWPaQ4RR5AuJMZBH5QZ87UDoqdztXoo_2lIBPGHL8OaQ9lmLZZq8IyBRR8ceBvuoHOQDUF1ULA0FvfCymQv7AbbLdkhLXlo6ybZu_2H2XEMc9ThmioYcvcaKAPWatgNfyCXcccWDrtMm-X10-qRVHHJpKvJaObdpy1rx3WjA/s436/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%202.28.11%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="436" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbVysInyFM_P99SZWPaQ4RR5AuJMZBH5QZ87UDoqdztXoo_2lIBPGHL8OaQ9lmLZZq8IyBRR8ceBvuoHOQDUF1ULA0FvfCymQv7AbbLdkhLXlo6ybZu_2H2XEMc9ThmioYcvcaKAPWatgNfyCXcccWDrtMm-X10-qRVHHJpKvJaObdpy1rx3WjA/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%202.28.11%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This map is a bit silly -- <b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1375030/mediaviewer/rm2556860417/?ref_=nm_md_3" target="_blank">Across Two Fridays</a></b> is a subset of the EarthView Experience map shown above, because I wanted to document a particularly busy week in our life of geography outreach. Between two Fridays our team visited six schools -- elementary, middle, and high schools -- none of which was near any of the others. We scrambled a bit extra that week, squeezing in a visit to King Philip Middle School in Plainville to surprise Sathwik Karnik, who had won the <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25th_National_Geographic_Bee" target="_blank">25th National Geography Bee</a></b> with Alex Trabek just a few weeks before. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDs_wJI_jh0NKW4tE8mGpD5TSfg7nLqQllb5Ws-VcCBTkOrsrOBy_6g34Tc8HBWEMkHkLun0B-JPvuhY5QBM42jcYgulz6-aCDSiQCenTNYbJuv5JVDeCFL41RTxgvDW_KWxAbDr49sfXxnXNphgPbpcWQKZvVhoixYfR3-viNbDftXvlWZjn0mA/s442/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.25%20PM.png" style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="442" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDs_wJI_jh0NKW4tE8mGpD5TSfg7nLqQllb5Ws-VcCBTkOrsrOBy_6g34Tc8HBWEMkHkLun0B-JPvuhY5QBM42jcYgulz6-aCDSiQCenTNYbJuv5JVDeCFL41RTxgvDW_KWxAbDr49sfXxnXNphgPbpcWQKZvVhoixYfR3-viNbDftXvlWZjn0mA/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.25%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In a sense, the <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1orVqdXSLCIVux2BO25yASnmrDhM&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Marshall School Families</a> </b>map flips the EarthView script. We use our big globe to help bring conversations about the wider world to a local school. The EarthView Experience map shows all of the places we have done so. Marshall School is a wonderful neighborhood school in Quincy, Massachusetts. During a visit there, we gradually realized that much of the world was represented in that school -- so much so that this map represents just the fourth graders we met on that one day. Each marker points to the capital of a country mentioned as their family's home country by one or more students.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX9dYS-JztNSvvk3pEPNNNQOO6sOymUcaqLjplZTnqX6MW5YNvEG2cGIDfwy8tDJiTmQD1wrYn6iiOXJg2ick4KGf93F2DhvuipDjZFF_E_sDlRcVGXTjN9pWTzZ8IJN_MYpTmxetqLK1Ud3OEoRfnzYTPfhdUyVNYgHZ7A7HLnnp-6WZc55JtcQ/s448/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.09.23%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="448" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX9dYS-JztNSvvk3pEPNNNQOO6sOymUcaqLjplZTnqX6MW5YNvEG2cGIDfwy8tDJiTmQD1wrYn6iiOXJg2ick4KGf93F2DhvuipDjZFF_E_sDlRcVGXTjN9pWTzZ8IJN_MYpTmxetqLK1Ud3OEoRfnzYTPfhdUyVNYgHZ7A7HLnnp-6WZc55JtcQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.09.23%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I created the <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1ofhX1s3Bsdpgyw0OpJGXBQWlp-0&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Brockton Walking Tour, October 2016</a></b> map for a one-time walking tour of the nearby city of <b><a href="https://bridgewatersproject.blogspot.com/2009/12/north-bridgewater-aka-brockton.html" target="_blank">Brockton</a></b> that I led for an interdisciplinary group of BSU Honors students. Several years before, I had taught a First-Year Seminar about the city, but it had a minimal field component. I later revived the course as an Honors FYS with substantial field experiences, as described in Brian Benson's 2019 <b><a href="https://www.bridgew.edu/news-events/city-champions" target="_blank">City Champions</a></b> article. This map is greatly in need of some development. I points to locations without any elaboration; I hope to involve students in my Fall 2023 class in connecting the map to some more information, including some Sidewalk Survey recordings I have already put on YouTube and some bibliographic connections to local experts who helped me plan that original tour.</span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6fSG-iBnplFbRecph7OseJLfFmr_VzpR5UW0WwY-_Cqelk-vEJ3ACv5UL0WsQmuKI1wmQBBL6V-yiLD8prJ-3QLfc2SvpG1l09qfSz08czzdySJSXiQTOV2mcrNVqPP8sDGENVqhl-kv8pPjhsMnYtj_-4Kug4hhO8ADyzJ7KIRedwgDs0muhg/s426/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.16.01%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="426" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6fSG-iBnplFbRecph7OseJLfFmr_VzpR5UW0WwY-_Cqelk-vEJ3ACv5UL0WsQmuKI1wmQBBL6V-yiLD8prJ-3QLfc2SvpG1l09qfSz08czzdySJSXiQTOV2mcrNVqPP8sDGENVqhl-kv8pPjhsMnYtj_-4Kug4hhO8ADyzJ7KIRedwgDs0muhg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.16.01%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I created <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1YaMLguNobsGPVf-UCLbSH3tjtQrozYZl&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Geography of Coffee - BSU in Costa Rica</a></b> to document the places we visited on my most recent travel course, when my friends at Matagalpa Tours -- who had co-taught most of my Nicaragua travel courses -- arranged a<b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhayesboh/albums/72157712518997492" target="_blank"> wonderful program in Costa Rica</a></b>. When we made this trip in January 2020, I had no idea that it was to be my last international travel for more than three years. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0VqtrIxF82wUzL0QTcshp9QFHIJ86SPu1MNdgRV9MFRbVVFTeH9st4dihN4uLvAvhxt9wYyktSm3UvOAqVmSl1mI44m9e9XAxy5S__AZpEmd1AEjKkAy8dlsw8TGsf_og64rCGOTIQhE2lXodBogVr6h_yFLiBJk0KajHRZk0KYbW7mQMC1384Q/s436/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.16.31%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="436" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0VqtrIxF82wUzL0QTcshp9QFHIJ86SPu1MNdgRV9MFRbVVFTeH9st4dihN4uLvAvhxt9wYyktSm3UvOAqVmSl1mI44m9e9XAxy5S__AZpEmd1AEjKkAy8dlsw8TGsf_og64rCGOTIQhE2lXodBogVr6h_yFLiBJk0KajHRZk0KYbW7mQMC1384Q/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.16.31%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1rlsA8NpFB3etC7UBXIvOMPmucE97DcMl&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Geography of Coffee in Fogo</a></b> is a planning map for my next travel course, in which my colleague Angelo Barbosa and I will explore the small but fascinating <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2022/10/coffee-volcanoes-travel-course-in-cabo.html" target="_blank">coffee industry in Cabo Verde</a></b> (Cape Verde). Many of the world's best coffees grow on the slopes of dormant volcanoes. To my knowledge, Fogo (Fire) is the only place in the world where coffee is grown in the caldera of an active volcano. Whenever it erupts, people leave and then return, perhaps to a different part of the crater. If you are reading this during 2023, please click the link above and consider joining us!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6KDzhLZq8Ow0bhs5w5Otn-w4Bzphrpac6JbkkgjAUgNXetjWXX0Yrg38sIcpaWlrj_FjIsSk2OpNGBgGbbtC1eVQUGZ4RA_1IfabbIHxgybIWpbX5DZdWgowJalfPau3k76CjqNNN9Nf6AN-LO652lOOhbTdTFFR34r7NJ-vcnYx0RvvwW0NvlQ/s436/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.16.42%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="436" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6KDzhLZq8Ow0bhs5w5Otn-w4Bzphrpac6JbkkgjAUgNXetjWXX0Yrg38sIcpaWlrj_FjIsSk2OpNGBgGbbtC1eVQUGZ4RA_1IfabbIHxgybIWpbX5DZdWgowJalfPau3k76CjqNNN9Nf6AN-LO652lOOhbTdTFFR34r7NJ-vcnYx0RvvwW0NvlQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.16.42%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1ogergdSm1dh1uEFBuRbLhiL7IKA&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Peru - Travel Course</a></b> map is for a class that has not yet been taught.</span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I spend a lot of time in schools, and many of the teachers I work with have told me they would love to take my coffee travel course, but they cannot go on my January courses, which coincide with the Central American coffee harvest. So I checked the world harvest calendar, saw that Peru would be good for a summer class, and then worked with my colleague Dr. Rob Hellström to develop a course that would involve<a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2017/02/peru-geography-of-coffee-climate-change.html" target="_blank"> coffee and his ongoing climate research projects in Peru</a>. </span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We did get a few of our BSU students to sign up, but no teachers. That was 2017; we would love to try again some time. Let me know if you are interested enough to put down a deposit on such a course.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GTaxmf1oDSffnTvXPLeJRwnf_DMdL6LYT5A938Q2tzHiuMrswMgPkUeRz8Ftj-a7mXOuGTTFFoZoWTlmhht3V_dPhRLRhxCQjZ5Po0y8SOz4aRGm1JtX6oyNRLOA_rphgsSx0IpL0vmvqP79Uoy1yOVKMo-DiJAQkBDB-ePTqulR3u__A4sdyg/s436/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.16.52%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="436" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GTaxmf1oDSffnTvXPLeJRwnf_DMdL6LYT5A938Q2tzHiuMrswMgPkUeRz8Ftj-a7mXOuGTTFFoZoWTlmhht3V_dPhRLRhxCQjZ5Po0y8SOz4aRGm1JtX6oyNRLOA_rphgsSx0IpL0vmvqP79Uoy1yOVKMo-DiJAQkBDB-ePTqulR3u__A4sdyg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.16.52%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1BY3OOwkAXIG-Yh5nMhPPQ_TQWEw&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Peru</a></b> map includes a layer based on the as-yet-imaginary travel course mentioned above and another layer based a <b><a href="https://perrylaperra.blogspot.com/2014/07/james-and-pams-excellent-adventure.html" target="_blank">birthday trip to Machu Picchu</a></b> with my favorite librarian in 2014. After three decades of travel, study, and work in Latin America, this was the first experience in the Andes for both of us. We made a point of finding lodging a bit out of the way from most of the tourism. We stayed in and traveled among many locations in which Spanish was not even the dominant language. It was delightful!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjoevIN28icHdTtIFphSKSHfEsOGcc8WL0T4Q4jSH5UAeZCJC5CtN83K0-CJ-wMfILzpB-M1E_rptdQ2kuyfIFyfJFZBmtadfMqYCXVUSAX0a0EK0IfGetURoJJo8lzH4mofITMVk2lL8csSqMdJjK7Nrnv-r27FAS4QFv4MXazq6cSeYa1aYNA/s1294/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-22%20at%2012.17.38%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1166" data-original-width="1294" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjoevIN28icHdTtIFphSKSHfEsOGcc8WL0T4Q4jSH5UAeZCJC5CtN83K0-CJ-wMfILzpB-M1E_rptdQ2kuyfIFyfJFZBmtadfMqYCXVUSAX0a0EK0IfGetURoJJo8lzH4mofITMVk2lL8csSqMdJjK7Nrnv-r27FAS4QFv4MXazq6cSeYa1aYNA/w400-h360/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-22%20at%2012.17.38%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The fact that neither of these extensive trips would have anything in common except for the Lima airport reminds us that Peru is rather a large country, as shown above on an image I created on </span><b><a href="https://www.thetruesize.com/" target="_blank">TheTrueSize</a></b><span>:</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ7RmhImF6gpjZKM6glbiajemq_DAnyayzoj7eHlHm2BeoF1wliLQA5ddytkye6d8CuOBFVg0HaPQHmNlkHtC_rgjEX7bMWHKwy6D83MJb5PiCFKR0BAFcQ93HaZQXKUqZd0xmdxHG0sFkTjKTW5TIQYmk8Ik2amOc3ftSgXIa_xlXqR6WW-H1AA/s438/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.17.26%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="438" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ7RmhImF6gpjZKM6glbiajemq_DAnyayzoj7eHlHm2BeoF1wliLQA5ddytkye6d8CuOBFVg0HaPQHmNlkHtC_rgjEX7bMWHKwy6D83MJb5PiCFKR0BAFcQ93HaZQXKUqZd0xmdxHG0sFkTjKTW5TIQYmk8Ik2amOc3ftSgXIa_xlXqR6WW-H1AA/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.17.26%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As soon as a new dean for continuing education (at BSU this means anything not taught 8-4 in a regular semester) announced that he was allowing for summer courses that would be taught in just 5 eight-hour days, the idea of Coffee Week was born. At first, I thought I would do some lectures and show some movies all week, and then visit a roaster and café or two. By the time summer had arrived, this had become a full-on coffee crawl. As <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1wxG4iQL9jphamgFhE45YewtFFXI&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Coffee Week 2016</a></b> shows, we went to so many cafés that the students were refusing free coffee by the end of the afternoons. We learned a lot and the students took some<b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhayesboh/albums/72157671160124705" target="_blank"> terrific photographs</a></b>! (Most of these businesses are still in business, but sadly some cafés on this map no longer exist, so check ahead before you travel to any of them.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7_G3KQQRUFinP5VakSw_PMryp_YnTU9_YTbxmDq1ujFQ_B1i45G1R_rzNIHlNOSAv8yFl4gzYDSBGYZDwUxV0UK3U1EWcA4v9Zt1wLFrLSiBIEweR_eqzz_0MX_oxVGPVsoN3e2KIUebkLvOTEBB8NFwr7vQsJ8JirzpWKJaMeAnwjGir5evGA/s422/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.17.36%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="422" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7_G3KQQRUFinP5VakSw_PMryp_YnTU9_YTbxmDq1ujFQ_B1i45G1R_rzNIHlNOSAv8yFl4gzYDSBGYZDwUxV0UK3U1EWcA4v9Zt1wLFrLSiBIEweR_eqzz_0MX_oxVGPVsoN3e2KIUebkLvOTEBB8NFwr7vQsJ8JirzpWKJaMeAnwjGir5evGA/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.17.36%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As the name implies, <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1Fwk17QojSXgyDu94br8U3Qnc430&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Coffee Week BSU 2017</a></b> is a map of the places we went during the course's second offering -- it was just as enjoyable. Although we tried to offer it a few more times, we were never able to gain enough enrollment for the course to run again. In-person summer classes were very difficult to fill even before Covid-19. I do not think we will be able try this concept again. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYjjSE1vN0fgfKekQd9B6_8temFFdw9X1nT6wxVxOW60es7EOrhb0mKcGpJOQxKh057BdAPqURUuEnmcsMWcr8iyDvFoCTZ8iDzkwNq5b3hEWDvp3Urm00I4xlfUpj2X_XJmLMknfNsUqmR5MlGkQG-ZFJPgSNtu9meLOQnJltFi4UHXOpDu2nXw/s432/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.17.54%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="432" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYjjSE1vN0fgfKekQd9B6_8temFFdw9X1nT6wxVxOW60es7EOrhb0mKcGpJOQxKh057BdAPqURUuEnmcsMWcr8iyDvFoCTZ8iDzkwNq5b3hEWDvp3Urm00I4xlfUpj2X_XJmLMknfNsUqmR5MlGkQG-ZFJPgSNtu9meLOQnJltFi4UHXOpDu2nXw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-21%20at%2012.17.54%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1LFzdqYa6WNvYdU2bTVGo75d90Ptjf3WW&usp=sharing" target="_blank">BSU Nicaragua</a></b> is a simple map with a brief title, but there is more experience behind this map than any other I have made. Anything I do related to coffee began with my decision to take students to Nicaragua in 2006 -- just one time, I thought. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A search for <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/search?q=nicaragua" target="_blank">Nicaragua on this blog</a></b> will bring scores of articles, most of which relate to some place I have visited on this map, and a dozen of the albums in my Flickr account are from the trips represented here. Between 2006 and 2018, I took 12 student groups (with occasional friends or family included) on travel courses -- well over 100 people, some of them 2-3 times. None of them went to every site on this map, but all of them went to most. And of course, each site on this map is full of memories for me. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZz0UQg8vOhs2J8UOvWZZ98qGh-kdLN7QCvLOJVFkNjpU6-9HxrQT9GRwWliwt3ILW8W2Qs9yHEERaX_jl5vV-v4kAqs1VWLeiyvqivjj32_2DMvWeFUOqjXHgr5qt7eUICIhDXMNcVmLiwIulbmfZDlUR3jPthU_cNGKHIdTK_9ytX5thUD2jsw/s436/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%202.55.33%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="436" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZz0UQg8vOhs2J8UOvWZZ98qGh-kdLN7QCvLOJVFkNjpU6-9HxrQT9GRwWliwt3ILW8W2Qs9yHEERaX_jl5vV-v4kAqs1VWLeiyvqivjj32_2DMvWeFUOqjXHgr5qt7eUICIhDXMNcVmLiwIulbmfZDlUR3jPthU_cNGKHIdTK_9ytX5thUD2jsw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%202.55.33%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>And now back to some teaching that is not coffee-related. The <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1b7F4BWuUDBXQ4yHSJdahzzPIWuQ&usp=sharing" target="_blank">GEOG 332</a></b> shows only four points, all of which I have visited and two of which are field-trip destinations in my course GEOG 332: Land Protection. As I prepared this blog post, I decided that annotations for those points would be a good addition. Feel free to click through to see a bit of what this course is about. I am fortunate to have taught it in alternate fall semesters for more than 20 years. I am looking forward to the next time, starting in September 2023.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1x3l6leJlxXPgzh6IsSGanR5ZV97DbPHBZk8YCAkhOXsLAw24IjrVP66n5i-DsYja9Lmu38_nTLL6trDVwCyr2WboOAE93FK7PV0uIbyw7eHjUN0sMs64fTzkfEvAnGbwiMaaMzGDZXrcW4fyB3MDoEtj-973L1i94zgU5tC69dpn3WD9wX0BIg/s442/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%203.21.32%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="442" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1x3l6leJlxXPgzh6IsSGanR5ZV97DbPHBZk8YCAkhOXsLAw24IjrVP66n5i-DsYja9Lmu38_nTLL6trDVwCyr2WboOAE93FK7PV0uIbyw7eHjUN0sMs64fTzkfEvAnGbwiMaaMzGDZXrcW4fyB3MDoEtj-973L1i94zgU5tC69dpn3WD9wX0BIg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%203.21.32%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1dOhk22SIM-2cuVjOg2KdCy7NNIchM82v&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Global Guardians</a></b> map is another example of a map connected to a specific, non-coffee course. In this case, the map was created with the direct assistance of students in a course. GEOG 130: Environmental Geography is a survey course that is central to my identity as a geographer. In the early days of Google, simply searching on the title of the course would bring up my web page as the very first result (a parlor trick I cannot do any more). I have taught the class more than 100 times in many different formats. For the past decade or so, my main textbook has been <i>The View from Lazy Point</i> by the amazing Carl Safina.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Of all the approaches I have taken to this course, I have found to be the use of his book to be the most successful. But a few years ago, I realized that the combination of his text and my teaching did not allow sufficient space for non-male voices in what should be a comprehensive discussion. As I describe in my <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2020/05/guardian-women.html" target="_blank">2020 Guardian Women</a></b> blog post, I found a rich array of female environmental leaders to introduce to my students. My favorite librarian helped me to develop a series of assignments to deepen those introductions and one result is a map that my students made to show where <i>some</i> of those women lived and worked.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwPMPLqRDbAka6r1qTWNlH-5Oq1ouQKF_3rp9iFv5xwvUpt4EzJue7-iH_yIa1wQPfJ0iGGyE1iioECKL0P0HCc3HLxMgcuZyrn4b9V4U5D9n09fWe2ndMz-J94mfqNmRoppFtPU6RbjrD_R7eekvlmrtS3fszDTO4QdV1H0HxdgvDiZQi_-REw/s432/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.17%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="432" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwPMPLqRDbAka6r1qTWNlH-5Oq1ouQKF_3rp9iFv5xwvUpt4EzJue7-iH_yIa1wQPfJ0iGGyE1iioECKL0P0HCc3HLxMgcuZyrn4b9V4U5D9n09fWe2ndMz-J94mfqNmRoppFtPU6RbjrD_R7eekvlmrtS3fszDTO4QdV1H0HxdgvDiZQi_-REw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.17%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The <b><a href="https://bridgewatersproject.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bridgewaters Project map</a></b> points to every place I know of that shares its name with the town where we have lived and worked since 1997. Soon after moving to Bridgewater, Massachusetts we learned that it is named for Bridgwater (<i>sic</i>), England and also shares a name with Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Gradually, we learned that quite a few states have a town (or several) with the same name, and that many smaller places (like shopping malls) also share it. Thus was a quest begun, and in 2009 we began the <b><a href="https://bridgewatersproject.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bridgewaters Project</a></b> blog, documenting Bridgewaters we had already been and giving us an excuse to visit others. Our local newspaper eventually learned what we were up to and sent a reporter to <b><a href="https://bridgewatersproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-bridgewaters-project-makes-big-time.html" target="_blank">write about it and take a wide-angle photo of us</a></b> in our hallway full of Bridgewater prints and maps.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL84EPEEhp_wG-IIIYcm7yqm_7ptqVe5MIkel1Whq6ZVWRg1xqb95Hxsc9y21L3ArfVQU959Kzjr6yd3ifbvn4fgffu9jzMMPWsvF9EhgtrEWIyrIDkuGXSk2BIeJFs7YIKt2UI3xVsZ-uII4feuu0gkJ08NWN-AGwqfsyXVTHfRjb8r_AmCJXvg/s438/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-01%20at%203.58.27%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="438" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL84EPEEhp_wG-IIIYcm7yqm_7ptqVe5MIkel1Whq6ZVWRg1xqb95Hxsc9y21L3ArfVQU959Kzjr6yd3ifbvn4fgffu9jzMMPWsvF9EhgtrEWIyrIDkuGXSk2BIeJFs7YIKt2UI3xVsZ-uII4feuu0gkJ08NWN-AGwqfsyXVTHfRjb8r_AmCJXvg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-01%20at%203.58.27%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As mentioned above, the Bridgewater in Nova Scotia is of particular importance in our Bridgewaters Project, so our 2018 visit there was a big deal for us. We spent a couple of nights in a perfectly lovely B & B in Bridgewater itself. We also visited some truly amazing places on our way to and from Bridgewater and quite a few others in the vicinity. We would love to go back, and not just because of the incredibly warm welcome we received in the local historical society. Of course, our <b><a href="https://bridgewatersproject.blogspot.com/2019/07/bridgewater-nova-scotia.html" target="_blank">Bridgewater, Nova Scotia blogpost</a></b> has a lot of fun details, and the <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1EZ_BPwe_1ZnbYsXREuunI7GVmhQLOBjQ&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Nova Scotia 2018 map</a></b> was essential to the journey. </span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPVFihm9DO77c7su1oRSg4pLDJTwx0Qva4ZnJfrAPtAXsA0BIziJG4N0V01KN1cIPXmGSGG4Gwn_2US0EYMLuDybCulGbaQL5ZqfWK7IBp8JiWbWubHppJcc_S0p1BBKYDFHsOzfvqPrgTFDZx0j1kZJppKj-DOitjrHihpfEpYfx267C0i8wzQ/s440/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.09.33%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="440" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPVFihm9DO77c7su1oRSg4pLDJTwx0Qva4ZnJfrAPtAXsA0BIziJG4N0V01KN1cIPXmGSGG4Gwn_2US0EYMLuDybCulGbaQL5ZqfWK7IBp8JiWbWubHppJcc_S0p1BBKYDFHsOzfvqPrgTFDZx0j1kZJppKj-DOitjrHihpfEpYfx267C0i8wzQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-20%20at%203.09.33%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1v5uHNA6ugAKVArlG3_oxfCuJBt0&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Mermaids</a></b> <i>might </i>be the silliest use I have made of Google Maps so far, only because there are several levels of family-blogging absurdity involved. The map is <b><a href="http://bridgewatersproject.blogspot.com/2013/07/swimming-to-bridgewater.html" target="_blank">embedded in a post on our Bridgewaters Project blog</a></b>, which in turn is referenced in the <i><b><a href="https://allnoni.blogspot.com/2013/07/mermaids-noni-makes-splash.html" target="_blank">Mermaids</a></b> </i>entry on our All Noni blog. For those readers who are new here, the former is about our determination to write about all places named Bridgewater and the latter is about our determination to write about every film, television show, or short work involving Our Noni, otherwise known as Winona Ryder. </span></div></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFdIrfxMkRLf1_i5bzezCSwdeAmBZaomu3Kl2r2ZUSdk4Zyg9krZN0MFc-J2vDilp9IyUKUa5n9P3bRmn81zu0sX8lFf6k4N7ZOBlDBC-K7Jyg8eQnszPMKXzdQHlik-JsvA3C_ga8siaGw-u5PFTMCQmlj-Hb3Cv6fGiPnpLd64H0ARqeM84CA/s434/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.37%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="434" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFdIrfxMkRLf1_i5bzezCSwdeAmBZaomu3Kl2r2ZUSdk4Zyg9krZN0MFc-J2vDilp9IyUKUa5n9P3bRmn81zu0sX8lFf6k4N7ZOBlDBC-K7Jyg8eQnszPMKXzdQHlik-JsvA3C_ga8siaGw-u5PFTMCQmlj-Hb3Cv6fGiPnpLd64H0ARqeM84CA/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.37%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For the past several years, I have taught one-credit Honors colloquia about cities that interest me greatly but that I had not visited when I started this practice. Initially, I offered Detroit and New Orleans because they were the U.S. cities about which I had done the most reading and thinking, music listening and film watching, without having actually visited. Even a lot of cities I had visited in person had not captured my attention so much. I have since visited Detroit for just 21 learning-packed hours, but I have not made it to NOLA yet. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I bring a lot of maps into these classes and I have students bring in even more. The simple <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1ktrr2Nkyyst5r7kcQaWZ0hxGnTyQVgt1&usp=sharing" target="_blank">¡NOLA! </a></b>map shows just one kind of thing: the locations of international consulates in New Orleans. It seems to have a lot of consulates for a city its size, and they are not random. Rather, they reflect the places to which New Orleans has had -- and continues to have -- the most important connections through trade, migration, and cultural exchange.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPkeaB5MculH9NJUVM5JUggyaqglkHvJhGdIZvcMLy1yG1Dc1xUz2oe6RNyu6jfVs02iN_ZXclNg2MXIKzJkw4LuKMyaA55iYuaTkKz8d7C7Y5UDcOnMBCkcr7_7kktzukXWmXm-_DD_UnIcBIVBr4r1pscMZFW6S_asgEo_DlSOJ6CJ9BmrTlIw/s432/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.48%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="432" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPkeaB5MculH9NJUVM5JUggyaqglkHvJhGdIZvcMLy1yG1Dc1xUz2oe6RNyu6jfVs02iN_ZXclNg2MXIKzJkw4LuKMyaA55iYuaTkKz8d7C7Y5UDcOnMBCkcr7_7kktzukXWmXm-_DD_UnIcBIVBr4r1pscMZFW6S_asgEo_DlSOJ6CJ9BmrTlIw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.48%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1MlHszRsMcPojqEG5BavT-aVRL8k&usp=sharing" target="_blank"><b>Chan Chan </b></a>map is similar to some of the others mentioned so far, in that it shows the places mentioned in a work of art, in this case a song by the same name. Not just a song, though: the song that has come to represent an important moment in Cuban music and the performers who represent that moment: <i>Buena Vista Social Club</i>. In this case, the map arose from my own curiosity about the song -- I could not decipher its meaning until I figured out which words were place names. I embedded the map in my 2013 <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2013/01/holguin-son.html" target="_blank">Hoguín Son </a></b>post. (That is the Spanish word "son" for "sound" not the English word for a male heir.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJOswkcmm5E_nF_gfqRSh5gk0LdEYu8FHpMU5GSCuXMxa6sqf0_QN2gotiVPDw_rjINLpUQvrfz7EaGlwm9FpI1Pp_QEyZcbFzNRGXUpHA22moD1LEqp7Usv8Q42MzvQboSsWD0Uqd1qPPoibnVxaIwrFeFrB8O2lLDyCrOjTXTGZZm6qxpiDlg/s432/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.58%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="432" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJOswkcmm5E_nF_gfqRSh5gk0LdEYu8FHpMU5GSCuXMxa6sqf0_QN2gotiVPDw_rjINLpUQvrfz7EaGlwm9FpI1Pp_QEyZcbFzNRGXUpHA22moD1LEqp7Usv8Q42MzvQboSsWD0Uqd1qPPoibnVxaIwrFeFrB8O2lLDyCrOjTXTGZZm6qxpiDlg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%2010.22.58%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span>I made the <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1_MDVR2jCq73rIlA3KSHLGEyv-JMiLy9F&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Garifuna</a></b> map for students in my New Orleans class. It has just three points, but they are important for understanding the geography of Garifuna language and culture in the Caribbean region. </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPp-fu9bUw8hwYFbgGMCPQByCWEAHNkouXBwKYM6cHVcW_K2lM3Olpf0gO5lBZr_ULJhPYDdjn5I7_ekv5O73WftFn1oDTlp5znEmB1NeMR0DapmQTNCr8wIZddiU5m9wbrwcNNHUivHo9-W78YPYtYItSXRI1xOTmch0URPAl_VzedVEXQqchgw/s440/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%209.39.49%20AM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="440" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPp-fu9bUw8hwYFbgGMCPQByCWEAHNkouXBwKYM6cHVcW_K2lM3Olpf0gO5lBZr_ULJhPYDdjn5I7_ekv5O73WftFn1oDTlp5znEmB1NeMR0DapmQTNCr8wIZddiU5m9wbrwcNNHUivHo9-W78YPYtYItSXRI1xOTmch0URPAl_VzedVEXQqchgw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%209.39.49%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I hope that people are still aware of the story of Malala Yousef, a Pakistani woman who was nearly killed about a decade ago for pursuing an education and whose courage captured the imagination of millions. My first blog post about her was my 2014 <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2014/05/crisp-and-self-assured.html" target="_blank">Crisp and Self-Assured</a></b>, which had to do with pundits like Rush Limbaugh supporting her attackers. When I wrote <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2014/07/riveting-malala.html" target="_blank">Riveting Malala</a></b> a bit later that year, I created the map <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1YX-rPfRyrYJAif4OMcTPNTPJkWs&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Malala Locations from the Memoir</a></b>, because her book mentions many places that are not at all familiar to most of her readers. As with any of my maps, the idea is not simply to notice where the points are, but rather to use these maps as a point of departure for further exploration. Once we know <i>where</i> various events in her life took place, we can use these and other maps to learn more about those places. Are they hot, dry, steep, flat, forested, urban, rural -- what kinds of places are they?</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9SX6HrpqhKwt8Z5XYpHBmiynFgqn-Jmfhoms2aZWv6nqzeZVywhMOVe4zuEpVgviYUvMODrBoQUAoUS8Mg-tOmGIbRIRvSCkcRSecZmHZlhXW7DS00yqdbLmaThm2mKexaNiSryewnSbD-iDYzTLhmQO826-OY6uD3S0NYaBMqmT3-ajXLNJGg/s432/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%2012.06.43%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="432" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9SX6HrpqhKwt8Z5XYpHBmiynFgqn-Jmfhoms2aZWv6nqzeZVywhMOVe4zuEpVgviYUvMODrBoQUAoUS8Mg-tOmGIbRIRvSCkcRSecZmHZlhXW7DS00yqdbLmaThm2mKexaNiSryewnSbD-iDYzTLhmQO826-OY6uD3S0NYaBMqmT3-ajXLNJGg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%2012.06.43%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1wyZn-KA-jcR4E59jL24a0ING9d2qmMnn&usp=sharing" target="_blank"><b>Malbeclipse 2019</b> </a>map describes personal travel with a complicated story that began with a jury-duty summons two years prior. Pamela had received a summons for federal jury duty that would have disrupted the long-planned (and very geographic) celebration of <b><a href="http://perrylaperra.blogspot.com/2017/06/borden-flats-light.html" target="_blank">our 30th wedding anniversary</a></b>. The feds let her off the hook, but stressed that there would be NO MERCY during the make-up week a few months later. So when friends invited us to return to their home in <b><a href="https://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEnews/TSE2017/TSE2017states/TSE2017stateNE.html" target="_blank">Kearney, Nebraska for a total eclipse of the sun</a></b>, we declined so that Pam could call the court every night. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6aSotytGkzEjD7Qu5XQjYrD-QCL9dnu4M-yqZ4tPtrKqlXztrfzPQ_QIxDrEjDSpp9nBcW5Cv_jOe1jVzR5xxhtzYDI-fpWpjLd5PQNht4Fv3wOgvMi1-sTCOI0k_NNkQnIufWGaIBpanLB3HsOygqWsNGZz9L2-ntesnxWeKCuI3KlsHiyIVlg/s1800/salta-argentina.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6aSotytGkzEjD7Qu5XQjYrD-QCL9dnu4M-yqZ4tPtrKqlXztrfzPQ_QIxDrEjDSpp9nBcW5Cv_jOe1jVzR5xxhtzYDI-fpWpjLd5PQNht4Fv3wOgvMi1-sTCOI0k_NNkQnIufWGaIBpanLB3HsOygqWsNGZz9L2-ntesnxWeKCuI3KlsHiyIVlg/w320-h400/salta-argentina.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salta is on the map for next time!<br />Image: <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=659062379370962&set=a.234415768502294" target="_blank">Descubre Argentina</a></b> </td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, she was never seated on that jury, but our hopes were dashed. This geographer immediately set about searching upcoming eclipses and noticed that a 2019 event would be very close to Mendoza, Argentina -- an Andean town that is the source of most of the red wine we drink in our home -- Mendoza Malbec. As we were making plans, I was fortunate to meet someone from Chile who convinced me that the Elquí Valley of Chile would be a better viewing area. It is home to one of the world's most important clusters of astronomy researchers because of the incredibly clear skies at the edge of the Atacama Desert. So the question was: Argentina or Chile? The answer was: yes, both. We <b><a href="http://perrylaperra.blogspot.com/2019/07/malbeclipse-part-1-chile.html" target="_blank">went to Chile</a></b> for the eclipse and then flew to <b><a href="https://perrylaperra.blogspot.com/2019/07/malbeclipse-part-2-argentina.html" target="_blank">Argentina for the wine</a></b>. We did not lack for wine on the Chilean side of the mountains of course, but we had our hearts set on Mendoza! The Malbeclipse 2019 map includes some details about our lodging and transportation and also the half dozen or so vineyards we visited. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><b>Bonus: </b>I just added an icon to this map for our next visit. We need to return to both sides. I would love to spend a month or so in Elquí and we also need to get to the </span><span>Gabriela Marquez museum that was closed the day we tried to visit. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On the Argentine side, we visited quite a few vineyards, including one in the distinct Uco Valley district to the south of Mendoza proper, but we left about 250 vineyards unvisited. We were also there in southern winter, and I wonder how crowded the entire area must be in peak season. The icon I have added is not for any particular vineyard in Mendoza -- though we do have some favorites. Rather, it is for another growing area -- even higher in elevation and well to the north: Salta. We have had a few exquisite wines from there. Moreover, an image I recently found on the <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/descubrelaargentina" target="_blank">Descubre Argentina</a></b> tourism site suggests the kind of alpine village scene I had imagined but not found in Mendoza. I'm willing to give it a try!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNps6cVhgZ3ktx2MivOa-BjsaL1NY4DZpOzaR58yA1hd2DRkDFj6_08bwPkJxdVt7ZxdDU7WO3MhBT3TmC1s7M4Lmpfai6n6AMZKkT853utfrJUGTnt5d-iPaSwHJhJEoS21tfObBfcbvLLvs71GUv11yi7lcLYAlyvcsofuRRuntlZGeYGnSKTg/s436/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-01%20at%205.21.50%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="436" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNps6cVhgZ3ktx2MivOa-BjsaL1NY4DZpOzaR58yA1hd2DRkDFj6_08bwPkJxdVt7ZxdDU7WO3MhBT3TmC1s7M4Lmpfai6n6AMZKkT853utfrJUGTnt5d-iPaSwHJhJEoS21tfObBfcbvLLvs71GUv11yi7lcLYAlyvcsofuRRuntlZGeYGnSKTg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-01%20at%205.21.50%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1L9-AuSbcnAn6bVNI23wPWc_EJe8RYygF&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Onyema Ogbuagu</a></b> is a map that is named for a person -- a person whose name recognition is tiny (even I had forgotten why I made this map) despite the immense importance of his contribution to global well-being. As I mentioned in my 2020 <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2020/11/thanks-to-doctor-ogbuagu.html" target="_blank">Thanks to Doctor Ogbuagu</a></b> blog post, he is a Yale researcher who played a vital role in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine that saved millions of lives and allowed billions of people to return to something like normal living after the global pandemic. His biography mentioned several academic sites throughout Nigeria that were unfamiliar to me, so of course I made a map!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jw-8nZLDaNhRgPPkhY2bqCNQ8Wmyf-sj6zt9EY10X-hPLM7KleiDZQEIyotGLwcPA3PDKqCuS3XhSPRZOQKRsqsrCXPopJWrqJ1V7N19KmwytKRBcbqxPGDMUv54qPCxpgLkThCjlFC1hibV1mnRSHnj-jMIEkPiLlSldKHouYRa3vs5J1yGBQ/s432/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-01%20at%205.38.53%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="432" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jw-8nZLDaNhRgPPkhY2bqCNQ8Wmyf-sj6zt9EY10X-hPLM7KleiDZQEIyotGLwcPA3PDKqCuS3XhSPRZOQKRsqsrCXPopJWrqJ1V7N19KmwytKRBcbqxPGDMUv54qPCxpgLkThCjlFC1hibV1mnRSHnj-jMIEkPiLlSldKHouYRa3vs5J1yGBQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-01%20at%205.38.53%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Those who click on my </span><b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1ziGUdlty35Ddq8RSDOKdu5t7OCGGIrCC&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Georgia Planning</a></b><span> map (and I hope that includes whomever is reading right now) will notice that this is, as we say, Georgia the country, not that place where we keep Atlanta. This is the former Soviet republic on the Black Sea that a certain crazy man in Moscow has made some efforts to reconquer. It is mountainous country of great political and geological complexity, considered equally Asian and European -- neither and both, in the minds of many.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We have been learning a lot about Georgia since 2017, when we hosted a Georgian geologist in our home for a couple of months while he used our university's facilities for some fascinating work trying to untangle some of that geology. We were fortunate that he returned for a brief visit a couple years later and that we have stayed in touch online. (No worries -- on our part -- that Georgian is an extremely unusual and difficult language. Our friend Luka is fluent in at least four languages, one of which is English!)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Among the interesting things we have learned is that Georgia is the FIRST place on the planet to have made wine; those who have been paying attention will know that this alone is reason enough for a Hayes-Bohanan visit. We are also interested in some outreach related to geography education and simply visiting Luka and other Georgian friends in their home country. So far this is a planning map with no date (Covid-19 threw us off some former plans), but definite strong intentions. (Fun fact: Tbilisi is one of three national capitals on the same latitude as our home near Boston.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOryc5wB6A5nadFpLZnoIk5pEPl-Bx7Dsn8ngm8yk97r80F4yxv5TvVbHgkH1wWkZl1zgLGqpcaMy55zYt2LLiaJ88ywSxmm4-_dpk7usMP2ANSS1ewQlpiIdK_A5EcHZARNm4aJoRiaFuXTKy1CpaQPaiynxuD8IqyeVbvFZVjy5CY9gQlWqJ3w/s430/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-02%20at%208.35.35%20AM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="430" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOryc5wB6A5nadFpLZnoIk5pEPl-Bx7Dsn8ngm8yk97r80F4yxv5TvVbHgkH1wWkZl1zgLGqpcaMy55zYt2LLiaJ88ywSxmm4-_dpk7usMP2ANSS1ewQlpiIdK_A5EcHZARNm4aJoRiaFuXTKy1CpaQPaiynxuD8IqyeVbvFZVjy5CY9gQlWqJ3w/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-02%20at%208.35.35%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1VA7bM5eAeLSEEx-38ag2Tw5HwMU&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Puerto Rico 2016 map</a></b> began as a planning map but now serves as an annotated record of our visit that year, including a link to all of my photos from the journey. So far this is the only time any of the Hayes-Bohs have visited the island, which would be the <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/PRStatehoodNet" target="_blank">51st state already</a></b>, were it not for the opposition of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, our country's most effective bigot. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Our son went to the sort of school where the parents' fundraising auction included fancy vacations, and we decided to splurge on an offer of a few days in a villa on the north coast of the island. It is not the sort of place we would normally vacation on our own -- the offer was somewhat off-season, so we had not only a huge villa but almost an entire gated community to ourselves. No complaints, though: it was beautiful, comfortable, near the ocean, and convenient for exploring much of the rest of the island. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The map includes a description of each of the sites we were lucky enough to visit, a year before <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2017/10/puerto-rico-open-ended-crisis.html" target="_blank">Hurricane Maria and a criminally negligent federal response</a></b> destroyed many of these sites. A search of this <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/search?q=boricua" target="_blank">blog for the word Boricua</a></b> points to more of my pointed remarks about the treatment of my fellow citizens on the quasi-colonial island. I also recommend the documentary </span><span>Yo Soy Boricua Pa'Que Tu Lo Sepas! (I'm Boricua Just So You Know) by comedienne Rosie Perez -- see <b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408304/reference/" target="_blank">IMDb entry</a></b> or the <b><a href="https://youtu.be/807d8hQyKII" target="_blank">entire film on YouTube</a></b>. It was made in 2006 but remains the best introduction I know to the island and its connections to the mainland.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00fe; font-size: large;">MAPS TO COME!! I am just getting started here...</span></p><div><p></p></div><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-46829348449636584682023-05-13T13:29:00.003-04:002023-05-13T13:29:41.070-04:00Sounds of a Lone Tree Standing<p><span style="font-size: medium;">If a tree stood alone in a forest -- a tree so big that it <i>is</i> the entire forest -- would it make a sound without falling? The answer is, not surprisingly: YES!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">From <i>Science Friday</i> comes the remarkable story -- absolutely perfect for radio -- <b><a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/listen-to-the-pando-largest-tree/" target="_blank">of the sounds of Pando</a></b>, the world's largest tree. This image is <i>not </i>a group of trees; rather, it is one small part of Pando, a highland aspen with many thousands of "branches" that resemble tree trunks but that are joined underground as one vast organism.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRdjiy9ks5VQ-PesNkMN7PH5qO_0Vs35DMhMq0s297e0jsXfjPeThNaBk4DB9fiN_MYxR9mNhyhMTAYBs77BF6XGymAQGsI0haQTvBweh1aZkWvfrAFVtQQPVcPXc2SHEZy_30Yj7C9XMIUvlo5VMn2EJaqQpqe9g8Z50zL9O0LplHQFd8Jbo/s1500/pando-aspen-tree-min.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1001" data-original-width="1500" height="429" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRdjiy9ks5VQ-PesNkMN7PH5qO_0Vs35DMhMq0s297e0jsXfjPeThNaBk4DB9fiN_MYxR9mNhyhMTAYBs77BF6XGymAQGsI0haQTvBweh1aZkWvfrAFVtQQPVcPXc2SHEZy_30Yj7C9XMIUvlo5VMn2EJaqQpqe9g8Z50zL9O0LplHQFd8Jbo/w640-h429/pando-aspen-tree-min.webp" width="640" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Please listen as Ira Flatow discusses this remarkable tree with ecologist Lance Oditt and sound artist Jeff Rice. They share a lot of insights about trees, sound, and the scientific endeavor in general. This is a terrific story of what is often called "STEM to STEAM" or the intersection of science and the arts.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Bonus: Jeff Rice is employed in a very special capacity in a library, where his work with sound intersects deeply with geography. His work is part of the <b><a href="https://acousticatlas.org/index.php" target="_blank">Acoustic Atlas</a></b> at the <b><a href="https://www.lib.montana.edu/" target="_blank">Montana State University Library</a></b>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">As a geographer, I think that the </span><b style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/42b1a6fe6a524b578becd12c0bee4b4c" target="_blank">Acoustic Atlas Story Map</a></b><span style="font-size: large;"> is the best introduction to its work, though the main project site points to many additional resources. </span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-9676491765045904902023-05-06T18:06:00.001-04:002023-05-06T18:06:11.499-04:00One-Upped<p><span style="font-size: medium;">We have been visiting Chicago fairly regularly since our son moved here (I'm writing from Chicago at the moment) to attend a <b><a href="https://www.saic.edu/" target="_blank">most excellent art school</a></b> (because he is a most excellent artist) in 2016. It was in 2018 that we combined a visit with an academic conference that was held at the Holiday Inn on the Chicago River. It was somewhat nicer than most Holiday Inns, and in a <i>much</i> better location than most. It is in the same place today, of course, but the location is not quite what it was five years ago. The building itself has changed in some interesting ways as well.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_vvkehK72Hmk4rnjaQ6vOL4g1F5B-LCdsjVc3z69jDYYPiIYBdvwUmywUgDt6-ZcwrlWyGVtkfQAAN0iwXer4d8Wwvrh4_LdmNeterDS6OCcaUrJ2GwvxibkVE7FB3g9c-iI8LM79cdZ9IzBJMHqaSbSxAl7Q0ebWXCozUlaINTonIXCACw/s2048/holidayinn-chicagoriver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_vvkehK72Hmk4rnjaQ6vOL4g1F5B-LCdsjVc3z69jDYYPiIYBdvwUmywUgDt6-ZcwrlWyGVtkfQAAN0iwXer4d8Wwvrh4_LdmNeterDS6OCcaUrJ2GwvxibkVE7FB3g9c-iI8LM79cdZ9IzBJMHqaSbSxAl7Q0ebWXCozUlaINTonIXCACw/w640-h480/holidayinn-chicagoriver.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holiday Inn from Chicago River - taken May 5, 2023<br />The bottom of the photo shows the tops of our fellow<br />architecture tourists.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">First the location. I took this photo yesterday as part of an architecture river tour (If you are visiting Chicago, this is not an option: it is a requirement. Thank me later.) The Holiday Inn is at the center. Zoom in to see the green logo sign on top of it. If the building looks like it is jostled between its neighbors, this is because it is. The building in the foreground were under construction at the time of our visit, but was just a hole in the ground. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When we first arrived back in 2018, a friend had noticed online that I was in Chicago, and suggested I take an architecture boat tour. At that moment, a well-marked tour boat went right under our window -- that is when I realized just how close to the river we were. I took this as a double recommendation and made my way to a tour while Pamela was in a conference session.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Later, we ate in the hotel restaurant about 2/3 of the way up (on the wider level of windows in the photo above) and found an even better view -- the confluence of the river's two main branches:</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-yGtrYmKnMhFJBIlpcZQLj09cbQSJAbr1sYyyTZ7pCZD--tTFgxc9PBU3PgpzqqiIklDbDp05aD0SbBh_UudUd66BlQzH7RttHUOKNMhZMN6txKJ5Kb9zBxk_UWifON2w_Vz_Died09ogGuS5frUhFRunQk6HocLw0qNOh5l9gW57sG7uj0/s1080/holidayinn-chicagoriver2018.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-yGtrYmKnMhFJBIlpcZQLj09cbQSJAbr1sYyyTZ7pCZD--tTFgxc9PBU3PgpzqqiIklDbDp05aD0SbBh_UudUd66BlQzH7RttHUOKNMhZMN6txKJ5Kb9zBxk_UWifON2w_Vz_Died09ogGuS5frUhFRunQk6HocLw0qNOh5l9gW57sG7uj0/w640-h640/holidayinn-chicagoriver2018.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chicago River from Holiday Inn Restaurant, August 2, 2018</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I have not investigated thoroughly, but the view <i>from</i> the river yesterday suggests that there still is a view <i>of</i> the river, but it cannot be this expansive. This would not be the first case of skyscraper one-upmanship and it will not be the last.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And second, I did not forget that I would be mentioning something about the Holiday Inn itself. The hotel occupies only the upper 9 floors or so -- aside from the taller level of the main lobby, these are the narrow bands at the top of the building. When we were staying there, the entire facade below the hotel was entirely granite. NO WINDOWS for about a dozen floors. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This oddity was explained on my 2018 boat tour. The building's other occupant was a company that worked with fabric dyes at a very sophisticated level. They wanted full control over the light in their office, in order to maintain the colors precisely. So they took out a long-term lease on a tower built with NO WINDOWS on the floors they rented. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And then they vacated, ending the lease. The guide on my 2018 tour explained that windows were being cut into the facade, and I think the process might already have started. As my 2023 photo reveals, the process is complete. Just in time for new tenants to enjoy an obstructed view of the river.</span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-39825199566189707902023-03-14T00:01:00.001-04:002023-03-14T00:01:38.405-04:00Vulnerability<p><span style="font-size: medium;">The blue dots that are overlayed on this map of the United States represent one of the most vulnerable countries on earth. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD930yGFciP__IHRjO9XjI5S7jILLNKswF6RaJe2qA1glzkfO_lIomprcCvbD9LDXvpKv4ejNuAZBr8WzrrNLikkOjFZnwqXTYg4P_Al2Fe2jWHEH-esch9OTlXmyVDcqYucfnRX8Nok6v4mbkalE0ennBxCuTGCUeXxtDrY8ovxvJXFARxdc/s794/Screen%20Shot%202023-03-13%20at%2011.40.55%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="794" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD930yGFciP__IHRjO9XjI5S7jILLNKswF6RaJe2qA1glzkfO_lIomprcCvbD9LDXvpKv4ejNuAZBr8WzrrNLikkOjFZnwqXTYg4P_Al2Fe2jWHEH-esch9OTlXmyVDcqYucfnRX8Nok6v4mbkalE0ennBxCuTGCUeXxtDrY8ovxvJXFARxdc/w640-h356/Screen%20Shot%202023-03-13%20at%2011.40.55%20PM.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I created this image using the web site <b><a href="http://TheTrueSize.com">TheTrueSize.com</a></b>, which I often use to make size comparisons among countries and/or U.S. states. The site is especially useful for illustrating the misperceptions that arise from our overuse of the Mercator projection, but it is also just a convenient way to make comparisons among all kinds of landmasses. The results can be especially surprising when archipelagos are examined.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To create the image, I cleared the map and then entered "Kiribati" in the search box. This highlighted all of the islands of this Pacific archipelago, which I carefully clicked and dragged toward the continental United States. I positioned it so that the bulk of the islands were superimposed on California. This would result in several islands being in New Mexico and Texas, with others as far away as Indiana and Florida. Kiribati, is spread over an area more than half the stze of the "lower 48" states. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The blue does exaggerate its landmass, however, as each outlines an island that would be invisible at the scale of this map. The total size of all of the islands of Kiribati is only 313 square miles -- less than one-third the size of Plymouth County, Massachusetts.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This word is an unusual spelling of "Gilbert" and is pronounced "Kiribahs." I have written about its vulnerability as a low-lying island nation, most notably in my 2015 post <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2015/11/climate-attack.html" target="_blank">Climate Attack</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-89043664850190158332023-03-02T15:24:00.001-05:002023-03-02T15:24:06.438-05:00Music and Resistance<p>In today's session of my Latin American geography course, we are discussing a few aspects of the military period in Brazil -- and artistic resistance to it. The discussion will include my 1996 visit with the artist Anka, which is detailed in the <i><b><a href="https://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/Folha3.htm" target="_blank">Folha da Fronteira</a></b> </i>newsletter I sent to friends at the time. In that account, I mention a small joke he shared. It was more than 20 years later that I realized he was not joking, and that the obscurity of his existence was almost certainly connected to the precarious position artists had been in only a few years before I visited his hermitage.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSLTsrFwTI_nO8wRdLC5jgColV5jiEqVlvVfQ-p0aIXBT2yKuF2PBBmS6R2HMHLaVY1yec5CfJKOTbtrYYyt5w2l8y4yj6xSVy8ukHW9z0LWEMTjjGQaI6kSGIZi6vwUxAEkrNU--W4wootR7nYRqOG6MUQJ3edwks2lhXKf5D-QpadVqugYM/s360/anka.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="119" data-original-width="360" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSLTsrFwTI_nO8wRdLC5jgColV5jiEqVlvVfQ-p0aIXBT2yKuF2PBBmS6R2HMHLaVY1yec5CfJKOTbtrYYyt5w2l8y4yj6xSVy8ukHW9z0LWEMTjjGQaI6kSGIZi6vwUxAEkrNU--W4wootR7nYRqOG6MUQJ3edwks2lhXKf5D-QpadVqugYM/w400-h132/anka.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>We will also explore the unbelievable but true story of <i><b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2014/10/overcoming-condor.html">Calice</a></b></i>, a song title whose two meanings provide deep insight into artistic resistance. The story of musical resistance throughout the region is told in more detail in the 2020 Netflix limited series <i><b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2021/05/break-it-all.html" target="_blank">Break it All</a></b>. </i></p><p>But we will begin today's class with something a bit more relaxed -- former Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil performing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWH-oAW7W9E" target="_blank">Rio Eu Te Amo</a> (Rio I Love You). I had the great privilege of hearing an entire evening of such work when <a href="https://thephoenix.com/article.aspx%3Fid=36222" target="_blank">he visited the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford</a> in 2007. He is the only performer I have seen there who was traveling with a Secret Service detail, because the concert was during a break in his attendance of the U.N. General Assembly. </p><p>I have spoken of that encounter often -- even with these students -- without realizing the true importance of his career. Fortunately, this morning's installment of BBC Forum was a <b><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct38ts" target="_blank">deep exploration of Tropicalia</a></b> -- his two-person group that had a profound impact on the military regime.</p><p>We also discussed the <b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/" target="_blank">1985 British farce <i>Brazil</i></a></b>, which makes no direct mention of the country, but is clearly all about the regime.</p><p>We rounded out class with three vocabulary words: jeito, palanca, and mordida!</p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-17370009907845100822023-02-03T09:59:00.001-05:002023-02-03T09:59:12.861-05:00Legislative Action<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKvrdgDVS0XPwE85cVOHq3hJNTQnAeUNww_BpUkMwdkibKnpV_LYHSpNZmM_J3sP71juIlcA1gY6q9nxyo-6GntIuFzrS87MTDxAIrCDYlW-K-aETWsmdTy5LB5wIN-dXUmzEjDVWWz6IP6k39LHHfL6lUgaNaRdjvba1njGvQEXdqRBgOM4/s756/two-button-geog-ed.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKvrdgDVS0XPwE85cVOHq3hJNTQnAeUNww_BpUkMwdkibKnpV_LYHSpNZmM_J3sP71juIlcA1gY6q9nxyo-6GntIuFzrS87MTDxAIrCDYlW-K-aETWsmdTy5LB5wIN-dXUmzEjDVWWz6IP6k39LHHfL6lUgaNaRdjvba1njGvQEXdqRBgOM4/w424-h640/two-button-geog-ed.jpeg" width="424" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When I make memes about education, I usually put them in my own Aw, Professor format. I was moved to make my first <b><a href="https://imgflip.com/i/79tpt4?herp=1675432336879" target="_blank">Two Red Button meme</a></b>, however, when I learned of the alacrity with which the Massachusetts General Court* moved to <b><a href="https://www.boston.com/community/readers-say/mass-sports-betting-launch-legal-readers-react/" target="_blank">address the apparent paucity of venues for sports gambling</a></b> in the Commonwealth*.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The news came as I have been struggling against geographic illiteracy, which seems to have become even more severe <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRh1zXFKC_o" target="_blank">than it was before the pandemic</a></b>. If only the General Court had ways of addressing both problems!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It turns out that it did, but chose not to. In 2011, following an <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2011/09/freetown-and-beacon-hill.html" target="_blank">EarthView visit to the historic State House</a></b>, the <b><a href="https://malegislature.gov/Legislators/Profile/TMS2/193" target="_blank">only Representative with a geography degree</a></b> helped us to file <b><a href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/HD2183" target="_blank">An Act Relative to Geography Education</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This was a relatively simple bill that called a symbolic geography day each year and for a commission to investigate the status of geography education in the Commonwealth. We garnered sponsors in both parties and both houses of the Legislature. With testimony from educators and students, we won a favorable report from the Joint Committee on Education -- again, with support from both houses and both parties. Even though this was explicitly a no-cost bill, the Senate Ways & Means Committee refused to advance the bill to a vote. In a subsequent session, we got through that committee, only to be thwarted by the Senate Committee on Bills in the Third Reading. That is an actual thing -- a very small group of legislators that party leaders can use to prevent anything they do not like from getting to a full vote.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This drama played out in the 187th Session of the General Court. It happened again, with small variations in the details, in the 188th, 189th, and 190th session. During those four sessions, my fellow geography educators and I met many legislators and their staff members. We even spoke about it on AM talk radio, though we were not welcomed on local public radio. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">We did not manage, by the way, to have any conversations with either of the governors who were in office during this time. Our one meeting with the first Massachusetts Secretary of Education took place the day before he took office, and he told us there was nothing he could do. Except draw a salary, apparently. He went on to be a "professor" at Harvard, which is <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2016/06/geo-veritas.html" target="_blank">infamously opposed to the study of geography</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">We have never gotten a floor vote on the question of geographic literacy, and we have not tried in the past two sessions. I honestly think we would win such a vote, which is why someone in the bureaucracy has worked so hard against us. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe we need to work the word "casino" into the title of our next bill.</span></p><p>*Note to people living in the other 49 states: I just used the pilgrim-era terms that we still use for "legislature" and "state" around here, where tradition is a big deal.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-78699265563541230372023-01-18T10:01:00.006-05:002024-03-13T08:59:51.190-04:00The Case for Trees<p> <i>more precisely</i>: <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The Case for a Tree Committee</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Early in the summer of 2022, local friends asked me to provide expert testimony (their phrase, not mine) as an environmental geographer regarding a question of local governance. Although I always resist the "expert" label, I was pleased to be asked. As I thought about the topic, I was also pleasantly surprised at the number of ways in which my experience did qualify me to speak to the question at hand.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuqy0aOk_zC-dZhMCskw-XMs8s3Z3v6igs6gva6JNtSkjSgRJOrvEygwsjf0hTx5-KqADt0dQDVGOu7I1O6mLxSXs0xp6gJv1dZn3Bng2mPJCVZ-FO9xMPxgpUIEYcM-WGTE_m-qlvVOECPPwSoIIc913Z-jCi4jAzXpYC8rRrV4NvHaCrEs/s500/hayes-boh-bigtree.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="340" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuqy0aOk_zC-dZhMCskw-XMs8s3Z3v6igs6gva6JNtSkjSgRJOrvEygwsjf0hTx5-KqADt0dQDVGOu7I1O6mLxSXs0xp6gJv1dZn3Bng2mPJCVZ-FO9xMPxgpUIEYcM-WGTE_m-qlvVOECPPwSoIIc913Z-jCi4jAzXpYC8rRrV4NvHaCrEs/w273-h400/hayes-boh-bigtree.jpeg" width="273" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><b><a href="http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/rondonia.htm" target="_blank">Posing in the Amazon</a></b> with a tree we<br />would definitely not find in Bridgewater.<br />Photo: Cara Reed (2003)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">That question, as suggested above, was whether to establish a <b><a href="https://www.mass.gov/doc/tree-boards-and-committees-fact-sheets/download#:~:text=A%20tree%20committee%20or%20tree,%2C%20plantings%2C%20and%20maintenance%20activities." target="_blank">tree committee</a></b> for our town in southeastern Massachusetts, between Boston and the Cape of Cod. Readers outside of New England might not be aware of this, but our towns have a lot of self-governance, and this includes <b><a href="https://www.bridgewaterma.org/198/Boards-Committees-Commissions" target="_blank">a lot of committees</a></b> that would never be contemplated elsewhere in the world.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It turns out that <b><a href="https://www.mass.gov/doc/listing-of-tree-committees-and-organizations-in-massachusetts/download" target="_blank">almost half</a></b> of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts have tree committees, with varying kinds of authority, and Bridgewater itself used to have one. A major responsibility of a reconstituted committee -- and the impetus for this discussion -- would be to guide plantings on public property, especially those that are mandated as a condition of other land-use changes. That is, if another town board or committee authorizes some clearing of trees in town, this committee might be called upon to provide for compensatory plantings on town land.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As part of a regularly scheduled public meeting of our Town Council, several people addressed the question of whether to form the tree committee -- all of us in the affirmative. As an environmental geographer whose teaching and research has involve forest ecology and political ecology, forest soils, and forest hydrology, I spoke to the <b><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N6aFWMKEvDRUhvDUm4IulWgE0mPusVAHO05EQcZy6yo/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">general benefits of trees and to the importance of choosing the correct trees</a></b> for a particular situation. My friend Marilee Hunt -- who is our Town Clerk and has much deeper experience than I with town governance -- provided a <b><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PdJodJNJYrmdQ1GIzEZgITY0hacyCQIzGdD9I2iAw3o/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">rich history of our town's conscious promotion of trees</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">July 2023 note: my favorite librarian follows the <b><a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/" target="_blank">Strong Towns</a></b> site and just shared a post by a municipal tree committee member in Canada, entitled <b><a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/6/29/an-inconvenient-tree" target="_blank">An Inconvenient Tree</a></b>. She makes a detailed case for increasing the planting and maintenance of public trees. </span></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">Lagniappe</b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I started this blog post right after the public meeting in June, because I thought my friend's comments would be instructive for my students and other readers. A lot happened to distract me from completing this post, but I return in January 2023 for an unexpected reason: our words were apparently convincing, the <b><a href="https://www.bridgewaterma.org/1491/Tree-Committee" target="_blank">Tree Committee</a></b> was indeed formed, and I have now been asked to apply to serve on it. Even if my application is approved, however, I will eschew that "expert" label. I reserve that honorific for real experts like my late friend <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2023/01/alan-bolt-heart-of-forest.html" target="_blank">Dr. Alan Bolt</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I am at best a student of trees, but I am pleased and proud to serve.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Update</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was approved, validated, certified, and sworn in, I look forward to faithfully executing the duties of the Tree Committee with my friends and neighbors. </span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWKU25NLKidZp3WnjeEfHuxAPMyQOTjcfC4pmgQxCtxY6iwg_lNJEA1a3iwHfaLPgmUS8vHZNygtP9focJpD5quG3qJjdu3TdZy0mm6JgNmD_JEbhslShCl8bBPoUfw8xGGm8aI6nJFltwL9MinLvZAbkOO9qWlZao761YiJ6vgHYzSD68Yzk/s960/treecommittee-swearingin.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="956" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWKU25NLKidZp3WnjeEfHuxAPMyQOTjcfC4pmgQxCtxY6iwg_lNJEA1a3iwHfaLPgmUS8vHZNygtP9focJpD5quG3qJjdu3TdZy0mm6JgNmD_JEbhslShCl8bBPoUfw8xGGm8aI6nJFltwL9MinLvZAbkOO9qWlZao761YiJ6vgHYzSD68Yzk/w638-h640/treecommittee-swearingin.jpeg" width="638" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For the swearing in at Town Hall, I held my copy of <b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5292371-it-s-arbor-day-charlie-brown" target="_blank"><i>It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown</i> </a></b><br />while wearing my Amazon, Earth's Breath necktie.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-9238688895133111542023-01-15T13:10:00.005-05:002023-01-15T13:27:04.215-05:00Jet Stream Science<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-uQWFpWJr7A3kLhSXjOhlL_htVI2sFv2uSF_iW3eV4CBnlNMaXiKLSCiRyk6aMtk_E5ALc3CS21lh5R3AiNwYscrGTMrArli6rxsHYNfSBgUvYaJ7FTQv0Y_SuQnooqI61L5uIqln0VIJvx5x1lHBrmeqJAMigvWPfwbvFhXfXD8Aat33rO8/s1600/salinasriverdamage.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-uQWFpWJr7A3kLhSXjOhlL_htVI2sFv2uSF_iW3eV4CBnlNMaXiKLSCiRyk6aMtk_E5ALc3CS21lh5R3AiNwYscrGTMrArli6rxsHYNfSBgUvYaJ7FTQv0Y_SuQnooqI61L5uIqln0VIJvx5x1lHBrmeqJAMigvWPfwbvFhXfXD8Aat33rO8/w640-h426/salinasriverdamage.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Recent <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/14/1149304548/california-storms-flooding-newsom" target="_blank">flooding on the Salinas River</a></b> near Chualar, California<br />Photo: David McNew via AFP/Getty/NPR</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The photo above is from <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/14/1149304548/california-storms-flooding-newsom" target="_blank">one of many stories</a></b> that we will continue to find on NPR and elsewhere, about the series of storms that are pummeling California. The damage is made more severe by the fact that the storms followed a period of drought and fire and the fact that they are arriving in such rapid succession that soil has no time to dry. Many lessons about physical geography are playing out in very real terms. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Among those lessons are the importance of the jet stream -- that very fast, sinusoidal wind current in the upper atmosphere that contributes so much variability to weather patterns in the midlatitudes, even in "normal" times. In a recent conversation my favorite environmental journalist Steve Curwood, climate scientist Jennifer Francis explains the importance of the jet stream in general and <b><a href="https://loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=23-P13-00002&segmentID=2" target="_blank">the ways it is now driving extreme weather in particular</a></b>.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Climate-change deniers have often cited the complexity of the problem as an excuse for their disbelief -- or more precisely for the disbelief they tried to cultivate among those who would not read the original literature. As evidence has grown that the climate is not only growing warmer but also growing more variable, skeptics (including professional doubt-sowers) have pretended that scientists were changing the narrative to fit changing circumstances.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">These weak arguments ignored the changing circumstances themselves and the fact that increased variability was mentioned in some of the earliest literature on the problem. I discuss this in a bit more detail in my 2017 post <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2017/04/early-warning.html" target="_blank">Early Warning</a></b> and in my 2016 <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2016/12/your-cheatin-climate.html" target="_blank">Your Cheatin' Climate</a></b>. My 2012 post <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2012/10/frosty-denial.html" target="_blank">Frosty Denial</a></b> describes the basic process of global warming itself -- I have never seen an argument that addresses these basic processes.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Lagniappe</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The climate-denial business has indeed been a business, as Leonardo DiCaprio explains so well in <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2016/12/before-flood.html" target="_blank">Before the Flood</a></b>. In fact, the petroleum industry has understood the science so well -- despite their support for Congress Critters who continue to deny the facts -- that <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/12/1148376084/exxon-climate-predictions-were-accurate-decades-ago-still-it-sowed-doubt" target="_blank">ExxonMobil internal documents predicted change better than most published papers</a></b>. </span></div>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-65276016326522588302023-01-09T08:35:00.000-05:002023-01-09T08:35:17.014-05:00Detroit: Roll City<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7jzo-8vamOJVmbfXzV_kjdUm7I-Rbtbxc9bbZTsMfYchMP29sPLvREJP5U2YRa9SdB_cfi1HVRc0ZRp-iJEC-Y0BWSMtKhAwOMVPpS6ZzJKWGm_YabpRrordhMU6b1WHgVqDH_ZCUVMGzmVr1gZvj3hWZwfYnVyaXMhpii2dfDedVBHGO5uA/s1600/detroit-rollers.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1059" data-original-width="1600" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7jzo-8vamOJVmbfXzV_kjdUm7I-Rbtbxc9bbZTsMfYchMP29sPLvREJP5U2YRa9SdB_cfi1HVRc0ZRp-iJEC-Y0BWSMtKhAwOMVPpS6ZzJKWGm_YabpRrordhMU6b1WHgVqDH_ZCUVMGzmVr1gZvj3hWZwfYnVyaXMhpii2dfDedVBHGO5uA/w640-h424/detroit-rollers.webp" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Image: <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1144704092/roller-skating-detroit-style-motown" target="_blank">Zairé Talon Daniels via NPR</a></b></span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Shortly after concluding the latest session of my Detroit: Arts City honors colloquium, I heard this delightful story on NPR's <i>Morning Edition</i>. Journalist Naina Rao reports on <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1144704092/roller-skating-detroit-style-motown">Detroit style skating</a></b>, whereby Motown music combines with exercise to help build community.</span></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763539.post-55749449207271454452023-01-05T10:22:00.000-05:002023-01-05T10:22:00.806-05:00Alan Bolt: Heart of the Forest<p><span style="font-size: medium;">For a dozen years in a row -- until the political crisis of April 2018 -- I led students on travel courses to study coffee in Nicaragua. For all but the first two of those journeys, I was the leader from the point of view of my university, but the real leaders were the excellent guides of <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Matagalpa.Tours.Nicaragua" target="_blank">Matagalpa Tours</a></b>, a company named for the place whose coffeelands I have come to know best. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Each January we would lead another group to <b><a href="https://goo.gl/maps/NNsXLAymiz15yKtC9" target="_blank">Matagalpa</a></b> and to a growing list of other points of interest throughout the country - eventually spending time in every region except the Caribbean coast (which remains a goal). Each February we would begin the discussion of the next visit, and so it was that we added the neighboring department of Jinotega to the list. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My interest in this area was because of the work of the martyred civil engineer Benjamin Linder -- you can read many <b><a href="https://www.environmentalgeography.net/search?q=ben+linder" target="_blank">Ben Linder posts on this blog</a></b> and our (so far denied) <b><a href="http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/coffee/coffee-proposal.html" target="_blank">proposal for a café in his honor</a></b> on my web site. As my friends and I discussed sites related to Ben Linder's work, we also talked about where to stay and what to do nearby. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This led us eventually to the Centro de Entendimiento con la Naturaleza -CEN (Center of Understanding with Nature), the fantastically interdisciplinary constellation of projects whose leader, heart, and soul was the inimitable Dr. Alan Bolt. Sadly, this post is inspired by his passing on Monday of this week, almost ten years to the day after our first meeting.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">During our first meeting, we were captivated by Alan's wide-ranging discourse on ecology, hydrology, the human condition, and so much more. Even the way he talked fascinated me -- more fluent in his second or third language than most people are in their first, and imbued with a curiosity that drew us ever further into his lessons and inquiries. I later learned that he had been a great thespian, having taught a generation of theater teachers before turning his attention to restoring the forest in which we found him. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A student present at that first meeting was so captivated that he returned on his own for several weeks the following summer, and with other family members a few times after that. We returned to CEN as often as we could, using it not only as a base for further exploration of the legacy of Ben Linder but as a place to learn deep lessons about forest ecology and its connections to communities.</span></p><p><img height="406" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/qFjjtX6pM5xtEB-agFNSiFQPE7rp1sgnPZs3Nk0rhxuP3PJR_6F-3DXsBPnvUX0NiKo9Jhen3RsRrlBW3TtMDI428hvGJUwTlgc3_hUHXTMtlUs68yf-teKzUbLcH2xtbNIT2VT1gDae_tNAWxdYCOj6aUSkuFgRDr9PBTHEcblsRGYOtTEEztJo_yhgdQB_y74LiV--7g" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;" width="611" /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">One at least two of our visits, we arrived at CEN with a student who was feeling ill -- not uncommon for people traveling for the first time to a new environment. In each case, Alan would interview the student in detail about how they were feeling and what they might have eaten or drank recently. Then he would ask one of his partners to go into the forest for some particular leaves, barks, and herbs. "I'm going to make you a tea," he would say softly. "Drink it all, rest, and then drink another." And it worked. He is not the only Nicaraguan I have seen do this -- my friend Doña Elsa would do something similar with herbs she had on hand.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Alan and the community he has cultivated are connected deeply to indigenous knowledge, western medicine, hydrology, ecology, public health, sustainable agriculture, and much more. I continue to use what I have learned from them in my own teaching, although politics and the pandemic have kept us apart in recent years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I am ending this post with an obituary that has been circulating among those who knew Alan. It is in Spanish, of course, and it flows like poetry. Following that is my own translation, which lacks some of the nuance but I hope does justice to the intent of the writers. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTfX_nnjGKPdzh90KADXbBBtX8dHuq9tQNe4vqIPm44fiQ_-dzvCR8kmbhST_gwc9ZHl1vMtJoqRxUVF4yT4WwTaqAYwpztd72I4YMSkbZqjsQkAf_NNXFaX7aIWe774thph0-jyT3dR9dd3dqFfzeBiE5l9boVvo8P4RrOykrMzd8-9lvo80/s1018/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-05%20at%2010.18.28%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="1018" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTfX_nnjGKPdzh90KADXbBBtX8dHuq9tQNe4vqIPm44fiQ_-dzvCR8kmbhST_gwc9ZHl1vMtJoqRxUVF4yT4WwTaqAYwpztd72I4YMSkbZqjsQkAf_NNXFaX7aIWe774thph0-jyT3dR9dd3dqFfzeBiE5l9boVvo8P4RrOykrMzd8-9lvo80/w400-h225/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-05%20at%2010.18.28%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From a very <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CentrodeEntendimientoconlaNaturaleza/videos/704119991416402" target="_blank">brief video of Alan</a></b> talking about the <br />importance of water. Even if you do not speak Spanish, <br />this is a great example of his spirit as a teacher.</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">Alan Bolt González </b></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Nació el 8 de Mayo de 1951, hijo de Pinita González y Guillermo Bolt, el quinto de 9 hermanos, en la segunda mitad de los 60 se ganó una beca para estudiar física nuclear en Alemania, asunto que lo llevo al medio oriente, el teatro, la lucha de los palestinos, a su regreso formo el TEU Teatro Universitario en León, trabajo con Omar Cabezas, desde entonces vinculado a la lucha guerrillera, al triunfo fue vice ministro de Cultura, a su regreso a Matagalpa a inicios de los 80ś fundo El Grupo de Teatro Nixtayolero. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Después del Huracán Mitch 1998 fundo lo que es conocido hoy como CEN "Centro de Entendimiento con la Naturaleza" al pie del Macizo de Peñas Blancas, donde su pasión por el saber a educar sobre el cuido de las abejas como acción vital para salvar la polinización de las plantas, y con ello la selva y el planeta tierra. Un científico ávido, un ser espiritual, sensible y dotado de comprensión y sabiduría.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Datos biográficos cortesía de Alfredo González quien compartió con el gran parte de tiempo, se nos fue un gran Matagalpa, gran ser humano que impulso con éxito todo lo que hizo...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Dr. Alan Bolt</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Alan Bolt González was born May 8, 1951, son of Pinita González and Guillermo Bolt, the fifth of nine siblings. In the second half of the 1960s he earned a scholarship to study nuclear physics in Germany, which connected him to the Middle East, to the theater, and to the fight for the Palestinians. On his return he formed the TEU Theatrical University in León (Nicaragua) and worked with Omar Cabezas, through whom he was connected to the guerilla uprising. At the triumph (of the revolution in 1979) he became Minister of Culture. On his return to Matagalpa at the beginning of the 1980s, he founded the Nixtayolero (indigenous) Theater Group.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">After Hurricane Mitch in 1998 he founded what is now known as CEN (“Center for Understanding with Nature”) at the foot of the Peñas Blancas Massif, where his passion and knowledge and education about the care of bees inspired vital action to save plant pollination and with this the cloud forest and planet earth. He was an avid scientist, a spiritual and sensitive being with gifts of knowledge and wisdom. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Biographical data courtesy of Alfredo González. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A great Matagalpan has left those who shared part of his time – a great human being who pushed for excellence in all he did. </span></p><p><br /></p>James Hayes-Bohananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908738448836082865noreply@blogger.com0