Articles in Economic Geography
Resource exploration and environmental issues on Sakhalin Island
Sakhalin Island in particular has become a battleground between big Western oil companies, the Russian government, and environmentalist groups, with the Pacific salmon, gray whales, and the indigenous Nivkh people suffering collateral damage.
Depopulation of Magadan
While the population of Siberia and the Far East is shrinking, some areas have experienced a worse-than-average depopulation. The Magadan Oblast in the Far Eastern Federal District stands out among all Russian federal subjects. Its population, numbering over half a million in 1989, decreased to just over 150,000 in 2010. The most precipitous drop occurred in 1991-1996, after the dissolution …
Introduction to Siberia
For the next month or so, GeoCurrents will examine Siberia. Siberia is an important yet often overlooked region, and hence merits extended consideration. Few parts of the world are so consistently ignored, at least in the English-language media, which almost always focuses on the western, or European, parts of Russia, particularly Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the troubled North Caucasus. Thus, …
The Political Contradictions of Anti-Urban NIMBY Activism in California
This final entry on Northern California will conclude the series by elaborating on the previously stated thesis that the local drive to protect urban and inner suburban neighborhoods from development is self-contradictory. Although anti-development activists incline to the left, their land-use policies are actually conservative, undermining their own larger agenda. Earlier posts looked at environmental sustainability and class divergence, contending …
The Mismatch Between Population and Mass Transit In the San Francisco Bay Area
Recent GeoCurrents posts have stressed the environmental and economic desirability of urban intensification in the San Francisco Bay Area based on high-density, pedestrian-oriented housing developments near public transit stations. Today, such fully urban areas are essentially limited to northeastern San Francisco—a very desirable and expensive place. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, density varies from low to moderate.
A variety of “walkability …
Anti-Urbanization and Economic Irrationality in Silicon Valley
The previous post noted that opposition to urban intensification has negative economic as well as environmental repercussions. Such consequences, are experienced in and around all of the thriving cities of the United States, but nowhere more than in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here, the economic and technological marvel of Silicon Valley is fettered by outrageous housing costs that are …
Exclusivity and Anti-Environmentalism in Palo Alto and Vicinity
The previous GeoCurrents post argued that opponents of urban intensification in wealthy suburban communities such as Palo Alto, California are motivated in part by their desire to protect their property values. Commentator Nick Baldo took issue with that assessment, arguing that increased density actually has the opposite effect. In retrospect, I think that Baldo is correct. Environmentally responsible “smart growth” …
Anti-Environmental Environmentalism in California’s Bay Area, Part II
As the previous post noted, the new environmental consensus calls for urban intensification to reduce of greenhouse gas emissions and preserve rural landscapes. In the San Francisco Bay Area, such an ideal has been widely embraced in principle by both leading environmental groups and regional associations. The 2007 housing report by ABAG, the Association of Bay Area Governments, opens by …
Anti-Environmental Environmentalism in California’s Bay Area
The previous GeoCurrents post ended on a controversial note, contending that although the wealthy suburban communities of the San Francisco Bay Area seem decidedly liberal, they actually embrace highly conservative policies at the local level. Before I attempt to validate this claim, a word of warning is in order. The entire issue is muddied by terminological imprecision, and even more …
Rural Cosmopolitanism in Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley
An earlier GeoCurrents post described the food culture of a certain segment of the San Francisco Bay Area as exhibiting “cosmopolitan localism.” Such attitudes are not unique to urban areas in Northern California. In Mendocino County, cosmopolitanism takes on distinctly rural cast. In some of the most seemingly isolated areas, one can find pronounced cultural sophistication and global engagement.
Consider, for …
Terranova: The Black Petaltail - A Novel
Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment, Development (5th Edition)
Globalization and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World (3rd Edition)
