Articles in World
Linguistic and Biological Diversity Overlap—But Why?
It has been noticed for some time that biological diversity and linguistic diversity tend to occur in the same places, giving rise to the notion of biocultural diversity. But why?
HSBC’s Bizarre “Expat Explorer” Index and Maps
The British banking giant HSBC runs a sophisticated interactive website called The Expat Explorer that helps well-off professionals who work abroad determine the quality of life across much of the world. The site is based on extensive surveys with such expatriates. As the website explains, “In 2011 over 3000 expats answered questions relating to their finances, quality of life and …
What is a city?
In the two earlier GeoNotes, I mentioned several place names that contain the word for ‘city’ or ‘town’. The etymologies of these words are interesting in their own right, especially where related languages use non-cognate words, highlighting different aspects of what it means to be a city.
For example, the toponym Carthage contains the Phoenician root for ‘city’, qart. A cognate …
What will you have: oil or brains?
In a recent New York Times article, Thomas L. Friedman discusses a correlation between natural resource exploitation and human resources development. The correlation is negative: the more oil a country pumps or the more diamonds it digs, the lower its high school students score in standardized testing of math, science and reading comprehension skills.
Misleading Lists of large Lakes
Conventional lists of the world’s largest lakes by area are often misleading. Most claim that the Aral Sea is one of the Earth’s most extensive bodies of inland water, some placing it in the fourth position, and others, including infoplease and factmonster, in sixth place. In actuality, the Aral Sea has virtually disappeared, and now essentially a massive salt-flat, as …
Mapping Locust Swarms
The recent GeoCurrents post on California cuisine ended on the odd note of insect eating. Of all insects across the world, locusts are probably the most widely consumed. They are the only six-legged creatures considered halal by Muslims and kosher by Jews. Allowing the consumption of locusts may have had an ecological rationale; when they swarm, crops can be devastated, …
The Arctic Council to Expand?
China, India, and Brazil are trying to gain observer status on the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum focused on Arctic issues, including environmental protection, economic development, and indigenous rights.
“The American World” Farcical Maps
“The American World” belongs to a genre of maps that make fun of the geographical ignorance and prejudices of people from different countries. These maps are usually made by Internet users and crop up on blogs, forums, and social networking websites. They often have titles like “The World According to India,” or “The World According to Americans.” While some of …
Languages of the World: An Introduction
What do all human languages have in common and in what ways are they different? How can language be used to trace different peoples and their past? Are certain languages similar because of common descent or language contact?
A new book by Asya Pereltsvaig, published by Cambridge University Press, answers these and other questions about the world’s languages. Assuming no prior …
Afghanistan and the Ethnolinguanymic State
A recent GeoCurrents post noted that Afghanistan is not a nation-state, lacking the requisite solidarity. Yet the very name of the country might lead one to expect a relatively high level of cohesion derived from a common ethnic background. To coin a term, Afghanistan is an “ethnolinguanymic state”—that is, a state named after a dominant ethnic group that speaks a …
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)
