Esri International User Conference: A Geographer’s Place to Be
Continue reading “Esri International User Conference: A Geographer’s Place to Be”
Continue reading “Esri International User Conference: A Geographer’s Place to Be”
As an intern in the Education Department, my work revolves almost exclusively around themes and concepts related to the ocean. Lately, I have been thinking about my personal connections to the ocean.
A Thought-Provoking Seminar on Capitol Hill
I recently attended two seminars at Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW)–June 5 through June 8–that allowed me to expand my thinking. Linwood Pendleton, Director of Ocean and Coastal Policy at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, led a seminar called “Oceans and Growth in America.” He explained that our relationship with the ocean is shaped by how we use it for extraction, such as harvesting of abalone in California during the late 1800s, and recreation, such as beach volleyball. The ocean has had, and continues to have, strong impacts on people along coasts, inspiring art and other forms of cultural expression.
Pendleton concluded by stating that growth without diversity will leave our coasts compromised, arguing that we need to move beyond the ocean’s economic uses, such as commercial fishing, in order to understand and appreciate its other values. It was this final point that has stuck with me since Linwood’s address.
Personal Reflection: A Childhood by the Sea
Linwood’s conclusion made me think about why I value the ocean and its resources and whether the reasons I value it fall under any of the categories about which he spoke–extraction, recreation, inspiration, etc.
Continue reading “Capitol Hill Ocean Week: An Intern’s Experience”
refugee (rehf-yoo-GEE). n. person who flees their home, usually due to natural disaster or political upheaval. (National Geographic Education)
Refugees have no choice. You do. This is the message from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for World Refugee Day 2012, recognized today. Refugees are people who have had to make the difficult decision to leave their own country in order to guarantee their personal safety. For many of them, this means leaving their family, their homeland, and everything that is familiar to them.
Furthermore, an estimated 47 percent of refugees are under the age of 18. The video below documents the journey of Sudan’s “Lost Boys”. Almost an entire generation of Sudanese youth have resettled to the United States fleeing a civil war that ended in 2005.
The Lost Boys and refugees like them are just one category of people who must uproot their lives because they have no other choice. Refugees fall under the umbrella term of forcibly displaced people, those who have no option but to leave their homeland in order to survive. Other forcibly displaced people include asylum-seekers and internally displaced people (IDP’s).
If I were to take a guess, 99% of the general population did not know what a “Transit of Venus” was until yesterday evening, when its occurrence was announced on the evening news. Astronomers, however, have been looking forward to this event for decades, if not centuries.
A “transit of Venus” occurs when our sister planet crosses directly in front of the sun, and revels to us a little black spot on the latter’s surface. Contrary to the reports of various news sources, the last transit of Venus occurred in June 2004, less than a decade ago. The next, however, will not take place again until December 2117. That being said, if you missed the transit in ’04, this is probably your last chance to catch it.