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The whole world in the palm of your hand
Ever wonder how you can have a rainforest on one side of a mountain and a desert on the other? Or zoom around the globe with Google Maps and wonder how everything got to where it is now? The answer is...geography.
In Geography For Dummies, you'll discover that geography is more than just cool trivia--it explains tons about the world around us. From understanding the basics--like how to read maps and geographic coordinates--to learning about how the continents got to their current positions, you'll learn fascinating things about the planet's people, cities, resources, and more.
In this book, you'll discover:
* How geographers make and use maps to understand and tell useful stories about the earth
* How weather and climate shape the planet, impact the water supply, and change landscapes
* How humans use (and overuse) the planet we live on to our advantage
Geography For Dummies is an incredible exploration of our planet and the people who live on it. This book takes a huge subject and makes it accessible for the rest of us!
List of contents
Introduction 1
Part 1: Getting Grounded: The Geographic Basics 5
Chapter 1: Geography: The Why of Where and Why You Should Care 7
Chapter 2: Thinking Like a Geographer 19
Chapter 3: Lining Up Locations 29
Chapter 4: Truthiness in Mapping 41
Chapter 5: Telling a Spatial Story 59
Part 2: Let's Get Physical: Land, Water, and Air 79
Chapter 6: Shape-shifting Earth 81
Chapter 7: A Nip and a Tuck: Giving Earth a Facelift 103
Chapter 8: Making a Splash on Earth 119
Chapter 9: Warming Up and Chilling Out: Why Climates Happen 137
Chapter 10: Connecting Climates and Vegetation 159
Part 3: Peopling the Planet 179
Chapter 11: Nobody Here But A Few Billion Friends 181
Chapter 12: Shift Happens: Migration 203
Chapter 13: Culture: The Way We Live 219
Chapter 14: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors 239
Part 4: Putting the Planet to Use 261
Chapter 15: Takin' Care of Business 263
Chapter 16: Earth's Resources: Always Hungry for More 283
Chapter 17: Downtown to the 'Burbs: Urban Geography 301
Chapter 18: Only One Home: Impacts on the Environment 323
Part 5: The Part of Tens 343
Chapter 19: Ten Organizations for Geography in Action 345
Chapter 20: Ten Interesting Career Paths for Geographers 351
Chapter 21: Ten Things You Can Forget 357
Chapter 22: Ten Great Places for Online Geography 365
Index 371
About the author
Jerry T. Mitchell, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina and an avid world traveler.
