Publisher's Synopsis
In a myriad of stunning ways, the Earth is changing every hour of every day. Populations mushroom in megacities from Mexico City to Calcutta. A "blizzard of the century" is preceded by a hundred–year storm and followed by the worst flooding on record. Satellite data and computer cartography track significant shifts in ocean currents.
What is the common denominator of all this change? What throws the most light on its meaning? This book answers both questions with one word: geography.
Harm de Blij, one of the world′s leading geographers, offers a unique, wide–angle look at our remarkable world from geography′s grand perspective. The result is a blend of powerful ideas, delightful insight, and precise information that can be the keys to coping with it all.
Known to millions as the geography editor of Good Morning America, Dr. de Blij first takes us on a personal exploration of the world of maps, landscape, weather, cities, capitals, and boundaries, offering hundreds of facts and penetrating interpretations of the world′s most intriguing phenomena along the way. He then spans the globe, exploring the meaning of Russia′s failing federation, the forces underlying China and Japan′s coming challenge, Europe′s tenuous union, and the emerging new world order. His provocative observations and incisive analyses are must reading for anyone concerned about the future of our planet.
Richly informative, warmly anecdotal, effectively enhanced by eye–opening maps, charts, and appendices of essential world facts and figures, Harm de Blij′s Geography Book is a resounding argument for the importance of geography and an irresistible antidote to geographic illiteracy.
Praise for Harm de Blij
"Television′s first geography correspondent . . . is a worldly authority who covers major news events by explaining how each one has been influenced by geography." —TV Guide.
"A big–league crowd pleaser who explains terra incognita for the legions who failed Cradle of Civilization 101 the first time around." —People magazine.
"Start a world crisis, and de Blij will take to the airwaves explaining its geographic background." —Washington magazine.
"Geography is the science of place. Its vision is grand, its view panoramic. It sweeps the surface of the Earth, charting the physical, organic, and cultural terrains . . . Harm de Blij has reminded us of the matching valence of erudition and beauty in science and its communication." —Science.
"De Blij′s former students are more than happy to talk about the influence he had on them. Students from the 1960s —now professors, deans, and department chairs—speak of his charisma, intellect, and spellbinding lectures as if they had just walked out of his classroom." —Miami magazine.
