Human Terrain

What Causes Ocean Currents? The systems of ocean surface currents and deep water currents are, as expected, connected, but the locations of the physical connections are limited to three areas (one per main ocean), and are all on the Northern Hemisphere. The downwelling occurs on the Northern Atlantic, while the upwelling occurs on the Northern Pacific and the Northern Indian Ocean, as shown on the side map. The extents of the continental shelf block, or at least seriously limit, the movement of the ocean currents. To see a 3D view of the Conveyor Belt enlarge the diagram below. 1.

We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously Let nobody tell you that the second decade of the 21st century has been a bad time. We are living through the greatest improvement in human living standards in history. Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 per cent of the world’s population for the first time. It was 60 per cent when I was born. Global inequality has been plunging as Africa and Asia experience faster economic growth than Europe and North America; child mortality has fallen to record low levels; famine virtually went extinct; malaria, polio and heart disease are all in decline. Little of this made the news, because good news is no news.

Download 67,000 Historic Maps (in High Resolution) from the Wonderful David Rumsey Map Collection Stanford University’s been in the news lately, what with expanding its tuition waiver last year and now facing renewed scrutiny over its ultra-low admissions rate. These stories have perhaps overshadowed other Stanford news of a more academic nature: the arrival of the David Rumsey Map Center, which celebrated its grand opening yesterday and continues the festivities today and tomorrow. While these kinds of university improvements are rarely of much interest to the general public, this one highlights a collection worth giving full attention. The world’s 7.5 billion people, in one chart Our world has never been more connected than it is today. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s population is plugged into the matrix, with over 4.4 billion internet users across multiple device types. We use these devices for work and for play—and social media has altered the way we interact both online and offline. Today’s infographic from Global Web Index compares key generational and regional differences of social media use based on data from nearly 114,000 internet users, highlighting how pervasive social media has become in our lives. Note: China is excluded from the usage data regarding specific social networks and apps.

Thousands of Historic Maps Released by New York Public Library Map of the city and county of New York, showing routes and stations of the elevated railroads. From 1886The New York Public Library has released over 20,000 maps and cartographic works into the public domain under a Creative Commons licence. The documents, most of them hi-res, are hosted by the NYPL's Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division, and are available for download via the Library's Map Warper, an ambitious online tool that aims to match historic maps to modern day plans.

Folding paper globes - origami globes - MapScaping Whether you are looking for a fun family project, a teaching resource or just want something interesting and unique to decorate your home or office with these printable globes are just the thing. The graphic on each globe is not just a pretty picture, made from real topographic data, each globe is a great way of exploring our earth. The globes are designed to be printed in A3 but A4 is fine too. But generally the bigger they are the easier they are to fold!

How Julian Simon Defeats Thanos “The universe is finite, its resources finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist.” With those simple words, the Marvel supervillain Thanos justifies slaughtering multitudes, supposedly for the greater good of saving whatever life may remain in the universe, in “Avengers: Infinity War.” Thanos returns to movie theaters today, as Captain America, Iron Man, and their fellow superheroes try to thwart his murderous plans. But meanwhile, back in the real world, pundits and academics such as Paul Ehrlich, perhaps the world’s leading population alarmist, are often feted as Jeremiahs bravely warning of our impending doom, as they peddle notions not unlike Thanos’s vision—ideas that have helped justify policies like mandatory sterilization and China’s one-child rule.

Geologists develop app to print 3-D terrain models of any place on Earth Today's geology lesson is all about anticlines. Students can read all they want about geological folds, axial planes, hinge lines, antiformal synclines and synformal anticlines. But it can still be a challenge to visualize just what geologists are talking about. 90% of plastic polluting our oceans comes from just 10 rivers Over the last decade we have become increasingly alarmed at the amount of plastic in our oceans. More than 8 million tons of it ends up in the ocean every year. If we continue to pollute at this rate, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

MapMaker Interactive Welcome to the MapMaker Interactive This tutorial explains how to explore National Geographic Education's interactive GIS mapping tool and tools for customizing outline maps for print. Use the zoom bar to go from a world view to a local view (or in cartographic terms, from a large scale to a small scale). If you zoom out to a world view, you will see that the map is in a Mercator projection. Use the location menus at the top to zoom from a world view to a continent, country, or other region. Identify your geographic position on the map using the latitude and longitude display at the bottom left.

You decide Australia's population, we'll show you how it looks Australia's population has more than quadrupled in the past century, with the number of people tipped to reach 25 million this year. If current trends continue the population will top 40 million within 40 years. Some say Australia should have stopped growing decades ago. Others point out Australia is a wealthy country with plenty of space to welcome more. This is your chance to decide how big (or small) you think Australia should be. The chart below shows 24 potential paths for Australia's future population, based on the latest projections from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Enter The Dragon: Chinese Tech Giants Challenge The West The rise of China as an innovation superpower – part two This is the second of a two article series on the rise of China. In the first part we looked at the rise of China and the development strategy for the country that drives the next generation of products and systems. Now we will look at the rise of China as it dominates manufacturing and the development of systems that are world leading. NASA has released 3 million images of Earth - these are 6 of the best The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) has been taking stunning photos of the earth’s surface since 1999. Aster is a joint project between NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and has been taking high resolution images of life on earth for 17 years. For the first time, the 2.95 million satellite images are now available to the public via the ASTER Gallery Map. We've chosen six that provide some answers to common questions or raise some intriguing new ones. Can you actually see the Great Wall of China from space? Image: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems and U.S.

Plastic Sources Plastics in the marine environment have become a major concern because of their persistence at sea, and adverse consequences to marine life and potentially human health. Implementing mitigation strategies requires an understanding and quantification of marine plastic sources, taking spatial and temporal variability into account. Here we present a global model of plastic inputs from rivers into oceans based on waste management, population density and hydrological information. Our model is calibrated against measurements available in the literature.