Home

Q&A with Harm de Blij, Visiting Distinguished Professor of Geography

Photo by Derrick L. Turner

Editor’s Note: As the campus community celebrates MSU’s 150th anniversary, it is a time to celebrate the past and look toward the future. As we look toward the future, the MSU News Bulletin has asked some distinguished faculty members what they envision for their field of study in the future. The MSU News Bulletin will publish these conversations during this academic year.
 
Q: In your new book Why Geography Matters, you argue that America’s persistent geographic illiteracy constitutes a national security risk. Why is that?

A: In the 1960s geography as a school subject fell victim to a curriculum shift that bundled several topics into something called the “social studies.” But geography is only partially a social science field, and we lost our natural, environmental dimension when that happened. As a result, students by the millions stopped seeing enough maps, ceased learning about climates and resources, and arrived in college inadequately prepared. The problem was cumulative: our political leaders were not sufficiently literate geographically when they graduated, with consequences ranging from the amusing to the catastrophic.

Q: What’s the connection between geography and global terrorism?

A: Terrorism is a manifestation of a set of processes geographers have studied for decades: diffusion. Before the advent of coordinated Islamic terrorism, many areas of the world – from Northern Ireland to Sri Lanka – were affected, but this terrorism was local and was generally uncoordinated. When Islamic terrorism in the form of jihad arose in the 1980s, its collaborative character created a spreading network that could be charted, and to some extent spatially predicted. It was a matter of time before “contagious” diffusion – essentially expansion-like – changed to “relocation” diffusion, in which remote targets came under attack. Before the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, Transatlantic terrorism had already struck Argentina along a “relocation” route that extended from Iran to Lebanon to Buenos Aires. This was only the beginning.

Q: Why is geography important to conversations about environmental change?

A: When high-school students stopped learning enough about climatology and environmental change and had little opportunity to catch up in their college careers, public knowledge of such matters eroded. From 1940 to 1970, our planet went through a cooling phase, and global-cooling was all the rage. (It regularly started snowing in Michigan in September and continued into early May). Then came the current surge of anthropogenically-enhanced global warming, and it became a political issue. But politicians, who should make decisions based on what scientists tell them, are generally not well enough informed on the basics to make the difficult choices involved. Environmental change is an infinitely complex and cyclic process. We are living in a warm spell between glaciations; just 15,000 years ago ice still covered most of Canada and part of the Midwest. Our profligate pollution of the atmosphere may keep us warming forever, but don’t count on it. Nature’s cycles are inexorable. The environmental map has changed abruptly in the past, and no evidence proves that it won’t again.

Q: Most people are familiar with GIS (Geographic Information Science) – the technological tools of geography. Will satellites and computers replace geographers?

A: Geographers have always used tools – we drew maps in clay tablets, used parchment, ink and color, and have now moved into the incredible era of GIS. Satellites tell us where the forest in the Amazon is shrinking or where a river is changing course. There is an unprecedented flow of information and it has revolutionized geographic practice. But there are certain things you cannot map unless you go there, such as a change in cultural attitudes from one neighborhood to another. GIS, Global Positioning System (GPS) and other technology is indispensable now, but we still need geographers who learn languages, gain field experience and interact with people in foreign areas.

Q: Where do you think the discipline will be in 50 years? And will MSU contribute to that vision?

A: One key change is that virtually all K-12 students will be taking geography again in 50 years. Geographic illiteracy will recede, and the number of students entering college to study geography will increase.

The technology of GIS will let us accumulate more refined sets of data and we will have a better understanding of the relationship between humans and environments in a fast-changing physical world.

MSU’s geography curriculum ranges from real world regional studies to high tech research, resulting in graduates who are well based in numerous experiences. We bring remarkable specialization, and we’re at the cutting edge of global change research even while maintaining a broad-based perspective of the discipline. As a result, the university will be well prepared to meet student demand for general and specific geography studies in the coming years.