Transcriber: Michael Nystrom Reviewer: Anna Sobota
So, I’m sure everyone here
knows about the war going on between Russia and Ukraine.
Now, here I have a blank map of the world,
and I’d like you to raise your hand if you are 100 % confident
that you can find Ukraine on this map.
Okay, not bad.
If you can’t, don’t worry because you’re not alone.
Only one in three American voters can.
Now, you’re probably thinking, okay, we’re not directly involved in this war,
so what’s the big deal with not knowing where Ukraine is?
Well, the numbers have shown that even in countries
in which we’ve had active military involvement,
we still had trouble locating them.
In 2002, at the beginning of the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan,
only 17 % of young Americans could find it on a map.
What does this mean?
What does it mean when we, as citizens of the most powerful country in the world,
cannot identify where major global conflicts are taking place,
including those in which we’re actively involved?
Here’s what it means.
When we don’t know where Ukraine or Afghanistan is,
we lack the key geographic knowledge needed to make informed decisions.
So, let me illustrate this.
A look at a map tells us that Afghanistan lies at this crossroads
between Central, South, and West Asia,
which means that it has always been at the middle of conflicts
between the great powers of the continent,
and knowing about its mountainous terrain
gives us insight into the politically fragmented nature of the country.
Afghanistan's terrain has actually culturally divided the country,
which means that ethnic groups
like the Pashtun, the largest in the country,
are actually made up of many smaller tribes and groups
and people of different cultural values,
and in an attempt to work with the Pashtun to establish order in Afghanistan,
the U.S. treated them as a singular monolith,
but this didn’t really work.
In addition to this,
the mountainous terrain is never advantageous to the attacker,
and this definitely contributed to the length and costliness
of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.
Now, let’s go back to Ukraine.
Voters that know where Ukraine is
are more likely to understand its strategic location
on the Black Sea as a buffer between Central Europe and Russia.
These voters, by double-digit margins,
are more likely to back assertive sanctions and measures
by the United States towards Russia,
and we all know that the war has caused gas prices to rise sharply,
but did you know that in developing countries
like Egypt, which depend heavily on wheat and grain exports
from the Black Sea,
there's been a bread crisis.
It's become very difficult for people to buy,
and yet it’s a staple food for everyone in these nations.
So, understanding Ukraine’s geography allows us to explain this
because Ukraine is rich in one of the most fertile types of soil
in the world, called chernozem.
This, along with its relatively flat terrain and location on the Black Sea,
has allowed it to become one of the leading exporters
of wheat in the world,
but the Russian invasion has halted production of this wheat,
as well as exports from key Black Sea ports such as Mariupol and Odesa,
which are now destroyed from the war.
So as consumers,
geographic knowledge allows us to better understand
where goods come from,
enabling us to make more informed purchases.
Now, let's go back in time a bit.
Most geographers agree that had we been better educated
about Southeast Asia and Vietnam,
we would have likely taken
a different course of action during the Vietnam War,
which basically means we probably would have pulled out earlier.
I'm sure some of you here are familiar with the name Robert McNamara.
He was the Secretary of Defense during the time of the war,
and in his 1995 memoir,
he would go on to list several major causes for disaster.
Most notably, and I quote,
“Our profound ignorance of the history, culture
and politics of the people of the area.
We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate people.”
Interestingly enough, just last week,
U.S. intelligence officials were questioned for misjudging
the governments of Ukraine and Afghanistan,
as some believed that Ukraine would fall to Russia in a matter of weeks
and that a U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan could last for months.
We completely misjudged the geopolitics of the situation in Vietnam,
and we continue to do so in many parts of the world today.
Consider how costly not knowing more about a place is.
Consider the amount of money spent and the number of lives lost,
but the applications of geography extend far beyond the realm of geopolitics
and are also applicable to things like global health.
Geography has been crucial in understanding the COVID-19 pandemic,
and with geography, we can explain almost every aspect of it,
from the spread of the disease to the vaccine distribution
or the worldwide economic effects.
For example, why did Iran, out of all the countries in the world,
have a large outbreak at the beginning of the pandemic?
There are many factors,
but we can actually trace this back to a single city,
the site of Iran’s first case.
This city is called Qom,
and Qom isn’t the largest city in Iran, nor is it the most densely populated,
but Qom is important because it’s a major pilgrimage site for Shias,
and introduction of COVID to the Middle East
happened to coincide with Nowruz, the Iranian New Year.
So, increased travel to the city allowed the virus to spread quickly
and to all parts of Iran,
and understanding what creates hotspots like these is crucial for saving lives.
This example, in particular, illustrates
why religious and political authorities need to work closer together
during times of pandemic.
It's really a paradox
that in a time where global events shape our lives more than ever,
we are the least educated in geography.
You see, geography isn’t simply this rote memorization of capitals
or places on a map,
as much as I may find that entertaining.
(Laughter)
Geography is about making global connections,
piecing together different disciplines and knowledge about places
so we can better understand the events that take place in our world
to make more informed decisions.
Prominent geographer Harm de Blij put it simply, “Geography is synthesis.”
Geography’s ability to connect the seemingly different is crucial
for one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century -
climate change.
Now, we all know about climate change,
but why are there still so many people who refuse to believe it,
or maybe even worse, not do anything about it?
Now, I think there are lots of reasons,
but a lot of this has to do with a lack of basic geographic knowledge.
It’s really hard to grasp the danger our planet is in
when we don’t know a lot about it in the first place.
Our world is shaped by a web of intricate processes
like atmospheric phenomena or oceanic circulation,
and we really need to get to know how our planet works
if we want to understand the challenges it faces
as well as the possible solutions,
and geography opens up our eyes
to the circumstances of places unfamiliar to us,
and in learning about the places that are already grappling
with the worst effects of climate change,
we become more motivated to ensure that the same doesn’t happen to us.
Knowing about disasters like the drying up of the Aral Sea in Central Asia
or the disappearance of glaciers in Bolivia is essential
if we want to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
In the end, geography allows us to be better global citizens.
We need classes specifically dedicated to geography,
not classes where focus is on things like memorization or world capitals,
but classes where students are taught how to connect the dots
and make sense out of our complicated world
so that they too can make informed decisions,
and in universities where geography majors are all but a thing of the past,
they should at least require students to take a couple of basic classes
in physical and human geography,
but geography isn’t just about saving the world from nuclear disaster
or fighting climate change,
because it also connects us as humans.
Geographic knowledge can enrich our personal lives and our relationships,
making us better people
because when we learn about places, we also learn about the people there.
So, geography lends itself to cultural understanding.
The more we learn about others, the more open-minded we become,
and perhaps if we were more knowledgeable and appreciative about other cultures,
we would be less inclined to create conflict with those different from us.
Thank you.
(Applause)