h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Everything must, by definition, have an ending - except eternity and infinity and even that is by no means certain.

My guess is that when push comes down to shove, geography still matters.

Where you live will determine so much.

Shelter, food, health, culture etc.

Yes, some barriers are down, but I bet there are new ones going up somewhere even as we speak.

>>Shelter, food, health, culture etc.

That's a fair point. But are those factors a result of geography or politics? Is it where you live, or the politics of the region that determine these things?

Equally, there are people all over the world good and bad health, shelter, and so on. Romania, for example, is in the same position as China, through considerably less well populated. Both have commercially active and prosperous cities, but if you head out into the coutryside, you will find people living in huts and driving carts. The part of the world that they are living in makes no difference.


Geggs

Yes, but, No, but - it may depend on how you define Geography!

I guess it does. What defination would you propose?


Geggs

Well, true geography involves mountains and streams and lakes and valleys and oceans. The human part of it only takes into account lines drawn on a piece of paper. As for national identity, a good portion of the world as we know it didn't exist as nations before 1849 or 1962. Cultural identity has nothing to do with geography or maps, or even language.

A cultural or religious map would be truly alien to your relative.

and a genotype map, well, nevermind.

Some while back when I did geography it was taught as Physical, Economic and Human.

It's not just politics that determines things like shelter, food, health, culture etc. Someone who lives by the coast will have a different type of lifestyle than someone who lives up a mountain. Someone who lives on fertile soil will make a living in a different way from someone who lives next to a goldmine. Admittedly it probably matters less in developed countries where most people work in the service sector. But the majority of the people in the world live in developing countries where geography matters a great deal to their lives. Geography also plays a very important part in tourism. You wouldn't go on a skiing holiday in a country with no mountains and you wouldn't go on a beach holiday in a country with no coastline.

The physical enviroment will change and ' mankind' will react to those changes. Economics will put up or take down as it sees fit, politics will do what politians have always done and we have to live with it.

Geography has not ended, its an illusion.

"Geography has not ended, its an illusion."

Political Geography doubly so.

UG.