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How does the "geographic luck" theory help explain why famine occurs?

Please do not be offended or disgusted by the title of this TED talks video. This presentation unpacks a major world issue of sanitation and associated diseases. What impact does poor sanitation have on the world?

In your article is says "About 80 of those local companies will be featured among the 200 exhibitors at the Mother Earth News Fair, a massive natural products trade show..." It's very exciting to see these small scale, local businesses thriving. In a country dominated by commercial manufacturing, it is good to see these true home grown enterprises succeeding.

Just an idea in all, but if this so-called carbon tax is passed wouldn't it raise the price of goods? But then again, I guess companies have to make up the deficient somehow.

It's crazy to think that a company has so much power that even though it is depleting water supplies and causing pollution it is still not shut down. This is probably due to lack of knowledge consumers have and the mass of money that the company has.

This article has interesting relationship with globalization. Due to modern technology jobs are moving, and in some instances disappearing altogether. A good example of this is car manufacturing. Detroit was a major factory town that pumped out hundred of thousands of cars in its prime and had a very strong economy. When the factories left Detroit the town failed. The factory workers were for the most part uneducated and as such were unable to find new jobs. This resulted in Detroit's economy collapsing. A similar process occurred in many US factory towns. These jobs have since moved to developing countries with less strict labor laws, and lower or non existent minimum wages. This has propelled countries like China upward economically. Some processes have been automated to the point that humans are really only needed to service the machinery, this has resulted in some jobs disappearing entirely. As technology improves this could happen more and more, for example self driving cars (http://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/). There are roughly sixty thousand cab drivers in New York City, when self driving cars become functional all those people will be out a job. Looking at the hospitality industry, specifically fast food giant, McDonalds, some positions such as cashier could potentially be automated in the next years (http://www.inquisitr.com/1594675/mcdonalds-counters-minimum-wage-hike-15-automation/). And so with more and more unskilled positions being moved across the globe or obsoleted and insufficient skilled positions that ask's the question "How will people support themselves?"

Thank you for the thorough response, William. This was an interesting article and a thought-provoking question. I wonder if the rise in automation of tasks will advance our development.

This article describes how humans are ultimately the world's top predator. Through research and studies it is easy to see that we are much more dominant over many of the top animal predators such as lions, tigers and bears. The theme of nature culture is shown through this incident as us humans are killing off some of the worlds top predators. Because of this, ecosystems are not in balance anymore as their top predators are being taken away. This can therefore change the evolution of these animals as they reproduce. In the future, we could have a shorter supply of these specific animals, especially the ones we depend on as a supply of food. The author poses a solution to this problem in the article as well. Human hunters should focus on hunting the young and preserve the adults, as they are capable of having offspring. Will human hunters stop the overhunting of these predators? Or will they continue to destroy the ecosystems?

This article talks about the issue of the build-up of people waiting at the Greece-Macedonia border to gain access into Macedonia. Most of these people are fleeing from Syria, trying to avoid being caught in the middle of the civil-war in their country. The migrants are stuck at this border because the Macedonian police are denying passage into the country. They are having trouble processing all of the people attempting to come in and keeping everything organized. Macedonia simply does not have a place for all of the refugees trying to gain their access into the country. Coming with these migrants is also their problems, which brings me to my theme which is mobility. Macedonia does not want the problems of the war or problems of the people to overwhelm their country, and that being said, they are not allowing everyone to come in. These migrants are very poor as well, having little to no food or money with them. Where are the migrants going, or what will they do if they do not receive access to Macedonia? How will they obtain basic materials to meet their needs of survival?

This article describes the struggles of migrants as they try to cross Macedonia's border to escape conflicts such as war in Syria. Recently, thousands of the refugees and migrants have forced their way across the border and are closer to the safety which Europe can offer them, away from their war-ravaged homes. The migrants had faced challenges with police as many poured into Greece and tried to move further into Europe, spending, "...days in the open with little or no food or water after Macedonia on Thursday declared a state of emergency and sealed its borders to migrants..." (Reuters). The geographical theme of mobility is shown here because of the diffusion of the migrants from their homes, in areas such as Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq, to Greece and other areas of Europe. With the rising issues and struggles of the migrants, questions arise. Why are the migrants receiving no help or care from other countries to remove them from the war zones they had escaped from. What will Macedonian police do in response to the continually rising amount of migrants coming through their protected borders?

What are the economic implications of desertification?

Earlier this week an unnamed space rocket, launched by SpaceX exploded just minutes after the launch. The purpose for this rocket, named Dragon, was to conduct a resupply mission for the International Space Station. Dragon's cargo included 2 tons of goods, including 1,500 pounds of food and provisions for the crew. It was not clear what caused this rocket to fail after launch but an investigation will be conducted very soon. This event relates to two major themes in Human Geography. The first theme is Globalization. Globalization represents the modern technological age, in which improved worldwide transport and communication allowing for the instantaneous diffusion of ideas and innovations as seen on page fourteen in the Themes Of Human Geography Textbook. By launching the rocket into space, SpaceX is improving communication between other nations that are using the International Space Station. Also, this rocket would have accelerated the technological age by providing influential information and hardware. In addition, this current event relates to the theme of Cultural Landscape. Cultural Landscape explains what a region or area actually looks like in relation to its physical features. Even though space is a foreign place to us humans it has its own Cultural Landscape, such as stars and galaxies. Thus this small rocket, loaded with supplies, can aid researchers in the Space Station acquire more information of the Cultural Landscape in space. In conclusion, Dragon's crash has been a very popular current event and relates to two various themes of Human Geography, including Globalization and Cultural Landscape.

Excellent analysis. Thank you! Here is an interesting resource from NASA about their attempt to map Mars (http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/10/nasa-mars-trek/).

There has recently been a huge outcry over the brutal death of Cecil the lion. Cecil and his pride were the big attraction at a local Zimbabwe national park, with Cecil being the dominant male and local celebrity. Recently, Cecil was lured out of the park with food and shot by an arrow by a Minnesota dentist, who had funded almost $50,000 for the hunt. Sadly, that's not the end of it, as Cecil was then hunted down, shot in the head, skinned, and decapitated. Why would someone do this? Well, it's all for a trophy. Trophy killing is a very common sport, especially in these African countries. So much so that African lion populations have dropped 60% in the last 3 decades. This is a prime example of the theme of nature-culture, as Cecil's death damages his pride and possibly our whole ecosystem. Without their dominant male, Cecil's pride is put at risk to rogue lions and other dangerous threats. Sadly, we have ourselves to blame, as the majority of lions killed for sport are shipped to America to be turned to trophies, and these aren't the only animals we're losing because of this. How has hunting for sport damaged our ecosystem? How much have human beings destroyed nature? Are we doing more harm to the planet than good?

Thank you for your post, Eric. Great questions as well. I'm curious about what's being done to stop people from illegally killing animals in parts of the world. Many people exploit the world's fishing reserves in the ocean or at least in areas that are seen as international waters. Check out this interesting article about how a bunch of illegal fishing vessels were hunted down. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/world/a-renegade-trawler-hunted-for-10000-miles-by-vigilantes.html?_r=0

Americans spend around 5 hours per day watching television. What makes TV so special? How does it affect our culture as well as the culture of countries around the world? How does an American TV show become popular in Germany? Visit our website to find out!

I had no idea that there were so many international variations for just one show! Another example would be America's Got Talent has variations in 58 different countries. The videos also show how much other countries are willing to spend on their T.V. programs.

I really like how this website shows all the variations of the similar shows! It was interesting to see all the differences and how so many American shows are shown in other countries. Great job!

According to this article, the land reserved specifically for the indigenous people of Brazil is being threatened to be taken away from them for industrial uses. Apparently, the reserves have been a source of multiple conflicts concerning who the land should belong to. While reading this article all I could think about was how this is similar to the depleting reserves of the Native Americans in the United States.

This does not seem to be so much a conflict of religions themselves but rather the conflict of beliefs of one with the modernizing world. Perhaps, in the case of the natives of Brazil and Native Americans as you mentioned, the conflicts are needed to protect the environment and almost play devil's advocate in order to keep some of the world alive for future generations.

Has global poverty decreased? Find out in this article. 

Why are milk prices increasing in places such as Hawaii?

Who drinks milk out of a bag? What are the advantages to this method?

How can the price of inputs such as fertilizer and seeds impact the price of wheat at market?

Heifer International is a charity organization working to end hunger and poverty around the world by providing crops, livestock, and training to struggling communities. The livestock, crops, and training Heifer International provides creates a sustainable source of food and income. This improves the GDP and the general health of a region, leading to an increased HDI.

Heifer International is an organization that helps countries all over the world. Their goal is to bring people tools, education and livestock so that there is a positive change. To do this, they educate people, give families animals to help their financial and hunger problem, give women empowerment, improve water sanitation and create sustainable farming. I personally believe that this charity is amazing because it doesn't focus on one aspect of lives but many. They focus on food, water, wealth, health and equality. It is an amazing charity.