What is Geography?

"Geography is the science of our world, and using and sharing geographic knowledge is the key to our future."

—Jack Dangermond, Esri President

So according to previous lesson notes, classmates has stated that geography is about the interaction between human and environment, understanding different countries, cultures and their issues, natural phenomenon, physical aspects of the world and humanity. To be honest so far my knowledge on geography is very limited. I thought it's all about studying maps, learning about some fishing issues in Ireland and how to grow rice, all thanks to secondary school. However coming into college, it became more and more apparent to me that geography is much more than that.

There's 2 kinds of geography: Human Geography and Physics Geography. Personally I find Human geography way more interesting as it focus more on human activities and sounds definitely much more appealing than the studying of the environment, that is Physical geography. Although there are times when I do find physical geography interesting, such as articles like huge cracks discovered in Antarctic Glacier stuffs like that but I do feel that sometimes they can get too intense or even too mathematical and heavy in text. Human geography just provides that human touch and feels more directly related to well, humans.

I do feel that it is important that we all study geography to understand human dynamics better. As mentioned above, geography does help us understand better about other regions of the world and that will both direct and indirectly affect ourselves, in terms of economy and relations. Without geography, we wouldn't be able to predict or understand what our Earth current situation is or how exactly does Mother nature operates. We also wouldn't be able to understand other cultures and beliefs and hence weaken mutual understanding among humans. And we'll definitely suffer greatly from natural disasters should we not attempt to study it at all.

Although I have to admit that I myself tend to lump social studies and history together with geography all the time, i think it is important that we learn bout geography and understand our living environment more. Anyway really look forward to learning more about geography this term!