How Geography Differs From History

Like history, geology is concerned with explaining past events, this time from a physical perspective.  While geology and geography both involve studying the earth, there are three key differences that distinguish them from each other.  One is that geographers only study the surface.  Geologists mostly look at data about the interior of the earth and infer what processes have taken place, while geographers only infer what has taken place on the surface.  Sometimes their studies overlap, such as when mapping continental drift, or evaluating how a landscape evolved, better known as geomorphology.
            Another difference is that geographers study human and earth processes while geologists are limited to only studying some earth processes.  The ability to study human behavior offers a plethora of sources from which the geographer can gather data, such as on population, agriculture, economics, migration, and ethnicity.  Geologists don’t study any of these human traits and behaviors.  Instead, they are only concerned with earth processes that help explain solid earth structures and materials, including earthquakes and volcanoes.  Earth processes they don’t typically research are meteorology and oceanography, but the geographer does because they significantly influence regional climate.

A third and final difference is that geographic research is more about evaluating spatial relationships than events shaping earth processes.  Mapping is a key element of geographic research that geologists would only need if they were describing changes on a long enough time scale.  This limitation prevents geology from describing present conditions the way a geographer does, making it more of a study about the past.

The article Glacier Remote Sensing Using Sentinel-2… is more about geography than geology.  The researchers utilized remote sensing to map glacier retreat, as global warming is melting them at an historical rate.  Remote sensing is a geographic tool that scans the earth’s surface for data in real time.  In addition to glacial extent, it can be used to map a variety of environmental factors like vegetation and flooding- all surface features.  And while geologists do interpret data about the surface, it is mainly from an historical perspective and not necessarily what’s happening in the present.

Considering this, glacial retreat is more of a contemporary environmental issue.  It is not about the past because it relates to the impact of drought on human conditions.  Around the globe, glacial melt provides much of the water for local rivers that farmers rely on to irrigate crops.  Measuring their retreat is of fundamental importance when it comes to monitoring environmental changes that impact agriculture.  It also impacts local biodiversity, which humans may depend on for a diverse crop yield.  And to a lesser extent, glacial retreat can impact transportation, as rivers and lakes receiving supply from glaciers may no longer cover enough area to support shipments over long distances. 

Another reason this article is more about geography than geology is the use of maps to communicate results.  The maps compare bands from different satellites to help geographers decide the best parameters to use when mapping glaciers.  For example, one of the measures indicated a difference in performance when ice was detected under shadows (Winsvold et al, 12).  Comparisons between satellites generating two different data sets about the same areas being mapped more applies to the spatial analysis of glaciers and not any geologic dynamic. 

Satellites are an important resource for geographers using multiple remote sensing tools, and for the detection and monitoring of glacial retreat in sensitive areas that rely on seasonal melt.  Though they can infer processes about Earth’s past, particularly when it comes Ice Age cycles, most of the data retrieved is used for a contemporary analysis of human-related issues.  Because they reveal patterns on the surface that impact human behavior, like glacial retreat, they are more relevant to the study of geography than geology. 

 

Paul, F., Winsvold, S. H., Kaeaeb, A., Nagler, T., & Schwaizer, G. (2016). Glacier Remote Sensing Using Sentinel-2. Part II: Mapping Glacier Extents and Surface Facies, and Comparison to Landsat 8. Remote Sensing (Basel, Switzerland), 8(7), 575-575. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8070575

How Geography Differs From Geology

        Despite their similarities, geography differs from history in several important ways.  One is that history is about recorded events while geography describes where events happened.  They are related by being two dimensions of studying the progress of these events.  Because it is helpful to understand the places where past events took place, geography is important to understanding history to the same degree that history is important to understanding geography.  Geography can map the progress of history through spatial orientation, while history can document the progress of humans in geographic locations.
        Another difference is that geography has more of a physical dimension because you can’t fully understand a place or its history without knowing its environment.  The physical attributes of a place, such as climate, soil, and water content, can determine some of the behavior of its people, such as the ability to irrigate crops.  Therefore, it is crucial to understand the physical geography of a place if an historian is going to understand why events developed, particularly when it is related to economic activity. 
        There are also differences on an analytical level.  Geography examines spatial relationships while history examines the significance of past events.  Because history depends on what is recorded by humans, it is more supported by written documents, whereas geographic studies are more supported by spatial data.  Technically history doesn’t exist prior to the written document; all investigations into human behavior prior to written texts are better described by archaeology, which examines the physical remains of humans who did not leave written evidence.  Yet past events can be examined through geography far beyond even the archaeological age.  By inferring through continental drift, ice core samples, and evolutionary data, geographers have the power to map events as far back in time as geologists.
        An article about the past that helps differentiate these subjects is Borderlines: Maps and the Spread of the Westphalian State from Europe to Asia Part One – the European Context.  Though it takes place in the past and is based on a historical event, the article is more about geography because it describes the need for spatial awareness after the Treaty of Westphalia.  This 1648 treaty was arguably the most pivotal event in political geography.  Prior to the treaty, borders and nations were not recognized as sovereign entities (Pickering 1), thus they were not shown on any maps (ibid. 3).  After the treaty, cartography went through a paradigm shift when national borders needed to be shown on large scale maps.  Since there were more borders on maps, the first use of color showed areas on maps enclosed by national borders (ibid. 3). 
        Furthermore, the article illustrates the need for spatial data in the creation of maps.  When it comes to boundaries, data can be collected from international agreements on where the boundaries are.  In this case, that agreement is the Treaty of Westphalia.  Even when a boundary is disputed, or there is no claim, the cartographer may blend the boundary or their colors using several techniques.  An example provided is the Carta Marina (Pickering 5), which does not show borders but blends the two colors between countries where a boundary is thought to exist.  The article explains many techniques of using boundaries to communicate spatial awareness on maps after the 1648 treaty.
        In summary, the article is more about the evolution of cartography applied to new spatial data than about a past event impacting a significant portion of the population.  Though the Treaty of Westphalia helps explain some events in history, the article doesn’t describe what those events specifically are; only the ways it influenced spatial communication.  This type of communication is a cornerstone of geographic work.  Without cartography, the use of words to explain spatial data is as unhelpful as understanding history without words and only maps.
 
Pickering, S. (2013). Borderlines: Maps and the Spread of the Westphalian State from Europe to Asia Part One – the European Context. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences., XL-4/W3, 111-116. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-4-W3-111-2013

The MAGAmaniacs of Meta

  For the last three days I have been glued to my phone wrestling with MAGA maniacs on Meta. The tariffs clearly were not working, so I went full Stephen a. Smith on them. I like to think my voice got through somewhere in high places, because they do watch social media. Today the president caved on his tarriff plan, sending stocks soaring. He didn't get the kind of deals he was expecting, who'd a thunk? Many suspect insider trading, but I don't. He really is that dumb. Now I can rest, unplug, detox from the miasma of social chaos on Meta. Until next time, which won't be long. When the bully won't stop throwing punches, you have to hit him back. Though I probably did not influence the president directly, every little bit of resistance counts, crystallizing in a calculus of social upheaval. I'm with them out there on the streets, the Hands Off protests, if not in body then in spirit, echoing their message in tweets and comments. I am the invisible atlas of education that haunts the enemy's bleeding hearts. The'll never know who I really am, until DOGE hacks Meta and finds my IP address.

Africa, Preserver of Megafauna

  An interesting nugget from my biogeography textbook is that the megafauna of Africa are the only population that survived to the present. Every continent except Antarctica had a robust population of megafana about 50,000 years ago. And this is why Africa is most fascinating today for being the only continent with such a rich diversity of large species.

 The last ice age cannot account for this variance. What we see in the paleobiological record is a gradual extinction of megafauna on all continents where humans migrated. The record shows simultaneous extinction events with the arrival of human migrants no matter what time period. The reason they did not go extinct in Africa is that they evolved along with humans adapting to their threats for ages. Once humans left Africa and decided to migrate- a relatively fast process that coincided with glacial retreat- all the megafauna that weren't adapted to our intense hunting skills became ambushed into extinction.

 Africa is the great preserver of megaffauna ancestry. Elephants, lions, tigers, rhinos... They all had sister species on other continents who proved themselves vulnerable to the human diaspora.

Key Events in the History of U.S. Immigration

 

This graph shows that the population of immigrants in the U.S. has fluctuated over time.  There was a steady increase until the 1910s, when World War I happened.  Europeans were the only major demographic immigrating to the U.S. during the pre-WWI period.  After WWI, national quotas reduced immigrant traffic to the U.S., along with the US Border Patrol, established by Congress in 1924 (Newbold, 168-169).  As we can see from the graph, bureaucratic efforts to reduce immigration were successful, with all ethnic groups showing declines through the 1920s.  Immigrant population bottomed out during the 1930s, as the Great Depression contributed even more to limiting immigration. 

It began to increase again after World War II, with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1952 (ibid. 169).  This Act gave priority to immigrants with needed job skills and family members of US Citizens.  More significant increases happened once the quotas were lifted in 1965 (ibid. 169).  These quotas had favored white Europeans, which is why we see from the graph other groups starting to increase sharply, especially from the Americas, Asia, and Africa.  As the economy steadily grew during the Postwar period, so did the population of immigrants.  By the 1990s, it had surpassed the population of immigrants in 1910, with far more ethnic diversity compared to the mostly European population of the early century. 

Currently, no other ethnic group has even come close to the record 8 million European immigrants seen in 1910.  However, projections from the graph indicate that Asian and American hemisphere immigrants may surpass 8 million in the coming decades.  This trend relies on laws maintaining course through the Trump era, which seems unlikely at this point.

Types of Environmental Refugees and How to Assist Them

While there is no legal definition of an environmental refugee, the International Organization for Migration defines it as someone who moves away from their home due to sudden or progressive change in the environment (IOM).  There are many categories of environmental refugee from this broad definition.  The move can be forced or voluntary; temporary or permanent; internal vs international; and individual or collective (ibid.).

A circumstance that creates an environmental refugee is sea level rise, when persons living at or below sea level are forced to move from the threat of flooding.  Another is drought induced by climate change, when land is no longer arable from changing temperatures or precipitation patterns.  An increase in the frequency of severe weather can also put pressure on people to move, especially in the event of a sudden disaster like a cyclone.  Disasters aren’t always caused by climate change either; migrations caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions all fall under the category of environmental displacement.

Short-term environmental refugees typically attempt to return home as soon as possible, normally from being forced to migrate due to a disaster (Newbold, 205).  Temporary food, shelter, and other assistance may be needed for the displaced population.  Long-term environmental refugees require extra support from needing new homes and jobs.

Internal environmental refugees put a strain on local resources (ibid. 205).  One of their needs is an upgrade in supply chain efficiency, so they will have enough food and water to survive.  International environmental refugees put strain on existing infrastructure and social relations (ibid. 205).  They need support from the government or NGOs to campaign for friendly relations with the local population.  They may also need linguistic and bureaucratic support with the help of translators and immigration lawyers.

Sources:

International Organization for Migration. 2025.  Retrieved March 31, 2025: https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/environmental-migration

Newbold, K. Bruce.  2021. Population Geography: Tools and Issues. Rowman & Littlefield. Lanham, Maryland