You Are Here: A Brief Guide to the World

"Our ability to engage with geographical science will determine our future."

"Geography is central to the survival of humanity... we are now geographical leviathans. Our actions make things happen so extensively, quickly, and powerfully that we seem on the verge of rendering the very fabric of nature, social relations and meaning ."

"So it's taken some 4.6 billion years for a cosmic swirl of gas and dust to evolve into a planet fit for butterflies and children...This intricate web of life exists because Earth operates as a system in which everything is connected and interdependent. The word 'complex' does not begin to describe the workings of this system ."

Water World: From glaciers to rivers to our relationship with water across cultures and history. This chapter covers water cycles and our influence on the future of water.

The view from L1: The origins of earth and a broad view of how the different geographies and atmospheric down to biospheric layers work together.

One to One: On maps, cartography and our relationship with geographical enquiry over time stretching from ancient Babylon to GIS software. With increasingly sophisticated tools to build maps, "we have the means to comprehend the future.

"We are each at the centre of our own map... We are all innate mapmakers... maps [are the] mediators between an in... See more

"let's embrace these bulging urban brains, these massed flowerings of opportunity and potential. The frontiers of exploration have spread from deserts, forests and mountain ranges to include centres of human population whose increasing scale demands new research, new ideas, new policies; fresh symbolism . Urban jungles are greener than we think. Th... See more

"This is a little book about a big subject. I'd like to share six views of our changing world, its people, its places, its environments... Our planet is mid-chapter and we are the authors of its destiny."

Age of Geography: The field of geography and its changes over time, starting with map construction to the humanitarian work geographers participate in today. This chapter discusses Universal Basic Income, Sustainable Development Goals, and climate change contingencies that may be viable options, such as rewilding.

"We need political leaders, business leaders and policymakers who understand the interactive nature of the planet's systems and who recognise the geographical nature of the challenges we all face. The courage and ambition of those leaders will depend upon the demands made of them by us. So we need to be informed, too . Never has geography been so i... See more