December 21, 2014
by
George Williams, MBA, CPM
Certified Project Manager and Business Analyst
Applied GeoData
1
Happy Holidays! As many people celebrate the Holiday Season, young children throughout the world (mine included) are waiting with excitement for Santa Claus to make his annual trip around the world delivering toys and presents on Christmas Eve. Most of us in regions of the world where Christmas is celebrated recall those days of our youth when we were starry-eyed and innocent, praying that our good deeds of the year would be recognized by the Jolly Ole Man from the North Pole.
Yet at some point during our childhoods we begin to question how possible it would be for Santa to make such a journey covering the entire planet Earth in a 24-hour period. As a young child, at age 7, I began to question the physical possibility for Santa to make such a journey. That year I had experienced my first plane flight from Houston, TX to Albuquerque, NM. And I realized that it took at least a couple of hours to make the trip on a TWA Jetliner (I think I just dated myself). How could it be possible for Santa to make such a journey covering the entire surface of the planet Earth (510 Million square kilometers)² in a 24-hour period when it required at least two hours for my family to fly 1196 kilometers (743 miles)³ in a jet airplane? This question bothered me intensely as a child and by the time I was 8 years old, I started to realize that my parents were playing a trick on us kids. And now as an adult with children of my own, I continue the tradition of playing that trick on my children, in hopes that they will go to sleep (before Santa arrives) so my wife and I can bring out the gifts from their hiding places and wrap them in peace. But, while I play this trick on my kids, I want them to eventually understand and appreciate the grand scale, complex terrain, and exquisite beauty of our planet through the study of Geography and Earth Sciences. I want them to eventually understand that there are physical limits presented by Geography.
Adults in the USA seem to ignore the challenges presented by Geography. Indeed, recent evidence has shown that Geography Education in the USA is NOT FUNDED by our government and consequently the subject of Geography is poorly taught in our schools, if Geography is taught at all. Alex Trebek, the moderator and host of the TV show Jeopardy, and the outgoing 25-year long host of the annual National Geographic Bee, spoke last year with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd about why Americans are so unprepared to understand the challenges of Geography.⁴ Americans are not realizing the intellectual challenges needed to make our people understand the physical complexities of planet Earth, the diversity of Earth’s flora and fauna, how Earth’s resources are geographically dispersed and limited, and how Earth’s peoples and cultures have developed and evolved through time. These challenges are not inconsequential and we Americans, as global citizens, ignore the challenges of Geography at our peril.
As the push for greater global commerce and trade proceeds, our businesses also need to meet the challenges of Geography. In the “Internet of Things”, it may seem that Geography is irrelevant. If someone orders Christmas gifts online, they don’t need to drive to the store to make the purchase. But, somewhere that purchased gift was warehoused and that item needed to be transported from its warehouse location to the purchaser’s residence. Geography presents the challenge of transportation and logistics. More than likely, the item purchased was produced overseas – perhaps in China, or Pakistan, or Sri Lanka, among many places in the world tapped by global corporations as locations for industrial production. These production locations also have challenges presented by Geography. These produced goods must be transported from a foreign production facility to a transshipment port where they can be loaded on a cargo vessel and shipped across one of Earth’s many vast oceans to destinations in North America, South America, and Europe at a significant cost. A cost presented by the challenge of Geography.
My intent through this blog is to explore the ‘Challenge of Geography’ that is presented to commercial businesses, and how these firms can begin to better analyze and understand the costs, benefits, and complexities that our planet Earth’s geography presents to them.
Happy Holidays and lets all hope for a Fantastic New Year!
REFERENCES:
1) Image of Santa Flying on his Sleigh Over Earth, by Acclaim Images Stock Photography
2) “Surface of the Earth” by Jeffery Coffey, Feb. 18, 2009 http://www.universetoday.com/25756/surface-area-of-the-earth/
3) Air Miles Calculator: Albuquerque to Houston http://www.airmilescalculator.com/distance/iah-to-abq/
4) "Alex Trebek Speaks to Lack of Funding for U.S. Geography Education in No Child Left Behind", Directions Magazine All Points Blog. http://apb.directionsmag.com/entry/alex-trebek-speaks-to-lack-of-funding-for-u.s.-geography-education-in-/331226
