Geography is about far more than maps and memorizing place names. Modern geography, especially as influenced by Marxism and historical materialism,  is an all-encompassing discipline that foremost seeks to understand the Earth and all of its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be.  Geography has been called “the world discipline” and “the bridge between the human and the physical science. Geography is divided into two main branches: the human and the physical. We will deal with both of them.

The Sixth Extinction

Throughout the history of evolution, five great catastrophes have affected the Earth’s surface. After them, life had to re-organize itself as to what species survived. Today, 27.000 species disappear each year, a figure equal to or higher than the one which devastated the Earth during the previous extinction processes. Are we facing the Sixth Extinction? 50-minute video. Access Here

How ‘Natural’ Disasters Can Be Man-Made In this video, National Geographic explores how mud volcanoes in Java, tornadoes in Atlanta, and earthquakes worldwide can result from man’s unplanned efforts.  About 45 minutes. Access Here

The Fight for Amazonia From the heart of the Amazon comes a three-part series–2 hours, 20 minutes total–examining the strides made to save the world’s most endangered rainforest. 1. Raids in the Rainforest. The first film follows Brazil’s youngest national park director as she declares war on the drug gangs, logging mafia, and illegal fishing threatening the Amazon Rainforest.  2. The Justice Boat. Many people living on the Amazon are invisible to the Brazilian state. They have no access to health care, social services, or justice. But one woman, Judge Sueli Pini, is changing that. She delivers justice and healthcare by boat.  3. The Internet Indians. The Ashaninka tribe lives in a region of the Amazon Rainforest rich in tropical wood. Their land has been targeted by illegal logging gangs, killing and threatening villagers. Now the tribe is fighting back, and the internet is their weapon.

Access Here

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grow. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing, and industry increases the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth. Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars. 90-minute feature video. Access Here

A Tide of Change: Vulnerability in a Changing Climate

‘A Tide of Change: Vulnerability in a Changing Climate’ is a product of the collaborative efforts of six young individuals from multidisciplinary perspectives from the University of the Philippines-Diliman and the University of Montreal, Canada. The 20-minute video documentary aims to highlight the increasing vulnerability of people in regions previously unaffected by extreme weather disturbances in the case of Cagayan De Oro (CDO), Northern Mindanao, through typhoon Sendong. It features the lives of Sendong victims in different resettlement communities in CDO, six months after Sendong’s wake—from the best rehabilitation practices in Xavier Ecoville to the inherent problems in resettlement camps—to build on the pressing need to go beyond the reactionary frame of disaster risk reduction and management to that of preparedness. Otherwise, tent cities could soon become the norm. Access Here

Galileo’s Battle For the Heavens

Geography begins with a round world circling the Sun. In this two-hour special, NOVA celebrates the story of the father of modern science and his struggle to get Church authorities to accept the truth of his astonishing discoveries. The program is based on Dava Sobel’s bestselling book, Galileo’s Daughter, which reveals a new side to the famously stubborn scientist—that his closest confidante was his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun. The actor Simon Callow plays Galileo in dramatic reenactments of key moments from his life: his pioneering telescopic observations of the Moon and planets, his revolutionary experiments with falling objects, and his fateful trial before the Inquisition for heresy. Access Here

Mind-Bending Maps

Our political views are often shaped by the maps of countries and the world we carry in our head. This short video, an excerpt from ‘West Wing,’ opposes the standard Mercator map we all grew up with, with the Lambert map, which projects all countries equally according to their size. The real test of the hegemony of old ideas is when, at the close, it’s turned upside down. ACCESS HERE