US Knowledge of Geography

Same magazine! Different cover!

Why does the Euro edition of TIME have an entirely different cover page than the US edition?

There is a wonderful web site that shows newspaper covers from around the world.

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp






Non-USA papers can be found here ---

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp?tfp_region=nonusa

Compare the Wall Street Journal: Euro edition to US edition.

One question needs to be asked:

How is Geography taught (if at all) in the US?


According to a 2010 Harvard study only 37% of 18-24 year old Americans, (some were students) surveyed KNEW WHERE IRAQ WAS?

See Link ---

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news_events/ed/2007/winter/features/geography.html

Why does this matter?

Because the US accounts for JUST 4.48% of the total world's population, but exerts a powerful impact all across the globe and consumes 22% of the world's energy and 17.26 BILLION barrels of oil.

India on the other hand has about 16% of the TOTAL WORLD POPULATION but consumes 3.28 BILLION barrels of oil a year, or 4.9% of world energy output.

The links below shows total world-country population and energy consumption ---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/population_energy



Africa is a great example in terms of how much AMERICANS DON'T KNOW. Ask a typical student about Africa and they'll refer to it as a "country".

Africa has 53 nations (including island nations such as Madagascar, Comoros etc.) and a geographic area that can accommodate MOST OF EUROPE, the US, MOST of CHINA and ALL OF Alaska!

The majority of Americans DON'T have a passport.

There are good reasons for this; the country is vast and travel within the US can be an adventure, but, given US global reach, more Americans need to travel OUTSIDE the country. According to published reports between 27% and 30% of Americans actually HOLD A PASSPORT.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/02/only_30_percent.php


If both of these facts are combined: lack of geographic knowledge and non-ownership of passports, one can logically assume that the OMOTS in the US has a myopic view of the world and as such is INFLUENCED strongly by the CORPORATE MEDIA'S presentation of the world OUTSIDE THE US.