Geography Matters

Regional inequality is an important issue in almost every country. There are almost always more prosperous or more developed regions and less prosperous and less developed regions. The reason is simple. Although it is theoretically possible to have such things as education and health care distributed relatively equally over space, it is impossible for economic resources to be equally or evenly distributed. Some areas have iron or coal or oil, others have hydro power and some areas on the coast can develop as ports, resources and geographical advantages are not equally distributed. Some areas, and China is a good...

Strategic minerals are minerals which countries deem to be particularly important for various reasons - it could be for energy needs, for exports or for defense or high tech industry. What makes a mineral strategic can change over time. Arguably, coal was an important strategic mineral during the industrial revolution and during the steamship era. Before it was replaced by oil, navies had to have coal bunkering facilities to fuel their warships. Today, however, although coal is still very important in countries like India and China where it fuels large numbers of coal fired power stations, it is far...

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has become an increasingly hot issue in the last year or two. There are major debates about its potential impact on the labour market, on society and on human beings themselves. In this episode, our focus on more restricted, looking solely at the geographical distribution and concentration of AI, and its implications for power supply, for cooling and space. We look at two key elements of AI, the increasing number of large data centres and cloud storage facilities. Both of these involve large sheds, filled with racks of servers, computers and memory or processing chips...

In this episode we follow up on the implications of the American capture of President Maduro of Venezuela and President Trump's anouncements about the nature and future of American foreign policy. We apologise if it seems we are paying undue attention to this but it is very important and is radically reshaping the world we live in. President Trump has also announced (again) that the USA needs Greenland for national security, that he will run Venezuela and its oil sales and that he aims to control the western hemisphere: that it the half of the globe which stretches from...

This episode looks at the geography and geopolitics of oil and gas - its distribution, its production and consumption. Energy, and particularly oil and gas, are crucial to making the modern world go round and they have been for well over 100 years. Big US oil companies emerged in the 1920s and BP became a major player in Persia (now Iran). Together they account for just over half of world energy use. But the distribution of oil and gas resources is very uneven, as is production and consumption. The USA account for 20% of global oil consumption, followed by China at 15...

The world is undergoing a process of rapid urbanization - the movement of population from rural to urban areas. This is very important because it means that an increasing share of the world's population now live in cities The UN estimated in 2007 that half (50%) the world population now lives in cities and maybe 70%+ by the end of this century. This is a dramatic change from the world of our ancestors which was still overwhelmingly rural. The urban population was still only 30% of the world total in 1950. In China the process has been extremely rapid going from about 15% urban in 1950...

At the end of November 2025 the US government published America's New National Security Strategy. This punchy, hard hitting, document did not mince its words. The basis of America's new security strategy is very clear:America first. To keep the USA at the forefront of the global economy , technology and defense. It was also clear that the current administration thinks that previous post war American foreign and strategic policy has been misguided and misplaced. It states that America's role is not to be the global proponent of democracy and peace worldwide. Rather, it has to put America's interests first and...

In this episode we discuss some aspects of how and why geography matters. If we go back a hundred years or so there was an intellectual argument about the extent to which geography determined the future of a country or a region. Those who argued that it did were 'geographical determinists'. A recent example of this is the fascinating 2022 book by Ian Morris entitled 'Geography is Destiny: Britain and the World, a 10,000 Year History'. Put simply, Morris argues that Britain's position as an island on the NW corner of Europe has played a defining role in shaping Britain's history...

This episode has a slightly different format. I discuss with Klaus Dodds, my co-host, and Mia Bennett of the University of Washington, their new book 'Unfrozen: the fight for the future of the Arctic'. It starts by asking both Mia and Klaus how they got interested in the Arctic and how it is defined. As they note, the Arctic is often defined as those areas north of 66 degrees of latitude (the Arctic circle), where the sun never sets in mid summer and never rises in the depth of winter. Some definitions go down to 60 degrees. The Arctic territory forms...

Global population changes are complex but it can be argued that many countries, but not all, fall into one of two groups, each with very different problems. First, there are the relatively poor, low income, developing countries with high birth rates and rapidly growing populations.Most sub Saharan African countries fall into this group. Second, there are richer, developed, countries with low birth rates and a generally slow growing, static or even falling population. Many European countries fall into this category and they face problems of shrinking labour force, an ageing population and growing welfare bills for pensions and...

Global population change is important and it has a distinct geography. But first its important to note some general changes. Global population has increased dramatically over the last 200 years. In 1800 the global population was estimated to be about 1 million. There were high birth rates, no modern medicines or health care, and high death rates. Most people died relatively young if they survived infancy and childhood.

Global population then began to increase quite slowly to about 2 billion by 1925, exactly 100 years ago. Since then, it is increased very rapidly with the developments in living standards, medicines and health care...

Geopolitics has a long history but it can be defined as how, where, when and why geographical factors, physical, economic and social influence the influence of political power, the shape of international relations and the strategic decision making of states and other entities, including both private companies and other non state actors. Where and when to invest is increasingly important globally and companies often want to ensure that investments are in relatively safe/politically stable areas. Geopolitics also involves decisions and conflicts over resources - gas, oil, copper, and recently rare earth minerals. The term geopolitics was first used...

Geopolitics is, as its name suggests, where geography and politics intersect. The geopolitics of food focuses on how food production, trade, and consumption are influenced by and influence political relationships between nations. Traditionally, geopolitics tended to focus on questions of strategic conflicts between states. but in the modern world issues of food security and sustainability have increasingly moved to the fore. This is highlighted by the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which had quite major impacts on food supply and prices as the Ukraine has often been seen as one of the major breadbaskets of Europe, producing a...

This episode follows on from the previous one 'Where does our food come from?' This episode focuses more on food consumption but also touches on food production. Our starting point is the global food supply system from which most people in the developed world now get their food. The main distribution network are the supermarkets which all have integrated food supply chains. This means that whether we shop at Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose, or Asda (Walmart in the US or Carrefour in France, Denner or Migros in Switzerland) we are probably all going to get an all...

The geography of food production is an important topic. We all need to eat, and at some times and in some places many people have not had enough to eat - millions of -people have starved. But there are big global variations in where our food comes from, and how it is produced and distributed. Two of the major influences are soil and climate both of which set limits to what can be grown or produced where. The earths climates are generally classified into a number of major types. Climate in Britain is usually classified as temperate maritime with...

The recent election of Pope Leo, an American, who had worked most of his life in Peru, replacing Pope Benedict from Argentina, raised debates about whether the new Pope might be from black Africa or South East Asia. It hightlighted the geography of religions. There are an estimated 5.5 billion people in the world with religious beliefs: the three biggest being Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. But these religions, and their believers,. have geographies - internationally, between countries, intra-nationally - within countries, and regionally and locally. Internationally, Christianity is important in Europe, but also in most of Latin America and Phillippines...

The South China Sea is a region of growing international importance and growing conflict. It occupies an area of about 3.5 million sq km and it is bounded on the north by Southern China and Taiwan, on the east by the Philippines, on the south by Borneo and Malaysia, and on the west by Vietnam. It constitutes the only sea which China has direct access too after it lost direct access to the Pacific ocean and the Sea of Japan as a result of treaties with Russia. The South China sea is characterised by a large number of small islands...

Whatever the arguments about causes, there is no doubt that the world has been getting considerably warmer over the last 50 years and much warmer over the last 20 years. Mean average global temperature has risen by 1.4 degree C over the last 100 years and it has now speeded up and almost all the hottest years in the last 100 years have been in the last 20 years. Mean annual temperatures are now increasing by 0.2C per decade. Recent years have seen rising temperatures in many parts of the world and some places are now becoming almost uninhabitable. But the increase in temperatures has...

Suggesting that America is an empire may seem a bit bizarre as America does not have any colonies at present but if we take a wider perspective, America has a large number of overseas territories and possessions (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands), and even more overseas military bases: in South Korea, The Philippines, Japan, Okinawa, Germany, Turkey and of course the UK where, until recently, it stored nuclear weapons. And until very recently, Afghanistan and Iraq where the US had bases. It also possesses large naval fleet in the Mediterranean and the Pacific and it has...

European empires have a long history and can be traced back to the late C15th when Spanish and Portugese explorers were pushing further and further south down the west coast of Africa. Eventually in 1492 Columbus discovered the New world and the scene was set for Spain and Portugal to divide it up between them. But around the same time Cabot navigated to Newfoundland (the name gives it away) and Labrador. Some time later the Puritans established the first English settlements in Virginia. Then the growing Dutch trading empire began to expand to the East Indies and the scene...

British and European listeners will probably be familiar with the fact that many European countries developed extensive overseas empires from about 1500 onwards. First the Spanish and Portugese, then the Dutch, then the British, French, German etc. We will discuss these European empires in the next episode. But empires have a much longer history - think back to the Romans, 2000 years ago. At its maximum their empire extended up to Hadrian's wall and down across much of the north African coast and into what is now Turkey. But the Romans are only one example. There was the Mongol empire starting...

Most developed western countries have got some form of welfare state or welfare support for their population. These started in some countries in a rudimentary way in the late 19th century or the interwar years, but most countries saw rapid development in the years after WWII. This was when Britain saw the start of National Insurance, the NHS, free secondary school and university education etc. But all this costs a lot of money and western countries tend to spend a lot of money on welfare provision. In Britain its about 10% of GDP and 24% of government spending. State pensions alone...

In mid January 2025 President Trump announced that he wanted to take back control of the Panama Canal. We might ask what this is all about and the part answer is that the US originally built and operated the canal then handed it back to Panama in 1979. Cutting off journeys round south America it accounts for about 30% of US container trade. But the Panama canal is part of a much bigger picture. Over the last 50 years global trade has increased enormously and about 80% of it is by ship: container ships or bulk carriers for oil, gas, iron ore etc. But...

In early January 2025 President Trump shocked the world by announcing that the US wanted to buy Greenland. The Danish government said it was not for sale. But this is not the first time that the USA has attempted to buy Greenland. It has made previous offers first in 1867 after it bought Alaska, then again in 1946 when it offered Denmark $100 million, and President Trump made an earlier offer in 2019. So, the idea of US buying Greenland has been around for a long time. In this episode we look at some of the reasons why Greenland is important for the US...

Drinking water is crucial for human survival and for agriculture. But, as the world's population grows and pressure on resources increases, water is increasingly becoming a scarce commodity. Conflicts over water have a long history and in recent decades more and more countries want to dam rivers to control the flow, provide water for agriculture and generate power. But activities upstream have a big potential impact downstream. Putting a dam in to generate electricity upstream may have very large consequences downstream in terms of water flow, agriculture and sediment built up. Although Europe, the USA, australia and other continents...

People have always migrated from place to place or country to country whether it is to escape hunger, drought, war or persecution or to search for stability, security or better living standards. The nineteenth century was a century of large scale migration, both within Europe, and from Europe to the New World - the USA and Canada. The Irish potato famine saw millions of people migrate to avoid starvation. In post war decades there was large scale labour migration from southern to north western Europe and from European ex colonies to help fill labour shortages and to escape unemployment...

Borders are extremely important, both in terms of national sovereignty and for human mobility and limits to it. In nomadic societies people often moved relatively freely with the seasons over long distances but borders have become much more important with the evolution of nation states in the last few hundred years. Borders today are marked on maps and sometimes marked on the ground with border fences or even worse. They can function both to keep people out and, as with the Berlin Wall, to keep people in. Britain has distinct maritime borders but in many places, borders are disputed...

The term 'postcode lottery' became popular in Britain in the late 1990's to refer to the variations in health care from one area or region to another. It suggested that variations or inequalities in health care provision or drug availability or treatment were essentially random and varied depending on where you lived. Subsequently the term has been widened to refer to variations in educational provision, job opportunities, welfare availability and many other things. But in some respects the term is a misnomer. There are variations from one area and one region to another but they are often geographically structured...

The Falkland Islands are very remote: 8,000 miles south of London, 700 miles north of the northern most part of Antarctica and 300 miles east of Argentina. Only discovered in 1760 by a British sailor, then variously settled and occupied by British, French and Spanish garrisons, the islands were claimed for the British crown in 1832. But, given their proximity, Argentina has, not surprisingly, long laid claim to them and still sees them as part of Argentina. Negotiations were under way to lease them to Argentina when they invaded in 1982 leading to Mrs Thatcher approving a task force to retake the islands. This podcast...

Svalbard, or Spitzbergen, as it used to be called, is an archipelago in the Arctic ocean about midway between the north of Norway and the North Pole and midway between Greenland to the West and the islands of Novaya Zemblya in northern Russia. 60% of it is covered with glaciers and it has about 3000 people. Its a place most people have never heard of, but it has considerable geographical and strategic significance as this episode of Geography Matters makes clear

This is a taster for the Geography Matters podcast series. It explains why geography matters for understanding the world and how it intersects with history and with economics, politics, society and the environment. Everything happens in particular places and particular times. Geography looks at where and why and history looks at when and why. The series is presented by Chris Hamnett, emeritus professor of geography at King's College London and Klaus Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Chris is an urban geographer interested in big cities, and Klaus is a specialist in geopolitics, with...

This first episode of the Geography Matters series looks at some aspects of social change in London over the last 50 years and reflects briefly on Ruth Glass's pioneering identification of gentrification in 1964 and the social class changes which have taken place since then. The hosts are Chris Hamnett, emeritus professor of geography at King's College London, and Klaus Dodds, professor of geography at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Chris is an urban and social geographer and Klaus specialises in geopolitics with a particular interest in borders and the polar regions