Geography Is the New Finance

Or something like that. The point is geography, both the physical and environmental aspects in addition to the political one, is surprisingly important, relevant and interesting.

BBC News still maintains a rather 19th-century perspective on what’s happening in the world, seeing politics as a clash between opposing views that might be resolved through elections, summits and peace processes. With this approach, the environment gets sectioned off as a subject of its own, when in fact history shows that the resilience of a civilisation often depends on the way it treats its own environment. The big factors that will determine our lives over the next 50 years are likely to be things we have very little control over. As the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has said, you can negotiate with Iran. You can’t negotiate with nature.

From When Geography Was Dull by Robert Butler in More Intelligent Life.