conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a book about Features with the genre: Science & Math, Earth Sciences?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'Geography For Dummies'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first three paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Geography For Dummies
  Wind is physical energy that can be harnessed to produce electricity. This is achieved by constructing rather specialized windmills that are tall poles (or stanchions) fitted with a propeller (actually a turbine) at the top. When the wind blows, the propeller turns. This rotating motion is linked to and operates a generator that produces an electrical current.
  Wind is a by-product of sunshine (see Chapter 9); and because solar energy is a perennial source of energy, wind power is categorized as the same. But like the sun, wind is fickle. Some days it blows and some days it doesn't. Accordingly, for wind to become a major contributor to energy production, means must be found to store surplus wind-energy from windy days for consumption on calm days. Also, some places are inherently windier than others. Coastal areas, for example, tend to be particularly breezy because water and land absorb sunshine at different rates. Mountain and foothills areas also are especially favorable.
  Theoretically, all that is needed is to drill down to the level of very hot rock, inject water, and extract the resulting steam. This may be used directly to provide home heating and hot water. Under pressure, steam is also a physical force (witness the tiny whistling steam jet on your tea kettle, only imagine a huge one) that can be used to turn a turbine (propeller) that operates an electrical generator.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know five more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: In many times and places, oceans have been convenient receptacles for human refuse. Also, as the global economy has grown and become more inter-connected, maritime traffic has increased, and with it the possibility of incidents that result in the release of cargo that is harmful to the environment. At this point the familiar story line repeats: If nature stayed put, then the impact would be minimal. But we live in a dynamic environment. The oceans are restless. Surface currents (see Chapter 9) can carry things far and wide while tides and waves can affect every coastal nook and cranny. Once again, therefore, nature can spread the mess, so what starts out as a local event is turned into an issue of greater geographical proportions.
  The possibilities were amply demonstrated on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker went aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and ultimately spilled about 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sea (Figure 18-2). Although the Sound is a somewhat confined water body, the Alaska Current slowly and inexorably began spreading the mess — in this case, the oil slick — in a westerly direction. Coastline 400 miles away was eventually affected. However, given the numerous islands and inlets that characterize the region, some 3,000 miles of shore were contaminated. (Dead wildlife included more than 575,000 birds.)
  One of the more intriguing human impacts on the environment concerns demand for animal body parts to serve as folk remedies. In China, for example, powdered tiger bone is the principal ingredient in a medicinal cocktail that is believed to relieve ulcers, malaria, rheumatism, and other ailments. A similar brew that uses ground rhinoceros horn is thought to heighten the sex drive and cure impotency. People use bile from the gallbladders of bears to treat liver disease, fever, hemorrhoids, and other ailments. Literally hundreds of millions (if not billions) of people belong to culture groups that swear by these age-old remedies.
  Local demand for body parts has taken its toll on the local supply of desired animals. As a result, tigers and bears are nearly extinct in the wild in China. As numbers dwindle, prices skyrocket. Bear bile reportedly sells in China for as much as 15 times the price of gold. Tiger bone in parts of Asia sells for upwards of $500 per kilogram. As a result, captive breeding programs in China raise tigers for slaughter for bones, and bears for periodic "milking" of gallbladders. But even this cannot satisfy demand. Body parts must be imported from somewhere else. And at prices like these, it's a poacher's dream come true.
  Here is where geography fully enters the picture. A geographically local (Chinese) demand for body parts has generated a geographically broad (global) trade in them as well as an attendant environmental impact. Thus, bears in Montana, Idaho, and Alaska (and probably other states) are known to have been illegally killed to provide body parts for Asian folk remedies. Likewise, tiger preserves in India and Nepal are periodically raided and impacted by people who profit from medicinal demand. Underlying these threats to the natural world is global connectivity. If Alaska was an isolated place, or if trade and communications mechanisms did not connect Montana and China, then the bear population would be safe — at least as regards to that particular threat. For better or worse, however, bears and everything else are part of a world in which geographically local demand can effect worldwide resource supply, and have global environmental implications.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last four paragraphs? Start with the sentence 'Based at the University of Colorado, this site (<http://www'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Based at the University of Colorado, this site (<http://www.colorado.edu/geography/virtdept/contents.html>) is designed to help college and university geography departments share a wide range of information including the structure of their degree programs, course syllabi, modules and materials for classroom use, and online courses. For the novice geographer who may be considering "taking it to the next level," this is a great place to peruse the content of academic geography to see whether or not it looks right for you. Think of it as an online catalog for the potential college geography student or geography major.
  The official Web site of the World Bank (<http://www.worldbank.org>) is a great source of information about conditions and trends in developing nations. From the main menu you can navigate to a series of tabular data on individual countries or the regions of which they are part. You can also read up on a number of regional initiatives — perhaps the most intriguing of which is the Indigenous Knowledge program, which seeks to incorporate traditional local know-how into development projects. Click on Development Topics and up pops about 25 issues that range from AIDS to environment to water supply. Click on Kids and Schools to access teaching modules and classroom resources for teachers, and reference material for students.
  WorldClimate.com (<http://www.worldclimate.com>) offers climate data for 85,000 locations around the world. Want information on, say, Madrid, Spain? Just type in Madrid, click on Search, then click on the Madrid that happens to be in Spain (as opposed to the one in Perkins County, Nebraska), and you got data. Average monthly rainfall (in inches and millimeters) and average monthly temperature (in Fahrenheit and Celsius) data are available for most sites. Also available is information on the source(s) of the data, the precise period of time over which the data was averaged, and a map that shows the location of the weather station where the data was collected. This is an excellent resource for teachers and students of physical geography, as well as for the prospective traveler who wants advice on what to pack.
  The World Resources Institute (<http://www.wri.org>) seeks to educate people "to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations." Toward that end, WRI maintains a robust, informative, and well-organized Web site. On their homepage, click on Global Topics or Earth Trends to access information on agriculture and food, coastal and marine systems, forests and grasslands, population and human well-being, and other topics related to global resources and ecological linkages. Information formats include feature articles, data tables, country profiles, maps, and searchable databases.