“Climate change is the most critical challenge of our time. It requires immediate and effective action, including cutting our carbon emissions as much as possible. But there is another effective action we can take: applying GIS, which is uniquely suited to address this singular challenge. DAWN WRIGHT Esri Chief Scientist, ocean explorer Chapter 01: What Is the Geographic Approach? 7 Maps and visualizing geographic patterns can present the planet’s challenges in ways that people can grasp and take steps to address. Over the last century, steadily increasing carbon emissions have corresponded with rising land and ocean temperatures. On the three globes at left, red represents carbon emissions (with the relative levels extruded vertically by volume) while the green areas represent where carbon is stored (what scientists call carbon sequestering). The geographic approach gives us a new method for considering all aspects of a problem. It integrates a system for solving problems holistically while incorporating all their circumstances—environmental, social, and economic—and understanding and organizing the messy details of our collective reality, as shown in this illustration. FACING PAGE These globes show Earth from different perspectives and depict areas in green that sequester carbon versus the areas in red—exaggerated according to their relative levels—that show total carbon emissions. The geographic approach gives us the tools to grasp the dimensions of our human footprint on the planet. Economic • Infrastructure • Development • Financial • Industrialization • Energy Environmental • Oceans • Biodiversity • Water • Ecosystem services • Forests Social • Demographics • Education • Equity and equality • Health and welfare • Population Saint Petersburg Los Angeles Johannesburg Düsseldorf Beijing Buenos Aires
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