Oct 09
Every Halloween I discuss an international mystery, or an aspect of folklore such as the ghost stories of southeastern China. This year will be different, because I am going to do three posts dealing with mysteries or the supernatural. With this post, I want to discuss the strange ship the Baltimore, a mystery with threads that …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/2018/10/the-mystery-of-the-baltimore/
May 25
Pilkey, Orrin H., et al. Retreat from a Rising Sea : Hard Decisions in an Age of Climate Change. Columbia University Press, 2016. As I’ve worked on the previous editions of our textbook with Kim Brown, I’ve become increasingly convinced that it’s important for educators to recognize that our task is not only to teach about …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/2018/05/book-review-retreat-from-a-rising-sea/
Mar 15
I think that we have reached the point with global warming where we can no longer pretend that we’re going to meet our goals. That doesn’t mean that citizens globally can stop the effort to limit climate change. There is a vast difference between the worst scenarios and the best. There are also reasons for …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/2018/03/sea-level-rise/
May 11
It’s not true that the age of discovery is over, and everything worth knowing has already been found. We live in an age of revelations, such as the resting site of one of the ships from the lost Franklin expedition, an immense canyon in Greenland, and an unknown tapir in the Amazon. How can an mammal …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/2016/05/a-hidden-wonder-in-brazil/
Apr 01
In International and Global Studies departments we often organize our curriculum by geographic region. At Portland State University, students in International and Global Studies can complete tracks in the major with a focus on Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. In many programs there is now a move towards focusing on topics …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/2016/04/hakai-magazine/
Aug 01
With the possible exception of Ukraine, there is perhaps no place in the world today so likely to see a localized conflict expand into a global war as the South China Sea. Business Insider has recently published a collection of maps that seek to explain tensions in the area. The maps themselves were originally produced …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/2015/08/maps-and-the-south-china-sea/
Jun 16
This week I had my students watch a documentary, The Cost of Sushi, which describes how overfishing is endangering the tuna stocks in the Mediterranean. The reasons why are familiar from past disasters: the real needs of local communities and fisherman, the development of new fishing technologies and factory ships, the demand from foreign markets, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/2014/06/cod-and-tuna-overfishing-in-the-mediterranean-and-canada/
Apr 01
In July 2009 the world was fascinated by the mystery surrounding the cargo ship the Arctic Sea. American owned, Canadian operated, based in Malta, and with a Russian crew, the ship had taken on a load of timber in Finland, which it was delivering to Algeria. It never arrived. After passing through the English channel, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.introtoglobalstudies.com/2012/04/the-mystery-of-the-arctic-sea/
