Geography

The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization committed to exploring and protecting our planet.

The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) is the UK's learned society and professional body for geography, founded in 1830.

The latest geographical research from universities and institutes around the world.

News about Geography, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Geo Lounge is an information site about all things geography. Find information here about physical and human geography as well as guides for learning about geography and developing a career in geography.

An eclectic mix of pieces from geographers and geographically-oriented creative individuals. Through this collection we hope to inspire others to thoughtfully explore, create, and connect with each other and the world around us.

The world's population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years — and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth.

With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.

Robert Neuwirth, author of "Shadow Cities," finds the world's squatter sites — where a billion people now make their homes — to be thriving centers of ingenuity and innovation. He takes us on a tour.

Rural villages worldwide are being deserted, as billions of people flock to cities to live in teeming squatter camps and slums. Stewart Brand says this is a good thing. Why? It’ll take you 3 minutes to find out.

Photographer Edward Burtynsky makes a wish: that his images — stunning landscapes that document humanity's impact on the world — help persuade millions to join a global conversation on sustainability.

Many people think the lines on the map no longer matter, but Parag Khanna says they do. Using maps of the past and present, he explains the root causes of border conflicts worldwide and proposes simple yet cunning solutions for each.

The wheat, corn and rice we grow today may not thrive in a future threatened by climate change. Cary Fowler takes us inside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a vast treasury buried within a frozen mountain in Norway, that stores a diverse group of food-crop seeds ... for whatever tomorrow may bring.

North America didn’t always have its familiar shape, nor its famed mountains, canyons, and plains: all of that was once contained in an unrecognizable mass, buried deep in Rodinia, a huge supercontinent that lay on the face of the Earth. Peter J. Haproff explains how it took millions of years and some incredible plate tectonics to forge the continent we know today.

Tens of millions of years ago, plate tectonics set North and South America on an unavoidable collision course that would change the face of the Earth and spell life or death for thousands of species. Juan D. Carrillo explains the massive biological repercussions of this collision, which caused one of the greatest episodes of biological migration in history: The Great American Biotic Interchange.

In 1816, Europe and North America were plagued by heavy rains, odd-colored snow, famines, strange fogs and very cold weather well into June. Though many people believed it to be the apocalypse, this “year without a summer” was actually the result of a supervolcano eruption that happened one year earlier over 1,000 miles away. Alex Gendler describes the history and science of these epic eruptions.