The lives of ordinary Americans is increasingly touched by products, diseases, wars, migrants, food, and pollution from other countries. The American public has become painfully aware that not only do we need to know about other places, but we generally know less about the world than people in other rich countries and even some poor ones. Physical geographers study the spatial variation of the physical world climate, land, water, plants, and animals which are organized by the laws of nature. Human geographers study the spatial variations of human society political, cultural, economic, and social activities which are organized by political, cultural, economic, and social processes. Basically, human geographers study the same kinds of things that other social scientists study, but with a focus on where things happen.
Economic geographers study transportation patterns and where different industries are located.
Cultural geographers study the spread of languages or the geographic distribution of cultural traits. Political geographers study voting patterns or where wars break out. As these examples show, geographers share a common viewpoint more than a common subject matter. The geography course that is organized according to the different regions of the world is GCU 121, World Regional Geography. Both courses provide a mix of facts and ideas, but the emphasis in GCU 102 is on ideas.