The "Companion Encyclopedia of Geography" provides an authoritative and provocative source of reference for all those concerned with the earth and its people. Examining both physical and human geography and charting human activities within their habitat up to the present day, this "Companion" also looks towards the future. The forty-five self contained chapters are bound into a unifying whole by the editors' general and section introductions and each chapter provides details of the most useful sources of further reading and research. Now available in paperback, this work is an invaluable resource not only for students, teachers and researchers but also for professionals in commercial and public-sector organizations.

General Introduction PART I: A DIFFERENTIATED WORLD Introduction 1 Planet Earth 2 The ever-changing climate 3 The biosphere 4 Human evolution 5 The geography of language 6 Religion: nature and origins 7 The modification of the earth by humans in pre-industrial times PART II: A WORLD TRANSFORMED BY THE GROWTH OF A GLOBAL ECONOMY Introduction 8 European settlement, 1450-1750 9 European expansion and land cover transformation 10 The origins of the capitalist world economy 11 Industrialization and world agriculture 12 Changes in global demography 13 Origins of modern environmentalism 14 The saviour city: beneficial effects of urbanization in England and Wales 15 From a 'cultural' world to a 'political' one PART III: THE GLOBAL SCALE OF HABITAT MODIFICATION Introduction 16 Unity and division in global political geography 17 The geography of conflicts and the prospects for peace 18 A new 'geo-economy': patterns, processes, problems 19 Third World urbanization 20 From riches to rags: the international debt crisis 21 Monitoring, modelling and mothering the environment: the impact of science and technology since the Second World War 22 Environmentalism on the move PART IV: A WORLD OF QUESTIONS Introduction 23 Climatic variation and global change 24 Ocean uses, environment and management 25 Water: confronting the critical dilemma 26 Surface instability and human modification in geomorphic systems 27 The tropical rain forest 28 Humanity's resources 29 Environmental hazards 30 The sustainability of sustenance: land and agricultural production in the Third World 31 Famines and surplus in world food production 32 The nature of Third World cities 33 Western cities and their problems 34 Changing countrysides 35 The quality of life: human welfare and social justice PART V: CHANGING WORLDS, CHANGING GEOGRAPHIES Introduction 36 The expansion and fragmentation of geography in higher education 37 Achievements of spatial science 38 Geography and humanism in the late twentieth century 39 Structural themes in geographical discourse 40 Challenging the boundaries: survival and change in a gendered World 41 Place PART VI: GEOGRAPHICAL FUTURES 42 Concern for geography: a case for equal emphasis of the geographical traditions 43 Home and world, cosmopolitanism and ethnicity: key concepts in contemporary human geography 44 Palaeoenvironmental narrative and scenario science 45 Geographical futures: some personal speculations