August 13, 2007
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Dr. David Keeling, head of the Department of Geography and Geology at Western Kentucky University, recently returned from an American Geographical Society educational expedition to Alaska, the Arctic and Siberian Russia.
Approximately following the 1899 Edward Harriman expedition route, the AGS-sponsored tour departed from Nome, Alaska, and crossed the Arctic Circle before visiting several communities in Siberian Russia, including Providenya and Novo Chaplino. Heading southeast across the Bering Sea, the educational program included visits to Little Diomede Island, St. Matthew’s Island, Nunavak, the Pribilofs, and the central Aleutians before visiting locations on the Kenai Peninsula, in Kodiak, and in Prince William Sound. The second half of the voyage included destinations in southeast Alaska like Glacier Bay, Sitka, Endicott Arm, Misty Fjords, Metlakatla and Petersburg. The program ended in Vancouver, Canada.
Dr. Keeling serves on the Board of Councilors of the American Geographical Society, North America’s oldest geographic society founded in 1851, and has lectured for the AGS on educational tours to such locations as Turkey, Azerbaijan, the Maldives, the Chilean Fjords, Easter Island, Angkor Wat, the Cape Verde Islands, Morocco, the Sahara region and the Falkland Islands.
The primary mission of the American Geographical Society’s educational travel programs is to focus attention on some of the planet’s most pressing problems, such as the resource impacts of oil extraction on the Arctic region, global climate change impacts in Alaska, and the historical geography of Alaska’s exploration and the 1867 Alaska Purchase. A secondary mission is to demonstrate how geographers address these issues and to promote a broader geographic perspective on sustainable development issues.
“Learning about climate change first-hand by examining melting glaciers and rising sea levels up close really helps people to understand the issues of sustainability and global change and puts the challenges we face as a global society into sharper focus,” Dr. Keeling said.
Naturalists on the expedition also explained the life cycle of birds, bears and whales throughout the journey, with multiple sightings of humpback whales, brown bears and myriad species of seabirds.
The “In Harriman’s Wake” educational program also examined the legacy of Russian influence in Alaska, geopolitical challenges from the melting of the Arctic’s sea ice, small-community vulnerabilities in the Bering Sea region, Alaska’s reliance on oil resources as an economic tool, and the role of exploration in shaping modern Alaska, among other topics. The program visited 15 destinations during the three-week voyage.
One of the benefits for WKU, Dr. Keeling said, is that the university’s growing international reputation is further enhanced through his participation in these educational tours. Students also benefit from the knowledge gained from these experiences and subsequently shared in the classroom and through research projects and study abroad programs.
Further details about the 1899 Harriman Expedition are available online at http://www.pbs.org/harriman/1899/1899.html. For information about the AGS and its educational tours, visit www.amergeog.org.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact David Keeling at (270) 745-4555.
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