The Geographical Bulletin

ISSN 0731-3292

November, 1983 Vol. 24

GAMMA THETA UPSILON

Officers

President Dr. Michael Thaller, Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin 53186

First Vice President Dr. Douglas C. Munski , University of North Dakota

Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202

Second Vice President Dr. Virgil Holder, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601

Secretary Dr. O. Orland Maxfield, University of Arkansas

Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701

Comptroller Dr. Leon C. Hallman, Stephen F. Austin State University

Nacogdoches, Texas 75961

Historian Dr. Alice T. M. Rechlin, Valparaiso University

Valparaiso, Indiana 46383

Immediate Past President Dr. Benjamin F. Richason, Jr., Carroll College

Waukesha, Wisconsin 531 86

All addresses should include : Department of Geography.

Omega Omega (Alumni) Chairman

Mr. Lawrence Handley 6238 Canal Boulevard New Orleans, Louisiana 70124

© Copyright by GAMMA Theta Upsilon, 1983 Printed in the United States of America

Editorial Policy

Contributors to The Geographical Bulletin of Gamma Theta Upsilon should follow the general specifications noted be­low:

1. All manuscripts should be typed double spaced.

2. Margins should be 1 yz" on all four sides of 8 yz" by 11 " paper.

bers in the manuscript must be in parenthesis.

5. All tables must be typed double spaced on sepa­rate sheets.

3. Typing must be on one 6. side of the page only.

All line drawings must be in finished form ready for reproduction. They must include titles, source of data when applicable, and figure number when there is more than one in a manuscript.

4. Footnotes must be typed double spaced, numbered and included on a sepa­rate sheet-not at the bot­toms of the individual pages. Reference num-

Send all manuscripts to : Dr. Robert M. Ward, Editor The Geographical Bulletin

Department of Geography and Geology Eastern Michigan University

Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197

The editor of The Geographical Bulletin and its Board of Di­rectors are not responsible for the facts, opinions, or state­ments of the authors for the articles contained in this vol­ume.

"If you are planning to change your residence or office in the near future, please remember to inform the editor of The Geographical Bulletin ."

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

Editor's Comments : Guest Editorial. Geography: Academic Cross Stitching .. . by Dr. Alice T. M. Rechlin (Professor, Valparaiso University) ... ... ... 5

Airline Deregulation-Good, Bad or Difficult? . .. by Michael Zibell (undergraduate student, Carroll College, Wisconsin) .... . . .. ............. .. .... .. . 11

Electricity Transmission in Michigan's Central Upper Peninsula: Problems and Prospects ... by Dr. Elwood J. C. Kureth and Dr. Carl F. Ojala (EnTech, Inc.) ............... . ... .. ..... ... ... . ... 21

The Migration of U.S. Retirees to Guadalajara, Mexico: A Case for Environmental Preference Migration ... by Dr. Virgil Holder (Professor, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse) . . ..... ...... .. 30

Automated Photo Interpretation Research and Geo­Based Information Usage in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . .. by David Stern (Intern, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Detroit District) ........ 45

News from the Chapters of Gamma Theta Upsilon .. 50

Geography: Academic Cross Stitching

Alice T. M. Rechlin

Valparaiso Un iversity

GEOGRAPHY: ACADEMIC CROSS STITCHING

Yet another variation on the theme of geography in a liberal arts edu­cation is offered here for your ex­amination. These words have been inspired in part by the guest edito­rial of Charles F. Gritzner entitled, "Applied Geography: Retrospect and Prospect" that appeared in the May, 1983 issue of The Geographical Bul­letin, and in part by the necessity some of us perceive for strength­ening geography's position in lib­eral arts curricula .

Professor Gritzner sees the ma­jority of geography's practitioners as "staunchly conservative, rather stodgy, and blissfully unaware of, or unresponsive to, 'real world ' prob­lems, challenges, and vocational op­portunities. '" He contends that there are few avant-garde types in the field who respond to the call of pragma­t ism by seeking vocational oppor­tunities outside of academe. 2

While there is great merit in en­couraging and promoting trained geographers to practice their trade beyond our ivied halls, in so doing we must never lose sight of the fact that a truly liberating education is in the end the ultimate in pragmatism.

Some might be tempted to ask: "Are we not balancing th is theme of geography's position in the liberal arts, and are we not fostering un­necessary divisiveness among the discipline's members by doing so?" I think not! If the practical aspect of a liberal arts education is not im­mediately understood, it becomes necessary to emphasize its essen­tiality to the very survival of the hu-

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man race, as well as geography's particular contribution to that strug­gle. There is nothing more practical or pragmatic than our fight for sur­vival.

GEOGRAPHY: THE UNIFYING SCIENCE

Geography, like history, is de­fined, not by any particular set of phenomena with which it is con ­cerned but by a distinctive perspec­tive it brings to the study of phe­nomena. Both disciplines may deal with the same events, the historian from the temporal perspective, and the geographer from the spatial per­spective. It is within both the tem­poral and spatial dimensions of real­ity that we have any hope of making sense out of our complex world . Events do not occur within a vac­uum, nor does a place exist unto it­self. Events occur at particular times and in particular places that are tied to other places. Their occurrences are intelligible only within a temporal and spatial framework. Ahistoric and aspatial versions of reality consti ­tute fragmented bits of knowledge without the benefit of a unifying perspective to enrich their meaning . In that sense they are incomplete. Thus, the historic and geographic perspectives insure the fundamental dimensions of reality. These unify­ing dimensions are no less impor­tant for the applied geographer's understanding of the "real" world, than they are for the student in the classroom. As geographer, Robert Elgie, recently stated, " Liberal edu­cation is currently badly in need of

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such unifying perspectives to help balance the compartmentalization wh ich affl icts it.,,3

Geography has been variously defined as the integrative science, the synthetic science, the unifying sci­ence. It is clear that the emphasis on ascertaining how things fit together in space is a central concern of ge­ography. This is the concept of zu­sammenhang.4 By its very nature the discipline draws attention to the fundamental unity of spaces and places.

It is the geographer's focus upon the integration of phenomena in space that is particularly important in any attempt to protect and pre­serve not only the quality of our en­vironment, but also life itself. With­out comprehending the spatial connections of human actions and their effects on the physical earth, we cannot begin to understand the af­flict ions of our environment, much less cure them.

One short example may be suffi­cient to illustrate the interconnec­tiveness of things, or the unity of phenomena in space. With little thought of the consequences, we have invaded our atmosphere, hy­drosphere , and lithosphere with noxious and toxic substances that are proving hazardous to our health and well being. Today there is no longer any doubt that what we have been spitting into our atmosphere at the southern end of Lake Michigan is hurting our neighbors to the north­east. 5 For years we have been dumping acid in the form of rain on our Canadian brothers and sisters. We have doggedly refused to re­duce our sulfur-dioxide emissions for

our coal-burning power plants. I hasten to caution, however, that this condition is not to be used as an ar­gument to promote a proliferation of nuclear power plants.6 It is not an either (coal) or (nuclear) situation as some would have us believe. What is called for is a sane, rational, and wise use of our resources.

Anti-pollution equipment on the smokestacks of plants using high sulfur coal would perpetuate the use of our existing plants without throw­ing thousands of miners out of work in the high sulfur eastern coal fields. At the same time the increased use of such pollution control equipment should improve the political rela­tions between Canada and the United States. We might then witness a res­urrection of our dead lakes, and there are most certainly important health benefits in it for us. If forced to up­grade their pollution control de­vices, public service companies may balk as they try to maximize profits to meet the expectations of stock­holders. Likewise exorbitant rate in­creases might be imposed upon users to help pay for the cleaner air while the stockholders' purses are simultaneously kept full. To the av­aricious I say that when it comes to providing basic human needs to all members of society, governments must not equivocate. Everyone has a right to clean air, clean water, and enough heat to protect from the cold.

Perhaps it is time to remove util­ity companies from the private sec­tor altogether, and subsidize their operations with tax monies for the sake of the common good.

The previous paragraphs are an attempt to demonstrate the concept

of zusammenhang referred to ear­lier. Starting with an activity (the use of high-sulfur coal) at a specific lo­cation (the southern end of Lake Michigan), I have managed to touch upon facts with which several other disciplines are concerned . The chemical interaction of sulfur diox­ide with the atmosphere yields sul­furic acid which mixes with our rain water and snow. This acid migrates according to the laws of atmo­spheric physics. The use of the coal is based upon a human economic decision. The avoidance of adequate pollution controls and the contin­uation of the use of high sulfur coal are likewise economic decisions. Yet there are adverse political and med­ical consequences which stem from these decisions. International rela­tions between Canada and the United States are strained over this issue, and the health of the population in the path of the acid rain in both na­tions is compromised.

These types of interconnections could be expanded further, but I think I have enumerated a sufficient num­ber to make my point. "Geogra­phers, in studying the interrelation­ships of environment and society, draw upon their own field observa­tions and on the findings of other physical and social scientists to cre­ate an integrated understanding of the environment used by human groups ... . Local circumstances alone can seldom explain the hu­man use of environment and envi­ronment-society interrelationships in a place.,,7 Developing one's ability to integrate the facts is at the heart of a liberal arts education and cen­tral to the discipline of geography.

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GEOGRAPHY: INDIVISIBLE

It has often been suggested that a dualism exists within geography, and its practitioners are often at odds with one another. Early in the his­tory of modern geography a contro­versy raged over a dual approach to the discipline, albeit an integrated dualism.s Was geography better studied from the systematic or from the regional view? Later we debated the question whether geography was nomothetic or idiographic.9 Now it is being suggested that a schism ex­ists between the academic and ap­plied geographers.10 I submit that if there is a dichotomy separating ac­ademic and applied geographers it is not based on a substantive un­derstanding of the discipline. There is not now, nor was there ever, a sound reason to divide geographers into camps. Gritzner is quite right when he cautions that we should not allow ourselves to be divided into hostile splinter groups. "We must unite in the universal recognition of a single deity, Geography, and serve this master in a spirit of cooperation and pursuit of the common good."" The faithful and true practitioners, whether in the formal classroom or the corporate world know the unify­ing value of geography in all "real world" problem solving situations.

This becomes clearly apparent when we consider the words of the last two presidential addresses of the Association of American Geogra­phers. Morrill did not ignore the ap­plied value of the discipline in his presidential address of April, 1983,12 nor did Helburn view the theoreti­cian and the applied practitioner as

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each belonging to some philosoph­ical splinter group. "In both our ap­plied research and our theoretical work," he said, "geographers who want to make a difference must take into account the profound power re­lations in the world.,,13 Both of these men, academicians to be sure, but hardly stodgy or conservative, are keenly aware of the practicality of learning, the pragmatism of the lib­eral arts, and the problem solving attributes of geography.

The immediate past president of the AAG, John S. Adams, illustrated well the practical value of a liberal arts education in a recent address entitled, "Geography in Liberal Ed­ucation.,,14 He spoke of his senior honors oral exam, taken shortly be­fore his graduation from college. He had been studying economics, and the exam, which lasted two hours, consisted of one question only. As­suming that he had his own busi­ness he was asked how he would determine what he would pay his employees. As Adams pointed out this is more than a "bottom line" accounting query. "It's a question about relating one's life of work to the lives and work of others. It's a question about the 20th century, about the history and geography of our times. It's about economics and ethics. And it's about the differences between education and training; about the difference between one's life work, and a simple job.,,15 If a liberal arts education helps one to grapple with these types of issues then it is the most practical type of education that there is. The mere training of technicians does not pro­mote an understanding necessary to

ascertain the complex interconnec­tions between people and between places . Techn ical training is not aimed at solving the kinds of prob­lems that will help us to avoid the final tragedy of human extinction or to preserve our world for posterity. That is in the province of the liberal arts.

CONCLUSIONS

A liberal arts education fosters the development of thoughtful, caring citizens of the world. One's educa­tion is incomplete without the unify­ing disciplines of both geography and history. The past actions of human­kind are responsible for today's ge­ography. Likewise, today's geog ­raphy will provide a key for the interpretation of tomorrow's history.

What the world needs now are more people able and willing to confront the moral and philosophic implications of our resource use. The decision makers of today will deter­mine not only the quality of the en­vironment our grandchildren will either enjoy or suffer, but very pos­sibly their chances to experience a normal life span.

There is, therefore, no more prac­tical way to prepare for one's life work and for world citizenship than through a liberal arts education. This is not to diminish the importance of vocation and the training of engi­neers, nurses, business executives, etc. Of course the world needs peo­ple adequately schooled in these professions, but this should not be at the expense of the liberal arts. Geography is essential because of its unifying dimension, its emphasis upon the interrelationships of phe-

nomen a on the earth's surface. If we are to work toward the best possible world, our decisions must be based not so much on monetary profits, but rather on the preservation of a healthy env ironment and the im­provements of the quality of life for all. There can be nothing more prac­t ical than preserving life itself.

FOOTNOTES

1. Charles F. Gritzner. " Applied Geography: Retrospect and Prospect." The Geographical Bulletin, Vol. 23 (May, 1983), p. 5.

2. Bruce W. Smith and John Hiltner of Bowling Green State University have recently documented the increase in the number of applied geographers between 1967 and 1980; see their article, 'W here Non-academic Geographers Are Employed" (The Professional Geographer, Vol. 35, May 1983, 210).

3. Robert Elgie, member of an ad hoc university consulting team recommended by the Associat ion of American Geographers, May. 1982.

4. Zusammenhang is a German word referring to an as­sociation or relationship of things. One might think in terms of how things hang together like the pieces of a puzzle. In geography there are environmental and socie­tal relat ionships to consider.

5. Associated Press Report, The Viderte Messenger (Val­paraiso, IN), June 30, 1983.

6. The possible adverse effects on the environment of waste disposal from nuclear power plants are clearly discussed by George D. DeBuchananne of the U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey. See Role of Earth Science in the Disposal of Radioactive Waste, prepared by George D. DeBuchananne, (Washington : U.S. Government Print­ing Office, 1977).

7. Association of American Geographers, Geography and International Knowledge, A Report Prepared by the Committee on Geography and In terna t ional Studies (Washington : Associa tion of American Geographers, 1982), p. 5.

8. Richard Hartshorne, The Nature of Geography (Wash­ington : Association of American Geographers, 1939, 1949), p. 456.

9. Richard Hartshorne, Perspective on the Nature of Ge­ography (Chicago : Rand McNally Co .. 1959). p. 149. " Nomothetic," the search for generalities. is distin ­guished from " idiographic, " which refers to the study of individual cases.

10. Current ly there are within the profession persons who refer to " academic" and " non-academic" geographers. These terms are used to dist ingu ish those who are teaChing geography from those who are working as geographers in business. government. or industry. I tend to wince al the use of these terms as they are open readily to misinterpretation and may be offensive to one group or the other. More palatable terms with which to make the distinction may be to refer to " academic" and " ap-

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plied" geographers, or "teaching" and " non-teaching " geographers.

11. Gritzner, The Geographical Bullerin, Vol. 23, p. 6.

12. Richard l. Morrill, Presidential Address, Seventy-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geog­raphers, Denver, April 27, 1983. This address will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

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13. Nicholas Helburn, " Geography and the Quality of Life," Annals of rhe Association of American Geographers, Vol. 72 (Dec., 1982), p. 455.

14. John S. Adams, " Geography in Liberal Education," ad­dress delivered at Valparaiso University. Fiftieth Anni· versary, Department of Geography, Feb. 27, 1983.

15. Ibid. p. 1.