Why study Geography?

Geography is the science that studies the lands, the features, the inhabitants, and the phenomena of the Earth.

The above statement was what I found when I typed "Geography" in the Google search engine. I have never seen Geography as part of science. I have always viewed Geography as a subject by itself. I have not been studying Geography for quite some years and it certainly isn't a subject I enjoy, nor do I score well for it.

The lecturer, Mr. Ken asked us in class today "Why study Geography?" My subconscious quickly responded: "Because it is compulsory." and not only me, other classmates voiced that out as a reply as well. But then again, why is it compulsory? I couldn't think of any good reasons for I don't have any good feelings for Geography anyway; to me Geography is just a study about the Earth. Thus, I answered "to know why the Earth is structured that way." Again, Mr. Ken asked why, and I thought the reason was simply so that architects are able to build infrastructures safely and suitable for us to live, work and play in. But, Mr. Ken gave us some examples of anomaly weathers, architectually unsound buildings, the massive floodings in Orchard Road that has never happened in the past as examples that engineers nowadays aren't taking into account why Earth is structured that way.

To think of it, the number of natural disasters occurring around the world has increased in recent years and I think that is because human population is ever rising and land space is declining to build more land to fit more people. We only think of solutions to exploit more land for use for human activities and living, but did not take into consideration of how our actions are affecting the Earth. Hence, I feel that the need to study Geography is because we need to know the physical features of the Earth and to what extent can we "reconstruct" it for human purposes and where is the "threshold" we should stop these activities and start to conserve and bring its natural features back, as well as having a win-win situation whereby we can find methods to build more infrastructures while not harming the Earth at the same time. We need to compromise between developments and the Earth's natural resources. Living in "peace" with other living organisms on Earth by not altering how the Circle of Life and food chains should be. Geography also allows me to know better about where I live and my surroundings. How nature shapes out special landscapes such as the Lovers' Island in Adriatic.

References

Heart-shaped island highlighted by Google Earth becomes hit with lovers . (2009, February 11). Telegraph. Retrieved June 27, 2012, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4588838/Heart-shaped-island-highlighted-by-Google-Earth-becomes-hit-with-lovers.html