Geographic Literacy: The Role Of Geoliteracy In Everyday Life

Geographic literacy is defined as the “understanding of how the world works that all members of modern society need. It is the ability to reason about Earth systems and interconnections to make far-reaching decisions. Geoliteracy fosters the understanding, reasoning, and citizenship skills necessary for professional careers and responsible citizenship. Whether deciding where to live or what precautions to take in the face of natural hazards, people make decisions that require geoliteracy throughout their lives.” (Couranz) Geographic literacy is important because everyone should understand how the world around him or her works. Knowing what exactly is going on in the world around you could be beneficial to your everyday life. It can also reduce the costs of bad decision-making and can provide foundation for positive

Being able to read a map along with its key is very essential to understanding the world, places may seem to be about the same size when in reality they are very different. Simple map skills of knowing which direction North, South, East and West are very important yet it seems to be becoming less important with all the new technology that directs you which way to go, how to get places or let us look up how far away something is from your current location so the need to learn how to read maps seems to be disappearing. Geo-literacy also has another component for far-reaching decision that people make in their everyday lives. A far-reaching decision is a choice that impacts beyond time and place of where the decision is being made. An example of a far-reaching decision is when you choose to drive to work rather than take public transportation; or when companies decide if they are going to ship their products from one country to another or stay within their own countries boarders. Making these choices everyday may seem as if it’s a simple task, but in reality we are hurting