captioning sponsored by annenberg/cpb narrator: arranging his curriculum materials, geographer justin wilkinson prepares to teach some pretty exceptional students. man: oh, the meteorite crater... ( indistinct ) narrator: mike foale was born in england. vladimir titov comes from russia. eileen collins hails from upstate new york.

try and make... narrator: she is about to make her first space flight and become the first female shuttle pilot. this is the crew of s.t.s.-63, and what they learn from wilkinson helps keep them oriented to the geographic perspective. their main mission: the very first rendezvous with the russian spacecraft mir, already in orbit. but the astronauts also have another goal: to give the rest of us a new perspective on planet earth. earth observation is a huge part of why people want to be astronauts and why they work hard and train hard and fly on the shuttle. narrator: just like students at all levels, astronauts need solid geography instruction to accomplish their mission goals.

foale: you've asked me if there's ever a time i get lost in space, at least in relation to what i'm seeing on the earth, and the answer is many, many times. narrator: and that's why nasa sends all the crews to class with wilkinson. wilkinson: what's that? where, where, where? collins: land, dirt and water. foale: and clouds. is that the hammerhead? is that what? is that the hammerhead? this is all africa. foale: it's not johannesburg, is it? it's morocco. that's morocco! wilkinson: our job is to give the astronauts as strong a sense as we can of where they are on the earth's surface before they fly. when an astronaut looks out of the window, latitude-longitude is almost meaningless. what they need to be able to do is to recognize lake chad or the nile river delta, or the peninsula of florida or cuba. these are all strongly recognizable places, and we build them into our training

because they are recognizable major features. okay, so now you know where the area is that's interesting. let me just show you, to remind you... narrator: like all teachers, wilkinson wonders how his students will perform after they graduate. that time has come. ( cheering ) announcer: james wetherbee. commander james wetherbee, pilot eileen collins. mission specialist michael foale, mission specialist janice voss. dr. bernard harris. announcer 2: three, two, one, and lift-off of space shuttle discovery on a mission to prepare for the next era of world cooperation in space. ( no voice ) narrator: eileen collins was scheduled to command the next flight following the 2003 columbia tragedy. here, eight years before the shuttle disaster, pilot collins used the launch and retrieval of an orbiting camera, and mike foale takes a five-hour space walk to test a new suit.

collins: we were also the first crew to rendezvous with the space station mir. we didn't dock, but we rendezvoused, and we were the first americans to see mir. man ( over radio ): 1,023, houston. narrator: aboard the mir, the cosmonauts aim their camcorder at the approaching shuttle, suddenly recognizing their countryman titov. ( men laughing, exclaiming in russian ) collins: ah, spasibo. ( men speaking russian ) narrator: their main missions accomplished, the fast pace continues as they begin earth photography. ( shutters clicking ) foale: we go into this big photo frenzy whenever we see land, and the legs and arms kicking around, cameras are clicking on the flight deck in all the windows when we're over land. but the world is two-thirds water. and what would happen is that as soon as we went over, say, from kamchatka to the pacific, everyone's saying, "oh, it's the pacific," and they'd all go downstairs and eat.

and i would stay on the flight deck and just hang in the window. and you see almost nothing, but you won't believe how many little, tiny islands there are. my favorite pastime was just imagining myself beamed down, as in star trek, right that minute, and go and lie on that beach for ten minutes and then beam right back up and go on to the next one. narrator: beaming up and down would teach him a lot of geography. by changing scale, he could see that this beach in bali is a good place to surf. but if he lands on this beach, near the kilauea volcano in hawaii, he might be killed by molten lava or the toxic steam it produces when it hits the seawater. so how would he know where it is safe to land? how do we know where we can visit or build a new home or factory? for geographers, the answers are found in maps, and here again, images from space give us new views.

narrator: satellites circle the earth and send back many different pictures. when these individual images are arranged in a mosaic and wrapped around a sphere, they give us a photographic view of earth. then we can map physical systems such as boundaries of tectonic plates. volcanoes occur in higher numbers along the edges of some plates. this one in iceland erupted where the north american and eurasian plates separate. and this one in ecuador exploded where one moving plate subducts, or slides, beneath another. earthquakes also occur along colliding plates. here in kobe, japan, a 1995 quake caused enormous destruction oproperty and lo of li.

( speaking japanese ): it's one thing to map the earth's hazard zones. it's another to know where people live in them. settlement patterns, too, respond to earth's physical systems. when viewed from space, the limitations are glaring. foale: the vast area of the world can be described as one color, brown. mostly a brown desert. and that is the absolutely most striking thing about it, is you suddenly realize the places to live in the world are few and far between and we are already living there. we have found them, and that's where we've made our homes. so our living resources are actually quite limited in terms of space. narrator: take the case of egypt. it's larger than texas plus oklahoma,

but 95% of its 65 million people live in the narrow ribbon of the nile river valley and its delta. astronauts saw this pattern graphically illuminated as they flew over at night. night views from space can tell us a lot, but not just about population density. they often reveal levels of economic development. i remember going over tokyo, and you could see the whole japanese island as if it had been drawn out on a map because they have put streetlights along every inch of their coastline all the way around and so it just shines out like a perfect atlas illustration. narrator: as the second largest economy in the world, japan shows up very brightly. but compare it with developing countries on the asian mainland. together, china and india hold 38% of the world's population, but few places there shine like japan. similar contrasts appear to the west.

the population of africa exceeds radiant europe, but suffers from underdevelopment. with under five percent of the world's population, the u.s. consumes 25% of world energy. its nighttime image is blazing. what will happen if u.s. or japanese rates of consumption are adopted by china and india as their economies continue to grow? a glimpse of the future may now be visible from space, a little to the north. the black cover on snow in siberia astonished astronaut mike foale. the cities in russia are coal-burning cities, and so the soot from the coal burning has spread out over the snow surrounding the city, and you see this big, black smudge. it's almost like someone had rubbed their finger across a photograph, but looking at it out the window. narrator: cosmonaut vladimir titov talks about a town he knows in siberia called pavlodar. ( speaking russian )

translator: if you look from the air, it's one of the dirtiest towns ever. smoke is visible for hundreds of kilometers. i myself am from siberia, and i know that many people in siberia are very worried about pollution. narrator: around the world, growing populations place heavy new pressure on supplies of fresh water. some of these are so severe, they can be seen from space. and we would look at the aral sea-- and the aral sea, as you probably know, is a manmade disaster in terms of the dehydration of that region-- there have been many water levels. and the water levels have been dropping consistently every year because of the diversion of water in the river that used to feed it. and so the aral sea has become very, very dry. there's very little water left in it.

narrator: images like these can help change the way we learn about the world. stark environmental problems are shown in their daunting global scale. but at the same time, the vision of one precious planet shared by all humanity can be a motivating source of hope and inspiration. narrator: september 11, 2001. the world trade center was a symbol of american culture and financial power. but more broadly, it represented economic globalization. so just what were the terrorists attacking? and what do recent events tell us

about the geography of the world to come? man: one of the things that the september 11 events made clear was that we are much more interconnected with each other and interdependent with each other. man: osama bin laden and others are complaining about american cultural imperialism-- imposing our cture other . beginning with september 11, we're dealing with it at home. i mean, we've dealt with it abroad before but now we're dealing with anti-globalization and, in many ways, anti-americanism, which, in many people's minds, are synonymous. narrator: we're going to look at globalization and america's role in the world after september 11 and the war in iraq. as an introduction to the new power of place, we'll explore several perspectives, including the place of islam in the geography of a small planet. our story begins in an eastern oregon potato field.

man: this is the russet burbank variety that we use for the french fry industry here-- not only for our domestic market but also for our export market. narrator: the export market is a driving force for farmers like chet pryor. several miles away, his potatoes arrive at the multinational simplot corporation. here, they become the perfectly sliced, white french fries desired by fast food consumers worldwide. from here, the fries are shipped to places as far away as montreal, quebec, santiago, chile, and taipei, taiwan. america benefits by growing and processing food for sale to other countries. people abroad benefit from lower prices for a dependable product. the world benefits because interdependent trading nations are less likely to make war on one another.

this increasing interconnection among people and places throughout the world is called "globalization." it's guatemalan coffee beans picked by maya indians and shipped to the gates of the mother chch in canterbury, england, where tourists from dozens of countries derive a little boost from a cup of starbucks. it's the shrinking of the globe through international jet flights. it's the instantaneous exchange of electronic information, entertainment and culture. you can gauge the demand in the landscape of oman... and northern poland... in new delhi... and monterrey, mexico. in the rural town of sijia, china, almost all families owned vcrs and color televisions

in the 1990s. now, consumer technology races forward. man: more families have dvd and vcd machines than vcrs. in fact, in china... it is difficult to find vcrs to play videotapes. narrator: in many places, cell phones have leapfrogged landlines. zong-guo xia: in chinese, the cell phone is called "big brother's talk machine." it's sort of like an indicator of your economic well-being and your social status. narrator: status comes with the power to connect. the internet is still young, but already, web page and video game designers are transforming liverpool, england, from an industrial revolution seaport to a bustling center of the information revolution. globalization applies to culture, such as religion and music.

rock and world beat synthesize many different influences. afro-brazilianrummers like these laid the foundation for paul simon's rhythm of the saints. and globalization also spreads diseases like sars, west nile virus and hiv/aids. but the driving force behind globalization is economic. one of its key components is manufacturing. this is headquarters for nike shoes in oregon. from here, orders fan out to manufacturers across the globe. this nike contractor is in guangdong, china. the spatial movement, or diffusion, of new manufacturing plants is based oseveral factors, including political stability, infrastructure and retive locatn. but in the competitive global economy, one reason stands out above all others, according to geographer richard wright.

wright: the diffusion from japan to south korea to taiwan and then subsequently to other parts of southeast asia is driven by seeking low-wage labor. narrator: nonetheless, employees in these places find higher incomes and standards of living than ever before. so globalization is a mixture of positive and negative effects. it stirs passions on both sides of a growing debate. how do we evaluate? our approach is through the science of geography. i think that one of the most important tools that we have in studying world regional geography is our ability to change scales, is the ability to go from looking at the world from a global perspective, where we see the entire world and the forces that act on the entire world, to zoom in more closely to the regional scale, to the national scale of individual countries, theocalcale wiin countries

rrator than in strasbourg, france, on the banks of the rhine river. at the local scale, the city functions like many urban centers in an agricultural economy. but look a little deeper, and strasbourg bears evidence-- some would say scars-- of historic forces at the scale of two nations. here stands monumental architecture by german kaisers like wilhelm ii and french kings like louis xiv. in a hundred years, warfare changed strasbourg's nationality five times. now at a regional scale comes a modern response to centuries of bloodshed: the european union is building one of its three capitals here to symbolize its desire for peace and even integration. on many days now, this french farmer ferries his tractor across the rhine to work his cornfields on german soil.

the breakdown of borders here is an example of supranationalism. although some people seek political union here, others are not willing to give up sovereignty. the primary benefit is economic development and free trade. but in the german fields of our french farmer, a new battle rages at a global scale. most countries belong to the world trade organization, which seeks to reduce tariffs, quotas and other barriers to international commerce. so when european nations blocked the import of genetically modified american crops, the u.s. cried foul. just as the world now experiences globalization, an opposite force gathers new strength. not surprisingly, it's called "localization." a key part of geography is to understand the culture, of many people and places rcepat a local scale.

the green area in this satellite photograph is farmland in holland. but as you zoom back to a national scale, the areas of purple-gray reveal some of the densest urban settlements in the world, a horseshoe of cities called the randstad. with fewer green spaces left, many europeans have become aggressive environmentalists. science aside, they do not want to take chances on genetically modified food. here, the values of global free trade collide with the values of local free choice. people are often afraid of the forces of globalization. we see global capital, multinational corporations reaching their tentacles around the world. and some people would say that global economic, political, cultural events are taking over the whole world. we see forces of global cultural homogenization

where people fear that the world will become culturally the same everywhere, that everything will be mcdonald's. i don't think we've got to that point yet. and there's still a lot of differences between places, which is what geography is partly about. but we also see, at the local level, the forces that resist that. narrator: this is the thesis of political scientist benjamin barber, who writes in his book jihad vs. mcworld that radical resistance is often a local response to growing globalization itself. the greater the spread of cnn and planet hollywood, the more assertive some people become about their unique and perhaps threatened cultural identity. other people have better connections to the global economy and positions of relative wealth or power. to them, local resistance voiced by people outside the system can seem strident or hostile.

the voices are often connected to place: "t"my 'hd, the voices are often connec"my culture." you can see it as easily in a u.s. inner city as in a developing country. in boston or baghdad, the demand is the same: "pay me respect." so some of the rage among disenfranchised muslims-- as with many other people around the world-- is a reaction to globalization itself. some of it is aimed at the west and some against "infidels" generally. but some of the anger and resistance is directed against some very specific targets perceived by many muslims as oppressive forces. as america wages a war on terrorism both at home and abroad, it is essential that we understand some real grievances. our approach is through historical, political

and regional geography. to understand the reaction to foreign control, you have to go back to the turn of the last century, when the ottoman empire ruled from what is now turkey. much of their territory, including arab and jewish land, is what we now call "the middle east." in world war i, the ottomans allied with the germans, who lost the war. so the british seized control, assuming a role many compare to the present american position. along with the french, they carved up the territory, often creating arbitrary borders. these were colonies, not nation-states, where some dreamed of a pan-arab union. it was not to be. geographers call the larger region "north africa and southwestern asia." in most countries there, corrupt, authoritarian regimes are the rule. many are undeveloped economically,

despite great oil wealth in some. rarely do these states distribute the wealth evenly. according to former mideast envoy dennis ross, they create perfect conditions for terrorists outside the state structure. someone like osama bin laden has to prey upon the existence of alienation, fear, hate, frustration. narrator: over the past 50 years, many repressive states were backed by the u.s. government, which is now also targeted by bin laden. we rank right up there, because we prop up the regime which he thinks is betraying islam the way he interprets islam. narrator: on iraq, some experts were very troubled that an american invasion might recruit many new terrorists. you can easily lead to a situation where, at both the state level and the extrastate level, you precipitate exactly the kind of response you're trying to head off. and that's a response that indeed pits a part of the world, one part of the world

against another part of the world, which, one might even argue, was part of what the osama bin ladens of the world would like to see. narrator: of all the irritants to muslims worldwide, none is more unifying than the case of israel and palestine. few muslims see america as an honest broker. rather, they see the u.s. as tilted towards israel, which continues to occupy palestinian land. there it has built many jewish settlements, making the establishment of a palestinian state on this land very difficult. the u.s. shares israel's fear that radical palestinians don't want a two-state solution at all, but to drive the jews into the sea. recurring suicide bombings by arabs against israelis just make their point. israeli/palestinian peace, if it was to be achieved, would not end the threat that people like bin laden represent.

but what it would do is it would create a climate where their ability to recruit based on anger and frustration would look different. that still, by the way, wouldn't address many of the sources of that anger and frustration-- regimes that are corrupt; regimes that offer no potential for participation; the gap between haves and have-nots; the very clear message that if you're on the outside, you're supposed to stay on the outside. so those are all factors that give rise to osama bin laden which would not be affected in the slightest by peace between the israelis and the palestinians. the worst possible development for him is the development and emergence of hope. narrator: and hope returns each time a new set of leaders accepts the challenge of finally finding peace.

captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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