Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
program, which seeks to incorporate traditional local know-how into development projects. Click on
Development Topics and up pops about 25 issues that range from AIDS to environment to water sup-
ply. Click on Kids and Schools to access teaching modules and classroom resources for teachers, and
reference material for students.
WorldClimate.Com
WorldClimate.com (
http://www.worldclimate.com
)
offers climate data for 85,000 locations around
the world. Want information on, say, Madrid, Spain? Just type in Madrid, click on Search, then click
on the Madrid that happens to be in Spain (as opposed to the one in Perkins County, Nebraska), and
you got data. Average monthly rainfall (in inches and millimeters) and average monthly temperat-
ure (in Fahrenheit and Celsius) data are available for most sites. Also available is information on the
source(s) of the data, the precise period of time over which the data was averaged, and a map that
shows the location of the weather station where the data was collected. This is an excellent resource
for teachers and students of physical geography, as well as for the prospective traveler who wants ad-
vice on what to pack.
World Resources Institute
The World Resources Institute (
http://www.wri.org
) seeks to educate people “to live in ways that pro-
tect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and fu-
ture generations.” Toward that end, WRI maintains a robust, informative, and well-organized Web
site. On their homepage, click on Global Topics or Earth Trends to access information on agriculture
and food, coastal and marine systems, forests and grasslands, population and human well-being, and
other topics related to global resources and ecological linkages. Information formats include feature
articles, data tables, country profiles, maps, and searchable databases.