The study of geography invites critical and creative thinking about our impact on earth, the equitable distribution of resources, and sustainable livelihoods across the globe. The Department of Geography and Planning provides students with opportunities to practice critical spatial thinking and research skills using advanced technologies in geographic information sciences, cartography, remote sensing, and planning.

Geography and Planning Forums

ON FIRE: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

Naomi Klein
Journalist & Author
Senior Correspondent, The Intercept

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and New York Times bestselling author. In a special talk, she joins Dr. Mark Stemen, a Professor in Geography and Planning at California State University, Chico to discuss her latest effort: ON FIRE: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal, which gathers more than a decade of her impassioned writing about the climate crisis for the first time. This talk includes discussions about important policy changes, new age activism, and the specific problems contributing to climate change. Presentation Time: 1 hour, 21 minutes | View Now

Regional Regulatory Regimes and the Political Ecology of Critical Mining Development in the Rural American West

Jeffrey Jenkins
PhD Student, Environmental Studies, UC Santa Cruz

Decorative use: Political Ecology presentationJeffrey Jenkins, who earned his Master’s Degree at CSU, Chico, is writing his doctoral dissertation on the subject of this presentation. He begins by providing background about economic restructuring and the mining legacy in the Western United States. He goes on to put this in the current context of the political-economic drivers of critical minerals classification: policy, innovation, and geopolitics. Jenkins then provides theoretical frameworks for this issue. He finishes with comparative studies for currently proposed mines on United States Forest Service lands. Presentation Time: 49 minutes | View Now

Cartography and California Cultural Landscapes

Dr. John Cloud
NOAA Historian of the Coast and Geodetic Survey

Decorative image: Cartography presentationIn the first part of his talk, Dr. Cloud, a historian for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, outlines the many theories about the routes taken by the people we know as Native Americans from what is now Alaska and Canada down into the western United States. He not only looks at overland routes, but also discusses the possibility of the first Americans arriving by watercraft along the “kelp highway.” In the second part of his talk, he presents information about the Russian explorers and the early settlement of the Pacific Coast of North America, including those who built Fort Ross on the Sonoma County coast of California. Presentation Time: 57 minutes | View Now