Why Geography Mattters

Nicholas Crane’s message has never been more important – and concerns everyone from South East Asia, to the Sussex coastline.

- Peter Wallace

Talking to someone like Nicholas Crane, the former co-host of nation-traversing TV show Coast, it’s abundantly clear that current discourse around our environment is just crying out for like-minded individuals.

There’s a sense that he can get even the most geographically disenfranchised suddenly interested in the various intimacies of igneous formations through nothing but animated discussion and veritable bucketloads of barely concealable passion.

“Geography has never mattered more,” he nods. “We need to celebrate teachers at schools and universities, but we also need to roll geography out globally, so that it becomes the new normal. It needs to be as basic as learning to read and write, and we need a greater understanding of our impact on the planet.”

For Nick’s own part, there’s few who can boast of an engagement with the British Isles in particular that can rival his. During his time as an academic, author, and TV presenter, he has biked, kayaked, and strode the length and breadth of Britain.

Of course, he’s no slouch when it comes to exotic places, as one would expect from a former president of the Royal Geographical Society. He once “rode a bicycle across Asia, from Bangladesh, through India, Nepal, over the Tibetan plateau, the Gobi Desert, and China,” and has recently returned from a trip to the High Caucuses on the Russia-Georgia border.

His current, crucial mission, however, revolves around reinspiring people closer to home. “I want to celebrate geography, it’s an amazing subject,” he enthuses. “I think it reconnects us with our habitats which is something that we have broken away from in recent years, understanding how our own locality works whether you live in a city or in the countryside is the first stage of reconnecting with bigger systems.”