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This morning I armed myself with reading material and bundled up in long underwear, sweatshirt, and mittens for my first voting experience in the District of Columbia, fearing that higher-than-average voter turnout could mean long lines in the chilly fall air. Luckily, my trip to the polls turned out to quick, painless, and entirely indoors. But after months of anticipation I was prepared to exercise my civic duty—whatever the circumstances.

Now that the historic night is finally here, we hope you’ll follow along with an eye toward geography as the state-by-state electoral map turns shades of red and blue. First, keep a close watch on the battleground states. You may even want to try a hand at CNN’s electoral calculator to see if you can beat the experts at predicting which way the states will swing!

With so much emphasis on the presidential race, it’s easy to forget the many other contests and issues at stake; like those ballot questions on the docket in 33 of 50 states.

Will gay marriage be overturned in California? Will Massachusetts ban dog racing?

Learn more the ballot measures with these resources from CBS News, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and CNN News. CNN also features a ballot measure scoreboard with town by town results and maps, a comprehensive guide to the issues and a “Track Your Race” tool to help stay on top of the issues and contests most important to you.

Of course, not everyone’s voting experience will go quite as smoothly as my own. Experiences with past problems (who could forget the 2000 election snafu?) and this year’s high voter turnout are adding to the concerns of many. Check out this map of complaints that have already been filed. Of course, you savvy geographers will want to carefully compare this with the map of battleground states. Fingers crossed that any excitement tomorrow will follow from the final results, and not from closer analysis of these dynamics!

Finally, our friend Danielle Williams, employee with the National Geographic Research, Conservation, and Exploration group, is “feeling the excitement” this week from a somewhat less conventional setting. Read about her experience below!

 

November 3, 2008

It Starts With a Question: “How Will Climate Change Impact the Next Four (or Five) Years?”

This week, there is going to be a diverse group of people gathering from the DC-MD-VA area who want to play a part in finding solutions to the climate crisis, and I am one of them.

I’ll be participating in the HSBC/Earthwatch Institute Climate Change Fellowship as part of a five-year project going on in five countries. Along with ten other participants from all walks of life, I’ll be given an opportunity to get out of my desk chair (wohoo!) and get dirty, learning and experiencing first hand some of the field techniques and quantitative scientific approaches being used to monitor the effect that our changing climate and human-related activities have on temperate and tropical forests. The project is entitled: “Sustainable Forest Management in a Changing Climate.”

 

I am representing The National Geographic Society, in part, because of my work as a member of our Green Initiative’s subcommittee on Employee Practices. Building upon our mission of increasing and diffusing geographic knowledge, National Geographic seeks to inspire people to care about the planet. In order to speak to the public through our media on issues like climate change, it is necessary for our staff to embody that mission. For our efforts in implementing and marketing ECOmmuting Awareness Day to staff, National Geographic received the Washington Council of Governments Commuter Connections Award in June 2008. This team-oriented and carbon-reducing mentality is what I hope to bring to the discussions with my fellow climate change stakeholders this week as we share best practices from our respective organizations and communities.

Our particular field site is located at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, a forested area around Edgewater, Maryland, right in the heart of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The other forest field sites being studied as part of this global project are located in Brazil, India, England and China. Beyond tasting a piece of the science behind our changing climate, this week we’ll also discuss several themes surrounding it, including the cultural perceptions of climate change, its socio-economic impacts, and meeting the challenges of the future. As members of the North American (MD) team, we’ll be the first to brainstorm ideas for community-level solutions to the climate crisis, projects that will connect our newfound understanding of the science behind climate change to the ways in which we can reduce our impact on it. As the team from the United States, we’re setting the precedent for this global five-year project, and the symbolism is not lost on me.

It may be a week in the woods, but this is no ordinary week. Getting to experience real fieldwork and brainstorm solutions that may help mitigate the effects of climate change on our planet is one thing. Getting to experience it in the middle of a presidential election is quite another. Many scientists and other climate change experts agree that our window of opportunity to change our current course for the better is very narrow, and considering that the United States’ portion of global CO2 emissions is quite large, it’s going to take great leadership at the helm to ensure that we find myriad alternatives to the status quo – and encourage other world leaders to do the same. Our entire week will be framed by the results of this historic presidential election, and it will be exciting to see how those results add fuel to our discussions. After all, the next four (or five) years depends on it.

Follow Danielle's daily activities with the  “Sustainable Forest Management in a Changing Climate” project on the EarthWatch blog.

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Comments

[Jake K]

Sarah - glad to hear you didn't have to wait outside all morning to rock the vote! While voting in person is definitely part of the whole experience, I must admit that after hearing how my parents and sister spent a good chunk of their morning waiting in line, I appreciated the convenience of filling out my ballot at my desk and mailing it in!

Danielle - the project seems really interesting. I'll be following along with the Earthwatch blog. The timing coincides well with this month's NG article on forest management in Borneo. Hopefully President Obama and company will make addressing the climate crisis and maintaining ecological diversity a top priority!