As a geographer, you actually know more than where which place is located, which country begins with C or which is the largest river in the world. It cannot be ruled out that this knowledge is very helpful in life, just like the sense of direction. When we started studying, we were told that it would be very difficult to find a job. But on the contrary, geography is so diverse that it is rather difficult to choose a niche.
As a child, I was already fascinated by thunderstorms when I stood with my siblings on the terrace and counted the seconds between the lightning and the thunder so that I could calculate how far it is away. Maybe that’s why I specialized in catastrophes – or maybe not.
The fact is that the further I was in my studies, the more complicated it became to explain to my family what exactly I was doing during my studies – and now at my work. One of the reasons for this is that I only learned all the “technical terms” in English (and I am German). But the fundamental obstacle is to omit these technical terms and summarise simple.
My great-grand aunt (99 years old) always asked me ‘What are you exactly doing at work? Do you know which types of trees are more suitable for this dry weather that we have nowadays?’ And I have been always struggling with explaining what my job and research is about. Ironically enough, that’s the reason why I started this blog – to put science another way that everyone can understand and learn from it.
Another reason for this blog was the flooding in Germany and in the neighbouring countries in 2021. I conducted a survey with affected citizens about this flooding event and while reading the answers, I noticed that there are many open questions that I am trying to take up and answer with this blog.
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