This book, issued in observance of the Columbus Quincentennial and on the occasion of the 27th International Geographical Congress, addresses a broad range of contemporary topics including environmental change, dynamics of the world economy, human needs, wants and rights, political order and change, and contemporary cultures. The format is one of essays and complementary learning activities, including one essay and two activities in Spanish. Divided into five sections, section 1, "Environmental Change," contains the following essays: (1) "The Changing Use of Water in the Americas" (Lee); (2) "Streamflow" (Bock); (3) "The Effects of Volcanoes on the Landscapes and Peoples of the Americas" (Romey); (4) "Volcanoes and Human Activities in the Caribbean (Bencloski); (5) "The Global Effect of El Nino" (Caviedes); (6) "Teaching El Nino" (Prorok); (7) "Tropical and Temperate Rainforests" (Hansis); (8) "Humans, Owls, and Trees" (Beaman and Osborne); and (9) "Deforestation on Trial" (Sandmeier). Section 2, "World Economy," contains the following: (1) "United States Regions and the Global Economy" (Warf); (2) "Prisms of Promise--Selected Regions of the United States" (Marran); (3) "What is an 'American' Car? Global Interdependency in the Automotive Industry" (Rubinstein); (4) "The Automobile Worksheet" (Willman); (5) "Transportation and Urban Life" (Hodge); (6) "Planning a Light Rail System" (Speer); (7) "The Drug Industry in the Americas: The Andean Cocaine Connection" (Gerlach); (8) "Eradicating Coca" (S. Bednarz; R. Bednarz; and Walk) (9) "Editor's Note to Accompany 'A Planter's Day' by John G. Stedman" (Martinson); and (10) "Owning Slaves in Caribbean Colonial Plantation Culture" (Prorok). Section 3, "Human Needs and the Political Order," contains the following: (1) "Engendering the Discovery of the New World" (Momsen); (2) "Rural to Urban Migration in the Americas" (Whitsell); (3) "Regional Variation in Quality of Life in the Americas" (Greenow); (4) "Teaching the Quality of Life" (Crews); (5) "The Far South of the New World: South American Antarctica and the Southern Islands" (Child); (6) "The Development of Antarctica" (Sandmeier); (7) "Migration Trends in the Americas" (Conway); (8) "The Exponential Factor and Population Growth" (Pierson); (9) "The World in a Grain of Sand: Global Restructuring and Neighborhood Activism in Tucson, Arizona" (Marston); and (10) "Tucson Neighborhoods:" (Priest). Section 4, "Contemporary Cultures," lists the following: (1) "Reading the City Landscape as a Primary Document" (Salter); (2) "How to Read a City" (Salter); (3) "Steel Drums of Trinidad" (Dendinger); (4) "The Recipe for Steel Bands" (Willman); (5) "Geography of Religious Belief Systems" (Weightman); (6) "Scales of Religious Diversity" (Prorok); (7) "Women and Food in the Caribbean: A Study of St. Lucia" (Fredrich); and (8) "Do You Know Where Your Next Meal Is Coming From?" (Sharma). Section 5, "Voices from the South," contains: (1) "Ciudades Primadas y Regiones en la America Latina" (Elbow); (2) "Buenos Aires: Poblacion, Desarrollo y Futuro" (Barros); and (3) "Los Andes y el Regionalismo en el Ecuador" (Guillen). Contains a selected bibliography and a list of contributors. (EH)