So, welcome to your introductory geography lecture. We'll begin with some basics. Firstly, what do we learn by studying geography? Well, we learn a great deal about all the processes that have affected and that continue to affect the earth's surface. But we learn far more than that, because studying geography also informs us about the different kinds of relationships that develop between a particular environment and the people that live there. Okay. We like to think of geography as having two main branches. There's the study of the nature of our planet, its physical features, what it actually looks like, and then there's the study of the ways in which we choose to live and of the impact of those on our planet. Our current use of carbon fuels is a good example of that. But there are more specific study areas to consider too, and we'll be looking at each of these in turn throughout this semester. These include bio-physical geography, by which I mean the study of the natural environment and all its living things. Then there's topography that looks at the shapes of the land and oceans.