Scales and Explanations, Balances and Histories: Musings of a Physical Geography Teacher

Abstract

Although not necessarily inclusive of all research, two traditions characterize much scientific explanations of the physical geographer's natural world. First, a linking of a phenomenon of study to other components in the environment—whether in contemporary or some past time—constitutes an explanation that can be characterized as spatially focused, ahistorical, or equilibrium-based. Second, an interpretation of a modern characteristic as at least partially influenced by a past event evidence for which may be lost to time captures the sense of the historical event explanation. With examples from the various subjects of an introductory college course in physical geography and from recent papers in Physical Geography, this essay explores the suggestion that, from any equilibrium view, a fining of scale—whether temporally, spatially, or by degree of resolution—is likely to increase the need for the invocation of historical events. Such a scalar tendency preserves what is, in fact, fundamental to empirical work in physical geography, equilibrium explanations, while it accepts a legitimate place for what seem to be currently more popular explanations that focus on historical events.