Readings
How Climate Change Can Get Even Worse
Climate change can amplify itself through feedback loops. It can also trigger catastrophic “tipping points.”
AP Human Geography
Explore free resources that align with your AP Human Geography curriculum.
CFR Education offers a range of free resources that can supplement your AP Human Geography curriculum. Browse readings, timelines, videos, and simulations that help students explore how humans have understood, used, and changed the surface of the earth.
Skills students learn with CFR Education Human Geography Resources:
- Understanding information shown in maps, tables, charts, graphs, images, and infographics
- Connecting geographic concepts and processes to real-life scenarios
- Seeing patterns and trends in data and in visual sources such as maps and drawing conclusions from them
- Understanding spatial relationships using geographic scales
Unit 1: Thinking Geographically
- Readings
What Is Geoengineering?
Learn more about the promises and perils of artificially manipulating the environment to combat climate change.
- Readings
Marriage Equality Around the World
An increasing number of countries recognize same-sex marriage, but discrimination and persecution persist.
- Readings
Regional Politics: Asia
From the India-Pakistan rivalry to new Pacific partnerships, learn about ten key relationships defining the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Asia
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
Regional Politics: Sub-Saharan Africa
From climate change to Chinese development, learn about ten issues and relationships defining the region.
- Readings
Regional Politics: Middle East and North Africa
From Saudi-Iran rivalries to Arab-Israeli normalizations, learn how ten key relationships define the region.
- Readings
Regional Politics: Europe and Eurasia
From the war in Ukraine to competition with China, learn about ten key relationships defining the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Europe and Eurasia
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
What Is Water Scarcity?
Is there a global water crisis? In this free resource, learn how climate change is causing water scarcity to worsen worldwide.
- Readings
What Is Colonialism and How Did It Arise?
Explore how colonialism enriched empires and fundamentally reshaped countries such as India.
- Readings
Regional Politics: The Americas
From U.S. immigration to climate change, learn about ten key relationships and issues defining the region.
- Readings
Laws, Norms, and Democratic Backsliding
Are countries less democratic than they used to be? Learn how democratic principles like checks and balances, free elections, and freedom of the press are under threat around the world.
- Videos
Reimagining Sovereignty in a Global Era
When fires in the Amazon affect countries around the world, is there a need to rethink a centuries-old understanding of sovereignty?
- Readings
How Self-Determination Shaped the Modern World
Learn how the world’s nearly two hundred countries came to be, and whether the map is set in stone.
- Readings
Migration Today
Understand where migrants come from, where they go, and why migration is increasing through maps, charts, and data.
- Readings
Sources of Energy: A Comparison
Learn how turning toward cleaner energy sources means factoring in economic and energy needs alongside environmental ones.
- Readings
The Greenhouse Effect
How do greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming? Learn why the world is getting warmer in this free climate change resource.
- Videos
What Is Climate Change?
In this educational video, learn why the climate is changing, how it affects us, and what we can do about it.
- Readings
Climate Change Adaptations
Explore how eleven countries are adapting to the effects of climate change in this free resource.
Unit 2: Population and Migration Patterns and Processes
- Readings
Climate Change Threatens to Displace Many People
Extreme weather and climate change effects could drive millions of people to migrate. Government leaders can take steps to address those flows of people and prepare the communities at their destinations.
- Mini Simulations
Cuban Immigration in 1980
How should the United States respond to the massive influx of Cuban migrants? Explore this historical simulation set in 1980.
- Readings
Global Population Growth Is Slowing Down
Is the global population declining? Learn how changes in birth, death, and migration rates affect society, economics, and politics around the world
- Readings
What Is Economic Inequality?
Explore how severe inequalities and disparities in wealth and income can harm individuals, countries, and the global economy, and how some governments implement policies to reduce inequality.
- Readings
People and Society: Asia
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Sub-Saharan Africa
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Middle East and North Africa
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
What Is Water Scarcity?
Is there a global water crisis? In this free resource, learn how climate change is causing water scarcity to worsen worldwide.
- Readings
Climate Change Inequality
In this free resource, explore how climate change disproportionately affects certain communities and could drastically increase global inequality.
- Readings
How Did Humans Come to Live Longer and Healthier Lives?
From the history of vaccines and medical quarantines to the origin of the World Health Organization, explore how innovations in global health increased human longevity and prepared the world for COVID-19.
- Readings
People and Society: The Americas
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Videos
Global Development Explained
How do governments help people everywhere become healthier and wealthier? Many countries have made great strides in global development progress but challenges remain.
- Readings
Internally Displaced Persons: Migrants Who Do Not Cross a National Border
Who are IDPs and how are they different from refugees? Understand what happens to people who are forced from their homes but remain inside their own country through country case studies.
- Videos
The Lasting Effects of Emigration
When migrants seek work abroad, what does their home country gain and lose? Explore one example of a country shaped by emigration, the Philippines.
- Readings
For Migrants, Labels Matter
What is the difference between immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers? Explore how contested definitions of migrants have a profound effect on the rights and protections of people leaving their homes.
- Videos
What Is Migration?
Why do people migrate? Understand why migration means different things for individuals, countries, and economies in a globalized world.
- Readings
Migration Today
Understand where migrants come from, where they go, and why migration is increasing through maps, charts, and data.
Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes
- Readings
People and Society: Asia
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Sub-Saharan Africa
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Middle East and North Africa
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Europe and Eurasia
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: The Americas
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
Unit 4: Political Processes and Patterns
- Simulations
Unrest in Bahrain in 2014 (NSC)
Set in August 2014. Political unrest in Bahrain has led to a government crackdown.
- Simulations
Unrest in Bahrain in 2014 (UNSC)
Set in August 2014. Political unrest in Bahrain has led to a government crackdown.
- Simulations
Dispute in the East China Sea in 2016 (UNSC)
Set in September 2016. Japan and China challenge each other in the airspace above the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
- Simulations
Dispute in the East China Sea in 2016 (NSC)
Set in September 2016. Japan and China challenge each other in the airspace above the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
- Simulations
Humanitarian Intervention in South Sudan in 2014 (UNSC)
Set in May 2014. An ongoing civil war means South Sudan faces the threat of mass violence, reprisals, and possibly genocide.
- Simulations
Humanitarian Intervention in South Sudan in 2014 (NSC)
Set in May 2014. An ongoing civil war means South Sudan faces the threat of mass violence, reprisals, and possibly genocide.
- Readings
Statelessness Around the World
Without a country to call their own, millions of people experience discrimination and persecution.
- Readings
People and Society: Asia
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Sub-Saharan Africa
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Middle East and North Africa
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Europe and Eurasia
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Videos
How Do Countries Select Their Foreign Policy Tools?
In this educational video on foreign policy, explore how U.S. relations with Japan have changed over the past century, from Pearl Harbor to a peaceful alliance.
- Videos
How Do Governments Approach Foreign Policy?
In this educational video, explore three fundamental questions that shape a country’s relationship with the world through foreign policy.
- Readings
What Is Colonialism and How Did It Arise?
Explore how colonialism enriched empires and fundamentally reshaped countries such as India.
- Videos
Why Do We Live in Countries?
How did sovereignty become part of world history? In this educational video, learn why kingdoms turn into countries after the Thirty Years’ War.
- Videos
How Is Conflict Changing?
What is conflict? Explore the reasons why tensions, violence, and war break out and what the consequences are for the world in this video.
- Readings
People and Society: The Americas
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
Understanding Revolutions
Explore the powerful political movements that can reshape forms of government.
- Readings
Laws, Norms, and Democratic Backsliding
Are countries less democratic than they used to be? Learn how democratic principles like checks and balances, free elections, and freedom of the press are under threat around the world.
- Readings
What Are Different Types of Government?
Learn about different forms of government—including democracy, authoritarian rule, and monarchy—and how their distinctions aren’t always so clear.
- Videos
What Is Government?
From direct and parliamentary democracy to authoritarianism, learn how rulers take power—and who decides.
- Videos
What Is Sovereignty?
Understand the principle that has underpinned world order for the past four hundred years.
- Readings
Tanks, Sanctions, and Separatists: The Various Challenges to Sovereignty
A government’s authority within its borders gets challenged all the time. Here is how.
- Readings
Understanding the Constructive and Destructive Natures of Nationalism
Nationalism can unify diverse societies. But when taken to extremes, it can also fuel violence, division, and global disorder.
- Readings
How Self-Determination Shaped the Modern World
Learn how the world’s nearly two hundred countries came to be, and whether the map is set in stone.
Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes
- Simulations
Global Climate Change Policy (NSC)
A major international climate summit approaches, and all eyes are on the United States.
- Simulations
Global Climate Change Policy (UNSC)
A major summit approaches where the UN Security Council will meet to discuss the effects of climate change on security.
- Readings
How to Lower Agriculture and Land-Use Emissions
Agriculture is warming the planet. Changing how we farm and manage land can decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
- Mini Simulations
Stopping Deforestation in the Amazon
Should the United States take action to stop deforestation in the Amazon to combat climate change? Explore this simulation.
- Mini Simulations
Solar Geoengineering
Should the United States consider the use of solar geoengineering to combat climate change? Explore this simulation.
- Readings
What Is Water Scarcity?
Is there a global water crisis? In this free resource, learn how climate change is causing water scarcity to worsen worldwide.
- Readings
How Did Mass Production and Mass Consumption Take Off After World War II?
Discover how consumer goods have become cheap and ubiquitous in the global era.
- Readings
The Sustainable Development Goals
Learn about the formation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and review the opportunities and challenges for meeting them.
- Videos
Technology and Development
As Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution and India’s Green Revolution have shown, technological innovation can drive extraordinary development. Explore how digital advancements are further driving progress today.
- Readings
What Gets in the Way of Free Trade?
Tariffs, quotas, and other barriers all get in the way of free trade. Learn why some countries impose them anyway.
- Videos
Climate Change and the Coffee Industry
In this educational video, learn how climate change’s effects on agriculture can have serious economic consequences for the world.
- Videos
What Is Climate Change?
In this educational video, learn why the climate is changing, how it affects us, and what we can do about it.
- Readings
Climate Change Adaptations
Explore how eleven countries are adapting to the effects of climate change in this free resource.
- Videos
How Globalization Affects What’s for Brunch
Globalization’s effects can appear where you least expect them—including on your plate.
Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes
- Readings
Why Electric Grids Need to Be More Resilient
Severe weather is causing costly disruptions. To protect the energy grid, countries need a smarter plan.
- Readings
How Electrification Can Reduce Emissions
Electrifying the economy may play a crucial role in the fight against climate change.
- Readings
Protecting Global Food and Water Supplies in a Warming World
Discover how climate change is diminishing global food and water security, and how the world can adapt to those vital resource challenges.
- Readings
Climate Change Threatens to Displace Many People
Extreme weather and climate change effects could drive millions of people to migrate. Government leaders can take steps to address those flows of people and prepare the communities at their destinations.
- Readings
How to Lower Buildings-Sector Emissions
The buildings we live in cause emissions. Changing our edifices can set up a more sustainable future.
- Readings
People and Society: Asia
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Sub-Saharan Africa
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
People and Society: Middle East and North Africa
Learn how culture, demographics, and social trends shape everyday life in the region.
- Readings
Climate Change Inequality
In this free resource, explore how climate change disproportionately affects certain communities and could drastically increase global inequality.
- Readings
The Sustainable Development Goals
Learn about the formation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and review the opportunities and challenges for meeting them.
- Videos
Global Development Explained
How do governments help people everywhere become healthier and wealthier? Many countries have made great strides in global development progress but challenges remain.
- Readings
The Paris Agreement
What is the Paris Agreement? In this free resource, learn what actions countries are taking to address the global threat of climate change.
- Readings
Trains, Planes, and Shipping Containers
Three innovations shaped how people and goods move around the world today.
- Videos
What Is Climate Change?
In this educational video, learn why the climate is changing, how it affects us, and what we can do about it.
- Readings
Climate Change Adaptations
Explore how eleven countries are adapting to the effects of climate change in this free resource.
- Videos
What Is Globalization?
Explore examples of globalization to understand the benefits and challenges of our increasingly interconnected world in this video.
- Readings
It Takes a Village to Make Your Medicine
Follow the global supply chain across borders and into your pill bottle.
Unit 7: Industrial and Economic Development Patterns and Processes
- Readings
Why Energy Storage is Essential for a Green Transition
Learn how energy storage can provide reliable renewable energy.
- Readings
How Electrification Can Reduce Emissions
Electrifying the economy may play a crucial role in the fight against climate change.
- Videos
How Renewables Can Boost a Country's Energy Security
Climate change poses energy security challenges, but building more renewable sources and taking other steps can help strengthen supply and lower risks.
- Readings
Protecting Global Food and Water Supplies in a Warming World
Discover how climate change is diminishing global food and water security, and how the world can adapt to those vital resource challenges.
- Readings
How to Lower Industry-Sector Emissions
Industrial emissions pose big challenges for the climate. Innovative industrial solutions can make a difference.
- Readings
How to Lower Transportation-Sector Emissions
The ways we move around the world are making it hotter. Electric vehicles and other innovations offer climate change solutions.
- Readings
How to Lower Energy-Sector Emissions
Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy can help mitigate climate change.
- Readings
How to Lower Buildings-Sector Emissions
The buildings we live in cause emissions. Changing our edifices can set up a more sustainable future.
- Mini Simulations
Trade Policy
How should the United States leverage trade to respond when a rivalry between growing trade partners threatens regional stability? Explore this hypothetical simulation.
- Mini Simulations
Economic Statecraft: Foreign Assistance
How should the United States employ foreign aid to help a country in crisis? Explore this hypothetical simulation.
- Readings
What Is Economic Inequality?
Explore how severe inequalities and disparities in wealth and income can harm individuals, countries, and the global economy, and how some governments implement policies to reduce inequality.
- Readings
How Did Mass Production and Mass Consumption Take Off After World War II?
Discover how consumer goods have become cheap and ubiquitous in the global era.
- Readings
What Are the Causes and Consequences of Industrialization?
Learn about the Industrial Revolution and how technological innovations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries continue to shape society today.
- Readings
What Are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund?
What’s the difference between the World Bank and the IMF? Understand two institutions that undergird global development and the international monetary system.
- Readings
The Sustainable Development Goals
Learn about the formation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and review the opportunities and challenges for meeting them.
- Videos
Technology and Development
As Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution and India’s Green Revolution have shown, technological innovation can drive extraordinary development. Explore how digital advancements are further driving progress today.
- Videos
Global Development Explained
How do governments help people everywhere become healthier and wealthier? Many countries have made great strides in global development progress but challenges remain.
- Readings
Understanding the Last Fifty Years of Global Development
Has life gotten better for people around the world? Learn how improvements in health, education, and income are measured and explore three countries’ opportunities and challenges with development.
- Readings
Foreign Investment 101
What is foreign investment, and what does it have to do with trade? An economics expert explains.
- Readings
How Trade Rules Are Written
The WTO system is the foundation of modern global trade. But as trade becomes more connected, with new challenges constantly emerging, trade agreements are adapting in order to keep up.
- Readings
What Gets in the Way of Free Trade?
Tariffs, quotas, and other barriers all get in the way of free trade. Learn why some countries impose them anyway.
- Readings
What Happened When China Joined the WTO?
The United States thought it was directing the show when China acceded to the World Trade Organization. Instead, China wrote its own script.
- Videos
Trade as Foreign Policy
When local concerns drive national trade policies, there are global consequences.
- Videos
Who Is Responsible for Climate Change?
Why do developed and developing countries disagree about who is responsible for climate change? Explore the history of industrialization and its impacts on climate in this video.
