Geographical

Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. Image: Shutterstock By We tend to think of glaciers as the ultimate symbol of patience – vast, frozen bodies moving downhill so slowly that change is almost invisible. But that image doesn’t tell the whole story. A small, unruly minority behave very differently. Known as surge-type glaciers, they don’t just creep. They lurch. During a surge, a glacier can accelerate to ten, even 100 times its usual speed.

ICE agents in Illinois. Image: Shutterstock From the frozen sidewalks of Minneapolis to the hot streets of Sydney, recent times have witnessed a dramatic rise in public criticism of policing. Police services have been labelled as anti-democratic and coercive. Britain’s undercover political policing units have faced claims of targeting ideologies rather than crime prevention.

A peacekeeping troop on standby in Naqoura. Image: Shutterstock By On Sunday 6 April 2026, footage released by the Israeli militaryshowed what looked like a controlled demolition exercise. Row by row, residential blocks in the southern Lebanese coastal town of Naqoura shuddered, then collapsed in clouds of grey and white dust. For the third consecutive day, Israeli bulldozers had been at work flattening entire neighbourhoods. The owners of those homes had already been forced to leave.

Published in the UK since 1935, Geographical is the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Informative, authoritative and educational, this site’s content covers a wide range of subject areas, including geography, culture, wildlife and exploration, illustrated with superb photography. Click Here for SUBSCRIPTION details Want to access Geographical on your tablet or smartphone? Press the Apple, Android or PC/Mac image below to download the app for your device

A hydroelectric dam during a drought, Mat River, Albania. Image: Goran Safarek/Shutterstock By With its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy bills and improve national energy security, renewable energy is only becoming more significant over time. Nevertheless, plenty of challenges on the road to widespread clean power remain.

Published in the UK since 1935, Geographical is the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Informative, authoritative and educational, this site’s content covers a wide range of subject areas, including geography, culture, wildlife and exploration, illustrated with superb photography. Click Here for SUBSCRIPTION details Want to access Geographical on your tablet or smartphone? Press the Apple, Android or PC/Mac image below to download the app for your device

Published in the UK since 1935, Geographical is the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Informative, authoritative and educational, this site’s content covers a wide range of subject areas, including geography, culture, wildlife and exploration, illustrated with superb photography. Click Here for SUBSCRIPTION details Want to access Geographical on your tablet or smartphone? Press the Apple, Android or PC/Mac image below to download the app for your device

SpaceX has announced it will strive to build a Mars city in approximately five to seven years. Image: Shutterstock By And so Elon Musk, the world’s visionary-in-chief, has finally rescheduled his planetary colonisation plans. Abandoning his 2014 prediction of reaching Mars by 2026, Musk now suggests his SpaceX company will establish a human base on the Moon within the next decade.

Robots play football during the Smart China Expo. Image: Shutterstock By Andrew Ross As a middle power with declining global influence, the UK must navigate an increasingly fractious geopolitical landscape in which it has little say, but on which its future prosperity depends. China’s new five-year plan, recently rubberstamped at the annual ‘Two Sessions’ gathering in Beijing, is particularly symbolic of how major geopolitical players set the global agenda that others must follow.

Published in the UK since 1935, Geographical is the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Informative, authoritative and educational, this site’s content covers a wide range of subject areas, including geography, culture, wildlife and exploration, illustrated with superb photography. Click Here for SUBSCRIPTION details Want to access Geographical on your tablet or smartphone? Press the Apple, Android or PC/Mac image below to download the app for your device