Campaigners are warning MPs that a strong geography education is vital if issues such as climate change, sustainable energy, terrorism, poverty, immigration and natural disasters are to be fully understood and managed.

Supporters of the campaign from Kirk Hallam Community Technology College are calling for members of the community to log on to the internet and sign a petition to the Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell.

Kirk Hallam geography teacher Tony Cassidy said: "Geography is important, because it opens our eyes; a landscape is no longer a static feature, but a complex battleground of physical and human interactions.

"Local is no longer local, but a collision point for the interaction of many 'locals' drawn from a global stage.

"With technology increasingly drawing the world closer together, it is important that the role of geography, in helping the public to understand this complex and unpredictable world, is championed!'

More than a hundred leading geographers from over fifty different universities have written to Tessa Jowell, accusing the media of failing geography despite being dependent upon the subject and its professionals for much of their news content.

Both the letter and the petition directly call for the media to "employ geography editors and to produce both implicitly and explicitly labelled geography content for broadcast, in print and online."

The petition can be signed at www.passion4geography.co.uk.