Americans lost in world of maps

DESPITE the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans couldn’t locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi.

Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 fared even worse with foreign locations: six in 10 couldn’t find Iraq, according to a Roper poll conducted for National Geographic.

“Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from the world,” National Geographic president John Fahey said in announcing a programme to help remedy the problem.