Why do people think geography is useless information?

Last night one of my (now former) contacts articulated she thought it was useless information. As a geography major, it's beyond me how so many people are uninformed about it. Our ignorance is what cost us the Vietnam war and why Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage. Nobody realized we would be in the fight for our lives because they were unaware, we'd be fighting combat in the jungle. Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville didn't build New Orleans on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain like he should have because he didn't know it was below sea level. The Army Corps of Engineers never figured damming up the floodpath into the Atchafalaya would cause more output from the Mississippi increasing the odds of flooding. Lack of geographical knowledge is why New Orleans, Tokyo, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Mexico City are in the worst possible locations to build a city. This explains why we brought kudzu into the United States without considering the drawback. We realized too late that the Japanese beetles are what help keep it in check. Our geographical knowledge is how we are able to ascertain which sources of alternative energy are ubiquitous in a certain region. Geography is what helped us win World War II. Had it not been for the Gulf Stream, we wouldn't have arrived at Normandy so soon to help the allies defeat the Nazis. So do you still think geography is useless information?