Palm Oil

Water footprint and virtual water

 

"The interest in the water footprint is rooted in the recognition that human impacts on freshwater systems can ultimately be linked to human consumption, and that issues like water shortages and pollution can be better understood and addressed by considering production and supply chains as a whole,” says Professor Arjen Y. Hoekstra, creator of the water footprint concept and scientific director of the Water Footprint Network. "Water problems are often closely tied to the structure of the global economy. Many countries have significantly externalised their water footprint, importing water-intensive goods from elsewhere. This puts pressure on the water resources in the exporting regions, where too often mechanisms for wise water governance and conservation are lacking. Not only governments, but also consumers, businesses and civil society communities can play a role in achieving a better management of water resources."

Waterfootprint.org: Water footprint and virtual water

Food Miles Video

Find more videos like this on Key Stage 3 Geography Ning

Cadbury - Skills space - Geography

Chocolate contains cocoa, and when you buy Cadbury chocolate here in the UK, it links you straight to the cocoa farmers of Ghana, in Africa.

In this module you can learn about Ghana, how cocoa is grown there and the lives of the cocoa farmers.

You can also read about how Cadbury is working with cocoa farmers to improve life in cocoa villages.

Cadbury - Skills space - Geography

BBC NEWS | Wales | Shortlist for Severn energy plans

A proposed shortlist of schemes to harness renewable energy from the tides of the Severn estuary has been announced by the UK Government.

Britain's environmental movement was yesterday presented with its starkest choice yet: whether or not to support the world's largest-ever renewable energy project which will result in unprecedented ecological damage to one of our most important natural habitats.

The giant £20bn Severn barrage, which would stretch 10 miles from Lavernock Point near Cardiff to Brean Down near Weston-super-Mare, would harness the tides to generate up to 5 per cent of the UK's electricity needs – the equivalent of eight typical coal-fired power stations. This is crucially important in the fight against climate change.

But environmentalists fear that by blocking the Severn estuary completely, the barrage would destroy vast areas of mudflats and mashes, which are vital feeding grounds for tens of thousands of wading birds, and prevent migratory fish such as salmon and eels from ascending rivers to spawn. Other environmentalists think such a large project would divert resources away from other key renewable technologies such as wind power.

Yesterday the barrage appeared on a shortlist of five renewable energy schemes for the Severn estuary indicating that the project, which the Government is known to favour, is moving closer to formal acceptance. The shortlist will now be the subject of a public consultation and a final decision will be taken by 2010.

But the proposal is causing real difficulties for Britain's green movement, whose members are united in the need to take action against global warming, yet view with deep dismay the unprecedented ecological damage a Severn barrage would undoubtedly bring about. The dilemma could not be more acute: on the one hand, the prospect of more renewable energy from one place than is currently produced in the entire UK; on the other, the virtual wiping out of one of Britain's most important wildlife sites. The dilemma will only increase as the imperative of countering climate change with major developments runs up against the damage to the natural world which such large-scale schemes may cause.

The Government's official green advisers, the Sustainable Development Commission, thinks the barrage should be built if it can pass two tests: that new wildlife habitats can be created to compensate for those lost and that the project remains in public ownership. The SDC favours it because with the Severn having the second highest tidal range in the world – the difference between high and low tides can be as much as 45ft – the energy-producing potential of a barrage is enormous, capable of generating more than eight gigawatts of power.

However, Friends of the Earth believe it would simply be too damaging and divert too much money that could be better spent fighting climate change in other ways. Greenpeace agrees it has potential but thinks the Government should give priority to wind power. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Wildlife Trusts and the Government's own wildlife watchdog, Natural England, are all concerned over the impact on wildlife.

"It is hugely disappointing to see the Government still pushing forward with the environmentally destructive option of a Cardiff-Weston barrage," said Martin Harper, the RSPB's head of sustainable development.

"Climate change threatens an environmental catastrophe for humans and wildlife and we urgently need to find low and zero carbon alternatives to our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels, so harnessing the huge tidal power of the Severn has to be right. But it cannot be right to trash the natural environment in the process. The final scheme must be the one that generates as much clean energy as possible while minimising harm to the estuary and its wildlife. We know the Cardiff-Weston Barrage would destroy huge areas of estuary marsh and mudflats used by 69,000 birds each winter and block the migration routes of countless fish."

Natural England's chief executive Helen Phillips said yesterday: "Tackling climate change requires us to make a step change in the way we think about renewable energy but we have to ensure that the decisions we make stand the test of time and do not leave a legacy of environmental destruction in their wake."

There is little doubt that a barrage would destroy more wildlife habitat than any other British construction project in modern times. The Severn Estuary, where the celebrated naturalist Sir Peter Scott founded Slimbridge, the wildfowl refuge which became one of the world's most famous nature reserves, provides an 86,000-acre feeding ground for wild swans, geese and many thousands of wading birds, such as dunlin, turnstone, oystercatcher and ringed plover, from all over Europe.

Under EU wildlife habitat laws, if the Government were to go ahead, it would have to find alternative compensatory habitat – mudflats and marshes – which might be as much as 40,000 acres, and which might cost anything up to £3bn.

But that is unlikely to hold the Government back, such will be the temptation to grab that massive 5 per cent renewable energy boost from a barrage – for in December ministers took on the enormous obligation, in an EU-wide deal, of sourcing 20 per cent of total UK energy demand from renewables by 2020. Twenty per cent of total energy (which includes heating and transport) means finding about 40 per cent of electricity from renewables – nearly 10 times the current figure of about 4.5 per cent.

The Herculean size of that task means the Government is very likely to go for the barrage, especially as the onshore wind industry is suffering strongly from the rise in the euro against the pound, meaning turbines made in Germany and Denmark are now about a third dearer than they were a year ago.

Apart from the main barrage, four other shortlisted schemes were announced by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, David Miliband, yesterday. They are: Shoots barrage, further upstream which would generate around 1GW; Beachley barrage, an even smaller scheme just above the river Wye, which would generate around 625MW; Bridgwater Bay lagoon, a proposal which would impound a section of the estuary on the coast from east of Hinkley Point to Weston-super-Mare, which could generate 1.36GW and Fleming lagoon, a similar scheme which would generate the same amount of power from a section of the Welsh shore between Newport and the Severn road crossings.

Mr Miliband acknowledged fighting climate change involved "tough choices" and said: "The five schemes shortlisted are what we believe can be feasible but this doesn't mean we have lost sight of others. Half a million pounds of new funding will go some way to developing technologies still in their infancy, like tidal reefs and fences. We will consider the progress of this work before any final decisions are taken."

BBC NEWS | Wales | Shortlist for Severn energy plans

Ecologists warn the planet is running short of water - Times Online

 

A swelling global population, changing diets and mankind's expanding “water footprint” could be bringing an end to the era of cheap water. The warnings, in an annual report by the Pacific Institute in California, come as ecologists have begun adopting the term “peak ecological water” — the point where, like the concept of “peak oil”, the world has to confront a natural limit on something once considered virtually infinite. The world is in danger of running out of “sustainably managed water”, according to Peter Gleick, the president of the Pacific Institute and a leading authority on global freshwater resources.

Ecologists warn the planet is running short of water - Times Online

KENYA WATER FOR HEALTH ORGANISATION

 

Kibera is situated in Nairobi's SouthWestern Peri-urban zone approximately seven kilometres from the Nairobi City Centre. Kibera as a whole is an informal settlement comprising of ten villages covering approximately 250 hectares of land with an estimated population of about 500,000 people. That gives an average population density of 2000 people per hectare although some villages are more crowded than others. The villages are Lindi, Kisumu Ndogo, Soweto, Makina, Kianda, Mashimoni, Siranga, Gatuikira, Laini Saba and the newly founded Raila village.

 

KWAHO - Kibera Location

New evidence on Antarctic warming

 

The continent of Antarctica is warming up in step with the rest of the world, according to a new analysis.

Scientists say data from satellites and weather stations indicate a warming of about 0.6C over the last 50 years.

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | New evidence on Antarctic warming

World Food Crisis :: Oxfam GB

 

967 million people are going hungry. One child is dying every five seconds of hunger-related causes. The human cost of the World Food Crisis is staggering. With Oxfam, £10 can buy food to feed a hungry family for a month.

Teachers Resources

World Food Crisis :: Oxfam GB

DFID | About DFID

Race Against Global Poverty is an interactive educational quiz game from DFID. Aimed at young people aged 11 to 16, the online game makes learning about the developing world fun and stimulating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Featuring attractive animation and animal characters, it increase players' understanding of development through questions about world poverty and DFID's work to tackle it. The game is one of a range of activities that DFID is providing to young people to raise their awareness of development issues and get them involved in the fight against poverty. Play the game online here.

DFID | About DFID

Risking death crossing the Mexican border

 

Every day 1,400 Mexican migrants risk death to reach the US. So why would anyone make a game of it?

Risking death crossing the Mexican border - Times Online

Why is Africa poor?

 

By the year 2000, half the world's poor were in Africa.

It is the only continent to have become poorer in the past 25 years.

This is because of several reasons:

• Borrowing money
• Growing cash crops
• Dictatorship
• Fighting
• Population growth
• Land ownership
• Climate change
• Dirty water

CBBC Newsround | Guides | World | Poverty in Africa | Why is Africa poor?

Flickr: Places

 

The Places project is our way of saying thank you to all our members who’ve taken the time to put their gorgeous photos and video on the map. Browse the whole globe, from your hometown to your favorite place, or places you’ve never even heard of...

Flickr: Places

Crime Mapping

 

Crime statistics for Wiltshire

Crime Mapping

Beijing suffers the curse of the Olympic city - Telegraph

 

Three months after the end of the games, new figures show the "Olympic Effect" has been short-lived and hotels are empty, industrial output has fallen and the streets are quiet.

Much of the pain is due to the worldwide financial crisis – and in some cases due to brave decisions by the government to keep polluting industries shut to spare the environment.

But even the biggest single symbol of the modern rise of China, the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, stands forlorn, largely unused except for a shrinking number of tourists.

Beijing suffers the curse of the Olympic city - Telegraph

Glacier and Landscape Change in Response to Changing Climate

Repeat photography is a technique in which a historical photograph and a modern photograph, both having the same field of view, are compared and contrasted to quantitatively and qualitatively determine their similarities and differences. The following sections depict how this technique was used at a number of locations in Alaska, including Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, and the northwestern Prince William Sound area of the Chugach National Forest, to document and understand changes to glaciers and landscapes as a result of changing climate. Through analysis and interpretation of these photographic pairs, information is extracted to document Alaskan landscape evolution and glacier dynamics for the last century-and-a-quarter on local and regional scales and the response of the Alaskan landscape to retreating glacier ice.

 

Glacier and Landscape Change in Response to Changing Climate

The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3

 

2008 has been an eventful year to say the least - it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. That said, I will try to do what I've done with other photo narratives here, and tell a story of 2008 in photographs. It's not the story of 2008, it's certainly not all stories, but as a collection it does show a good portion of what life has been like over the past 12 months.

Part 2

Part 3

 

The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3) - The Big Picture - Boston.com