Saturday, 17 November 2007
Friday, 16 November 2007
Going local
As hundreds continue their protest against expansion plans at Heathrow Airport, what about the dozens of smaller airports around the UK growing at a faster rate?
Link to BBC NEWS | Magazine | Going local
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
BBC NEWS | In Depth | US illegal immigrants
An estimated 11.5 - 12 million foreign nationals are living illegally in the US, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
Link to BBC NEWS | In Depth | US illegal immigrants
Monday, 12 November 2007
BBC NEWS Climate scepticism: The top 10
What are some of the reasons why "climate sceptics" dispute the evidence that human activities such as industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and deforestation are bringing potentially dangerous changes to the Earth's climate?
Link to BBC NEWS | Special Reports | 629 | 629 | Climate scepticism: The top 10
Year 12 and 13 student voice survey
The survey can be accessed using this LINK.
You will be taken to "survey_monkey"
Click Here to take survey
Sunday, 11 November 2007
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on taxa that have been globally evaluated using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. This system is designed to determine the relative risk of extinction, and the main purpose of the IUCN Red List is to catalogue and highlight those taxa that are facing a higher risk of global extinction (i.e. those listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable). The IUCN Red List also includes information on taxa that are categorized as Extinct or Extinct in the Wild; on taxa that cannot be evaluated because of insufficient information (i.e. are Data Deficient); and on taxa that are either close to meeting the threatened thresholds or that would be threatened were it not for an ongoing taxon-specific conservation programme (i.e. are Near Threatened).
Link to IUCN Red List of Threatened Species | Search Home
IUCN - The World Conservation Union
The World Conservation Union is the world’s largest and most important conservation network. The Union brings together 83 States, 110 government agencies, more than 800 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries in a unique worldwide partnership.
The Union’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.
The World Conservation Union is a multicultural, multilingual organization with 1100 staff located in 40 countries. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland.
Link to IUCN - The World Conservation Union
Biodiversity: The sixth great wave
In 2003 the World Conservation Union's Red List said more than 12,000 species (out of 40,000 assessed) faced some extinction risk, including:
- one bird in eight
- 13% of the world's flowering plants
- a quarter of all mammals.
Link to BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Biodiversity: The sixth great wave
BBC NEWS | Special Reports | 2003 Water
Water will be more important than oil this century
Two-fifths of the world's people already face serious shortages, and water-borne diseases fill half its hospital beds. People in rich countries use 10 times more water than those in poor ones.
Africa and Asia are already hard-hit by water stress. Increasing populations will create more pressure in the coming decades.
Link to BBC NEWS | Special Reports | 2003 | World Forum | Water
Saturday, 10 November 2007
African migrants die in Atlantic
At least 47 African migrants died of hunger and thirst after their boats drifted into Mauritanian waters.Mauritanian soldiers who discovered the two vessels off the northern port of Nouadhibou also found more than 90 survivors on board, officials said.
British Red Cross Teaching resources
Excellent powerpoint with images
Mystery on " geographyalltheway"
Link to BBC NEWS | World | Africa | African migrants die in Atlantic
UNHCR Against all odds interactive game
n “Against All Odds”, students follow a young person’s flight from oppression in his or her home country to exile in an asylum country. The game is intended to increase students’ awareness and knowledge about refugees – where they come from, what situations they have faced and how they adapt to their new lives.
Link to UNHCR
Friday, 9 November 2007
The World-Wide Earthquake Locator (from Matty Hodder)
The World-Wide Earthquake Locator aims to provide up-to-date information and detailed dynamic maps of earthquakes across the world within a maximum of 24 hours of their occurence. This web site also includes a database of past earthquakes, an animation of the past month's earthquakes, and statistical earthquake prediction.
QUAKE REPORT
Find out about the latest earthquakes around the world
CATALOGUE QUERY
Search our earthquake catalogue, and map your results.
QUAKE ANIMATION
View earthquakes over the past month as an SVG animation.
QUAKE MAPPING
View the lastest earthquakes on a world map, along with extra data such as plate boundaries, faults and volcanoes.
QUAKE PREDICTION
Find out about areas that are predicted to have an increased chance of experiencing a major earthquake.
Link to The World-Wide Earthquake Locator
The World Bank, Mapped.
Mashed up Google Maps with World Bank data to give you a visual entry point to browse our projects, news, statistics and public information center by country.
Link to geo.worldbank.org | The World Bank, Mapped.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Climate Change online activities - BP Educational Service (BPES)
These four short Flash activities increase students' understanding and interest in key aspects of climate change: climate hot spots around the globe, the greenhouse effect, rising sea levels and deforestation. These activities can be used as stand-alone resources or to supplement the Climate Change resource pack.
Link to Climate Change online activities - BP Educational Service (BPES)
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
British Dam Society
You can find out about:
- some of the different Types of dams
- their Uses
- what Spillways & Outlets do
- professionals who Design dams
- methods of Building them
- how People and Environment are affected by them
- how their Safety is checked
- and Links to other interesting web-sites
Link to British Dam Society
Can Shanghai turn green and grow?
Shanghai has been transformed into a global city - but its rapid growth has produced pollution, traffic jams and overcrowding.In becoming one of the centres of the world economy, Shanghai has grown faster than almost any other global city in the past 15 years.
Link to BBC NEWS | Business | Can Shanghai turn green and grow?
Shanghai: Creating a global city
Shanghai is the ultimate poster-child for the effects of globalisation on cities and regions.China's largest city languished for 30 years as the Chinese economy was closed to outside influence, and the country went through the political turmoil of the cultural revolution.
Link to BBC NEWS | Business | Shanghai: Creating a global city
How much is family life changing?
A BBC poll suggests that three-quarters of Britons are optimistic about their family's future - a much higher figure than when people were asked more than 40 years ago.
There is afamily test. A PDF of the BBC/ICM poll.
There are six photo journals published as part of the BBC's Future Family week, exploring the changing nature of family life.
Egypt, Sierra leone, India, Indonesia, Uk and China.
Sunday, 4 November 2007
BBC NEWS | Health | Bed-blocking 'on the rise again'
Delayed discharges from hospitals - so-called "bed-blocking" - rose sharply last year, according to figures released in Parliament.
In total, more than a million "bed days" were lost, with an increase of almost 30% in acute hospitals.
Link to BBC NEWS | Health | Bed-blocking 'on the rise again'
Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite | Environment | The Guardian
Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.
Record world prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive, says the UN. Next week the FAO is expected to say that global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and that prices will remain high for years.
Link to Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite | Environment | The Guardian
Migrants stories -CASE STUDIES
4 case studies
Catherine Chuungwe, 43, from Zambia, settled in Northern Ireland three years ago
Narina Shorland, 24, from St Petersburg, works at Riverford Organic Vegetables in Devon
Grzegor Jagienak, 22, from Poland, has been in the UK for three months working full-time as a bartender at Cargo, a club in Shoreditch, east London
Victoria Patricio, 28, born in Botswana, has Portuguese nationality and has been in Thetford, Norfolk, for three years. She is a facilitator with Meta, a project working with migrants
Link to Labour accused of failing to tackle misinformation | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited
New 'disaster' movie warns world of oil apocalypse | Environment | The Observer
Oil is 'the bloodstain of the earth's economy' and will soon trigger a global conflict that will cost millions of lives. That is the stark claim of a controversial new film, which says a crash in oil production is about to set off worldwide recession and economic collapse.
LINK to the films websiteLink to New 'disaster' movie warns world of oil apocalypse | Environment | The Observer
Saturday, 3 November 2007
Multinationals lead India's IT revolution
GLOSSARY
Outsourcing: Moving company functions from internal departments to external firms
Offshoring: Relocating corporate activities overseas.
Nearshoring: Relocating offshore activities nearer the client's home country
BPO: Business processing outsourcing - moving white collar tasks like accounting or invoicing. to an external firm
Captive firms: Companies owned by foreign multinationals who perform outsourcing services for the parent firm
UK call centres/US contact centers: Offices where workers provide telephone customer services like sales
Link to BBC NEWS | Business | Multinationals lead India's IT revolution
Mass exodus from Mexico flooding
Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing severe flooding in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco.
The state capital, Villahermosa, has been largely abandoned after the Grijalva river burst its banks late Thursday, submerging much of the city.
Link to BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Mass exodus from Mexico flooding
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Three Gorges Dam
Interactive site from FT.com
Link to 571cc608-87e4-11dc-9464-0000779fd2ac.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)
Saturday, 27 October 2007
Tread Lightly
If we all Tread lightly we can make a difference
Guardian launches unique website to help readers to reduce carbon footprint.
If Guardian readers...
Switched to energy-efficient light bulbs this week, we could turn off a coal-fired power station for one day, one hour, 46 minutes and 1 second.
Turned off all appliances for a week instead of leaving them on standby, the power station could be turned off for 15 hours, 12 minutes and 43 seconds.
Turned down their thermostat by 1C for a week, we could turn off a coal-fired power station for 22 hours, 21 minutes and eight seconds.
Link to Tread Lightly | Environment | Guardian Unlimited
Friday, 26 October 2007
Globalisation Guide
Useful site that poses a series of questions.
Section onwho are the players is especially useful
Link to Globalisation Guide
Population
This resource pack describes and explains what are the global patterns of population change through:
- interpretation of world population distribution
- interpretation of the demographic transition model
- interpretation of differing population structures
These materials support the Global Citizenship and Interdependence element of the WJEC GCSE geography (A - mainstream) specification, in particular the key question "What are the global patterns of population change?" The materials also offer the learning experiences of interpreting maps and graphs.
Animation and graphics are used to show the dynamic nature of population change. A set of background notes is provided as guidance for the teacher.
Link to Introduction
Thursday, 25 October 2007
A380 superjumbo lands in Sydney
The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, has landed in Sydney on its first commercial flight, after a seven-hour journey from Singapore.Singapore Airlines took delivery of the huge plane, dubbed the Superjumbo, just over a week ago. Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction. It can carry some 850 passengers, but took about 450 to Sydney.
The superjumbo's advent ends a reign of nearly four decades by the Boeing 747 as the world's biggest airliner.
Link to BBC NEWS | Business | A380 superjumbo lands in Sydney
Humans failing the sustainability audit
With its Geo-4 report, the United Nations tells us that most aspects of the Earth's natural environment are in decline; and that the decline will affect us, the planet's human inhabitants, in some pretty important ways.
There is a link tothe PDF file which is downloadable.
BEWARE is huge
Link to BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Humans failing the sustainability audit
Air-freight food must pass fair trade test to retain organic label in future
Food air-freighted to Britain from developing countries will only bear an organic label in future if it can be shown that it was produced to fair trade standards as well as high environmental standards, the Soil Association said yesterday.
The move by Britain's leading organic inspectors follows concern about the climate change impact of food flown long distances and fears that some developing countries are in danger of losing markets due to new "green" protectionism.
The association rejected calls from the public, environmentalists and some of its own producers for a ban on all air-freighted organic food, deciding this would penalise many poor countries which benefit in terms of jobs and wages from growing organic food for British consumers.
Link to Air-freight food must pass fair trade test to retain organic label in future | Environment | The Guardian
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Country Information
Maps and information available
Link to Countries of the World : geography, tourism, politics, economy, culture
Katine
With the right flight connections, a journey from the 21st century to the 14th century can take just over 12 hours. It begins in the hot, crowded duty-free hell of Heathrow's terminal 3 and ends - through the bushes down a snaking mud track - by the marshes under a cloudless blue African sky.
This is Katine, in northern Uganda, which for the next three years will be the centre of a unique experiment between a newspaper, its readership, a bank and an NGO. Together, we're going to try to help the people who live here to make a significant difference - harnessing the power of 21st century communications, expertise, resources and good will to help change lives still trapped in the 14th century.
There are excellent videos on some of the issues :
Improving income generating opportunities Most people in Katine are subsistence farmers. Farmers generally lack knowledge or capacity to add value to their crops and live hand to mouth
Improving access to quality primary education
Drop out rates are high in Katine and schools lack basic facilities such as latrines, clean water and textbooks
Empowering communities to engage in local governance
In the decentralised administration structure in Uganda, communities are meant to run their own affairs – in reality they lack the resources to participate
Improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene
The lack of safe water in Katine makes people sick. Diarrhoea, typhoid and bilharzia are common, preventable diseases
Improving community health
Preventable diseases cause 75% of premature deaths in Katine. The key health problems include malaria and maternal health.
The site aslo includes a VIRTUAL VILLAGE. What is it?
This is an interactive experience of the village of Katine. This site will evolve and change over the coming years, alongside the development project. So please visit now and come back every week or two to follow the updates and get to know your favorite characters, places and stories. See for yourself what development in Africa means, not only for donors and aid agencies, but also for the people it is intended to help.
Link to Katine Katine Guardian Unlimited
OS Explore
Link to OS Explore
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Climate change controversies: a simple guide
The Royal Society has produced this overview of the current state of scientific understanding of climate change to help non-experts better understand some of the debates in this complex area of science.
- Misleading argument 1 : The Earth's climate is always changing and this is nothing to do with humans.
- Misleading argument 2 : Carbon dioxide only makes up a small part of the atmosphere and so cannot be responsible for global warming.
- Misleading argument 3 : Rises in the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are the result of increased temperatures, not the other way round.
- Misleading argument 4 : Observations of temperatures taken by weather balloons and satellites do not support the theory of global warming.
- Misleading argument 5 : Computer models which predict the future climate are unreliable and based on a series of assumptions.
- Misleading argument 6 : It's all to do with the Sun - for example, there is a strong link between increased temperatures on Earth with the number of sunspots on the Sun.
- Misleading argument 7 : The climate is actually affected by cosmic rays.
- Misleading argument 8 : The scale of the negative effects of climate change is often overstated and there is no need for urgent action.
Link to Climate change controversies: a simple guide
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