Undersea eruptions near Tonga - The Big Picture - Boston.com
Thursday, 19 March 2009
DROUGHT
The countries that make up two thirds of the world’s agricultural output are experiencing drought conditions. Whether you watch a video of the drought in China, Australia, Africa, South America, or the US, the scene will be the same: misery, ruined crop, and dying cattle.
China
The drought in Northern China, the worst in 50 years, is worsening, and summer harvest is now threatened. The area of affected crops has expanded to 161 million mu (was 141 million last week), and 4.37 million people and 2.1 million livestock are facing drinking water shortage. The scarcity of rain in some parts of the north and central provinces is the worst in recorded history.
The drought which started in November threatens over half the wheat crop in eight provinces - Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and Gansu.
Henan China's largest crop producing province, Henan, has issued the highest-level drought warning. Henan has received an average rainfall of 10.5 millimeters since November 2008, almost 80 percent less than in the same period in the previous years. The Henan drought, which began in November, is the most severe since 1951.
Anhui Province issued a red drought alert, with more than 60 percent of the crops north of the Huaihe River plagued by a major drought.
Shanxi Province was put on orange drought alert on Jan. 21, with one million people and 160,000 heads of livestock are facing water shortage.
Jiangsu province has already lost over one fifth of the wheat crops affected by drought. Local agricultural departments are diverting water from nearby rivers in an emergency effort to save the rest.
Hebei Over 100 million cubic meters of water has been channeled in from outside the province to fight Hebei’s drought.
Shaanxi 1.34 million acres of crops across the bone-dry Shanxi province are affected by the worsening drought.
Since last November, Shandong province has experienced 73 percent less rain than the same period in previous years, with little rainfall forecast for the future.
Relief efforts are under way. The Chinese government has allocated 86.7 billion yuan (about $12.69 billion) to drought-hit areas. Authorities have also resorted to cloud-seeding, and some areas received a sprinkling of rain after clouds were hit with 2,392 rockets and 409 cannon shells loaded with chemicals. However, there is a limit to what can be done in the face of such widespread water shortage.
As I have previously written, China is facing hyperinflation, and this record drought will make things worse. China produces 18% of the world's grain each year.
Australia has been experiencing an unrelenting drought since 2004, and 41 percent of Australia's agriculture continues to suffer from the worst drought in 117 years of record-keeping. The drought has been so severe that rivers stopped flowing, lakes turned toxic, and farmers abandoned their land in frustration:
A) The Murray River stopped flowing at its terminal point, and its mouth has closed up.
B) Australia’s lower lakes are evaporating, and they are now a meter (3.2 feet) below sea level. If these lakes evaporate any further, the soil and the mud system below the water is going to be exposed to the air. The mud will then acidify, releasing sulfuric acid and a whole range of heavy metals. After this occurs, those lower lake systems will essentially become a toxic swamp which will never be able to be recovered. The Australian government's only options to prevent this are to allow salt water in, creating a dead sea, or to pray for rain.
The link
provides information on the following locations
The United States California Texas Augusta Region (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina) Florida
South America Argentina Brazil Paraguay Uruguay Bolivia Chile
Africa faces food shortages and famine. Kenya Tanzania Burundi Uganda South Africa
Middle East and Central Asia Iraq Syria Afghanistan Jordan
Google Image Result for http://www.greatdreams.com/climate/Countries_by_agricultural_drought.png
Where Do the Nastiest Hurricanes Emerge?
University of California at Berkeley physics grad student Robert Rohde used all available data from government sources to map 150 years’ worth of hurricane tracks through September 2005.
Map: Where Do the Nastiest Hurricanes Emerge? | Natural Disasters | DISCOVER Magazine
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
TerraPass | Balance your carbon emissions and fight climate change
Chocolate bars. They're supposed to taste good, but can they also be good? We think so!
Our Climate Change Chocolate bar is meant to educate while tasting great. It comes in a wrapper with 15 tips for lightening your environmental impact. These helpful hints teach you how to save energy by making small changes to your daily habits
TerraPass | Balance your carbon emissions and fight climate change
Munich Re Group - Geo Risks
Losses from geo risks are increasing dramatically worldwide. Munich Re has been researching geoscientific phenomena, their risks and their loss potentials, since 1974.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
water scarcity
What is water scarcity? Imbalances between availability and demand, the degradation of groundwater and surface water quality, intersectoral competition, interregional and international conflicts, all contributes to water scarcity.
Scarcity often has its roots in water shortage, and it is in the arid and semiarid regions affected by droughts and wide climate variability, combined with population growth and economic development, that the problems of water scarcity are most acute
Water stress in Europe - Maps and Graphics at UNEP/GRID-Arendal
10 figures for the report "Water stress in Europe, can the challenge be met?" published in 1997. Water resources, pesticides pollution, life expectancy...
Water stress in Europe - Maps and Graphics at UNEP/GRID-Arendal
EarthTrends | Environmental Information
EarthTrends is a comprehensive online database, maintained by the World Resources Institute, that focuses on the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world.
10 ideas changing the world right now
The global economy is being remade before our eyes. Here's a guide to the future of the economy, the environment, medicine and more
News articles and special reports of current events - TIME.com
Sunday, 15 March 2009
National Accounts of Well-being
What are National Accounts of Well-being and why do we need them?
nef has set out a radical proposal to guide the direction of modern societies and the lives of people who live in them. In contrast to the conventional narrow focus on economic indicators, it calls for governments to directly and regularly measure people’s subjective well-being: their experiences, feelings and perceptions of how their lives are going, as a new way of assessing societal progress.
LONDON Tube map
The movie above is a draft look at our 3D London Tube Map with the lines laid out according to their geographic location.
London Tube Map Geography:Visualisation Draft from digitalurban on Vimeo.
JPL Climate Time Machine
INTERACTIVE maps of case studies that show changes in sea level, ice melt, temperature changes, average global temperatures
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Amazon could shrink by 85% due to climate change
Scientists say 4C rise would kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest
Even modest temperature rise would see 20-40% loss within 100 years
Amazon could shrink by 85% due to climate change, scientists say | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 9 March 2009
Wired world - the global growth of mobile phone use | Business | guardian.co.uk
6 in 10 people now subscribe to a mobile phone
Wired world - the global growth of mobile phone use | Business | guardian.co.uk
China plans 59 reservoirs to collect meltwater
China is planning to build 59 reservoirs to collect water from its shrinking glaciers as the cost of climate change hits home in the world's most populous country.
The far western province of Xinjiang, home to many of the planet's highest peaks and widest ice fields, will carry out the 10-year engineering project, which aims to catch and store glacier run-off that might otherwise trickle away into the desert.
Behind the measure is a desire to adjust seasonal water levels and address longer-term concerns that downstream city residents will run out of drinking supplies once the glaciers in the Tian, Kunlun and Altai mountains disappear.
Anxiety has risen along with temperatures that are rapidly diminishing the ice fields. The 3,800-metre Urumqi No1 glacier, the first to be measured in China, has lost more than 20% of its volume since 1962, according to the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (Careeri) in Lanzhou.
About 80% of the glaciers in the Tian (Heaven) range have declined, though increased precipitation has also led a small number to expand.
To deal with the consequences, Xinjiang will set aside 200m yuan (£20m) for each of the next three years. In the first phase, 29 reservoirs will be built with a combined capacity of 21.8 billion cubic metres of water, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Wang Shijiang, director of Xinjiang Water Resource Department, told the agency that the mountain reservoir system was designed to "intercept" meltwater so that it could be used more efficiently for irrigation and to adjust for seasonal variations in rainfall.
Xinjiang is particularly dependent on a steady supply of meltwater from glaciers, which act as solid reservoirs that store precipitation in the winter and release it in the summer.
Few city residents understand the problem because in recent years water supplies have surged thanks to the extra meltwater and increased rainfall. The excess supply has been used to water golf courses and make artificial snow for a ski slope in semi-desert Urumqi. But scientists say the glut is unsustainable because it comes from the release of water that has built up over thousands of years.
"At the moment there is plenty of water in the big cities. But it is hard to say how long it will last," said He Yuanqing, a glaciologist at Careeri. "On one hand, global warming is accelerating the melt. But on the other, it is increasing rainfall, so we need a way to store the extra water."
Estimates of how long it will take Urumqi's glacial water supplies to start to decline range from 40 to 100 years.
It is unclear, however, how long the water can be stored without replenishment. Experts have previously called for the reservoirs to be built underground so that the water does not evaporate in the summer, when Xinjiang has the highest average temperatures in China.
Over-exploitation of river systems and oases has exacerbated the problem. The volume of water in the once vast Aibi lake in Xinjiang has decreased by two-thirds over the past 50 years, the Beijing News reported today.
In terms of glacier melt, the worst affected area in China is the Tibetan plateau, often described as "the roof of the world". Last month, Chinese scientists warned that glaciers on the plateau had lost 989 million cubic metres over the past 40 years and were continuing to melt at a "worrying speed". They added that ice fields had shrunk by 196 sq kilometres, equivalent to a quarter of New York city.
plans 59 reservoirs to collect meltwater from its shrinking glaciers | Environment | The Guardian
Worldometers - real time world statistics
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Statistics on Population ,Economy, Society and Media, Environment, Food, Water, Energy, Health,
Ageing UK
- Every hour life expectancy in Britain rises by another 16 minutes.
- A man of 60 can expect to live for another 20.5 years and a woman of teh same age for 23.6 years.
- The percentage of the population aged under 16 bhas been declining since 1995 and for the first time ever, has dropped below the percentage of the population of state pensionable age.
- There were more then 11 million people over state pension age in 2005.
- The fastest growing group are those aged 80 years and over and constitute 4.5 % of the total population. This age group increased by over 1.1 million between 1981 and 2007.
- The mortality rate for the population aged over 75 has fallen from 137 deaths per thousand in 1911 - 1915, to 83 deaths per thousand in 2006 - 2007.
- There are around 9,000 centenarians in the UK, a 90 fold increase since 1911.
- At the currrent rate of expansion teh UK's centenarian population could reach over 40,000 by 2031.
- The annual number of deaths fell to 571,000 in 2007 from 599,000 in 2001.
- In 2007 the UK,s total fertility rate was 1.9 children per woman below the replacement rate of 2.10.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Coastal processes
Erosion
The sea changes and shapes the coastal landscape. Erosion is the wearing away and breaking up of rock and beach material found along the coast. Destructive waves will erode the coastline in the following four ways.
- The constant force of waves crashing on the shore damages it. This is called hydraulic action.
- Waves bring with them bits of rock and sand. These help to grind down cliffs. This is called abrasion.
- Waves cause rocks and pebbles on the shore to smash into each other and break down. This is called attrition.
- Acids contained in sea water will slowly dissolve certain types of rock. This is called corrosion or solution.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
CO2 emissions, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time
The Breathing Earth simulation
Welcome to Breathing Earth. This real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates.
Please remember that this real time simulation is just that: a simulation. Although the co2 emission, birth rate and death rate data used in Breathing Earth comes from reputable sources, data that measures things on such a massive scale can never be 100% accurate. Please note however that the co2 emission levels shown here are much more likely to be too low than they are to be too high.
CO2 emissions, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Online Interactive ELearning Teaching Resource Library
Great ANIMATIONS
Cliffs and Wave cut platforms; Depressions; Long shore drift; Earthquake Hurricane Tornado; Tsunami; Volcano; Rainfall; Waterfalls
Online Interactive ELearning Teaching Resource Library. List of Teaching Resources.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Oxfam's Cool Tsunami in Asia - Index page
Tsunami in Asia brings together educational materials from Cool Planet, and information from the main Oxfam website and external sites, to enable teaching around the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Asia
Oxfam's Cool Planet for teachers - Tsunami in Asia - Index page
Interactive. Indian Ocean tsunami
Interactive map and access to Guardian special report
30.12.04 Interactive. Indian Ocean tsunami - how it happened | guardian.co.uk | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
FEMA: Are You Ready?
You may need to survive on your own after a disaster. This means having your own food, water, and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least three days. Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone immediately. You could get help in hours, or it might take days.
Basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment, and telephones may be cut off for days, or even a week or longer. Or, you may have to evacuate at a moment’s notice and take essentials with you. You probably will not have the opportunity to shop or search for the supplies you need.
A disaster supplies kit is a collection of basic items that members of a household may need in the event of a disaster
FEMA: Are You Ready?
Asian Tsunami
An earthquake on Boxing day, December 26, sent huge waves crashing into 11 Asian countries, wiping out entire communities. It's estimated that 5 million people have been made homeless by the disaster. British people have so far donated £76m to the fund to help the survivors. Students learn how the tsunami started, how people have been affected and what they can do to help.
CBBC Newsround | Teachers | Citizenship 11 14 | Subject areas | Globalisation Environmental | Asian Tsunami
Tsunami links
BBC “Asia quake disaster – in depth” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2004/asia_quake_disaster/default.stm
Home page for BBC News reports on the 26/12/04 earthquake and subsequent Tsunami damage. BBC Asia Earthquake Disaster
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/specials/2004/asia_earthquake_disaster/default.stm
BBC home page for reports aimed more at children.
BBC “Tsunami among world's worst disasters”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4128509.stm
Article with brief descriptions comparing effects of various natural disasters since 1500s.
CNN “Waves of Destruction”
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/tsunami.disaster/
Home page for CNN reports.
ABC News Tsunami page
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Tsunami/
Home page for ABC News reports.
Guardian Unlimited – Special Report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/0,15671,1380306,00.html
Links to features and resources. Animations very useful. (May be slow to load.)
Earth Observatory – Natural Hazards
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12640
Map of epicentre, immediate plate boundaries and aftershocks.
BBC animated guide
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4136289.stm
Slides with (limited) animation showing affected area, formation of tsunami and results.
BBC “How the quake unfolded”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/asia_pac_asia_earthquake_explained/html/1.stm
Illustrated description of the event. (7 “slides”)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration animation
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/video/tsunami-indonesia2004.mov
5.8Mb QuickTime animation showing shockwaves spreading across complete Indian Ocean area.
AIST animation
http://staff.aist.go.jp/kenji.satake/animation.gif
1.1Mb animated GIF. (Plays in browser but can also be downloaded for more “controlled” viewing in a graphics package that supports this type of file.) Shows time after initial quake.
Discovery Channel animation of Indonesian tsunami
http://media.dsc.discovery.com/news/media/tsunami_wmp.html
PBS “Savage Earth – waves of destruction”
http://www.thirteen.org/savageearth/animations/tsunami/index.html
3 Flash slides with description.
US Geological Survey http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/stoch_low.html
2.2Mb QuickTime movie of theoretical tsunami off US Pacific coast.
Federal Emergency Management Agency tsunami “Fact Sheet”
http://www.fema.gov/hazards/tsunamis/tsunamif.shtm
A variety of useful resources including information on past tsunamis, FAQs and “Great Waves” brochure.
ITIC “Great Waves” brochure
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/pr/itic/library/pubs/great_waves/tsunami_great_waves.html
Excellent resource for download (large Acrobat file – 9.8Mb) or online viewing. Photos and diagrams useful for all ages.
Federal Emergency Management Agency “Tsunami for Kids”
http://www.fema.gov/kids/tsunami.htm
Limited information but interesting “Tsunami Warning” storybook. (See link on left of page.)
The tsunami in the Indian Ocean
The tsunami in the Indian Ocean has touched the lives of many people around the world. The GA offers its condolences to all those who have been affected by the tragedy. We also recognise that in events like this, it is the role of geography to help young people understand and make sense of what has happened.
Geographical Association - Past Themes - The tsunami in the Indian Ocean
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Defence Dynamics Teachers Resources
Earthquakes View material
Ecosystems, farming & migration View material
Energy and resources View material
Flooding View material
Managing ecosystems View material
Migration View material
National Parks View material
Sustainable Development View material
Tropical Storms View material
Tsunami View material
Volcanoes
Defence Dynamics
Local Futures Website - LFN Update: Barometer November 2008
The Local Futures Group is a research and strategy consultancy that provides a geographical perspective on social and environmental change, set within a 21st century knowledge economy. We introduce this perspective into public policy and corporate strategies, both in the UK and internationally.
SROLL DOWN to Local Futures Barometer Archive
PDF Reports on Well Being; transport; Local Amenities; Labour Market; Education; Employment growth; Demography; Business and Enterprise; Housing Affordability; Health Barometer; Deprivation Barometer; Crime Barometer; Inequality in knowledge economy; First time buyers affordability; Local carbon footprint; Migrant Labour; Local deprivation; Skills; Life expectancy;Access to services and amenities; Geography of crime; Geography of Carbon Footprint;
Local Futures Website - LFN Update: Barometer November 2008
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Tropical Rainforest
Uploaded on authorSTREAM by GeoDave
Thanks very uch to Dave Rayner for sharing this
Britain From Above
Andrew Marr takes to the skies exploring Britain from above.
An epic journey revealing the secrets, patterns and hidden rhythms of our lives from a striking new perspective.
Join host Andrew Marr as he discovers how each and every one of us is interconnecting making Britain what it is today.
Britain looks very different from the skies. From a bird's eye view of the nation, its workings, cities, landscapes and peoples are revealed and re-discovered in new and extraordinary ways.
Cutting edge technology allows you to see through cloud cover, navigate the landscape and witness familiar sights as never seen before
BBC - Britain From Above
Portraits from the Congo
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), fighting continues among various rebel armies, tribes, the Congolese army and U.N. forces. The dire situation has prompted the government of DR Congo to ask for help, and invite the armies of neighboring South Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda to enter their territory on several joint operations, to hunt down and pacify or dismantle at least two major rebel armies operating in the lawless border region. Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was captured in January by Rwandan forces, but his army is still active - and Ugandan troops are seeking out the rebel Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army, which has taken refuge in eastern DR Congo. Once more, caught in all of this are the local civilians, terrorized by fleeing and advancing troops of all kinds. Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly has been traveling through the area, capturing some amazing photographs of the people involved. (38 photos total)
Portraits from the Congo - The Big Picture - Boston.com
Hurricanes, as seen from orbit
Hurricane Ike just rolled across Cuba, and soaked parts of Haiti - both regions still reeling from recent Hurricane Gustav. Ike appears to be weakening now, but is headed tward the Gulf Coast of the U.S., and may yet strengthen. The crew aboard the International Space Station was able to take a photo of Ike from 220 miles overhead last Thursday - one in a long series of great NASA photographs of hurricanes from space. Here are some of the best, from the past several years. (25 photos total)
Hurricanes, as seen from orbit - The Big Picture - Boston.com
IUCN - About the Water Programme
The Challenge
Only 3% of water on earth is freshwater, about 2/3 of this amount is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The world faces considerable challenges in managing this amount equitably for a growing world population.
The IUCN Water Programme seeks to bring together its extensive network of members, scientific commissions, government and private sector partners to sustainably develop solutions and initiatives to preserve our water resources.
Where we work section has CASE STUDIES
UCN - About the Water Programme
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
AQUASTAT - FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture
The country profiles and regional overiews describe the state of the water resources, agricultural water use and management in 138 countries and 5 regions in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. They underline the particularities in each country and region and the problems met in the development of the water resources and, in particular, irrigation. They summarize the irrigation trends and perspectives for water management in agriculture as described in the literature available. The methodology used to prepare the country profiles and the regional overviews is described in the background document below.
AQUASTAT - FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture
Friday, 20 February 2009
Earth Hour
Earth Hour 2009 is set to switch off the globe. Already 538 cities in 75 countries which is double the number of countries that participated in 2008, are committed. With hundreds more cities expected to sign up to switch off in the coming months, Earth Hour 2009 is setting the platform for an unprecedented global mandate for action on climate change.
Earth Hour
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Case Study of Rapid Economic Growth - South Korea (An NIC)
Thanks to Mr Chambers St Ivo School Geography Department for this excellent case study
GeoBytesGCSE: Case Study of Rapid Economic Growth - South Korea (An NIC)
The fight for water in North America
The arid states of America's south-west have been getting drier in recent years.Since 2000, the Colorado River - which provides water for seven US states in the region - has carried less water than at any time in recorded history. And while the drought is worsening, the demand for water in this booming part of the country is increasing. The states dependent on the Colorado River for their water are seeking solutions to their water shortage, with some suggesting that importing water from far-flung states - or even towing icebergs down from the Arctic - could solve the problems.
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | The fight for water in North America
The water vendors of Nigeria
Isa earns a hard living pushing a heavy water cart around the rutted streets of the suburbs of Nigeria's capital, Abuja.
He is one of tens of thousands of water vendors who deliver jerry cans full of water to houses built without any kind of sanitation
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | The water vendors of Nigeria
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
GeoInteractive Geography Resources
NEW - Free Ordnance Survey digital maps at all scales. See it to believe it! Click HERE
GeoInteractive Geography Resources - Index
Thursday, 29 January 2009
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
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
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
Sunday, 25 January 2009
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
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