Migrant workers have boosted the UK economy, with their influx not having a negative effect on employment or wage levels, the TUC has argued.Foreign workers made a positive net economic contribution, it said, with their share of tax paid exceeding the cost of supplying public services.
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
The Vertical Farm Project - Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond...
The Problem By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster?
A Potential Solution: farm vertically The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world's urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.
Link to The Vertical Farm Project - Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond...
Your Earth galleries | Earth | Telegraph
Reader Photographs illustrating climate change in action.
Link to Your Earth galleries | Earth | Telegraph
Your CO2 Calculater..... from DEFRA
The Act on CO2 calculator is currently seeing an overwhelming response and we're working to fix the problems you may be experiencing. Please bear with us and visit again later today. Thank you for your interest and patience.
Use the Act on CO2 calculator to find out what your carbon footprint is. You'll also get a personalised action plan with recommendations about how you can help tackle climate change - including links to further information on Directgov and the Energy Saving Trust website.
Link to Are you ready to act on CO2? : Directgov - Environment and greener living
Monday, 18 June 2007
4L - Geography Essentials - Quick menu
Geography essentials area series of student resources
People and Place: Village settlers, Whars in the news, passporrt to the world, how and wheer we spend our time, a village overseas.
The environment: Improving the environment, Mountains, Weathera round the world, Investigating rivers, water
Your local area UK, Investigating local area, Local traffic
Link to 4L - Geography Essentials - Quick menu
Sunday, 17 June 2007
Is this the world's most polluted river?
It was once a gently flowing river, where fishermen cast their nets, sea birds came to feed and natural beauty left visitors spellbound. Villagers collected water for their simple homes and rice paddies thrived on its irrigation channels. Today, the Citarum is a river in crisis, choked by the domestic waste of nine million people and thick with the cast-off from hundreds of factories. So dense is the carpet of refuse that the tiny wooden fishing craft which float through it are the only clue to the presence of water.
Their occupants no longer try to fish. It is more profitable to forage for rubbish they can salvage and trade - plastic bottles, broken chair legs, rubber gloves - risking disease for one or two pounds a week if they are lucky. On what was United Nations World Environment Day, the Citarum, near the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, displayed the shocking abuse that mankind has subjected it to.
More than 500 factories, many of them producing textiles which require chemical treatment, line the banks of the 200-mile river, the largest waterway in West Java, spewing waste into the water. On top of the chemicals go all the other kinds of human detritus from the factories and the people who work there. There is no such luxury as a rubbish collection service here. Nor are there any modern toilet facilities. Everything goes into the river. The filthy water is sucked into the rice paddies, while families risk their health by collecting it for drinking, cooking and washing. Twenty years ago, this was a place of beauty, and the river still served its people well. As one local man, Arifin, recalled: "Our wives did their washing there and our children swam."
Its demise began with rapid industrialisation during the late 1980s. The mighty Citarum soon became a garbage bin for the factories. And the doomsday effect will spread. It is one of two major rivers that feed Lake Saguling, where the French have built the largest power generator in West Java. Experts predict that as the river chokes, its volume will decrease and the generator will not function properly. The area will be plunged into darkness. But at least the factories will be stilled and their waste will stop flowing.
Link to Is this the world's most polluted river? | the Daily Mail
Your climate, your life
Climate change is one of the most important issues of our time. It regularly makes the news - the main debate amongst scientists today is focussed on the amount and rate of climate change we can expect to experience in the future.
This site is about our changing climate and how it affects our lives, from the buildings we live and work in, to the way we travel, the holidays we take and the food we buy in the shops.
Link to Your climate, your life
GeoHive: Global Statistics
Welcome to GeoHive, a site with geopolitical data, statistics on the human population, Earth and more. The main kind of data you can find here is population statistics of regions, countries, provinces and cities. Next to that there are some statistics on economic factors like wealth, infrastructure; statistics on natural phenomena; ....... and yet, even more
The site is structured into several parts. To get at statistics for a specific country, you can go directly to by Country. The Global section has regions and countries compared with each other: what are their capitals, areas, population, growth figures, &c. Also two- and three-letter codes for countries, historical population data and projected future populations for countries. Then there is a section with Charts. Find the city with the highest number of inhabitants, the largest airports of the world and the longest rivers.
Link to GeoHive: Global Statistics
Global Warming Interactive, Global Warming Simulation
Good interactive simulation from National Geographic
Link to Global Warming Interactive, Global Warming Simulation, Climate Change Simulation - National Geographic
Three Gorges Dam, China
The longest river in Asia, the Yangtze River brings mixed blessings to China. Although it meets the water needs of millions of people, the river regularly overflows its banks. In the twentieth century alone, Chinese authorities estimated, the river claimed the lives of 300,000 people. To protect some 15 million residents and 3.7 million acres (roughly 14,970 square kilometers) in the lower Yangtze floodplains, China began construction on the Three Gorges Dam in 1994. Like the river itself, the dam appears to be a mixed blessing: the reservoir was expected to submerge about 632 square kilometers (244 square miles) of land and force the relocation of more than a million people. The reservoir was anticipated to submerge ecologically and culturally important sites in the three gorges—Qutang, Wu Xia, and Xiling—that were the dam’s namesake.
These images show the Yangtze River in the vicinity of the Three Gorges Dam (lower right). Landsat 7 acquired the top image on November 7, 2006, after the main wall was complete. Landsat 5 acquired the bottom image on April 17, 1987, several years before construction on the dam began. In the top image, the dam’s main wall appears as a thin, buff-colored line crossing the water. The water body balloons out markedly in the later image—evidence of the rising water level. The water has backed up and expanded tributaries well upstream of the dam (upper left of image).
Link to EO Newsroom: New Images - Three Gorges Dam, China
World's Longest Rivers Map Quiz
Interactive river game based on world map and identification of rivers shown.
click on links above for Interactive games on naming countries and capitals.
Link to World's Longest Rivers Map Quiz
Friday, 15 June 2007
fitfortravel
fitfortravel' is a public access website provided by the NHS (Scotland). It gives travel health information for people travelling abroad from the UK.
Link to fitfortravel home page
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Sunday, 10 June 2007
Chong Qing 重庆
Chongqing is a move by the Chinese government to spread the benefits of economic boomto the countrys vast interior. Home to3 Chinese in four. The government believes that the way to ease poverty in the interior it has to encourage people to abandon the land and migrate to cities.
In 1978 18% of chinese lived in citiesa nd towns. By 2010 the authorities estimate that 50% will, in the greatest migration in human history. One after another the cities of the interior have entered the race to urbanise, with the objective of becoming a world city. The most spectacular growth has occurred in Changqing.
The citys growth is attracting 200,000 new residents a year. The authorities are still encouraging expansion. The city limits are being expanded under a scheme the city calls "one hour economic circle". Under the plan, teh city wants to move 2 million rural residents into newly urbanized areas within an hours driving distance from the city centre within the next 5 years and another 2 million in the 5 years after that.
Switch it off!
London is to make one of the biggest environmental statements Britain has ever witnessed next week, when the heart of the city switches off its lights in a mass twilight turn-off.
Between 9pm and 10pm on Thursday 21 June, many of London's most famous landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Canary Wharf, the BT Tower and at least one government department, will execute the black-out to raise awareness of global warming.
London's three million households will be urged to switch off their non-essential lights and appliances in what organisers hope will be the first in a series of events that will spread to cities across the country. The event is based on Earth Hour, a similar, hour-long mass switch-off earlier this year in Sydney that involved 65,000 households and 2,000 businesses and landmarks, including the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Earth Hour saw energy consumption in the city fall by 10.2 per cent, meaning many fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide were released than otherwise would have been. Spectacular photographs recorded the blacked-out skyline.
Link to Switch it off! | UK News | The Observer
Is carbon offsetting the solution or part of the problem?
We burn fossil fuel in the developed world - and plant much-needed trees in Africa to 'off set' our emissions. It sounds like a win-win situation. But is it? Read the article here
Link to Is carbon offsetting the solution or part of the problem? | Magazine | The Observer
Climate Care
Climate Care was set up to tackle climate change by reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We do this by offsetting - making CO2 reductions on behalf of individuals and companies.
This site is excellent for Case study material:
1. The treadle Pump 2. Bioenergy 3.Wind Energy 4. Efficient Lightening 5. Efficient Cooking Stoves 6. Rainforest restoration
Useful (and simple) Carbon Offsetting Calculator available.
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