OS Explore

EXPLORE is a new beta application from Ordnance Survey, allowing you to create and share your routes with the world, and join in with ones that already exist

Link to OS Explore

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

Sustainable Cities Index

How do UK cities really measure up?

The race to be a truly ‘sustainable city’ is increasingly competitive, with Manchester determined to become ‘the Greenest City in Britain by 2010’, Bristol wanting to become a ‘Green Capital’ and London aiming for nothing less than the status of ‘most sustainable city in the world’.

Aiming to cut through the rhetoric, this report brings rigour to the debate by using current data to determine who’s sustainable and who’s not. In it, each of the UK’s 20 largest cities are analysed according to three criteria – their ‘environmental impact', ‘quality of life’ and ‘future proofing’ – and given an overall ranking which summarises the results.

The data reveals that Brighton and Hove is the most sustainable city followed by Edinburgh in second place and Bristol in third. Liverpool comes bottom of the list, after Hull in 18th place and Birmingham in 19th.

In the UK, around nine in ten people live in towns and cities. Globally, we are now a majority urban world. We have no choice but to learn to live together in sustainable ways in cities. This will mean providing a high quality of life for all residents. It will also mean reducing the wider environmental impact of cities.

We chose three baskets of indicators against which to rank the cities.

• The Environmental Impact of the city – the impact of the city on the wider environment in terms of resource use and pollution
• The Quality of Life for residents – what the city is like to live in for all its citizens.
• Future Proofing – how well the city is preparing itself for a sustainable future.

We selected these index categories to reflect the sustainability of each city in a fair and balanced way. We used a total of 13 indicators, spread across the three baskets. The indicators use existing data on aspects of performance on which cities are already expected to make improvements. We intend to measure these indicators year-on-year.

Link to Sustainable Cities Index | Forum For The Future

Reuters AlertNet - Interactive map

Interactive map.

You select a crisis type to view.

Conflicts

Food Security

Storms

Sudden Disaster

Health

Earthquakes

These are shown on the map. You can zoom in to get more detail and links to news

Link to Reuters AlertNet - Interactive map BETA

Striding Edge - a photo diary of Lake District Fell walks

Excellent set of photos from the lake district

Link to Striding Edge - a photo diary of Lake District Fell walks

European Retirees on the Costa del Sol: A Cross-National Comparison

The Costa del Sol is one of the largest and
most important regions in Europe receiving
retirement migrants from other countries.
This paper studies northern European retired
immigrants, using data generated by a
questionnaire survey of 300 respondents and
in-depth interviews with 20 people in 13
municipalities. Reasons for moving to Spain,
the advantages and disadvantages reported
of living there, and the perceived impacts on
the local region were analysed, paying
particular attention to cross-national
differences between British, German,
Benelux and Nordic retirees. The results
show that sociodemographic and economic
features of the settlers tend to be quite
similar, whilst reasons for moving, stated
advantages and disadvantages, and
consequences and impacts exhibit some
cross-national differentiation.

Link to Rodriguez.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Migration 'causes pressure in UK'

Almost every UK region has difficulties in housing, health, education and crime because of increased migration, according to an official report. The findings are contained in a report drawn up to advise ministers on the social impact of immigration.

Link to BBC NEWS | UK | Migration 'causes pressure in UK'

The Amazon burns once again

It is burning season in Brazil, and across the Amazon region, where illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and a growing number of soy producers continue their advance into their world's largest tropical forest, similar scenes are taking place. In August government satellites registered 16,592 fires across Brazil, the overwhelming majority in the Amazon.

Link to The Amazon burns once again | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

World Food Day 2007

World Food Day (WFD) was established by FAO's Member Countries at the Organization's Twentieth General Conference in November 1979. The date chosen - 16 October - is the anniversary of FAO.

Link to World Food Day 2007: HOME EN

World Food Day

October 16 is World Food Day, an occasion to remember the plight of the world's 850 million chronically hungry people. After decades of decline, that number has actually been growing by four million each year since the mid-1990s. Today, hunger still kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. This series of photographs from the World Food Programme highlights some of the key facts and figures about hunger around the world today.

Link to WFP slideshow | Gallery | Guardian Unlimited

LINK : World Food Programme

Black to the future

Forget about wind farms and nuclear power stations. The answer to Britain’s looming energy crisis could be cheap, plentiful and planet-friendly coal

Thanks to Mike Miskelly for spotting this very interesting article on energy needs.

Link to Black to the future - Times Online

Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, Belize

The Belize Barrier Reef platform lies on the Atlantic-Caribbean coast of Belize, and extends 260 kilometers (km) from the border with Mexico to the north, to near the Guatemalan border to the south.

Link to Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, Belize - Encyclopedia of Earth

DIRECTORY of University courses

The Directory is the essential guide to Geography in Higher Education in the UK. It provides information on most HE departments with an undergraduate degree or module in geography, the courses offered, and the staff who work there. Given the range of Geography courses available, a standard overview is provided:

Whys study Geography?

Choosing a course?

Making a sucessful application?

Should i take agap year

Careers in Geography

Link to DIRECTORY

Twin Blue Marbles

Just because they are beautiful images

Link to EO Newsroom: New Images - Twin Blue Marbles

Poverty driving Burmese workers east

Zaw Aung left Burma because he could not afford to feed his family. The 31-year-old worked as a farm labourer near the new capital, Naypyidaw. But his wages did not cover basic necessities for his wife and three young children, and he could not find a better job.

Link to BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Poverty driving Burmese workers east

Chinadependence

Chinadependence: the second UK Interdependence report, published in association with the Open University, released to mark the day that the world as a whole goes into ecological debt, reveals the many ways in which Britain is becoming increasingly dependent on the rest of the world to fuel our high-consuming lifestyles. In particular, Chinadependence reveals a striking rise in our dependence on a wide range of Chinese imports. And, because the greenhouse gas pollution that results from their manufacture is blamed on China, not the consumers in the UK, we are turning China into our 'environmental laundry' with devastating consequences for the planet.

Link to Search Results

UK 'exporting emissions' to China

China's rising coal consumption is partly to make western goodsThe UK's increasing dependence on Chinese goods is contributing to a rise in carbon emissions, a report suggests.

The New Economic Foundation (Nef) says such reliance is adding to CO2 levels because China's factories produce more CO2 per item than British ones

Link to BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | UK 'exporting emissions' to China

euroGame12

Nice game on European countries

Link to euroGame12

Footprint Network News - Global Footprint Network

Ecological Footprint accounts estimate how many Earths were needed to meet the resource requirements of humanity for each year since 1961, when complete UN statistics became available. Resource demand (Ecological Footprint) for the world as a whole is the product of population times per capita consumption, and reflects both the level of consumption and the efficiency with which resources are turned into consumption products. Resource supply (biocapacity) varies each year with ecosystem management, agricultural practices (such as fertilizer use and irrigation), ecosystem degradation, and weather.

Get National Ecological footprint data

Link to Footprint Network News - Global Footprint Network - Advancing the Science of Sustainability

River Discharge Lab VIRTUAL RIVER FIELDWORK

The goal of this exercise is to introduce you to some basic concepts about how rivers work.The term river describes water moving through a well-defined channel.

Link to River Discharge Lab