Kingdown Geography Blog

Sunday, 20 January 2008

Sustainable Aviation

click on one of the photos on the homepage and it gives bullet pointed summaries of how airports, airlines, manufacturers and Air Traffic Control claim they are trying to improve their sustainability

Link to Sustainable Aviation - Home

CLICK HERE FOR LINK

a collection of resources by TEACHERS for your exam

Link to Box.net - Free Online File Storage, Internet File Sharing, Online Storage, Access Documents & Files Anywhere, Backup Data, Send Files

Is this the end of cheap food? | Focus | The Observer

While a litre of orange juice is 57p in Lidl, it sells for 99p in the Co-op. Such products, and staple foods like eggs, bread, frozen peas, butter and cheese have seen price rises of between 20 and 30 per cent in mainstream supermarkets. Mysupermarket.co.uk, which collates supermarket prices daily, puts the overall rise last year at 12 per cent. That means the average family's shopping bill has gone up by £750 a year.

Jacques Diouf, head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, spoke recently of a 'very serious crisis' brought about by the rise in food prices and the rise in the oil price. Various global economic bodies are forecasting rises of between 10 per cent and 50 per cent over the next decade.

There have been four chief drivers of food price inflation in the last two years.

1. the huge rise in oil prices

2 climate: drought, hurricanes and floods around the world last year made for terrible harvests.

3. the massive rise in the price of the staple-food commodities due to market speculation and the increasing demand for crops for Biofuels.

4. the financial boom in India and China. Around the world, and through history, people have eaten more meat as they have become richer. This is called the nutrition transition and it's now happening, very quickly, in the two most populous nations on the planet.

Link to Is this the end of cheap food? | Focus | The Observer

Thursday, 17 January 2008

Defra UK; Rural Affairs

Our aim is to reduce the gap in productivity between the least well performing quartile of rural areas and the English Median by 2008, demonstrating progress by 2006, and improve the accessibility of services for people in rural areas.

The evidence for poor economic and social conditions in some rural areas is both compelling and measurable. Our target is to lay solid foundations to achieve sustainable and long term regeneration in these areas.

Link to Defra UK; Rural Affairs

Countryside Quality Counts

The Countryside Quality Counts project (CQC) provides a systematic assessment of how the countryside is changing. It helps us to understand where change is occurring and whether change matters to people, in terms of the way it affects the things about landscape that people value. This information can be used to inform decision-making and policies for achieving sustainable development - enhancing and maintaining the character and quality of our countryside for this and future generations.

Link to Countryside Quality Counts

South West Observatory - State of the South West 2007

DATA for YEAR 12 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Welcome to the South West Observatory - the regional information gateway. Here you can access a network of analysts and information across a broad range of demographic, environmental and economic services.
The Observatory is made up of six thematic Modules, seven sub-regional intelligence networks and a co-ordinating core unit. The network is working to a common vision; that policy making in, and about, the south west region should be based on sound evidence. It is the Observatory's aim to be the automatic first port of call for intelligence about the South West region and its parts, with any one of our constituent bodies being a portal to all of our network of experts and resources.

Link to South West Observatory - State of the South West 2007

Thursday, 10 January 2008

World's cheapest car goes on show

Tata Motors has unveiled the world's cheapest motor car at India's biggest car show in the capital, Delhi. The vehicle, called the Tata Nano, will sell for 100,000 rupees or $2,500 (£1,277) and enable those in developing countries to move to four wheels. The four-door five-seater car, which goes on sale later this year, has a 33bhp, 624cc, engine at the rear. It has no air conditioning, no electric windows and no power steering, but two deluxe models will be on offer.

Link to BBC NEWS | Business | World's cheapest car goes on show

Tuesday, 8 January 2008

GEOGDOCS

The Geogdocs project is funded by an RGS-IBG Innovative Geography Teaching Grants, created in association with Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre's Geography Department and Key Stage 3 Total Curriuclum. It is also sister site to Geography at the movies.

A Geogdoc is a short 3-5 minute digital video documentary created by young people on a geographical subject. The digital video can be assembled using Microsoft Windows Movie Maker (WMM) and can include digital images, video, and voiceovers.

Completed Geogdocs is then uploaded to an online server and is available for parents and pupils to view and could be downloaded and used as a teaching resource.

Link to Home Page

Geography at the Movies - video resources for geography teachers

Link to Geography at the Movies - video resources for geography teachers

Monday, 7 January 2008

Environment In Focus

eif week 37

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the decade of 1998-2007 is the warmest on record. The global mean surface temperature for 2007 is currently estimated at 0.41°C/0.74°F above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.20°F. WMO states that among other remarkable global climatic events recorded in 2007, a record-low Arctic sea ice extent was observed which led to first recorded opening of the Canadian Northwest Passage.

Link to EarthPortal » Environment In Focus

Thursday, 3 January 2008

Korea The dark half

North and South Korea have been separated at the 38th parallel ever since the Korean War (1950-1953), which has never officially ended. In the ensuing ‘ceasefire’, North Korea developed into a communist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy, while South Korea became a capitalist democracy with a free market economy.

Economic hardship in the officially ‘self-reliant’ North has led to mass starvation, while the South has a vibrant economy able to compete with the best of the world. In 1996, the per capita GNP in the North was $920, while it was $11.270 in the South. A 1999 estimate of per capita GNPs put the South’s at 13 times that of the North. More recent figures will probably show an even wider gap.

Due to the different economic results on either side of the Demilitarized Zone, the ethnically quite homogenous Koreans have even begun to diversify physically, with the average North Korean male almost 7 cm shorter than his Southern counterpart (165,6 cm vs. 172,5 cm). North Korean females are on average 4 cm shorter than Southern women (154,9 cm vs. 159,1 cm). By 2025, the height difference is projected to increase to 11 cm for men, 6 cm for women. Unless the North’s economic situation changes drastically, that is.

So the South dwarfs the North, not just numerically (50 vs. 27 million), but also economically and even size-wise. Another stark reminder of the different worlds both Koreas now inhabit, is this map, a picture of the night-time illumination on the Korean peninsula.

The metropolitan area of Seoul, the South’s capital, holds 23 million people and is the second-largest conurbation on the planet (after Tokyo). Its huge lit-up area, close to the border with the North, is clearly visible from space. Other Southern cities, while quite a lot smaller than Seoul, are also clearly distinguishable on this satellite map, for example Gunsan on the western coast, directly below it the inland city of Gwangju, the cities of Masan and Busan on the southern coast, and several other cities, much smaller still.

By contrast (quite literally, even), the only speck of light north of the DMZ is the North’s capital of Pyonyang, a single, neat pinprick of white punched through an otherwise completely black canvas. The minimal lighting belies the fact that Pyongyang is home to an estimated 3 million people. Gunsan, in the South, has under 300.000 inhabitants.

Link to strange maps

Friday, 28 December 2007

Wednesday, 26 December 2007

Tsunami homeless three years on

More than 40,000 people in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands made homeless by the 26 December 2004 Asian tsunami are still living in temporary shelters.

Link to BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Tsunami homeless three years on

The Big Question: Three years on from the Boxing Day tsunami, have the countries recovered?

Sunday, 23 December 2007

World Capitals: We reveal the greatest city on earth - Independent Online Edition

Welcome to World Capitals, where we explain our methodology to determine a league table of great cities.

The information is in three parts. First, “World Capitals – How We Did It” explains the criteria chosen and the sources used (together with any deficiencies we identified in the data). It describes the formulae applied to the data – in other words, the weighting we gave to every piece of information. And it points out drawbacks with each criterion that may favour particular locations.