Three Gorges Dam

Interactive site from FT.com

Link to 571cc608-87e4-11dc-9464-0000779fd2ac.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

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

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

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

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

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