The Future of the Maldives

The Maldives are a group of low lying coral islands in the Indian Ocean that rely on tourism to keep their economy going. The islands and the people who live their are likely to be some of the first casualties of global warming - it will create many environmental refugees here. The President of the Maldives is trying to plan for the future. You can read about what he is trying to do here. You can listen to his proposals here.

Our Increasing Life Expectancy

I found these maps on the BBC website which show how longevity (people living for a long time) has spread north throught he UK. You can see the article and the maps here. What implications does this have for our society in the future?

Snippy

I've mentioned this little handy tool to a few people.....snippy. Lets you copy a selection of a web page or document easily.
Click here for more information and to download it.

10 Ways to Google-up your coursework

Ten ways to use Google Earth to improve your coursework - some fabulous ideas from Noel Jenkins at Juicy Geography. I've just told all my group to draw desire line maps..... how about doing it in Google Earth?

Click here to see all 10 suggestions.

Thanks to Noel Jenkins for sharing this!

Atlantic Hurricanes

2008 was forecast to be a busy hurricane season. You can see the predictions that were made in August here. The hurricane currently wreaking havoc in the Caribbean and threatening Texas, is Hurricane Ike - this one has already hit Cuba and Haiti, and is now heading for the USA. You can see the damage it has already done in the Caribbean here, and video footage of the enormous waves lashing Texas as the hurricane approaches, here. Accounts of the devastation that Ike has caused in Haiti, the poorest country in the Caribbean, can be found here. Haiti has already been hit by several tropical storms this season. You can follow the progress of this season's hurricanes on the National Hurricane Center website.

Olympic medal winners

Keep up to date with the location of Olympic medal winners

Mission Explore!

What are you going to do over the Summer? You should get out more!
Go to Mission Explore and take on a challenge this summer......

Global Food Crisis

All this week, the Guardian newspaper has been doing special reports on the global food crisis. There are some excellent case studies, and useful information for A2 students - Year 11 should look too, as this is all relevant to the Food and Water Supply unit. The website is here - there is a particularly good interactive guide here.

Pisa's leaning tower 'stabilised'

An interesting story for those studying Italy in Year 7. Click here to read the story from the BBC website.

Barcelona Water Shortage

Barcelona, Spain's second city, is suffering from a chronic water shortage. This week, they have announced how they are dealing with this. You can read about it here. This will be a useful case study for Year 10s who will be doing the Food and Water Supply unit soon.

Cyclone and Earthquake Update

The BBC now has in depth areas on its website for both of the natural disasters that have hit Asia this month. There are many useful links from these pages.
Cyclone Nargis
China Earthquake

Earthquake in China

More bad news from Asia - a magnitude 7.9 earthquake has struck the SW of China. A day after the quake, the death toll stands at 12 000, but this figure is likely to rise. You can read about this disaster here and here. There are some pictures from China here - the BBC warns that you may find some of them disturbing.

There is an interesting article here about the contrasting responses to this disaster and the cyclone in Burma.

Cyclone Nargis

It is now over a week since Cyclone Nargis hit Burma in South East Asia. The death toll is likely to be the highest from a tropical storm for many years, and the disaster is far from over. You can look at an interactive explanation of what happened here. For an explanation of the causes of tropical storms, look here. For general information about the disaster, there are up to date news stories here and here. If you want to find out how you can donate to the disaster fund, click here.

Coastal Erosion in Yorkshire

Here is an article from today about a landslide in East Yorkshire that has swept gardens onto the beach and left houses very close to the edge!

AS Work on Deforestation

Here's the powerpoint I asked you to look at about tropical rainforest deforestation. Please make sure you've read it carefully by next Wednesday!

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Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'

Here is a story from the BBC website published today regarding the ongoing problems in Antarctica.

This is especially useful for the current Year 9 Antarctica assessment.

Depressions - Year 10

As promised, here are a few websites for you to look at about depressions.

Try this powerpoint to show what we learnt today. BBC bitesize has a good summary of depressions, fronts etc (make sure you look at the next couple of pages on this website). The BBC website has some information about how depressions form - click on the Fronts section on tbe right as well for additional information. The Met Office has a more comprehensive explanation, including the weather associated with the passage of a depression.

When you've looked at these, have a look at the current pressure chart and the satellite photo, and see if you can spot the different features of a depression and how the weather will change over the next few hours. Good luck!

And if you want to see it again, you can download Postman Pat does Depressions here!

Largest earthquake for 25 years hits England!

Did the earth move for you this morning? We didn't feel the earthquake in Guildford but plenty of people did.

An earthquake of magnitude 5.3 struck just after 1am this morning with the epicentre at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. Read the full story on teh BBC website here.

Jumper - Anywhere is possible....with Geography!

Life in a shanty town

"Adama Gondor, a medic, will be keeping a regular diary for the BBC News website about running a clinic in a coastal slum of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown.
Here she discusses the challenges she faces in Kroo Bay, where shanty houses have been built on a rubbish dump on the banks of the Crocodile River."

This will be particularly useful for year 11 who have just been looking at conditions in shnaty towns.

Can you turn it off?

From 1800 on Wednesday 27th February for 24 hours, people in the UK are being asked to turn off any electric appliances that are not being used. Electricity usage is going to be monitored by the National Grid, who are hoping that demand will drop by between 1 and 3% as a result of this. E-Day, as event is being called, is being supported by many charities in the UK, but also big businesses. The event is being billed as your chance to do something about energy consumption - you can read about it here. Encourage your family and friends, and even your teachers, to turn it off on E-Day!

Coral reef bleaching

Here is an article about the use of ocean temperature monitoring equipment to try and protect vulnerable coral reefs. This is of increasing concern as an impact of global warming and climate change.

AS Field Trip to London Friday 8th February 2008

Here's a hastily put together slideshow of the photos I took today when we were in London looking at contrasting examples of urban redevelopment. Feel free to use any of them!

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Are we ready for the Effects of Global Warming?

The vast majority of scientists now believe that human activity is the cause of global warming, but until recently, they have expected that the effects of this warming will happen gradually over a number of decades or even centuries. This week, scientists have identified a number of tipping points which could be reached soon - these will begin a process of positive feedback, and speed up the warming process. Read about it here.

Air Pollution in London

AS Geographers have been looking at examples of how different cities suffer from, and try to manage air pollution. Here is London's latest attempt to reduce smog and pollution problems. This is a relevant and very up to date case study with which you could wow the examiners!!

Why choose Geography?

Play the short film below....


Choose Geography at option time!

Images of Global Warming

This website contains lots of pictures which show evidence of global warming. There are a number of different sections, but the Glaciers section has some particularly stark images.

Fancy a Starbucks?

A report out today shows that all is not going well for Starbucks! Read the full story on the BBC news website here.

This is a useful article for year 9s (studying globalisation as part of the 'Global Fashion Industry' topic and for A level (globalisation, role of multinationals and so on).

Weird Weather

For an unusual weather story, click here!

Nuts!

Here's an interesting film about globalisation and fair trade, as explained by an American peanut! Enjoy!