Philippines Flood Death Toll Nears 1,000

2011 ends with yet another natural disaster. This one has claimed the lives of 1000 people in the Philippines. The flooding was caused by tropical storm Washi, which swept through the southern Philippines on Friday evening, dropping a month's worth of rain in 24 hours. About 143,000 people were affected in 13 southern and central states.

Conditions remain chaotic at the evacuation centres, mainly schools and gymnasiums, and with no running water fire trucks were being used to deliver supplies. Officials warned that the crowded conditions could lead to outbreaks of leptospirosis, diarrhoea, cholera, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and dysentery, with children and pregnant women the most vulnerable. 

"The problem is we only have one or two toilets per school, and they have to cater to 3 000 or 4 000 users," said Iligan health officer Levy Villarin.

Click on the headline to read more on the story or click here to be taken to the recent Channel 4 documentary "The Year the Earth went wild"

Year 13 Unit 4 Pre-release, 2012

The pre-release EXPLORE and FOCUS themes are now available on the Edexcel website. Remember, the explore idea is about the theme that you should now focus on and the research is more about the examples and case studies that you need to find.

Click the heading to be taken there, although this the information relevant to us......


OPTION 2: Cold Environments – Landscapes and Change
• Explore the processes which shaped the landscape during the Pleistocene within a
region such as the British Isles.
• Research the wide variety of landscapes and landforms created at differing scales by
glacial and periglacial processes within a chosen region.

OPTION 3: Life on the Margins – the Food Supply Problem
• Explore the need for, and effectiveness of, different strategies that are designed to
improve food security.
• Research a range of food security strategies, including ‘sustainable’ ones, at differing
scales and locations.


OPTION 5: Pollution and Human Health at Risk
• Explore the relative health risks from incidental and sustained pollution, and how and
why these vary both spatially and over time.
• Research locations at varying scales and levels of development, that have experienced
or are experiencing health risks from different types of pollution

Kenilworth Geography department on Twitter

There are now two twitter accounts - one aimed at Year 12 students http://twitter.com/#!/KenilworthGeo12
and one aimed at Year 13 students http://twitter.com/#!/KenilworthGeo13

Make sure you start following for the latest news that relates to the course, exam information and general updates.

Britain spends £10m to fight deforestation in Brazil

Britain is spending £10m to tackle deforestation in Brazil in an effort to protect wildlife and reduce carbon emissions.

The environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, said the money would help farmers in Cerrado, central Brazil, restore natural habitats, reduce forest fires and ease the pressure for more deforestation to provide land for agriculture.

Speaking at the International Forest Day conference in Durban, South Africa, where the latest round of UN climate talks are being held, Spelman said: "The Cerrado is rich in biodiversity and yet, alarmingly, it has almost halved in size, because of wildfires and the demand for agricultural products.

"If we're going to stop the loss of biodiversity, we need to protect our forests, which house the majority of the world's wildlife. We won't succeed in tackling climate change unless we deal with deforestation."

Click on the headline to read the whole story from the BBC.

HS2 decision is delayed until new year

A final decision on whether to go ahead with the controversial HS2 high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham is being delayed until the New Year, it was disclosed.
Transport Secretary Justine Greening is understood to be considering whether a £500 million tunnel should be bored to minimise impact on the Chiltern Hills landscape.
The 100-mile rail link, due to be built between 2016 and 2026, aims to cut the London-to-Birmingham journey time to 49 minutes.
However, the £32 billion project has provoked fury among many Tory MPs - including Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan, who has reportedly threatened to resign over the issue.
Ms Greening had been expected to make a final announcement before parliament rises for its Christmas break.
But the decision has now been delayed until January as she has asked for a feasibility study to be carried out on a £1.5 million tunnel near Amersham, as well as an environmental probe.

Toads can predict earthquakes!

Scientists believe they have an explanation for Italian toads' apparent ability to sense the earthquake that struck the city of L'Aquila on 6 April 2009. Animals may sense chemical changes in groundwater that occur when an earthquake is about to strike and this could be the cause of bizarre earthquake-associated animal behaviour.

By chance, Dr Rachel Grant of the UK's Open University was monitoring a toad population at San Ruffino Lake, around 74km from the quake's epicentre. Five days before the 6.3 magnitude shake, "the number of male common toads in the breeding colony fell by 96 per cent", while "most breeding pairs and males fled" three days before the earth moved.


click on the title for more information

An update on China's one child policy

The one child policy has been around for over 30 years. Read the following article to see the latest on the situation.

China's one-child policy means many benefits for parents – if they follow the rules http://gu.com/p/32nk6

Can renewable energy help Lesotho?

Lesotho is one of the poorest countries in the world. They are going to spend £9bn on a huge renewable energy scheme that they hope will hep lift them out of povert. Follow the link to read more.

Lesotho to harness wind and water in huge green energy project http://gu.com/p/332mm

A great website about Food Security

All Year 13's studying Life on the Margins (unit 4) should make sure that they look at and bookmark The Guardian's section on Food Security - an absolutely fantastic site with lots of very recent stories.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/food-security

Kenilworth Geography department on Twitter

In lots of parents evenings teachers tell students and parents that a key way of doing well in Georaphy is to keep up to date with current affairs and news. That is partly why this blog exists. However, I only post up a small percentage of relevant news stories, mainly because I want to focus on the most important stories, but there are plenty of news events that are relevant to your studies appearng every hour of the day......so to make sure you know what stories are important and helpful to read, I have set up a twitter account to tweet links to the latest news whenever I see a story. The wonders of modern technology mean that you can hear the latest news very quickly, without even having to follow the news, just the KenilworthGeog twitter account.

twitter.com/#!/kenilworthgeog or click on the title of the post to be taken there

Life on the margins - Year 13

Click on the title to be taken to a useful website showing food insecurity and famine. It's called Famine Early Warning System (www.fews.net) and they are currently predicting some major famines in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia)


The site lists lots of countries, in different continents and presents case studies and maps showing food insecurity issues. It explains some of the causes of the problems in each of those countries.


I would say that this website is pretty much essential for all of you studying Life on the Margins.

This is a map, taken from the website, showing the current situation in Ethiopia. There are maps for a huge number of countries and not only do they show the information like this they also have pages which tell you WHO is being affected and WHAT the underlying CAUSES are.
Click here for the underlying causes of food insecurity in Ethiopia (just one of many case studies available on the site)










The website deals with countries from all over the world - Here is a link to how a tropical storm threatened food security in Central America in October - a recent report published on the 3rd of November 2011. It is well detailed and looks at the crops damaged and numbers of people affected

World population reaches 7 billion.

When this blog started about 2 years ago, I put a population counter clock in the corner of the page. It read 6.2billion. That figure has now officially hit 7 billion and there has been a lotwritten about what this rapidly rising population means for the future of the world. Below are sme links to articles that will be useful for you and your studies.

Click here to be taken to The Guardian site where they have a large number of articles about the issue. You can enter your date of birth and find out the population of the world when you were born. There are some interactive maps and resources to help you understand what has happened and why.

Click here for a podcast about population growth, questioning whether lots of people is necessarily a bad thing

The BBC also has a large section on the world at 7 billion. Agains you can get an estimate of what umber person you are out of the 7 billion and read information about how they have calculated the population of the world and how we could control it.

Year 13 homework for Mr Bains (1st November 2011)

Read the article about Ghana and Ghana's energy needs and issue and makes notes on the following:

•Where are the main energy sources found?

•How large are the reserves?

•Are they energy secure?

•What energy related issues are there in Ghana?

This is due on Friday 4th November

Click on the headline to be taken to the article

Climate and Environmental issues to create migration issues in the future

Climate and other environmental changes will cause "major challenges" for world leaders over the next 50 years as mass migration threatens to create new humanitarian crises, a major new report says.
The report estimates there will be between 154 and 179 million people living in rural coastal floodplains by 2060 who will be unable to move away due to poverty

The government's chief scientist, Professor Sir John Beddington, who commissioned the study, said that environmental change would hit the world's poorest the hardest and that millions of them would inadvertently migrate toward, rather than away from, areas that are most vulnerable.

“We have assumed mass migration away from affected areas, but millions of people will also migrate into vulnerable areas and there will also be those who cannot migrate out,” John Beddington, chief scientific adviser to the British government, told reporters.
“They pose different challenges to the international community,” he added.
The United Nations estimates there were 210 million international migrants in 2010. A further 740 million were internal migrants in 2009.
An average 25 million people a year have been displaced due to weather-related events since 2008, which will likely rise as such events become more extreme and frequent, Beddington said

Click on the headline to be taken to an article from The Telegraph

Click on the photo to be taken to an article from the BBC

East Africa drought 'remains huge crisis'

Three months after famine was declared in Somalia, the scale of the crisis in the Horn of Africa remains huge, says a British official.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said hundreds of people, mainly children, were dying every day.

According to new figures cited by Mr Mitchell, British aid is feeding more than 2.4m people across the region.

The coming rainy season is expected to bring disease to crowded refugee camps.

In Somalia alone, Mr Mitchell points out, more than 400,000 children remain at risk of death.

Health has had a high priority in British aid that has come to the region - 1.3m people being vaccinated against measles, for example, while 400,000 doses of anti-malarial medication are currently on their way to Somalia.

Click on the headline to read the full story from the BBC

Click on the map to read a report and see more images from The Independent

Useful website for Life on the Margins (Unit 4, Year 13)

World Disasters Report 2011- Focus on hunger and malnutrition



This year’s World Disasters Report focuses on the growing crisis of hunger and malnutrition. Smallholder farmers who produce half the world’s food are among the almost 1 billion people who go to bed hungry every night. Millions of children suffer the irreversible effects of undernutrition. Increasing food insecurity weakens people’s resilience to disasters and disease, and people everywhere are experiencing the increasing volatility of food prices.


“ Hunger and malnutrition are the worst enemies of humankind. They deny to children – even at birth – an opportunity for the full expression of their innate genetic potential for physical and mental development. Freedom from hunger is the first requisite for sustainable human security. This will depend upon the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture, as this edition of the World Disasters Report points out. Therefore, if food and nutrition policies go wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right."



– M. S. Swaminathan, an Indian MP

Click on the titleto be taken to the website where you can find the report

Pakistan Floods

At least 369 people have died and 700,000 are living in refugee camps because of flooding in southern Pakistan, the country's national disaster authority said Thursday.

The flooding in Sindh province has destroyed 1.5 million homes in 41,000 villages, the government said. About 8.2 million people have been affected. Along with the deaths, more than 740 people have been injured.

About 67 percent of food stocks have been destroyed and nearly 37 percent of the livestock has been lost "or sold to avoid loss," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said earlier this week.
"At least 5 million surviving animals are at risk, lacking feed and shelter and facing increased exposure to debilitating diseases and worm infestations," Byrs said.
The United Nations' World Food Programme has been distributing food to thousands of people.
More than 6,000 schools have been damaged by the floods and 1,363 education facilities are currently being used as relief distribution sites in Sindh, officials said.


Click on the title to be taken to more details and some video footage from the Telegraph.
Click on the photo to be be taken to more images of the flood.

Food security in the news - again

The famine in Somalia and East Africa has been in the news and situation looks pretty dire. If you're in Year 13 and studying "Life on the margins" for unit 4 then you need to keep up to date with what is happening - there's plenty of information out there. What you may not be aware of is Oxfam's "GROW" campaign. Click on the title to be taken to their website where they explain the cause of hunger around the world and you can sign up to do your bit to help as well

The Guardian online - Global Development Section

This section of The Guardian on-line newspaper is an excellent resources for all pupils, particularly A-level students. Have a look around it and save the site to your favourites as it will keep you informed of the latest news in terms of World Development. It has case studies of countries and how they're doing in terms of Millennium Development Goals, lots of data that can be searched and graphics to look at and plenty of videos and podcasts to watch and listen (click on image or title to be taken to the site)

.

Rising food prices affects the poor- useful for Year 13, Unit 4

A report in June 2011 showed that the poor of the world are being affected much more seriously by rising food costs than any other group. Women appear to be harder hit then men as well.

The report says the world is being divided into "losers" and "winners":
"The losers – those already struggling in low-paid, informal sector occupations such as petty trading, street vending, casual construction work, sex work, laundry, portering and transport – are clearly worse off than last year."

Click on the title for further information and look at the links on that webpage for more about food price increases and the effects on people

Click on the photo to be taken to a graph and data about the rising costs of food around the world.

South Sudan becomes world's newest nation

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011 as the outcome of a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

An overwhelming majority of South Sudanese voted in a January 2011 referendum to secede and become Africa's first new country since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993.

Click on the headline to be taken to the BBC web-profile of South Sudan.

Year 12 Cornwall trip, March 21st-24th

Here is some information for you in preparation for next weeks trip

What to take:
You will be provided with breakfast and dinner each day but you will need to make your own provision for lunch. This means you should bring enough money with you for lunch each day. Obviously you can bring snacks and things to bolster your lunches!

You will be provided with bedding at the hostel but need to bring a towel.
You should bring toiletries and sensible clothing. This means if you have waterproofs then bring them, walking boots and wellies if you plan to get into water.The weather can be changeable so you need to be prepared for rain, wind and sunshine! Layers of clothing is the best idea, so you can add/remove depending on the weather.

You may wish to bring some things to keep you entertained, but avoid bring expensive equipment (anything you do bring is brought at your own risk). There is a room with a TV in it and, I think, a DVD player. You can bring a film if you wish, but to be honest there won't be lots of spare time - there's a lot of work to cram in, both during the day and the evening!

Itinery for the trip:
Monday:
Arrive at school for 7.45am at the very latest. The coach will depart at 8.00am - do not be late.
We will stop for a break/lunch on the way and aim to be in Padstow for about 2pm. You will then have an hour to look around Padstow and do some of the tasks you will find in the booklet you are provided with.
We will then head onto the youth hostel at Treyarnon Bay where after settling in you will walk to the nearby beach at Constantine in order to do some measurements.
After the evening meal you will be do some preparation work for Tuesday.

Tuesday:
After breakfast you will go back to Constantine Bay to meet a beach ranger who will talk to you about the management of the area and the sand dunes. You will also take some measurements. This will take till about 10.30am when we return to the hostel to change and then head out for Watergate Bay. At Watergate Bay you will do some tasks from the booklet. Those who wish to surf will have their lesson at about 1pm and then afterwards you will all meet the manager and managing director of the Extreme Sports Academy to see how they have helped with the rebranding of the area.
After all the tasks are completed you will then head for St Austell for a game of bowling and then back to the hostel for evening meal. After dinner you will do some more preparation and answer an exam question!

Wednesday:
Leave for the Eden project after breakfast at about 9.30am. We are booked in for a talk about the impact of the Eden project on the rebranding process in Cornwall at 12.30pm for an hour. You will have some time before the talk and after to explore Eden.
We will leave Eden between 2-3pm and head for Carlyon Bay where at 4pm you will meet a representative from CEG, the company involved in the development of "The Beach" project. Then at 5pm you will meet a panel of local people from the pressure group Carlyon Bay Watch, to hear what their objections to the plans are.
An evening meal is booked for 6.15 at an Indian restuarant. You will need to pre-order your meal, so your teacher should ask you to choose a main from the menu! After the meal you'll head back to the hostel.

Thursday:
After breakfast you will answer an exam question or two before getting the coach home at about 10.00am. We should be back in Kenilworth around 3.30. There will be a lunch stop on the way.

You will all be fit and well and ready for school on Friday!

Hopefully this answers any questions you have. If you are still unsure of anything then ask your teacher. If you are surfing you MUST have paid your £20 before the day of the trip. I need to give the surfing man definite numbers, so don't think you can oull out on the day!

Apologies to my class for my continued absence. It's not out of choice. Once I have been fixed I shall be back in school, probably after Easter.

I hope you all have a great time on the trip and I wish I was going along as well.

Mr Bains

China as a Superpower TV programme on BBC iplayer

Year 13 should definitely watch this programme as it ties in perfectly with the Unit 3 option on Superpower Geographies.

The BBC blurb reads:
Travelling across three continents, Justin Rowlatt investigates the spread of Chinese influence around the planet and asks what the world will be like if China overtakes America as the world's economic superpower. In the first of two films, he embarks on a journey across Southern Africa to chart the extraordinary phenomenon of Chinese migration to Africa, and the huge influence of China on the development of the continent.
While many in the West view Africa as a land of poverty, to the Chinese it is seen as an almost limitless business opportunity. From Angola to Tanzania, Justin meets the fearless Chinese entrepreneurs who have travelled thousands of miles to set up businesses


Click the heading to be taken to the show (it is the first episode in a series)

Year 13 - LIfe on the margins (unit 4)

The Foresight group published a report today about food and farming. It may well be looking at bits of it (the executive summary is a sensible starting point). If there's some useful bits in there (maybe a simple quote to add to your exam answer?) it will look good to the examiner as it so current.

Foresight Report (published 24th Jan 2011)

Guardian article on the Foresight report

Telegraph article about the report and warning of food price rises/GM crops

Unit 4 Life on the Margins (Year 13)

Hopefully you have all been busy working on unit 4, researching and preparing yourselves for the exam. This post is really just to give you some things to think about.

Possible questions they could ask in the exam?

Maybe something along these lines....

1) "Strategies to improve food security have benefits as well as costs". Discuss.

2) Explain why strategies used to increase food production have costs as well as benefits.
3) Evaluate the costs and benefits of strategies to increase food production in order to improve food security.
4) To what extent can food production be increased without any costs?
5) Explain why strategies to increased food production have varied success in improving food security
6) Evaluate the success of a range of strategies designed to increase food production.
7) Assess the impact of strategies to increase food production to improve food security at a range of scales.



Research
Here are some things you may wish to consider (and maybe research further)

Land-grabs article from Guardian (with lots of links to other relevant stories)

Does US Food security strategies go far enough?

When looking at different scales, you should be thinking about strategies to sort food supply/security that are for small areas/villages (small scale/local - maybe something from a NGO like FarmAfrica) to those which are designed to help entire countries (Green Revolution - impacts on places like Thailand, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Mexico or the Cuban Organic farmning example that is linked to later on in this post) and maybe some strategies that could be used on a larger scale/global (such as GM crops)

7 minute video on Cuban Organopnicos
Article on how Cuba have tried to become self sufficient using organic farming

The costs of increasing food supply/security?

Soil erosion/degredation
An article about how use of chemicals on the land in Punjab (India) in order to increase food security has led to soil degradation

You could also look at the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on the environment in Europe. The CAP was set up after WWII in order to ensure Europe never experienced food shortages again (ie improve food security) but many felt that it had a negative impact (economically, socially and environmentally).