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).

UN climate change talks in Cancun agree a deal

More than 190 countries have struck an agreement at the latest round of UN climate talks that puts efforts to secure a new international deal to tackle global warming back on track.

At the end of two weeks of talks in Mexico, government ministers and officials agreed a deal which Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne described as a "serious package" of measures.

He acknowledged the agreement did not give everybody everything they wanted and would still require work towards a final deal at a meeting next year in Durban, South Africa.

Environmental campaigners said it threw a lifeline to efforts to get a deal to tackle climate change but there was still much work to do, in particular to close the "gigatonne gap" between the greenhouse emissions cuts countries have pledged and the reductions needed to limit temperature rises to no more than 2C.

The agreement acknowledges the need to keep temperature rises to 2C and brings non-binding emissions cuts pledges made under the voluntary Copenhagen Accord, hammered out in the dying hours of last year's conference, into the UN process.

It also includes an agreement to set up a green climate fund as part of efforts to deliver 100 billion US dollars (£60 billion) a year by 2020 to poor countries to help them cope with the impacts of global warming and develop without polluting.

Click on the post heading to be taken to the BBC site for more information

Click on the photo to be taken to the Independent newspaper for more information

Click here for the Guardian Environment Blog with updates on the Cancun conference

Year 13 Unit 4 pre-release information

Pre-release explore and research information is now available.

To help with the exploration of food production/food security, you may find these links useful:

Feeding Africa article from Dec 2010

Farm Africa website

A rather long document on the Green Revolution in Africa

More about the Green Revolution

Food security in LEDCs

Policies to reduce food insecurity (from UN)

World Food Programme - Purchase for Progress plan (useful case studies)

Are GM crops the solution to food issues in Africa (news story from 7th dec 2010)

Africa can feed itself within a generation (news story from 2nd dec 2010)

The Guardian Food section (useful, up to date information)

Vertical Farming in Urban areas

Trying to achieve food security in Australia (news report from Weds 8th Dec 2010)

FAO - hunger around the world

Don't forget to look at Geofile:
series 25, Issue 3 "Globalisation of food production" (April 2007)
series 27, Issue 2 "Global food production" (Jan 2009)
series 29, Issue 1 "Geopolitics of food" (Sept 2010)
series 29, Issue 2 "Feast or Famine - feeding the worlds people" (Jan 2011 - for some reason it os available now)
All useful but also useful is to look at the bibliographies and see if it can lead you towards further information


A quote for you (dated Tuesday 7th Dec 2010, from the Guardian)

It is great that new research from Harvard University is challenging pessimistic views of Africa as a continent unable to feed itself (Africa can feed itself in a generation, says author, if leaders take up cause, 3 December). However, the expensive and failing technology GM should have no role to play in this – not even selectively. UN research has shown that the adoption of organic and near-organic farming practices in Africa has improved yields by 116%, improved access to food for both farmers and local communities, and raised incomes. The role of agro-ecological farming methods in developing food security was strongly supported in the recent International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development report, written by 400 scientists and approved by 60 countries.

Isobel Tomlinson
Policy and campaigns officer, Soil Association

Cancun Climate Change conference to begin Monday 29th Nov - Report warns of problems

A billion people will lose their homes due to climate change, says report.

British scientists will warn Cancún summit that entire nations could be flooded.

Devastating changes to sea levels, rainfall, water supplies, weather systems and crop yields are increasingly likely before the end of the century, scientists will warn tomorrow (Monday)

A special report, to be released at the start of climate negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, will reveal that up to a billion people face losing their homes in the next 90 years because of failures to agree curbs on carbon emissions.

Up to three billion people could lose access to clean water supplies because global temperatures cannot now be stopped from rising by 4C.

"The main message is that the closer we get to a four-degree rise, the harder it will be to deal with the consequences," said Dr Mark New, a climate expert at Oxford University, who organised a recent conference entitled "Four Degrees and Beyond" on behalf of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Tomorrow the papers from the meeting will be published to coincide with the start of the Cancún climate talks.

Click the post title to read more from this article

Click the photo to be taken to  detailed Guardian website coverage of the whole conference, with lots of useful articles about climate change.

Cornwall Flooding

More than 100 homes have been evacuated after floods and gale-force winds caused disruption across Cornwall. People were trapped in their cars and homes by the rising floodwaters, which reached up to 6ft (2m) deep in places.

Up to 40mm (over 1.5ins) fell in an hour in some places, causing rivers to burst their banks and quickly overwhelming drains and culverts.

Main roads have been closed, landslides have disrupted train services in and out of Cornwall and some schools are shut.

Click the photo to go to the BBC website and see videos, photos and more news about the story

Click on the post title to read more about the floods

Year 13 Human Geographers - Unit 4 (Life on the Margins)

The dates for you to hand in summaries of each Enquiry Question are laid out below. The idea is that you use all your research to sum up the over EQ in a side or two of A4. The point of the summary is so that your teacher can check that you are on the right track in terms of content and understanding. It is not designed as a way of practicing writing in exams - we'll cover this later. Remember that each EQ is made up of smaller questions (parts A, B, C and D and these should be used to help you return to the original overal EQ and write your answer) One of the skills needed is the ability to use the research and pick out what is important - so a short summary is better than something that goes on for 4 pages. You must learn to be selective with the research and information you have used. Don't worry too much about sourcing/referencing at the moment, though you can add these in if you wish. It would be useful to add a bibliogrphy for the summary.

Friday 12th November - hand in summary of EQ1
Tuesday 23rd November - hand in summary of EQ2
Friday 3rd December - hand in summary of EQ3
Thursday 9th December - the date of the pre-release materials (make sure you have got a copy)
Tuesday 14th December - hand in summary of EQ4
Tuesday 1st February 2011 - date of the exam!

Hand this work in by the date shown, preferably typed and sent to staff email addresses
ks.haba@ksn.org.uk (Mr Bains)
ks.refo@ksn.org.uk (Ms Ford)
ks.pesp@ksn.org.uk (Mrs Spooner)
ks.gipa@ksn.org.uk (Mrs Palmer)

We will be practicing and going over things like how to approach the methodology, introduction, essay/report plans and so on in the lead up to the pre-release material being made available. After the Christmas holidays we will start practicing actual Unit 4 exam questions.
Make sure you ask about anything you are unsure of - either in lessons or by email.

And finally, make sure you have looked at the shared area where there are LOADS of useful hints and tips sheets and presentstions. In particular, have a look at the powerpoints produced by Edexcel (our exam board!) as they give you lots of good ideas and information.

Good luck!

Click on the picture to be taken to Amazon.co.uk where you can buy the student guide for Unit 4 for £6.99

More useful sites to visit (in fact these are ESSENTIAL sites to look at):
http://www.wfp.org/hunger/map

http://www.fao.org/hunger/en/

Make sure you explore these sites fully. The bottom one has links to information about food insecurity, the location and prevelance of hunger, the people who are affected and so on.

Year 10 Wellington Boots!

I still have, in my possession, a pair of lovely Wellington boots that were left on the coach frm the trip to Wales. Someone must be missing them! Come and collect them from L13 or the Humanities office by the end of next week or they'll be sent to Lower School Lost Property.

USA-India talks: Obama calls India a "superpower"

On a visit to Delhi, President Obama said India was a world power, and both countries could work together to promote stability and prosperity. In a speech to parliament later, he said he would address Delhi's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat.

Mr Singh said Washington and Delhi had decided to "accelerate the deepening of ties to work as equal partners in a strategic relationship". He said he and Mr Obama had agreed protectionism was detrimental for both countries, and that India was not in the business of stealing American jobs. Both sides would expand co-operation on space, civil, nuclear and defence matters, he added. President Obama also announced $10bn (£6.2bn) in new trade deals with India.

Click on the post headline to read more and see a clip of President Obama giving a speech.
 
More on the story here