Pre-release material for unit 4 (Year 13 students)

The pre-release materials will be available on the 9th December 2010. You can find it by following this link.
You will not be able to take this material into the exam with you.

The Prosperity Index

What is prosperity? This website looks at ways of measuring how well countries are doing

The Legatum Prosperity Index is the world's only global assessment of wealth and wellbeing; unlike other studies that rank countries by actual levels of wealth, life satisfaction or development, the Prosperity Index produces rankings based upon the very foundations of prosperity those factors that will help drive economic growth and produce happy citizens over the long term.

Using their system of ranking countries and measuring prosperity, here are the 10 most successful countries in the world:
1 Norway
2 Denmark
3 Finland
4 Australia
5 New Zealand
6 Sweden
7 Canada
8 Switzerland
9 Netherlands
10 United States

Click on the post title to be taken to the website, where you can see data and maps showing levels of development all over the world.

International Aid from the UK to increase

The Government has been cutting spending in an attempt to save money. But it announced that the amount of money being spent on aid for poorer countries will be increased by about 40%. This means that the UK will hit the UN target of 0.7% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) being given as aid within 3 years. Each country has this target, though only a handful have ever managed to meet it. However, aid to China and Russia will be stopped.

Click on the post title to watch a 2 minute clip from the BBC that looks at the issue and opinions.

Click here to read more about this story

Click here to watch a short and simple presentation from the BBC called "Beating Poverty"

Qatar attempt to solve food security problems

Click on the title to watch a 4 minute BBC video report on attempts to sort out the issue of food security in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar.

With a rapidly-growing population and more than 90% of its food needs met through imports, the island state of Qatar has begun investing heavily in improving its food security. While working to improve and maintain relationships with its providers, Qatar is also setting several challenges for its own agricultural industry to help address the imbalance.

Over 100 dead and thousands suffering from effects of Cholera in Haiti

It's been 9 months since the devestating earthquake that hit Haiti in January. Although the story might not be in the news headlines as often now, thousands of people are still living in tents in temporary camps.
An outbreak of Cholera has killed 135 people and the fear is that if the disease spreads to these camps, then many more hundreds or thousands will also die. This shows how the effects of earthquakes can be felt for long periods after the actual disaster.

Click on the post title to read the full story and watch the latest video news from Haiti

Water Scarcity Poses International Conflict and Threatens Regional Stability

An interesting article for Year 13 students, currently studying Water Conflicts. This article talks about the potential for conflict in various parts of the world as a result of growing popualtions and resource scarcity.

An extract from the article (read the whole thing by clicking on the post title):

"With the global population expected to reach ten billion people by the year 2050, severe shortages over our most critical resource, water, will certainly arise. The areas of the world that will ultimately confront this challenge already are challenged by instability"

The article then goes on to look at the Middle East and Aftrica and South Asia in more detail.

Cick on the photo for another report into the growing water crisis in Asia

Climate change threatens emerging superpowers

Some of the "big economies of the future" are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to a new study published today.

UK consultancy Maplecroft identified Bangladesh and India as the two countries facing the greatest risks to their populations, ecosystems and business environments after ranking 170 countries based on their exposure to climate-related natural disasters and their social, economic and political ability to adapt to a changing climate.
According to Maplecroft, the countries facing the greatest risks are characterised by high levels of poverty, dense populations, exposure to climate-related events and reliance on flood- and drought-prone agricultural land.
Bangladesh ticks most of these boxes and the report warns that rising climate risks could hit foreign investment into the country, undermining the driving force behind economic growth of 88 per cent between 2000 and 2008.
Similarly, the report warned that India's massive population and increasing demand for scarce resources made it particularly sensitive to climate change.

Typhoon Megi leaves 200,000 homeless in Philippines

Typhoon Megi is gathering strength and heading towards southern China, meteorologists said, after leaving 200,000 Filipinos homeless.

The severe storm left a trail of destruction in its wake after hitting the northern Philippines on Monday.

Officials there said at least 200,000 people remained homeless with the cost to infrastructure still unknown.

The storm is described as the worst in many years, but predictions vary about where it will make next landfall.

People in the Chinese province of Guangdong and Hong Kong are stockpiling food ahead of the storm, which has been gathering strength over the South China Sea.

Ships and fishing boats have been told to stay in harbour, as Hong Kong's weather officials predicted winds of up to more than 185 km/hour(115mph).