Tail end of Hurricane set to hit UK

Transport links and power companies face disruption in Scotland and the north of England from the tail end of hurricane Katia.

The Tour of Britain cycle race, between Kendall and Blackpool,has been cancelled due to the dangerous and very high winds.

The M6 isone of the UK's busiest motorways and it has been closed because of the strong winds. Other roads are also closed.

The Met Office warns us of possible damage and flooding, especially in our part of Scotland! There is likely to be some disruption to roads, rail and ferry services, so travellers are advised to allow more time for journeys.

The high winds and heavy rain are expected to reach a peak on Monday afternoon and evening, so people are advised that to leave work earlier to help avoid rush-hour delays.
For the whole of this article read here.

Santa does Geography

Santa’s song about climate change


No comments just sing along!

'The biggest environmental crime in history'

BP is being accused of abandoning its green policies by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say are damaging in the extreme. Producing crude oil from the tar sands found underneath forests in northern Alberta generates up to four times more carbon dioxide, the principal global warming gas, than conventional drilling. Is our demand for oil really worth this destruction and why is it being done at all? Read the rest here.

Wind energy to power UK by 2020

Currently just 2% of Britain's power comes from renewable energy sources but new proposals today will change all this as well as our coastline. This is a good article to read and evaluate for Adv Higher and for the rest of us lesser mortals we can just read and think about whether we agree with these or not. What are the pros and cons of offshore wind farming, compared to conventional energy sources? Up until now the turbines were built about three or four miles out to sea - but there are now plans to site them further offshore to reduce their visual impact. What about wildlife?
Offshore wind generation is generally wildlife-friendly, according to a Danish report published last year. There is a nice BBC summary here

Pylon threat to mountain wilderness

Good Adv Higher Issue topic here on potential environmental destruction. Read it here. What do you think girls?

Amazon destruction

Good revision here for S4 just before your prelim and for the rest of us just to watch. Climate change and deforestation are destroying the Amazon far more quickly than previously thought, conservationists have warned. Watch the video here.

Look also at some fantastic pictures from the Guardian today at the link here illustrating exactly what is happening to this sensitive area.

By the end of the century, global warming is likely to reduce rainfall by 20% in eastern Amazonia, pushing up temperatures by more than 2C and causing forest fires, a report said today. Read the article here

Ben and Jerry's

Ben and Jerry's likes to portray itself as an ethical brand. One of the company's recent initiatives has been to sponsor a Climate Change College - a project which is sending six young European environmentalists to study and explore the high Arctic. Neil Jennings, from Kingston-upon-Thames, devised a "Student Switch Off" campaign which encouraged university students to turn off lights and unplug their phone chargers in halls of residence. Read here.

US northwest hit by deadly storms

High winds and heavy rains have hit the northwest US, killing five people and leaving thousands without power.
Winds of 90mph and up to 28cm of rain have struck this area. One Oregon town had to be evacuated after it was cut off by a landslide. Three of the reported deaths happened in Washington, where one man died in a building hit by a mudslide. Read the rest here and watch this video here.

Glaciers Melting

Nepal's biggest glacial lakes is threatening to burst, putting nearby villages at risk of flooding. Watch the video here

Climate Change

The tropical belt that circles the Earth is expanding north and south, which could have severe consequences for large regions of the world where the climate is likely to become drier or more stormy.
“Most importantly, poleward movement of large-scale atmospheric circulation systems, such as jet streams and storm tracks, could result in shifts in precipitation patterns affecting natural ecosystems, agriculture and water resources," scientists say. "An increase in the width of the tropics could bring an increase in the area affected by tropical storms, or could change climatologically tropical cyclone development regions and tracks," they say.
Australia is one of the countries likely to be worst affected by the shifting tropics because westerly winds bringing much-needed rain to the continent's arid south coast are likely to be pushed further south, dumping their water over open ocean rather than on land, scientists said.
Read the rest here

Climate change conference
The two-week gathering in Bali, Indonesia, will also debate how to help poor nations cope in a warming world. At the top of the conference's agenda is the need to reach a consensus on how to curb emissions beyond 2012.
Read the rest of this BBC article here.

Three Gorges “Disaster”

There are fears that China's Three Gorges Dam is causing serious environmental problems eg landslides that have triggered 50 metre-high waves on the reservoir behind the dam. These landslides are being caused by the huge weight of water behind the dam and fluctuations in the water level.
Last week, a landslide in Badong County in Hubei Province, alongside the reservoir, killed more than 30 people after burying a bus. China now insists that there have been no unforeseen environmental problems related to the project, due for completion in 2009. Read the rest here of this BBC article.

Weather Disasters

The number of weather-related disasters has quadrupled over the past 20 years, according to Oxfam. Watch the video here.

Update on Bangladesh cyclone

As many as 10,000 people may have died and millions have been made homeless after a cyclone tore a trail of destruction through Bangladesh, officials said yesterday. Why do you think the figures about the numbers dead or injured keep changing? What type of aid is needed in this type of disaster - short or long term? Read the most recent information here.

Bangladesh rescue effort goes on

Rescuers are continuing efforts to try to reach people hit by a powerful cyclone that tore through southern Bangladesh killing at least 2,000. Cyclone Sidr destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes, brought down power lines and wiped out vital crops.
Helicopters and ships are being used to get food and clean water to thousands.
Thousands of soldiers have joined international agencies and local officials in a massive relief operation, but debris and floods are hampering their efforts. Britain, Germany and the European Union have offered several million dollars in relief aid and the World Food Programme is rushing in food supplies. Read this here.

Life in Peru's most polluted town

La Oroya, home to more than 30,000 people, is a company town and many residents say nothing about the pollution for fear of losing their jobs. A mum says"My 12-year old daughter's hands are swollen with blisters. She tells me her head really hurts, just too much." Lead poisoning is chronic and debilitating. It affects the central nervous system and lodges permanently in the bones, liver and brain, and is known to cause learning difficulties and stunted growth.
Peru's metal exports, driven by high global prices, are the main force behind its economic boom. Read the rest here.

Cyclone devastates Bangladeshi capital

Watch a video here on the dreadful effects of the cyclone and also one here.

Bangladesh cyclone kills more than 600

At least 600 people are reported to have died after a powerful cyclone smashed into Bangladesh's coast, levelling villages and uprooting trees.
Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated or sought safe shelter before the storm hit the coast from the Bay of Bengal, but some were left behind.
A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh's coast with 150 mph winds killed at least 242 people, levelled homes and forced the evacuation of 650,000 villagers before heading inland and losing power today, officials said.
Tropical Cyclone Sidr roared across the country's southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain and high waves. Most of the dead were killed by falling debris, according to Nahid Sultana, an official at a cyclone control room in the capital, Dhaka. Read here and here

Geography Awareness week

S1 Geography in the news Special
November 11 to 17 is Geography Awareness Week with this year's theme being Asia.Asia plays a massive role in the world due to its size and population. Here are just some facts about Asia:
Even though Asia expands less than nine percent of surface, that is slightly under thirty percent of Earth's dry land.
The world's largest country, Russia with 6,592,812 square miles (17,075,400 km sq), is mostly in Asia.
The world's two most populous countries are China and India.
The Tokyo metropolitan area is the world's largest urban agglomeration with 30,724,000 people.
Mount Everest is the highest sea level elevation in the world at 29,035 feet (8,850 m).
The Dead Sea is the lowest surface elevation in the world at 1,316 feet (401 m) below sea level.
The Caspian Sea is the largest lake, surface area of 142,000 square miles (367,000 km sq) in the world and currently at geopolitical hot spot due to its oil and natural gas wealth.
Lake Baykal is the deepest lake in the world at 5,135 feet (1,620 m).
And on the human side:
There are four billion people in Asia which is approximately sixty percent of the world's population.
About 7.5 million Asians have AIDS with more than 4.5 million infected living in India.
The Gross Domestic Product of Asia is $18.077 trillion and per capita is $4,518 (the United States is $13.675 trillion/$43,444 and the European Union $13.08 trillion/$29,900)
Asia will play an increasingly daily role in people's lives with markets being globalized, jobs being outsourced and insourced, the rise of China, wars against extremism, and the spreading of new diseases.

The Sundarbans mangrove forest, one of the largest such forests in the world (140,000 ha), lies on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal. It is adjacent to the border of India’s Sundarbans World Heritage site designated in 1987. The site is crisscrossed by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests, and presents an excellent example of ongoing ecological processes. The area is known for its wide range of fauna, including 260 bird species, the Bengal tiger and other threatened species such as the crocodile and the python. Climate change threatens UNESCO World Heritage sites. Rising sea levels and flooding due to climate change could have a devastating effect on both the buildings and social fabric of historic cities and settlements.
Satellite imagery shows that the sea level in the Sundarbans has risen at an average rate of 3.14 centimetres a year over the past two decades - much higher than the global average of two millimetres a year.
Scientists believe that in the next 50 years, a rise of even one metre in sea level would inundate 1,000 sq.km of the Sundarbans.
Read the rest of the article here.

Look at the journey a journalist takes down the river here. Good use of Google maps.

Demand for palm oil 'is damaging the planet'

Growing demand for palm oil by some of the world's largest companies, such as Unilever, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble, is now one of the main causes of climate change, Greenpeace says. Large-scale clearance of tropical forests for oil palm plantations, to provide for a growing demand for cheap vegetable oil for use in the food, cosmetics and biofuel industries, has been responsible for rising emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Greenpeace is calling for a temporary ban on forest clearance and peatland degradation, and for money to be provided for owners to help them avoid deforestation. Read the rest here and don’t forget to look at the other links on biofuels about this topic.

Horrendous weather forecast

Residents along the east coast of England, from Yorkshire to Kent, have been warned of an "extreme danger to life and property" as six severe flood warnings were issued by the Environment Agency.
A combination of north-westerly winds up to force 8, low pressure and high tides has combined to create the threat. The highest water levels would be at 7am on Friday, officials said.
Remember to look at the Guardians excellent information on the summer floods of 2007 here.

Read also the Times article here on the dangers.