Tackling poverty in Africa

Update on G8 goals of 2005.

1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2 Achieve universal primary education
3 Promote gender equality and empower women
4 Reduce child mortality
5 Improve maternal health
6 Combat HIV/Aids, malaria, and other diseases
7 Ensure environmental sustainability
8 Develop a global partnership for development
Do you think any or all of these have been met? Think about the powerpoints you have seen in class last week –now look at the article here.

Diseases of EMDCs

The BBC has a lot of excellent information about the causes of many of these diseases and also BBC Bitesize has a great look at the “Usual Suspects”. Check it here.

The lost tribe now found

Is this the last sighting of these rare people? Perhaps this will be the end of this remote nomadic tribe since the state in Peru want their land. Should they be forced off their land or should they be protected? What do you think? Watch the video here.

Malaria Introduction

Fighting Malaria
This is an old American video made in WWII on the transmission of malaria and was made by Disney. Enjoy the 7 dwarfs! Shows how important the disease was and still is. Think about the impact oil has though on the fish and the environment. What about the cost for cash strapped ELDCs. I’d rather have had the cans recycled too and the mosquito nets soaked in insecticide regularly!


This film sums up the infection process of malaria quite nicely. Good for Higher and Int 2. Remember this ALWAYS come up in every Development and Health question in some form.

World Geography for you to learn

What about competing with Lilly and learning this song? Learn all the countries of the world the easy way.

US states

Would Lilly be as good at this?

Panic fear as Japan to issue alerts before quakes hit

JAPAN, which is prone to earthquakes, is to issue pre-emptive warnings of approaching big tremors, to reduce casualties and damage - although some fear the new system will lead to panic. It could also prompt trains, lifts and factories to stop operating, limiting damage in Japan, where 20 per cent of the world's big quakes are recorded and where Tokyo is said to be long overdue for a major tremor. The Tokyo city government has said an earthquake in the capital of a similar magnitude to Kobe could kill more than 7,000 people and injure close to 160,000. What do you think – a good idea or not?

Chocolate without the guilt

This is a list of ethical chocolate you can eat and still do your “bit” for the farmers of the ELDCs. Heres the top 10 you can buy and not feel guilty. Feel free to buy tonnes of it! PS When you are ill don’t come to me – I don’t like the stuff as you know. Nobody mention Pringles please!
Read here.

Wave bye bye in Orkney

Plans for the world's biggest wave energy project today were today given the green light by ministers.
The £4 million project, located in Orkney, will deliver enough power for 2,000 homes
Our natural resources mean we can be a world leader in new wave and tidal energy technologies.
The revolutionary work of the European Marine Energy Centre is a perfect example of how we can deliver the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy for generations to come. Read the rest here.

Old folk rule!

The number of people living past 100 in England and Wales reached almost 9,000 last year for the first time. The rise is being attributed to dramatic improvements in healthcare and housing conditions over the past century which have led to people living longer.
Read the rest here.

Just because.................

Advanced Higher Searching tools

Read Ollie Bray's excellent advice on Internet searching here.

Climate Change world discussions

The Kyoto protocol is the closest the world has come to a global agreement to combat climate change – and it is running out. Signed in 1997, it was designed to stabilise emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Ratified by 167 countries, it has been ignored by major polluters such as the US and China and expires in 2012. The UN's own scientists in the form of the IPCC are clear that Kyoto did not go nearly far enough and fraught negotiations on a new framework – dubbed the "Son of Kyoto" – have been under way for some time. It is now widely accepted that carbon trading will form the basis of any new agreement. Read the rest here.

Timetable set to phase out high-energy light bulbs
A bid to phase out all high-energy light bulbs on sale in British shops was announced by the Government today.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said he wanted to see the energy wasting bulbs start to disappear from the shelves in January and phased out by 2011. Read the rest here.

India Pollution and property price boom

Amritsar is at the heart of the extraordinary boom that has seen the Indian economy growing at almost 10% a year – up from 3% a decade ago. The city has grown rich on the rise of call centres, IT outsourcing and textiles. As India’s 300m-strong middle class gets richer, there is an increasing desire to escape the appalling infrastructure, the stench of the sewers, the erratic power supply and the squalid streets. Read the rest here.

Three Gorges Dam is a disaster in the making, China admits

Vessels emerge from the five-stage permanent ship lock, illustrating the immense scale of the project
Residents leave Fengjie, a historic town that was submerged by the rising water level of the reservoir
For more than a decade China has promoted the world’s biggest hydro-electric project as the best way to end centuries of floods along the basin of the Yangtze and to provide energy. Now those same officials who oversaw construction of the £13 billion dam admit that surrounding areas are paying a heavy, and potentially calamitous, environmental cost. Hundreds of thousands of people may have to be moved. A total of 1.3 million have been displaced by the dam already. Read the rest here.

200,000 immigrants to enter Britain EVERY year as numbers soar by 30%

It was thought this was mainly due to higher numbers of eastern Europeans coming to Britain since their countries joined the EU. A study also calculated probable changes in life expectancy. These were that the life expectancy for babies born in 2031 will also rise to 82.7 years for males and 86.2 years for females, up from 81.4 years and 85.0 years in earlier calculations. What do you think the problems will be for a small country like Scotland and are there more disadvantages of this than advantages? This is a VERY common Higher and even Standard grade question. Read the rest of the article for more info.

'Half of Zimbabwe will soon need food aid'

Half of Zimbabwe's people will be dependent on emergency food aid next year. Of the estimated four million who have fled, up to three million have moved to neighbouring South Africa and a large number has moved to London. It is estimated that 100,000 Zimbabweans are crossing into South Africa every month. Read the rest here.

Migrant’s Stories

Saranda was 13 when she and her family fled from Kosovo in fear of their lives. They were Albanians and that meant they were no longer welcome in their homeland. She tells us what being a refugee and living in the camps in Macedonia was like and how they ended up in the UK.
Anne-Marie left the island of Mauritius when she was a teenager to find a bigger and better life in Italy. She got a job, met her husband and had two children but still felt there were no prospects. The family decided to come to the UK where her husband had relatives. So they got in a van and drove to London. In the next film she talks about what happened to them. Watch here.

World Geography Expert

Who needs to know where Paraguay, Norway and Djibouti are anyway! Are you as good as this 2 year old? Don’t answer……. its too embarrassing.

The truth about AIDS in Africa.

Very short and thought provoking film.

Police chief fears migrant impact

A chief constable has said her force needs more staff and resources to cope with the pressures caused by a sudden influx of migrant workers. Click here for the rest of the article

Global Health map

Global Health map where you can find out where people are affected by some of the most common killers of today. Try malaria first and then add a few others.

French government eyes 'le baby boom'

France, where the government has promoted large families for 200 years, doesn't have enough babies.
Cash payments, tax breaks and subsidized child care have helped make France's fertility rate the second highest in Europe. It still isn't high enough to rescue the country from an aging population that threatens state spending on pensions and health. Read the rest here.

The fight against malaria

No notes just watch the video and listen.

Gorillas in the music dept.

What would Mr Goudie say?!!!!!!
Nothing to do with geography but I like it!

Chinese One child Policy in the 21st Century

China's family planning rules are often referred to as the one-child policy, but there are a significant number of people who are allowed to have more.
There are also others who choose to ignore the rules and have extra children regardless of the consequences. Read the rest of the article on this topic here. This is fantastic for Higher, Int 2 Development and Health answers and even S grade population answers at credit level.
Get reading!!

Brazil’s way of protecting the native Indians

The Brazilian government is to spend $270m (£133m) in the next three years creating new reservations for indigenous groups in the Amazon. The tribes will get water and electricity. Watch the video on this here. and read the rest of the article here.

African floods

Aid agencies have started appealing for funds to assist people hit by the floods in several African countries. The UN says 1.5m people are affected by the floods which have hit countries from the east to the west of Africa.
The rainy season brought the worst floods in living memory to Sudan. The Atbara River spread wide over its banks. Entire regions are exposed to outbreaks of malaria, cholera and meningitis. Look atht rest of the pictures here.

Elderly people in Japan - problem or advantage?

Land of the rising geriatrics
In any other country, 100th birthdays are a cause for celebration. Not so in Japan, where extraordinary life expectancy is creating a timebomb for the nation's health and social security systems. Jeremy Laurance reports from Tokyo on a looming population crisis
The tropical Okinawan islands in Japan's extreme south-west are home to more than twice the national average of centenarians. Their traditional diet is deemed even healthier than that of mainland Japan, with more edible seaweeds, higher protein content and more local produce rich in antioxidants, as well as a more relaxed lifestyle. Read the rest of the article here.

Climate change

Just to prove to S3 that I was not exaggerating the impact of se level rising, read this article of the effects Florida expects within the next few years. Better get Mickey some scuba gear!

Ecuador seeks oil 'compensation'

Good topic here for Advanced Higher issues and general topics on resource exploitation. What do you think – should Ecuador drill for oil or leave the land alone?

Another good topic here on quarrying in the Peak District and a long running battle. Read here.

Fishy cure for malaria

Read the article here which shows how important suitable methods of trying to combat malaria are. These fish grow very quickly and then can be eaten and add much needed protein to the diet of people in ELDCs.

Quality of life in Scandinavia- best in world

The statistical basis is the UN's Human Development Index and the Environmental Sustainability Index drawn up by Yale and Columbia universities and the World Economic Forum.
The ranking combines environmental factors, such as air and water quality, respect for biodiversity and greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as social factors, such as gross domestic product, access to education, unemployment rate and life expectancy.
The winner is Stockholm, followed by Oslo, Munich and Paris.
Asia's mega-cities fare the worst. At the bottom is Beijing, preceded by Shanghai, Mumbai, Guangzhou and Bangkok.
Read the complete report here. Ideal info for Higher and Int 2 Development and Health Indicators of development. We will be covering this next week.

Sand Dunes

I know this won't make any sense at all at the moment but I thought I'd better put these sites up before I forget. We will be covering the Biosphere section much later in the year and this is a good site. Sand dune succession link and Georesources link and Sands of Time site.

Recycling targets

Another excellent BBC video on how we aren’t meeting our recycling targets yet. Do you agree with burning the waste? Let me know next week. Click here Apparently, according to the local press, however, both South and East Ayrshire are doing slightly better than average and recycle more than their 25% target. Do you think this is enough though? Remember the video showing Germany's record of 55% of their waste recycled. Can we do the same?
Read the rest of the article here. Good idea for S3 who will be tested soon on this topic! Hint Hint.

A "green gulf" has emerged between low income and better off households in the drive towards being environmentally friendly, according to charities.
Friends of the Earth said green living was harder for poorer families. A spokesperson said "For people on a low income choosing to buy clothes for their children, or food, or what bill to pay means buying loft insulation is not going to be top of the list." Read the rest of the article here.

Have a good holiday weekend.

The QE2

The QE2 has marked the 40th anniversary of its launch by returning to the stretch of river where it was built.
The vessel was launched from the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank on 20 September, 1967. Watch the short video here on this ship showing the Clyde’s industrial past. Very useful for S4 looking at Industrial change preparing for the test next week! The ship will become a floating hotel in the Middle East.

China's 'perfect child' generation

Many youngsters rise early and go to bed late in order to cram in school work, extra classes and music lessons - even on weekends. Read the rest of the article here and find out if you fancy living in China – I bet you don’t

Has China's one-child policy worked?

Since the regulations were introduced in 1979, China has kept its population in check using persuasion, coercion and encouragement. This has resulted in an increasing proportion of older people, a smaller workforce to look after them and a disproportionate number of boys to girls. Higher and Int 2 will be covering this topic soon and S grade shortly. Good idea to read up on this article to see the impact of the policy.

Swiss plan to make a mountain out of little Matterhorn

The Klein Matterhorn, already the site of the world’s highest cable car in Switzerland, would be topped by a 117m high pyramid. Tourist chiefs hope it will lure the visitors. Read the whole article here. Is this a good idea/ Can you imagine a pink hat on top of Ben Nevis? I hope not!!!!!

Big drive at the golf course

THE world's longest golf course - a mean 853 miles - is among outback tourism projects given a funding boost by the Australian government to help drought-hit communities.
The Nullarbor Links project involves building one hole at 18 participating roadhouses and tiny townships along the remote Eyre Highway between Western and South Australia. Travelling non-stop at the speed limit, it would take motorists 13 hours to get from one end to the other. But the idea is to persuade travellers to take a break at the highway's roadhouses and tiny settlements, where they can tee-off to an "outback fairway", and "green". Read the rest here.