Rainforest Destruction

Two good videos here showing what is going on. I love the first one. Would you like this happening to your home?

Rainforest Carve up
Love the spiffing accent!

Biofuels Issues

Lizzie Two for you!
Biofuel and those orangutans.

ITCZ

Great site here to show this. Thanks to K O'Donnell, another geography blogger for this one. It is good to show the movement of this belt of rain and has climate graphs associated with these areas. He also highlights this one on global circulation. All good revision for those dreaded prelims.

S2 Homework help

The San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
Here are a few links that you might like to use if this is your homework choice
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/sfeq.htm
http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/06.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake
http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/1906earth.html
http://seismo.berkeley.edu/faq/1906_0.html
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/sf-earthquake-and-fire/
http://geology.about.com/od/historicearthquakes/a/aa_frisco06.htm

If you are doing Mt St Helens then here are a few links to use

http://www.fema.gov/kids/volhelen.htm
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/msh
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/frequent_questions/group6_new.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens
http://www.olywa.net/radu/valerie/StHelens.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/19/newsid_2511000/2511133.stm(watch this one – the number of dead is not accurate as a final total! It was 57 dead.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/horribledisasters/p/mtsthelens.htm
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst_case_scenarios/4219883.html

There are lots of other sites but make sure you get the right eruption from 1980 or the 1906 earthquake if you are researching these. Happy hunting!

Organic food

Try the veggie trumps game here to see if you really know your onions! You can also sign up to support Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's CHICKEN OUT campaign...

There is a good site here which allows you to access different farms around England and Wales to see what goes on in each. Look at the types of diversification . Link here

Sheep Farming
What has this video got to do with the state of farming in Britain

China Cheats

One for you Kirsty!

Good also for Higher revision of Development and Health and Int also.
China's celebrities 'buy' extra children· Anger over wealthy breaking one-child rule· Beijing to impose higher penalties to enforce law. Link here


Kirsty – also have a look at this site to get you going with your issues essay,

David Attenborough on Climate Change

Reminder about Audio Bites

This is a good page to revise your glaciation features. Listen to the formation of a glacial trough or U shaped valley. Plucking useful! Rest here.

A glaciation reminder
If you think I’m a bit weird at times you need to watch these guys describing glacial features. Say no more!

You are nuts!

Watch this film about nuts and trade. It has a real message if you can see past the cartoon peanuts!

Revision for all levels

Good study site here to let you know how your brain works. The lady dancing shows whether you use your left or right side more – assuming you use it at all!
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

uses logic

detail oriented

math and science

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

uses feeling

imagination rules

symbols and images

More details on the site here.

Sahara sand surprise over Wales

People in parts of south Wales woke to find their cars and houses covered in dust which has come all the way from the Sahara Desert.
A number of people were concerned it could be hazardous but experts say there is nothing to be worried about. It was caused by a big high pressure system sitting over central Europe which had coincided with the sand storm. The last time it had happened was in March 2007. Read the rest here.

Revision for S5/6

How to revise

View Upload your own

Simple presentation with a few ideas on different revision techniques

Geosense

Nice wee game here to see if you can find your way round the world. Have a go and play with others.
http://www.geosense.net/

Higher revision

It might be a good idea to look at the specimen paper for Geography using the link here to give you some pointers before your prelims. Look at the questions and then try them and THEN (only then!) mark your answers looking at the marking scheme given. No none of these are your prelim questions!
http://www.sqa.org.uk/files/nq/c04212_sqp.pdf

Industry links Higher
Call centres
UK firms size up Indian benefits
Watch the videos on this site here.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3256454.stm
Fancy earning twice as much as a doctor and getting chauffeured to and from work each day?

Hertford to Hyderabad: call centre workers learn about slang, Stonehenge and BBC diction
At the office there's a free canteen, a fully equipped gym and a pool table. Now here's the snag. You'll only be earning £150 a month and may have to work until 2.30am. And you'll be living in India. Read the article on this here.

Finally see how the situation is changing for some firms now.
Abbey closes Indian call centres
Abbey's retreat from India was prompted by complaints from customers.
The former building society, previously known as Abbey National, was one of a wave of companies which jumped on a bandwagon of exporting jobs to India. It is the first to reverse the move. Staff in Bangalore carry out basic bank account tasks, such as reading out customers' balances over the phone and drawing up standing orders. But customers said they were unhappy with the service. Some complained of language difficulties.
Read the rest here

Lucky Goldstar
You should read through this link about the Lucky Goldstar investment in Wales.Article from The Independent

Good study introduction to South Wales and how its industry has changed here. Compare this to the Sambre Meuse area. Link here.

No Water in Nairobi Slum
In Nairobi's central slum, Kibera, nearly a million people are crowded together with no proper water supply. Watch this disturbing video here. Excellent revision for Higher and Intermediate Development and Health.

Raising use of biofuels would harm the planet, says report

Biofuels often increase greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbate the climate change that they were supposed to avoid, a committee of MPs concluded.
The report accused the Government and the European Union of reckless support for biofuels that encouraged the destruction of forests. MPs recognised that second-generation biofuels could be useful in the fight against climate change, but said that it would be a decade before they could make an impact. Read the rest here.

David Beckham appeals for worldwide help to end ‘shocking and tragic’ child deaths

David Beckham urged the rest of the world not to ignore the deaths of tens of thousands of children yesterday during a visit to Sierra Leone in his capacity as a goodwill ambassador for Unicef. Beckham, who spent four days in the West African country, said: “We can’t turn a blind eye to the tens of thousands of young children who die every day in the developing world, mostly from causes that are preventable. Read the rest here

Global Warming happening now.

BBC news on the flooding of Tuvalu in the South Pacific.
Islanders who inhabit one of the most remote nations on Earth, Tuvalu, fear the area could disappear within 50 years. Read the article here and watch the video here.

Scotland Recycles

Plans are to increase the amount of municipal waste being recycled or composted to 60% by 2020 and 70% by 2025.
Other targets include limiting the amount of waste used to generate energy to a quarter by 2025 and stopping the growth of municipal waste by 2010.
New solutions for dealing with Scotland's waste are to be set out by the Scottish Government.
Watch the video here as revision for your third year exams coming up soon or for S4 revision.

Earthquakes

From the BBC website there is a good article here on the Gujarat quake in India in 2001. This could be used for your homework if you want. Watch the video and look at the “in depth” page.

Rainforest Destruction

Sad but stunning film here where the lyre bird imitates other creatures in the forest but also the sounds of the chainsaws destroying the forest! The camera shutters are fantastic but the car alarm and saws disturb me too much. What are we doing to the planet?

Brazil is losing its Amazonian forests to farmers at an unprecedented rate, satellite observations have shown. In the past 40 years, 20 per cent of the Amazon forests have been cut down and in 2004 the highest rate of deforestation in Brazil was recorded when 10,400sq miles of the habitat, described as the world's lungs, disappeared.
Rest of the link here and here.

Early Warning!

S2 Earth Forces Homework on its way!
You will have to do a newspaper report on either the Mt St Helens eruption or an earthquake of your choice (!!), probably San Francisco 1906 for homework. If you are reading this you get extra time to do it. Well done! Don’t tell the rest of the class - just smile in class and you and I will know your secret. Use the links under Earth Forces and you can all the info you need as well as the info I will give you in class. Ask me if you want a report template to use. You can write it or type it out - I don't mind.

S2 homework

Get a Voki now!

Rivers revision

Oxbow Lakes

View Upload your own

More help. Watch carefully how the river changes.

Rivers revision

Niagara Falls

View Upload your own

Good for S1 to use before your landscapes test or perhaps this will help with your homework.

Fly round the planet

Now this really is amazing!
No comment except Isn’t Google Earth cool?

Global Warming Summary

Nice list here on what will happen to the planet if we don’t stop misusing it now. See the whole article here – it is a bit wordy but worth while if you read it.
RED ALERT
If global warming continues at the current rate, we could be facing extinction. So what exactly is going to happen as the Earth heats up? Here is a degree-by-degree guide
1c Increase
Ice-free sea absorbs ?more heat and accelerates global warming; fresh water lost from a third of the world's surface; low-lying coastlines flooded
2c Increase
Europeans dying of heatstroke; forests ravaged by fire; stressed plants beginning to emit carbon rather than absorbing it; a third of all species face extinction
3c Increase
Carbon release from vegetation and soils ?speeds global warming; death of the Amazon rainforest; super-hurricanes hit coastal cities; starvation in Africa
4c Increase
Runaway thaw of permafrost makes global warming unstoppable; much of Britain made uninhabitable by severe flooding; Mediterranean region abandoned
5c Increase
Methane from ocean floor accelerates global warming; ice gone from both poles; humans migrate in search of food and try vainly to live like animals off the land
6c Increase
Life on Earth ends with apocalyptic storms, flash floods, hydrogen sulphide gas and methane fireballs racing across the globe with the power of atomic bombs; only fungi survive
Chance of avoiding six degrees of global warming: zero if the rise passes five degrees, by which time all feedbacks will be running out of control

Climate Change Song
Related to the article below. Here is a wee song about this.

There is more information on this one and it is a bit longer.

Biofuels 'do more harm than good'

Controversial plans to make cars greener by using fuel made from crops and animal fat will be thrown into doubt this week when MPs are expected to question whether they will do more harm than good. From April, petrol and diesel sold in the UK must have 2.5 per cent biofuels, drawn from sources such as tallow, rapeseed and sugar beet, rising to 5 per cent in two years' time. The EU wants to increase this to 10 per cent by 2020. Read the rest here.

Tropical Rainforest Desstruction

Worrying trend on rainforest destruction
Read this article here to see why the situation is just as bad now despite all the information we have about the dangers of Rainforest destruction.

Amazing Pics

Stunning Planet Earth

View Upload your own

Some good photos from around this amazing planet.

China Spectacular Pics

Amazing China

View Upload your own

Some Truly Amazing Photos of China

Niagara Formation

Geography - Niagara Falls

View Upload your own

Spearman Rank

How And Why To Use Spearman’s Rank

View Upload your own

Will this help with revsion folks?

Coastal Erosion

A fellow Geography teacher in England has a lot of Stuff on coastal erosion on his blog here
http://geobytesgcse.blogspot.com/2007/08/coastal-erosion-landforms-features-and.html
including a podcast and a few videos. This is a lot more than you need in S1 but you should look at some of the movies at least and check out some of the links. Make sure you also explore the coastal deposition link on the right with the animations to help you eg this one on longshore drift and this one on the formation of a spit.

Advanced Higher

Useful free site
Good one here for your study. Save this one in your favourites to use when necessary.
http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/
This is also a good one about the use of basics graphs – what type, where to use etc and also about different types of maps. See the Statistical Maps section on the left. Link here.

Yangtze River

Cargo boats on the Yangtze have been stranded on river banks as its levels have fallen to a 140-year low. Government scientists blamed an extended drought in southern and south-western China, which caused widespread water shortages last autumn. But they also admitted that too much water had been held up by the giant Three Gorges Dam. Global warming, population pressure, and inefficient use of resources have all contributed to a nationwide water shortage. Read the rest here.

Tropical Rainforest music

Thought I'd put this on whilst I found it. Remember it was also used on the BBC before programmes started. It is a bit "haunting" but I like it. The band is from Iceland and is Sigur Ros.

Desert Landscapes

Desert Introduction

View Upload your own

Introduction to hot deserts. Some good photos here as a reminder of desert conditions

Coastal erosion

Coastal Landforms

View Upload your own

Coastal Erosion

Coastal Erosion

View Upload your own

Coastal Erosion

Watch the flags go! Bawdsey is a village in Suffolk, England near Felixstowe.
See a map of this area here

Glaciation

Glacial Deposition


Glacial Erosion

Antarctic

Study of a 15 million-year-old lake buried under the ice of Antarctica could gives clues on climate change. Lake Ellsworth, in West Antarctica, is buried under 3.2kms of ice. It is one of more than 150 lakes locked beneath Antarctica's vast ice sheets. These were found using radar and satellites. Read more here

Climate change at the coast

A new report from Plymouth University is assessing the effects of climate change on the waters around Britain. Watch the video here.

Biofuels again!

Have a look at these for info about this topic.

Biofuels graphs
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3339080.ece?service=imagePopUp&field=bodyCopy&pageNumber=1
More info on this topic and bang up to date info. Think about this one girls!
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3339080.ece

Earthquakes and Plate tectonics

A few videos here for S2 to look at.
Plate Tectonics


Colliding plates animation for S2

How earthquakes work

Deserts

Listen to the ways the Saguaro cactus has adapted to their environment.

Look also at the information here and here for more.

Biofuels

Biofuels - derived from food crops including corn, sugar cane, palm oil and oilseed rape - are one of the few new ideas with the potential to replace oil as a fuel for and are seen as a way to cut greenhouse gases.
But a report produced today by the Royal Society http://royalsociety.org/ warned that biofuels risk failing to deliver significant reductions in transport emissions and could even be environmentally damaging. Read the rest here.
The impact of biofuels
Biofuels have a number of benefits, which include being carbon neutral (that is, the carbon they emit in the atmosphere when burned is offset by the carbon that plants absorb from the atmosphere while growing), renewable (fresh supplies can be grown as needed), secure in their supply and able to be cultivated in many different environments.
But they have been increasingly criticised recently for their environmental impacts, food security and land use implications.
The EU is to re-examine its policy on biofuels after admitting that the environmental and social impact of producing the crops may be greater than originally thought. It is said the environmental impact and the effect on poor countries of producing biofuel production would be greater than the scientists. This is a great topic which is becoming more controversial by the day for adv higher. Read more here.

Vaccine-preventable diseases

Here is a good site for background reading for Higher on Development and Health. Link here.

Look at this site for Higher and Int 2 revision of River Basin Management
You haven’t studied this site but the pros and cons of dams are good to revise the Three Gorges dam or the Colorado to a lesser extent. All good extra background material.

Have a look at some of the other topics and the audio bites for these too eg in the Population and Resources section you can listen to a clip of the video we used at S grade on declining population issues.

The picture? Absolutely nothing to do with anything, but it got your attention, didn't it!