geographyalltheway.com - Online Geography and Humanities Resources

geographyalltheway.com - Online Geography and Humanities Resources

6.0 Earthquake in Bologna Italy

An earthquake in northern Italy has killed at least six people and caused serious damage to buildings in several towns, officials have said.The 6.0-magnitude quake struck in the middle of the night, about 35km (22 miles) north of the city of Bologna.

Questions to consider:
i) Why so few deaths?
ii) What has the response been like?
iii) Is the loss of cultural heritage a significant impact & to what extent can cultural hertiage be protected from natural hazrads?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18136437




http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16231626

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17747643

A great little video clip showing the positive impact of the London Olympics...

Millenium Development Goals for 2015: Going no where fast or on track?

The MDGs formed at the start of the Millennium when aspirations were high that the world could unite against the global problems of poverty (the bottom billion), climate change and move towards a much more pro active post-industrial sustainable attitude towards the use of our shared environment.

Yet in 2012, with the mantra of sustainability to some extent part of political rhetoric but a global recession stifling the good deeds of many a different player, are the MDGs now just too idealistic or were they always going to be given the attitudes of the emerging superpowers like China and the other BRICs?

This video provides a useful overview and the questions are for you answer and discuss.

Q: Which in your opinion is the most important and why?
Q: What do you think are some of the barriers to achieving the MDGs? Think of current examples to back up your opinion.

Q: Do you think the MDGs will be achieved by 2015 - why?

The scale of the universe

http://www.notdoppler.com/thescaleoftheuniverse2.php

A great link putting everything in context...

The importance of the RGS Monday Night Lectures

Dear all,

If you live in the vicinity of London - do please get down and attend one of these fantastic lectures, especially if you are a student or in academia. They are absolutely brilliant!

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/London+Lectures/Monday+night+Lectures.htm

A smorgasbord of useful Geog data websites for further research; Unit 4 esp

http://www.swissray.com/

http://www.cred.be/sites/default/files/ADSR_2010.pdf

http://maplecroft.com/

http://www.gale.cengage.com/

http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/en/index.html

Different ways of measuring tectonic events...

Ok say ask any budding geographer how do you measure tectonic events and they will probably quote: Richter scale, Fujitsu scale, may be the Mercalli or even the VEI...but are some of these too out of date - according to topical popular science programme like QI they are!

Tectonic recording and measurements now focus and refer to the following:

VEI
Moment magnitude scale
Sieberg-Ambraseys Tsunami Intensity Scale
Mercalli

Interesting..no..?

What is the world's largest* city?

Now here is a tricky question I always get asked but am always somewhat reluctant to answer?


Pupil: What is the world's biggest/largest city?
Teacher: Well it depends what and how you measure it?
Pupil: ...silent and confused look..

Now the BBC have tried to have a go with their article on: What is the world's biggest city? Is it Chongqing in China - but only if you include the metropolitan and administrative areas..ho hum tricky indeed - i mean if London is 8million, what is Greater London (does the word metropolitan come in here?) - and where does the boundary for London start and stop...? I mean really we need to firstly break down what large or biggest actually refers to and means in context....well....?

Questions that need answering I feel - what are your thoughts and opinions?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16761784

Is 2011 the year of the disasters? Global economy pays out record $350 bn bill for natural disasters in a time of global economic strife!

As the Times states "a torrent of natural disasters in which about 30,000 people lost their lives has cost the worldwide economy a record $350 billion this year according to new figures published yesterday by Swiss Re".

Japan has been particularly hard hit - already struggling with an ageing population and an economy dependent upon imports - the earthquake and subsequent tsunami along with the flood in Thailand and the continuing uncertainty of the Eurozone's prospects dealt a severe blow to Japan's manufacturing confidence. The disasters in Japan will cost insurers $35billion, with the New Zealand earthquake in February resulting in payouts of $12billion and the floods in Thailand costing $12billion.

The fact is, according to Swiss Re's chief economist, Kurt Karl, "Unfortunately, earthquake insurance coverage is still quite low, even in some industrialised countries with high seismic risk, like Japan. So on top of people losing their loved ones, societies are faced with enormous financial losses that have to be borne by weither corporations, relief organisations or governments, and ultimately taxpayers".

The question in a time of global economic uncertainty and tightening of belts is how will the world's most vulnerable and hazard prone countries survive i they are already dependent on global voluntary aid - will we see a new form of moral protectionism or will we still want to give?

Google maps

From time to time it is easy to forget how lucky we are to have so much technology at our finger tips. Google maps is just one of those essential tools that all geographers should become familiar with. I have recently finished teaching a young group the basics of Google maps in making their own personal geography maps including place markers, street view and usual routes. Given the open ended nature of the task some students excelled themselves and independently went off and explored much more than i had thought was capable.

So keep the tasks open ended and independent and use Google maps more!

STA travel around the world - one man's perspective on travel and food

STA Travel Australia sent 3 of our mates, Rick Mereki, Andrew Lees and Tim White on an amazing trip around the world. A 6 week journey of a lifetime crammed into one epic minute. http://www.statravel.com.au/

Canary Island volcano: A new island in the making?

Another Iceland and Surtsey...? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15917740

World Aids Day 2011

Today is World Aids Day. It is a often a poorly publicised event in the global media, notably in the UK, despite the fact that there are over 90,000 people in the UK living with HIV (source: http://www.worldaidsday.org/about-hiv.php) and that over a 1/4 of these people are unaware that they have it (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15978016).

I am always reminded of the importance of this day due to the annual visit of one Emma Cole; a remarkable lady who has lived with HIV for over 20 years and has become synomyous with national and global campaigns (check out: http://thebangle.com/blog/tag/emma-cole/).

Luckily as a geographer it is part of the curriculum and some of the most interesting and important lessons i have taught over the past 6 years have been on this topic. Here are a few facts about HIV in the UK:

• Over 90% of people with HIV were infected through sexual contact
• You can now get tested for HIV using a saliva sample
• HIV is not passed on through spitting, biting or sharing utensils
• Only 1% of babies born to HIV positive mothers have HIV
• You can get the results of an HIV test in just 15-20 minutes
• There is no vaccine and no cure for HIV

Today the Guardian DataBlog - one of my favourite websites - has mapped 20years of HIV data; see the blurb below and then click the link:

The UNAIDS data shows that since 1999, the year in which it is thought the HIV epidemic peaked globally, the number of new infections has fallen by 19%. We've mapped the prevalence of adults with HIV over the past 20 years, so you can see the patterns of the change throughout the world and that dispite the overall improvement some regions have got worse. The figures come from this UNAIDS spreadsheet and show the prevalence of HIV in adults aged 15 to 49, as a percentage of the population. Let us know what you think.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/interactive/2011/dec/01/world-aids-day-hiv-data-2011-map

Also, Hans Rosling has produced and presented on Ted.com an interesting visual data display using his gapminder resources - the results and issues raised are fascinating, see below:

One of the biggest challenges, no matter where an individual lives, is the perception and stigma that is often associated with HIV and the issues surrounding safe sex (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15969512). Although in the UK we are lucky to have sex education as part of our compulsory core curriculum in all secondary (and primary) educational estblishments, in some areas of the world the message of safe sex is not discussed and simply swept under the carpet.  In one of the world's emerging economies and potential superpowers, rates of HIV in certain Indian states are skyrocketing. The link belows shows a timeless clip, indicating how TV advertising and mobile phones are being used to combat the stigma and taboo subject of discussing and practising safe sex, ultimately to reduce levels of HIV infection: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/whatwedo/where/asia/india/2008/04/080806_india_gates_condomcondom_video.shtml

Migration between US states...

Americans are enormously mobile: 37.5 million people moved from one house to another last year, with 4.3 million of them moving between states. This mobility makes us efficient seekers of economic improvement—moving into, and then leaving, cities likePhoenix as their fortunes rise and fall.

Click here for the interactive version!

Time lapse of the sky - one or cloud lovers

Ken Murphy installed a camera on top of the Exploratorium in San Francisco and set it to take a picture every ten seconds for a year. A History of the Sky is those pictures as a series of time-lapse movies where each day is represented with a grid. So what you see 360 skies at once:

For further details:
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/

Life in a day...

Thank you Google for posting this fascinating film which follows a life in the day of people from across the world...arguably even better than the BBC's Frozen Planet series....

Tianjin Eco-City In China: The Future Of Urban Development?

One of the green movement's major coup's must be the the eco-city. Branded often as green cities and environmentally friendly it is no surprise that China has cottoned onto this concept with it's design & plan for, of course, the ultimate eco-city  - Tianjin.

Questions:

To what extent are eco-cities a model for future urban growth? 

Are they sustainable? If so how?

And is this a concept which could catch on elsewhere?

Further links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/13/tianjin-eco-city_n_806972.html#undefined

Britain and the Big Freeze

A little bit of background to the headlines featured above and a link to an interesting blog - i will let you all decide about how reliable you think it is.... thanks once again to Finch.

http://globalcoolingnewiceageuk.blogspot.com/2011/09/coldest-uk-summer-2011-in-nearly-two.html

A few websites that geographers should use more often....

http://www.swissre.com/
One of the world's leading global insurers - link to the Swiss definition of what is a hazard in World at Risk.

http://maplecroft.com/
A fantastic visual mapping treasure trove. In their own words: "We analyse over 500 global risks and issues to provide a comprehensive portfolio of indices, interactive maps, scorecards, briefings and in-depth reports."

http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/climatechange/gateway
The UN's dedicated Climate Change web page - very useful for up-to-date resources and news feeds.

http://www.un.org/en/events/tenstories/08/index.shtml
A fascinating website by the UN which looks at regions and stories passed over by the main international news corporations.

http://www.un.org/News/
A new home page favourite for me! Excellent for geopolitics, hazards and all types of geography at all scales.