Why tectonic theory is important to know

Actress Sharon Stone has been dropped by cosmetics firm Christian Dior from its Chinese adverts following remarks she made about the recent earthquake. The firm's Chinese office also issued a statement attributed to Stone, in which she apologised for saying the disaster could have been the result of "karma".

Stone's theory on the cause of earthquakes

Actress Sharon Stone has sparked criticism in China after claiming the recent earthquake could have been the result of bad "karma". The US star, speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, linked the recent disaster to Beijing's policy on Tibet. She said: "I thought, 'Is that karma?' When you are not nice, bad things happen to you." But Stone added she "cried" after the Tibetan Foundation asked her to help quake victims. Stone, 50, said: "They wanted to go and be helpful, and that made me cry. I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else

"It was a big lesson to me that sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even to people who aren't nice to you." Stone made her comments last week in a brief interview with a Hong Kong film crew. "I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else," Stone said in footage widely available on the internet. "And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma?" Ng See-Yuen, founder of the UME Cineplex chain and the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, called Stone's comments "inappropriate". According to a story in trade magazine Hollywood Reporter, he vowed not to show Stone's films in his theatres.

UME has branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, China's biggest urban movie markets. Stone's comments also created a swell of anger on the internet, including at least one Chinese website devoted solely to disparaging her comments. The Beijing Times also reported that some major Beijing department stores had removed advertisements for cosmetic and couture giant Christian Dior, which feature Stone's image. The earthquake struck south-west China on 12 May, leaving 68,109 people dead, with another 19,851 still missing.

Yr13 Managing Resources

More evidence that Malthus was correct?

Yr13 Regeneration in Norwich

A new regeneration project on Duke Street opposite the St Andrews car park. Read about it here but sorry no pictures

Yr13 Managing Hazards

It is just 1 thing after another.

How many of the houses were already damaged and needed to be demolished?

New features are being formed.

Yr13 Managing Resources

Are we heading to a Malthusian future?

Read about spiralling food shortages.

Oli production

Yr12 Global Warming and Yr13 Managing Resources

MPs back personal carbon credits

The MPs admitted the public was likely to be opposed to the move The government should go ahead with a system of personal "carbon credits" to meet emissions targets, MPs have said. The Environmental Audit Committee said the scheme would be more effective than taxes for cutting carbon emissions. Under the scheme people would be given an annual carbon limit for fuel and energy use - which they could exceed by buying credits from those who use less. Environment minister Hilary Benn said there were practical drawbacks to the plan although it did have "potential". '

No barrier'

The committee's report criticised the government for shelving the proposal following a preliminary study. The MPs admitted members of the public were likely to be opposed to the move, but urged the government to be "courageous". Their report said: "Persuading the public depends on perceptions of the government's own commitment to reducing emissions, and of the priority given to climate change in its own decision making."

It added: "Further work is needed before personal carbon trading can be a viable policy option and this must be started urgently, and in earnest. "In the meantime there is no barrier to the government developing and deploying the policies that will not only prepare the ground for personal carbon trading, but will ensure its effectiveness and acceptance once implemented."

'Cash benefit'

Committee chairman Tim Yeo said it found that personal carbon trading had "real potential to engage the population in the fight against climate change and to achieve significant emissions reductions in a progressive way". He said "green" taxes, such as a petrol tax, cost poor people more because everyone - "billionaires and paupers" - paid the same amount. "Under the personal carbon trading, someone who perhaps doesn't have an enormous house or swimming pool, someone who doesn't take several holidays in the Caribbean every year, will actually get a cash benefit if they keep a low carbon footprint." He said it could be administered by the private sector, following the model of supermarket loyalty schemes in which a complex computer system is accessed by a "single plastic card".

Implementation costs

But Mr Benn said there were problems with the plan: "It's got potential but, in essence, it's ahead of its time, the cost of implementing it would be quite high, and there are a lot of practical problems to overcome." He emphasised that the report authors themselves had said a feasibility study was not justified at this stage. Mr Benn said that the report found the cost of introducing the scheme would be between £700 million and £2 billion, and would cost £1bn-£2bn a year to run. There would also be difficulties in deciding how to set the rations, taking into account a person's age, location and health. Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock said work on personal carbon trading had not been completely abandoned. "We have simply decided not to undertake further work paid for by the taxpayer when a number of other studies are under way," she said. Environmentalist George Monbiot applauded the scheme. "It's more progressive than taxation, it tends to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor; it's transparent; it's easy for everyone to understand, you all get the same carbon ration. "It also contains an inbuilt incentive for people to think about their energy use and to think about how they are going to stay within their carbon ration."

Yr13 Managing Cities

Look out for the UGI Briefing in the Geography Office on Rubbish. Well worth a read or you can buy a PDF version for 99p at http://www.global-issues.co.uk/

Bye

Bye Bye Yr 13.

Firstly the Geography blog will continue running until the exam.
Secondly if you wan to some and resolve any revision issues/ questions then drop in any time.

so its goodbye to

Emily, Oli, Nick, Jack, Paul, Giles, James, Mark A, Ewan, Matt C, Matt B, Mark T, James, Jonathan, Chris, Richard, Lee, Ben, Katarina, Jack, Alex and Emma

In the words of Douglas Adams " So long and thanks for all the fish"

Yr13: Managing Cities: LEDC Riots

More violence in S Africa

Yr13 Managing Cities. Making recycling sexy!!

Talking bin goes on trial in city

A talking bin which thanks people for using it to recycle aluminium cans is to be piloted in Norwich. The bin, which crushes cans before coming up with a recorded message such as "Yum, yum, feed me more", will be trialled for three months. Three bins will be placed in the city for the project, which is being filmed as part of a BBC Panorama programme looking at attitudes towards recycling. Money from the sale of the cans will go towards more trees for the city.

The bin is made Amberol based in Alfreton, Derbyshire. The firm has already manufactured a penguin-shaped bin for schools which thanks children for throwing away their rubbish. Tim Troman, from Amberol, said: "As a company we recognise that recycling is a very big issue, but something more needs to be done to encourage everyone to do it. "It has to be made fun - and that's why we set about producing the talking can-crushing bin. "The bins are easy to use. People put the unwanted can into a slot and pull the lever down, which crushes the can. "They can see the can drop into the bin and they receive a thank-you message."

Yr13 Managing Cities

What are the benefits of this scheme aimed at cutting air pollution and making the city safer.


Step closer to city speed limit

Plans for a 20mph speed limit in parts of Norwich have moved a step closer. The Norwich Highways Agency Committee has voted to introduce a blanket 20mph speed limit across residential roads in the city. Council officers had recommended that the committee did not go ahead with the proposals because of the high cost of introducing traffic-calming measures. However, under the proposal agreed by the committee, the scheme will be mainly based around signage.

Managing resources

It is the Champions League final tonight and Manchester United are playing Chelsea in Moscow. Unlike a lot of European cities there is no history of short break weekends in Moscow as it takes over a month to get a visa. This means there are very few cheap hotels, no budget or charter airlines and little experience of a huge foreign influence. There are also few direct flights to help get the estimated 50,000 fans from England to Russia. They have been lots of weird and wonderful ways that people have had to take to make it. Flying Luton to Madrid, Madrid to Vienna and then Vienna to Moscow. Fly to Helsinki, ferry to Riga and then train to Moscow but my favourite was fly to Beijing and then train along the Trans-Siberian railway across the width of Russia. Where ever there is a major match the fans will get there.

What might the carbon footprint of this trip be?

Yr13 Coastal Management

Most of the coastal flood warning sirens in Norfolk are to be reinstated after being officially withdrawn. The Environment Agency said the 60-year-old sirens were obsolete and warnings could be better issued via telephone, text and its website but following a consultation, the Norfolk Fire and Community Protection Review Panel agreed to recommendations to scrap only 17 of the 57 sirens. The sirens due to be scrapped will be kept for spares to repair others

Yr13 Managing Cities. Waste collection

Naples has problems getting its rubbish collected. See what is going on here, here and here

Human Suffering: Why We Care (or Don't)

Why do we care about some disastes but not others?

News

Sorry - technical problems now sorted so back to the Wonderful World of Geography

China

News items to keep an eye on

China earthquake compare this earthquake to one of a similar size in the same place in the past in Tangshan in 1976
Aid from the UK
People still being rescued unlike flows where few airs spaces are left
3 days of mourning


To what extent do natural disaster as act as an agent of change? Earthquake has taken the heat off the Chinese government over Tibet
Influx of aid and ideas into Burma alongside their failure to meet people's needs may act as a catalyst for political change

South Africa

Immigration into South Africa from Zimbabwe has caused rioting in the townships. Are the problems in MEDC and LEDC's that different? Jobs, housing etc.

View it here. Some parts maybe disturbing.

Good luck in the exam tomorrow people.

Yr 13: Wheelie bin confusion

Blue bins cause problems

Yr13: More China

Building Standards


Dams about to burst


Government response

Yr13 Hazards: China update

Pandas Safe
Some buildings survived others did not showing that maybe building standards are variable or ignored.
Were local people trained to cope with the emergency?
Other responses
After shocks
All earthquakes in the last 7 days


10 largest earthquakes ever - check out Kamchatka 1952 - violent but no deaths

Plates

The Sichuan earthquake of May 12, 2008, occurred as the result of motion on a northeast striking reverse fault or thrust fault on the northwestern margin of the Sichuan Basin. The earthquake's epicentre and focal-mechanism are consistent with it having occurred as the result of movement on the Longmenshan fault or a tectonically related fault. The earthquake reflects tectonic stresses resulting from the convergence of crustal material slowly moving from the high Tibetan Plateau, to the west, against strong crust underlying the Sichuan Basin and southeastern China. (from orogeny along the Himalayas)

On a continental scale, the seismicity of central and eastern Asia is a result of northward convergence of the India plate against the Eurasia plate with a velocity of about 50 mm/y. The convergence of the two plates is broadly accommodated by the uplift of the Asian highlands and by the motion of crustal material to the east away from the uplifted Tibetan Plateau.

The northwestern margin of the Sichuan Basin has previously experienced destructive earthquakes. The magnitude 7.5 earthquake of August 25, 1933, killed more than 9,300 people.

Yr13 Managing Cities: Peterborough

More waste is being recycled in a Cambridgeshire city than ever before.

Yr13 Hazards China Earthquake

Where?



How big?
7.8 on the Richter Scale - where would it be on the Mercalli Scale?

Number dead
5000 but bound to rise

Factors affecting death toll
Size of quake
Largest for 30 years
High number of building collapsed
Lots of people indoors
High population density
High population (87 million)
Buildings with lots of people collapsed (at least 5 schools)
Difficult terrain so rescuers struggle to get there
Lots of bridges collapsed

Reasons to be cheerful
Chinese army have a good history of delivering aid
Well organised rescue attempt
Little damage to the largest cities
Chinese Red Cross are well equipped and funded.
Good medical care available and on the scene swiftly
Unlikely to be any disease (dysentery/ cholera/ typhoid effects)

Pictures
Video (see triage in action)

Keep an eye on the news. Are there any after shocks?

Yr12 Rostow's Model

1 criticisms it that the model does not take into account countries that may become less developed such as Zimbabwe.

An example is a Zimbabwean football team trying to raise $50 000 to fly to North African for an African Champions League match. They made it but in the time it took to raise the cash the falling exchange rate mean the price kept going up. When they started to raise the money the cost was 300 billion Zimbabwe dollars and went they paid it the tickets cost 10 trillion Zimbabwe dollars.

Y12 Tornado hits US towns.

Check out the following link with video from the BBC.........

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7394402.stm

Yr13 Managing Cities

A case study of the a scheme the government implemented.

Evaluate its success



LDDC

About the LDDC

Search for Enterprise Zones for information on this page

How useful was the construction of Canary Wharf for local people?

What transport links were needed?
DLR
Underground
Airport
Boat
Green transport

Yr13: Air Pollution

The Problem?

Warm, sunny weather across much of the UK is set to lead to the first summer smog, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has warned. High ozone levels are forecast for England and Wales this weekend.

Who is affected?
Moderate levels of ozone have been recorded over the past few days for much of the UK. Ground-level ozone can affect some people's breathing. People with asthma are not necessarily more susceptible but if they are affected they can use their "reliever" inhaler, Defra said. The Environment Department is urging the public to take precautions, including avoiding exercise outdoors in the afternoon to reduce exposure to ozone.

The Solution?

Defra also said people should avoid making unnecessary short car journeys where possible, as the pollutants which cause ground-level ozone come from sources including petrol and other fuels.

The Cause?

Much of the UK is set to experience warm temperatures and sunny weather during the next few days, although there will be scattered, sharp showers in some places. The high levels of ozone - formed when sunlight interacts with nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants - are set to persist until at least Monday, when Northern Ireland could also be affected.

Yr12: Tropical Revolving Storms

Before and After the cyclone.

Pictures courtesy of the BBC

Yr12 Malaysia

Malaysia is a NIC

It tried to attract businesses to an area called Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone near the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

It has over 400 factories, companies mainly based outside of Malaysia.

It has a international airport to allow managers from head office to visit. Also customers may visit.

It has a major roadway called the Bayan Lepas Expressway

It is part of the MSC Malaysia (Multimedia Supercorridor Malaysia) a system of fibre optic cables to deliver high speed communication links.

It has a port to allow the movement of raw materials and finished products

It has training facilities to help educate the workers

It has a stable government

What role do TNC's/ globalisation play?

Yr12: Industrial Location

Cambridge Science Park is in a great location as you can see here

It has a wide range of different ht-tech industries as you can see here

It provides good facilities for its workers as you can see here

Stats about CSP can be found here



As you can see it has a good road network, lots of open spaces to expand, lots of green areas and a lake to make it a nice place to work and lots of car parking spaces for the workers.


A you can see modern units for the companies to use will also help attract new industries and businesses to Cambridge Science Park.

The questions they might ask include

For an area that you have studied, explain why a business would locate there or MEDC's may only be industrialising in a few areas. For one that you have studied explain why.

Some examples of questions where you can use CSP are located at these links.

Question 3b
Question 3b



'Photograph used by permission of Cambridge Science Park'.

Yr13 Hazards

Death tolls in eruptions can be higher in LEDC due to ignorance or superstition. Read more here

Yr13 Managing Cities: More congestion charges

London and Durham have congestion charges, Where else might get them.

Here, here and here

or maybe of people will vote for them they will.

They will help manage air pollution as well as congestion.

Yr12: Revolving Tropical Stoms

The death toll continues to rise. Inadequate hazard provention. Aid provided from MEDC. Read all about it here.

Yr12: Revolving Tropical Storms

More coverage of the cyclone. Note that in a LEDC' death counts tend to go up with time whereas in a MEDC they tend to go down through time.

Yr12: Revolving Tropical Storms

Cyclone hits Burma/Myanmar

Read the story here or here.

Forgotten how a hurricane works this click here

Year 13 Geography trip 02/05/08

On Friday 2nd May the Year 13 Geography students were treated to an inspiring trip around the Norfolk coast. After meeting at school the students were divided into two groups, one of which went with Mr Taylor, who drove the minibus with speed and surprisingly skill; and the other with Mr Georgiou, who was clearly dressed to impress.
First stop was Blakeney, were the breathtaking spit really summed up the reason why most students had wanted to study Geography A-level. ‘Nature at its most breathtaking’, one keen student enthused.
Buoyed by the sight of Blakeney spit, we Geographers set out to Salthouse, where Mr Taylor regaled students with stories of his youth. Some students were also shocked at the revelation that the artificially maintained dune at Salthouse was composed of pebbles AND cobbles. Who’d of thunk it? Such a discovery lingered in the minds of the students until we reached our next destination.
The trip to Overstrand allowed the students to gaze with wonder at the various sea defences that have been constructed on the beach. It was widely appreciated that were it not for these defences, Overstrand may not be in its current state. Such a loss would be a disaster not only for the inhabitants of Overstrand, but for Geographers worldwide.
The highlight of the trip for many was the lunchtime visit to a Fish and Chip shop. Waiting to be served provided an ideal platform for banter between the students after the physical and mental exertions of Overstrand. Happisburgh and Sea Palling provided a poignant aspect to the trip as the students mourned the possible passing of these two great seaside towns to the sea, as proposed by Government recently. ‘A travesty of epic proportions unmatched by anything in the modern day era of seaside town development’ is what one unamused student remarked whilst surveying the unrelenting might of the waves upon the beach of Happisburgh.
On the return trip to school, there was time for the students to mull over what they had witnessed during the day. The confined nature of the minibus allowed a forum of opinion to develop. ‘It allows one to fully understand how our planet is fundamentally changing’ one student commented on coastal processes. ‘Whilst it is exciting for use to try and reduce these changes, the thought that nature may be simply to powerful for us to stop is terrifying’ a fellow student mused.
After arriving back, Mr Georgiou delivered a typically charismatic debriefing which tied up the day perfectly.
A hearty congratulation to the Geography department for setting up such a trip. Hip hip hooray!

Yr 13 Managing Cities

What effect will the election of Boris Johnson have on helping to managing London's problems?

Buses
Congestion Charge
Transport
Green Spaces
Recycling
Housing

Yr12: De and re -industriailsation

Llanwern in South Wales