Population change - Yemen and Russia

Russia

Experiencing a natural decrease as its death rate is higher than its birth rate.

Why?

• Falling life expectancy for men caused by industrial disease and alcoholism. Life expectancy for men is now only 60.
• There is an outward migration of young men and women to other countries in search of a better lifestyle.
• There is a very low fertility rate of just 1.2 children per female.

Yemen

Experiencing a natural increase due to a very high birth rate and low death rate.

Why?

• Early age of marriage. 47% of women are married by the age of 18 years old.
• Education is poor
• There is a high fertility rate of 6.7 children per woman.
• There is increasing life expectancy in the country due to improved medical care.

Breathing Earth infographic

"What a strange creature man is that he fouls his own nest"

"There is sufficiency in the world for man's need but not mans greed"
http://www.breathingearth.net/

Take a look at this clever infographic, breathing earth which shows births, deaths, C02 emissions and population in general.

Tsunami Ghost Ship drifting to Canada

An aircraft patrolling the seas off British Columbia saw the vessel, which is about 50-metre (164ft) long, floating 275km (170 miles) from the Haida Gwaii islands on Friday.

It is believed to be the first large item from the millions of tonnes of tsunami debris to cross the Pacific.

No-one is believed to be on board the ship, registered in Hokkaido, Japan.

Canada's transport ministry is monitoring the vessel for marine pollution and to see if it becomes an obstruction.

The tsunami last March generated more than 25 million tonnes of debris, say researchers at the University of Hawaii. Between four and eight million tonnes were washed into the ocean, with one to two million tonnes still floating on the surface.

For the full article go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17500008

Wateraid in Malawi

This case study video and website is for Year 10, Year 11 and Year 13. It will be incredibly useful to watch and use the website to fill out knowledge.

http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what_we_do/where_we_work/malawi/

Egypt's medicinal plants

Egypt's Medicinal Plants Conservation Project (MPCP) has been awarded the 2012 Equator Prize for its work to preserve genetic heritage.

The Equator Initiative is a partnership that brings together the UN, governments, civil society, businesses and grassroots organizations to advance local sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities.

The MPCP was launched in 2003 in the Saint Catherine area of Sinai, one of Egypt's wealthiest botanical areas, which is home to 102 species of medicinal plants, 16 of them being endemic.

“The purpose of this project was to preserve the wild medicinal plants by involving the Bedouin community to achieve both genetic material safeguard while enhancing the residents' lifestyle,” explains Adel Soliman, the project manager.

To read more about Egypt's medicial biodiversity click on the link below.
http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/739301

The great fish fight

http://www.fishfight.net/

Join the great fish fight and learn all about the problems in the ocean for your end of year exam.

When sea levels attack!

Coral under threat articles

Year 10 - read the following articles to enhance your understanding of the threats facing the world's coral reefs.

http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/02/coral-catastrophic-future?intcmp=239

http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/13/coral-reef-asia-disappearing

http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/22/network-coral-reef-protection

Coral reefs under threat Year 10

http://http//www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2009/sep/02/coral-world-interactive

Year 10 - use the weblink above to complete your geography homework on reefs at risk.

The great Pacific garbage patch

There are now 46,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre of the world's oceans, killing a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year. Worse still, there seems to be nothing we can do to clean it up. So how do we turn the tide?
Way out in the Pacific Ocean, in an area once known as the doldrums, an enormous, accidental monument to modern society has formed. Invisible to satellites, poorly understood by scientists and perhaps twice the size of France, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not a solid mass, as is sometimes imagined, but a kind of marine soup whose main ingredient is floating plastic debris.
It was discovered in 1997 by a Californian sailor, surfer, volunteer environmentalist and early-retired furniture restorer named Charles Moore, who was heading home with his crew from a sailing race in Hawaii, at the helm of a 50ft catamaran that he had built himself.

Click on this article to read more about this problem http://http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/5208645/Drowning-in-plastic-The-Great-Pacific-Garbage-Patch-is-twice-the-size-of-France.html