Earth warming faster than first thought....

The worst-case scenarios on climate change envisaged by the UN are already being realised, say scientists at an international meeting in Copenhagen. In a statement outlining their six key messages to political leaders, they say there is an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climate shifts. Even modest temperatures rises will affect millions of people, particularly in the developing world, they warn. But most tools needed to cut global carbon dioxide emissions already exist. More than 2,500 researchers and economists attended this meeting designed to update the world on the state of climate research ahead of key political negotiations set for December this year. New data was presented in Copenhagen on sea level rise, which indicated that the best estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made two years ago were woefully out of date. Read the full story here. Miss M.

Coral decline - ecosytems in decline

Coral growth in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has slowed to its most sluggish rate in the past 400 years. The decline endangers the species the reef supports, say researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science. They studied massive porites corals, which are several hundred years old, and found that calcification has declined by 13.3% since 1990. Global warming and the increasing acidity of seawater are to blame, they write in Science journal. Read the full story here. Miss M.

Earthquake!

I knew something was going to happen! Miss M.

Hazard websites...

Some hazard related websites to aid your research! Thanks Dr Hitch for these! Miss M.

Great UNEP graphic http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/typology_of_hazards

Building Design: http://www.unisdr.org/eng/about_isdr/isdr-publications/joint-pub/Handbook26-03-07.pdf[/UR L]

Disaster Statistics: [URL=http://www.unisdr.org/disaster-statistics/introduction.htm]http://www.unisdr.org/disaster-statistics/introduction.htm

Disaster Trends pdf: http://www.unisdr.org/disaster-statistics/pdf/isdr-disaster-statistics-occurrence.pdf[/UR L]

Disaster Statistics - Impacts: [URL=http://www.unisdr.org/disaster-statistics/pdf/isdr-disaster-statistics-impact.pdf]http://www.unisdr.org/disaster-statistics/pdf/isdr-disaster-statistics-impact.pdf

Economic Disaster Statistics - Top 50 countries: http://www.unisdr.org/disaster-statistics/pdf/isdr-disaster-statistics-50top-countri es.pdf

2005 Disasters in numbers: http://www.unisdr.org/disaster-statistics/pdf/2005-disaster-in-numbers.pdf

Far from light hearted is the http://www.cred.be/ site which has a "Disasters of the week" section !

Relief Web covers a very wide variety of disasters from natural to humanitarian and also provides excellent maps of population movements. A useful site for those looking for refugee data recently.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/doc106?OpenForm


Worried about the "credit crunch" it won't seem quite as bad when you have looked at this ! http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/fifty-million-climate-refugees-by-2010

Natural Hazards/California casestudy

Three separate wildfires in southern California have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to flee the fast-moving flames. The fires, to the north, north-west and south of Los Angeles have burnt through dry brush and forest in the suburban canyonlands around the city. California's governor has declared states of emergency in Orange, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties. A drop in the wind force has given some relief to the hard-pressed fire crews. The largest of the fires is in the northern Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar, up against the canyons of the Angeles National Forest. Ten-thousand people were ordered to evacuate their homes as the flames raced through the Oakridge Mobile Home Park late on Friday, destroying about 500 of the structures. Firefighters were braving 50ft flame lengths as they swept across the mobile homes.

"We have never lost in recent times anything close to this number [of homes]," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

He blamed the spread of the fire on "absolutely atrocious" winds of up to 80 mph (130 km/h) that pushed the fire out of the forests and into the suburbs, jumping wide highways in the process. Read the full story here. Miss M.

IB Core - Congo case study

IB Core - type of article you are looking for...use the links on the right hand side when you look at the page for similar articles..

A cholera outbreak is threatening tens of thousands of people who have fled fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, aid agencies have warned. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says it has seen more than 45 cases around the city of Goma and the number could rise. Meanwhile, the UN says fresh fighting has erupted between rebels in an area to the east of the country. It is the first new fighting since African leaders called for a ceasefire during a summit in Nairobi on Friday. MSF doctor Megan Hunter said people in the Kibati camp, close to Goma were living in "very bad sanitary conditions". Read the full story here. Miss M.

Are Volcanoes natural??

The eruption of the Lusi mud volcano in Indonesia was caused by drilling for oil and gas, a meeting of 74 leading geologists has concluded. Lusi erupted in May 2006 and continues to spew out boiling mud, displacing around 30,000 people in East Java. Drilling firm Lapindo Brantas denies a nearby well was the trigger, blaming an earthquake 280km (174 miles) away. Around 10,000 families who have lost their homes are awaiting compensation, which could run as high as $70m (£43m). After debating new evidence at a conference in South Africa, most geologists voted drilling as the cause. Read the full story here. Miss M.

Climate Change info...

Year 12s - check this out! Some excellent extra reading on climate change...Remember your casestudies - Africa and the Arctic...Year 13s - have a look, we will be studying climate change next year but its a useful link to bookmark now! Miss M.

Climate change plans

The government has committed the UK to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the middle of this century. Climate Change and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the current 60% target would be replaced by a higher goal. He told MPs the government would not "row back" on green issues in the light of the current economic crisis. He also warned the big energy companies they face a crackdown on "unfair" pricing policies in his first statement as head of the new department. Mr Miliband told MPs the government accepted all the recommendations of the report from Lord Turner's Committee on Climate Change. The target does not include aviation or shipping emissions - but Mr Miliband said they would "play a part" in the government's overall strategy. Read full story here. Miss M.

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike is battering Cuba's northern coast, generating winds of more than 195km/h (120mph), giant waves and torrential rain. Cuban TV has said that some homes along the coast, where hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated, have been damaged beyond repair. Ike killed at least 47 people in Haiti and reportedly damaged 80% of homes on the main Turks and Caicos islands. It weakened to a Category Three storm but remains dangerous. The Cuban Meteorology Institute said the eye of the hurricane came ashore near Punta Lucrecia in the state of Holguin about 510 miles (823km) south-east of Havana. With Hurricane Gustav striking just a week ago, Cuba's internationally acclaimed emergency services are being stretched to the limit, the BBC's Michael Voss reports from Havana. Gustav caused serious damage to the western side of the island, damaging almost 100,000 homes. Read the full story here. Miss M.

Google Earth Rocks!

Thought I would post this on the AS/A2 IB page as thats where hopefully lots of you are heading! Click on the photo to see it! Miss M.

Calling all cloud lovers!

And this was in St Albans...woop!! Miss M.

Climate Change

Negotiators from more than 172 countries are meeting in Bonn to hammer out a deal that may culminate in a new global climate agreement. In this week's Green Room, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer argues that negotiators want to see more of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, not less. "The challenge is now to design a deal that will deliver the type of emission reductions that the scientific community tells us are urgently needed. When countries gather for UN climate change negotiations, they meet to respond to what can arguably be described as the greatest challenge ever to face humanity. The prospect of rising sea levels, ever more incidences of drought and flooding, along with water and food shortages for billions of people, are monumental threats. The extent to which greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced will determine our future, that of our children, and of generations to come" Read in full here. Miss M.

Typhoon Fengshen

Thought I should blog this - will be very useful for your hazards exam in January (Year 13s) Miss M.

Deforestation

Plans to use a state-of-the-art camera onboard a satellite to monitor deforestation levels in Africa's Congo Basin have been unveiled. The high resolution RALCam3 camera, designed and built by UK scientists, will provide the first detailed view of the area's rate of forest cover loss. The project is part of the Congo Basin Forest Fund, a £108m joint-initiative by the UK and Norwegian governments. The fund aims to curb climate change by preventing deforestation in the region. Read the full story here.. Miss M.

Sustainable cities

There are precious few examples of cities that are attempting to reduce energy and resource consumption and improve the quality of life for their citizens, says Sir John Sorrell. But nothing is going to happen, he argues, until politicians accept that they have a mandate to make the tough choices needed. Future-proofing a city means creating the markets for green businesses and green technologies, and designing the space and facilities to support them. Some people think that cutting carbon means denying ourselves the things that make life enjoyable - no shopping, no fun - but I see it differently. Tackling climate change isn't about self-denial, it's about reinvention; reinventing towns and cities, redesigning the way they work, and changing the way we all manage our lives. Read the full story here. Miss M.

Sea Conservation

Governments are being urged to agree measures for protecting open ocean and sea floor habitats at a major United Nations conservation meeting in Bonn. Argentina and Brazil are among the countries objecting to proposals put forward at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting. Scientists advising the CBD believe more protection is vital for marine areas outside national jurisdiction. The CBD is the UN agreement intended to slow the loss of the Earth's species. Its key target is to halt and begin to reverse the global decline by 2010, a target that many observers believe cannot be met. The rate of species extinctions is estimated to be between 100 and 1,000 times the rate it would be without human impacts such as loss of habitat, climate change and overfishing, and some marine ecosystems remote from land are showing signs of degradation. Read the full story here. Miss M.

Climate Change loans...

Development campaigners have accused the UK government of making a stealth cut to an £800m fund designed to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Ministers said they were proud to have set a moral lead when the Environmental Transformation Fund was launched. The government now says an unspecified amount will go out as interest-free loans but insists it never pledged all the money would be used as aid. Read the full story here. Miss M.

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Good luck!

Just a quick note to say a HUGE good luck to all Year 12/13s about to take exams. Revise well and I am sure you will be fine - come and see us if you have any questions or queries! Miss M.