Global energy demand is increasing all the time, but to generate this energy we are using up many of the earth's resources as well as causing pollution and severe environmental damage.
How can we resolve this dilemma? Are we capable of replacing traditional sources of energy such as coal and oil with renewable energy such as wind, solar and wave power? Can we reach global agreements to limit the environmental impact of energy production? Are we prepared to pay a higher price for our energy? These are some of the questions we are going to have to answer in the near the future.
BBC Bitesize has an introductory unit on Energy. Greenfield Geography has an excellent list of case studies on this and other topics. S-cool also has some information on resource use in general.
Agriculture is a primary activity in which farmers cultivate crops or rear animals to produce food and other products. There are many different types of agriculture: subsistence and commercial, intensive and extensive, pastoral, mixed, arable, plantation. Here are some resources that might help you revise the topic:
The S-cool revision site on agriculture. i-Study on farming. BBC Bitesize. Revision World.
You can also check out this pupil video on plantation farming to help you revise.
Weather - the changes in climate, temperature, rainfall and wind - can bring many advantages for mankind, but it can also be incredibly destructive. Take, for example, tropical storms which can become hurricanes (also known as typhoons or cyclones depending on which part of the world they effect). They can cause catastrophic damage when they hit land. Similarly we have seen severe damage as a result of other examples of extreme weather such as the tornados in Oklahoma and the floods in the Czech Republic.
Take a look at this animation to see how hurricanes can be formed and this one to see how tornadoes occur. S-Cool has a clear and simple page on how weather can affect human activity. There are also good revision summaries on this webpage and on this one.
You can also look at this video on Hurricane Katrina.
For footage of the recent tornados that his Oklahoma in the United States, have a look at the video
below:
In Europe, flooding has been the latest weather threat with flooding hitting Central Europe and the Czech Republic in particular:
Coasts are amongst the most fascinating and beautiful of geographical features. Here are a number of resources which should help you understand how they are formed and how they change over time.
Have a look at the Cool Geography site for some useful revision tips on the topic. S-cool also has a nice section on coasts. This wiki has some great material too and of course you can always try some of the revision exercises and test on the BBC Bitesize site. Slideshare has a handy revision presentation on coastal features.
Fold Mountains are usually formed from sedimentary rocks when two tectonic plates move together on a convergent boundary. The Himalayas and the Alps are two examples of fold mountains. Here is the Bitesize revision section on fold mountains, but also check out the excellent S-Cool revision site too. Have a look at the videos below too. I especially liked the song version done by a group of pupils to the tune of Bryan Adams' "Heaven".
Earthquakes are a sudden release of energy from movement within the earth's crust. They are most common at plate boundaries. There are thousands of earthquakes across the globe every day but most are too small to be detected without special equipment, although big ones can cause massive destruction. Have a look at the resources mentioned here to help you understand the causes and effects of this natural disaster.
A good place to start is the BBC website which has a great selection of resources on earthquakes. Still with the BBC, Bitesize has a good revision section on earthquakes, as does S-Cool and Cool Geography. If you want to find out more about measuring earthquakes then have a look at the Geography Site.
Have a look at this video too to help you understand the phenomena.
Made famous by the box office hit Slumdog Millionaire, Asia's largest slum area Dharavi is to be found within the sprawling Indian city of Mumbai, the country's thriving financial capital (click here for a travel guide to the Mumbai). Home to over a million people, thousands of small businesses are crammed in amongst its cluttered streets and ramshackle dwellings. The Indian state government has plans to redevelop the area and turn it into a modern township. But what effect will the scheme have on Dharavi and its residents?
Find out the answer by taking a look at the following resources.
A good place to start is the interactive video produced by National Geographic. You can also have a look at the You Tube video below which walks you through Dharavi and a news report on the plans to redevelop the area.
There is some interesting information on the Geography Resources Online site and also at Cool Geography.
There are a host of good articles about Dharavu on the web too, for example The New York Times, the Economist and this one on urban development in LEDCs. It was the the box office hit Slumdog Millionaire that brought the area to the attention of many, but it wasn't a fairytale ending for all those who featured in the film.
Finally here is a short film about another of India's slums, this time in the Bihar area.
Sixty years ago there were only two megacities - cities with over 10 million inhabitants - on the planet: New York and Tokyo. Now there are 23 and by 2025 the UN predicts there will be 37, all but eight in the developing world. The Guardian has a special interactive report investigating this trend - take a look at it here. Then have a look at the data.
The pictured city Shanghai is home to at least 20 million people, half of whom are immigrants from other parts of China.
Yellowstone park sits on top of one of the biggest volcanoes on earth - in fact it is a supervolcano that has erupted several times with massive force over the course of the last two million years. Geysers like Old Faithful are a tell-tale sign that volcanic activity is going on just beneath the surface. The Independent published an article on supervolcanoes earlier this year.
Click on the following links from the National Park to find out more about the Yellowstone Volcano. The ingredients of a geyser. What is driving the geyser. Where is the Volcano? Old Faithful Webcam.
Mount St Helens in Washington State in the western United States erupted in May 1980 after two months of earthquakes and steam venting. The eruption caused the entire north face of the mountain to collapse, with the pyroclastic flow destroying everything in its path, melting glaciers on the mountain and then causing massive mud slides (lahars). The volcanic cloud spread across the USA in just three days and encircled the earth in two weeks. This National Geographic video provides a great introduction to the topic, explaining how volcanoes are formed. Then take a look at this Discovery Channel video about the effects and this clip on the devastating effects of the Mount St Helens eruption.
The idea that the earth's plates are in constant movement can be a confusing notion, but this extract from the series "Earth, the Power of the Planet" by Dr Iain Stewart gives an excellent explanation of the processes that are taking place.
It is estimated that the world's population exceeded 7 billion in March 2012. Under current projections the global population is expected to be as high as 10 billion by 2050.
How can the earth and its finite resources cope with such the population explosion? What will it mean for each one of us and for our children? How will our lives and environment change? Are we heading for impending disaster? Take a look at some of the following videos and resources to help you ponder these questions?
The earthquake and Tsunami in Japan has had devastating effects on the country, killing over 10,000 people and severely damaging one of the country's nuclear power stations with the very real danger of a catastrophic meltdown. Take a look at this interactive map from Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail to examine the effects of this disaster and look at the for the latest on the situation. Also have a look at the excellent and regularly updated BBC site on the earthquake. Below is a video clip of the effects of the disaster using before and after photographs of some of the affected areas.
For the causes of earthquakes and tsunamis and for information on related natural disasters, take a look at the other posts on this subject on the blog.
There is an introduction to basic map skills at this BBC site and for a more thorough look at maps there is always the excellent OS Mapability and Maptivity pages.
If you think you know your OS symbols, you can also have a go at this symbols quiz.
For a very detailed and informative explanation of plate tectonics and the structure of the earth try these two links on the Moorlands School website. For some beautiful satellite images of volcanoes have a look at the NASA site.
If you need to revise your map skills follow this link for help. You can then try out one of the Ordnance Survey's tests on their excellent website. You can do them on directions, scale, symbols and grid references. Take a test and if you do well enough you can play a game too. Here is a useful link to the symbols used on a 1:50,000 OS map. You will also find the symbols in the back of your text book.
A tsunami is a giant wave or series of waves caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption on the seabed. On December 26, 2004 an earthquake of around 9 on the Richter Scale off the north-western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia caused a tsunami that devastated coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Southern India and Indian Ocean islands.
Here are two videos that show the terrible consequences of this phenomenon.
After nearly 200 years of inactivity, Mount St Helens in Washington state in the USA erupted in May 1980. The explosion, which was estimated to have the equivalent power of 500 atomic bombs, killed 57 people in this sparsely populated area and had a devastating effect on local wildlife, destroying thousands of deer, elk and bear as well as countless birds and small mammals. For further details on the eruption look at the following website.
Here is an informative video on the eruption and a useful animation about how volcanoes are formed.
