From Mr PJ's Blog

The National Museum of Australia has an excellent section on Bushfires

MTV have hosted an interesting game called Darfur is Dying which
is concerned with the genocide that is occuring in Sudan. It has led to
over 700,000 people protesting about the appaling conditions that local
people have to live under.

The BBC recently wrote an article on it.

• Living with the Risk - The Floods in Boscastle and North Cornwall 16 August 2004
• Boscastle Findings - A summary

This
will help with the cross unit question from Unit 4 Global Challenge
2003 Question 7 all about the Ecological Footprint. It's a detailed living planet report by the WWF from 2004. You could print it off but it's all in colour and 44 pages..

There's also a movie or Flash animation showing how our footprint has changed over time…

Take A level Geography and you get to climb Brown Willy at the end of the course!!  

The 1991 Bangladesh Cyclone And Its Impacts on Flooding

Includes some great info on Land Use Zoning too.

Great satellite images and pics of Dhaka

Something in the Air this is an interesting page with links to Mexico Air quality and Inversion.

Bodmin College, Cornwall

This website has the links to the AS blogs

The Hydrologic Cycle

Lucy
Davey has found a brilliant Hydrological Cycle Animation with soothing
music, and excellent definitions for the processes, inputs and outputs
of the Hydrological Cycle.

Kathryn's Geography Blog

This is the best of my AS geography Blogs so far!

Topical, updated and interesting to read.

I especially like the articles on water shortage in Spain

This is a selection of links describing the CAUSES of a variety of Natural Hazards.

Volcanoes

This site has an excellent introduction to Volcanoes and their causes.

Today we looked at residence times and the hydrological cycle.

The
AS Geography Students had their first task today. Create a Geography
Blog. Here's a list of some of their attempts so far. Come back and
check for frequent updates.

Neil Ashton: NeilGeoBlog
Guilherme Bandeira: Guilhermewb
Sam Barnard: Samsgeogblog
Hannah Crow: Hannah's Blog
Stacey Darrock: Stacesblog
Chris Fryer: FryerGeog
Sean Hawkey: SeanHawkey
Kira Hearn: Geography Blog
Jason Willis: GeogBlog
Jamie Mullis: Geography Stuff
Tom Line: GeographyWizard

Hi all you keen geogers!

A great website is the GeographyPages which has lots of resources on a variety of geographical issues.

TASKS

Set up the blog using www.blogger.com

1. River Environments is the first section of the Physical Geography Syllabus.
1. Search for and write a diary of events for Hurricane Katrina
2. See if you can include a photo blog as a section for Hurricane Katrina
3. Make sure you find out the main causes of the Floods in Mississippi as well as the causes of Hurricane Katrina
4. Add a section on the Hydrological Cycle, Residence Times, and the Drainage Basin System
5. Finally add a section of useful geographical websites which you can access from the right

POPULATION

There is a great population clock here.

Here is an interesting article about Russia’s falling population.

Tectonics/ Earthquakes/Volcanoes - This is a great site which has a multitude of links

THE ASIAN TSUNAMI DISASTER



The Asian Tsunami was the result of a large subsea earthquake that
occured at 0059 GMT 0659 Local Time on Boxing Day 2004. It was the
largest Natural Disaster in modern times causing in excess of 200,000
deaths.

The Best Resource come from the New York Times which has an excellent Interactive Map but you'll need to scroll down half way and find the Multimedia Section.

The BBC has an extensive set of reports including a good animation to show the causes of the Tsunami. There is also a timeline of events as the giant wave crossed the Indian Ocean. The Guardian also has a special Web Report. The CBC has some good multimedia links as well. Tsunami Videos has some amazing footage.

The Early Warning System which may have saved many is costly but being used in Japan

• Location
• Magnitude and impact
• What are Tsunamis and how do we cope?
• The most devastating earthquakes since 1900
• Outline map of Indonesia
• Diagram of Tsunami
• How the shape of ocean floors can affect tsunami
• Idle Tears article
• Indonesia asks for early warning system article
• UN appeal article
• Natural disasters and politics article
• The Effort continues
• World helps but will it forget?

The impacts on the main countries, including excellent satellite images of the can be seen at:

• Indonesia
• Thailand
• Sri Lanka
• India
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The free Encyclopaedia Wikipedia has a good list of entries which include descriptions of what a Tsunami is.

Fact or Myth? Cause and Effect. Solutions and Dissolutions.

Project Learn: Cycles of the Earth and Atmosphere -For general information about the atmosphere then this is a fantastic starting point

Remember the Greenhouse Effect is a GOOD thing!

• Greenhouse Effect - Great detailed information here including a good variey of pictures and diagrams
• The BBC - As usual from the Beeb a good basic starting point on the effect but a little watered down

An Environmental Catastrophe or Engineering Masterpiece?

What do you think?

China Online - A good overview which includes positives and negatives

Chinese People Daily - Some good pictures of the construction of the Dam



BBC Picture File - The Scale of the Dam is clearly shown here

The Tiger Leaping Forward Dam! - Now the Chines Government are thinking about building another dam!



CNN - China's biggest construction project since the Great Wall generates controversy at home and abroad



Sediment problem eased at Three Gorges - Siltation at Three Gorges was always going to be a problem. From The China Daily

Cracks appear in Three Gorges dam - The Guardian Reported problems with the Dam just after the reservoir was filled



Hidden danger behind Three Gorges dam - Could an Earthquake Destroy the Three Gorges Dam?

Here are a list of links which should help you with your Sahel Project

1. Myths and Misconceptions about Solving the Desertification Problem in Africa
2. Damage to fragile environments: farming in the Sahel Management issues
3. Satellite Image of the Sahel
4. Sahel Fieldtrip! Choose your country
5. THE OECD (Orgainization for Economic Cooperation and Development ) Sahel Club

Your job is to research the Kobe Earthquake using the headings from your Assessment which are:

1. An Explaination of Why Earthquakes occur in Japan

2. An Explaination of Why the Kobe Earthquake was so Disastrous

3.Describe what happened to Mr and Mrs Endo and why

4.Suggest the ways people can prepare and respond to Earthquakes.

You can use my Internet Page at www.prettejohn.net as well as the Eartquake Assesment Guide at the SLN site.

Hello Year 8!



Scroll down the page for information on birth rate and death rates for countries of the world. REMEMBER! You have to do the following sum to work out the Natural Increase.

Birth Rate - Death Rate = Natural Increase

Don't worry if it's a negative number this means that there country's population is decreasing.

The Links are:

1. From Encarta
2. From Infoplease (Use the 2004 Number)

Here is a link for a new outline map.

Outline Map

Here are some good general Population Sites

• People Facts and Figures
• The World FactBook Information and Maps on every country in the World
• World Population to the Second!
• A World Population Clock (Need Java to Work on your Computer)

Michael Fish ,
the BBC weatherman, got it wrong!! After hearing from an old lady that
there was a hurricane on the way he said 'Don't worry, there isn't a
hurricane on the way'.

It was the fourth most strongest storm since records began and 18
people died, 15 million trees were blown down and £1.9 billion of
damage was done to properties.

You can find good information including Weather Charts at the Met Office page. There is a good link here which includes satellite sequence from MeteoSat of the event.

So was it powerful storm or a hurricane as widely reported? Please email any further links you find regarding this famous storm.

Well done Georgina Gormley! Great site found which has historical Synoptic Charts. Find it here

A Lava fountain, Kilauea, Hawaii. 

Today's Blog Search is really for Year 9 who are currently just starting their Year 9 topic on Volcanoes and Earthquakes.



This site has
a lot of information about Stromboli in Italy including some great
eruption clips (be aware they may take a while to download). Volcano World is a comprehensive site on many different volcanoes. Select this link for a list of continents and their respective volcanoes. A top vulcanologist has put together a large list of volcanoes here.



You can find an excellent flash animation of a volcanic eruption at the Savage Earth website but make sure you've downloaded Macromedia Flash first.



Earth's Active Volcanoes is another site which has a comprehensive list of the World's active volcanoes.



Should you wish to try making a volcano at home then this is the link for you. Maybe you could ask an Art Teacher or make a paper mache volcano at home. Just be careful!!

So
here it is the Grand Opening of Mr PJ's Online Blog. I want to create a
Blog which has Geographical Articles of Interest along with some
escapism links. Please feel free to comment on my Blog.

This is a slightly auspicious date to start my Blog being 9/11 2004 and it seems that certain parts of the world are undergoing their own national disaster at this time. Jamaica appears to be recovering from the most powerful hurricane in its history, Hurricane Ivan. Interestingly Hurricanes or Tropical Cyclones, to use their scientifically correct name, are not simply named on a whim by meteorologists but are named by the World Meteorological Organization according to the time in the Hurricane season when they start.

Blue Planet