World Soil Day?

Grade 11, how on earth did we miss this? December 5th was World Soil Day! With our  new passion for soil and a developed understanding that it is so much more than just dirt, this would have been a great reason to celebrate in our lesson last week. Anyway, so that you don't feel too left out, check out the video below (the video links nicely to the reasons why soil is important and how it is under threat). World Soil day was only established last year by the FAO to try and raise awareness of this hugely undervalued important non renewable resource.

Viewpoints on Climate Change from the 2014 UN Summit

This post will be of particular interest to those of you who were involved in the recent Grade 11 debate and anyone who has been or is involved in the MUN Programme.

On September 23rd 2014 in New York City, a UN Climate Change summit was held. Ban Ki Moon, the UN leader invited government leaders to unite in concrete action towards a low carbon world, challenging each country to bring bold statements containing pledges to close the emissions gap. Sound familiar Grade 11?

Ban Ki Moon opened the summit by stating to world leaders "you are not here to talk, you are here to make history". Leonardi Di Caprio (UN peace envoy) further supported this statement by saying "make history or you will be vilified".

The link below is to the 3 minute opening video for the summit which is worth a watch.

http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/2014/09/make-world-difference/

The interesting part of the summit however is who said what. Click on the link below and you can see what was said in the statements of all countries present. It might be particularly interesting to look at the Maldives. Unfortunately there is no statement from Oman or any of the other oil rich Arab states.

http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/

Top 20 cities with billions at risk from Climate Change

The UN predicts that by 2050, 6 billion people will live in cities. Over half of the world's largest cities are in coastal areas. These cities therefore will face real challenges as their populations swell and the threat of global warming looms. Over 100 port cities are at increasing risk from storm surges, coastal flooding, erosion and sea level rise. Poorly planned urban development puts some cities at more risk than others (LEDC v MEDC). 

This link takes you to a very interesting slideshow by Bloomberg which looks at the top 20 cities with billions of $ at risk due to climate change. The majority of the statistics are from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Estimates by the OECD suggest that $3 trillion worth of assets are at risk today. This number is predicted to be $35 trillion by 2070. 

Are any of your home cities on the list?

Bloomberg 20 cities with billions at risk from climate change