Geography

As we learn about coastal process and landforms, I hope that you understand the importance of this topic. Being a small island, we cannot afford to lose our land to coastal erosion - much have to be done to protect the coast. We want to live by the sea and not in the sea! Look at the video below on the different coastal management strategies. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are highlighted in the video.

The movement of the plates resulting in earthquakes in Indonesia (picture above) and Philippines (picture below).



 Plates sliding past each other - San Andreas Fault.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said Singapore imports vegetables from 39 countries, with the largest suppliers being Malaysia, China and India. The three account for 86 per cent of vegetables here.


You can see here how food production and supply is affected by climatic factor and the need to diversify our food source as mentioned in my previous post.

She also highlighted interesting facts such how the chicken rice vendors came to them for help when live chicken imports from Malaysia was banned in 2003 due to the avian flu outbreak. Consumption decreased rapidly then as compared to the outbreak in 2006. The AVA had improved the situation by banning by zones in a country rather than the whole country e.g chicken was supplied from Johor when there was an outbreak in Perak.


Being a country dependent on imports, food security often pose a problem. Emerging economies with increasing affluence might export less as their people become more affluent.


There is also a challenge in declining global food supply with declinging agricultural productivity, competition for essential resoueces such as water, arable land, labour and investment as well as diversion of food crops for biofuel production.


Of course other food security challenges include climatic change, outbreaks, natural disasters, political uncertainties, restrictive trade etc.




Key strategies which Singapore deployed:
1. diversification of food sources
2. stockpiking of essential food stocks
3. enhancing local production through small local farming
$10 million food fund introduced in 2009 - R&D in farming techniques e.g. fish breeding, vertical farming, seed banking
4. Promotion of food substitudes e.g. frozen meat


It really makes us ponder about the food we are eating today. There is quite a good documentary on CNA tomorrow (10th April 2011) at 7pm - a preview of the show below:









No wonder one of the speakers, Dr George Jacobs, became a vegetarian. It seems that more people are becoming vegetarian not because of religion but rather due to health, environment and kindness (towards animals) concerns. It is a fact that much food has gone into feeding animals rather than hungry people - I suppose that's why there is a movement to be vegetarian once a week - www.facebook.com/veggiethursdaysg


Many also debated on the cruelty of factory farming - for my students I am sure you remember the clip I showed you from http://www.themeatrix.com/
There is also another clip from food inc showing a chicken farm:





The last speaker, Dr Pow Choon Piew, talk about the Hungry cities.
click here to see the no. of hungry people in the world
http://www.worldbank.org/foodcrisis/
imagine a billion people still hungry in the world

Illegal Logging in Kalimantan


Saving our forest- The lungs of our planet

A very good video clip on how to use window movie maker from Youtube. Pay attention to how you can insert the pictures, music and the titles. You can enhance your video clip with transition effect. Just remember to publish your video by saving it as a movie file as shown in the last part of the video.



A Geography Project Task was given out to the students this year - to submit a 5 min video clip based on the river journey from the source to the mouth. The students also need to submit a short writeup with the synopsis (the content of your video) as well as credits given to your group members and the list of reference for the video.

One example of a video clip can be found @ this link -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjZLAw_lgZ4 which is a similar project done by a group of students.

For sounds of river or waterfall - you might want to download from http://www.jetcityorange.com/SoundFiles/nature-sounds.html Just right click on the icon next to the track and select 'save target as'. Some of you might want to mix the sound with another piece of music which you have - the trick is after you have publish and save the video clip, import it and then add in the new audio track - you can right click on the audio timeline to adjust the volume.

Another tip - some of you might want to insert the explanation on the pictures using powerpont. You can then save as window metafiles (instead of powerpoint presentation) which are actually picture files created in a folder. You can then import these pictures into the movie maker.
As the file size is big - students were advised to make use of http://www.sendspace.com/ - just browse and upload the file and enter the email address of the recipient e.g. lily_lee68@yahoo.com.sg. I can then retrieve the file from sendspace with the link sent. A reminder - DO NOT sent the project file (mmv) send only the movie file (wmv). The project file should be kept by you in case you need to make amendments. If you send us the project file we would not be able to see the video as the pictures and music are actually stored in your computer. We will only be assessing the end product which is movie file (wmv) which you have created.

Notes on map reading:
http://comhumgeog.blogspot.com/search/label/Map%20Reading
Find out how to get to Bedok Reservoir using http://gothere.sg/maps
Take this world quiz on continents and oceans: http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/worldquiz.html
Try out this simple excercise/game on topographical map:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/sysm/landscapes/highlands_islands/mapskills/index_intro.shtml#focus
Play this game to learn more about map symbols and legend:
http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/toolsforadventure/games/adventure.html

Find out more about topographical maps: http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es0307/es0307page01.cfm

Great news - the UN scientists announced that the ozone layer depletion has stopped.

Ozone provides a natural protective filter against harmful ultra-violet rays from the sun, which can cause sunburn, cataracts and skin cancer as well as damage vegetation.

This is partly credited to the efforts by many countries in the signing of the Montreal treaty in 1987 to reduce the use of CFCs, substances used in refrigerators, aerosol sprays and some packing foams which has caused the destruction of the ozone layer.

However, the ozone-friendly substances that have replaced CFCs in plastics or as refrigerants, which are hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), are also powerful greenhouse gases. HFCs alone are regarded as 14,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2) and HFC emissions are growing by eight percent a year, according to UN agencies. This will pose a challenge in dealing with the global climate change problem.

Adapted from http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5go2RnKHmYcJjFtzH-vKYV2gs_yJA

Read this cartoon on underground water found in Changi, Singapore.
http://chewonitcomics.blogspot.com/2010/01/underground-water-found.html
Does this mean additional source of water for Singapore?

Read this from http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_578475.htm-

The UN food agency reported that the number of undernourished people around the world has declined by nearly 10 per cent in 2010 and that this is the first time a drop in famine has been recorded since 1995.

In a hunger report by the Food and Agricuture Organisation (FAO)- there is a fall of 9.6% of people undernourished - 925 million people are undernourished in 2010 compared with 1.023 billion in 2009.

However the FAO insisted that 'the number of undernourished people in the world remains unacceptably high'.

The decline, the first in 15 years, 'is largely attributable to a more favourable economic environment in 2010 - particularly in developing countries - and the fall in both international and domestic food prices since 2008'.

However, 'the fact that nearly a billion people remain hungry, even after the recent food and financial crises have largely passed, indicates a deeper structural problem'.

The UN agency urged governments to 'encourage increased investment in agriculture, expand safety nets and social assistance programmes, and enhance income-generating activities for the rural and urban poor.' Analysis of hunger during financial crisis and recovery also brought to the fore 'the insufficient resilience to economic shocks of many poor countries and households, the FAO warned. -- AFP

After looking at this article, I would like you to reflect on the following:
1. What does the term "undernourished" mean?
2. What are the factors which affect the accessibility of food?
3. What are the ways in which we can encourage food production and accessibility?