Watch this video on coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef
Reflect on Where are coral reefs found? What are the conditions needed for the growth of coral reefs? Why are coral reefs destroyed? What are the benefits of protecting coral reefs?
Do you know that there are some beautiful coral reefs in Singapore?
Read the following article on how coral reef conservation is carried out:
A total of 7,370 dengue cases have been reported in Singapore since the start of the year 2016. Four people have died of the disease so far – a 47-year-old man who lived in Marsiling Rise, a 67-year-old man who lived in Toa Payoh, a 63-year-old woman who lived in Bedok and a 73-year-old woman who lived in Hougang.
The Ministry of Health and NEA have warned that the number of dengue cases in Singapore may exceed 30,000 this year, higher than the record of 22,170 reported in 2013.One of the main factors is the rising temperatures which caused
faster breeding and maturation cycles of the Aedes mosquito population. Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/new-dengue-cases-in/2754172.html
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/dengue-cases-spike-with-a/2418014.html Correlation between increasing temperature and dengue?
With rising temperatures, the worst drought in four decades in Western India has emptied reservoirs, killed livestock, destroyed crops and left much of the population desperate for water.
Temperatures reached a record-high of 51 degrees Celsius in some areas, and at least 150 people across the country have died from heat-related causes. Some relief is on the way as rain is predicted across the north in the next few days.
When did the heatwave affect India. Where are the areas affected? Who are affected? Why does temperature rises? What are the impacts of the heatwave? How can help be rendered to those affected?
Two powerful quakes hit southern Japan a day apart, killing at least 41 people as@ 18 April 2016. The first one with a magnitude of 6.2 struck on Thursday 14 April 2016 and the second one with a magnitude of 7.3 struck on Saturday 16 April 2016. The epicentre of Saturday’s (April 16) quake was near the city of Kumamoto and measured at a shallow depth of 10 km , the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said. The shallower a quake, the more likely it is to cause damage. Buildings were reduced to rubble, including a university dormitory and apartment complexes, with dozens of people unaccounted for over a wide area.
Around 70,000 people have been evacuated, including 300 from an area close to a dam thought to be at risk of collapse. A hospital was left teetering by Saturday morning's 7.0 quake, with doctors and patients rushed from the building in darkness.
Isolated villages in the mountainous area of Kumamoto were completely cut off by landslides and damage to roads, with at least 1,000 people believed trapped in one area alone.
Aerial footage showed a bridge on a main trunk road had crashed onto the carriageway below it, its pillars felled. The quake came as emergency responders were working to reach areas already affected by a 6.2 magnitude tremor that struck late Thursday.
Aftershocks continued to rock Kumamoto and its surroundings, an area unaccustomed to the powerful quakes that regularly shake other parts of seismically-prone Japan.
Thursday's initial quake affected older buildings and killed nine people, but Saturday's brought newer structures crashing down, including a municipal office in the city of Uto.
The total number of deaths rose to 32.
Nearly 1,000 people have been hurt, 184 of them seriously.
Japan, one of the most seismically active countries in the world, suffered a massive undersea quake on March 11, 2011 that sent a tsunami barreling into the country's northeast coast.
Some 18,500 people were left dead or missing, and several nuclear reactors went into meltdown at the Fukushima plant in the worst atomic accident in a generation.
An article released on 13 March 2016 reviewed the efforts of the Philippines government in helping the victims of the typhoon Haiyan which struck in 2015. What are the responses?
Call for more typhoon-proof architecture, but many residents are still living in temporary housing.
As of 2015, only 10 per cent of permanent housing has been completed, leaving thousands still living in temporary bunkhouses across the city.
More than half of the US$12.8 billion earmarked for housing projects had yet to be used.
In Tacloban, almost 14,500 housing units had been targeted to be built on 21 resettlement sites, but only 660 units - less than 5 per cent - have been completed.
Many in the city are still living in transition. Though permanent homes have been built for them, only half have moved out of their temporary bunkhouses as there is no water and electricity at the new sites
What happened?
More than 360,000 homes were left destroyed in Eastern Visayas in 2013 as a result of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones to hit the country.
The area was the worst hit by Typhoon Haiyan, with more than 95 per cent of its population living beside the sea or near bodies of water before the typhoon.
The Philippines' precarious position in the Pacific also means it is first in line to receive more than 20 typhoons each year.
The government had initially set a target of moving communities 150 metres above sea level and aimed to build structures able to withstand wind speeds of up to 300km per hour.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan at 4am local time on 7 Feb 2016. The earthquake started at Kaohsiung but why was the impact greater at Tainan? The damage at the epicentre Kaohsiung was much lower than Tainan due to the softer soil at Tainan. The impact was also greater as the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 10km. Many families were at home as it is the eve of lunar new year and casualties were higher as they were sleeping at the time when earthquake struck and were not able to respond or evacuate on time. The collapse of buildings have caused more deaths and injuries. Queries are made on the structure of the buildings, especially when tin cans were found in the construction. Most new buildings in Taiwan are built to withstand quake of magnitude 5 to 6. The president of Taiwan said that the government will tighten regulation on building construction. Other than strengthening buildings, what are the other ways to mitigate the impact of earthquakes? Rescue work is still in progress and is one of the most important short term response. What are the other short and long term responses? http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35508475
Earthquake is common as Taiwan lies at the plate boundary of the Eurasian and Philippines Plate.
http://www.earthscope.org/science/geo-events/m6.4-taiwan Why does earthquake occur at the plate boundary? Why is earthquake a hazard? Why does the damage from earthquake differ?
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea's Bougainville Island early Tuesday (Feb 9). The quake hit some 96 kilometres southwest of Panguna at 2.19am (12.19am Singapore time), according to the US Geological Survey. The epicentre was 102 kilometres southwest of the larger town of Arawa also on Bougainville Island and USGS said it was 32 kilometres deep, which is considered shallow. Quakes are common on the island nation, which lies on the 4,000-kilometre-long Pacific Australia plate, which forms part of the "Ring of Fire", a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/6-3-magnitude-earthquake/2499350.html The earthquake which struck Papua New Guinea has the same magnitude as the one which struck Taiwan. Why are there more damages and casualties in Taiwan? Another earthquake struck Chile at 7.33 pm 9 Feb (0033 GMT Wednesday 10 Feb) 326 km north-northwest of Santiago, the USGS said. It had a depth of 31.5 km. There was no immediate reports of damage and injuries.
The 1.2°C
increase in temperatures in the region over the past 30 years has reduced frost
damage. It has also added one degree in the level of alcohol and reduced
acidity. Harvesting in Champagne has been brought forward by two weeks on
average over the past 30 years. And while drought has slashed output in other
areas of agriculture, the chalky Champagne soil has water retention properties
that have so far been able to temper the impact. And to fight dry weather,
winemakers also use techniques such as removing grass competing for water in
vineyards or keep more leaves to protect grapes from the sun.
