Geography
The UK is located in Western Europe, and islands include the northern one-sixth of Ireland. It stretches over 244,820 sq km in total, with 241,590 sq km of that being land, and 3,230 sq km being water. This land area is split into four different countries, which are the subdivided into counties, boroughs and districts. To be more precise England is spit into 36 counties, Northern Island into 6 counties, Scotland into 32 council areas, and Wales 9 counties. This is the first main difference when comparing these two countries as the areas are very different. The USA is located in the North Atlantic and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico. It has a total area of 9,629,091 sq km, with 9,158,960 sq km being land and 470,131 sq km being water. Like the UK, the USA is also subdivided into what is their equivalent of counties, states. The USA consists of 50 states and 1 district. The difference between these countries also comes back into play here, as the States of America are autonomous, meaning that they are governed separately, whereas in the UK, there is one government and then this is subdivided into local governments, which put forward views from each district.
Climate is another main difference between the USA and UK. The UK’s climate is temperate, which is moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North Atlantic. It has four separate seasons, although these are starting to blend in with each other and become more general. Although not life threatening there is also several natural disasters that the UK may occur, these are winter windstorms and floods. It must be noted that these are becoming more and more severe/freak as time goes on.
The USA’s climate is mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semi-arid in the great plains, west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest. There are low winter temperatures in the northwest and these are replaced occasionally in January and February by warm winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Its terrain is vast central plain, with mountains in the west, and hills and low mountains in east. This multi climatic land mass means that the majority of Americans never actually leave the country, let alone their state, as there is enough variation just 100km away for example. Because of these extreme climate conditions there is also many more natural hazards. There include, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around Pacific Basin; hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts; tornadoes in the mid-west and southeast; mud slides in California; forest fires in the west; flooding; and permafrost in northern Alaska.
Its terrain is mostly rugged hills and low mountains, which are level to rolling plains in the east and southeast. It has several natural resources which include coal, petroleum, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica, arable land, all of which contribute to it economic state.
There are rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska, along with rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii. Its natural resources include coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber, which like the UK contribute to its economic state.
Environmental Issues
UK continues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (has met Kyoto Protocol target of a 12.5% reduction from 1990 levels and intends to meet the legally binding target and move towards a domestic goal of a 20% cut in emissions by 2010); by 2005 the government aims to reduce the amount of industrial and commercial waste disposed of in landfill sites to 85% of 1998 levels and to recycle or compost at least 25% of household waste, increasing to 33% by 2015; between 1998-99 and 1999-2000, household recycling increased from 8.8% to 10.3%
USA contributes to air pollution which results in acid rain in both the US and Canada; the US is the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels; water pollution from runoff of pesticides and fertilizers; very limited natural fresh water resources in much of the western part of the country require careful management; desertification
People
Population: USA 290,342,554 (July 2003 est.)
UK 60,094,648 (July 2003 est.)
Ethnic Group: Uk English 81.5%, Scottish 9.6%, Irish 2.4%, Welsh 1.9%, Ulster 1.8%, West Indian, Indian, Pakistani, and other 2.8%
USA white 77.1%, black 12.9%, Asian 4.2%, Amerindian and Alaska native 1.5%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.3%, other 4% (2000)
note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American descent (including persons of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin) living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.)
Government
Type UK: constitutional monarchy
Type USA: Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition
England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927
Flags
The flag for England has a blue field with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England) edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red cross of Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which is superimposed on the diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland); properly known as the Union Flag, but commonly called the Union Jack; the design and colors (especially the Blue Ensign) have been the basis for a number of other flags including other Commonwealth countries and their constituent states or provinces, as well as British overseas territories
The flag for the USA has thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars; the 50 stars represent the 50 states, the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies; known as Old Glory; the design and colors have been the basis for a number of other flags, including Chile, Liberia, Malaysia, and Puerto Rico.