Marine Pollution
Marine Pollution I am writing to convince the UK Government that it is time to take action to protect the seas around us. The harm being done to our oceans is damaging in many ways - not least because with increasing speed, we are severely depleting the world's stock of fish. For four centuries the seas have been considered on inexhaustible resource from which people could take as much as they wanted. Now we have to face up to the fact that our oceans are not limitless - more and more people competing for less and less fish are which is making the existing crisis worse. Many marine ecosystems are at the point of collapse and will be destroyed unless we act quickly to protect them from the most serious threats. Pollution from ships Ships can pollute waterways and oceans in many ways. Oil spills can have devastating effects. While being toxic to marine life, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the components in crude oil, are very difficult to clean up, and last for years in the sediment and marine environment. Discharge of cargo residues from bulk carriers can pollute ports, waterways and oceans. In many instances vessels intentionally discharge illegal wastes despite foreign and domestic regulation prohibiting such actions. Ships create noise pollution that disturbs natural wildlife, and water from ballast tanks can spread harmful algae and other invasive
Lognor Case Study
Longnor Longnor is a village in Staffordshire, 35 miles of SE Manchester. It has a population of 350 people and is in the Peak District National Park. It has numerous problems such as shortages of work, affordable housing and poor access to services. With the village of Longnor lying on the edge of the Peak District National Park, it attracts many tourists and holiday makers. These tourists and visitors travel long distances to visit the national park and need to stay somewhere when they arrive. There are no hotels in the village and very few bed and breakfasts, so one of the main sources of accommodation are holiday cottage rentals. Families and homeowners have second homes in Longnor, often which they rent out and visit. With many of the houses in Longnor being brought as holiday homes, second homes or retirement homes, there is a distinct lack of housing for the local people. As Longnor is within a commuting distance for Manchester and the houses are much cheaper than Manchester, villages like Longnor are attracting more and more YUPPIES and commuters. Also villages like Longnor are attractive to retirees as they are quiet and peaceful, they have places to walk and relax with lots of open spaces and greenery and clean air. They are far enough out of busy cities and younger generations but are within distance of local towns. With so many commuters and retirees buying
I am studying both the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the Lake District
GCSE Geography Geographical Investigation What are the impacts of tourism in a selected region of the UK? Tourism is the industry that looks after the needs and welfare of tourists and provides the things that help them travel to places where they can relax and enjoy themselves. I am studying both the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the Lake District because the Lake District is being overwhelmed with tourists each year but without the income that tourism generates the Lake District wouldn't survive. The Lake District is one of 15 National Parks across the UK which has 2 main purposes. - To enhance and preserve the natural beauty of the landscape. - To provide a place for recreation and enjoyment. A third aim is; - To protect the social and economic well being of people who live and/or work in the National Park. The positive impacts of tourism are associated with the economy and employment. Tourism can also start off a cycle known as the positive multiplier effect; the tourism industry locates in an area which provides jobs for locals. This gives workers more money to spend and so more local shops open and more jobs are created and so on and so on. But as well as positive impacts, there are also many negative impacts of tourism. The first is footpath erosion. This occurs when people (tourists in this case) are
Chinas One Child Policy: The good, the bad, and the ugly
China's One Child Policy: The good, the bad, and the ugly China's present population is approximately 1.2 billion, which is about one fifth of the earth's entire population. China has to feed 22% of the world's people on 7% of the world's land, which is a considerable task. China's one child policy was established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to limit communist China's population growth. The one-child policy means that couples are only allowed one child in rural and urban areas. Parents with multiple births aren't given the same benefits as parents of one child. Many times the parents have to pay money to the government in order to get permission to have another child. The aims of the policy were to reduce the population rate of China. In the mid-twentieth century the population rate was 55 million (about the same as the UK's total population) every three years. To do this, families were restricted to 1 per family and the marriageable age was raised to 22 for men and 20 for women. Couples have to apply to be married and to have a child. Parents who have only one child get a "one-child glory certificate," which entitles them to economic benefits such as an extra month's salary every year until the child is 14, free education, priority housing and family benefits. Among the other benefits for one child families are higher wages, interest-free loans, retirement
Describe and explain the economic and social costs and benefits of ageing and youthful populations
Describe and explain the economic and social costs and benefits of ageing and youthful populations Ageing populations usually shows that a country is an MEDC, which of course is a good thing. It shows that medical care is very good, diseases are low, diets are nutritional and that there is a good standard of living. The benefits of having lots of elderly people is that the death rate is lower, some provide a service for the country if they are still working and often they are involved in politics using their wisdom to help the country, so in an MEDC an ageing population can be a good thing. However if they are too many elderly then problems start to develop. After all the elderly are part of the dependant population and most, although some do, don't have jobs and contribute to the country and its economy. They do not pay taxes because they are not earning and so just take money from the country in the form of state pensions and other social security benefits. The young and active population therefore has to work hard to support the dependant population so that they can obtain their pensions. However if there are too many elderly people then the country, for example the United Kingdom, which has an ageing population will become very strained. They are too many elderly dependant people to support, this occurs when the active population cannot equal by working the amount of
River Chess Coursework
River Chess Coursework My coursework involve a study of the river chess near Amersham. It is obviously based on the work that we did as part of the Rivers module. My work will show how this river changes as it moves downstream. Firstly, the River Chess springs from the Chess Valley in Chesham and Hertfordshire which is in South-East of England. The reason why we studied R. Chess is because the nearest river to us and it will be wise to take measurements of the size of a small river instead of a large e.g. Thames, where it will be difficult to take measurements. Chess River has a drainage basin of 105 square km that covers parts of Chesham, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. Site 1: 1.5 km from source Site 2: 16km from source Site 3: 17 km From source It is important to study the rivers and systems, so we know what to expect and will be able to control them in different ways Leaves example - where the rivers it will not lead to a disaster to the surrounding villages as we all know that if a major river flood can cause devastation as when the Mississippi flooded in New Orleans in 2005. Therefore studying the history and the rivers we have Aid to bring about the prevention of floods. However, the study of rivers in the summer is different than in the winter because the river depth varies depending more rain in
The demographic transition model accounts for the rise and fall in population, the birth rate, death rate, population size and growth.
Population growth is ultimately decided by the amount of births and deaths, and the balance of the main inputs and outputs of population, inputs to the population being births and immigrants, outputs being the deaths and emigrants. The proportion to which is what really matters. The demographic transition model accounts for the rise and fall in population, the birth rate, death rate, population size and growth. Different cultures, society's and geographical places have different reasons for being either under or over populated. For example, the Philippines, a mainly catholic country, is very overpopulated, because of the religion of the vast majority of the country, they don't use contraception or family planning, and so families can end up having many more children than is the 'norm' for say England, where the average number of children per household is 2, whereas, in the Philippines the average number of children per house is 5, and so the population rises. However, in places like Canada, where the population is around 33,000,000 people, so why does Canada have a low population density? It's because Canada is such a large country, the whole population is distributed very sparsely and there are only 3.4 people in a km 2. Canada is in stage four of the DTM, this means that: * The birth rate is falling * The death rate is low * There is no population growth * And the
Development is hazardous to natural and build environments
Developing country areas will decrease the amount of poverty throughout all of Asia, including the assistance to the countries economic growth. The development of road built infrastructure, water availability and aid will assist in the reduction of poverty. "Infrastructure development is a driving factor that can affect poverty negatively and positively. Infrastructure is important for poverty reduction. This can be the case where development aid, road construction or water and sanitary investments have been made with poverty reduction in mind." - (Environmental Knowledge of Change) The increased development and aid from more developed countries would help reduce the amount of poverty in many developing countries, also helping the population's health while helping to deteriorate the amount of poverty driven families. Economic growth can be helped by increasing the amount of contact within inland areas around Asia. "Rapid economic growth in recent years has put enormous pressure on Asia's transport, energy, and communications infrastructure. Unless these can be improved, they will continue to be a bottleneck to growth...Better connectivity with inland areas, for instance, would boost trade and economic growth in both coastal areas and inland...Following the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, countries with significant investments in infrastructure recovered faster than
Socio-economic and political impacts of climate change in Africa
'The cause of the warming of the African continent (and of the world as a whole) over the past 100 years is not clear. The change in atmospheric composition associated with rising levels of greenhouse gases must be one of the most plausible explanations, but there are other possibilities (Wigley et al., 1992). The trend may, for example, be the result of natural climate variability, shifts in the ocean temperature distribution or changes in the solar output. The progressive degradation of dryland areas, by reducing surface soil moisture, may have contributed to the warming over Africa, although the results of recent analyses suggest that the effects may account for no more than a small proportion of the trend observed over the continent as a whole (cf. Balling, 1991, with Hulme and Kelly, 1993). Whatever the cause of the warming trend, it provides one benchmark against which we can judge the projections of future climate warming for Africa' All that one needs to look at is the Annual rainfall during the mosts recent three decades to see that there has been around 20 to 40 percent less than was expected around the 1960's. Take extreme years such as 1984 and 1990 where rainfall levels have dropped below 50 percent of what is normally expected. But the real question we are trying to answer here is how sensitive are African natural resources, managed ecosystems and national
Pedestrian Counts.
GCSE Geography Coursework Analysis . Pedestrian Counts My Isoline Map of Cambridge shows that, as I predicted, the overall trend of my data is that the further you move away from the city, the fewer the number of pedestrians. This theory is backed up by my scatter graph, which shows a negative correlation meaning that the pedestrian counts and the distance away from the city centre are inversely proportional, with lower counts the further you move away. The two innermost, red coloured zones of the map have pedestrian counts in the mid four hundreds. These counts are this high for a number of reasons. They are in the centre of Cambridge's CBD, and as a result are filled with high demand shops and services, and a large number of densely populated office blocks. For instance the reading recorded on Market road, showing 419 people passing that point in ten minutes was most probably due to the famous 'Cambridge Market' which lies there. The highest reading of 465 on the corner of St Andrews street was again due to the presence of a great many shops and services. I also note that the time when these readings were taken is also important. The fact that they were taken at 11:30am on a Wednesday morning is crucial as this would be one of the times where the highest density of people would be shopping and working in offices. If these readings had been taken at 11:30am on a Sunday
