Aral Sea Case Study
ARAL SEA CASE STUDY The Aral Sea in definition can be best described as a basin in Central Asia that is located between Kazakhstan, northern Karakalpakstansan and in a generous region of Uzbekistan which is in the South [Fig. 1]. This map accurately depicts the significance of the Aral Sea in a regional scale as there are only two countries bordering the sea as opposed to a cluster of countries (whereby the significance would be national) and thus only two countries with immediate contact with the basin. The Aral Sea was a creation made in the location where two major rivers in the name of Amu Darya and Syr Darya met. In previous years, The sea was declared as the fourth largest inland sea but has been steadily shrinking and drying up since the 1960's due to diversion of the Amu and Syr Darya as means of water supplements for Soviet Union irrigation projects. These drastic actions have impacted both the safety of the drinking water in the area as well as the health of the locals. In the year of 1981, the decision of the diversion of Amu and Syr Darya was officially declared by the Soviet Union as means of irrigation for the desert where the growth of rice, cotton, cereals and melons would be attempted. This decision was a branch in the plan of developing the cotton industry as becoming one of the most major exports. Even though this plan had clear success with Uzbekistan
Tropical Rainforest Case Study
Sasha Zouev IB, 16/11/05 Tropical Rainforest Case Study, Amazonia Introduction Tropical rainforest, temperate coniferous and deciduous woodland forests are the three main categories of forest type. Tropical rainforests are considered a much richer species that the other two, and temperate vegetation is one that grows fastest. The rainforest ecosystem is very weak and easily unbalanced, making this type of forest more "permanently destroyed" than the other two. The importance of tropical rainforests lies within the fact that they are the earth's richest source of life as they play a vital part in the earth's natural cycles of soil, water and air through the process of photosynthesis. In this case study we will be looking closely at the tropical rainforest in the Amazonia region of South America. Where is this Rainforest? The term, Amazon rainforest, is used to basically talk about the moist and broadleaved region of what is known as the Amazon Basin, which is around 7 million km squared and covers areas of mainly Brazil, Colombia, Peru and many more South American countries. This rainforest accounts for around 50% of the world's remaining rainforests. Amazonian rainforests contain the biggest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest that there is to be found. It is the world's greatest natural resource - the most powerful and bio-actively diverse
Pro-Natalist China's population policy
Introduction: China has the largest world population, and with most of its cities densely populated. It has a policy which is most recognizable globally, as it is the most rigid compared to any other countries, this policy admits only one child per couple, and due to this fact it is named as "One Child Policy." s Background information on the Population: What was the problem? Due to the high fertility rate, numerous disasters such as pressure on resources (water, food, medical care, and housing) and a virus such as SARS will not spread as fast if the population in China declines. Causes of High Fertility rate: Before 1949, before the communists came into power, china was at stage 1 of demographic transition model, and had between 5-8 children per family. By the time, birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate were all relatively high, and with a low life expectancy. This shows that the population was increasing at an extremely slow rate. Consequently, large families were encouraged, as the government followed a pro-natalistic population policy. 0 years later in 1960, there was a dramatic increase in population with approximately 100 million people more; this determined a change in demographic transition model from first to second stage. In addition, as a result, there were improvements made in some medical services. Due to the death of Mao in 1976, the government
Malthus got it right-we are doomed?
Malthus got it right-we are doomed? How far do you agree with this statement when discussing the population-resource relationship in the 21st century? In 1789 the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus produced his 'Essay on the Principle of Population', which were based on two principles: first one being that the food supply would increase arithmetically over time, and the second one being that population would grow geometrically/exponentially. There would be a finite optimum population size (carrying capacity) in relation to food supply. So if the population would reach beyond this carrying capacity, it would lead to a decline in the standard of living - it would lead to war, famine and diseases. Nowadays, his prediction luckily is not the case. Since the 'Green Revolution' started in 1945, there has been an enormous increase in food supply provided by agricultural markets. The green revolution has enabled food production to keep pace with the increasing global population growth. The Green Revolution has provided some great benefits: "From 1950 to 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the world, grain production increased by over 250%"1 and "The world population has grown by about four billion since the beginning of the Green Revolution and most believe that, without the Revolution, there would be greater famine and malnutrition than the UN presently
How far do Trotsky(TM)s own misjudgments account for his failure in the power struggle which followed Lenin(TM)s death?
"How far do Trotsky's own misjudgments account for his failure in the power struggle which followed Lenin's death?" Following Lenin's death in 1924, a power vacuum appeared for the leadership of the Communist Party in Russia. A collective leadership was proclaimed, however competition for individual authority between Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky led to a fierce struggle for power, ending in Stalin's triumph and the beginning of his tenure as the leader of the Communist Party. The strongest contenders in the power struggle were Stalin and Trotsky, however a number of unfortunate decisions and lack of support on Trotsky's part, coupled with Stalin's tactics and power base, led to Trotsky's defeat and exile. It was the latter of the two factors that contributed more to Trotsky's ultimate failure, due to the fact that Stalin's initial position was stronger, and his opportunism allowed him to take advantage of Trotsky's misjudgments, thereby allowing him to take power. However, it is worth noting that the term 'misjudgments' is relative to the historian, since a number of Trotsky's unsuccessful decisions were deliberately made to avoid certain outcomes, therefore cannot accurately be termed 'misjudgments'. Trotsky, although he had a limited power base made up of mostly radicals and students, was in a position of adequate leverage immediately
Population Essay
"The new threat to the planet is not too many people but too few." Was once written by Michael Mayer. He claimed that the global population will rise to a peak and then sharply decrease. As we know at the moment it seems like there are already too many people on the world, leading to starvation, scarce natural resources, poverty, war and global competition for jobs. And it seems like the amount of people are continually increasing, but will it really last and will it be a problem? In Japan in fact the population is already starting to decrease, where the total fertility rate is only 1.2. That means that a woman in Japan will have an average of 1.2 kids in her life. One of the problems in Japan is that it is difficult to live there as an immigrant. This is due to the hard language and very few Japanese people speak English well. So it's not really attractive to migrate to Japan. And the women see kids the result for Japan is what's called an 'ageing population', where there will be older people, than younger people in the future. The picture beneath shows the current populations pyramid of Japan. As you can see, the life expectancy in Japan is high, as there are quite some people in their 85's-89's. What we can conclude from this pyramid is by the trend in it. [Source: http://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/nursing/images/pyramid.jpg] The number of kids in the groups of 0-15
Population in Brazil
Sasha Zouev Geography IB, 5/09/05 IB Case Study: Brazil Population, Distribution, Density Introduction: As one of the most commonly studied populous LEDC's in the world, Brazil certainly has very interesting features and patterns regarding its population and distribution. First of all, Brazil is the largest and most inhabited country in South America, and fifth in the world. Its 8,500,000 square kilometer land area borders countries such as Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia. The aim of this case study is to examine, section by section, the different factors that affect Brazilian population growth and distribution by looking at areas such as geographical positioning, politics, history, and generate some sort of conclusion. Distribution: Brazil's population is mostly concentrated alongside the coast. Coastal states, with a sum area of about 35% of Brazil, in fact account for about 87% of the entire population. Brazil can often be divided into clear-cut social, geographical and economic regions (figure 1). Masking half of the country, the Northern area has the dense and tropical basin of the Amazon (largest rain forest and largest river in volume of water in the world). The northeast, which is the most economically handicapped region, relies heavily on agriculture as its main economic activity. The area that is the wealthiest, and contains half of Brazils total
China One Child Policy
Case Study China One Child Policy History China has the world's largest population, and it's cities are the most densely populated ones. It's policy is one of the most recognized policy, since is the most rigid of any country. The policy admites only one child per couple, and because of this it is called the "One Child Policy". Before 1949, before the communists had the power, China was at stage 1 of demographic transition model, and families had betwen 5 and 8 children. Also there was a high death rate, and a low life expectation. Infant mortality rate was also high, and so with death rate and birth rate, which means that the population was increasing at a very slowly rate. In these days, large families where encouraged, since the government followed a pro-natalistic population policy. Ten years later in 1960, the population increased dramatically to 100million people more, which determined China in the second stage of the demographic transition model. As a result improvements where made in medical services. In 1976, whith the death of Mao, the government decided to advocate voluntary population control to reduce the birth rate. China began to advice about limiting family sizes and to distribute information about the need to control the population growth. Finally in 1980, the One Child Policy was introduced, which provided benefits for couples which had only one
The effect of temperature on amylase activity
Kiu Yi, IP 13M The effect of temperature on amylase activity Introduction The purpose of this experiment is to investigate if temperature will affect the amount of starch broken down as enzyme activity can change by different temperature. This is because as temperature rises the rate of chemical reactions increases due to the temperature increases the rate of the molecules' motion. More interactions will be existed between an enzyme and its substrate. The enzyme used in this lab exercise is amylase, which is commonly found in saliva and germinating seeds, catalyzes the breakdown of starch. It also reacts quickly when heat is present during the process of it reaction. However, if the temperature is higher than the optimum point, enzymes can be denatured and they can no longer bind to a substrate and catalyze reactions. My hypothesis is therefore the amylase activity would increase as the temperature rise, until a certain high temperature at which the amylase would denature and be non-functional. In this experiment, I will observe the activity of amylase by using iodine as iodine reacts with starch to form a dark brown/purple color. After adding in iodine, when amylase breaking down starch, less and less starch will be present and the color of this solution will become lighter and lighter. Equipments • 0.1% Amylase 0.5 ml • 1% Starch 5ml • 10 Test tubes and
The Stark effects of being absurd in society- The Outsider
The Stark effects of being absurd in society- The Outsider A long time ago, I summed up 'The Outsider in a sentence which I realise is extremely paradoxical: 'In our society any man who doesn't cry at his mother's funeral is liable to be condemned to death.' Albert Camus 8th January 1955 The novel 'The Outsider' establishes a being that is a 'Nomad' or existential in a sense of the society he lives in and the wandering on the cliff beside the sea of introversion and poignancy. Meursault is commonly misunderstood and is regarded as a reject. Furthermore he refuses to lie. A lie is a statement made by someone, in the expectation that the hearers may believe it. 'In the case of the human heart saying more than one feels,' Meursault conforms to the existential presuppositions; this is regarding reality as the state of being, the truth, often unheard of in politics and society. Consequently society feels threatened, by Meursault's refusal to satisfy the feelings of others by showing little remorse for his mother's death. His indifference leads him to be condemned by a trial. In the early stages of the book Meursault is seen as an adverse individual towards society, one who speaks his consciousness. Camus creates a paradoxical character against the normality of society, which brings out stark differences through the use of Meursault's ability to state facts. This narrative effect
