EU Structural Funds

Following on from our discussion in class here is an interesting site in relation to the European Structural Funds There is also an article on the BBC relating to Northern Ireland's bid for Structural funds.

Physical Environment revision

This is a great effort by Val with her Higher Geog Blog which I'm definitely going to investigate making when I find the time. It's an interactive crossword that will test your knowledge of key vocabulary in the exams. Just click on the crossword and this will take you to a file sharing site where you download and open or save the interactive crossword. I enjoyed doing this alot!

I've now had a go and you can download mine here in the same file share site. Enjoy!

'green OPEC"

This is exactly how I see this site developing so thanks to Katt for sending through 'green OPEC' As she says in her comment it's ideal for the synoptic paper it shows how government decisions to move towards biofuels, whilst full of good intentions will have major impacts on the social and economic structures of societies in developing countries as well as enormous environment consequences.
There is alos an interesting article ob development and conservation concerning the paving of the B-163 in the Amazon.

Gapminder and Development indicators

Gapminder is an incredible site which along with a good number of publications is using Flash technology to create animations exploring development statistics. These animations are easy to use and help to develop a greater global awareness in comparing countries at different stages of development.

You can also watch this video on condions in slums

Oxfam Fair Trade Clips

Year 13 A level students might want to share this link with IB students for their development course. You should by now have a well formed position in regard to the trade/aid debate. This video is not endorsing Fair Trade as in the chocolate but rather fair trade, which along with apropriate aid is up there with effective governance in terms of important factors leading to development. Fair trade in this context refers to cutting government (agricultural) subsidies and opening up markets by reducing trading barriers such as, but not limited to financial tarriffs. It aslo highlights the problem of dumping cheap products on developing countries' markets. I'd be interested to hear some of your ideas. What do you think are the most important factors to develop countries.

An interesting book to read would be:
'How to spend $50 billion to make the world a better place' by Bjorn Lomborg. This book is available free on google.books

Aral Sea Returning

This is one of the case studies I've looked at for your 6.2, human impacts essay within the synoptic. There is also an interesting cross over to your 6.4 essay, communities and their governance.

The Aral Sea Trajedy

Also look at the case study links to the right of the page

Kazakhs get loan to save Aral sea

Geographical skills

Not sure whether you guys are viewing this blog as it develops but I thought you might make good use of the following link for your applied geographical skills paper

Micro Credit and development

When we think of development we often think of large projects, such as mines or dams that bring many benefits including jobs to LEDCs. However often the benefits are short lived or biased towards one region and create large debts that are difficult to repay. Whilst benefits may come to the country as a whole the local people may never see the benefits.
Alternatively NGO's work more closely with local people and bring benfits at a different scale. Intermediate and appropriate technologies are adopted and indigenous people are empowered to help themselves rather than be dependent on donor countries. One such strategy is micro credit peioneered by Mohammad Yusen and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh they work to develop legitimate employment oportunities for the poorest of people.

You can slo read the Grameen Bank official website

Tomb with a View

As part of your work on Managing settlements we've used Cairo as our case study for LEDC cities. You need to develop your specific knowledge of Cairo. Cities evolve all the time and with it the management strategies of the government. Read This BBC article on new attempts to manage squater settlements in Cairo in more sustainable ways.

lost jungle

lost jungle, originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal.

Is sustainable development an Oxymoron?

As part of the synoptic paper you may need to tackle a question on the environment. You will need to develop your understanding of the sustainable development debate and take your own position.

To further aid your reading use the following links:

Sustainable Development Commission - National scale

Bhopal disaster website - TNC influence

Rainforest Alliance - NGO scale

United Nations - multilateral scale

Context of globalisation

BBC News and other links

The Guardian - Climate change

Sustainable Development article - Common challenge