Day 1 - Shaoguan Service Corps

Exhausted and tired. Bleeding nails. My toilet's blocked. Going to be teaching English for P.3 students - woo hoo.

Geographical News - Feb 14th 2013

• North Korea has carried out it's 3rd biggest nuclear test last week despite warnings from the United Nations. Even it's main ally China criticised the test. 
• This highlights one of the global world issues: A nuclear bomb threat to the world. When one country such as North Korea possesses highly destructive, massive and large-scaled weapons such as a nuclear bomb, the rest of the world may suffer consequences if it is ever used. 
• Nuclear weapons also damage the healths of people and have long term harmful effects. 
• It also destabilises the world's agreement for peace. It is a challenge for the whole international community and a huge threat to Asian countries. North Korea has defied the UN sanctions imposed on it's testing of nuclear weapons. If this continues, the nation faces increased isolation from even it's closest neighbour China. 
• What will happen if it is indeed isolated ? Will it continue un-monitored testing of nuclear weapons, which it may use unexpectedly ? 
• What will China, it's main trade ally, do ? All eyes are on China. 

Cambridge Geography Reading List

(Tentative - compiled from college websites) 

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

S Corbridge, N Thrift & R Martin (eds): Money, Power and Space

R A Dodgshon: The European Past: social evolution and spatial order

D Gregory, R Walford (eds): Horizons in Human Geography

D Gregory, R Martin & G Smith (eds): Human Geography.  Society, Space and Social Science

D Harvey: The Condition of Postmodernity

P Jackson, S Smith: Exploring social geography

R J Johnston: Geograply and geographers: Anglo-American human geography since 1945 (5th edition)

R J Johnston, P J Taylor (eds): A World in Crisis?  Geographical perspectives (2nd edition)

D Livingstone: The geographical tradition

D Massey: Spatial divisions of labour

R Muir: Political Geography

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

G C Brown, C J Hawkesworth, C L Wilson (eds): Understanding the Earth: a new synthesis

R J Chorley, S A Schumm, D Sugden: Geomorphology

M J Clark, K J Gregory, A Gurnell (eds): Horizons in Physical Geography

A S Goudie: Environmental change

K J Gregory: The nature of physical geography

R Haines-Young, J Petch: Physical geography: its nature and methods

S J Harrison, D Mottershead, I White: Environmental systems

G Petts, I Foster: Rivers and landscape

F Sandbach: Environment, ideology and policy

For 'People Space and Geographies of Difference'

• Held, D. (ed) 2004 A Globalizing world? Culture, Economics, Politics, Routledge / Open University Press, 2nd edition
• Murray, W.E. 2006 Geographies of Globalization, Routledge
• Gough, J., Eisenschitz, A. and McCulloch, A. 2006 Spaces of Social Exclusion, Routledge

For Historical Geography

• Davis, M. 2000 Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Modern World Economy, London: Verso
• Graham, B and Nash, C (eds) 2000 Modern Historical Geographies, Prentice Hall
• Pomeranz, K. 2000 The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton University Press

For Society Environment and Development

• Adams, W.M. 2001 Green Development: environment and sustainability in the Third World, Routledge, 2nd edition
• Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (eds) 2000 Poverty and Development into the 21st Century, Oxford University Press
• Lawson, V. 2007 Making Development Geography, Hodder Arnold, London

For the Physical Geography courses (Environmental Processes and Environmental Change)

• Barry, R.G., Chorley, R.J. and Chase, T. 2003 Atmosphere, weather and climate, Routledge
• Masselink, G. and Hughes, M.G. 2003 An introduction to coastal processes and geomorphology, Hodder Arnold
• Gaston, K. and Spicer, J. 2004 Biodiversity, Blackwell, 2nd edition
• Francis, P. and Oppenheimer, C. 2004 Volcanoes, Oxford University Press

General Reading

• Adams WM (2008), Green Development 3rd edition. Routledge, London
• Cloke P, Crang P and Goodwin M eds (2005), Introducing Human Geographies 2nd edition. Hodder Arnold, London
• Cook I, Crouch D, Naylor S and Ryan J eds (2000), Cultural Turns, Geographical Turns. Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Daniels P, Bradshaw M, Shaw D and Sidaway J eds (2008), An Introduction to Human Geography: Issues for the 21st Century. Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Dicken P (2007), Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy. Sage, London
• Graham B and Nash C eds (2000), Modern Historical Geographies. Prentice Hall, Harlow.

General Reading

• Christopherson RW (2008), Geosystems: an introduction to physical geography 7th Edition. Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Grotzinger J and Jordan TH (2010), Understanding Earth 6th Edition. WH Freeman and Co., New York
• Holden J (2005), An introduction to physical geography and the environment. Prentice Hall, Harlow
• Kump LR, Kasting JF and Crane RG (2009), The Earth System. Pearson, NJ
• Slaymaker O, Spencer T and Embleton-Hamann C eds (2009), Geomorphology and Global Environmental Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

C.Y. Leung's policy address

The Hong Kong C.E.'s policy address tackles these main issues:

1. Education - free 15 year education program starting from kindergarten-aged children, to boost Hong Kong's social wellbeing.
2. Housing - 20,000 private houses and 20,000 public houses per year increase, with there being a few thousand Home Ownership Scheme houses from the 20,000 public houses designated for sale and purchase by the young, up-and-coming middle class. 
3. More land supply has to be produced and the Chief Executive has promised to use the 4 R's : - Reclamation, Resumption (taking back of some 13 parts of Hong Kong's 50% country park areas and using them for residential purposes), Re-using of old industrial land e.g. East Kowloon and turning them into residential buildings, and Re-zoning , whereby land use will have to accomodate the demand of the people. 
4. All 4 aspects touch upon Geographers - reclaimation will involve Environmental Impact assessments and cause environmental impacts, both good and bad. Resumption will lead to more social conflict as some green groups like WWF will object to losing country park land. 
5. Re-using and re-zoning all involve change, and change is difficult to implement successfully without careful and balanced planning. To a geographer like myself, I see huge potential for contribution in this area as good urban planning to cater for changing needs and demands will need a holistic approach in planning. The degree I will be pursing will be very relevant and give me up-to-date knowledge on how best to tackle the human and the physical aspects, which I hope to contribute back to HK in the future. 

Thomas Hobbes- Leviathan and State of Nature

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are political theorists with contrasting views on 'The State' and why humans have to obey the state and sovereign.

Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan  - a famous political thought text.

Hobbes

Hobbes said that without governance of any form, human beings are in a 'State of Nature' where everyone fights everyone, using brutal force to pursue self-motivated gains. In this state of nature, each man is entitled to everything, and hence conflict, fighting and death will result from the innate selfishness of mankind.

By forming a state, each man gives all his "rights" to the sovereign or leading body, which distributes and controls these "rights", often limiting them or restricting them for the good of the majority. An example would be to make murder punishable.

Hence a social contract is formed between the state and each person - and man has to obey the state because it is an act of mutual consensus for the benefit of everyone.

For Hobbes, man kind was born nasty, selfish and self-centered. The state of nature is brutal, nasty and short, full of death and suffering. Each individual fends for himself and has no security against attacks.

It is only when we give our rights to the state that we have a duty of care to the others. Natural psychology of the human mind and a desire for personal security drives us to commit to organized society.

Critique of Hobbes:

- He assumes that human beings are inherently nasty, selfish and greedy. We still cannot prove this and there's no solid evidence for what the true state of human nature is.

-He assumes men and women are the same in the State of Nature - are women as violent and savage as men in nature ? What about physical strength and struggle - if women are physically weaker than men, then does that mean in a State of nature, no one cares for the women ?

- He ignores family institutions - a male and his mate and children will be one unit instead of individual, selfish people. They, at most, can be brutal as a unit (or can they ?) but there is some form of structure and society already in place. Perhaps the woman obeys the man - is that a micro-state ?

- He ignores the possibility of corruption of the sovereignty. What if the powers are misused ? Hobbes does not mention that people should revolt or oppose. They should put blind trust in the state instead. This doesn't seem, to me, very practical in real life. Locke suggests a limited government.

- Can man kind ever be moral naturally ? Man may have the capability to make naturally good decisions even in a State of Nature. To what extent is Hobbe's state of nature true ? 

- Cooperation for mutual benefit rather than to avoid a brutal life (Dawkins) 

Update - I got accepted into Cambridge

Geography each day DOES keep the rejection letter away! I got accepted into Cambridge University to read Geography as of a few days ago. The notification came via email and I was really happy about this since it's been 2 years of hard, tough work. I struggled, fought, cried, smiled, ate and had strongly striven for my goal - Cambridge.

I'm going to hopefully keep this blog up for the next 3 years of my Geographical life. It will serve as an online notebook for me, to write down the news I read everyday and reflect on their topics, themes and relate them back to what I'm studying at university.

Term commences in October 2013 - Geography here I come!

News - Dec 21st

• 1) Queen Elizabeth given land in the Antarctic - the queen was given a piece of land in the name of her honour. This has been accused by Argentina as imperialism in the modern world. 
• Britain and Argentina have always had a strained relationship because of physical land disputes. The Falkland Islands have been the main source of conflict since it's an oil-rich land and both countries claim to own it.
• Land disputes like this parallel to Japan and China over Diaoyue Islands. Land disputes seem to be the main source of conflict between nations. Why is this ? Is it because of, once again, how control over resources means control over the people ?
• Those who control resources, e.g. South African waters, have the power to control lives of the local citizens. And why does China want the Diaoyue Islands anyways ? Aren't they large enough already ? What's the hidden motive ? 

Garrett Hardin - Tragedy of the Commons , flaws and summary

Hardin - Tragedy of the Commons  - Hardin's theory was that if there was a common pasture that a group of people used, the land would become degraded because there was no property rights and land ownership. Although each person is aware of the consequences of the abuse, each's selfishness, competitiveness and desire for exploiting the resource will eventually make the land unusable for all.  SHARED RESOURCES WILL ALWAYS BE MISUSED. 

Applying the Tragedy of the Commons to natural resources: It is said that nature is the "global commons" - something shared and needed by all human beings on Earth. The air is an example of a "free" resource that has no ownership - hence people continue to pollute it without thinking about the knock on effects elsewhere; carbon dioxide pumped out from a small factory in rural China can diffuse into Hong Kong, affecting Hong Kong people's healths and lungs, causing detriment to a large number of people. Pollution here affects ice melting elsewhere.

Water is another example - surface water (versus groundwater) are often commodified and valued. Water is "owned" by either the state or private companies, e.g. in South Africa. However, since water is a transport, deposition and erosion agent and can carry within it a lot of organisms, if water is degraded in Himalayas, Bangladesh can be affected because water flows across the Brahmaputra. 

Applying the Tragedy of the Commons to Green Grabbing: The theory has been applied to justify green / land grabs by rich countries and private businesses, because the theory argues that the only way to stop the degradation is by ownership and privatization of resources, which provide incentive for landowners to maintain the land's quality. It's used to justify and legitimize taking land from indigenous people and privatizing many resources that should be evenly distributed (eg water).  

----

Flaws: 

1) How do you define "ownership of the land" ? Many indigenous people own land by customary rights, inheritance or by simply being there first, crafting a livelihood for many generations on the same piece of land. It is equally as valid a form of land ownership as a piece of paper. 

2) Ignores the self-regulation of people - it assumes people are naturally destructive. It ignores the fact that people may want to sustain the land knowing that degrading it will harm everyone. It adopts a cynical, pessimistic view of human nature that isn't always true. 

3) Assumes that the farmers can't adapt to disaster - even if land is degrading, farmers can adapt and mitigate - human beings are changeable beings. 

4) Assumes herders WANT to maximise their herd.

5) Privatisation is always good - is it ? Some private owners can't care for their land well , causing more degradation, soil erosion etc. 

Paul Collier - Summary of Traps

Paul Collier is an Economist from Oxford University who wrote a book titled "The Bottom Billion - Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it". He gives 4 main reasons why the poorest countries (Sudan, Angola, East Timor), home to approximately 1 billion people, have failed to develop despite aid and international support. The four "traps" that cause economic stagnation are:

1. Resource Trap - More natural resources means more conflict. There's 3 reasons for this paradox: 1) Resources make conflicts more likely as certain individuals want to control and take the resource. 2) Dutch Disease , whereby a country's manufacturing industry declines as resources are exploited. The country focuses much more on extraction rather than organic economic growth. 3) Countries are too poor to harness the money - the money gained flows out , or is wasted due to saturation. The stagnant economy stops future economic growth. 
2. Landlocked Geography - Countries who are landlocked, with few resources and without good neighbors will be in poverty. One example is Rwanda-  it does not have sufficient trade links and can't have easy access to the markets because of it's instable neighbors and lack of natural resources. Switzerland is landlocked but has good relationships with it's neighbors for easy trade. Botswana, a relatively thriving African country, is landlocked too but has plentiful resources to extract and trade. Coastal cities do not have this issue as they are open to trading with the world via ship. One solution is to strengthen infrastructure and physical trade links. 
3. Poor Government - Poor governments lack the means to enforce a good democracy and implement strong policies. There are often corrupt individuals ho use public office for private use, and often transfer funds received from aid or trade of resources to their own accounts. A poor government leads to a viscous cycle of poverty - the top leaders do not have a social contract with it's people, so it's people are poor and without adequate skills and money. A lack of money and skill means no money is invested for education, and a lack of education means a lack of quality professionals and future leaders in the next generation. This trap can be fixed by importing skilled brains into the nation as a temporary fix. 
4. Conflict - Conflict is often caused by civil war. For example, in East Timor's long struggle for independence, civil war was rife and caused violence, rape, crime and a negative downward spiral. Conflict means an instable environment for people to focus on development. People live in constant fear and the priority is shifted to the military and war, rather than to foster more social and economic growth. Conflict is worsened by inequalities in society. The fix is to promote more peace. 

Flaws:

• Collier's solution is that military intervention is NECESSARY to break the viscous cycle. He advocates positive violence to discipline these instable governments, many in Africa. This will surely cause much disagreement amongst many people! 
• Collier assumes rationality. He ignores the African nationalism and inferiority complexes (towards themselves, which prompts nationalis thinking and rejection of the "white man") of the bottom billion, many of whom are anti-West due to negative ideological legacies of colonialism. He assumes that these people will act "rationally" and choose to cooperate to set up better governments, better policies from this TOP DOWN approach. 
• In reality, there are so much more factors to be considered. Social, cultural and historical aspects have to be considered, I believe, in order to implement change. Top down approaches may work but it may cause much resistance at the start and prompt claims of "neocolonialism". 

Geography News - Dec 8th 2012

• China buys Canadian Oil company for 15 billion - Canada has approved a deal from China for an oil company called Nexen, for 15 billion pounds. This dea has been negotiated just after Canada approved a Malaysian firm that bought up another oil sand company. This is China's biggest energy investment ever recorded. 
• Canada is rich in natural resources unlike it's American neighbor. It has the Alberta tar sands, which are huge 
• Hence, natural resources from the land has great potential for economic profit. If it is controlled by private companies, the state has little power to actually control the actions of the multinationals. This is a form of geopolitics. 
• In a neoliberal world, where markets are open and there's a ROLL BACK ON STATE CONTROL and ROLL IN of privatisation. The issue is how to make these extraction of resources sustainable and not too damaging for the environment. The state can, at most, play a regulatory role and impose laws, sanctions and incentives. The application / society aspect though, is determined by the TNC's actions which often directly affect the local people. If TNCs are allowed unlimited access to resources, there will be conflict and increased INEQUALITIES due to privatisation of commodities. This can worsen conflict, although it is not a direct cause of conflict. 
• Economist Polanyi said land, labour and money are the building blocks of a capitalist system. Both "Green grabbing" and "buying up oil companies" constitute new ownership and transfer of ownership of land. The land's potentials are being extended, and one wonders whether China's buying up of the oil company in Canada constitutes a "land grab". After all China is buying up Canada's resources and using it for it's own benefit - what is the difference between this and "land grabbing" where the buyer extracts nature from the sellers? 
• One criticism I have of the article about Green Grabs are that they don't focus on countries in the Global North. Canada is part of the Global North - and here, isn't China "grabbing" Canada's natural resources through buying a company ? It is an NIC that is doing the grabbing this time! We should examine other similar instances. 

• Nelson Mandela hospitalized for tests - Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, Nobel Peace Prize winner and the leader who fought to lead South Africa out of the apartheid is in hospital for health reasons. 
• The reason this news is important is because of Nelson Mandela's link with the history of South Africa, one of the richest countries in Africa. The apartheid is important in Geography because it was a legalised form of racism starting from the 1940s, whereby laws were implemented to separate blacks and whites SPATIALLY and geographically.  
• Privatisation of commodities often create more inequalities, and privatisation of resources like water can create an ECONOMIC APARTEID. This continues on the segregation and inequalities created by law in the past, as rich whites control and own the water, whilst poor blacks cannot afford it and are impoverished. 

Climate Change reports through history

1. Kyoto Protocol (1997, came into action in 2003) - This was a binding treaty that arose after talks in the UN Climate change conference where countries gathered to discuss how to reduce greenhouse gas and what share of responsibility each nation should get. It involved 37 industrialized nations and the EU , whereby a 5% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are to be in place by the next decade. The USA supported this treaty but did not ratify it. The treaty also gave rise to a system called Carbon Trading, where countries can buy and sell their carbon credits (amount of carbon they can release as pollutants). This scheme was a further development in the commodification of nature and in the "economy of repair". 
2. Rio 1992 - The first major climate change conference which began the idea of a global society and brought a sense of togetherness and "urgency" to mankind vs. climate change. It sparked new interest in policy changes to combat global climate change. The "Precautionary Principle" - whereby action against environmental degradation is to be taken even though there is no full range of evidence - was stated in Principle 15. However, the summit's grandiose, large-scaled and broad goals remain largely unachieved. 
3. Stern Report (2006)- Economist Nicholas Stern wrote a 700 page report on the effects of climate change on economic activity. It is a large cost/benefit and risk assessment of climate change impacts on the global economy. It concluded that acting against climate change outweighs the costs of not acting. He advocates mitigatory and adaptative policies. 
4. These reports tie in well with the 1st article I was asked to read. Also - Kingdon's policy criteria can be applied here: we have the solutions in front of us and proposed laws, but the application and society aspects, cooperation and compromise, are lacking. Hence there's no policy window available for viable solutions to take place. 
5. Lastly, maybe we should stop focusing on global climate change - there is a flaw in the title since climate change has local effects and global talk means not enough local action.

Geography News - Dec 5th 2012

• 1) Philippines hit by Typhoon Bopha - Philippines was hit by a strong typhoon yesterday and the impacts of this disaster is great. More than 50 citizens are reportedly killed, and tens of thousands are displaced. In the UN Climate Change conference in Doha, a representative from the Philippines said that "Hurricane Sandy and now Typhoon Bopha are evidence that climate change is really happening" and urged developing nations to reduce their CO2 emissions. 
• Firstly, to what extent are disasters now to be blamed for climate change ? Philippines have a history of strong typhoons during the December months, and is annually subjected to typhoons similiar to Bopha. Is Bopha merely just another typhoon, or is it more serious in other ways ? A climate scientist from the USA said that Bopha is indeed stronger than previous typhoons, but it is not the largest-scale disaster to hit the nation. 
• Secondly, this raises the issue of climate refugees and migrants. Are the displaced citizens of Philippines considered refugees or climate ? Generalisations and labeling of a "refugee", and gaining refugee status allows access to certain rights and power. A refugee can enter some countries, e.g. Hong Kong, as asylum seekers, and legally have rights of abode after a certain number of years. This generalization carries power and weight. But the new category of "climate refugees", meaning the people who are forced to leave their homes because their livelihoods and ways of life are threatened by climate change disasters, has unclear legislature and is a new, broad and uncertain realm.  
• Lastly, this news seems to imply that the Doha conference isn't really conclusive and heading in a good direction. It is a blame game of who is responsible - Them or Us ? 

• 2) Aids drugs increase South Africa life expectancy number for up to 5 years - The increased distribution of antiviral drugs have increased the average life expectancy of South Africans by 5 years from 2006 to 2011. This is an improvement from when former president Mbeki denied the impacts of AIDS and it's presence in South Africa. However, 30% of pregnant women are still HIV positive and the disease is still highly prevalent amongst the population. 
• Two key points: 
• 1) The scientific community and media is actually reinforcing Said's Orientalism theory by frequently citing AIDs with African nations. Although AIDS have been attributed partly to the sexual practices of some groups of societies in Africa, science remains ultimately very political. 
• Science is influenced by politics and society in various ways. Funding and grants for research are usually provided to scientific studies that support the governments' agendas or political stance. Without funding, often there can be no study carried out. Politicians often have a vested interest in particular aspects of a scientific study, hence can choose what evidence is shown to the public. Authors and lecturers select pieces of science that support their own theories to present in public literature. 
• For climate change, if a particular research cluster comprises of pro-climate change scientists, then results will be skewed towards positive findings. If the panel is made up of climate change deniers, then the results will swing the opposite way. The fact that terms like "believers" and "deniers" are used shows that science often has political implications and non-objective connotations! 
• 2) The word AIDS / HIV carries negative stigma. This association is a constructed social discourse. Applying Foucault principles, then I ask - what is the true situation of these aids suffers in Africa ? The diseased are often subjected to a victim status. They are victimized, and deemed helpless, poor and wasting away. 
• Visual discourse of AIDS suffers are not unlike famine victims - emaciated, children and women looking sad, slums, flies, dry land, uninhabitable homes and degraded farmland in the background. Is it effective ? Many in the Global North become desensitized to these images depicted. 
• The image of AIDS is very much political, and just like famine, this image is used for political reasons - to gain support for a large-scale aid project, to gain funding to donate many antiviral drugs to South Africa, and to raise money to run agencies and continue the market cycles of aid agencies.  

I can relate that to a famine example. Famine is mass death from starvation and related chronic diseases. A good case would be in North Korea in 1994, where nearly 3 million people died because of starvation. Not only did North Korea have limited food supply (though arguably they had enough to feed everyone - just not a huge surplus like our current 20% global surplus) it was the elites, like Kim Jong Il and his government officials, that obtained most of the food. Keeping the population starving and hungry is one key strategy to keep the Communist regime in power - people were too weak to rebel or to escape from concentration camps. Women suffered most - infant mortality and maternal mortality rates increased staggeringly. Famine affects different social groups differently. 

Amartya Sen - 3 key theories

Academic Spotlight- Amartya Sen 

• Amartya Sen was a Nobel Prize-winning economist who developed several key theories relevant to geography. In his book titled "Development as Freedom", key points are:

• 1) "There has never been a famine in a democracy" - Sen agrees that famines are political exercises and that famines often occur under governments that are authoritarian, opaque and non-democratic. Famines are not caused by actual food shortages (in fact, there are often more than enough food during famines - these are stored by hoarders waiting for prices to rise) but are caused by a lack of purchasing powers and rights. Famines also have a social context (e.g. "the strongest will survive") and are sometimes used for ethnic cleansing. 

• 2) Development means freedom for all - In his book of the same title, Amartya Sen defines development as people having "freedoms" and opportunities in society. These can be political freedoms, economic choices, social opportunities, transparency and security, which are different but inter-related. Democracy is the key to a successful economy and political atmosphere. It is another take on the traditional view of economic development as the ideal form of "development". 

• 3) Women are crucial to development - Sen argues that women's life expectancy and literacy rates (what I have used as criteria in my Women's Development Indicator) should be improved because these are key steps to improve children's well-being and lower the fertility rate. He says that enhancing women's opportunity to work and contribute to society is vital. Perhaps this is true, but we are not sure whether it is women's improvements in standards of living that CAUSE development or the other way around. The relationship is two ways. 

• 1) A UK company is planning to build the largest photovoltaic plant in Ghana, Africa - The Nzema Project is an ambitious, privately funded plan from a UK company to build a $400 million solar power plant in Ghana. The solar power plant will be the largest in Africa, and will be used to provide electricity for 100,000 homes. It is hoped that by building the plant, solar energy prices will be reduced and provide an incentive for more people to use this instead of fossil fuels. 
• Interestingly, this followed on from another news headline, where the UK pledged to contribute GBP 133 million more to help Africa tackle climate change. The UK promised in the UN Climate Change conference in Doha to give more aid and more money to "help Africa" build more solar power plants and develop it's renewable energies. 
• The question is three-folds: 
• 1) Why do we not see any stricter policies in the UK (or even other nations in the Global North) about climate change ?Instead, we see a prime example of Said's "Us versus Them" divide-  the Global North is pledging to help the Global South, in particular Africa, to combat "climate change" by giving aid, money and in many cases grabbing green land. To me, it seems like the focus is skewed - why is the UK focusing externally on Africa instead of looking within itself and trying to improve it's own energy mix ? Nearly 50% of UK's energy mix consists of non-renewables like coal and nuclear. Further, the UK has contributed immensely to CO2 emissions during the industrial revolution and economic take-off. 
• 2) Is this an attempt to assert UK's western superiority and divert attention away from the UK's own energy and CO2 problems ? Perhaps this is indadvertedly the case; as I have understood from the article titled " A review of recent developments in climate change science - understanding future change in the large-scale climate system", although climate change is a pressing issue that deserves critical attention, the uncertainty, lack of accurate models and lack of understanding for these complex physical and natural feedback systems means policy making is difficult. This continuing focus on the global, e.g. helping other nations or Global South to convert to greener energy sources, only leads us nowhere in terms of action. Countries should focus inward, not outward, for effective solutions. 
• 3) Is the PV plant in Ghana going to be sustainable ? Will it benefit the locals ? What are the true reasons why this UK company is investing in Ghana ? Is this another form of green-grabbing ? The energy will power 100,000 homes, but which ones ? The richer locals can afford it, but what about poorer populations ? Will this privatisation only serve to increase inequalities ? And also, there is a risk of the plant deteriorating after a few years, or simply not benefitting locals as the energy will be transported away from Ghana. The sun is also a variable and depends on the weather. We still cannot store solar energy effectively - what happens at night ? Solar developments, I believe, has not gone far enough yet to be truly effective and cheaper than coal. 

• 2) Green talks in Doha failing as countries blame each other - UK's Lord Nicholas Stern has said that the developing countries should start cutting their emissions seriously rather than refusing to act, whilst China and other rapidly developing nations have said that the Global North should be more responsible for their previous contributions during the 20th century era. 
• Doha's UN conference seems to be leading to no valid policy changes surrounding climate change. Countries are pointing fingers and there's no actions or conclusive declarations. 
• I think ultimately, there needs to be global altruism to fix this problem. We are asking people and individuals to change their comfortable, consumerism ways of living (and who doesn't enjoy this lifestyle!) and change altogether. What can and will address this global problem is, in my opinion, if everyone developed a heightened sense of altruism and make changes, even though the immediate "rewards" will not be visible to them, maybe not even in their lifetimes. 
• Perhaps the Global North should lower their high standards of living; the Global South should raise their environmental awareness and self-sustaining abilities, and the two should meet somewhere in the middle. 

• 3) Pandas in Edinburgh Zoo boosts sales by 50% - Today marked the 1st anniversary that two pandas were shipped from China to the Scotland zoo where they served as primary attractions. 
• This news just reminds me of how humans are spending many resources protecting large mammals that aren't necessarily essential to biodiversity. Large mammals are higher up in food chains, and their extinction will have least impacts than smaller organisms from lower down the chain. Humans have intrinsic and ideologies about large mammals, and we protect them for aesthetic and economical (tourism) reasons more than for the well-being of the environment. 

Geography News - Dec 3rd 2012

• 1) Carbon emissions continues to increase in 2012 and are too high to curb climate change - Carbon dioxide levels have increased from 2011 to 2012 by nearly 3%, and this increase means that at the current rate of emissions, climate change may escalate beyond the predicted 2 degrees threshold. A recent study showed that nearly 37 billion tonnes of CO2 had been emitted last year, hitting a record high in 2011. This extremely high number caused scientists to worry about the irreversible and harmful effects of global warming, and may mean that global warming may affect sea level rise faster than previously predicted. 
• This news raises issues about policy making and climate change (Kingdon's policy window, crisis and a strategy needed, etc.) It is largely the consensus that human beings have pumped billions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and has contributed to the warming effect we see. There needs to be action in societies all over the globe regarding reducing CO2 emissions, but why isn't any country seriously implementing policies and technologies now ? 
• One viable solution is to implement technologies that can create renewable energy. New light bulbs that last longer are being invented, as is liquid metal batteries which an MIT professor explained about in an energy TED talk. 
• I am interested, personally, in focusing on solar and photovoltaic as the sun is an abundant energy source which can be easily captured and tapped. It does not require engineering of infrastructure, such as for hydroelectricity, nor does it require any turbines to generate movement. The sun is invisible to the naked eye, yet is plentiful in many Asian, European and American countries. 
• If we make solar cheaper and more efficient, and develop a liquid metal battery to store it's energy so that it can be gridded, then solar can replace current uses of coal and fossil fuels. This is, I believe, a good way to lower the global CO2 emissions as each tonne of coal burned releases 3 tonnes of CO2. 

• 2) Syria's displaced population increasing - Syria's authoritarian leader Assad is waging war against his oppositions, who want him to step down from his power and position. The result of this civil war is that there is growing numbers of refugees who are escaping political oppression. There are around 2.5 million internally displaced persons and 400,000 migrants in nearby countries who had fled from their homes.  10,000 people cross the Syria borders everyday to get away from the violence and war. America is worried about intervening because it might increase the number of Islamists. The Syrian people's living conditions are degraded and many live in unhygienic slums and refugee tents. 
• Migration is the issue here. Migration is defined as the movement of people in and out of both national boundaries and local boundaries. This is important to Geography because it involves people moving into foreign spaces across different time scales, for economic, social, political and cultural reasons. 
• Refugees are defined as people fleeing their home country because of political oppression. Giving them refugee status is a useful generalization  one that grants the refugees special rights and entitlements fo aid etc.  Syria has vast numbers of political refugees, yet they are not granted any entitlements or hold special rights. The civil war is political - the fighters do not care about the society and the people's families. Hence, these refugees don't have a choice but to move away from their homes and into crowded, dirty places nearby. This causes crowding problems, leading to a knock on spiral of cumulative causation. 
• What also struck me was how there's clearly a "Western" and "Eastern" divide amongst world view on the Syrian conflicts. Edward Said's theory about the Orient holds true - one refugee complained how there are so many journalists "staring at us in the face" whilst the refugee endured muddy floors and soaking tents in their attempts to flee. To what extend does this mentality worsen the conflict ? 
• Should America even be playing the role of "the hero" and decide which side it can support ?