Crisis in Darfur

This website has videos, interactives and photos about what is happening in Darfur. I’m looking forward to reading your comments!

We have heard plenty about the dangers of peak oil, global warming, banking meltdowns, and global pandemics, but the most critical crisis of all, that of food, looms largely unnoticed.

When we have thought about a food crisis it has usually been in terms of there not being enough food. But in recent times a new specter has raised its head. The food is there, but the price of food is rising so fast that the world’s poor can no longer afford it. They can no longer afford the most basic commodity of life.

In the last three years, the global food prices have doubled. The fastest rises have been in the staple cereals. In the last year (2007), the price of corn went up by 30%, rice by 74%, soya by 87%, and wheat by 130%. The people most hit by such increases are the world’s poor. Some have to spend 80% of their income on food. What happens when they have to pay even more?

Read more at The Looming Food Crisis and then check out this link to The Food Clock

What is your perception about the food crisis? Is it / Has it effected New Zealand? I’d like to read your comments.

Today we sadly played the last rugby game for us in this years 2007 rugby world cup. We won our pool and made it into the quarterfinals. This year our quarterfinal was up against France. Everyone knew it was going to be a tough game but we started off well ahead with us getting two penalty kicks and a converted try over before half time while only right on half time France got their first three points which made the half time score 13-3 to New Zealand. Almost straight after half time Luke McAlister got a yellow card which means he has to go off the field and let the All Blacks play with one less player for ten minutes. While Luke McAlister was off France got over another three points with a penalty kick and a converted try worth seven points to make the score an even 13 each. A little while later we got an unconverted try giving us an extra five points. France also got a try except they got their conversion over so now France were ahead by two . The All Blacks kept on trying and trying but sadly the score didn’t change and so France came out on top and at full time the score was still 20-18 to France. Hopefully with the Rugby World Cup being held in New Zealand next time the All Blacks will have many more supporters and with any luck do better next time.

http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/index.html - Great visual mapping tool, collection of world maps where territories are resized according to subject of interest. 336 total maps, also available as PDF’s to download. Here is an example of from the web site. Worldmapper posters depicting nuclear waste, carbon emissions and HIV/AIDS were displayed at the recent Glastonbury festival. They were used as part of the ‘Give Geography its Place’ campaign. The photos were taken by Daniel Raven-Ellison, one of the campaign members.

http://www.daylife.com/highlights - Daylife is a multimedia news site which highligts news stories from around the world. Top of the page has tabs for content, main page is an image and along the bottom are thumbnails representing stories that are covered.

It is very early in the morning and I am up watching Race 4 of the Louis Vuitton Cup with Team NZ currently ahead of Luna Rosa.

4 down, 1 to go! Race five  is over and we blitzed the whole lot. I wonder how many people really thought that it would be over in 5 races?

Alinghi, here we come! These races will be in a couple of weeks so I will be able to catch up on some sleep before they start. What do you think will be the result of the America’s Cup 9 races? Will there be 9 races?

His address:

Shane Bernier
PO Box 484
Lancaster, Ontario
K0C 1N0
Canada

You can also visit Shane’s Wish for more information.

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Our cluster will be embarking on a cross cluster inquiry next term and the topic is “10 Years to Save the Planet”. This is based on an article we read in the Otago Daily Times on global warming and the pressures the Earth is facing. Reading Derek’s Blog today, I came across this:Zerofootprint: Footprint CalculatorI went through the questions to see what sort of damage my lifestyle was doing to our planet and it was a bit of an eye opener. We take it all for granted and this is a good way to show the students in our classes that there are things we can do to make it better for everyone. Unfortunately NZ isn’t one of the countries listed but you can compare your footprint to the Average Australian as our closest
neighbour.

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