How is the current development unsustainable?

According to the Brundtland Commission in 1987, the definition of sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In 2012, James E. Hansen from NASA said “We're handing them [young people & future generations] a climate system which is potentially out of their control. We're in an emergency: you can see what's on the horizon over the next few decades with the effects it will have on ecosystems, sea level and species extinction.” Do you know that by 2025, 1.6 billion people will live in countries with absolute water scarcity. In my opinion, current development is unsustainable as a result of several reasons, such as deforestation and global warming.

  Deforestation is usually due to agriculture, logging and urbanization. Agriculture is the biggest reason of deforestation. To plant crops and graze livestock, farmers clear land by cutting down trees and burning them. There are an estimated 250 million slash-and-burn farmers across the world (Skegg, 2011). People also cut down trees for wood. According to The Timber Mafia, in 2000 the US imported over $450 million worth of timber from Indonesia. In 2005 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that 13 million hectares of the world's forests are still lost each year. Another “trees killer” is urbanization, which leads to increase in areas occupied by the cities and forces the forests to recede as cities are expanding, there is not enough place.

Global warming leads rises of sea level and radiative forcing. According to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Synthesis Report (IPCC AR4 SYR, 2007), between the years 1961 and 2003, global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year (mm/yr), with a range of 1.3–2.3 mm/yr. Also, between 1993 and 2003, the rate increased above the previous period to 3.1 mm/yr (range of 2.4–3.8 mm/yr). When there is a positive radiative forcing, the climate will tend to be warmed. Forster, P mentioned that anthopogenic forcing (i.e., the radiative forcing due to human activities) was estimated to have been positive due to the start of industrial era.

In conclusion, the current development is unsustainable in terms of losing too many trees and global warming. It is quite clear that if we do not take any measures to improve the situation, sooner or later the environment will not be hospitable for human beings any more.

References

Subsistence agriculture [hd] [Video]. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr1qxdwJwC8&feature=related

Facts and Figures. (n.d.). 4 corners. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2002/timber_mafia/resources/resources_facts.htm

Rhett, B. A. (2005, November 16). World deforestation rates and forest cover statistics. mongabay.com . Retrieved from http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1115-forests.html

What is Sustainable Development. (n.d.). The world bank group. Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/sd.html

Tsunami: The Aftermath

This movie is about what happened in Thailand after the tsuanmi in 2004. Following are what I observed in this movie.

For social aspect, there were chaos and looting happening in the disaster area after the disaster. People were robbing other’s property instead of doing something more meaningful, such as helping saving others. Although robbing is not rare, it is still very shocking to see people take advantage of this tragedy. People were not helping each other even though they were from the same nation, born in the same place.

Also, this disaster definitely damaged Thailand's economic. The tsunami affected economic by destroying buildings. Therefore investors in Thailand may lose confidence in Thailand. After that, Thailand’s economic probably decrease as a result of it. Furthermore, they had to spend a big amount of money to rebuild infrastructure and so on.

When we look at the political aspect, we can find that the government was warned of the impending Tsunami but they didn’t set up the warning system. Also, both embassies and the local government did not offer enough help for those victims in villages. People who need to find their families were too many, however, the government were not able to efficiently search the lost.

The cove

Why are the Japanese killing the dolphins and whales?
Japanese kill dolphins and whales so that they can "pest control", earn money and get meat from them. Also they kill dolphins and whales to remain their tradition and to keep remanants of the notion of Japanese empire.

Why is it "wrong" to kill dolphins and whales?
Dolphins and whales are intelligent. Also, they have self-ware which will make them afraid before they die. According to stories, dolphins saved human when people got drowning. If dolphins' meat are consumed, it is toxic.(mercury ponisoning) Furthermore, methods of killing are brutal.

southe park whale wars

1.       What was the issue raised in the episode?

Japanese kill dolphins and whales everywhere.

2.       How were the Japanese portrayed?

Japanese in this episode is portrayed as cruel, cowardly, mindless. Wherever there are dolphins and whales, there will be angry Japanese men rushing aquariums and spearing dolphins and whales. All they can do is only slay dolphins and whales. When they see a monster which is made by Stan, they were too scared to stay. The funnies part is that Japanese were stupid enough to believed Americans that dolphins and whales drove planes to fire Japanese.

3.       What are the intentions of the “activists” in the media according to the video?

They just want higher ratings from others. They work on what they are interested in. Also, they are not doing anything constructive.

why study Geography

To learn Geography is to get familiar with nature. Human could never fully understand nature. Generally, people learn Geography in order to better understand the world. When we know more about nature and correctly make use of it, our life definitely will be more convenient than now. Personally, Geography is amazing. I study Geography so that I can find better places to travel.