780 million people in the world are under nourished. Unlike you and I, they don’t have breakfast, they cant go to the canteen for a snack at break, their parents dont make them a nice packed lunch or give them money for lunch. They dont go home and eat dinner with their familys.

There have been Tortilla Riots in Mexico over the price of flour, India has restricted rice exports, In Haiti they have even resorted to eating dirt cookies. Indeed the price of our groceries here has increased and I was talking to the owner of my local indian take away recently, he was telling me the price of a sack of rice has increased from £18 to £43! But we’re the lucky ones.

 The reasons behind the problem are interconnected with all of our lives. The UN blames

• Increasing global populations
• Crops being grown for biofuels
• More people changing their diet from vegetarian to meat eaters especially in India and China.
• Extremes of weather, either flooding (affecting milk yields in Argentina)or drought affecting harvests (wheat yields in Australia)

A relianace on one main genetically engineered crop may also put pressure on food supplies if that crop were to fail. The subsidies that the USA and Europe give to help farmers and the fact that farmers in LEDC countries cannot afford to pay for seeds, fertilizer or farm machinery all add to the problem we face today.

In order to try to solve this the UN has held a world food summit.  Have a look at the following news articles and make your own minds up. Is there anything we can do?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2008/costoffood/default.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7437808.stm

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1311358,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/16/food.biofuels

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1734834,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2002/disposable_planet/food/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-toxic-wonder-plant-that-split-world-food-summit-840538.html

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/06/rome_food_crisis_summit_on_the.html

Many people feel that although the World Food Summit has made a decent start it falls well short in addressing the problems caused by the growing of biofuels and tackling free trade.

http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/47985/2008/05/6-163920-1.htm

It looks like there may be even more trouble ahead for the people of Burma. Another cyclone may be brewing in the Indian ocean. This will obviously be devastaing for the people who have already lost so much.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/new-cyclone-forming-in-burma-area-says-un-827879.html

Continuing with geography in the news…..

There has been another natural disaster this time in the Sichuan province China where a magnitude 7.8 earthquake has killed over 8,000, 900 students are still buried and many more are injured. The quake was felt as far away as Bangkok in Thailand. It is the worst natural disaster to hit China in 30 years

Read more here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-earthquake-kills-five-children-826416.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7395496.stm

http://uk.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=82226

The volcano in Chile was dormant for 450 years but has erupted suddenly causing thousands of people to flee their homes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7381652.stm

Burma, one of the poorest countries in Asia has been hit by a powerful cyclone, killing over 15,000 people (10,000 of those in one town alone) and leaving many more homeless. The death toll is bound to increase as more information is gathered and the lack of drinking water begins to take effect.

The fact that Burma is a very poor country is hampering rescue efforts as the government is not well prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone, power lines are down and large areas are inaccessible as roads have been flooded and blocked by fallen debris.

Click on the link below to find out more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7383573.stm

 Hey,

I dont want to depress anyone unduly about the state of our planet, however I came across another article in the Independent Newspaper. Give it a read. We all know our Carbon Footprint is the amount of carbon we are responsible for releasing in to the atmosphere. How many of us are aware of the amount of water that we use? Take 5 minutes to read the article. Is there anything we can do to reduce the amount of water we use?

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/forget-carbon-you-should-be-checking-your-water-footprint-812653.html

Cheers

Mr M

The front page of Saturday’s Independent  caught my eye so I had a read. The article inside underlined how interconnected our world really is and how our actions affect people the world over. Have a read and see what you think. Leave a comment listing the number of different geographical issues you can identify.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-other-global-crisis-rush-to-biofuels-is-driving-up-price-of-food-808138.html