It's nearly all over!

Back to school on Tuesday for all you pupils (the staff are in tomorrow!) and its official: the dullest August on record!

It could be worse we could be going to the Caribbean on holiday over the next few weeks - just as Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna get up a head of steam.

Keep an eye on their progress and any other hurricane developments by going to the National Hurricane Centre website: click on the link on the Geog Links below.

China - Part 4

On the eve before the closing ceremony here is the last of the fact-files on China:

• 70% of the world's umbrellas are made in China
• 60% of all buttons are manufactured in China
• 72% of all shoes worn in the US are made in China
• China manufactures 85% of the world's artificial Christmas trees.
• 80% of all US toys are made in China
• It takes six months for an average factory worker in China to earn the cost of a Thomas the Tank Engine train set.

These facts are coutesy of the National Geographic - May 2008

China - Part 3

Mid-way through and here are more facts about China:

• China has the largest number of internet users - 220 million
• Mobile phones in China have grown from 87 million in 2000 to 432 million today
• There are 11,500,000 privately owned cars in China
• On average each family in China owns at least one bicycle
• China sells more Rolls-Royce cars than any other country
• In 2005 there was one (1) McDonald's drive-through in all of China, by the end of this year there are expected to be 115.
• If put together China's motorways would circle the Equator 1.5 times.

These facts are courtesy of the National Geograpic - May 2008

Britain goes deep.

Scientists are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes, which lie 6km down in the Caribbean.
Delving into uncharted waters to hunt for volcanic vents will be Autosub6000, Britain's new autonomously controlled, robot submarine.
Once found, the life, gas and sediment around the vents - the world's hottest - will be sampled and catalogued.
The research will be carried out by a British team aboard the UK's latest research ship, the James Cook.

For more information link to the National Oceanography Centre in Southhampton.

China - Part 2

Its started and here are some more facts about the host nation of the XXIX Olympiad:

• In ten years China is expected to take over the USA as the world's largest economy
• China has the highest annual number of annual deaths triggered by air pollution
• Urban Chinese earn more than three times as much as those in rural areas
• Public protest rose by 50% in 2007
• One in four residents of Beijing is a migrant from the country
• 67% of millionaires surveyed say they are sacrificing health for money.

These facts are courtesy of National Geographic - May 2008

Try the quiz

This Sunday the BBC is showing a new programme - Britain from above.

In order to get you in the mood they have a quiz running on the website - can you identify places from aerial photographs. So have a go and test your Geography of the UK - Click on this link to the BBC Magazine

Let me know if you get better than 7/10 - I am also ashamed to say that one of the photographs I got right because I knew the football ground!

Drax uses biofuel

Drax Power Station the largest coal fired power station in the UK is beginning to use a mix of coal and biofuel to produce electricity. Drax contributes 7% of the National Grid's electricity.

It is mixing straw, a waste product from the nearby grain farms which is turned into pellets, with the coal. As well as these pellets Drax also mixes its coal with sawdust.


The need for this mix is not only because Drax produces 22 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide but also because of the rapid rise of the cost of coal. Coal prices have doubled this year and now cost the power station £209 per tonne.

Arctic - The disputed territories

British scientists say they have drawn up the first detailed map to show areas in the Arctic that could become embroiled in future border disputes.

A team from Durham University compiled the outline of potential hotspots by basing the design on historical and ongoing arguments over ownership.

Russian scientists caused outrage last year when they planted their national flag on the seabed at the North Pole.

The UK researchers hope the map will inform politicians and policy makers.

To see the map in more detail click on the image.

International fund for the Amazon

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has launched an international fund to protect the Amazon rainforest and help combat climate change.
The fund will promote alternatives to forest-clearing for people living in the Amazon, and support conservation and sustainable development
Officials will seek donations abroad and aim to raise $21bn (£11bn) by 2021.
But a government minister said Brazil would not accept foreign interference in its Amazon policy. The environmental group Greenpeace said it was the first time Brazil had accepted a link between global warming and preserving the rainforest.
To see some statistics relating to clearance of the Amazon Rainforest click this link.

China - Part 1

With the Olympic Games just round the corner here are some facts about China:

• China's pupulation is 1.3 billion people
• China's one child policy creted a generation of only children that numbers 90 million
• 119 boys are born for every 100 girls
• The number of unmarried young men (called "bare branches") is predicted to be 30 million by 2020
• 45% of Chinese women in a recent survey said they do not want to give up their carreers to get married
• Three in ten Chinese families have grandparents living in the same household
• Beijing enforces a one-dog policy that prohibits pets more than 14 inches high.

These facts are courtesy of the National Geographic - May 2008