Habs Geographical - Sixth Form Edition

HabsGeographical Diversity and Change Sixth Form 2021 edition

The Shrinking Aral Sea 2019 Photo by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash

Habs Geographical 2021 This year’s edition has a special focus on diversity and change, with all written contributions coming from Sixth Form students, in particular the Habs Geographical committee. The students from both Schools have worked collaboratively throughout the process; choosing the areas of focus for the magazine, working together to research key topics and produce the finished articles. Through peer review they have refined and edited their work to produce the articles published here.

The team also publicised this opportunity to their peers to contribute cross curricular articles which produced some thought-provoking contributions from the areas of Biology, Economics and History and Politics.

A group of Year 10 students from the Girls’ School produced a SWAY which investigates the importance of our ecosystems, the challenges they face, and manageable solutions to human induced problems. It considers what the future will hold for our wildest environments: Rewilding the Wild. They were supported by Aaliyah as a Sixth Form editor and mentor.

The articles and essays contained in this publication are all based on the students’ own research and opinions

Contents 4. Will the world’s population ever exceed 11 billion?

Joel

31. To what extent does the North-South divide in the UK still exist?

7. What are the modern day threats to the ocean and marine ecosystems?

Nicola

34. Cross curricular Biology article: Is it temperature or income which affects the percentage of obese people in countries?

Veylan

Jared

11. What are the social impacts of racial diversity in urban areas?

Callum

66. Plastic pollution of our oceans: who turns the tide?

Ben

14. Cross curricular History article: How diversity post-colonisation elicited a change in land use between Northern and Southern USA, with a particular focus on Massachusetts and Virginia Faiz

39. Beyond Stage 5 of the DTM: What problems will this pose?

Rayyaan 42. How diverse is our global economy?

Neeve 45. Covid-19: The regional impact across the UK Kiran 49. Rewilding the wild Habs Girls Year 10 students Bijal, Bea, Mehrissa, Bibi, Iman, Ayelet, Sophie, Miranda, Simran.

18. Cross curricular Politics article: Where will change occur following the IsraelUAE normalisation agreement?

Oliver

56. 2020 Headlines Jared and Neeve 60. A tale of two seas review of RGS lecture Ben and Ria

20. The extinction of Neanderthals Sarina

63. The geography of Lockdown Kellen and Sarina

22. How has an immigration influenced diversity in the UK? Charlie 26. To what extent will US politics influence climate change?

Kellen 28. How the colonial legacy has brought diversity and change to India

70. I am Greta

Ria

Charlie and Nicola

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Figure 1: the current world population structure

Will the world’s population ever exceed 11 billion?

T

he number of people living in the world is a topical and important issue with the world’s population at the highest it has ever been and still growing. This has led many to suggest that the world’s population may be growing exponentially. If the population of the world does continue to increase in this way then that increases the strain on the Earth’s resources. This is called overpopulation.

Many geographers have given their opinion on the impacts and severity of overpopulation with some, such as Paul R Ehrlich and Thomas Malthus, fearing the worst for humanity and the environment and others, like Ester Boserup, saying that the advances of technology will increase the amount of people that can live on earth.

However, there is another viewpoint that can be taken, and that is the view that the population

Joel of the earth is not a problem and will naturally start to decrease without the doomsday situation that some people fear. One of the people to have this viewpoint is Hans Rosling.

Rosling thinks that the population of the world will never exceed 11 billion due to one thing: age structure. Rosling breaks down the structure of the world’s population into age groups and rounds the number of each group into billions, with each block representing one billion people in that age group.

He describes what will happen in the next 15 years. The old die, the rest grow 15 years older and two billion new children will be born because the birth rate is likely to stay roughly at replacement level. This happens again after another 15 years. This will fill-up the population structure with an extra three billion adults and leave the earth’s population at 10 billion

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people. Rosling describes this increase as “inevitable”.

This is where Rosling’s point that the population will never exceed 11 billion is shown. He says that from 2045 for 15 years the top two billion will die and everyone will age by 15 years, with another two billion children being born. The final step is that by this time (around 2100) the average life expectancy of the world will increase and so this adds an extra one billion people on the top, in the oldest age group. This is the end of population growth and the population will not exceed 11 billion.

This view is backed up by statistics that show that, despite the population of the world increasing, the rate of this increase is falling and has been since 1962 when it was 2.2%. The rate is now just 1.05% which shows the rapid decline in rate of growth.

Figure 2: the population structure after the “inevitable” fill-up of adults

In fact, the number of births per year worldwide actually peaked in 2014 and is now decreasing. The explanation for why the population of the earth is increasing and will continue to increase until around 2100 is because of differing birth rates across the world.

Despite a decrease in Asia, the number of children born per year in Africa is increasing. This cancels out the decrease elsewhere. After 15 years that means that for every

four children in Asia that pass their 15th birthday, three are replaced by an Asian baby and one is replaced by an African baby so the amount of people in the world will continue to increase. This will repeat after another 15 years cycle and again for 15 more years. The increase in life expectancy will allow people to live longer so there will be about an extra billion people in the world.

This makes up the 11 billion.

Why does the population continue

Figure 4: each person represents 100million people and it shows how population will not exceed 11 billion

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Figure 3: population will peak at 11 billion people as life expectancy increases

to increase in Africa? And why does the population not continue to grow once it has reached 11 billion? The answer to both of these questions is because of the level of development.

Most countries follow the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) when they develop. This model suggests that the economic, social and political development of a country is linked to its population growth.

Figure 4: each person represents 100million people and it shows how population will not exceed 11 billion https://populationeducation.org/ what-demographic-transitionmodel/ Initially in Stage 1 the birth and death rates are very high and fluctuating because the country is very underdeveloped so there is a high infant mortality rate and low life expectancy so people have more children because fewer survive. The majority of jobs are agricultural and labour based and families are generally poor so children have to go to work at a very young age to earn money for their families. This means parents are more likely to have more children to make enough money to survive. An example of a country currently in this stage is Ethiopia.

Once the country has developed into Stage 2 the country has advanced its economy and so improves its healthcare and the death rate rapidly drops. This means that there are more people being born than there are dying so the population of the country increases. An example of a country currently in this stage is Bolivia.

Eventually by Stage 3 the work force is based around offering services in cities. This means that a lot of women have jobs and so have to plan when they have children and prioritise their careers so have less children. Another

really important point is that in this more developed situation there is a lot more education and access to contraception so there are a lot less births. This all means that the birth rate drops to a similar level to the death rate. An example of a country currently in this stage is China.

The fall of the birth rate stabilises and population growth is stationary in Stage 4 before the birth rate starts to fall again in Stage 5 which can cause the population to decline. An example of a country currently in this stage is USA. The DTM helps to answer the question of why the population continues to increase in Africa because a large amount of countries, especially in subSaharan Africa, are now starting to develop and are only in Stage 2 of the Model. This means that the birth rates are very high and the death rates are starting to fall so the population is very rapidly increasing.

This is in contrast to most Asian countries, such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea, that are in Stage 4 or 5 and so their populations are stagnating or starting to decrease.

These statistics support the opinion of Hans Rosling as they show that

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the population will continue to rise until around 2100 when there are about 11 billion people.

Once this has happened then most of the countries in Africa, such as Ethiopia and Botswana, and in the world will be much further along the Demographic Transition Model and so have a far lower birth rate and the population of the world will stop growing at 11 billion.

These statistics do not mean that the threat of overpopulation and the dangers that it causes, such as insufficient resources and a poor quality of life and standard of living, are not serious and not real, instead it means that we should focus economic help and support for those poorer countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, to help improve the standard of living for those people who are living in overpopulated areas to reach a greater level of economic development.

THINK Global School (2015) Why the world population won’t exceed 11 billion Available at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=2LyzBoHo5EI [Accessed Nov 12 2020] Rosling, Hans. 2018. Factfulness.

P ho to b yE lian ne

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What are the modern day threats to the ocean and marine ecosystems?

Nicola

T

he ocean covers 70% of the planetandiscrucialtoproviding humans and nature many services. Scientists estimate that 5080% of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean, it plays a fundamental role in moderating our climate, whilst also providing jobs, medicine and food. However, it is

also the most vulnerable ecosystem in the world; with only 3.4% of it protected. For decades, the ocean and marine ecosystems have been facing disastrous threats which have resulted in problems such as a loss of biodiversity, an increase in ocean temperatures and pH imbalances.

Researchers have identified many

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reasons as to why we have seen vast changes in the ocean including overfishing and eutrophication, but it has been made clear in particular by extinction rebellions and the media, that climate change is a large driving force. It must be considered what the largest threats are to our oceans today.

Coral reefs support 25% of all marine life in the ocean

Due to increased human activity and industrialisation the Earth is experiencing increasing levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change, this in turn creates problems for the ocean such as acidification and rising sea temperatures. Since 1980, the average temperature on earth has increased by one degree Celsius, raising temperatures in the ocean by as little as 0.1 degree can cause detrimental problems for marine life, such as for coral reefs which require specific temperatures to survive.

Coral reefs support 25% of all marine life in the ocean, as the climate gets warmer, marine ecosystems become stressed due to the rapid changes to their environment. If factors such as temperature changes in the

environment occur, the animal-algal mutualism existing between a coral polyp and a zooxanthellae in coral, fails under these new conditions.

Zooxanthellae are expelled by the coral and causes the decline of coral reefs through coral bleaching.

Climate change is the leading cause of coral bleaching, the WWF states that the entire reef ecosystem, which humans and wildlife depend on, will disappear by 2050. If we lose all of our coral reefs, huge amounts of marine life will be lost as well as crucial materials used in medicine, it will also have a detrimental effect on tourism, the fishing industry and would exacerbate natural hazards such as tsunamis which corals can protect us from.

Climate change also poses a threat to the ocean via acidification – the reduction in pH of the ocean over time has been linked to the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Oceans have absorbed 30% of all carbon dioxide and with increasing

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CO2 emissions (due to the continued burning of fossil fuels in industry), more is dissolving into the ocean increasing carbonic acid levels, making it increasingly uninhabitable.

It is suggested that there will be an increase in ocean acidity of 170% by 2100, 10 times faster than any ocean acidifications for over 50 million years.

Acidification has a direct impact on marine organisms especially those with calcareous skeletons or shells such as crustaceans and phytoplankton, as the concentration of carbonate ions in the seawater that they rely upon to make their shells, decreases. Shells also dissolve under these conditions and because acidification is happening at an unprecedented rate, scientists believe that species won’t be able to cope, leading to mass extinctions. In acidic waters, marine animals and plants also struggle to survive with depleting oxygen levels creating more competition between species for survival. Climate change is a huge threat to the ocean and marine ecosystems as they rely upon stable temperatures and conditions to thrive in. Anthropogenic climate change is hugely altering marine species in their abundance, diversity and distribution.

As more carbon dioxide enters the air, oceans will struggle to adapt to fast changing environments posing a threat to marine species particularly crustaceans and coral reefs, of which we rely upon for our economy and safety.

Research has presented that overfishing is also a significant threat to the ocean and marine ecosystems.

Such activity contributes to fish population depletion and habitat destruction.

Catching fish is detrimental for the ocean when vessels catch fish faster than stocks can replenish, and it is done unsustainably. Frequent overfishing will disrupt populations as it happens faster than the fish’s ability to reproduce, this will affect food chains and create uncontrolled growth of other species such as plankton. There will be cases when the sea is contaminated or loses its clarity due to plankton filling up,

and sewage runs off into rivers and lakes, nitrates and phosphates overly enrich the waters causing excessive growth of algae. Sea food and tourism industries have had to spend $82 million a year on reducing dead zones and make waters safe to swim in due to eutrophication. The Gulf of Mexico is just one example where nutrient rich waste from 31 states all flow into the same basin, creating an uninhabitable environment for plants and animals with less than 2 milligrams of oxygen per liter in the waters. Algal blooms block sunlight which causes aquatic plants to die which in turn creates further oxygen depletion in marine ecosystems. Due to these issues, people in industry are working on reducing eutrophication by creating buffer zones of trees and shrubs in farms and areas of runoff such as in Mexico, to absorb most of it before reaching the ocean, but this won’t be enough if we want to solve its long term problems of pollution and decreasing levels of oxygen for organisms.

this causes problems for fishermen as well as the marine biodiversity.

Systemic overfishing is made worse by illegal catches and trade. In fact, some of the worst ocean impacts are caused by pervasive illegal fishing, which is estimated at more than 30% of catch for high-value species. The number of overfished stocks globally has tripled in half a century as the demand for fish supply and food has risen; commercial fish populations of cod, hake and haddock have dropped as much as 95%, provoking calls for urgent measures. Overfishing also links with bycatches where nontargeted species are incidentally captured, this happens commonly with dolphins and turtles. Today, onethird of the world’s assessed fisheries are currently pushed beyond their biological limits. With advanced technology and unselective modern fishing gear, fishermen can now catch larger numbers of fish at once with thousands of miles of nets set out in the world’s oceans each day. Extremely strong and often undetectable netting regularly

catches marine animals which are then discarded overboard dead or dying. It is estimated that over 300,000 small whales, dolphins, and porpoises die from entanglement in fishing nets each year, making this the single largest cause of mortality for small cetaceans. Species such as the Maui’s dolphin from New Zealand faces extinction if the threat of unselective fishing gear is not eliminated.

A further threat to the ocean is pollution of the waters due to eutrophication.

Sea food and tourism industries have had to spend $82 million a year on reducing dead zones

Algae in waters photosynthesize and provide oxygen for aquatic animals, but as more fertilizers (mainly from industrial agriculture), detergents

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Further pollution comes in the form of plastic, the excessive use of plastic is a concerning issue as much of this waste ends up in the ocean and by the 2050 there is predicted to be more plastic than fish in the sea. Plastic bottles for example, can take over 450 years to break down and if they haven’t been consumed by marine animals before then, dangerous chemicals are released into the waters during decomposition along with the formation of microplastics which do not disappear. Evidence has found plastic in the fish that we consume, showing the scale and detrimental effects of this issue, its terrestrial impacts will affect our fishing industries and economy in the future due to poor quality of food.

In 2018, Seattle became the largest U.S. city to ban plastic straws and large companies such as Starbucks and McDonalds began to do the same. This gives hope for a plastic free future where marine ecosystems are less in danger but it may be a process that isn’t fast enough. Ships travelling from coast to coast also introduce threats to the ocean with

Photo by Shaun Low on Unsplash

oil spills. In July, MV Wakashio, a bulk carrier carrying 4,000 tons of oil, crashed into fragile coral reefs a few kilometers from Mahebourg, SE Mauritius. Under two weeks later, oil started turning the sea and shores black. Oil spills reduce the availability of oxygen and cause many issues such as hypothermia to mammals with fur, such as otters and seals or breathing problems for fish resulting in instant death; lower fish availability will significantly affect the economy. Not only do issues like this occur in the ocean, but it also affects birds that search for food in these waters or normally migrate to these regions.

Water pollution has been a large threat to the ocean, it takes dedication to reduce such threats and changes in our behavior and attitudes. We are attempting to make a difference in how we use plastics and fertilizers, but a

bigger issue is the use of fossil fuels and the rate at which they are currently being burned, leading to irreversible changes to the ocean.

Overall, it can be concluded that the ocean and marine ecosystems are facing unprecedented changes and threats, which are slowly creating problems for humans too, mainly concerning industries and economic decline. Losses in biodiversity imply a loss of genes and molecules that are potentially valuable for medical research and industry. Oceans must be protected from human induced problems, especially those related to climate change. Industries are becoming more aware and educated about overfishing and trawling and so are making changes to the way they work to be more environmentally

friendly and sustainable. Although it is difficult to control illegal fishing, this issue is less of a threat to the whole ocean. As well as this, it is more reversible and manageable than the mass water pollution associated with the overuse of plastics and industry.

Plastics and chemicals stay in the ocean long term, whilst there is a greater hope that we can repopulate fish species and form new fishing methods. Climate change is considerably the largest and fastest modern-day issue, which must be addressed in order to reduce the extreme impacts to the ocean and marine ecosystems. Scientists show that if we use environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions, coral reefs will survive in the future and a quarter of marine life will still have a habitat to live in.

References: DOF (2018). 17 Biggest Threats to Ocean Ecosystems. Available: https://deepoceanfacts.com/threats-to-ocean-ecosystems#:~:text=Global%20 warming%20is%20a%20major%20threat%20to%20the,of%20pressure%20and%20stress%20from%20the%20rapid%20changes .. Last accessed 15th Nov 2020.

WWF (2019). CORAL REEFS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CRADLE TO AN EARLY GRAVE. Available: https://www.wwf.org.uk/coral-reefs-andclimate-change . Last accessed 15th Nov 2020.

Deep Ocean Facts (2020). 25 effects of overfishing. Available: https://deepoceanfacts.com/effects-of-overfishing#:~:text=%2025%20Effects%20 of%20Overfishing%20%E2%80%93%20Risk%20%E2%80%93,for%20human%E2%80%99s%20health.%20It%20has%20omega%2C...%20 More%20 . Last accessed 16th Nov 2020. 15th Nov 2020. .

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What are the social impacts of racial diversity in urban areas?

Callum

I

n urban areas you see many different ethnic groups every day. If you go to central London, you will probably see many types of people. In 2011 London was measured to be 40.2% non-White. Out of the whole of the England, London has the smallest white British population of just 44.9%. This is due to it being the capital city and it being a hub for workers and tourists, as well was immigrants. But what does this

mean, having a higher diversity in these sorts of areas? Some may argue it is a good thing having different cultures in a single area.

Some may say it isn’t. Whatever views someone may have they will agree that diversity has had multiple social impacts on society.

For example, a neighbourhood like Wembley has several different cultures within it. The population of Wembley Central in 2014 was 86% black, Asian and minority based.

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That being 66.1% Asian and 13.8% black. This is an example of the change in racial diversity. In Wembley, the street Ealing Road is known for being predominantly Indian. The majority of shops are run by people of Indian heritage whether is it food, clothes, jewellery or dry cleaners. This area is thriving socially and could not be more popular.

Since 2015 crime rate has increased every year with the steepest being in 2016 and 2018 Photo by Kat Wilcox from Pexels

In the United States of America racial diversity has increased by 98% in metropolitan areas since 1980. Immigrant rich suburbs are rising around cities such as Chicago as an attraction for groups like Asians or South Americans.

Despite the initial importance of migration racial diversity is now self-sustaining and will soon be maintained by natural increase, meaning the population will grow due to births exceeding deaths in that ethnicity. On the contrary some Americans have responded to these changes with fear and distrust. Some white populations have an aversion to living with people of colour. In areas such as

the Chicago suburb of Calumet Park and the Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood they have become more homogeneous and the presence of some minority groups has led to white people moving away. So evidently there was a negative impact in these sorts of areas. According to a theory known as the ‘constrict hypothesis’ ethnic diversity decreases social trust among ethnic groups. There is assumed cohesion between minorities and a lack of trust among citizens. In addition to this ethnic diversity is sometimes associated with increased levels of crime. The line of reasoning that suggests this is that diverse

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people living near other diverse people induces fear. An example of this would-be London having an image associated with knife crime.

In 2019 and beginning of 2020 London stood at 103.18 crimes of all kinds committed per thousand people. Since 2015 crime rate has increased every year with the steepest being in 2016 and 2018.

In London, the West End is the most crime heavy area where 43% of residents were born outside of the UK according to ‘Finder crime statistics. Some may believe that this is no coincidence, and they are related. Those people may be right but there is no hard evidence proving this assumption.

Despite the negative impacts on some urban areas racial diversity has generally been considered beneficial and people welcome wider communities. Countries like Canada, Australia, the UK and Sweden have over 60% of residents believing racial diversity from immigration is going to make the country stronger. According to a 2018 Pew Research Survey of 18 countries, the median was 56% of residents are welcoming to other races. This has led to there being districts in those countries that contain mainly minorities.

Also, in more white dominant neighbourhoods we are starting to see more diverse communities emerge.

Many different religions are starting to co-exist in the same area. An example of this is, the outskirts of London there is an urban area called Mill Hill that is known for being mostly Jewish.

This is correct but other groups are starting to grow rapidly.

In 2011 over 30% of the residents in Mill Hill were Sikhs and Muslims and 25% of residents were born in a non-EU country.

The social impacts of this can mainly be seen in shops and restaurants.

In the local supermarket they sell Asian brands that would previously only be found in a specifically Asian supermarket. Additionally, there are many other shops in the area that are owned by Sikhs, Muslims or Hindus. This shows that even in areas that were predominantly white only a few decades ago, more people are comfortable with different people coming in and bringing their culture along with them.

Festivals

are

another

way

community react to racial diversity.

We see major cities hosting street celebrations for festivals such as Diwali, Eid, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year and Black History month as well as special one day recognitions for independence days. In Birmingham it is expected that 30,000 people attend Chinese New Year celebrations each year.

This applies to other major cities such as New York City, London, Bangkok and Los Angeles where there are large scale festivals which involve thousands. Also, we can see Chinese culture being recognised through Chinatown in major cities across the UK in cities such as Birmingham and Manchester as well as in the USA in the cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.

35 cities over 19 countries have a Chinatown across Europe, USA and Asia and are popular tourist attractions. This shows that racial diversity in cities is becoming more and more prevalent which has led to places like Chinatown being created.

In conclusion, racial diversity is a beneficial thing due to the positive effects it creates. There are some who may argue it has negative impacts but if you look at the long-term effects, the presence of different cultures will lead to a more functional and interesting lifestyle and society. Currently countries such as the UK and Australia as well as Scandinavian countries accept this, on the whole and they do see the benefit of diversity existing within the country. However, in countries such as the USA, the majority view is that they prefer it does not exist as they have been manipulated by political views to see all the bad things it creates even though many Americans are in favour of it. It is predicted that in the USA some cities will be ‘minority white’ by 2045. The shift from 2018 to 2045 is immense with racial minority populations growing 74% faster.

This will constantly increase over time and soon every major city will see changes being made in terms of the social impacts of diversity.

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References Bethan Harries (2018). Diversity in place: narrations of diversity in an ethnically mixed urban area. (online). (Last updated: 18/7/18). Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1 080/1369183X.2018.1480998 Jennifer Van Hook and Barret Lee (2017). Diversity is on the rise in urban and rural communities and is here to stay. (online). (Last updated: 21/2/17).

Available at: https://theconversation.com/diversityis-on-the-rise-in-urban-and-ruralcommunities-and-its-here-to-stay-69095 Ana Gonzalez-Barrera and Phillip Connor. (2019). Around the World, more say immigrants are a strength than a burden. (online). (Last updated: 14/3/19).

Available at: www.pewresearch.org Jackie Burrell (2018). Top 10 Chinatowns in the U.S. (online). (Last updated: 05/2/18). Available at: https://www.mercurynews. com/2018/02/05/top-10-chinatowns-inthe-u-s/#:~:text=But%20in%20the%20 United%20States,least%2016%20in%20 California%20alone.

Barnet Insight Unit (2013). Profile of Mill Hill Ward – Barnet Council. (online).

(Last updated: 12/3/13). Available at: www.barnet.gov.uk London Borough of Brent (2011).

Wembley Central Diversity Profile. (online). (Last updated: April 2020).

Available at: https://data.brent.gov.uk/dataset/2ydly/ wembley-central-diversity-profile Office for National Statistics (2018).

Regional ethnic diversity. (online). (Last updated: 07/8/20). Available at: www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov. uk Abby Budiman (2020). Americans are more positive about the long-term rise in U.S. racial and ethnic diversity than in 2016. (online). (Last updated: 01/10/2020). Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2020/10/01/americans-are-morepositive-about-the-long-term-rise-in-u-sracial-and-ethnic-diversity-than-in-2016/ Matthew Boyle (2020). London crime statistics: Interactive map and crime rate data. (online). (Last updated: 18/08/20).

Available at: How dangerous is your Borough? 20+ London crime statistics 2020 (finder. com)

https://www.ducksters.com/history/ colonial_america/thirteen_colonies.php

How diversity post-colonisation elicited a change in land use between Northern and Southern USA, with a particular focus on Massachusetts and Virginia Faiz

B

ackground1 17th century England was a tumultuous time period and showed a clear divide between the rich and poor. As wool brought in better prices than crop farming, farmers who then switched their production away from crops would soon run out of food, and the strong belief

in mercantilism (the idea that hoarding all gold and silver in the motherland would bring prosperity) also required new colonies to feast on. This meant that there were two different types of Anglo settlers in America, in 1606; those who needed new virgin land to start new lives; and those who needed

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new land to generate more gold for their patrons. The slave trade was also well under way (since around 15622) and would be critical in shaping the agricultural climate of Southern USA in the years which followed.

Lowell Mills – 1850s, MA 20 https://www.pinterest.com/robertrgrenier/lowell-mills/

Diversity in climate and land type The Northern New England state of Massachusetts had been unfit and unfertile for farming since the Ice Age3, when enormous glaciers heaved from North to South, transporting all the fertile topsoil to the Middle and Southern states.

The short distance to the freezing Arctic Circle (currently only a three hour flight from Boston, MA) also prevented the farming of more exotic and expensive crops. The Appalachian Mountain Range4, and its uneven, dry, and rocky land (relief is sometimes higher than 1000 metres above sea level) significantly hindered any farming exploits of Northern settlers. The warm months were short, meaning the growing season was too brief to grow cash crops, like tobacco and indigo.

Whereas, in the Southern state of Virginia in 1732, it was an entirely different picture. It was a big receiver of the benefits of glaciers pushing fertile topsoil into the South and being close to the Tropic

of Cancer brought an almost subtropical climate. The warm months and growing season were long (a summer of 28 degrees Celsius stretched into October5), making the economically vital growth of cash crops viable and easier, as they could be grown all year round.

The presence of many piedmonts, rich in alluvial soil, added even more possibilities for plantation farming, and this is precisely what occurred.

Diversity of settlers and industry A clear demonstration of diversity is shown in Massachusetts. The difficult to tame, unfertile land was unappealing to wealthy English investors, and subsequently received the aforementioned poor settlers, looking for a new life. The area was a place for people of all economic backgrounds and was rewarded with a huge population of around 250,0006 by 1776. The area was initially settled by Puritan pilgrims from England (21,000 Puritans came to New England from 1630 to 1640), who had

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little money but made up for that in drive. Their Protestant belief that they had God-given talents was used to create profit through ingenious methods. They were good examples of capitalists, who saved and invested money after making it. This meant that they took advantage of the natural environment, to create an extremely diverse economy and amount of industries. They were especially proficient in shipbuilding, fishing and logging7 (using a sample size of 144 towns in 1770, there was found to be a mean of 394 trees per town8, allowing for increased shipbuilding as well).

By 1631, craftsmen were building fishing and trading vessels, and by 1660, the towns of Newburyport, Ipswich, Gloucester, Salem, and Boston lead the ship building industry throughout the colonies.

By 1776, one third of all British commercial ships had been built in New England9. This diversification of industry and flexible land usage paved the way for a huge growth in state GDP, over time, and allowed institutions like Harvard University to thrive.

Cutting tobacco – 1900, VA 18 hhttps://virginiahistory.org/learn/educators/teaching-photographs/students/rural-life

However, a clear lack of diversity in settlers is shown in Virginia. This is due to two reasons. Firstly, the lush, fertile, virgin lands were the dream of the British aristocracy, who desired mercantilistic profits from the untouched soil. Secondly, following the English Civil War (1651), the landed gentry were forced to exile to the escape of the US South10. Their already large amounts of wealth shaped the land usage of the area for centuries to come. These cavaliers utilised slavery and plantation farming as their key methods of farming. They saw the exorbitant prices of cash crops, like rice and tobacco, and started huge plantations to mass produce them. Typical plantations ranged from 500 to 1000 acres, producing around 5000 plants per acre11(with an estimated 500 trees having to be cleared per acre), with unpaid slaves (working 18 hours a day) being key to making profits. From 1750 to 1755, around 259,000 barrels of tobacco were produced in four different counties of Virginia12. However, following the creation of the cotton gin

(1794), which made cotton farming extremely efficient, a huge shift to the industry occurred in the American South. Unfortunately for Virginians, the almost 150 years of exhaustive, unsustainable farming methods and lack of agricultural diversity left the soil unusable, and many wealthy plantation owners left the state to pursue cotton further West (from 1790 to 1840, more people moved out of eastern Virginia than all other original states north of Maryland13).

Diversity of workers following the Civil War Following a Civil War that the proabolitionist Massachusetts had helped win, their economy was able to flourish due to the diverse immigrant (especially Irish) and African American labour. The industrial revolution had been key in shifting the State’s land use from local logging and fishing businesses to building national factories and workhouses, and

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by 1850, the Boston Associates Manufacturing Company was responsible for producing one fifth of the entire country’s cotton14. All labourers suffered under the same cruel, unforgiving capitalist factory owners, and when the South was stripped of its political and economic power, the North became the prop of the US economy, requiring intense workdays and output. Wealthy landowners, either gaining wealth from pre-existing businesses in the North or even some lucky former plantation owners from the South, moved into Massachusetts and built even more factories on the land, industrialising the land from rural and small towns to huge factory cities, in a matter of 50 years.

The Southern State of Virginia, however, was at the devastating losing end of the Civil War, and their post-bellum life clearly demonstrated this. There was a lack of diversity in workers and the farming methods utilised. The once regal lives of plantation owners

and slave holders collapsed once they had to release all of their slaves (which were considered economic assets). Money had no value, as the Union rejected Confederate currency and closed Virginian banks15. During the Civil War, as well, the lack of cotton production and exports from the USA was replaced by the output of other countries. In foreign areas tied to the European economy, cotton production skyrocketed, as shown when “Brazilian cotton production doubled, Indian production quadrupled, and Egyptian production quintupled16.”

In response to this destruction of the agricultural economy, former plantation owners utilised the method of sharecropping, where free African Americans rented their land, and employers paid for their tools, cotton seeds and living quarters. In return, the workers ‘just’ had to give a portion of their profits back to the owner17.

However, the price of cotton was rapidly falling, and sharecropping committed African Americans to

debt (when they could not pay back the prices of tools etc.) and tied Southern land usage to the declining cotton industry. In 1890, in Halifax County, VA, only 14% of African American families actually owned their own land18 and were forced to use the land they rented to repay landowners.

References

8. Hall B. et al., n.d., Three hundred years of forest and land-use change in Massachusetts, USA, faculty.bennington.edu, viewed 19 November 2020, <http://faculty. bennington.edu/~kwoods/classes/local%20 landscape/readings/land-use%20change.pdf>

1. Armstrong Roberts. H., 2010, The 13 Colonies, A & E Television Networks, viewed 19 November 2020, <https://www.history.com/ topics/colonial-america/thirteen-colonies> 2. The Abolition Project, 2009, British Involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, The Abolition Project, viewed 19 November 2020, <http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_45. html> 3. 7th Grade Humanities, n.d., New England (Northern) Colonies, 7th Grade Humanities, viewed 19 November 2020, < http://7thgradehumanities.weebly.com/colonyregions.html#> 4. usa.usembassy.de, n.d., Appalachia and the Ozarks, usa.usembassy.de, viewed 19 November 2020, < https://usa.usembassy.de/ etexts/outgeogr/geog07.htm> 5. Forslund. J., n.d., Colonial Georgia, georgiatravelguide, viewed 19 November 2020, <https://georgiatravelguide.weebly.com/climate. html> 6. Phelps Family History, n.d., Phelps Family History in America, Phelps Family History, viewed 19 November 2020, <http://www. phelpsfamilyhistory.com/history/america/ population-colonies.asp> 7. www.nps.gov, n.d., Maritime Commerce, www.nps.gov, viewed 19 November 2020, < https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/ commerce.htm >

Conclusion Overall, the Northern State of Massachusetts and its cold, wet climate was never suitable for largescale cash crop farming. Instead, the ingenuity of its Puritan settlers and allowed for other industries, like shipbuilding (due to the large amount of oak forests), to flourish on the land and using resources they had at their disposal, creating an immensely diverse economy.

Following a victory in the Civil War, Massachusetts transformed its rural, small town land use of logging and fishing, into looming industrial cities (like Boston), producing anything from cotton to wagon wheels, with diverse

9. www.ouramericanrevolution. com, n.d., The Economy of New England, www.ouramericanrevolution. com, viewed 19 November 2020, < http://www.ouramericanrevolution.org/index. cfm/page/view/m0074> 10. jaymans.wordpress.com, 2013, The Cavaliers, jaymans.wordpress.com, viewed 19 November 2020, <https:// jaymans.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/thecavaliers/#:~:text=Indeed%2C%20many%20 New%20England%20Puritans,the%20 seeds%20of%20future%20conflict> 11. www.landofthebrave.info, 2017, Cotton Plantations, www.landofthebrave.com, viewed 19 November 2020, <https://www. landofthebrave.info/cotton-plantations.htm> 12. Salmon E. & J., 2013, Tobacco in Colonial Virginia, Encyclopaedia Virginia, viewed 23 November 2020, <https:// www.encyclopediavirginia.org/tobacco_ in_colonial_virginia#:~:text=Tobacco%20 was%20colonial%20Virginia’s%20most%20 successful%20cash%20crop> 13. Lombard H., 2014, High cotton: When Virginia’s counties hit their peak, statchatva.org, viewed 23 November 2020, <http://statchatva.

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labourers. However, the Southern State of Virginia and its warm, lush climate was perfect for the mass production of cash crops, on plantations. Wealthy aristocrats used previously accumulated wealth to work slaves on their land, turning forests into cotton fields, and funding the US economy.

However, this exhaustive, unsustainable farming method and lack of diversity in crop selection meant that by the 1800s, the land was devoid of any fertility, resulting in a mass exodus from Virginia.

Following a brutal loss in the Civil War, the regal lifestyle of plantation owners transformed into lives of struggle overnight, and the use of mass sharecropping committed the South to using the land for a failing cotton industry (even the more diverse workforce could not prevent this reliance), further exhausting the land, making Westward expansion into new virgin lands all the more appealing.

org/2014/09/23/high-cotton-when-virginiascounties-hit-their-peak/> 14. Brooks R., 2016, Massachusetts in the Industrial Revolution, historyofmassachusetts. org, viewed 23 November 2020, <https:// historyofmassachusetts.org/massachusettsindustrial-revolution/> 15. www.lcps.org, n.d., Life in Virginia after the Civil War, www.lcps.org, viewed 23 November 2020, <https://www.lcps.org/cms/ lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/12671/ VS.8%20PPT.pdf> 16. Beckert S., Emancipation and Empire: Reconstructing the Worldwide Web of Cotton Production in the Age of the American Civil War, American Historical Review, Vol. 109, No. 5 (December 2004) 17. History.com, 2010, Sharecropping, A & E Television Networks, viewed 23 November 2020, <https://www.history.com/topics/blackhistory/sharecropping> 18. www.virginiahistory.com, n.d., Rural Life in Virginia, Virginia Museum of History and Culture, viewed 23 November 2020, <https://www. virginiahistory.org/collections-and-resources/ virginia-history-explorer/rural-life-virginia> 19. <https://www.ducksters.com/history/ colonial_america/thirteen_colonies.php> 20. <https://www.awesomestories.com/>

Where will change occur following the Israel-UAE normalisation agreement?

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n 15 September 2020 representatives of both Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) completed the signing of the Abraham Accords which was witnessed and brokered by the President of the United States, Donald Trump. The signing of these accords completed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah, is a critical milestone towards bringing peace and developing healthy international relations throughout the Middle East. In this article, I will outline the major areas where significant change will occur and the potential

Oliver effect it may have on both the people and businesses of Israel, the UAE and the Middle East.

Upon further reading into the Abraham Accords, Article 5 outlines how ‘Cooperation and Agreement in Other Spheres’ could be achieved. The article briefly explains that a vital part of demonstrating peace and cooperation must begin with the opening of international borders for trade, tourism, and various other industries with reference to encouraging ‘investment relations’ as well as ‘advance regional economic development’. Finance,

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investment and business is one particular area in which both Israel and the UAE excel. Much of the UAE’s economic success lies in the exportations of oil, petroleum and natural gas whilst Israel’s major strength is research and development earning the nickname ‘The Startup Nation’. Following the agreement, both economies can now benefit by purchasing each other’s resources and services. In 2017, ‘Israel’s oil consumption was 247,000 barrels per day’ and now following the normalisation the UAE has gained a new customer for oil and petroleum exports. On the other hand, the UAE is home

to wealthy investors and from 2018-19 the UAE’s ‘foreign direct investment reached $13.8 billion’.

With Israel being home to over ‘6,000 active startups’, Emiratis now have much more choice when internationally investing their money.

Another area which the two countries will want to promote amongst their citizens is the travel and tourism industry. The accords mention ‘developing closer peopleto-people relations’ and this could be achieved by ensuring both Israel and the UAE welcome each other’s people into their country. In 2016, the UAE reported that the travel and tourism sector made up ‘5.2% of the total national income’ and welcomed over ‘14.9 million visitors’ that year. In Israel, in 2017, ‘3.6 million tourists’ arrived which was a ‘growth of 25% since 2016’. Both nations already have established cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv which act as major hubs for tourism with many five star hotels as well as entertainment and excursions on offer. Furthermore both nations offer quite different experiences, Israel is known for its ancient historical sites and religious tourism whereas the UAE attracts many due to the glamourous buildings and scenic coastlines. In addition, the countries’ currencies are valued very equally with one dirham equalling 0.88 Israeli shekel (as of 28 Dec). Furthermore, the Dubai Expo 2020 scheduled for October 2021 could potentially see many Israelis travel to the event.

Aside from the potential business benefits that this agreement could produce, both parties have stressed the importance of providing the best for their citizens. Israel and the UAE hope to strengthen the interconnectedness of their people, showing that not only did this treaty go ahead for financial gain. Both nations invest heavily into developing new technology and researching in various scientific fields and potentially one way to begin international relations

is through ‘scientific cooperation and exchange between scientists, researchers and academic institutions.’ By pushing for more joint international research, further into the future, universities may choose to link together and promote international study. It’s essential that residents from Israel and the UAE understand as well as see that the normalisation agreement was created and completed to not only benefit both economies and boost trade but to improve relations between citizens and encourage peace amongst them.

Additionally, the Abraham Accords states that both nations along with the United States, are prepared to establish a ‘Strategic Agenda for the Middle East’. This proposed agenda hopes to create change across the Middle East in many ways which includes promoting peace and stability amongst nations as well as improving prosperity and creating more economic freedom. One way of setting this strategic agenda in motion could be through the creation of more normalisation agreements and following the completion of the Abraham Accords, speculation of other nations like Oman and Saudi Arabia, following what the UAE did, has increased. Nations may potentially choose to normalise relations with Israel because they may see that the UAE has economically or socially gained and decide that establishing relations between Israel is beneficial for both their economy and citizens.

This agreement is the next phase towards creating positive changes for the future that should benefit not only those who reside in Israel and the UAE but all who live in the Middle East. Through the strengthening of international relations, as well as the endorsement of trade and business, both nations have the opportunity to cooperate peacefully and discover much economic success.

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References Abbas, W 2020 UAE-Israel travel could get a boost. Khaleeji Times. https://www. khaleejtimes.com/business/local/UAEIsrael-travel-could-get-a-boostBenoist, C 2020 Normalisation with Israel: Who is next? Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ israel-normalisation-middle-east-northafrica-who-next Fiore, M 2020 The Abraham Accords and the Palestinian Issue.

E-International Relations. https://www.eir.info/2020/11/01/the-abraham-accordsand-the-palestinian-issue/ Goldberg, J 2020 Iran and the Palestinians Lose Out in the Abraham Accords. The Atlantic. https://www. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/ winners-losers/616364/ Wald, E 2020 7 Reasons the IsraelUAE Peace is a Great Business Move.

Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ ellenrwald/2020/08/13/7-reasons-theisraeluae-peace-is-a-great-businessmove/?sh=21414ffa5938 Widakuswara, P 2020 How the Abraham Accord Might Impact the Middle East.

Voanews. https://www.voanews.com/ middle-east/how-abraham-accord-mightimpact-middle-east.

U.S Department of State, https:// www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/ uploads/2020/09/ABRAHAMACCORDS-PEACE-AGREEMENT.pdf Economy of Israel https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Economy_of_Israel Tourism in Israel https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Tourism_in_Israel Deloitte Israel. https://www2.deloitte. com/il/en/pages/innovation/article/the_ israeli_technological_eco-system.html Israel Oil Consumption. https://www. ceicdata.com/en/indicator/israel/oilconsumption Economy of the UAE https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_ United_Arab_Emirates Santander Trade Markets. https:// santandertrade.com/en/portal/establishoverseas/57,united%20arab%20 emirates Travel and Tourism UAE. https://u.ae/ en/information-and-services/visiting-andexploring-the-uae/travel-and-tourism

https://www.ft.com/content/81747104-8dfe-11e3-bbe7-00144feab7de

The extinction of Neanderthals Sarina

200,000 years ago, at least seven species of humans existed.

Now there is only one, Homo sapiens – our species.

Neanderthals were our closest human species and similar to Homo sapiens in many ways, but why did Homo sapiens survive and Neanderthals become extinct?

The reasons for the extinction remain controversial but scientists are much closer today than ever before in answering this question.

In the past, scientists believed that Homo sapiens were superior to Neanderthals and outcompeted them, but now new evidence suggests that it was instead due to a combination of environmental and biological factors.

Humans evolved in East Africa from a genus of apes. These early humans settled all over the world, and as the climates and conditions differed from place to place, they acquired different traits and behaviours and thus became different species. Neanderthals lived in Europe and Asia and Homo sapiens lived in Africa.

Only recently climate had been considered a cause of the Neanderthal extinction. This is because Neanderthals were adapted to the cold environment, for example they had a relatively short, stocky body so they could generate and retain more body heat, so the idea that the climate could cause any other issues for them was disregarded.

Around 40,000 years ago, when Neanderthals became extinct, Europe was in a period of rapid climate change. Neanderthals struggled to adapt to the changing landscape caused by the colder, drier climate as the forests they were used to, where they could ambush and hunt deer or larger animals, started disappearing.

Whilst they were intelligent enough to adapt by making different tools, their body shape could not adapt fast enough to suit the new environment. Neanderthals short, stocky body needed much more food than Homo sapiens, so with their habitat under threat and food sources disappearing this would have been very difficult to maintain. This consequently meant the Neanderthal population was reduced, evident by the lack of genetic diversity, making the population very susceptible to diseases, with limited mating

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choices meaning the populations failed to grow.

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The extreme climate changes alone were unlikely to have caused the Neanderthals extinction as they had survived cold phases before, some even more extreme than what was occurring at the time, but instead the arrival of Homo sapiens from Africa 45,000 years ago may have been the final blow to the species. The forests had become open plains similar to African savannahs that Homo sapiens were used to, meaning they had an advantage. However, the idea that Homo Sapiens were superior and actively replaced and outcompeted Neanderthals is unlikely as there is increasing evidence to suggest Neanderthals were more intelligent and resourceful than previously thought. Neanderthal brains were often larger than Homo sapiens brains, allowing them to have a sophisticated culture. They built shelters, made clothing and created advanced tools; they were the first humans to makes tools out of bone. It is very possible that both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals had sophisticated weapons such as spears which had many advantages in an open area as they could be thrown, making it possible to hunt a greater

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Homo-sapiens/Modern-populations

variety of species. New evidence also suggests Neanderthals hunted in groups similar to Homo sapiens meaning there were few differences in hunting techniques between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, as was previously thought.

The competition for already limited resources combined with the already small Neanderthal population may have been enough for them to go extinct.

Another argument against Homo sapiens being superior to Neanderthals is that Homo sapiens first migrated out of Africa 100,000 years ago to the Middle East, then to Australia 60,000 years ago, References Melissa Hogenboom. (2015). Why are we the only human species still alive?.

Available: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/ 20150929-why-are-we-the-only-humanspecies-still-alive . Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

but why did it take them another 15,000 years to migrate to Europe when it is so geographically close to Africa? Professor Clive Finlayson believed the answer to be that the Neanderthals in Europe kept Homo Sapiens out. This means that Homo sapiens were only able to migrate to Europe because the changing climate weakening Neanderthals allowed them to.

Finally, there was a 5,000 year period when both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens lived in Eurasia. Another theory suggests Neanderthals did not go extinct but interbred with Homo sapiens and were absorbed in the larger Homo sapien population. from-the-hominidae-family/ . Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

Unknown. (2015). Why are we the only human species still alive?.Available: https:// bioanthopologynow.blogspot.com/ 2015/10/ why-are-we-only-human-species -still.html .

Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

Nick Longrich. (2019). Nine Species of Human Once Walked Earth. Now There’s Just One. Did We Kill The Rest?. Available: https://www. sciencealert.com/did-homo -sapiens-kill-off-allthe-other-humans . Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

Mike McRae. (2018). Scientists Have a Bold New Hypothesis For Why We’re The Only Humans Left on Earth. Available: https: // www.sciencealert.com/homo-sapien- speciesalone-generalist-specialists-occupying-diverseecologies . Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

Amanda Penn. (2019). Why Did Homo Sapiens Survive? How We Outlived 7 Human Species. Available: https://www. shortform. com/blog/why-did-homo- sapiens-survive /.

Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

Michael Mosley. (2011). Why is there only one human species?.Available: https: //www.bbc. co.uk/news/science- environment-13874671 .

Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

Daniela Lizbeth Yanez Ortuno. (2018).

Why are we the only alive human species?. Available: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ communicatingscience2018w109/2018/ 11/19/ why-are-we-the-only-present-living -species-

Robin McKie. (2013). Why did the Neanderthals die out?. Available: https:// www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jun/ 02/ why-did-neanderthals-die-out . Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

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This is strengthened by the fact most people of European or Asian decent have 1-2% Neanderthal genes in their DNA. Considering all the evidence, the extinction of Neanderthals was mostly likely a combination of all three factors and happened over a period of 5,000 years. Climate change reduced the Neanderthal population size and forced them into core areas which left Europe open to Homo sapiens. This led to further food shortages and with Neanderthal populations struggling, some Neanderthals joined Homo sapien groups whereas others died out.

Ian Sample. (2019). Bad luck may have caused Neanderthals’ extinction – study.

Available: https://www.theguardian.com/ science/2019/nov/27/bad-luck-may-have -caused-neanderthals-extinction-study . Last accessed 16th Nov 2020.

Finlayson, C (2010). The Humans Who Went Extinct: Why Neanderthals died out and we survived. United Kingdom: OUP Oxford. viii-ix.

Katerina Harvati. (2012). What Happened to the Neanderthals?.Available: https:// www. nature.com/scitable/knowledge/ library/whathappened-to-the- neanderthals-68245020/ .

Last accessed 20th Jan 2021.

Pierangelo Pirak. (2016). Find out what really killed the Neanderthals. Available: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160712 what-killed-the-neanderthals. (Accessed: 20th Jan 2021) National Geographic (2017). Neanderthals 101 | National Geographic. Available: https://www. youtube.com/

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

How has an immigration influenced diversity in the UK? Charlie

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ver the past few decades, the UK has experienced an influx of migrants that have entered the country in search for work and a place to live. In 1995, foreign-born individuals only made up 7% of the UK’s population, however within a short period of 20 years, that ratio had almost doubled to 13% of the UK’s population (Demireva, 2019). With such a dramatic shift over such a short space of time, it is interesting to see how the variety of cultures and lifestyles have been integrated into society and how the social attitudes of migrants and towards

migrants have changed.

The issue of immigration is potentially one of the most hotly contested political debates and formed a very large part of the UK’s decision to leave the EU in the 2016, with an aim to ‘take back control of our borders’. A common misconception of immigration is that of the one that we see in the news, of refugees and asylum seekers pilling onto dinghies in a desperate attempt to cross the channel; however, they make up the smallest category of immigrants.

More commonly, immigration is

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of people that migrate in order to work, study or be with family.

Media and government policies have created a negative perception of immigration to much of the UK public, in fact ‘40% of Britons do not think that diversity benefits the UK culture’ (Rahim, 2018), so when looking into the issue, it is important not to be lead down a path ignorance. Additionally, it is important to understand that immigrants who are looking for work will have a different impact on society than those who are refugees, for example.

Furthermore, it is important to understand that spatial variation in the number of migrants will affect the impacts that it will have on that area. London has the highest percentage of the migrant population, with over three million of the nine million total population constating of people born outside of the UK (Kone, 2018). Compared to places such as the North East, which has a migrant population of 150,000, compared to the total population of three million, it is clear to see that London will be hit by the impacts of immigration much more heavily, whether they be positive or negative, and the spatial variation acts as an amplifier of the effects that immigration can have.

The economy Firstly, the flow of workers, particularly EU nationals since the UK joined the EU in 1973, has dramatically increased the labour force of the UK. There are two main categories when considering immigration, and that is those looking for work, and those looking for study. Those looking for work will have a huge benefit on the economy, as they increase the productive capacity of the country and therefore can lead to a rise in GDP of the UK and therefore have a positive increasing effect on the economic growth of the UK. A common myth that the immigrants ‘take the work of UK-nationals’ is something that counters

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/6399/economics/impactof-immigration-on-uk-economy/

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/glossary/real-gdp-capita

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the argument that immigration encourages economic growth, however seeing as these claims are over lower-paid work it is clear that this claim is false.

Highlighting this is the data which shows that up to 43% of immigrants received some level of higher education, whilst only 21% of those born in the UK have. Therefore, the economic problems of unemployment have not stemmed from an increase in immigration, and it is also seen that immigrants will move to an area where there skills are most in demand, so the actual number of immigrants ‘taking the jobs of UK nationals’ is very low. Secondly, as with all types of migrants, people looking for work will bring money from other economies which will be spent on goods and services, such as housing, in the UK and therefore they are contributing to the UK economy.

In the 2018/2019 academic year, around 486,000 international students migrated to the UK in order to study at higher education levels (Walsh, 2020). The economic benefits of this were huge as it was estimated that they created a gross output of £25.8 billion in 2014-15 as a result of spending on tuition fees, purchase of goods and services, and visits together (International students now worth £25 billion to UK economy - new research, 2017). Clearly, the revenue as a result of immigration is overwhelmingly positive as it will allow the economy to grow, as money is being brought in and spent from foreign economy’s.

Therefore, the result of diversity in the education system will allow for a much faster and bigger growth of the UK economy than without the inflow of foreign students as a result of immigration.

Whilst there are positive impacts on the economy, it is also important to consider the negative impacts as well. Firstly, it is common for migrant workers to be willing to work at a lower wage than those of

UK origin because often they will be working for a much higher salary than they would have otherwise achieved anyway, and as a result, the competition and exploitation of this leads to a potential wage reduction. It is hard to measure exactly how immigration affects this, however a study by MAC (2018)suggested that between 1993 and 2017, the total effect of EU migration on the wages of UK-born workers was estimated to be a 4.9% reduction in wages for those at the 10th earnings percentile, a 1.6% reduction at the 25th percentile, a 1.6% increase at the 50th percentile, and a 4.4% increase at the 90th percentile.

This highlights how migrants may have a negative impact on some types of jobs, i.e. lower-skilled ones, whereas high-skilled jobs may benefit from it.

Additionally, workers who move to the UK with dependants (i.e. children or elderly) will be an economic negative for the UK. The economy must support these people with education and healthcare, on top of the existing population, whilst the dependents will not add to the economy as they do not work and there for have no productive potential. Therefore, an increase in diversity as a result of immigration will have different economic impacts for different age categories of a population, depending on how much each category adds and takes away from the UK economy.

Social A common issue felt amongst residents in the UK is that the country is becoming overcrowded, and as a result of the rapidly growing population, living standards are falling, with a belief that immigration is only boosting this negative.

On the other side of the argument, migrants have also felt the affects of issues such as racism and racial discrimination, which has not allowed them the same access

to services and opportunities experienced by UK nationals . A study in 2018 showed that 16% of migrants in the UK said they would describe themselves as a group that has been discriminated against, however it is perceived that this number is much higher.

A key example of the hostility that immigrants receive is that of the Windrush scandal, that saw many black British nationals wrongfully treated as ‘illegal immigrants’, resulting in many losing their jobs, homes, benefits and access to the NHS (2020). Incidents such as these highlight how the UK is struggling to some extent to accommodate and welcome migrants so that they can be integrated into society, and can often make them feel as if they aren’t wanted in the British society, despite any positives they have brought. As a result, there is often a lot of social and political tensions between minority ethnic migrants and the government/ society.

Furthermore, a report by the Government’s Cohesion Panel in July 2004 highlighted that “The pace of change (for a variety of reasons) is simply too great in some areas at present”, pointing out that the fast rate of increasing diversity maybe isn’t allowing for society to integrate different cultures together as well as they hoped, and that the affects varied in different areas. This highlights how the much greater freedom to migrate to the UK since it joined the EU has meant that the rate at which diversity is growing has dramatically increased and that the society cannot adapt and integrate these

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new and different cultures as quickly as they are being introduced.

Highlighting this potential instability due to the growing rate of diversity is the 2011 London riots which showed that rioters were more likely to come from economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods where ethnic fractionalization was high (Biggs, 2015). This idea of ethnic fractionalization refers to the different cultural, linguistic, and/ or religious groups that exist in an area, and the proportions of each.

However, there can be social advantages of increasing diversity as a result of immigration to the UK. Differing practises and views can inspire new ways of thinking and innovation that would not have been possible without the input from different backgrounds. For example, companies in the UK that had a high level if diversity at a management level tended to

References (2018). Migration Advisory Committee.

“EEA migration in the UK: Final report”, September 2018.

Baker, C. (2020). NHS staff from overseas: statistics.

Biggs, K. a. (2015). “Anarchy in the UK: Economic Deprivation, Social Disorganization, and Political Grievances in the London Riot of 2011.”. Social Forces, 673-698.

Demireva, D. N. (2019, December 13). Immigration, Diversity and Social Cohesion. Retrieved from The Migration Observatory: https:// migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/ resources/briefings/immigrationdiversity-and-social-cohesion/ International students now worth £25 billion to UK economy - new research. (2017, March 6). Retrieved from Universities UK: https://www. universitiesuk.ac.uk/news/Pages/ International-students-now-worth25-billion-to-UK-economy---newresearch.aspx Kone, Z. (2018). Where do migrants live in the UK. The Migration Observatory.

attract more investment and deals with foreign firms, and therefore boosted the economy. One reason behind this is that the different backgrounds of the managing partners allowed them to realise that there were other ways of achieving profit, that may have been from outside the economy, and this diversity allowed them to mix with other economies that would have otherwise been isolated from the UK’s.

Overall, the UK has an ageing demographic, which means that there is a high dependence and stress being put on the labour force, particularly for healthcare, such as care workers in retirement homes, which means that the boost of workers due to immigration has had a hugely positive impact in that regard. A study of the NHS highlights that 13.8% of NHS workers are reported to be nonBritish nationality (Baker, 2020).

A major indicator that immigration is an overall positive for the economy is the demographic of the immigrants, with the majority of them being economically active

adults, suggesting that many are going to support the labour force.

However, the economic gains must be considered alongside the potential social losses. Social affects are less easy to quantify than economic ones, however it is clear from movements such as the Black Lives Matter campaign, that there are social issues that exist in the UK. So, the effect of immigration in this regard is negative because it can cause social tension between communities, and factors such as inequalities can lead to events such as the London Riots in 2011, which is a large negative for the UK. However, this must be weighed up with less obvious benefits. London, the largest and most thriving city in the UK has a immigrant population of over four million, and has used the multiculturalism in a positive way to build a city that can benefit greatly as a result of immigration.

The idea that the most diverse city in the UK is also the one that is thriving the most highlights that all the various impacts of immigration into the country have an overall net benefit.

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Rahim, Z. (2018, September 17).

40% of Britons do not think diversity benefits UK culture, poll reveals.

Retrieved from Indpendant: https:// www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ home-news/uk-immigration-diversitymigrants-brexit-hope-not-hateeconomy-culture-a8541066.html Walsh, P. (2020, March 21).

International Student Migration to the UK. Retrieved from The MIgration Observatory: https://migrationobservatory. ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/ international-student-migrationto-the-uk/#:~:text=In%20the%20 academic%20year%202018,a%20 fifth%20of%20all%20students.

What is systemic racism and how does it affect our immigration system in the UK? (2020, June 24). Retrieved from Freedom from Torture: https:// www.freedomfromtorture.org/news/ what-is-systemic-racism-and-howdoes-it-affect-our-immigration-systemin-the-uk

To what extent will US politics influence Climate Change?

Kellen

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n November 2020, the USA saw one of the biggest Presidential elections in its history – the voter turnout was the highest it has been for a number of years with around 160 million (69% of those eligible to vote) Americans voting in the election. The results were decided, and Democrat candidate Joe Biden reigned victorious over his infamous Republican opponent Donald Trump. Whilst there have been a number of key issues which split the two candidates, arguably one the key determining factors was their opposing views on climate change.

Biden is very much aware of the climate change issue, promising to make America Carbon free by 2035 and make America a net zero emitter by 2050. Biden proposes to achieve his ambitious goals by immediately reinstating the USA back into the Paris climate change agreement as well as promoting the use of electric vehicles and trains, reducing US carbon emissions for years to come.

However, his opponent Trump dismissed the threat of climate change, and his term as presidency has led to the US becoming one of the biggest exporters in oil at one point, largely due to the growth of the fracking industry under Trump’s presidency in an attempt to create more jobs.

Firstly, it is important to recognise the affect that US politics will have on Climate Change within the country itself. One of the biggest issues the US will face on Climate Change is the effect of rising sea levels – the US is dominated by coastlines with nearly 40% of its population living near the sea as of 2014 (NOAA 2020). The sea level is rising fastest along the eastern and Gulf coasts partially because the eastern seaboard is sinking because of human groundwater extraction which causes the rock underneath the ground to fall back on itself as well as there being significant post-glacial isostatic rebound on the east coast; this is essentially where previously

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during ice ages, ice-sheets would cover the continent causing the coastal regions to be slightly more elevated than continental areas, but as we move further away from the last ice age the previously elevated coastal areas have started to sink.

These rising sea levels mentioned earlier are largely caused by global warming – an increase in temperatures causes more melting of ice caps and glaciers, as well as the thermal expansion of seawater as it heats up.

On a local level, the effects of these sea rising levels combined with the sinking eastern seaboard can be seen in Charleston, South Carolina where there has been an increase in sea levels and flooding in the local area; in Charleston harbour the sea level is rising 2.5cm every two years compared to previously when it rose this amount every decade. (McGrath M 2020).

Clearly, in coastal areas such as Charleston, US politics will have

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54395534

a big impact on Climate Change because the large volumes of carbon emissions that US factories and power plants produce, will certainly enhance the greenhouse effect and contribute to the rise of global temperatures and sea levels, which is a very pressing political and social issue to the people in places such as South Carolina.

areas want there to be a healthy environment in their state for future generations to come, and because the two opponents have such contrasting views on climate change, Biden coming into power could directly impact their local environment for future generations to come if he can successfully implement his climate change policies.

Furthermore, in Georgia, which was a key state which Joe Biden managed to overturn, climate change is a key issue in the region because the rising temperatures not only have an impact on sea levels (there were 152 floods in the area and 88% were human induced), but also the amount of dangerous heat that the people are exposed to; Georgia currently experiences 20 dangerous heat days a year and this figure is expected to rise to 90 days in 2050 (States at Risk 2015). Dangerous heat days are when the heat index is greater than 105 – heat index is the apparent temperature which combines the air temperature and humidity levels.

Looking at the impact of US politics on a more global scale, the first and most obvious thing that is on Biden’s climate change agenda is to reinstate the US into the Paris Climate Change agreement.

Recently, Climate Action Tracker released new analysis following Biden’s victory which showed that if the president-elect’s plans come to fruition the result could “reduce global heating by about 0.1C, bringing the goals of the Paris Agreement “within striking distance” (Gabbatiss 2020). This clearly demonstrates the influence the US has over global climate change, especially as the worlds largest economy as well as having the third largest population in the world, because a significant reduction in US carbon emissions, could also have a significant impact on global carbon emissions which will subsequently determine how significant the enhanced greenhouse effect will prove to be in the future.

Thus, in these areas, US politics will have a big influence on climate change because voters were less likely to vote Trump, whose policies exacerbate the climate change, whereas Biden at least seeks to address the issue and has put forward possible solutions to the problem. Americans in these

In conclusion, the result of the

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recent Presidential election will have a great influence on Climate Change on both a local level in the US but also, perhaps more importantly, on a global scale.

This is because the US is such a large contributor to global carbon emissions, so if Biden is able to successfully implement his environmental policies, then it could also have a significant positive impact on the global scale in terms of climate change and limiting the damage of the enhanced greenhouse effect.

References NOAA. What percentage of the American population live near the coast? (2020) National Ocean service site. Available at: https:// oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ population.html#:~:text=As%20 of%202014%2C%20nearly%20 40,people%20live%20in%20 coastal%20counties (Accessed: 10 November 2020) States at risk, Georgia. (2015) Available at: https://statesatrisk.org/ georgia/all (Accessed: 6 November 2020) McGrath, M. (2020) US election 2020: What the results will mean for climate change. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scienceenvironment-54395534 (Accessed: 29 November 2020) Gabbatiss, J. (2020) Media reaction: What Joe Biden’s US election victory means for climate change. Available at: https://www.carbonbrief.org/mediareaction-what-joe-bidens-us-election-

Photo by Maahid Photos on Unsplash

How the colonial legacy has brought diversity and change to India.

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ndia has become one of the fastest growing economies, with an exponentially growing population, and its culture spreading far across the globe.

However, India’s past is riddled with controversy and conflict, colonised by the British Empire in 1857 and only gaining independence in 1947; this legacy has helped shape modern day India. The earliest English interference was the East India company, a group of English trade merchants, who set up trading posts in India in 1612. At this point in time Mughal India was thriving economically and culturally. The famous landmark Taj Mahal was built during this time and Persian culture was being integrated with Indian, seen in much preserved artwork. It was a period of religious tolerance between Muslims and Hindus, and political and economic stability with the introduction of a structured tax system. As the hold of the Mughal Empire loosened, the East India company took advantage and ruled from 1757 to 1857. This ended because of an Indian rebellion, the company

Ria consequently transferred power over to the crown, Queen Victoria, officially marking the beginning of the British Raj. During and after British colonisation, India saw much religious tension between Hindus and Muslims, the country was later partitioned, now known as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The British Raj had a divide and conquer strategy, for example, a law set in place in 1871 gave Muslims a separate electorate to other religions, making people more aware of the religious identity of those around them.

As this religious divide grew, the British became more aware of the brewing conflict and, after many protests allowed Indian independence. However, before leaving, Cyril Radcliffe, an English lawyer who’d never been to India before, was tasked with splitting up India in 36 days to decrease racial tension. The regions of Kashmir and Hyderabad were not given to either India or Pakistan.

The announcement of partition

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saw 15 million people uprooted as refugees between India and Pakistan, 1.5 million deaths, starvation, and disease. Since independence there have been three wars regarding Kashmir, including India, Pakistan and even China. Only last year Pakistan shot down two Indian fighter jets in Kashmir, sparking more national and religious tension. Both countries have heavily militarised Kashmir and it is now the most militarised region in the world.

Kashmiri’s are yet to receive a vote on which country they want to be part of, this conflict has been central to tense relations in Asia for 70 years. Although there has always been religious tension, especially between Hindu’s and Muslims, it seems to be increasing, now even more so, with threats of nuclear war. The colonial legacy and partition changed the nature of religious tension, it facilitated the alienation of minorities, resulting in more violence, on an individual and national scale.

Some may argue India’s economy has benefitted from its colonial

links, many have predicted it’s path to becoming a global superpower.

The commonwealth consists of 54 countries most of whom used to be part of the British empire.

This unique connection has opened doors for India and other previously colonised countries to globalise. India hosted the 2010 commonwealth games which gave them exposure to the rest of the world through global media networks. The games forced the regeneration of India’s service sector infrastructure, most notably hotels and transport. For example, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi airport was renovated, and is now a major hub for flows of people to India. Due to the increased tourism from the commonwealth games, 2.5 million jobs were created, many of them taken by rural to urban migrants, who would otherwise have ended up unemployed or as part of the informal economy. 53% of India’s GDP is from people working in the tertiary sector, in 2010 the earnings from tourism were 14,490 million US dollars, a growth of 30.1% from the previous year.

The commonwealth, especially the year India hosted the games, helped develop and diversify its economy.

The British however failed to provide India with basic necessities, causing the Bengal famine in 1943, where

approximately 2.6 million people died of starvation and many more were left malnourished.

This was a result of increasing exportation of resources like rice, which exploited the work of Indian farmers and no extra help was given to fight against the famine.

Since independence, India has seen people rising out of poverty and the standard of living has increased rapidly. No longer

being under the British empire allowed them, in the twentieth century, to adopt protectionist laws to somewhat stabilise their own economy and population; so that they can now compete in the global market. The literacy rates have also increased from 12% to 74% since independence, but this is mainly due to the English education system introduced during colonisation. This better education is a reason for many international companies outsourcing jobs there, such as call centres, as they have English speaking workers. This increases jobs available, helping people overcome poverty and increasing the GDP. Furthermore, post-war Britain’s demand for labour and the fact Indians were educated, saw the mass migration of Indians to the UK. The immigration policy at the time allowed any citizen of the commonwealth to live, work and vote in the UK. By the mid-1960s,

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most Indians coming to the UK were dependents, who made up 75% of all Indians immigrating between 1965 and 1980. Now, however we are seeing a pattern of 2nd and 3rd generation Indians migrating back. In 2010, 30,000 people migrated back to India, and that number continues to increase. The emerging market and cheaper labour provide a unique business opportunity for entrepreneurs. This migration was made even easier when the OCI card was introduced in 2005 which allows those with Indian parents and grandparents a permanent visa to live and work in India.

Increased migration and tourism in India has brought with it new ideologies, including steps towards gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights, which has been improving since the introduction of the western education system that challenged these oppressive ideologies. In fact, as

of 2018, homosexual acts were decriminalised. Women’s rights have also slowly been improving, in 2019 48.6% of students enrolling in higher education were female.

In 2019 a record number (78 out of 542) of women were voted into India’s parliament. Although we have seen a growing tolerance towards minority groups in India, there are still long term effects from colonisation, that hinder India’s ability to fully embrace diversity. The ‘white is right’ attitude originated from colonial times and the belief that in order to move up in life, people of colour needed to be ‘whiter’. “Colourism”, a form of internalised racism, stemmed from these ideas. There are still many people who consider fairer skin and Eurocentric features as purer and evidence of a “better financial and social status of a person”, due to the class associations from colonisation. In the Bollywood industry there are an increasing number of white performers, and they are very much idolised. This change in beauty standards is affecting many Indian women

mentally, with large companies profiting from this vulnerability (Mishra & Hall, 2017).

The flow of people, migrants and tourists, into India has also changed culture, traditions and ultimately lifestyle.

‘Westernisation’ is a term used to describe the western dilution of culture. More people are leaving traditional clothing like sarees and dhotis behind, discarding the significance and instead wearing more western styles of clothing, this could be seen as a step towards equality as especially for women as there has always been a societal pressure for women to dress modestly. There are 700 languages spoken across India, which are being slowly forgotten as people migrate away or rely on English as a first language because

REFERENCES:

accessed November 2020.

Sudrania, OP. (2012). Impact of British Colonialism on Indian society. Available: http://www.chakranews.com/impact-of-british-colonialism-on-indian-society/2874/ Last accessed November 2020

(2010). How the British influenced Indian culture. Available: https://www.dawn. com/news/881307/how-the-british-influenced-indian-culture . Last accessed November 2020.

Singh, A. (2015). Think India should be grateful for colonialism? Here are five reasons why you’re unbelievably ignorant . Available: https://www. independent.co.uk/voices/think-indiashould-be-grateful-colonialism-hereare-five-reasons-why-you-re-unbelievably-ignorant-a6729106.html. Last accessed November 2020.

Desmarais, S. (2011). The impact of Western colonialism on modern Hinduism. Available: https://simondes. wordpress.com/2014/08/07/the-impact-of-western-colonialism-on-modern-hinduism/ . Last accessed November 2020.

Alexander, C. (2017). Colonialism in India was traumatic – including for some of the British officials who ruled the Raj. Available: https://theconversation.com/colonialism-in-india-was-traumatic-including-for-some-of-the-britishofficials-who-ruled-the-raj-77068 . Last

Fisher, M. (2010). Was British Colonialism Good or Bad for India?. Available: https://www.theatlantic.com/national/ archive/2010/11/was-british-colonialismgood-or-bad-for-india/343366/ . Last accessed November 2020.

Naujoks, D. (2009). Emigration, Immigration, and Diaspora Relations in India. Available: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/emigration-immigration-and-diaspora-relations-india#1 .

Last accessed November 2020 What are the advantages and disadvantages of westernisation on India and it’s culture. Available: https://advantagesanddisadvantagesofwesternizat. weebly.com/how-does-westernizationhave-an-impact-on-the-indian-culture. html# . Last accessed November 2020 Soffri, G (1999). Gandhi and India. 2nd ed. Gloucestershire: The Windrush Press UKEssays. (November 2018). Impact

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of the job opportunities associated; Indian music has changed from traditional flutes, Dhol and Tabla, to western pop. In most aspects Indian culture is changing, there is more awareness and change in social inequality, however the extent of this change could be causing irreversible loss of culture.

Overall, India has embraced its colonial legacy. Negative change can be seen through the worsening of tensions between the other Desi countries, the lingering oppressive attitudes, the loss of culture and the general poverty that still exists.

However there have also been positive changes, the dramatic growth of India’s economy and acceptance of minority groups.

The most change and diversity has been from the flow of people due to the colonial legacy, who have brought new cultures, new ideas and new opportunities to the changing nation.

Of The Commonwealth Games On New Delhi Tourism Essay. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/ essays/tourism/impact-of-the-commonwealth-games-on-new-delhi-tourismessay.php?vref=1 TheThinkPedia. (). Who is really responsible for India-Pakistan partition.

Untold. Available: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=sLRUdNE6w2g . Last accessed January 2021 Dixit, N. (2019). Fair, but not so lovely: India’s Obsession with Skin Whitening.

Available: https://brightthemag.com/ fair-but-not-so-lovely-indias-obsessionwith-skin-whitening-beauty-body-image-bleaching-4d6ba9c9743d. Last accessed January 2021 (2020). Different Sectors of Indian Economy: Here’s All You should Know about It. Available: https://upscpathshala.com/content/sectors-of-indian-economy/. Last accessed January 2021 Vaidyanathan, R. (2012). Why would you leave the West for India?. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldasia-india-19992062 . Last accessed January 2021.

https://brilliantmaps.com/england-north-south/

To what extent does the NorthSouth divide in the UK still exist?

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he North-South divide is defined as the cultural, economic, and political differences between the North and South of England. For the purpose of this article, the North refers to the North-East, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North-West including Merseyside and Greater Manchester. The South refers to the South-East and the South-West including Greater London. It refers to the difference in the standard of living due to the concentration of economic and political power in southern England and specifically, London.

Jared The origin of the divide dates back to the industrial revolution between 1750 and 1840. During this time new minerals were discovered, and the technological advance of steam engines and coal power led to the mechanisation of industry and agriculture. The revolution impacted the social, cultural, and economic conditions of the country.

The Midlands (north) became the centre of manufacturing with 90% of manufacturing industries situated in cities such as Birmingham. However, it was not just the Midlands that went through this process of industrialisation, but many northern cities, such as

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Leeds, had similar experiences.

The cause of this is the abundance of raw materials such as coal and iron ore that could be found in the North in comparison to the South.

Eventually, the North became reliant on the raw materials and manufacturing industries it had and so struggled when tertiary and quaternary industries became more prevalent. The South were able to adapt far more easily. This is because London became the hub for transport routes from the sea as they had a very large port, known as the Docklands, as well as King’s Cross and St Pancras Stations that became transport

links between the capital and northern cities. Given that the UK was already providing the service of transport, the change in jobs demanded was easier to adapt to than in the North where primary industry was much more prevalent. Going even further back, The Economist proposed that origins could be traced back to the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror laid waste to many towns and estates in the North, specifically York, Nottingham and Durham, significantly reducing the wealth and laying the foundations of an economic disadvantage in comparison to the South. He ravaged the land on his route north from the River Aire in Yorkshire. On this journey, the army destroyed crops and settlement whilst sending the rebels into hiding.

As well, from the Humber to the Tees, the army burnt villages and slaughtered inhabitants.

One key way of looking at the north-south divide is to look at it in economic terms. These include output, employment, wages, and standard of living. Productivity, i.e., how efficiently they produce goods and services, is one of the primary ways to look at living standards. On this measure, there is still a divide. London is producing goods and services worth £26,000 more per person on average than the North West, North East, and Yorkshire regions as of 2019. The gap has been almost doubled since 2001. This is because the most productive sectors of industry (finance and technology) are concentrated in the South and specifically London.

In contrast, the employment level divide is more about big cities against the rest. Jobs are concentrated in the large urban conurbations of London, Leeds and Birmingham. Therefore, from this, we cannot assume a NorthSouth divide and more of a ruralurban divide. As of July 2020, ‘the richest bit…is now 30 times richer than the poorest’ according to The Economist although, GDP per

person is distorted by commuters and skewed when the boundaries are drawn. On a more positive note, the living standards gap is closing. As of 2019, household incomes in the South East are 20% higher than the North East, the current poorest region. The economic disparity is probably the largest of all the inequalities between the North and the South and is the standard example given in conversation and although it appears to be shrinking, it is still large and evident on society wherever you look.

On a less important note, and less negative, there is a major cultural difference between the North and South of England. The London media has been seen to be unsympathetic towards John Prescott, an ex-labour representative of the constituency of Hull East because he spoke like ‘ordinary people’. Similarly, northern and southern cities were seen celebrating at the death of Margaret Thatcher, who was Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990, due to her policies that closed coal mines moving the UK economy away from primary industry that was so important to northern towns and cities. The perceived cultural divide between the two regions can be seen in popular culture and TV. One example of this was the 2005 BBC series ‘It’s Grim Up North’ which drew out some of these divisions and other satires, consequently followed.

However, the cultural differences are not necessarily a negative and whether they are widening, or narrowing is irrelevant because large and different cultures are seen as a positive in a world that is increasingly being globalised and where cultures are increasingly being diminished by western powers. The issue of the divide comes with unconscious bias in terms of accents and where someone is from. Studies by the Queen Mary University of London show that public attitudes to the Birmingham accent faces the

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largest bias. These biases can affect life opportunities such as in job interviews thus creating a negative divide between the North and South of England.

Finally, the divide can be seen in politics, both in general elections and the Brexit referendum. It has even been argued that the North-South divide caused the referendum because of the alienation felt by the working class facing the realities of a postindustrialised country. Some felt that young people are held back in education and getting a skilled job due to lack of opportunities.

From the map below, the areas in blue (leave) tend to be mainly in the north of England showing their inclination towards leaving the EU. Historically, the north tended to vote for the Labour party because it benefited the working population more. In the general elections of 1964, 1966, 1974, 1997, 2001 and 2005 where Labour had the majority, the red votes came predominantly in the North. However, in the most recent general election in 2019, the Conservative party won a landslide victory because they were able to secure a lot of seats in the north of England. This potentially shows that the gap is closing because they are no longer voting for Labour or it is just a blip due to policies and candidates available during that election.

The UK government are clearly aware of a divide as can be seen by the Northern Powerhouse.

The 2010-2015 coalition government and the 2015-16 Conservative government, led

by David Cameron, proposed this initiative to boost economic growth in the North of England, specifically Hull, Manchester,

traditions within the country. Either is positive. Therefore, to answer the question of whether the NorthSouth divide exists, it does exist, but the disparities are shrinking, and the inequalities seen between the regions throughout history are not as prominent now.

Bibliography: British Broadcasting Corporation (2019).

Labour Party manifesto 2019: 12 key policies explained. BBC News. [online] 21 Nov. Available at: https://www.bbc. co.uk/news/election-2019-50501411 [Accessed 13 Nov. 2020].

McCurdy, C. (2019). Election 2019: how Britain’s North-South divide is changing. [online] Resolution Foundation. Available at: https://www.resolutionfoundation. org/comment/election-2019-how-britains-north-south-divide-is-changing/ [Accessed 11 Nov. 2020].

Scott, G. (2019). “The North-South divide caused Brexit, now leaders must come to the North to win December’s General Election.” [online] www.yorkshirepost. co.uk. Available at: https://www. yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/northsouth-divide-caused-brexit-now-leadersmust-come-north-win-decembers-general-election-1747938 [Accessed 13 Nov. 2020].

The Economist (2019). To help England’s north, link it up. [online] The Economist. Available at: https://www. economist.com/leaders/2019/12/18/tohelp-englands-north-link-it-up [Accessed 12 Nov. 2020].

Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and Newcastle. It attempts to provide a solution for reducing the divide.

There has been a great investment in research and development to create more opportunities and increase the productivity of future generations in the North. The Universities now provide a quarter of the UK’s science, technology, engineering, and maths graduates.

According to the Government’s Northern Powerhouse website, between 2015 and 2020, the government have spent over £13 billion on modernising northern transport to improve the everyday commute. The government also aims to provide world-class education, training and care for everyone through colleges and universities. Over 119,000 jobs and £12 billion have been delivered to the regional economy

providing help to more than 31,000 businesses and adding over £6.6 billion gross added value to the region.

To conclude, the North-South divide does still exist although, it is shrinking in the ways that matter.

The output and productivity gaps are shrinking perhaps showing that the Northern Powerhouse initiative and huge investment has had a positive impact. The recent election of 2019 has also proved a closing of the gap with the voters appearing to pick the party that does not benefit the working class as much as the other candidate.

The cultural gap is up for opinion as to whether it is shrinking or growing but regardless, it either brings the population closer together and creates more unity or shows the diversity of cultures and

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The Economist (2020). Why Britain is more geographically unequal than any other rich country. [online] The Economist. Available at: https://www. economist.com/britain/2020/07/30/ why-britain-is-more-geographically-unequal-than-any-other-rich-country [Accessed 12 Nov. 2020].

UK Government (2019). NPH. [online] Northernpowerhouse.gov.uk. Available at: https://northernpowerhouse.gov.uk/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2020].

University of Oxford (2017). Brexit vote result by district; shaded by percentage majority towards “Leave” or “Remain”.

University of Oxford. Available at: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/ oxford-and-brexit/brexit-analysis/mapping-brexit-vote [Accessed 13 Nov. 2020].

Wikipedia Contributors (2020a). Northern Powerhouse. [online] Wikipedia.

Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Northern_Powerhouse [Accessed 13 Nov. 2020].

Wikipedia Contributors (2020b). North– South divide (England). [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/North%E2%80%93South_divide_ (England)#Identities_and_differences [Accessed 13 Nov. 2020].

Figure 1: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-ofadults-defined-as-obese

Is it temperature or income which affects the percentage of obese people in countries?

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t is commonly known that people are healthy because of the lifestyle they live and the amount of exercise they do. However, it is not commonly known that the weather can influence how effective exercise can be, and whether people have an advantage based on where they live and what the weather is like. In this article, I will be exploring whether there is a link between fitness and climate, and why people living in colder climates are potentially fitter.

When answering this question, we must first understand why there could be a link. One of the most effective and common ways of burning calories and staying fit is by exercising. People exercise passively walking every day, running, and cycling, or they could specially exercise, for example by going to the gym or swimming or playing outdoor sports. Whatever,

Veylan it is, calories will be burnt when doing these various exercises.

However, it has been found that exercising in colder conditions could result in more calories being burnt, which leads to the question of whether people living in colder temperatures would be fitter and less obese.

The human body has two types of fat, white and brown. White fat (white adipose tissue) is the most commonly known fat, as white fat is what causes obesity, which leads to other health problems. It stores energy in large fat droplets, and the accumulation of fat keeps one warm by giving insulation.

Brown fat (brown adipose tissue (BAT)), is more compact and stores energy in smaller spaces compared to white fat. The reason why it is brown is because it is filled with mitochondria. Thermogenesis is where the body generates

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heat to keep warm. There are two types of thermogenesis: shivering and non- shivering. In shivering thermogenesis, the body shivers. Kinetic energy is required for the body to make shivering movements, and this is gained from the conversion of ATP to ADP, and through this process heat is produced. This does not burn many calories at all. Nonshivering thermogenesis happens in BAT. The burning of brown fat not only produces heat, but burns many calories. Clearly, having more brown fat will result in more calories being burnt, so people with higher levels of brown fat will burn calories more easily, hence they more likely not be obese.

One of the way of having more BAT in the body is by being in colder temperatures, as the colder temperatures stimulates stem cells to divide and form brown fat

Figure 2

rather than white fat. It is clear to see here that colder temperatures have an influence as to how many calories one will burn, and this can be explored in the real world, to see if this is the case.

As you can see in Figure 1, the percentage of people who are obese in the world does not translate to the trend that people in colder countries are less obese. An explanation for this is the lifestyle in which the people in colder countries live in. For example, in European countries, most of them live a rich lifestyle and have a large income compared to less income countries. These countries have a luxurious lifestyle, such as cars, rich foods, jobs which do not require hard labour, and more.

This will inevitably result in people exercising less and putting on more calories, so even if they have higher percentages of brown fat due to the cold temperatures they live in, their lifestyles far outweigh the effect brown fat may have. In Europe in 2016, the percentage of obese people in each country was over 18%, while in continents such as Africa and Asia the percentage of obesity in each country was generally between 0% and 10%.

One could even argue that it is the cold climate which has made people fatter in these colder

nations. Colder temperatures may discourage people to go out as much or exercise as much as it is difficult to exercise in low temperatures, so they will generally move less, and increase their number of calories. Hotter temperatures usually encourage people to go out more and do things, which is an explanation why the countries in central Africa have low obesity rates.

However, this doesn’t account for the American continents both north and south, where the percentage of obese people in the countries are over 18%. It is generally known that these countries have high levels of income and low levels of laborious work, especially in the Southern American countries, so this suggests that it is income which determines how obese a country is.

Nevertheless, if we look at Figure 2, the world in general was generally far less obese in 1975, and the European countries had a decreased percentage of obese people, but they still had a greater income and had richer lifestyles than the poorer countries, hence there is still a subtle disparity in obesity between these countries. Without the rich incomes, it can still be seen that the people in colder countries could be inherently thinner, as for example in the 1960’s, the percentage of obese people was

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around 1%, while in 2010 it was 25.2%. However, this still doesn’t establish a trend that colder countries have fewer obese people because it is easier to burn BAT. To conclude, there is a clear link between it being easier to burn more calories in colder temperatures because of the increased ease of producing and burning brown fat, which burns more calories and in turn decreases the chances of becoming obese.

However, the effects of having a high income and a rich lifestyle wipe out this inherent advantage in combating obesity, and the attraction of exercising and moving less, and eating more overweighs the physical advantage people in these colder countries may have.

References 1. Healthline. (2018). Brown Fat: How to Increase, Thermogenesis, and More. [online] Available at: https://www. healthline.com/health/brown-fat#How-toget-brown-fat.

2. Wikipedia. (2021). Thermogenesis. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Thermogenesis#Shivering 3. Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2017).

Obesity & BMI. [online] Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata. org/obesity.

4. Wardrop, M. (2010). Obesity rates “20 per cent higher now than in the 1960s.” www.telegraph.co.uk. [online] 25 Feb. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ news/health/news/7307756/Obesityrates-20-per-cent-higher-now-than-inthe-1960s.html

Plastic pollution of our oceans: who turns the tide?

Ben

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y 2050, it is estimated that there will be more plastic than fish (by weight) in the ocean. Defined as ‘the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the Earth’s environment that adversely affects wildlife, habitats, and humans’, plastic pollution, and how to tackle it, is increasingly becoming an

issue that must be addressed by governments and environmental agencies around the globe, yet thus far attempts to end our love affair with plastic have been futile and far from sufficient. The health of the our most diverse ecosystem is deteriorating frighteningly fast and we must look for a global solution to this global problem.

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Plastic is inexpensive and longlasting – a perfect material for humans to commandeer, thus is ubiquitous in our everyday lives, yet its polymer structure renders it extremely resistant to erosional processes, so most plastics produced will take thousands of years to naturally biodegrade. That said, the most harmful plastics to

both marine life and ultimately humans are smaller than a single letter on this page. Microplastics, particles of plastic less than 5mm1 in diameteri, plague our oceans and are continuously ingested by marine animals, who are in no way adapted to breakdown these synthetic molecules, which, like the larger, more obvious macroplastics, do not readily decompose into smaller, harmless molecules.

In fact, their size makes them more potent, infiltrating into marine animals undetected. To further complicate matters, microplastics in the ocean can bind with other chemicals, including food, before being ingested by marine

organisms. Each year, over 1,000,000 marine mammals are killed as a direct result of plastic and millions more face liver and cell damage as well as reduced fertility, potentially shrinking future generationsii. And it is not just marine life that is affected, 90% of seabirds have plastic as a regular component of their diets, both by direct consumption of mesoplastics, mistaken for food, and also indirectly by microplastics in fish and seawateriii.

Microplastics are present in commercial seafood throughout the world, virtually unregulated, in alarming levels and cannot be completely removed in water purification facilities, thus are in circulation in our water supply.

Though the dangers posed to humans aren’t fully understood, the consequences of consuming artificial, tenacious fibres are unlikely beneficial.

Of the 380 million tonnes of plastic produced annually, roughly 9% is recycled and a further 12% incineratediv (which poses its own negative environmental repercussions, producing toxic

greenhouse gases, in this case mainly carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and contributing to the enhanced greenhouse effect) whilst much of the remaining 79% ends up in landfill. As for future production, exponential increases are expected, doubling by 2050ii.

Whilst direct littering into the ocean plays a significant role, most of the pollution (i.e transfer from land to the ocean) occurs via natural processes - storms, water runoff and wind. Landfill/ dumping areas close to the sea require reform –

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rubbish that enters these glorified bins can often be transported by the factors listed above into the nearby ocean within hours. In the UK, there are 1200 landfill sites that are close enough to the ocean to warrant a concernv. Whilst this was acknowledged in February 2020 by the UK government, no actions have been taken, epitomising the attitude that has plagued us for far too longvi. New regulations must be created to stop these landfill sites polluting the ocean, enforced by strict fines/ sanctions. The government should pay for the cost of removing these landfill sites, then relocating them to safer areas inland, regardless of the economic

benefits of doing so – frankly, the health of our environment must take priority over the balance in our bank accounts.

Ever-improving technology will undoubtedly result in stronger, more durable plastics lasting longer and causing more damage to the ocean ecosystem. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Instead, capital should be invested into companies pursuing biological polymers (biopolymers) which can be broken down by natural

erosional processes/ enzymes and microbes. Many unbranched polymers derived from alkenes (example: polyethene – plastic bags) can easily be ripped but on a micro level, doesn’t fully decompose thus is not an ideal material for single use plastic bags. Biopolymers such as Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) and cellulose-based plastics readily decompose fully and are limited only by their production cost and unavoidably weaker structures. Research is being conducted by companies such as ‘Chroma Color Corporation’, ‘US Plastics Recovery’ and ‘Flow Polymers LLC’vii, with the intention of increasing the durability of these biopolymers as well as decreasing production costs, which will allow these more natural bags to compete with the non-biodegradable polyethene bags that currently dominate the market. If global governments were to invest into this R&D, the process would be accelerated and the transition to biopolymers would come sooner. Direct investment may be unrealistic, especially for less environmentally aware nations, so money from an

umbrella organisation to which lots of countries contribute to, for example the United Nations, may be a better course of action.

It is worth noting that there is significant inequality in the output of plastic waste into the ocean, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka lead in outputting the most plasticviii. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these countries have little to no enforceable environmental policy regarding safe waste disposal, and it is often the case that countries with the weakest environmental policies and educational infrastructure are least equipped to deal with the consequences. To compensate, more developed countries and umbrella organisations must step up and either impose regulations on the main perpetrators, or ideally begin to remove and dispose of existing plastic pollution. This highlights an important distinction between regulating countries to discrete levels of plastic pollution (ultimately zero) and the removal of existing plastic, which must occur for the effects of previous pollution to be somewhat reversed.

References i https://www.nationalgeographic.org/ encyclopedia/microplastics/ [accessed November 2020] ii https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ environment/habitats/plastic-pollution/ [accessed November 2020] iii https://www.britannica.com/science/ plastic-pollution/ [accessed November 2020] iv https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution [accessed November 2020] v https://www.independent.co.uk/ news/uk/home-news/landfill-sites-coast-spill-sea-erosionpollution-a9338746.html [accessed November 2020] vi https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ worlds-most-remote-island-helps-uk-exceed-protectedocean-target [accessed November 2020] vii https://www.plasticsnewsdirectory. com/category/materials-suppliers/bioplastic-biopolymer [accessed November 2020] viii https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/ countries-putting-the-most-plasticwaste-into-theoceans.html [accessed November 2020] Christopher J. Rhodes (2018) ‘Plastic Pollutions and potential Solutions’, volume 101, issue 3, Science Progress

Photo by OCG Saving The Ocean on Unsplash

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Beyond Stage 5 of the DTM: What problems will this pose?

Rayyaan

T

he demographic transition model displays the change in population as a country develops through various ‘stages’.

The changes in both death and birth rate respectively are also shown to suggest possible reasons for the change in population. Stage 1 is represented by high birth and death rates which tend to fluctuate slightly, due to various factors such as poor diet and sanitation, as well as the lack of access to

contraception and the perception of large families being valuable.

This results in a low population, with only small communities such as tribes in the Amazon still at this stage. Stage 2 marks a sharp decline in death rate, as developing countries see an improvement in diet, and significant advances in hygiene and healthcare, all of which resulted in an increase in life expectancy. Birth rate remained high, causing a rapid increase

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in population. By looking at the UK’s progression in the past 200 years, it can be seen that death rate continues to decline at a slower rate in Stage 3, but the most significant change is the drop in birth rates, caused by the emancipation of women, an improvement in both education and access to contraception and family planning services, compounded by the fact children are starting to become an economic liability.

This is also shown in Brazil, where uneducated have an average total fertility rate of 6.5, a huge contrast to the figure of 2.5 for educated women in the same region. During this period total population is still rapidly increasing, but the rate of natural increase decreases due to the change in birth rate. Stage 4 sees both birth and death rate level off, as they both start to fluctuate slightly as they did in Stage 1, most commonly seen in Western European countries such as France. Stage 5 is understood to result in a small decrease in

on the economically active is not sustainable. There is also potential for a future Stage 6, which could feature further globalisation as countries come together adopting western cultures, leaving behind their own in the process. Another feature of Stage 6 would be increasing death rates due to the change in population structure, as well as an increase in birth rates to accommodate the ageing population, as seen recently in France with its pro-natalist policies.

Nigeria is renowned to be one of

develops, it will experience a rapid increase in population size, as the country transitions from its current youthful population to an ageing population, however this is not expected to happen in the near future. The main consequence of a developing country like Nigeria progressing into Stage 5 and beyond is social, with a loss of culture and traditions such as tribalism as Western methods are implemented in order to aid their development. This will happen over time through various methods. This includes the introduction of TNC’s

population size as death rates rise to exceed birth rates, partly due to an influx of non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes in the US. A common reason for this is the change in lifestyle of an individual as a country progresses through the stages. Stage 5 was added at the end of the 20th century, as Western countries have started to progress further. It’s important for demographers to analyse potential changes to both population structure, such as an ageing population where the reliance

the poorest and least developed countries in the world, currently progressing through Stage 2 of the demographic transition model.

This because of a combination of social, economic, political and environmental factors, including extreme birth rates (37.684/1000 in 2020), droughts which occur particularly in Northern Nigeria, for example in 2007 and 2011, harming agriculture and prohibiting economic growth, as well as conflict involving Islamic groups such as Boko Haram. As Nigeria

in developing countries, with 40 currently located in Nigeria, such as Shell and Nestle. Whilst this brings benefits such as increased employment, not only will these companies have a detrimental effect on local businesses, but the idea of ‘westernising’ countries in Africa and Asia is becoming more prominent. This also occurs as western countries introduce new technology and improvements in healthcare. As this happens, the country itself has less and less control over what happens, as

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they becoming increasingly reliant on other countries and NGO’s, which will leave them powerless to refuse western demands, or even worse, corruption may occur within these NGO’s, seen in Honduras between 2010 and 2014. If this ‘process’ of globalisation was to occur in all developing countries, the world would become increasingly connected, all through the development of western technology. One example of globalisation having a positive impact is the process of privatisation, where people on a lower income gain better access to utilities such as water and power. Whilst this may have many advantages, the world would lose its originality, and it’s likely certain cities, towns or villages would be against this idea, particularly those who are determined to follow previous traditions and maintain their culture. An example is the introduction of western fast food chains into Asian countries, which has led to local businesses losing out. If a few areas wanted to move in an opposing direction to the majority of a country, it’s likely these areas would be left behind, and become isolated by following their traditions, as seen by tribes in the Amazon to this day. Overall this shows the most significant implication of a developing country

progressing through to stage 5 and beyond is social, with various countries integrating on a global scale, however on a national and local scale, Stage 5 is likely to result in further division.

For an area like the UK already in Stage 5, the social challenges faced

by LIC’s will not occur to such an extent, as the majority of people already integrated in the Western culture, and other communities formed in the UK many years ago, meaning the process of assimilation is well under way. The implications of further development more likely to be economical. The key difference between Stage 4 and 5 of the demographic transition model is transition from a population structure dominated by a large working force, to an ageing population with an increasingly unsustainable dependency ratio, as pressure increases on families, governments and the NHS in the UK’s case, with the population over 64 spending 82% longer in

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hospital in comparison to others.

The UK would be forced to build more hospitals and care homes, as well as implement incentives for people to retire at an older age, as currently 55% of welfare (£114 billion) goes towards the pension of this elderly sector. Essentially the people who’ll fund these changes are the working class, as the government won’t be able to afford it themselves, forcing them to increase taxes, which will generally cause a decline in the standard of living of the economically active.

However, this will encourage the UK to be more open to immigration to boost the workforce, a concept which is expected to occur more frequently as countries’ reach and go beyond Stage 5. Then again, this would create further problems for LICs with the concept of brain drain, as their most skilled workers would be attracted to working in developed areas such as the UK. Overall this shows Stage 5 will pose more economical problems rather than social in MDC’s such as the UK. We may see further implementation of pro-natalist government policies, something which has already occurred in Russia and France, as they worry about their ageing populations.

Overall, the progression of countries into Stage 5 of the demographic transition model certainly poses more problems than benefits.

These will vary depending on the stage of development and location of a country, with LDC’s LICs more likely to suffer socially, and MDC’s HICs economically, particularly in the long term, putting pressure on the economically active.

References https://populationeducation.org/ stage-5-demographic-transition-model/ The Demographic Transition Model | Intelligent Economist The Challenges of the End of the Demographic Transition | OpenMind (bbvaopenmind.com)

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/80-trillion-world-economy-one-chart/

How diverse is our global economy?

Neeve

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he year 2020 brought the total value of the global economy to $88 trillion dollars. Of course, with 2020 being the year that it was, this value was significantly lower than in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a more significant impact on economic activity in the first half of 2020, more

than anticipated, and the recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast. In 2019 the total value of the global economy stood at $142 trillion dollars, which is more reflective of previous years.

However, when examining which countries contribute the most to the economy and why, there are a number of factors we can examine.

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It is clear from Figure 1 (2019), that the USA dominates the global economy accounting for a ¼ of the total value. A more prominent pattern however, is the contribution of emerging economies, China and India have seen staggering economic growth supporting the World Bank projections forecasted for the global economy. Other

advanced, HIC economies continue to make up large proportion of the global economy, such as that of Japan and Germany, post-industrial servicebased sectors driving their growth.

China and the USA are noticeably the main powerhouses of the global economy but what is common amongst the main contributors is that they all have reached a certain level of development, and for China and the USA, superpower status. The countries making the most significant contributions are HICs or NICs, very few fragile states and LICs subsidise the global economy. In terms of GDP, the global economy is driven and funded largely by a few select countries and within them private companies. Diversity in this sense, is not so broad.

The growth of emerging economies is inviting diversity amongst the main contributors to the global economy, the success of China and India for example is a result of the Global Shift. This diversity is also significant in showing that there

is an emergence of developing countries and is proof of economic growth across the globe. Another trend identified is that the majority of the top influential countries have been top contributors for a long time. These longstanding funders have developed their economies over time, moving through the various job sectors, all the way up to quaternary sector, and therefore as the majority of their economy is in this sector they have a greater GDP to contribute to the global value. However, emerging countries such as China and India have rapidly caught up, and their jobs sectors are moving higher up the ladder as “high tech” becomes more present in both markets.

India’s economy is currently one of the fastest growing economies, emerging market countries will drive future growth as opposed to European countries and will continue to do so, following in the steps of China and the US, but what actually makes up the growth of these economies?

There is a pattern to notice amongst the exports that countries trade. The discovery of oil reserves in Pennsylvania, USA was only the start of the country’s extreme wealth. USA has held the top percentage of the global GDP since the 1920s. For decades, crude oil was the most exported product globally, taking up the largest percentage of the world’s exports, however, in more recent decades the world’s top exports have become much more varied.

In 2019, the world’s top most exported products were; Crude oil (870.1 billion US$ worth), cars ($758.4 billion) and Integrated circuits ($720.5 billion).

38 maps that explain the global economy - Vox

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The advancement of technology in the last decade has been unimaginable. Economies all over the world are now moving into high tech industry, with the rise of areas’ sole focus being technology, such as Silicone Valley. It is this move into the quaternary and quinary sector that has allowed the countries holding the top percentage of global GDP, and more countries will have to make this transition too if they wish to compete, just as India is doing now. However, whilst tech, oil and automobile parts are the top three exported products, we can see from this figure that the global export trade is becoming more complex.

There are a few trends to note; Russia, the Middle East and South America are the main exporters of oil. These are the leading countries that make up the 15% of today’s global economy that is oil trade however, oil, the most exported product in the world, is exported by the largest number of countries (over 30) whom all split the wealth.

This suggests why none of the main oil countries make up a top percentage of the global GDP, as the profit is split. However, many LICs also contribute to the oil sector, which demonstrates it is not simply advanced economies dominating the export, as it is the case with electronics, (see blue on the figure).

It is very likely that technology could become the world’s most exported product for a number of reasons, one being that many developed countries are looking to move

towards renewable energy. This will decrease the demand for crude oil as fuel and instead increase the demand for the technology needed for renewables such as solar or wind power. The Covid-19 pandemic has also increased the world’s awareness and demand for technology, and many people have started to become familiar with it and the possibilities that it brings such as communication and the ability to work from home.

Technology is the way the future is headed, there is so much that it can do, from auto-driving cars to smart phones to virtual reality, and with China’s job sector moving into the quaternary sector and India’s growth of tech hubs such as Bangalore, we can expect a rise in technological advancement and many countries following suit.

However, as much as this figure appears to show that the global economy is diverse in terms of exports,

67.47% of the world’s GDP is generated from the same three products; oil, cars and integrated circuits.

Although with NICs like India, Brazil and Mexico growing and developing their economies at

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an increasing rate, it is possible that the contributors to the global economy will become much more diverse in the future, coming to include many new economies as well as the traditional, longstanding ones. In terms of exports, it is likely that diversity will increase too as the world moves away from the traditional oil and automobile parts and explores other possibilities such as technology. In the end, if diversity amongst the global economy increased, it would be more likely that other economies such as those in Africa or the Middle East will start to develop and participate in more trade as the market will become much more equal and opportunistic, rather than being narrow, dominated by one or two major economies, mass producing and consuming all the wealth.

Lee, KW. (2017) The Global Economy, A World Divided. http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/ the-global-economy-a-world-divided/ Inman, P. (2014) A Global economy divided into the good the bad and the ugly. https://www.theguardian.com/ business/economics-blog/2014/sep/01/ global-econony-output-eurozone-japan-ecb-quantative-easing https://www.vox. com/2014/8/26/6063749/38-maps-thatexplain-the-global-economy O’Neil, A. (2021) The twenty countries with the largest proportion of the global GDP based on PPP in 2020. https:// www.statista.com/statistics/270183/countries-with-the-largest-proportion-of-globalgross-domestic-product-gdp/ David, D. (2018) The Almighty Dollar.

Elliott & Thompson.

Covid-19: The regional impact across the UK

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t is undoubted that Covid-19 has had an impact across the globe. Studies so far suggest that this pandemic has impacted many regions in the UK to differing degrees socially and economically.

Whilst it is a public health issue,

Kiran what is important to recognise from a social and economic angle is the impact that it has had in different regions and on those families within those geographical areas. The extent to which regions and families are affected is crucial

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information for policymaking decisions that involve deciding the extent of financial and nonfinancial help required in both the short and long term.

How have people been affected?

People have been affected in many different ways, from mental health issues to the availability of services and food. Figure 1 shows that about 86% of people in each country and region of Britain said they had felt either stressed, anxious or worried about the future or that their mental health had become worse.

Mental Health Issues

distress did not affect all groups equally, with people in some demographic subgroups showing marked increases. Those groups most strongly linked to increased mental health distress included those associated with pre-existing health inequalities such as gender, age and low income. The ONS Survey states that approximately 86% of people in each country and region said they had felt stressed, anxious or worried about the future or that their mental health had

become worse. The information above shows the regional percentage of people who reported that their well-being had been impacted by stress or anxiety as a result of the coronavirus, country or region in April/May 2020.

Changes in adult mental health in the UK population before and during lockdown one (23 March 2020) is a significant area of concern for the Government.

Studies by Lancet (2020), which is one of the first national probability sample studies to track temporal changes in population mental health from before the Covid-19 pandemic and into the subsequent lockdown period, state that an overall increase in mental health distress in people aged 16 years and older in the UK compared with the previous year. The study showed that the increase in mental

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In addition to percentage regional differences, a study by RSA illustrates that large areas of the South West experience the greater difference in the rates of referral for physical tests, including high cholesterol and diabetes. Leaving these often treatable long-term physical conditions undiagnosed is a key risk factor in the overall health of local people.

Levels of worry and reasons for worrying Evident also across regions is a difference in the levels of worry and reasons for worrying across Great Britain. A study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2020 shows that across Great Britain, eight in 10 adults said they were somewhat worried or very worried about the effect that the pandemic was having on their life during April.

Regionally it was found that people in North East England felt most worried about the effect Covid-19 was having on their life. This varied from 76% in the East Midlands and in Scotland, to 87% in the North East.

Figure 2: ONS study indicates that people in the North East felt most worried of all countries and regions of Britain about the effect Covid 19 was having on their life.

Figure 3: Areas with overlapping vulnerability. The-Geography-of-theCOVID19-crisis-in-England-final.pdf (ifs.org.uk)

Added to this, Chronicle Live (2020) stated that nearly 400,000 people in the North East have been drinking more alcohol since the coronavirus outbreak – with the majority at levels likely to put their health at risk. This prompted a campaign from Balance which was launched across the North East called ‘Alcohol – Not The Answer’. This was necessary as a new survey for Alcohol Awareness Week (16-22 November) showed that four in 10 (41%) drinkers reported anxiety, stress or worry as a reason for drinking at least once in the past six months. This meant that nearly 740,000 people in the North East may have turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism (BalanceNorthEast 2020).

Access to groceries, medication and essentials The ONS 2020 study showed that around 12% of people struggled as they worried about not being able to make plans and 10% of people in each country and region said that their main concern was the use of transport or ability to get groceries, medication and essentials.

Statistics from this study show that West Midlands (43%) and East of England were the worst affected regions as they struggled the most of any region to get groceries and toiletries.

Scotland by comparison had the lowest figure of all at 33%.

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Vulnerability of families The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) 2020 state that different regions of the country will be vulnerable to the Covid-19 crisis in different ways. For example, health-related vulnerability, labourmarket vulnerability and/or family vulnerability. Although the study found that the overall relationship between different dimensions of vulnerability is weakly negative, some areas do look especially vulnerable in several dimensions.

Figure 3 illustrates this well, showing

areas of overlapping vulnerabilities.

Covid-19 has impacted people’s lives in many different ways across the UK to different extents.

Government challenge ahead The extents, with their differing degrees, have been illustrated in relation to economic, social and health issues. It is now for the Government to use this information to provide the correct amount of financial and non-financial help to differing regions accordingly. There is no doubt that the provision of help should be closely monitored and

frequently reassessed to ensure that no one region suffers more than it should. However, even with close monitoring, the Government faces an equally compelling challenge than simply providing the financial help required. There is much diversity of background and experience within the UK to provide the required assistance, even with the funding available. The Government will therefore need to consider this also. Overall, this is a huge challenge for the Government for the next ten years at least. There is no doubt that the impacts of such a pandemic will have long lasting effects through the lifetime of many generations to come.

References Bourquin B, Delestre I, Joyce R, Rasul I and Waters T(June 2020). The effects of coronavirus on household finances and financial distress. https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14908 Davenport A, Farquharson C, Rasul I, Sibieta L, Stoye G (2020). The geography of the COVID-19 crisis in England https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/The-Geography-of-the-COVID19-crisis-in-England-final.pdf Harris J P (May 2020). Coronavirus and the social impacts on the countries of regions of Britain: April 2020. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandwellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandthesocialimpactsonthecountriesandregionsofbritain/ april2020 Kelly M (11 November 2020). Stress of Covid-19 sees unhealthy boozing levels soar in North East https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/stress-covid-19-sees-unhealthy-19256527 Pierce M, Hope H, Ford T, Hatch S, Hotopf M, John A, Kontopantelis E, Webb R, Wessely S, McManus S, Abel K M (21 July 2020). Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal probability sample survey of the UK population https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2215-0366%2820%2930308-4 https://www.thersa.org/blog/2015/11/mental-health-outcomes-in-england--a-map-of-quiet-discrimination?gclid=CjwKCAiAtej9BRAvEiwA0UAWXojJlMyY9gKPtwH49qKOz1NiYHUuTHHEuWIu3I6cepoXt1fSWGQR8BoCleIQAvD_BwE

https://www.bma.org.uk/what-we-do/population-health/mental-health/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-mental-health-in-england http://www.balancenortheast.co.uk/

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Disclaimer – the information presented has been researched by the students, using a range of resources and online websites. The views expressed are their own but “this SWAY may contain copyrighted material; the use has not always specifically been authorized by the copy right owner – but used only for teaching purposes”.

Rewilding the wild What if Charles Darwin had been able not just to climb a foothill, but to soar through the heavens in one of the orbiting space shuttles? What would he have learned as he surveyed our planet from that altitude? As we travel through space, as we pass one dead planet after another, we look back on our Earth, a speck of life in an infinite void.

It is life itself, incomparably precious, that distinguishes us from the other planets. Of course, major changes in the earth’s climate and the environment have taken place in earlier centuries when the world’s population was a fraction of its present size.

The causes are to be found in nature itself. What we are now doing to the world, by degrading the land surfaces, polluting the waters, and adding greenhouse gases to the air at an unprecedented rate, is NEW. From a speech on the environment by Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, to the General Assembly of the United Nations, New York (8 November, 1989) A detailed SWAY was produced by Year 10 Habs Girls students investigating the importance of our ecosystem, the challenges it faces in modern day times as well as presenting manageable solutions to human induced problems. The overarching aim considers what will the future hold for our wildest environments?

Year 10 students – recognition for the below students and their vast efforts in producing this detailed, interactive platform for KS3.

Read some of the key themes and interesting pieces presented in the SWAY:

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Enhanced green house gas effect - what’s the issue?

Source: https://www.universetoday. com/83265/ enhanced-greenhouse-effect/

The enhanced greenhouse effect, sometimes referred to as climate change or global warming, is the impact on the climate from the additional heat retained due to the increased amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that humans have released into the earth’s atmosphere since the industrial revolution. Since the mid 1800’s the average concentration of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere has risen from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to just over 383 ppm in 2007, and methane from about 800 part per billion (ppb) to around 1790 ppb in 2008. While these changes represent only a very small change to the overall composition of the earth’s atmosphere, it is a significant change to its capacity to absorb and emit heat. The capacity for a gas to absorb long wavelength (Infrared) radiation and the length of time it spends in the atmosphere both impact its potential to act as a greenhouse gas.

The value of our rainforests Climate regulation - One way in which rainforests control the climate is by their water cycle, where they absorb water from the ground and release to the atmosphere as vapour. In fact, it is believed that the Amazonian forests alone store over half of the Earth’s rainwater! When the vapour is released in the form of swirling mists and clouds, rainforests continually recycle huge quantities of water, feeding rivers, lakes and irrigation systems. Another way in which rainforests control climate is when the plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when they respire, helping to reduce excess CO2 levels which is vital to control the world’s climate. This is because excess CO2 both absorbs and radiates heat.

Habitats - Most rainforests are structured in four layers: emergent, canopy, understory, and forest floor. Each layer has unique characteristics based on differing levels of water, sunlight, and air circulation and, they exist in an interdependent system (processes and species in one layer influencing those in another.) Tropical rainforests contain over 30 million species of plants and animals. That’s half of the Earth’s wildlife and at least two-thirds of its plant species and even more haven’t been discovered or identified.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels Rainforest Animals https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=nFJ_0JrKAWs A short podcast on birdwatching in the Amazon in Brazil! https://www.wildlifewilderness.com/archive/ podcast-amazon-dawn-in-the-rainforests-ofbrazil-microcast

The animals living in the emergent layer are generally quite small and include birds, bats, gliders, and butterflies. With so much food available, more animals live in the canopy than any other layer in the rainforest including thousands of insects, arachnids, birds and some mammals. Many take advantages of the dimly lit environment of the under canopy for camouflage making it home to many mammals, snakes, amphibians, bats, birds, and insects. Decomposers, such as termites, slugs, scorpions, worms, and fungi, thrive on the forest floor.

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The value of our oceans Oceans cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface and play a crucial role in absorbing up CO2 from the atmosphere. Estimates suggest that around a quarter of CO2 emissions that human activity generates each year is absorbed by the oceans. Overall, the oceans are thought to absorb around a third of the carbon dioxide emitted through anthropogenic activity. Why are carbon stores in oceans helpful? They keep the carbon in the ocean and out of the atmosphere, this is beneficial in many ways because it can control the climate, by controlling the climate you can get the advantages to solve many other problems like the ice caps melting. Are there any problems with this?

The sea can only absorb so much Carbon, the increase of carbon in the atmosphere can be explained in the video below. Although also bear in mind that the sea can hold 50 times as much carbon than the atmosphere!

As the amount of CO2 increases in sea, the ocean acidification also increases. A sharp decrease in pH creates havoc for marine creatures. Carbon dioxide in seawater leads not only to the formation of carbonic acid (which drives acidification), but also to usurping of carbonate ions from marine organisms such as lobsters, phytoplankton and corals. These organisms rely on carbonate ions to form their exoskeletons and shells that are crucial to their survival. Some of these animals form the foundation of the marine food web, therefore, their collapse would have dire consequences. This photo shows a before and after shot of the coral reefs as ocean temperatures rose by only two degrees. Two degrees is clearly all it takes to bleach the coral reefs and kill hundreds of marine lives. This alone shows the extreme sensitivity of our environment to even the smallest changes in carbon, temperature and other factors. Our climate is in constant danger and climate change is the most significant threat.

Climate changes effect of carbon stores in the ocean Colder waters can absorb more carbon; warmer waters can absorb less. So, a prevailing scientific view is that as the oceans warm, they will become less and less capable of taking up carbon dioxide. As a result, more of our carbon pollution will stay in the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming.

The future of the ocean as a carbon store...

The ocean will continue to absorb carbon through the coming years, this could lead to controlling the climate, but there will be a very negative impact on ocean ecosystems.

Source: https://viola.bz/sea-garden/

How much carbon dioxide are the oceans absorbing? - Geography Realm But the oceans have not always been a carbon sink.

Before the industrial era, the ocean was in fact a net source of CO2. However, the increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, driven by human-induced emissions are forcing the ocean to now absorb this gas.

According to researchers, the world’s oceans have absorbed over 90% of the extra atmospheric heat caused by humanbased greenhouse gasses. This number has changed as data from satellites, data banks, and other sources have been compiled.

Carbon dioxide continually flows into and out of the ocean.

The oceans store carbon for thousands of years, so most of the carbon dioxide coming out of the ocean within the equatorial pacific was previously in the atmosphere before the time of the industrial revolution.

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The importance of biodiversity Biodiversity is important because it provides the basis for ecosystems which support life on earth. The main ecosystems which allow life on earth to be preserved are forests, grasslands, deserts, tundra and freshwater. These sustain most of life on earth.

Biodiversity is crucial to the way in which ecosystems run because removing a characteristic of it specifically a keystone species - can make its job more difficult. The ecosystems that keep us here need to have as much biodiversity as possible in order to sustain the planet now and in future. These ecosystems can provide for us in many ways ranging from supplying us with sufficient oxygen, to providing freshwater resources, to equipping us with a range of crops. Human Dependency Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play. Healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters (whether they are natural or human-induced). At least 40% of the world’s economy and 80% of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources. If money is a measure, the services provided by ecosystems are estimated to be worth trillions of dollars. In addition, the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development and adaptive response to such new challenges as climate change. Around 75% of global food crops rely on animals and insects such as bees to pollinate them, but many of these pollinator populations are in decline. Millions of people also depend on biodiversity for their day-to-day livelihoods. This is particularly true for struggling communities in developing countries, who often turn to high-biodiversity ecosystems as their source of food, fuel, medicines and other products made from natural materials for their own use and as sources of income. Nature-related tourism is also a significant income generator for many countries as well. Ecosystems weakened by the loss of biodiversity are less likely to deliver those services, especially given the needs of an ever-growing human population.

Source - https://www.bioversityinternational.org/news/detail/ecosystem-services-and-sdgs-wheres-the-link/

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The problems The exhaustion of natural resources: The main impact of overpopulation is the unequal, unrestrained and unsustainable use of scarce resources. The planet has a limited capacity and capability of generating raw materials and each year this results in a natural resources deficit – the consumption of resources at a faster rate that the planet can generate them – is now reached earlier annually. Consequently, in developing countries, overpopulation causes rivalries between countries to control resources. Territorial conflicts over water supply are due in many cases to geopolitical tensions and in the past has ended in numerous wars. This is because there are too many people and the country and food stocks need to supply everyone but not every country is sufficient with only their resources. Some countries get imports from other developing nations such as food and grown crops, however with countries relying on this and each other, the regular transportation of exports creates problems for our environment and the atmosphere we are living in. The methods of transport of these goods are often releasing greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Every airplane flight produces greenhouse gases e.g. carbon dioxide, as a result from burning the fossil fuel. These gases contribute to global warming when released into the atmosphere.

Environmental degradation: unbridled use of natural resources, as well as growth in energy production from coal, oil and natural gas (fossil fuels) is having a negative impact on the planet. Consequences such as deforestation, desertification, extinction of animal and plant species, changes in the water cycle and the most direct consequence of all in the form of emissions of large quantities of greenhouse gases leading to warming of our planet.

Urban expansion: Although, urban expansion has its positives such as creating economic growth which is very valuable for a country financially in the long term, it has multiple negative consequences that are heavily affecting the environment. With the rapid increase of megacities (any city with a population of over 10 million people) over the past 80 years, a growth from only three megacities in 1960 to 36 in 2020, there has been a stark correlation with the rise in urbanisation. This is due to better job opportunities in cities and higher paying jobs, better education and easier access to services, which all provide as pull factors for people thinking of migrating to these megacities. However, with the benefits comes the costs; rapid urban growth has seen major problems arise including unplanned housing settlements in developing countries and the formation of slum villages with little to no access to facilities such as sewage treatment and water. These shanty towns are overcrowded, which contributes to the extreme spread of infections and are often classed as unsanitary.

Another environmental problem that comes with urbanisation is dealing with urban waste. Rubbish often goes to landfills and as urbanisation takes place, space is becoming more limited for waste and alternative sites need to be found as we are turning to the oceans as our rubbish bins.

As well as our cities becoming heavily populated, they are becoming more industrialised. This comes with many problems including one of the biggest threats to our environment, pollution. The health department in NYC estimates that each year pollution causes more than 3,000 deaths and 2,000 hospital admissions for lung and heart conditions. More than one billion people lack access to clean water and 2.4 billion don’t have adequate sanitation, putting them at a very high risk of contracting deadly diseases. Pollution does not only pose a threat to our health but effects the environment too. Pollution creates muddy landscapes, poisonous soils and waterways and kill plants and animals that are needed for food.

Urbanisation and industrialisation poses a huge threat to our environment, the only solution to stop the rapid degeneration of our planet is to find greener ways to live, such as more self-sustaining towns and villages, with access to their own food and water, without the need to import such large quantities.

Source: https://www.considerate-consumer. com/topics-to-com

Source: https://beefposter.blogspot.com/2020/10/effects-of -eating-beef-on-environment.html

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Source: https://climateimpactnews.com/ evidence/1630-global-warming-fact-morethan-half-of-all-industrial-co2-pollution-hasbeen-emitted-since-1988

Of all agricultural land in the U.S., 87% is used to raise animals for food. That’s 45% of the total land mass in the U.S. About 260 million acres of US forest have been cleared and cut down in order to create cropland to feed animals that are raised for food. The meat industry is directly responsible for 85% of all soil erosion in the U.S. More than 80% of the corn humans grow and more than 95% of the oats are fed to livestock. The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people - more than the entire human population on Earth. According to the World watch Institute, “Roughly two of every five tons of grain produced in the world is fed to livestock, poultry, or fish; decreasing consumption of these products, especially of beef, could free up massive quantities of grain and reduce pressure on land.” Further emissions are being let out when forests are purposely set on fire to burn and rot, leading to the release of carbon dioxide that was stored in the trees, leading to a higher concentration of carbon in our atmosphere.

Solutions Indigenous population tropical restoration – Brazil Indigenous people such as the Brazilian Indians have been living in the Amazon Rainforest for many years sustainably living off nature and the animals around them. There are a total of around 700 tribes living in the Amazon which includes 1,000,000 indigenous people altogether. 57.7% of Brazil is covered in indigenous Brazilian Indians all with their own language, culture and territory. Most villages settle by rivers and grow their own fruits and vegetables as well as hunting for animals such as buffalo.

Indigenous Brazilians have many threats such as a loss of land due to land-grabbing from ‘outsiders’ as well as mass deforestation - in 2020 11,088 km² of forest was cut down in the Amazon, leaving the tribes with ever decreasing shelters and resources. These tribes use the land for resources such as their wood, plants, oils and gases in the rainforest. Tribes are also significantly affected by climate change leading to regular forest fires in the Amazon; their land is continually being taken away, by humans as well as the environment, from them causing them to lose their villages and leading to thousands of unprotected families without a roof over their heads. An increase of deforestation in tribunal areas makes it more challenging for the Indigenous to survive as a species. This is an issue that needs to be addressed and dealt with as many animals and humans are finding it harder to survive. Aid needs to be given to these vulnerable and helpless people who lack the safety net of certain meals and shelters.

Source: https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-whereafforestation-is-taking-place-around-the-world /

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Source: https://www. kellogggarden.com/blog/

The Great Green Wall The Great Green Wall is Africa’s flagship initiative aimed at bringing back to life 8,000km of degraded landscapes in Africa. This plan not only tackles climate change and desertification, but also concentrates on drought, famine, conflict, migration, unemployment and poverty. Currently more than a decade in and roughly 15% underway, when completed the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet, 3 times the size of the Great Barrier Reef. Since the birth of the initiative in 2007, the many consequences of climate change (persistent droughts, lack of food, conflicts over dwindling natural resources) have started to be turned around, as the many kilometres of fertile land have provided crops and a business for local communities to trade and consequently earn a stable source of income. The Great Green Wall makes a vital contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (known as the SDGs) - a global agenda, which aims to achieve a more equitable and sustainable world by 2030. This initiative helps to grow sustainable energy, powering communities towards a brighter future and along the way encouraging and motivating other countries to cooperate and take a step in the right direction towards our future.

Future By 2100, the world’s population is projected to reach approximately between 15.6 billion and 7.3 billion, with annual growth of less than 0.1% – a steep decline from the current rate. Between 1950 and today, the world’s population grew between 1% and 2% each annum, with the total global population rising from 2.5 billion to more than 7.7 billion. While in some regions the world population is likely to continue to grow rapidly for the coming decades, other regions will begin to see declining population numbers. Improving health is increasing the size of the population due to decreasing mortality rates. The global population growth rate has already slowed down considerably: reaching its peak at over 2% in the late 1960s and has since been falling.

Global Agreements The Paris Agreement is an agreement signed in 2016 within the United Nations Framework Convention to tackle this issue at hand, climate change. This agreement will allow members to work together to provide solutions to problems that we now face, due to previous over consumption and production of greenhouse gases such as; climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. As of February 2021, 191 members of the UNFCCC are members of this agreement, the only major emitters are Iran and Turkey (each with over 1% of the worlds total green house gas emissions). The United States withdrew from the agreement in 2020 under Donald Trumps’ Presidency, but officially re-joined on 19 February 2021 following the inauguration of President Biden; as the US is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world. It is key that the US are involved to strengthen the effectiveness of the agreement as well as to encourage other nations that haven’t yet joined to rethink their decisions. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/ aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkczIuZmVlZGJ1cm 5lci5jb 20vdGVkdGFsa3NfYXVkaW8 /episode/ZW4uYX VkaW8udGFsay 50ZWQuY29tOjczMzQ3?hl=en -GB&ved=2ah UKEwiPzr_G17DvAh XUoFwKHZ72DVcQjrk EegQIBBAK&ep=6

Source: https://www.statista.com/ chart/9656/the-state-of-the-paris -agreement

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2020 HEADLINES Jared and Neeve

JANUARY

- United Kingdom formally withdraws from the European Union (Brexit).

The United Kingdom left the EU on the 31 January. This ends a 47-year saga of relations from when Edward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party signed the Treaty of Accession to join.

There were four years of intense negotiations spanning three prime ministers, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

One of the major consequences of Brexit is the impact on trade.

EU membership reduces trade costs and tariffs making it cheaper for the UK to consume goods and services and also allows businesses to export more. In terms of immigration, a significant topic during the referendum, a new system will be implemented. The system means that everyone who enters the UK will be subject to the UK’s immigration requirements.

This contrasts with when the UK were in the EU and there was freedom of movement from countries in the EU to the UK.

FEBRUARY

More than 30 bushfires put out by heaviest rainfall for 30 years in New South Wales, Australia, helping end one of the worst bushfire seasons ever, 46 million acres burnt, over one billion animalskilled, 34 people dead.

After record breaking temperatures and severe drought in Australia, massive bushfires took hold in New South Wales and Victoria. At least 33 people were killed including four firefighters and over 11 million hectares of bush and forest were burned. Australians were hugely affected with the fires destroying over 2000 homes causing major relocation. Even after the majority of the fires were put out, the smoke became a major hazard meaning Canberra saw some of the worst smoke pollution with the air quality rate the third worst of all major global cities. The smoke didn’t stay in Australia and travelled nearly 7000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to South America.

The smoke also creates its own climate in its area of effect creating clouds called pyrocumulonimbus which can lead to thunderstorms, lightning and downbursts.

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MARCH

African American Breonna Taylor shot and killed by police officers executing a no-knock warrant on her flat with a battering ram in Louisville, Kentucky.

The death of Breonna Taylor sparked protests around the world to demand that the officers involved where criminally charged since they had not been previously.

A combination of this killing as well as the George Floyd incident in May where shocking footage revealed the killing of an African American man by a policeman led to the worldwide knowledge and support of Black Lives Matter (BLM). Brett Hankinson, killer of Breonna Taylor, has since been charged with ‘wanton endangerment’ instead of murder whilst the other two officers have not been charged. This murder was the start of a huge change in societal understanding and learning about the prejudice towards black people in America and globally.

APRIL

New study shows western Antarctica once swampy with temperate forests 9383 million years ago during Cretaceous period, according to Alfred Wegener Institute.

90 million years ago, the South Pole had a much warmer climate than today at around 12 degrees Celsius. This is based on soil samples from the mid-Cretaceous period. It was established that there was no ice sheet and instead a swampy landscape where rainforests grew similar to the ones found in New Zealand.

Subsequently, a frog fossil has been found in Antarctica further supporting the argument that it was previously a swamp.

Scientists have found evidence of giant amphibians in Antarctica during the Triassic period, 200 million years ago. This more recent fossil shows that climate was more like that in the Andes, Chile because that is where the frog’s closest relatives live.

JUNE

MAY

Greenhouse gas emissions dropped 17% worldwide in April 2020 when world was in lockdown, in study published in “Nature Climate Change”.

Covid-19 forced many countries to seal borders, scale back economic activity and go into strict lockdowns. During this period, there was evidence that daily global carbon dioxide emissions dropped 17% compared to 2019s daily averages. Making up 43% of the full decrease came from reduced traffic congestion on the roads as fewer buses, cars and trucks were travelling. This was a larger impact in the more developed countries since motor vehicles are much more common and used more often. Surprisingly, the decline in air travel only made of small portion of the dropped emission since air travel normally only accounts for 2.8% of global carbon emissions.

In a period that was so hard for everyone involved, some positives did arise with this being one of the major positive impacts.

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Former astronaut Kathy Sullivan is the first woman to reach deepest point of the ocean - Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench. Formerly the first American woman to spacewalk.

On 6 June, Kathy Sullivan travelled seven miles under the surface of the Pacific Ocean in a submarine made out of titanium.

They descended at 1m/s in order to adapt to the increasing pressure on the submarine each time they submerged further. The pressure at the bottom of the trench is 1086 bars which is over 1000 times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. Due to her past as an astronaut, she not only becomes the first woman to visit Challenger Deep but also to travel 250 miles above the Earth’s surface and seven miles below.

SEPTEMBER Moria Refugee Camp, Europe’s biggest migrant camp, burns down.

JULY

AUGUST

China launches its first mission to Mars.

Catastrophic explosion in Beirut, Lebanon.

In the early hours of the 23 July 2020, China launched its first ever three-part mission to Mars.

Consisting of three spacecrafts built to help to further explore and discover beneath the red planet’s surface, this mission will continue to investigate the planet, lasting into 2021. With China being the only other successful country to land a mission on Mars apart from the US, they have managed to catapult themselves ahead in the space race, catching up to missions only NASA has mastered. The more countries that make it to Mars, the more we will discover from it. 2021 is expected to be exciting times for the space race.

On the 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate exploded in the port of the city or Beirut, in Lebanon. The ammonium nitrate, which is commonly used in fertilizers, was said to be stored unsafely which led to the deadly explosion. The already fragile population, which is facing civil unrest and an ongoing socio-economic crisis, plus having to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, struggled severely with the damage. The blast had catastrophic effects on the population, killing nearly 200, injuring near 7000, and making over 300’000 people homeless.

However, many organizations such as the WHO are working with the city to help them recover, providing support as well as financial help.

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On the 9 September 2020, the largest refugee camp in Greece was burnt down. It is unclear what started the fires, although it is thought that this was not an accident but arson induced by rising tensions in the camps. The supposed arsonists had taken advantage of stronger winds to spread the deadly fire across nearly the entire camp, leaving 13000 migrants without shelter.

The destroyed camp, which was only designed for 3000 migrants but had been posing as shelter for over 13000, left thousands of migrants fleeing into nearby towns.

Sadly, the Greek authorities had to block off roads to prevent the spread of Covid-19 which had been found in the camp, from spreading to the rest of Greece, which meant many migrants were trapped. This fire was a strong reminder of the ongoing refugee crisis that we still need to tackle.

OCTOBER

DECEMBER

China states that it will be carbon neutral by 2060.

Chinese president Xi Jinping told the UN general assembly that China will reach carbon neutrality by 2060, and is set to reach a carbon peak in the next decade, (meaning that after this China’s CO2 levels will drop). Under the Paris Climate agreement, Jinping will move into what he calls a ‘green recovery’ where he will adopt more vigorous policies and tax on carbon after the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a game changer now that China, one of the worst CO2 emitters in the world, has a clear plan for moving away from carbon. Many countries are expected to follow suit as we all work towards reducing our carbon footprint.

UN chief urges world leaders to declare climate emergency before the Paris Agreement’s 5th anniversary.

NOVEMBER

Joe Biden becomes the US’s 46th president.

The result of the US 2020 elections came in at the end of November, with Joe Biden being voted in as America’s 46th President. Donald Trump, the former president, was defeated by an extra 74 electoral college votes from Biden that meant he had to step down from the White House. The vote was originally close with it looking like Trump had the majority, however when Pennsylvania’s votes finally came in, the vote swung and brought Biden to victory. Along with Biden, Kamala Harris, the US’s first ever female, African/ Asian American vice president entered the White House. This is a feat that will not be forgotten in History.

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“Can anyone still deny that are facing a dramatic emergency?” said Antonio Guterres on the 12 December at the Climate Ambition Summit. five years after the launch of the Paris Climate Agreement, 38 countries have already declared a state of emergency and have started working stopping the impacts of the climate breakdown.

However, Guterres is urging all other countries to follow in this state of emergency, requiring countries to step up their actions on greenhouse gas emissions immediately. Many countries have a target to reach net carbon zero by 2050, but very few have a detailed plan on how to actually get there. Although, with superpower China and world’s worst emitter setting a good example with its new action plan for carbon emissions, it is likely that we will start to see more countries lead the way in working towards green peace.

Journal Review:

A tale of two seas Ben and Ria

O

c e a n o g r a p h e r Professor Tom Rippeth has dedicated his academic life to the study and conservation of our oceans, and his excellent work has inspired this review. In his presentation, Professor Rippeth focuses on two recent environmental disasters involving our oceans – the Aral Sea (or rather lack of) and the retreating Arctic ice sheets. Both of these crises have certainly been exacerbated, if not caused, by human activity in recent years,

and will continue to deteriorate in the future, if no significant actions are taken.

Located on the Border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland sea worldwide, spanning 68,000 km2, but since 1960, has seen a 60% reduction in surface area and an 80% reduction in volume. The Aral drainage basin encompasses nine countries, thus contains hundreds of significant tributaries,

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notably the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which carry snow melt from mountainous areas. These tributaries previously balanced natural rates of evaporation and maintained a healthy water level but recently, unregulated and inefficient human interference has caused this fragile equilibrium to shift. In order to cope with an increasing population in the region, many of these tributaries have been diverted away from the Aral Sea and towards settlements where the water has agricultural,

industrial and personal uses, most notably as irrigation for cotton crops. Effectively, these canals act as distributaries and are outputs from the basin, yet there are no additional inputs to compensate. Inevitably, as more artificial diversions have been built alongside a constant evaporation rate, water levels have steadily fallen.

As the Basin dried up, the composition of its contents changed too – ionic salts dissolved in the water require high temperatures for evaporation compared to water, so the salts remain in solution whilst the water evaporates.

This increases the salinity of the water, having severe impacts on the marine life/ local ecosystem.

All signs of marine life had died out in the lake long before the water had dried up, resulting in severe consequences for local fisherman, who found themselves unable to make a living off the previously plentiful

Orlova et al (1998). In: S. Bruk, D. Keyser, J. Kutscher and V. Moustafaev (Eds) Ecological Research and Monitoring of the Aral Sea Deltas: A Basis for Restoration, pp. 95-137. UNESCO, Aral Sea Project 1992-1996. Final Scientific Results. Paris. supply of fish.

The basin’s size makes it hard to regulate – no one country can enforce change unless the eight others agree to it. This is unlikely because economically, the diverted water has sizeable monetary value compared to the Aral Sea, which can be hundreds of miles from the countries that drain its tributaries and

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therefore seem insignificant/ not their problem. There are strong links to the issues surrounding the construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia, where less water would be allowed into downstream Sudan and Ethiopia, causing drought in the area and reduced crop yields.

Many people in the countries surrounding the Aral Sea were

heavily dependent on the natural environment, so the unexpected loss of this environment was devastating. In the 1960’s, 1/6 of all fish consumed by the Soviet Union population was from here, and many of the locals relied on artisanal fishing. Due to the increase in river salt levels, these fish populations died and people were unable to support their families. When cotton and rice farming became popular, the 1/3 of the river water feeding the basin was diverted in order to irrigate and flood fields.

This meant the evaporation levels exceeded the water input and caused the surrounding deltas, the most fertile land, to dry out.

As a result of the pesticides used in cotton farming, the water became polluted and many people lost access to clean drinking water. There was an increase in diseases and death, especially child mortality from respiratory diseases. However, the Aral sea is slowly beginning to recover, due to investments from the world bank and national governments towards a more stable dam. The climate crisis, doesn’t just affect physical environments, people around the world have been affected by the indirect impacts.

The second, arguably more pressing environmental disaster is that of retreating ice in the Arctic.

Due to unusually high concentration of rivers in Northern Asia (mainly Russia) and Canada, including the Mackenzie river in the Northern Territory, the Arctic receives vast amounts of freshwater and is the

freshest ocean worldwide. It is important to recognise natural seasonal variations in coverage and thickness of sea ice, but also to understand that long-term, there is a clear decline.

The Arctic and our weather are connected by the Jet Stream, a high altitude fast wind which ‘wanders’ latitudinally throughout the year, causing differences in pressure thus inducing weather across much of the Northern Hemisphere. This movement of the Jet stream has been shown to be linked to shrinking ice, epitomising the direct effect that shrinking ice has on us, despite the distance that separates us.

Between 1980 and 2005, the average thickness of the sea ice in Autumn almost halved, especially at the outermost extremities of the Arctic. This has changed the Albedo of the ice, resulting in much less reflection of incoming short-wave radiation and more absorption. These are re-emitted as infra-red radiation, warming the atmosphere via the enhanced greenhouse effect.

However, for six months each year, the Arctic sees virtually no sun due to the tilt of the earth yet there is a near constant melting during this period which begs the question – where is the heat coming from?

The answer lies deep below the

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ice, in vast networks of deep ocean currents which leaves some water as hot as 2 degrees celsius 500 meters down. However, until now, this warmer water was shielded from the surface ice by a layer of cold freshwater (<500m) thus had little/ no effect on the ice.

This warm salty water is supplied by the deep Atlantic basin, which transports water from nearer to the equator. Also, the mid-Atlantic ridge is volcanically active so this deep water is unusually warm. The elevated salt content in the water is in part caused by the salt ions leaving the water upon freezing -salt water cannot freeze to form salty ice, only ice and salt in their separate states. This saltier water is more dense so sinks below the layer of fresher water, usually settling below 200 meters, below the Arctic Halocline and creating a salinity and temperature gradient between the ice and the deeper ocean, which is warmer and saltier.

Tom and his colleagues at the University of Bangor have conducted numerous expeditions to the Arctic, notably four between 2007 and 2013, to better understand this vast, interconnected system and its influence over us. Warming seas caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect has fuelled an unprecedented change across the Arctic which shows no signs of slowing down unless significant change is enforced by governments – sanctions on the perpetrators (whether they be corporations or countries) and investment into renewables, with an emphasis on sustainability, should be prioritised.

References https://www.rgs.org/geography/onlinelectures/a-tale-of-two-seas-professor-tomrippeth/ https://www.quora.com/What-are-thefactors-that-lead-to-the-shrinkage-of-thearal-sea https://slideplayer.com/slide/7090555/ https://www.climate.gov/news-features/ understanding-climate/climate-changeminimum-arctic-sea-ice-extent

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Geography of Lockdown Kellen and Sarina

D

uring lockdown, with our exercise being limited to one hour a day, many people have found themselves taking advantage of the nature on their doorstep that may have been overlooked in our past, hectic

lifestyles. Exploring England’s rural countryside and scenery has helped many with their mental health, with the relative peace and tranquillity offering a quiet escape from the pressure of lockdown.

Such confinement to our natural

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dwelling has given us a greater appreciation of the environment, and a shift in attitude to be more in the present.

Credit: Felix Zombory-Moldovan Throughout the first two months of lockdown, “clap for carers” became a signature moment on Thursday evenings at 8pm. Members of the

British public came together and clapped outside their front doors, in order to show appreciation for the NHS staff, carers and other

Source: The Guardian

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health workers who worked on the front line protecting those who had been badly affected by Covid-19.

A picture taken in San Sebastian, Northern Spain

While lockdown has been hard for many, this picture from Northern Spain could be seen as a symbol of hope - a symbol of light at the end of the tunnel. Being confined to our homes for such a long period of

time has been tough, with severe strains being put on our mental health as our social contact has been restricted. Hopefully now we can see that while the journey has been long, it is nearly over, and we

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can live in the assurance that life will soon return to normality.

Source: Forbes

Geography has played a very important role in the fight against Covid-19 through Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Using data has been a key component for scientists understanding the

spread of Covid-19 across the globe. This image from The Johns Hopkins University shows the initial spread of Covid-19 across the world as of 5 March 2020. It illustrates how the initial outbreak

of the virus was in Mainland China, but then spread into Europe and America, with countries such as Italy being badly hit during the initial stages of the pandemic.

inner city areas proving to be a popular destination for many, as they enjoyed the unseasonal warm weather that greeted us during spring 2020. However, during the warmer months, overcrowding of

green spaces led to the closure of some local parks, as well as some tourist hotspots such as the Lake District National Park.

Source: The Guardian This image shows East London’s Victoria Park on a sunny April day where temperatures rose into the mid-20 degrees Celsius at their peak. During lockdown many people flocked to local parks, with

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New Delhi. 3 November 2019 (before lockdown)

Source: Staff/Reuters/Newscom New Delhi. 30 March 2020 (during lockdown)

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Source: European Space Agency

During 2020 the India Gate served as an image to show the positive environmental effects that lockdown has had. A sustained period of human inactivity, with a reduction in industry and transport, meant that air pollution fell in many major cities during corona virus lockdowns. There was a significant drop in traffic related emissions, particularly nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and particulates. New Delhi has consistently been one of the most polluted cities in the world with the first image demonstrating the clear extent that the smog had

on the city’s landscape. However, during its national lockdown New Delhi experienced the greatest fall in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) of 60% from 2019 levels. This meant that photographers were finally able to appreciate the India Gate in its finest light, with significantly less smog present in the air, giving way to what is a truly extraordinary feature. On the other hand, ozone levels actually increased during lockdown, because nitrogen oxides would usually remove some ozone from the atmosphere by reacting with it. This meant that the health

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benefits brought by a decrease in nitrogen dioxide were offset by an increase in ozone levels.

This lockdown proves cleaner air is possible but shows just how complex and challenging it will be to achieve. These changes brought about by lockdown were also relatively small scale and short lived as air quality rapidly deteriorated again in the autumn and winter months during India’s pollution season. This indicates that a great deal more must be done to tackle air pollution and climate change.

Source: Mind/the mental health emergency

The effects Covid-19 and lockdown have taken a huge toll on the nation’s mental health, with the number of people experiencing severe mental illnesses increasing Royal College of Psychiatrists).

Mental health has often been

overlooked in the past but is now becoming of increasing global concern with a mental health crisis on the horizon. During lockdown certain groups have been affected disproportionately; young adults (18-24) and vulnerable groups, such as people will pre-existing mental health issues, people experiencing social deprivation and people with disabilities, have been hardest hit.

Regional differences in how lockdown has affected mental health highlight the impact that

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socio-economic factors have. The South-West of England, where one in 10 people previously worked in food and hospitality, has been the hardest hit by Covid job losses according to ‘Orka’, and the unemployment rate has risen from 3.1% at the start of 2020 to 3.8% in September 2020. This has resulted in people in the South West of England feeling the most worried.

Photo by Aslıhan Altın on Unsplash

Journal Review:

I am Greta Charlie and Nicola

G

reta Thunberg, a sixteenyear-old climate activist, has powerfully shared her views on climate change and what she believes needs to be done before our actions become irreversible.

This documentary outlines the key issues of climate change, following the battle of a resilient key activist rallying for a system change and a better future. ‘I am Greta’ follows Greta’s story from her first protest, displaying the struggles she faces when exposed to the media, as well as how factors such as her Asperger’s has enabled her to be the activist she is today.

Arguably, a significant factor that has allowed Greta to become

such a leading activist over other environmentalists, is her Asperger’s. In this documentary, Greta’s family explains how her autism allows her to notice more details and have ‘laser focus’ on topics that she’s interested in, in this case, climate change. With a photographic memory, she is able to read and recall details about climate change more easily which is practical for interviews, conferences and protests.

Because of Greta’s Asperger’s, acknowledging the suffering that species and habitats face has had huge effects on her. She spoke about how watching starving polar bears on television was so awakening for her, that she fell

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into a depression and experienced anxiety as a result of her concern about climate change. Greta reflects that her Asperger’s has allowed her to have a clear outlook on what needs to be done and ‘[sees] the climate issue in black and white’, which has been very important in her journey, she feels like ‘it would be good if everyone had a bit of Asperger’s’ so we aren’t as ‘distracted’ by other factors and instead see the issue of climate change as clearly as she does.

Greta has taken substantial action in an effort to encourage others to think more about how their behaviours are affecting the planet.

Her first climate strike in 2018 was

a lonely event, but gained such a following that just a year later in September 2019, over seven million people were involved in protesting about climate change. Greta has made a defying choice, her aim to make politicians think twice about their actions and improve the climate situation as it stands today. To Greta’s annoyance, she continues to feel as though she needs to repeat herself to force others to take action. Greta speaks out stating that ‘for more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear’ and that they can ignore her, but not the science. At present, ‘we are living as if we had several earths’. As part of a reflection towards this, Greta set out to sail for two weeks, avoiding contribution to aviation emissions, to the climate summit conference in America. The aim was to prove that she ‘isn’t a person that says something and does something else’ and to also show that living sustainably in the 21st century is possible. Some of Greta’s ideology may be unrealistic as with easier ways of travel, it would be hard to change the way people transport themselves to the extent of sailing instead of flying, for the sake of the environment.

However, vast admiration can be awarded to Greta, in that her efforts to speak boldly were mocked in the media yet despite this, she still strives to encourage others to speak up about climate change and to take action; some may even say she’s the activist our generation has been waiting for.

Within the documentary it is demonstrated how Greta speaks frankly, she often criticizes the relaxed approach taken by governments and politicians to the climate crisis. She accuses them of using the climate change crisis as a way of gaining popularity, and promising change for the future, but in the end, they make few changes, and whilst the crisis gets worse, “all they can talk about is money”. At points it feels as though she is in a battle with what she

describes as the selfish desires of the politicians, who “promise to improve but never do”. We use 100 million barrels of oil each day, but there are no policies to prevent consumption, despite knowing the detrimental effects it is having on the environment. This is something Greta cannot change, but she fights and protests because there are people who can help but refuse to do so. She highlights her fight is not about her personally, but for the future of the planet and begs the politicians to

“ignore me but not the science”.

Furthermore, she mocks them for “all coming to us young people for hope. How dare you.” Greta likes to make a point of how this climate mess has been created by an older generation, yet it is being left for the youth to clean up. A message like this shows the strength she has to stand up to the politicians who, in her words, ‘are too arrogant or scared to make change’, and now the burden has fallen on the young population. She makes the point that “humanity sees nature as this giant bag of candy, that we can just take as much as we want”, which associates this almost childish image with the selfish actions of governments and politicians, who overconsume the limited resources that there is access to on earth. Overall, you can admire the determination to take leadership in the battle to solve climate change, but similarly, as she puts it, it is something “I don’t want to have to do”, because it is something governments should be taking responsibility for.

A further point that Greta addresses is that many people do not understand the severity of the crisis that we are facing, mainly due to lack of information, or misleading information that has led to false opinions. One segment of the documentary shows a collection of

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clips of news channels and world leaders, such as Trump and Putin, offering false information about the climate crisis, which would lead to potentially millions of people forming views about the crisis that simply are not true, and as a result there is no urgency in the response to fixing the problem. It is hard not feel some sympathy towards Greta whilst watching people such as the former president, Trump, talk about climate change as “a very expensive hoax”, because no matter how hard she tries, there will always be people who deny that there is a climate crisis and refuse to listen to her or the science. She says it “feels like I’m speaking a completely different language… Is the microphone on?

Is my English ok?”. A statement such as this shows us that people do not understand the extent of the crisis, it is something she can see in “black and white”, whilst those she speaks to cannot or will not understand it. As highlighted previously, she wants to take action because “if you deal with the crisis intime, rather than waiting, the problems won’t get as big”, and a sense of urgency from people in power would allow this to happen.

Overall, Greta’s fight for a better future is one that has gained global attention, and with the determination and passion for fixing the climate crisis, she has drawn attention to and started conversations around the world on this matter. Her Asperger’s has allowed her to focus and act, whereas others probably would not have. The attention she has brought to the climate crisis is backed up by her own actions, such as her infamous sail across the Atlantic to a UN conference.

The documentary allows an insight into her story from the start and the responsibility she has taken from little actions to large ones, in addressing the future of our planet.

The Habs Geographical Committee We would like to thank the Habs Geographical committee for their hard work and dedication to this edition. The team have produced high quality and wide-ranging geographical articles touching on a range of issues related to the theme of diversity and change. They have worked collaboratively, even during the remote learning phase of school life. We commend their positive and proactive attitude and hope you enjoyed their articles.

Special thanks, Mrs Edwards and Mrs McCarthy

Ben

Callum

Charlie

Faiz

Jared

Joel

Kellen

Kiran

Rayyaan

Neeve

Nicola

Ria

Sarina