Live Earth

Today a series of Live Earth concerts have taken place at 9 locations around the world. Live Earth is a 24 hour concert series which is set to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis. It is marking the beginning of a multi-year campaign “led by the Alliance for Climate protection, The Climate Group and other international organisations to drive individuals, corporations and governments to take action to solve global warming”. Find out more about Live Earth here.

Madonna, inspired by the Climate Change campaign has written a new song called “Hey You” especially for the Live Earth event. She is playing at the Wembley Stadium concert. The video for Hey You can be viewed here (please note as this is hosted on YouTube it will not show in school)

News of the concerts can be followed here:

• Concerts promote climate message
• In Pictures: Live Earth Concerts

Australia is suffering from its worst drought ever!

Australia is currently suffering from its worst drought on record. In the Murray Darling Basin (the main irrigation area of Australia) it is reported that unless sufficient rain falls in the next 6-8 weeks there will not be any water allocations for irrigation until May 2008. The two main rivers supplying the area are at such low levels there will soon only be enough water to meet supplies of drinking water. The drought has already had a massive impact on farmers with milk yields already down and many farms are facing ruin unless there is significant rainfall soon, a threat that is becoming increasingly real with this weeks warning that irrigation to prime farmland will have to be cut unless the rains come soon. Already many rivers have been reduced to a trickle and water restrictions have been put in place in many urban areas.

You can read more about this in this excellent article from the Independent “Australia’s epic drought: the situation is grim”

Also have a look at these amazing (and very worrying!) photographs of the drought situation from the Guardian which give a real sense of what the current problem is!

For more detailed information sources on this see the Advanced Extension Blog.

Climate Change around the World

With climate change being a very real issue and one which is consistently in the news, this is a topic area which you should ensure you are fully aware of in preparation for the exams. This excellent article from the BBC looks at the impacts of climate change around the world. It focuses not only on the impacts of climate change in specific areas of the world, but also considers the impacts on water, ecosystems, food, coasts, industry and health. The site is well worth exploring through clicking on the interactive map and can be accessed by clicking here or on the map above.