missmarksgeographyblog

Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Kabul- soon to be megacity-

Kabul; the world's 5th fastest growing city-

Afghan shoppers throng the Mandave market area in downtown Kabul.

The edges of Kabul are spreading ever outwards.

A boy helps make bricks for new apartment blocks next to Aria City, a gated high-end residential complex.

The home of the gorilla under threat from oil exploration?

Should they destroy the Virungas for oil?

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s prime minister has said that his government wants to find a way to explore for oil in the Virunga national park, a Unesco world heritage site , and will engage in negotiations with the UN body to “explore judiciously”.

Virunga, Africa’s oldest and most biodiverse park, has been on the list of ‘world heritage in danger’ since 1994, as two decades of armed conflict and intense poaching by militias has taken its toll on the park’s ecosystem.

In 2007, the Congolese ministry of hydrocarbons awarded two oil concessions straddling Virunga’s boundaries to the French major Total, as well as Soco International, a British oil company registered on the London Stock Exchange.

While Total quickly agreed to never explore within the current limits of the park – even in the event of a boundaries change – Soco has carried out exploratory activities in Virunga, concluding a seismic study in July 2014. The company said it will hand over the results of the seismic survey to the Congolese government in coming months.

The newly installed Congolese Conservation authority Hydro-electric plant in its finishing stages, on August 8, 2013 in Mutsora. This plant employs water drawn from natural flow and it will provide electricity for the industry in Mutsora, a town of over 30 000 people. Mutsora is in the "Block V" area of Virunga National Park. UK company Soco International PLC is planning to explore for oil in DRC's Virunga National Park, a protected World Heritage Site and most biodiverse park in Africa.

Ever heard of a pangolin? If you haven't you better hurry! or you never will!!!1

The unique animal the Pangolin which looks like a dinosaur but isn't, has been declared the world's most hunted animal.

Pangolins are mammals with scales, of the genus <em>Manis</em> in the family <em>Manidae</em>. Their closest relatives are anteaters, armadillos and sloths. These two will end up on a dinner table in Gunagzhou, southern China, one of the areas of the world where their flesh is considered a delicacy.

Pangolins are mammals with scales, of the genus <em>Manis</em> in the family <em>Manidae</em>. Their closest relatives are anteaters, armadillos and sloths. These two will end up on a dinner table in Gunagzhou, southern China, one of the areas of the world where their flesh is considered a delicacy.

Poachers across Indonesia sell critically endangered live pangolins to middlemen for $28 (£18.70) to $31 per kilo; the average size of a pangolin is six to seven kg.

Many have fallen victim to poachers, whoi sell them for around £19 a kg.

Way of life of Pacific islanders being lost to climate change

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/09/losing-paradise-the-people-displaced-by-atomic-bombs-and-now-climate-change

A young girl crosses the lagoon at high tide to get some water for her family, who live on a thin strip of sand that gets cut off from the main island every high tide.

A young girl crosses the lagoon at high tide to get some water for her family, who live on a thin strip of sand that gets cut off from the main island every high tide.

A boy swims next to his house in Temwaiku. Pollution is a huge issue in South Tarawa with virtually non-existent hard waste management, and here more rubbish is deposited with the tide each day.

Some of the people living in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati have been displaced from their homes due to American nuclear testing sites, now they are threatened by climate change.

See the story in pictures here

Thursday, 12 March 2015

ISIS are not the only ones destroying important landscapes

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2015/mar/12/isis-are-not-the-only-ones-committing-great-acts-of-vandalism

An area of the Amazon rainforest which has been slashed and burned stands next to a section of virgin forest, as seen from a police helicopter during the ‘Hileia Patria’ operation against sawmills and loggers who trade in illegally extracted wood from the Alto Guama River indigenous reserve in Nova Esperanca do Piria, in Para State, 29 September 2013. T

An area of the Amazon rainforest which has been slashed and burned stands next to a section of virgin forest, as seen from a police helicopter during the ‘Hileia Patria’ operation against sawmills and loggers who trade in illegally extracted wood from the Alto Guama River indigenous reserve in Nova Esperanca do Piria, in Para State, 29 September 2013. T

A Ka'apor Indian warrior stands near a burning logging truck in the Alto Turiacu Indian territory, near the Centro do Guilherme municipality in the northeast of Maranhao state in the Amazon basin, August 7, 2014. Tired of what they say is a lack of sufficient government assistance in keeping loggers off their land, the Ka'apor Indians, have sent their warriors out to expel all loggers they find and set up monitoring camps in the areas that are being illegally exploited.

Marshall islands under threat?

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/11/climate-change-in-the-marshall-islands-and-kiribati-before-and-after-interactive

climate change in the Marshall Islands
Kiribati-Marshall-Islands

Mali musicians protecting their music right at all costs

http://www.theguardian.com/news/video/2015/mar/03/mali-musicians-they-will-have-to-kill-us-first-video

All music was banned in northern Mali in 2012 by Islamist militants. But musicians such as Khaira Arby refused to accept it. The last two years have seen a collective of musicians taking Mali's rich musical heritage on a grand Caravan of Peace – an offshoot of Mali's famous Festival in the Desert. Created to celebrate Music Freedom Day, this short film is a companion to the feature length documentary They Will Have to Kill us First. Can the musicians of Mali rescue their music in exile? Featuring music from Songhoy Blues, Khaira Arby, Vieux Farka Touré and Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)