The Future of Renewable Energy

A very interesting article by the BBC about a colossal solar energy plant in Morocco. The technology used in solar power is far cheaper than it once was and is, as a result, price competitive with oil. Consequently vast power plants, like the one written about at Ouarzazate, could be common across the Middle East and Africa, making the region a net exporter of energy.

Read more from the BBC on the link below

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161129-the-colossal-african-solar-farm-that-could-power-europe

The Environment: 6 things students and teachers can do to help

Last week I shared a link to the environmental documentary film, Before the Flood. The film left me, and others I spoke to, a little flat. It all seems so hopeless.

It is important to not give up but to take action. Even small steps will help. Recently form 2 have been thinking about how staff and pupils at KTJ can make a difference.

Without formerly studying environmental issues, I challenged them to go away and create a slides presentation suggesting ways that their friends and teachers can reduce their impact on the environment.

All of the class receive EAL support yet, despite a few grammar issues, they were able to come up with some very insightful and inspirational ideas. These can be summarised as...

1. Think about what you eat
2. Use your phone less!
3. Reduce, reuse and recycle paper
4. Return unnecessary items
5. Turn off lights when leaving a room
6. Carpool

Below is an unedited collection of their best slides. I think you will agree, they have given us all something to think about.

Before the Flood - Full film

Click below to watch Before The Flood the full feature length documentary film about global waning. 

It stars Leonardo Di Caprio and is available for free. For geographers it is a must watch. It gives a clear break-down of the causes and consequences of man made global warming. Filmed as the Paris Climate Deal was signed, it gives a frank account of where the world is heading.

If you do not have enough time to watch the entire movie, watch this two and a half minute clip when Leonardo is India looking into the lack of energy access.

Japan - The Problems with an Ageing Population

A few years ago The Daily Telegraph reported an unlikely story, an elderly crime wave in Japan. As Form 4 (IGCSE) discovered, this is a surprising side affect of an ageing population in Japan. 

Japan is a country at stage 5 of the demographic transition model, where the birth rate is low, the life expectancy is high and the population is in gradual decline. As a result of the low birth rate and long life expectancy, there are an increasing number of elderly people who need taking care of, but not enough number of economically active people to pay taxes to support them. In other words it has a high dependency ratio. In 2011 for every 100 workers in Japan the country had to support the needs of almost 60 people.

Japan's dependency ratio 2011

DEPENDENTS 16 500 000 (Young) + 31 900 000 (Elderly) x 100 = 59.8

Economically Active 80 910 000 (Workers)

Below one of the form 4 students, Daniel writes a diary imaging he is Yuki, a fictional Japanese pensioner recently sent to jail.

I feel a lot better here in jail. I feel a lot happier because there are finally people willing to take care of me. There are a lot of other people here who came here for the same reason as I did; all are around my age. 

Honestly, I don’t think it’s actually our fault that we committed these crimes. Some of us don’t have any children to look after us and it feels lonely sometimes. Those that do have children are sometimes left at the shelter for homeless people. In jail we don’t have to work so hard for food because they provide meals for us. 

We really don’t have a home to go back to and when my time in jail has finished and I will honestly commit a crime again just to stay here a little longer. 

If the retirement age remains fixed, and the life expectancy increases, there will be relatively more people claiming pension benefits and less people working and paying income taxes. In Japan, there are more elderly people than the younger people so there is not a big enough workforce to cover the costs for the elderly people. With a shortage of workers, it will push up the wages causing wage inflation. Aside of not having enough money, the government also increased the sales tax for the first time in 17 years. This is making life harder for everyone.

Battery farming - Chickens

This scene is featured in the film Baraka (1992) directed by Ron Fricke. Watch the video and think about on Fricke is trying to tell us about modern life and, in particular food production.

TASK: Write a short paragraph saying what you think the key message of this clip is.