1. List the main reasons for water scaricity.
Answer:
-Hot places like deserts have low rainfall.
-Land degradation
-The variations in climate
-Population growth
-Water pollution
-Arid areas have average rainfall below 300mm each year.
2. What is a drought? What type of hardships do you think that a drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia?
Answer:
Drought is when there is less precipitation than usual. Droughts can cause many death to people due to thirst.
3. How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water?
Answer:
If the land is paved off or damaged, this can cause problems for the groundwater storage under the ground which is all drinkable. Therefore, the ground won't be able to absorb much of the heavy rainfalls and there will be a lack of groundwater storage.
4.
(a) What is El Nino?
Answer:
A warming that happens in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru. El Nino happens every 3-5 years or so.
(b) Why does El nino often cause drought in Australia?
Answer:
During El Nino, the moist blows to the pacific ocean reverse their direction. This process is accompanied by a reversal air pressure from across the pacific, resulting in high pressure systems over Autralia. This prevents the moist tropical air masses reaching Australia.
5. Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982~83.
(a) What effects does El Nino have on the availability of fresh water?
Answer:
El Nino creates a heavy rainfall that might lead to serious floods. When floods occur, these effect the availability of fresh water because the water gets polluted and therefore there is a very little amount of fresh water left.
(b) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall cause by El Nino.
Answer:
-Australia: Serious droughts.
-Africa: Reduced corn crop growing.
-Indonesia: High pollution level in the air due to forest fires.
-China: Land in threat due to droughts and floods.
-Papua New Guinea: Unable to grow crops because of droughts.
-Peru: Flood. Lower catch of fishing as anchovy and pacific sardline move offshore.
-Colombia: 20% decrease in catching fish.
-United States: Average rainfall exceeds. (Double the historical averages)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
About putting power point on the blog+
any1 know how to put a power point on a blog? somebody tell me PLEASE!!
Bintaro Lama field trip
My homeroom classmates rode on the bus to make our way to Bintaro Lama, which took us about 35 minutes or so. I was pretty excited, because I was eager how people there cleaned their water and I also wanted to see the enviroment if it was clean or not. In this blog post, I will write about 3 stations where me and my partners (Si won and Brandon) got to look at.
The first station, which was station #6, we learnt 2 ways to disinfect water and make the water potable. The guide showed us a tablet called Aqua tabs. 1 or 2 tablets can clean 30L of water at once. Now thats what I call awesome. What they do is that they will add the Aqua tab and let it dissolve. This process doesn't take very long, so it is a proficient and fast way to get access to clean water. Another method, is adding a liquid called Air Rahmat. By 5 ml of this liquid is about enough to purify 1 gallon of water. However, after pouring Air Rahmat, you will have to shake it at least 30 seconds.
The second station was station #2. In this station, we learnt the whole infrastructure of how food gets contaminated. They told us that after pooing (^_^) , they clean it with tissue and some don't wash their hands after it. Then the bacteria in the fecus gets on their hands and when they make food or touch the food, the food will get contaminated and it can give you a really bad stomachache. After learning about that, the guide told us about 5 ways to prevent that. One of that was building a proper toilet, which made pretty good sense to me.
The last station was station #4. This station was very interesting, because they had the same idea of cleaning water in the water treatment plant I went to, but a miniature version of it. First, they put a liquid called PUR, which helps the dirt particles to stick together and form a flock. Then the sedimentation begins. The flocks fall down to the bottom of the water, settling down there. Another way was filtration. They used a big bucket with a clay pot in it, and they lay pieces of cloth on the pot. What happens is that when dirty water goes through, the garbage and all the big trashes are left behind the cloth. Very interesting, because they had the same idea in the water treatment plant.
I think it was pretty cool to visit a kampung like this. Well, there were a lot of trash and bugs, but there were really friendly and kind people which put me under no pressure of asking any questions. Oh and at the end, they taught us a caroll that tells about washing your hands. It followed the rythm of 'If you're happy and you know it clap your hands', so I though it was another cool activity they prepared for us.
The first station, which was station #6, we learnt 2 ways to disinfect water and make the water potable. The guide showed us a tablet called Aqua tabs. 1 or 2 tablets can clean 30L of water at once. Now thats what I call awesome. What they do is that they will add the Aqua tab and let it dissolve. This process doesn't take very long, so it is a proficient and fast way to get access to clean water. Another method, is adding a liquid called Air Rahmat. By 5 ml of this liquid is about enough to purify 1 gallon of water. However, after pouring Air Rahmat, you will have to shake it at least 30 seconds.
The second station was station #2. In this station, we learnt the whole infrastructure of how food gets contaminated. They told us that after pooing (^_^) , they clean it with tissue and some don't wash their hands after it. Then the bacteria in the fecus gets on their hands and when they make food or touch the food, the food will get contaminated and it can give you a really bad stomachache. After learning about that, the guide told us about 5 ways to prevent that. One of that was building a proper toilet, which made pretty good sense to me.
The last station was station #4. This station was very interesting, because they had the same idea of cleaning water in the water treatment plant I went to, but a miniature version of it. First, they put a liquid called PUR, which helps the dirt particles to stick together and form a flock. Then the sedimentation begins. The flocks fall down to the bottom of the water, settling down there. Another way was filtration. They used a big bucket with a clay pot in it, and they lay pieces of cloth on the pot. What happens is that when dirty water goes through, the garbage and all the big trashes are left behind the cloth. Very interesting, because they had the same idea in the water treatment plant.
I think it was pretty cool to visit a kampung like this. Well, there were a lot of trash and bugs, but there were really friendly and kind people which put me under no pressure of asking any questions. Oh and at the end, they taught us a caroll that tells about washing your hands. It followed the rythm of 'If you're happy and you know it clap your hands', so I though it was another cool activity they prepared for us.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Activities in Geoactive book
1. What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?
Answer: 2.5 percent of water on earth.
2. Where is the world's supply of fresh water found?
Answer: 2% is in form of glaciers, 0.49% is in the ground, and 0.01% is found in atmospheres, rivers and lakes.
3. Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?
Answer: Because water is a fixed resource. The amount of water can't be increased or decreased, while the population is growing fast.
4. Observe the map of world average annual precipitation (opposite).
(a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the southern to the northern tip of Africa.
Answer: As moving on from the tropic of cancer where the rainfall is extremely low, you can see the amount of rainfall raising.
(b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western to the eastern tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn.
Answer: You can see that as moving on to the eastern tip, the water drops suddenly about at the middle of australia, and rise again at the tip.
5. Observe the map above of water availability per person.
(a) Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person?
Answer: South America seems to have no problem to accessing water.
(b) Which parts of the world appear to have a samll amount of water per person?
Answer: Europe seems to have small amount of water per person.
6. Observe the diagram of water use.
(a) What are the main uses of water?
Answer: The water is mainly used for agriculturing.
(b) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?
Answer: Reservoir losses from evaporation and seepage seems to have risen the most.
Answer: 2.5 percent of water on earth.
2. Where is the world's supply of fresh water found?
Answer: 2% is in form of glaciers, 0.49% is in the ground, and 0.01% is found in atmospheres, rivers and lakes.
3. Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?
Answer: Because water is a fixed resource. The amount of water can't be increased or decreased, while the population is growing fast.
4. Observe the map of world average annual precipitation (opposite).
(a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the southern to the northern tip of Africa.
Answer: As moving on from the tropic of cancer where the rainfall is extremely low, you can see the amount of rainfall raising.
(b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western to the eastern tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn.
Answer: You can see that as moving on to the eastern tip, the water drops suddenly about at the middle of australia, and rise again at the tip.
5. Observe the map above of water availability per person.
(a) Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person?
Answer: South America seems to have no problem to accessing water.
(b) Which parts of the world appear to have a samll amount of water per person?
Answer: Europe seems to have small amount of water per person.
6. Observe the diagram of water use.
(a) What are the main uses of water?
Answer: The water is mainly used for agriculturing.
(b) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?
Answer: Reservoir losses from evaporation and seepage seems to have risen the most.
Trip to water treatment plant
As my classmates and I rode on the bus to the water treatment plant, we saw a dirty river full of garbages people threw. And at that time, I had no idea that this water here was going to be potable. In this post, I will be talking about the infrastucture of the water treatment plant.
The first step is percolating the big pieces of garbages. The first thing I saw was a huge gate and the river water going through the long and thin metal poles. The gate collected the big pieces of garbage, for example. tires, cans, bottles, bannana peelings, etc... you get the idea.
The second step is aeration, which is oxigentating the water, adding mineral. In the treatment plant, there is a huge turbo swirling around the water like a vortex. What it does is that when the turbo is spinning, it's giving oxygen to the water that didn't have any oxygen.
The thrid step is adding alum. Alum is a chemical that causes the dirt particles to come together and make a floc, which makes it easier for the next process to collect the dirt particles out of the water.
The fourth step is sedimentation. They let the water stay still for a while until all the flocs of dirt particles settle to the ground. At this point, water is saturated. Also, an interesting fact I've found out is that the dirt particles don't just get thrown away. In fact, they use it to help build houses in the kampung areas.
The fifth step is filtration, and disinfection. The final filter takes out all the leftover flocs and other garbages that made through the steps. After getting rid of them, they add a chemical called clorn, which disinfects the water, destroying all the bacteria left.
Finally, the last step is checking the water qualities. In this step, people in the lab check the water is clean or not. The more infected the water is, the color gets yellower, and if it is safe to drink, the color is transparent. This is a very important step to go through, because even if the water is filtered, there might be tiny bits of dirt particles still remaining in the water.
When I came back from the trip, I learned TONS of stuff there. I have to say I was surprised at how much I learned. I've seen things I've never seen before, and I think it was a great experience to have, learning about how and where the water we drink everyday come from.
The first step is percolating the big pieces of garbages. The first thing I saw was a huge gate and the river water going through the long and thin metal poles. The gate collected the big pieces of garbage, for example. tires, cans, bottles, bannana peelings, etc... you get the idea.
The second step is aeration, which is oxigentating the water, adding mineral. In the treatment plant, there is a huge turbo swirling around the water like a vortex. What it does is that when the turbo is spinning, it's giving oxygen to the water that didn't have any oxygen.
The thrid step is adding alum. Alum is a chemical that causes the dirt particles to come together and make a floc, which makes it easier for the next process to collect the dirt particles out of the water.
The fourth step is sedimentation. They let the water stay still for a while until all the flocs of dirt particles settle to the ground. At this point, water is saturated. Also, an interesting fact I've found out is that the dirt particles don't just get thrown away. In fact, they use it to help build houses in the kampung areas.
The fifth step is filtration, and disinfection. The final filter takes out all the leftover flocs and other garbages that made through the steps. After getting rid of them, they add a chemical called clorn, which disinfects the water, destroying all the bacteria left.
Finally, the last step is checking the water qualities. In this step, people in the lab check the water is clean or not. The more infected the water is, the color gets yellower, and if it is safe to drink, the color is transparent. This is a very important step to go through, because even if the water is filtered, there might be tiny bits of dirt particles still remaining in the water.
When I came back from the trip, I learned TONS of stuff there. I have to say I was surprised at how much I learned. I've seen things I've never seen before, and I think it was a great experience to have, learning about how and where the water we drink everyday come from.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Interview with Author
An interview with Scott Westerfeld the author. Sorry that it's late, but still hope you enjoy the show!
The Tiger
Here's a poem called 'The Tiger' by William Blake. Sorry for the 3rd part, because my cameraman Young Woo was distracted by something and the camera shaked a little. Well, besides that, I think me and Young Woo did a pretty good job. Hope you enjoy the show!
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