Friday, 28th of January

Today we have corrected the exercises 25, 26 an 27 from page 47. Then we have cheecked the crossword. After Paqui has spoken about mines and their differents types, their mains problems... One of the mains problems of mines is that can collapsed, and miners can died. Then we have read the information in the book about industy. And Paqui has said to us that we have to do the box on page 44. Finally Paqui has put on the proyector a photograph of Juan, Cristina's son. ¡Many of us, have been mad about it!

Source: http://www.convip.net/industry.html

Challenge Number 5

Source: http://www.angrywhiteboy.org/index.php/2007/03/09/biofuels/

As fossile fuels are pollutant and oil reserves are exhausting, biofuel production has increased in the last years. This week´s challenge will consist in researching about biofuels and their economic impact.

QUESTION 1

 What are biofuels? What are their types?

QUESTION 2

What are the most common liquid biofuels? What is the difference between them?

Source: http://priceofoil.org/2009/08/17/policy-re-think-needed-for-biofuels-bogeyman/

QUESTION 3

What is the relationship between the development of biofuels and the increase of the price of cereals? How can the development of biofuels affect food supply in developing countries?

The pictures included on this post and the links below will help you to complete your answers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_vs._fuel

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128074830.htm

Source: http://www.vc4africa.com/group/socialentrepreneurs

Dangerous mines

Source: http://mediacrit.com/covering-coal-mining-by-accident

Today we have learned how dangerous is working in underground mines. Miners are exposed to gas leaks (especially methane) and if the working conditions are not safe, collapses can happen and the miners can get trapped. Precisely today an accident has happened at a coal mine in Colombia. At least 20 miners have been killed. Working underground requires specific safety rules that have to be respected and qualified workers who follow the instructions. Minig accidents are more fequent in the least developed countries. 

Here you have some links where you can get more information about mining: 

- Infomine website: this site provides a lot of information about mining around the world. If you click on "Mines sites", you will have access to a world map with the most important mines. You can know what minerals they extract and the type of mines (open- cast/open- pit or underground mines): 

http://www.infomine.com/minesite/

- Chinese mines are among the most dangerous in the world. This BBC report explores the reasons for this dangerousness: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11497070

- On this link you can get information about the world´s worst mining disasters: 

http://worldnews.about.com/od/disasters/tp/Worlds-Worst-Mining-Disasters.htm

- Finally, a piece of news about today´s mining accident in northest Colombia: 

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70P4GP20110126

Wednesday 25th of January

Today we have finished the Unit 3, so for homework we have to do the crossword in the photocopy that Silvia has given us and the exercises 25, 26 and 27 of the Review.

The exam of this unit is going to be on the 4th of February, all the unit for the people who didn't pass the project and only of fishing and the Primary Sector in Spain for people who passed the project.

In this picture we can see an old gold mine in La Cabrera (Madrid).

Source:http://www.leonoticias.com/frontend/leonoticias/Oro-En-La-Cabrera-vn7927-vst306 (in Spanish)

Afterwards we have started the new unit, The Secondary and Tertiary Sectors and Paqui has explained us the projects that we have to do if we don't want to do all the exam which are in the pages 48 and 53, they are about the Secondary or Tertiary Sectors.

Then we have copied the index of the unit and we have read the page 43. In that page we have seen that mining is a very important activity because we need the minerals to make a lot of things that we use in our life but is also a very dangerous activity because mines are dangerous. But like is very important, there are a lot of problems with mining, there are wars, like the First African War caused by the fights for the control of coltan mines.

In the Secondary Sector we also include the production of energy, that is also very important. We classify the energy sources in renewable, like solar power, and non renewables, like the oil.

In this picture we can see an oil field in Neuquén (Argentina)

Source:http://www.corrienteshoy.com/vernota.asp?id_noticia=71588 (in Spanish)

Study for all the exams of tomorrow! Bye!

Pirates of every kind

Source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/a/affirmative_action.asp

Source: http://www.biyokulule.com/view_content.php?articleid=3117

The dictionary defines "piracy" as a robbery committed at sea. Today we have been talking about piracy in the Indian Ocean, next to the Somali coasts. If you think in the definition of piracy and you relate it to the overexploitation of some fishing grounds and the practices of some developed countries in this area, you will reach interesting conclusions. 

Here you have some links where you can read more about the origins of present piracy in the Indian Ocean: 

http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1567/1/

http://wardheernews.com/Articles_09/Jan/Waldo/08_The_two_piracies_in_Somalia.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html

http://www.alternet.org/story/136481/why_we_don't_condemn_our_pirates_in_somalia/?page=entire

And this last cartoon compares Somali pirates with other land pirates: 

Source: http://www.bendib.com/black/new.html

Monday 24th of January

Today we have started the class correcting one ejercice about CAP, that is the common agricultural policy.We have talked about the main problems are:
- Subsidies to abandom crops and subsidies to recover the same crops a few years later.

-Very rich producers who don´t live from agriculture receive subsidies.

-Shortage of some products due to the subsidies ´policy of abandoning certain production(milk).

-The import of some products damages the prices and beneficts of the farmers.

And the main actions are:

-The EU gives subsidies to the farmers to keep some crops or to abandom some others.

-The EU signs trade agreements with some countries to import their products at a cheaper price.

We have talked about fishing. Paqui has told us that Spain has a big fishing power, it has thousand of kilometers of coasts and there are a lot of indutries related to fish. Also paqui has told us that overfishing reduced the territories that are from Spain, this fact obliged to Spain to look for fishing in other places. Paqui has given to us a sheet of paper that talks about CAP news. But that´s not fair because the 73%of the recipients are part-time,and they received 17% of the CAP subsidies. And the 22% of the recipients are full-time farmers and they got 60% of the subsidies. Finally as of navember 2010 it si forbidden to make the list of the list of the CAP recipients public, because a court of justice has considered that this is a violation of the law of protection of personal data. Today kelly has been with us.

See you on wednesday.
Dani

Source: http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/16-19/economics/markets/presentation/pricecontrol2_map.htm

21st of January 2011

Hello everyone, well I'm going to write Friday's journal because JUAN CARLOS didn't write it!!!

So on Friday we checked some exercices of the review:

-In the exercice 18 we can think that the best places to fish are in continental shelves, cold currents and in confluence of cold and warm currents.

19.- This was about territorial waters that are the international laws recognize the right of every costal country to delimitate, that is, area of 200 marine miles from the coast to the international waters.

20.- What's fishing agreement? It's a treaty between countries that allows one countries boats to fish in the territorial waters of another country. In exchange for fishing in their territorial waters, the fishing companies have to hire native workers or give them a part of the fishes catches.

21.- We think about the main problems of fishing are pollution and overfishing. These problems have reduced considerably the quantity of fish avalible. This had led to limit the fish catch and to establish close seasons for some species. But the problems persist.

22.- What's aquaculture? It's an alternative. It consist in cultivating aquatic spieces in enclosed places:

-Fish farms: freshwater fish and algae are raised in tanks or enclosed sections of rivers or dams.

-Mariculture: it consists in raising saltwater fish, molluscs or algae in marne farms, in an enclosed section of the sea: sellyfish, oysters, clams, seaweeds, cultured pearls...

After checking the exercises we read the information about the primary sector in Spain.

We wre talking about the CAP(Common Agricultural Policy) belongs to the European Union, it main objectives, actions and problems.

-OBJETIVES:
*To achive self-comsuption: to produce the products needed by the EU members and to avoid surplus.
*To keep the standards of living of the producers.

-ACTIONS:
*The EU gives subsides to the farmers to keep some crops or to abandon some others.
*The EU signs trade agreements with some countries to import their products at a cheaper price.

-PROBLEMS:
* to achieve self-sufficiency
*to avoid surplus
* to keep the standars of living of the producers.

For homework Paqui gave exercice 24, but this is not on Friday, so bye bye.

I think that it's all, if I forgot something please tell me!! =)

Images:

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/fishing/fish-conservation/fish-populations/salmon-population1.htm

http://www.dcnr.state.al.us/research-mgmt/mariculture-center.cfm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seafdecaqd/2329750371/

This week's challenge

Source: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:EU_fishing_agreements.png

This week the challenge is a little bit different. During class this week we discussed the topic of fishing agreements. On paper, these agreements seem like a great idea, which benefit both the EU and other countries. However, in reality it's not a perfect or fair situation.

So for this week's challenge I want you to think about the advantages and disadvantages of these fishing agreements for the countries where the EU fishes. Please comment and write your ideas about these advantages and disadvantages.

You can use these two links to help you research this topic.

http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/international/agreements/index_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/documentation/publications/cfp_brochure/partnerships_en.pdf

Record prices due to overfishing

Some days ago two Japanese sushi restaurants paid almost 300,000 € for a bluefin tuna (red tuna) of 342 kilos. This was the highest price ever paid for a fish in the world. Overfishing has almost exhausted wild red tuna and there is a real danger of extinction of this species. This is why red tuna is so expensive. Last November, the ICCTA (International Commision for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tuna) decided to reduce fishing catches of red tuna in 4%, so this fish can recover, but this is not enough for the ecologists.

Here you have more information about the record price for a bluefin tuna in Japan: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12117010

Ecologists´campaign for the reduction of tuna catches: 

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/tuna/

Wednesday, 19th of January

Hello, classmates.

Today in Social Sciences we have checked an exercise of a diagram about the relation between the fish catches and the development of aquaculture. I have checked it but I have had it incomplete. Paqui has given an explanation to us that the capture fisheries don't increase because fish was exhausting, so the aquaculture was an alternative. In the Cantabrian Sea there were a lot of anchovies, but then there weren't because Spain and France fishing them. They had to establish a close season. Now there are very few anchovies.

Everyone has read a part of point 4: The primary sector in Spain. Ana Margarita has been with us and she has asked us some questions about this part. The majority of the questions had the answer in the climate. One of the questions has been: why there are a lot of vines and olive trees in the middle of Spain? The answer has been that because the plateau is placed there and these crops don't need a lot of water and in these zones it doesn't rain a lot.

Paqui has explained to us these things with a map.

Source: http://www.vmapas.com/Europe/Spain/Spain_Land_Use_Map_1974.jpg/maps-en.html

At the end of the class Paqui has told us a little explanation and her conclusion about the projects. It has been a very good work. They have been better than the last projects, so Paqui is very happy for the majority of us.

The next day we will check 5 exercises about fishing of page 42.

Bye