http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fejCmJuj6I8
In September 2012 the world population was estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be
7,036 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the seven billion number was passed in March 2012;
according to a separate estimate by the United Nations, Earth's population exceeded seven billion in
October 2011, a milestone that offers unprecedented challenges and opportunities to all of the
humanity.
Blaming environmental problems on
overpopulation scapegoats the poorest
people in the world, who are least
responsible for carbon emissions; the
richest fifth consume 66 times more
resources than the poorest fifth.
Malthusian motive: the will to control
the population of the poor rather than
the consumption of the rich; the desire
to eliminate poverty by reducing the
numbers of the poor rather than the
inequalities of society is wrong.
If we claim that there are too
many people on the earth then
why are we so sure that we are
not the excess ones, we
westerners who individually
consume and pollute as much as
50 or more African or Indian
peasants. In all my years in the
field of population I have never
one single time heard a member
of the population establishment
say that there were too many
upper middle class white Anglo
Saxon Protestants in the world.
Piere Prateva (1974)
SOME OF THE MOST POLLUTED PLACES IN THE WORLD – EXAMPLES
(at 2.50 minute)
There are many ways you can classify pollution; it can be chemical, radioactive or simply the
presence of improperly disposed waste products. While some places, like Mexico City have a very
obvious problem with their heavy smoke, the much more serene looking Lake Karachay in Russia
would have you dead within an hour of sitting on its banks due to heavy radioactive contamination.
So whether pollution is visible or not, these are some of the most polluted places on Earth:
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The small Andean town of La Oroya has been home to a metal smelter run by Missouri-based
Doe Run Corporation since 1922. As a result, all the local children suffer and respiratory
complications. The Peruvian government has even been taken to court for crimes against
humanity by various organizations.
Citarum River, Indonesia is one of the world's most polluted rivers, over five million people
residing in its basin and relying on it as their primary water supply.
After years of mining and processing, both cadmium and lead are very common in the hills
surrounding this Zambian city (Kabwe). In fact the children here have been found to have ten
times the permissible EPA level of lead in their bloodstream. Moreover the ground is barren and
nothing will grow as a result of contamination.
This Siberian city Norilisk, houses an even larger smelting complex than La Oroya (it's actually
the largest in the world). Not surprisingly the pollution here is so bad that the average life
expectancy is up to ten years less than the rest of Russia.
With upwards of a dozen mines operating in the regions without any significant level of
regulation, the city of Sukinda (India) has been listed as one of the most polluted in the world by
the Blacksmith Institute.
As one of the largest dumps of radioactive waste in all of Asia, Mailuu-Suu (Kyrgzystan) is not
only heavily contaminated but there are a series of unstable uranium tailing pits in the hills
surrounding the city. Were these pits were to empty, the result would be disastrous.
Almost synonymous with pollution, the banks of the Riachuelo basin in Argentina are lined by
nearly 4,000 factories, 42 garbage dumps and 13 slums. Definitely not a good combination when
it comes to health and life expectancy.
The fact that it is located in a volcanic crater surrounded by mountains only compounds Mexico
City’s already troublesome pollution problem by trapping a thick layer of smog that hover over
the city.
Dhaka, Bangladesh: Whenever you cram 150 million people into an area the size of Bangladesh
you are bound to have some waste management issues.
Not only has Haiti as a whole been significantly destroyed by natural disasters and deforestation,
but on top of all that it has on its hands a severe waste management crisis.
With a rapidly growing population, Dar es Salaam’s already strained water supply is only going to
worsen. Moreover as solid wastes continues to empty into Msimbazi River the prevalence of
infectious disease will continue to increase.
Yamura River, as the largest tributary of the Ganges, scientists estimate that roughly 60% of
Delhi’s waste gets dumped into the river. This doesn't change the fact that almost all of its
residents rely on it for water and bathing as well.
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Situated at the end of an extensive line of industrial complexes that stretch for hundreds of
miles upriver, the level of mercury in Vaty’s (India) water supply is 96 times higher than anything
considered safe.
Dzerzhinsk (Russia), named the world's most chemically polluted city by the Guinness book of
world records, in recent years its death rate has overwhelmed its birth rate by more than 260%.
It also has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world at roughly 45 years.
As a result of outdated regulations, these 40 or so industrial complexes in the Sumgrayit region
(Azerbaijan) have managed to create a severely toxic environment that has led to numerous
health complications for residents.
Accounting for over half of China’s lead production, Tianying is home to some of the worst cases
of lead poisoning in the world.
Used for years as nuclear dumping site by the Soviet Union, Lake Karachay has several times
been declared the most polluted place on Earth. In fact it has been said that just one hour of
exposure here could be lethal.
Chernobyl (Ukraine) is the site of the worst nuclear accident in history after the Chernobyl
disaster in 1986, almost all of this town's 14,000 residents moved away. Today it remains for the
most part uninhabited due to radiation and fallout.
It has been said that if you hang your laundry out here, it will be black before it can even dry.
Although Linfen (China) was long considered the world's most polluted city, small improvements
have been made in recent years.
According to the World Health Organization, Ahvaz, Iran, is now the most polluted city in the
world, a problem that is only made worse by its constant dust storms.
WATER ISSUES
(at 8.54 minute)
50% is the number of people that don't have access to the water of the quality that was available to
the citizens of Rome 2000 years ago. Forty billion in Africa alone, the number of hours people spend
every year just walking for water. Women and children usually bear the burden of water collection,
walking miles to the nearest source, which is unprotected and likely to make them sick. 5.3 billion is
the number of people - two-thirds of the world's population – who will suffer from water shortages
by 2015. One point one billion, the number of people worldwide - 1 in every 6 - without access to
clean water. One point eight million, the number of children who die each year from water-borne
diseases, one child every fifteen seconds.
Water stressed areas – examples
(at 10.05 minute)
Aral Sea (10.05)
The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called one of the planet's worst environmental disasters.
Formerlly one of the four largest lakes in the world, the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since
the 1960s after the rivers were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By 2007 it had declined to 10%
of its original size. The region's once prosperous fishing industry has been essentially destroyed
bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The Aral Sea is also heavily polluted with
consequent serious public health problems. As the lake dried up the increasingly salty water became
polluted with fertilizers and pesticides. As the Aral further evaporated, agrochemical-tainted dust
began blowing off the lakebed, causing respiratory diseases and cancer and raising infant mortality.
Lake Chad (11.03)
Once one of the African continent’s largest bodies of fresh water, the lake is now 1/20th of the size it
was 35 years ago. In addition, the region has suffered from an increasingly dry climate, experiencing
a significant decline in rainfall since the early 1960s. The most dramatic decrease in its size was in
the fifteen years between 1973 and 1987. Beginning in 1983, the amount of water used for irrigation
began to increase. Ultimately between 1983 and 1994, the amount of water diverted for purposes of
irrigation quadrupled from the amount used in the previous 25 years.
Ataturk Dam Turkey (11.52)
With the forming of the reservoir lake, more than a hundred hamlets and villages were inundated
and about 55,000 people were forced to relocate, many of them resettling in nearby communities.
In 1989, the old town of Samosata (Samsat), capital of the ancient Commagene Kingdom located in
Adiyaman Province was flooded behind the Ataturk dam. A new town with the same name, Samsat,
was founded for the around 2,000 people dislocated. About 90% of Euphrate’s annual flow
originates from Turkey, while the remaining part is added in Syria, but nothing is contributed further
downstream in Iraq. The Ataturk Dam has cut the flow from the Euphrates by about a third. Syria
and Iraq claim to be suffering severe water shortages due to this development.
Toshka Project Egypt (13.17)
Egypt’s Toshka lakes were created in the 1980s and 1990s by the diversion of water from Lake
Nasser through a manmade canal into the Sahara desert. Flooding of the Toshka Depression created
four main lakes with a maximum surface area of about 1450 square kilometres - around 25 billion
cubic meters of water. By 2006 the amount of stored water was reduced by 50%. In June 2012 water
filled only the lowest parts of the main western and eastern basins representing a surface area of
307 square kilometres or roughly 80% smaller than in 2000. Water is almost completely absent from
the central basin.
Challawa Dam Nigeria (13.28)
The soil in the immediate catchments of the dam has not been stabilised so the reservoir may be
silting up. Silt is also being deposited in the Challawa River, affecting the intake structures of Kano
city water supply. The dam has disrupted the natural balance along the river. Upstream areas are
now subject to flooding while downstream riverine wetlands and croplands have dried out. A 2002
study noted that while the dam was intended to support irrigation projects, none had been started,
although much farmland had been covered by the dam. The water was being used only to supply
Kano city.
Lake Hammun, Iran/ Afghanistan (14.10)
For five millennia the Hammun wetlands, located on the border of Afghanistan and Iran, stood as a
major source of food and shelter for the people of central Asia. Fed by the Helmand River, the 2000
square kilometre wetlands formed a true oasis in the middle of hundreds of kilometres of arid plains.
By the turn of the 21st century, however these wetlands were desiccated by irrigation and drought.
In mid May 2008 a dust storm arose from dry lake beds left behind by the once moist wetlands.
URBANISATION / URBAN POPULATION GROWTH – EXAMPLES
(at 14.48 minute)
Beijing and Shanghai, China (14.54)
Since the economic reforms in 1979 China has seen many changes. Several towns have grown
explosively. Amongst these is the capital Beijing, which has developed in all directions and reached
in 2000 a population of 13 million people. The 2010 census revealed that the total population in
Beijing had reached 19.6 million. Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest
city by population in the world. It is one of China's four province level municipalities with a total
population in 2010 of over 23 million.
Pearl River Delta (16.20)
The greater Pearl River Delta area in south-eastern China is the world's largest mega region with a
population of approximately 120 million people. Over the past two decades, the populations of the
delta cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen have each reached nearly 10 million people, while Hong
Kong, Foshan and Dongguan have each grown to around 5 million each. The individual cities are
beginning to merge into one contiguous urban area. The core delta area shown in the above image
had a little over 20 million people in the early 1990s, but has since then tripled to roughly 60 million
people.
China’s yellow river or Huang He is the world's muddiest. Stretching some 5475 kilometres from
eastern Tibet to Bohai, the river travels through soft platters of silt picking up a massive sediment
load on its journey. The river derives its yellow colour from fine particles of mica, quartz and
feldspar. Besides colouring the river yellow, the sentiments have reshaped the coast.
Tehran, Iran (17.10)
Iran's capital ranks among the world's fastest growing cities. In the early 1940s, Tehran’s population
was about 700,000. By 1966 it had risen to 3 million and by 1986, during the Iran-Iraq war, migrants
brought the population to 6 million. Today the metropolitan area has more than 10 million residents,
more than the sum of the country's next five major metropolitan areas combined. This explosive
growth has environmental and public health consequences, including air and water pollution and the
loss of arable land.
Tijuana, Mexico City and Cancun, Mexico (18.05)
A small fence separates densely-populated Tihuana, Mexico from the United States in the border
Patrolas at San Diego Sector. The construction for a secondary fence is underway to extend a
secondary fence. The Mexico City metropolitan area occupies an area of 7854 km2, with 1500 km2
completely urbanised. With just over 19 million inhabitants it is among the most populous cities in
the world. The Distrito Federal with a population density of 5799 person's/km2 in 2000 and a total
population of nearly 9 million is the capital city and economic and political centre of the country. The
urbanisation of the area has been rapid, largely unplanned and has had severe impacts on the
environment. Cancun in the northeast of the Yucatan peninsula is located in the state of Quintana
Roo in Mexico. The city was conceived of by the Mexican government as a high-level tourist
destination and people from all over the country were brought in to work there as labourers for its
construction, in food production and in the tourist industry. Cancun changed from a place of
artisanal fishers, tropical forests and unknown beaches, prior to the 1970s, to become one of the
most internationally well-known Mexican tourist destinations today. With a population of more than
526,000 Cancun hosted nearly 3.7 million foreign tourists in 2000.
Las Vegas and surrounding area, USA (19.55)
San Antonio, Texas is going to be the 7th largest city in the States with a current population of
approximately 1.4 million. In 1991 the population was approximately 790,000. In the past twenty
years it has been the 4th fastest-growing city in the United States. On a percentage basis Las Vegas
and Clark County experienced incredibly high growth rates starting in the 1930s and lasting until the
late 2000s recession. During that period the white population of the city more than doubled in most
decades. The rate slowed down in the 1970s with the decrease in the white birth rate but never
dropped below 60% and even accelerated after 1990 due to immigration. By 2000 Las Vegas was the
largest city founded in the 20th century and by 2006 it was the 28th largest city in the US, with a
population of 552,000 in the city and nearly 1.8 million in Clark County. The rapid development and
population growth both halted abruptly in the late 2000s recession.
Las Vegas is situated within Clark County in an arid basin on a desert floor surrounded by dry
mountains. Within the city there are many lawns, trees and other greenery. Due to water resource
issues, there is now a movement to encourage change.
Colorado River, United States
This is in an aerial view of Glen canyon dam across the Colorado River and Lake Powell in the United
States. Downstream the Colorado River does not reach the sea.
“As the river cuts through the Colorado
plateau its flow is doubled by the Green River,
the largest tributary. Below the confluence, I
watched the river enter the first of its desert
seas, Lake Powell. Today the lake is shrinking. The west is in its second decade of drought and
everywhere I look those hundred footpaths of rings reminded me of how much water we once had.
Below Lake Powell starts the Grand Canyon; below the Grand Canyon you reach Lake Meade and
Hoover Dam. Next to Hoover Dam is Las Vegas. When I was young I pointed to Vegas, like many, as
the bad boy of the river, but when I visited I found a more complex truth. Las Vegas gets very little
water from the Colorado River, so they are forced to use it wisely. The city actually pays people to
tear up their front lawns; I saw a house with water thirsty green grass in the morning turned into
desert friendly shrubs by noon. But not everyone wants to be Vegas. Downstream the river becomes
the border between Arizona and California and the draws are abundant. I never really knew this part
of the river; it is much different than the river I grew up on. It is confined, fractured and fading. I
started seeing the river as an orphan stretched into a blooming desert, a maze of concrete canals in
a symphony of human thirst”.
LAND USE, DEFORESTATION, UNSUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE – EXAMPLES
(at 23.55 minute)
Around the world agricultural practices have developed as a function of topography, soil type, crop
type, annual rainfall and tradition. In Minnesota US the very regular grid pattern reflects early 19th
century surveying; the size of the fields is a function of mechanisation and that dictates certain
efficiency. In Kansas US, centre pivot irrigation is responsible for the field pattern. In northwest
Germany the small size and random pattern of fields is a leftover from the middle ages. Near Santa
Cruz Bolivia, the pie or radial patterned fields are part of the settlement scheme; at the centre of
each unit is a small community. Outside of Bangkok, Thailand, rice paddies fed by an extensive
network of canals that is hundreds of years old appear as small skinny rectangular fields. In the
Cerrado in southern Brazil, cheap cost of land and its flatness have resulted in enormous farms and
large field sizes.
Quebec, Canada (25.06)
Like an image of a woven tapestry, this photograph highlights an extensive pattern of agricultural
fields in south-eastern Quebec, Canada. The tapestry pattern is due to the fact that the agricultural
fields are closely tied to access roads, with rectangular fields extending outwards perpendicular to
the roadways.
Rondonia, Brazil (25.25)
A similar pattern embedded within a different social, historical and economic context can be seen in
the Rondonia of western Brazil. This is a diverse agricultural landscape in the western part of Minas
Gerais state in Brazil. Though most widely known for its mineral wealth, Minas Gerais is also a large
agricultural producer for Brazil. A mix of regularly gridded polygonal fields of circular centres pivot
fields marks the human use of the region.
Monegros, Spain (26.06)
This is the Monegros region in Spain where generations of farmers have tried to stake out farmland
in the gypsum foothills despite an apparent scarcity of water. Dry, chalk-like lines, textured swaths of
dirt and gridded rows of trees reveal what is both a desolate and fertile terrain.
Snake River, Idaho (26.27)
Because satellites see a wide area at once, they are ideal tools for monitoring evapotranspiration.
This image, based on data collected by the Landsat 5 satellite on August 9th, 2006 shows
evapotranspiration from vegetation on the Snake river Plain in south central Idaho. Fields of irrigated
crops are dark blue squares or circles, showing that the growing plants are taking up and transpiring
water. Fallow and recently harvested fields are lighter blue. Surviving on the scant rain that falls on
the high desert the surrounding natural scrubland uses far less water and is tan and pale blue. The
diagonal line across the upper right corner of the image is a road.
Campodia (27.20)
Rice is Asia’s most important food crop. The most common sort of rice is grown submerged in
paddies. In Cambodia for example 90% of the total agricultural area is used for rice production.
Without cultivation this land would soon be transformed into lush rainforests.
Nile River, Egypt (27.42)
The Nile River supplies virtually all water in Egypt and major portions in Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia.
The Nile is polluted by sewage and agricultural chemicals, and is failing to supply growing
populations along its drier lower stretches with enough water for a good standard of living. With a
watershed that includes parts of 11 nations, disputes over the Nile’s water could devolve into war.
Saudi Arabia (28.18)
Enormous irrigation projects using fossil water have turned Saudi Arabia into a food exporter. Rich in
oil but lacking abundant renewable water resources, Saudi Arabia used oil revenues to develop
domestic agriculture based on groundwater from non-renewable aquifers. Subsidies, direct or
indirect led to astonishing growth in agricultural output. Large centre-pivot irrigation projects such
as the one in Wadi As-Sirhan appeared in the vast Saudi desert. However by one calculation the cost
of wheat produced reached around $500 per tonne, several times the cost of imported wheat. In
2008 the Saudi government announced plans to phase out wheat production by 2016.
Iguazu, Argentina (29.26)
Industrial scale and productive capacity of contemporary greenhouses are impressive in and of
themselves. But then there are these unique greenhouse cities that have recently emerged. These
odd agglomerations of new standards of engineered efficiency and embedded globalism. Iguazu
National Park in Argentina was created in 1934 and contains the Iguazu falls, one of the greatest
natural beauties of Argentina surrounded by the subtropical jungle. Across the Iguazu River its
Brazilian counterpart both declared UNESCO world heritage sites in 1984. In 1973 signs of
deforestation are evident but the forest cover is extensive throughout the region.
Santa Cruz, Bolivia (30.21)
Santa Cruzcomprises around one third of the total area of Bolivia and 51% of its forested lands. By
2001 approximately 60% of total forest clearing carried out in the country took place here.
Historically forest clearing in Santa Cruz was limited, but it has been growing exponentially in the last
two decades. As recently as 1950, the entire area had less than 60,000 hectares of cultivated land,
most of which was corn and rice. Forest clearing slowly accelerated from 1950 to the early 1980s as
a result of government policies promoting import substitution of agricultural goods, mainly rice,
cotton and sugarcane.
Eastern half of Bolivia (31.13)
The eastern half of Bolivia is covered with tropical rainforest. In the 1990s Bolivia initiated a large
scale effort to increase the rate of logging and create tracts of land for commercial agriculture
(primarily soy and sugarcane, but also cocoa) on the Amazon basin side of the Andean highlands.
Today the commercial fields are well established and easily mapped from space as large rectangular
clearings in the forest. The agricultural developments are still growing today. The clearings start off
as small rectangles arranged perpendicular to an access road; early clearings take on the
herringbone pattern when viewed from above. The intact areas (dark forest) are gradually logged
and then cultivated, filling in the pattern to make a larger cleared area.
Salta, Argentina (32.10)
This province sits at the confluence of two different types of forest; the Tucumano-Boliviana
rainforest and the Parque Chaqueno region representing more than 50% of the forested land in the
country. The advancement of agriculture is one of the primary causes of deforestation in Argentina;
in 2006 deforestation in the departments of Anta, San Martin and Oran represented 80% of
provincial forest cover loss. Between 1998 and 2002 it lost 194,389 hectares of forest, an annual rate
of deforestation of 0.69% that accelerated between 2002 and 2006, reaching an annual
deforestation rate of 1.54%.
Gulf of Fonseca (33.05)
The Gulf of Fonseca, shared by Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, experienced dramatic
expansion of large-scale shrimp production mostly during the 1990s. While the area directly affected
by the shrimp ponds was generally salt and mud flats, some areas of adjoining mangrove were
converted as well. Highly productive, biodiverse habitats, mangroves are often cleared for shrimp
aquaculture.
Papua, New Guinea (34. 04)
Between the two photos taken in 1990 and 2004 you can clearly see the impact of mining on river
systems, water pollution due to copper mine in Papua, New Guinea. This controversial copper mine
is located at the headwaters of the river, a tributary of the Fly River, in extremely rough terrain in
the rainforest covered stone mountains. Prior to the opening of the mine in 1984, this area was very
isolated, sparsely inhabited and ecologically pristine. The uncontrolled discharges of seventy million
tons of waste from the mine, annually has spread more than 1,621 kilometres down the river, raising
riverbeds and causing flooding, sediment deposition, forest damage and a serious decline in the
area’s biodiversity.
Indonesia (34.58)
These photos made available on June 29th, 2012 showing numerous illegally lit fires continuing to
rage the peat swamp forests of Tripa, Darul Makmur, Indonesia.
Malaysian Borneo (35.11)
These satellite images demonstrate the extent of the deforestation in Malaysian Borneo. They reveal
the overall extent of land cover change throughout the region. This image has a resolution of thirty
meters per pixel, spanning about 22,000 meters it shows the difference between plantation and
intact forests in part of Malaysian Borneo.
The Amazon (35.56)
Satellite images show that enormous areas of Amazon rainforest were cleared mostly along an “arc
of deforestation” on the southern boundary of the Amazon basin. The Brazilian states of Rondonia,
Para and Mato Grasso saw the largest losses. Major roads such as the BR-163 running from north to
south across the 1985 image provided access to the forest. Twenty years later much of the forest is
gone, replaced by soy fields and cattle pastures. Severe droughts in 2005 and 2010 increased the
frequency of fire and have reinforced concerns that the Amazon is reaching a tipping point where
large areas of forest could be replaced by a more savannah-like ecosystem.
Jamari River, Brazil (36.41)
These are photos of the area around the Jamari River, in Rondonia, Brazil. The area in 1984 shortly
after construction of the hydroelectric dam began and in 2011 the reservoir flooded the upstream
forest and displaced many people. Also evident in the images is the deforestation that has affected
much of the region. The Belo Monte Dam is a hydroelectric dam complex under construction in the
state of Para, Brazil. The planned installed capacity of the dam complex would be 11,253 megawatts.
There has been opposition among the international community to the project’s potential
construction regarding its economic viability, the generation efficiency of the dam’s and impacts on
the region’s people and environment. On April 12, 2012 Greenpeace flew over the region of Altamira
to record in pictures the construction sites of Belo Monte and its impacts to the forest, river and city.
ACCIDENTS, ENERGY AND NATURAL DISASTERS
(at 38.16 minute)
New Orleans, USA (38.20)
In 29 August 2005 there were over fifty failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans
Louisiana and its suburbs following passage of Hurricane Katrina and landfall in Mississippi. The
levee and flood wall failures caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans and all of St. Bernard Parish.
Tens of billions of gallons of water spilled into vast areas of New Orleans flooding over 100,000
homes and businesses.
Japanese Earthquake (39.01)
Images before and after the Japanese earthquake in March 2011 show the city and the surrounding
region badly affected by the tsunami.
Athabasca, Canada (39.56)
The Athabasca oil sands region in Alberta, Canada forms the second-largest deposit of recoverable
oil in the world after Saudi Arabia. The energy and environmental costs of recovering the low quality
oil, however, limited its development for decades. As the price of oil has risen, there has been a rush
to exploit the deposits lying under parts of Canada's boreal forest. As seen in this image pair, the
bright footprint of the strip-mined areas has expanded dramatically into the forest since 1992. An
estimated US$40,000 million was invested in 2010 alone. The mines follow the course of the
Athabasca River, the dark brown ribbon of water that runs down the centre of the image. The river is
essential to the operation. Over the course of its very long lifetime, the river has eroded through the
sentiment that once covered the oil deposit, gradually bringing it close to the surface.
Deepwater Horizon (41.50)
The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion refers to the April 20, 2010 explosion and subsequent
fire on the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, which was owned and
operated by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field about forty miles (sixty
kilometres) southeast of the Louisiana coast. The explosion killed 11 workers and injured 16 others;
another 99 people survived without serious physical injury. It caused the Deepwater Horizon to burn
and sink and started a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This environmental disaster is
now considered one of the second largest in US history.
Photo exhibitions (42.39)
This is a photo from Ed Burtynsky’s photography series “Oil”. This land (let alone the thousands of
other oil sites) has been pillaged of its natural resource, leaving behind a barren desert of oil pumps.
POVERTY
(at 43.40 minute)
This is Kevin Carter’s Pulitzer Prize winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudane famine. The
picture depicts a famine stricken child being stalked by a vulture. The child is crawling towards the
United Nations food camp located a kilometre away. No one knows what happened to that child
including Kevin Carter, the photographer, who left the scene as soon as the photo was taken. He
later confided to friends that he wished he had intervened. Journalists at the same time were
warned never to touch famine victims for fear of disease. Three months later, and only weeks after
being bestowed with the Pulitzer Prize, Kevin Carter committed suicide.
UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGES: This video explores a range of international environmental
problems and resource conflicts, including loss of biological diversity, water allocation and
urbanisation. The students should reflect on the reasons behind these problems, and aim to
understand their consequences particularly in relation to climate change.
What’s the conclusion?
Is there hope?