Energy for the future

Why do we need to care about the future you may ask. We are gambling with the future of all living creatures. We burn fossil fuels at a high rate and in the process polluting our atmosphere contributing to global warming. There are just over 7 billion people living on the earth. It will make a huge difference even if every individual starts changing the way we live and pollute the earth.

The burning of fossil fuels releases a lot of harmful gasses (carbon dioxide and methane), into our atmosphere. Industries (factories and thermo-electricity plants) and motor vehicles are some of the biggest contributors of global pollution. We, as individuals can consume less and use motor vehicle transport less. Is it that easy? Yes. On a small scale, in your house, you can make a difference.

China, USA, India, Russia, Japan, Germany, UK and Canada are the biggest contributors to pollution. They have big populations, large industrial development. It is interesting to see that it is mainly the industrialized countries that contribute the most. Does money = air pollution?

Lasengmiao Power Plant in Mongolia

In South Africa most of our pollution comes from our power plants (thermo electricity) which burns millions of tons of coal annually. In Africa the biggest problem is logging – the cutting down of trees, which is then burn for fuel and burning to clear forests for agricultural land.

How are we going to solve the problem?

We need to find alternative energy resources quickly! We need to utilize sustainable resources such as wind, sun, water, tides, waves and biofuels to generate energy.

Earth Pollution

How do we pollute the earth?

A.   AIR POLLUTION

Smog hanging over cities is the most familiar and obvious form of air pollution. But there are different kinds of pollution—some visible, some invisible—that contribute to global warming

Air pollution can have serious consequences for the health of human beings, and also severely affects natural ecosystems. Major primary pollutants produced by human activity include Sulphur oxides, Nitrogen oxides, Carbon monoxide, Carbon dioxide, Volatile organic compounds, toxic metals, chlorofluorocarbons, ammonia, odour’s, and radioactive pollutants.

B.   LIGHT POLLUTION

NASA reported that as a result of light pollution, roughly two-thirds of the world’s population can no longer look upwards at night and see the Milky Way

It can also confuse animal navigation, alter competitive interactions, change predator-prey relations, and cause physiological harm which have a huge impact on ecosystems.

C.   WATER POLLUTION

Water is already one of the MOST valuable yet under-priced commodities in the world, as we are simply unable to live without it…and it is estimated that over 14,000 people DIE every day as a result of water pollution.

Water pollution is any chemical, physical or biological change in the quality of water that has a harmful effect on any living thing that drinks or uses or lives (in) it.

D. OCEAN POLLUTION

Over 80% of marine pollution comes from land-based activities in the form of toxic chemicals (Industrial, agricultural, household cleaning, gardening, and automotive products regularly end up in coastal waters), fertilizer runoff, sewage disposal, seas of garbage, and a small percentage from oil spills.

An enormous island of trash twice the size of Texas is floating in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii.

Homelands of South Africa

Ten self-governing territories for different black ethnic groups were established as part of the policy of apartheid. Four of which were granted "independence" by South Africa. On 27 April 1994 the Homelands were incorporated into South Africa

Homelands of South Africa

Remember Sobukwe! - South Africa

Bob Marley and African Nationalism

See the questions in Activity 8 and watch this music video.

Standardised Test 9 May

You need to study the following for the test -

• The effects of World War II on human rights (Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
• The significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The Civil Rights Movement in the USA

The Test will be 50 minutes long with a total of 40 marks.

The UN and the "Declaration of Human Rights"

In April 1945, delegates from fifty countries met in San Francisco full of optimism and hope. The goal of the United Nations Conference on International Organization was to fashion an international body to promote peace and prevent future wars. The ideals of the organization were stated in the preamble to its proposed charter: “We the peoples of the United Nations are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.”

The formation of the UN in San Fransisco

The Charter of the new United Nations organization went into effect on October 24, 1945, a date that is celebrated each year as United Nations Day.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

By 1948, the United Nations’ new Human Rights Commission had captured the world’s attention. Under the dynamic chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt—President Franklin Roosevelt’s widow, a human rights champion in her own right and the United States delegate to the UN—the Commission set out to draft the document that became the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Roosevelt, credited with its inspiration, referred to the Declaration as the international Magna Carta for all mankind. It was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

The Member States of the United Nations pledged to work together to promote the thirty Articles of human rights that, for the first time in history, had been assembled and codified into a single document. In consequence, many of these rights, in various forms, are today part of the constitutional laws of democratic nations.

To see a summary of the "Declaration of Human Rights" follow this link:

http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/what-are-human-rights/universal-declaration-of-human-rights/articles-1-15.html

To see videos on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King go to the Y - Drive and the Social Sciences document. Open the Human Rights document.