Trivial World Maps Explained #2

A few weeks ago I did the first edition of this post, in which I looked at maps of the world that demonstrated trivial trends and attempted to explain some of them. You can read that here. I said I would do another one of these posts with a few more maps and here it is! Enjoy.

1. Where in the World Public Officials Are Most Likely to Accept Bribes

Countries which are most likely to accept bribes

This map is perhaps slightly more serious than the others I have looked at so far, it shows where in the world public officials are most likely to accept bribes in the form of money. This clearly can also be viewed as a scale of corruptness, and it can be seen that Nigeria and Argentina rank the highest. In 2010 when working to enhance its worldwide international controls, the Ralph Lauren company discovered that its Argentine subsidiary had been paying bribes to government officials. These particular bribes were paid through custom brokers in order to allow Ralph Lauren products to enter the country without necessary paperwork or inspections. Between 2005 and 2009 Ralph Lauren paid roughly $568,000 in bribes.

2. Alcohol Consumption per Capita

Alcohol consumption per capita

This map is clear to read and understand, with

20th Blog Post: The Best So Far

Although this may not seem like a huge achievement to some it is to me! This is my 20th blog post on 'The Geography Blog UK' and I am enjoying updating it so much. I thought I would bring your attention to my six favourite posts I have created so far in case you haven't read them yet!

My favourite posts so far :)

1. The British Seasons - I particularly love the pictures in this post, all captured on my good old iPhone. I discuss the impending winter weather.

2. Trivial World Maps Explained #1 - I here discuss maps and diagrams which are slightly more trivial than those normally seen which are extremely interesting. I learnt a great deal when writing this post!

3. What Determines Climate - This is something I learnt within lessons at school and wanted to share it in a blog post as I found it tied in with many areas of Geography as a subject.

4. City in the Spotlight: Barcelona - Once again it is the pictures I am most proud of here, they really give an insight into one of my favourite cities of all time.

5. A School Trip to the Lake District - I had such a great time on this trip despite what I anticipated and wanted to share my experience, there are also images which captured my time there.

6. Travelling Desires: The Ice Hotel - I have always wanted to visit here due to how unique it is and was intrigued to see its synoptic link with adventure and eco tourism!

And there we have it, a few of my few favourite posts I have published over the past few months!

The Geographies of: Animals

This is a post that I have been wanting to write for a while and I have finally found the time to write it. Immediately it may not be obvious what the link between animals and geography is, but hopefully in this post I will be able to show their connections with a few interesting and thought provoking examples. 

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Agriculture

This is perhaps one of the most obvious ways in which animals link to geography, as it is well known that animals are used widely to help with agriculture. This mainly occurs within less economically developed countries which cannot afford the necessary equipment, however I thought I would talk about an example which currently happens in the more developed world. Truffle hogs are a domestic form of pig that are used to extract truffles from the group of temperate forests in Europe and North America. This is not a new activity as using a pig for this purpose is believed to date as far back as the Roman Empire. In 1975 a truffle hog could cost up to 200 francs, which is the equivalent to thousands of pounds in today's money. However, in Italy the use of truffle hogs has been prohibited since 1985 as they were believed to reduce the production of the truffle.

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Predicting Natural Disasters

There have been several accounts of occasions when animals have behaved in a strange manner or erratically in the leading hours before a natural disaster such as an earthquake strikes. One example of this was in Haicheng, China in 1975 when animals in a zoo 600 miles away from the epicenter were exhibiting unusual behavior, zebras were banging into doors, lions were walking around restlessly when they normally slept and elephants swung their trunks wildly hitting several staff members. Authorities forecast that an earthquake was about the hit the area, based largely on the observations of the animals, and Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of Haicheng which had a population of 1 million people. Days later a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck ans only 2000 people were killed. Without the animals it is likely that the evacuation may not have occurred and many more lives would have been lost. 

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Treatment of illness

In recent years there have been insights into cancer by studying the biological similarities between humans and canines. Cancer is the leading cause of death in dogs, with lymphomas and malignancies forming in several locations within their bodies. Since the identification of the dog genome in 2005, researchers have been able to identify genetic similarities within cancers found in both species identifying where they overlap. By understanding how canines respond to standard chemotherapy, it can be seen if the same changes occur on the same human genes which could help medics to predict the responses of people diagnosed with lymphoma each year.

When searching on the internet for information to help me with this post, I came across the blurb for a book called 'Placing Animals' by Julie Urbanik and from reading I can see it relates closely to what I was trying to illustrate within my blog post. It sounds very interesting and I am therefore thinking of reading it. If anyone already has let me know if it was any good!

Thank you for reading!

My next 'The Geographies of..' will be on..........   VALENTINE'S DAY

Travelling Desires: The Ice Hotel

If some one said to me I could go to any hotel in the world I would choose the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden.

I had to do a presentation about this destination in Year 8 and ever since I have found myself dreaming of staying there. It was the world's first ice hotel and opened in 1990, being available to stay in between the months of December and April each year. The hotel and all its furniture is made from ice blocks which have been extracted from the nearby Torne River. The whole structure is kept at -5 degrees Celsius and I suppose, for this and many other reasons, staying at the Ice Hotel could be considered to be a form of adventure tourism.



A collage of images from the Ice Hotel website, showing activities which can be done in the winter season

For me, visiting this hotel would be all about engaging in unique activities which I would not be able to do in my every day to day life. This would include seeing the spectacle that is the aurora borealis and going on a dogsled ride through the Arctic Circle.

When I was looking at the list of activities I couldn't help but evaluate the Ice Hotel in terms of sustainable development as, being a Geography student, I know this is an important factor which would make it an even more appealing establishment. The Ice Hotel offers a chance to engage with the Sami local people with the website saying:  "When you come to Jukkasjärvi in Sweden, you also come to Sápmi – the Sami people’s own name of their land. The Sami (lappish people) that lives here speak their own language and have their own culture. During winter, ICEHOTEL arranges several Sami cultural experiences together with Nutti Sámi Sidá, a Sami activity company that arranges nature- and culture experiences based on the Sami culture and a high standard regarding to eco-tourism." I was pleased to see that they had recognised the importance of eco-tourism and the sustainability which goes with it. Many developments such as this would not consider their impact in both an environmental and social way, making a stay at the Ice Hotel a unique experience in more than one way.

However, as this trip would cost several thousand pounds I don't think I'll be making a booking anytime soon!

Let me know: Are there any travelling desires that you have?

Trivial World Maps Explained #1

There are numerous numbers of geographical diagrams which are visual depictions of trends and figures available on the internet, many of which I have featured before. Last week I came across an article which showed several world maps demonstrating more trivial trends across the globe, and therefore I thought I would comment on them in a blog post.

1. Most Common Surname

Most common surnames in each European country

This map is very self explanatory; it shows each European country and the most common surname within it. I was not surprised with them being Smith in England and Jones in Wales as it is common knowledge that these are common names. But the real question is: Why are some surnames more common than others? Previously in England, surnames were based on several factors of each individual. One categorisation was habitational, this was based upon the geographical location in which some one lived or a feature that they lived by, so many people who lived in one town would sure a common name. The occupational system was based upon the jobs which individuals had, so many blacksmiths were given the surname Smith which could explain why this is the most common in England. A person who tightened the weave in wool was known as Fuller, and so on. A more relaxed method was through nicknames, which were usually based upon a person's physical trait or their emotions. This resulted in people who had a tendency to talk a lot after a type of bird, a hairy person being named after a bear, and someone who had a bad temper being known as Moody. This shows that not all people with the same surname are related to each other and just that they one had a common interest or bond.

2. Legal Driving Side 

Which countries drive on the left or right side of the road

As an English person I am aware of the fact that we are in the minority when it comes to driving on the left side of the road. From this map it can be seen that it is Britain, Australia, India, parts of Southern Africa, Indonesia and New Zealand who drive on the left whilst the rest of the world dominate by driving on the right. 35% of the world drives on the left and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies. In the past, most people travelled on the left side of the road as in violent societies people wanted to hold their sword in their left hand and horse reins in their right. In addition most people found it easier to mount and dismount a horse from the light hand side, so it would be safer to do this onto the side of the road rather than in the middle of traffic. However in the 1700s in the United States and France, wagons were used and the driver used to sit on the rear left horse and as they wanted people to pass them on the left and ensure their wagon was moving safely, they drove on the right. The French Revolution led to most classes beginning to drive on the right. Later, Napoleon's conquests spread the new rightism to countries such as Belgium, Switzerland, Spain etc, but the states that had resisted Napolean continued to drive on the left. Left-hand driving was made mandatory in Britain in 1835. Countries that were part of the British Empire did this also, and today some of these countries such as India and Australia still drive on the left. An exception to this is Egypt, which had been conquered by Napoleon before becoming a British dependency. 

3. Coffee Consumption

The varying rates of coffee consumption in each country

From this map it can be seen that the countries with the highest coffee consumption is Nordic nations, Canada and Brazil. It wasn't the countries that grabbed my attention, however, it was the countries which I know grow coffee beans whose consumption is extremely low. The optimum conditions for growing coffee are along the Equatorial Zone, between the latitudes of 25 degrees north and 30 degrees south. The countries who produce the largest amount of coffee include Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, India and Ethiopia. Brazil has one of the highest consumption rates which makes sense due to them being the largest producer of coffee beans, but countries such as India and Ethiopia who also produce significant amounts do not consume much at all. This could suggest that, as their economy is underdeveloped, they need the income from exporting coffee and cannot afford to retain any for their own consumption. Brazil's economy overtook the size f that of the United Kingdom in 2011 which means they would be able to retain some of their good produced, instead of it being fully subsidence farming.

I hope that you found these slightly more trivial topics interesting, and I think this further demonstrates the point that anything can be thought of in a geographical way. I will do a second edition of this post soon, so look out for it!

Town in the spotlight: Hay on Wye

Roughly this time last year in October half term I went on a family holiday to a small town in Wales called Hay-On-Wye. I'm ashamed to say that it was my first time visiting Wales, despite being 16 at the time. The town is right on the England-Wales border, so the cottage where we were staying was technically in England, yet after a 2 minute walk down the road we were in Wales again! Despite this, I can surely say that it was a town which to me represented the true rurality of Wales which I had never really experienced before.

Below are some of the pictures I took whilst there, some in Hay-On-Wye itself and the others in the surrounding countryside of the Brecon Beacons.

From top left to bottom right: small lanes in Hay-On-Wye, the sign marking the English border, the rest: The Brecon Beacons

Named after the River Wye, the town lies within the Brecon Beacons National Park and is very close-knit with fewer than 2000 habitants. It is known as many by 'the town of books' as it is home to over 30 book shops stocking a variety of second hand and specialist books. There were a few other gift shops in the town and a couple of cafes, and though they were quite charming, I found as a teenager there wasn't quite enough to do. Subsequently, my family and I went to the Brecon Beacons on many occasions for long walks in the stunning scenery. 

It only rained heavily once when I was there and it was quite frequently sunny, despite what people had told me the 'typical' weather of Wales was. What I noticed the most was just how cold it was at all times during the day, and when looking at the Black Mountains I could see the amount of snow beginning to increase.

I really did enjoy my trip to Hay-On-Wye, however I think that there is not enough on offer to do there which would allow me to make a second visit. I loved Wales though and it truly was beautiful scenery.

My rating of Hay-On-Wye : ★★★

Japan's Population Problems

I studied population modules at both GCSE and AS level in my geography lessons and found it to be very interesting. So when I saw the BBC were showing a documentary about Japan's population shrinking in size, I was very intrigued to find out why. It was a fascinating programme which I would urge everyone to watch, as this situation is so different to those seen in most of the world and their are situations present which we can only comprehend.

Below is a link to watch the programme via YouTube as it is no longer available on BBC iPlayer:

The most shocking fact I learnt from this documentary is that thee size of the Japanese population is predicted to decrease by a third in the next 40-50 years. This would have catastrophic effects on a global scale and therefore this issue must be corrected as soon as possible.

If you do watch this documentary, let me know your thoughts on the Japanese population size and whether it can be a beneficial thing too.

The Geographies of: Bonfire Night

Bonfire Night, Guy Fawkes Night or Firework Night, whatever you call it, is an annual event held on 5th November in Great Britain. I'm sure most people are aware of its historical origin, I remember spending a long time studying it at primary school myself and was quite intrigued by the story. For those who don't know, Guy Fawkes was a member of the Gunpowder Plot who placed explosives underneath the Houses of Lords in an attempt to assassinate King James I in 1605. He was caught before catastrophe was caused and sentenced to the death penalty shortly after.

The Gunpowder Plot

Bonfire night has now become an annual event or tradition that is withheld within Great Britain. Traditionally, families and friends gather together around a bonfire and burn stuffed scare-crow-like figurines of Guy Fawkes which children make as a fun activity. Many people combine this with barbecued food such as sausages, baked potatoes and treats such as toffee apples. The fun and festivities are then followed by a firework display and sparklers. It seems strange to celebrate such an event that occurred a long time ago, and bonfire night is meant to be a day of thankfulness and reflect on what could have been, but more recently it has become an excuse to gather together and enjoy fireworks.

However, with fireworks comes antisocial behavior. In the United Kingdom it is estimated that nearly 1000 people become injured during the months of October and November as a result of fireworks. Nearly half of these required hospital treatment, and the majority of cases occurred at family events or private parties.Calls to the London fire brigade triple on the night of 5th November and hundreds of pets go missing due to the stress. To try and reduce the impact of Bonfire night, several laws have been put in place by the UK government which include:

Fireworks cannot be sold to anyone under the age of 18.
It is illegal to set fire works off between the hours of 11pm and 7am, excluding Bonfire Night, New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year and Diwali.
You can only buy fireworks from registered sellers for private use on certain days of the year.

Despite the disadvantages bonfire night has economical and social benefits too, with much revenue being made from firework sales and shows, and people gathering together at an event allowing communities to socialise with those they normally would not.

Whatever you are doing this bonfire night, I hope you have a great time and stay safe :)

My next 'The Geographies of..' will be on..........   ANIMALS

The British Seasons

We are well into Autumn now here in the UK, with leaves changing colour and dropping of the trees and temperatures beginning to drop. I love all the seasons and what they individually bring, so I have created a collage of images taken through the four seasons in areas which are local to me on my iPhone. I live in the South East of England and, when reflecting on the images, I can see that it is a wonderful place to be as there is easy access to both the capital city and countryside.

From top left to bottom right: the tower of London, my back garden, my home town, Kingston Upon Thames, Nonsuch park, Box Hill, lavender fields, Cheam park, the London eye, Hammersmith bridge, Greenwich, my home town

In England we have now become accustomed to having a significant amount of snow fall most years, however there have been many reports claiming that there is 'record-breaking snow' predicted for the month of November.

Here is a link for an interesting article on this topic: Daily Express

My Favourite TED Talk

As a keen geographer, I often find myself on the TED website : an online catalogue of conferences which take place globally discussing matters concerning technology, entertainment and design amongst many more subject areas. It was first introduced to me by one of my teachers 3 years ago and since then I have been an avid watcher. Since June 2006 the talks from TED annual conferences have been available to watch for free online, and with more than 1500 videos available I am never stuck for anything to look at.

My favourite TED talk is also the very first one I watched. I'm not sure why it made such a great impression on me, but it did. The conference is titled 'Global population growth, box by box' and was delivered by the Swedish academic Hans Rosling who is extremely captivating and holds an audiences attention effortlessly, which is a real achievement with a group of Year 10s in a hot classroom on a Friday afternoon! 

Rosling explains the global issue of population growth and illustrates how the world has developed and what needs to be done to make every nation in the world a developed one. A huge topic and yet viewers are well informed by the end of the 10 minutes. 

"Well, I'm not an optimist, neither am I a pessimist, I'm a serious possibilist, It's a new category."Hans Rosling

I would urge you to watch the talk which is linked below, and perhaps it will inspire you like it did me.

In 2011 over 500 million people had watched a TED confernce and I'm sure this figure has risen, showing that it's perhaps not only me who is an avid watcher. The TED slogan is 'Ideas worth spreading' and I must agree with them.

City in the Spotlight: Barcelona

In a recent post I wrote about the globalisation which I observed on my holiday to Barcelona. Since then I have had requests to feature some of my photographs from this trip to share with you. I was only in the city for just over 48 hours but managed to see many sights in my limited time. I hope you enjoy this documentation of my travels.

La Sagrada Família

La Sagrada Familia stained glass windows

La Sagrada Familia ongoing construction

The view from La Sagrada Familia

The view from La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia

The Hansel and Gretel house in Parc Guell

Parc Guell

The lizard monument in Parc Guell

Columbus monument

The docks

Old roads

Paella

View from my apartment

Barcelona Square

The market

My rating of Barcelona : ★★★★★

The Geographies of: Food

The geographies of food is a well recognised area of human geography and can be defined as 'the patterns of food production and consumption on a local to global scale'. I am particularly interested in this topic and am keen to explore it further, discovering how it links to other fields of study and seeing its evolution over time.

Eating a meal in the 1950s was quite a different event to what it may be now. The woman of the household would spend approximately two hours producing a meal and pudding from scratch in addition to laying the table, taking care of the children, making herself look 'presentable' and preparing for her husband to return from work. The dinner must then be served as soon as he walked through the door, and tidied away by the woman quickly after whilst the man retired to read the evening paper. In those times this was seen as acceptable, mainly due to the status of women within the country. A woman's job was to look after and manage the household due to a lack of education and sexism, with the husband working full time in order to provide for his family. Nowadays these are what we consider to be 'traditional' values and is upheld in very few households today in the United Kingdom.

Representative of a 1950's house wife

The education of women has increased dramatically and the way in which they are viewed has also taken a turn for the better. In October 2012, it was estimated that 56% of women in the country work full time compared to 87% of men. Due to the current economic climate, many mothers have been forced to return to work and not be the stay at home wives they once were at large, and many women these days put their career first which never would have been seen in the 1950s. Consequently, as often both the people in a relationship are working full time, creating meals has become much more of a team effort between the man and the woman, but has also become a necessity rather than a large event as it used to be. In addition, very few families eat around a traditional dining table and discuss the days events or debate on current events as it previously was done, with 70% of families in the UK admitting to eating their main meal on the sofa or in front of a television.

It's not only how we eat that has changed, what we eat has too. Increasing amounts of fast food and convenience meals has resulted in people having a diet high in calories and lacking in nutrients, which is often due to limited time in which to prepare food unlike in our 1950s scenario. Back then fresh produce would have been bought from independent shops each day, and waste was minimal. Therefore it makes sense why obesity levels are exponentially rising.

It may not be immediately thought that food and geography link, but they do! And that is one of the reasons why I love the subject as much as I do.

If you are interested to read further, click on this link.

My next 'The Geographies of..' will be on..........   BONFIRE NIGHT

¿Por qué?

Recently I went to Barcelona, and as my first time to mainland Spain I was not sure what to expect. I experienced authentic Spanish musicians playing in the street, ate real Spanish paella and even swam in Spanish sea but it was things that weren't so 'Spanish' which surprised me. When walking down Las Ramblas, the main shopping street in the city, I was shocked to see several H&M, Zara, Footlocker and MAC shops around every corner. I did not go into many of these chains as they are available here in England and seem to me to be 'English', but of course they are not. It's only since I've been home that I thought properly about it and asked myself: why is it considered a bad thing to have those shops in Spain?

Las Ramblas

Afterall, H&M is a Swedish multinational retail clothing company and Zara originated in Spain itself. So, why then do people consider it to be a negative thing that chains like this are present in a place such as Barcelona? H&M is a staple part of the UK high street and has been for years, but in theory it has branched overseas to us in just the same way as it has in Spain, and yet it is not seen so negatively in Britain. I therefore concluded that the source of this anger is due to a loss of culture in the country as these TNCs 'invade and take over'.

I, however, do not believe this is the issue. When walking back from the beach I got lost and walked through the back streets and alleyways of the city to get back to where I was staying and I am so glad to have found myself in this situation. By doing this I got to see the real Barcelona, small charming churches, cafes where community meetings take place, quintessential bars and most importantly individual local shops which are not present like this on Las Ramblas. 

To me, it is more of an issue of your typical tourists. All holiday makers flock to the same areas, and soon these develop more tacky souvenir shops and high street chains appear to take advantage of the large footfall and make money. And visitors seem to thrive off this?! If only people would go out of their way to visit the small back roads, walk to where they wish to go instead of ride in a taxi and care to learn a few words of the native language, they would discover that the Spanish culture is very much still alive in Barcelona. You just need to know where to look.

Barcelona

And on a final note, if you haven't been to Barcelona: you should. I loved it :) 

The Geographies of: Football

When on the BBC News website I came across an article about Gareth Bale, the football player who has just been signed to Real Madrid, and the debate which has erupted over what his new salary will be. It was the world's most expensive transfer at £85m and Bale will earn £300,000 each week. I was both shocked and horrified when I heard this because personally I can see no justification in how a footballer player earns more in a week than a doctor or fire fighter ever will. I understand this is a point which is constantly raised and arguments can be fought for both sides but I cannot accept it as right. The point to this is that it got me thinking about how modern society has developed and how the general public are very accepting of things which to me are personally out of control.

Gareth Bale 

I believe that globalisation has had a huge impact on society today. As time moves forward, the amount of leisure time people have an increased quality of life and a decent stable income. It can be seen in many examples that activities people once did for enjoyment during leisure time have escalated and become major sectors and co-operations in developed countries and modern societies. For example, eating in a restaurant was once a rare treat in which people indulged however we now see them everywhere and using their services is of the norm. It has developed that McDonaldisation is actually a term and McDonalds is the basis for a development measurement index which is used by professionals in the business world. Once again with the example of football, as people had more free time and became more skilled at their hobbies, it allowed for the development of professional teams which gained extreme popularity, were followed by a large audience and allowed the opportunity to become an enormous part of modern economies.

A graph to show a footballer's salary in relative terms

To conclude, it is the development of a country which allows certain 'leisurely' activities to boom into massive districts which generate a vast amount of money. Though I will never agree with the extortionate amount of money men kicking a ball round a field earn, I must admit that it is impressive how what used to be a simple sport has become a global empire.

My next 'The Geographies of..' will be on..........   FOOD

What determines climate?

With a recent spell of sunshine and warm temperatures here in England, I thought it would be interesting to look at the mechanism behind the Earth and the wider solar system in order to see what influences climate in different locations throughout the world. There are several factors which affect this.

The eccentricity, obliquity and procession of the Earth change slowly over time, which causes changes in the proportion of solar energy which reaches the Earth. These are known as Milankovitch Cycles and are so called due to the Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovitch. He used these cycles as an aid when explaining the retreat of the polar ice caps and, although he was born in the 19th century, many modern day scientists agreed with his early work on this topic and believe that the cycles do in fact have an impact on the climate of the Earth.

Eccentricity is the shape of the Earth's orbit. When planets are in their closest approach to the sun, this is known as the perihelion and the opposite is the aphelion, with eccentricity being a measure of how these differ. The Earth's eccentricity follows a cycle which is repeated every 100,000 years. The larger this eccentricity is, the greater the difference in solar radiation which reaches the Earth when comparing perihelion and aphelion. Eccentricity can vary between 0.0005 and 0.0607, with a current value of 0.017 which is a 6.7% difference. On a long term timescale, changes to the Earth's eccentricity can affect the Earth's climate.

A grpah to show the Earth's eccentricity cycles

The tilt of the Earth's axis is currently 23.5 degrees and, during the seasons, the effect of this tilt changes on different locations throughout the world. In December, the northern hemisphere receives energy from the sun at more oblique angles which results in a 'winter' climate, and in June the axis is now tilted towards the sun so less oblique angles of energy are received and a warmer climate is experienced. We can see from this that the distance from the sun is not a major determining factor for seasons. The obliquity of the Earth's axis follows a 40,000 year cycle, with a minimum obliquity of 22.1 degrees and a maximum of 24.5 degrees.

The Earth's procession completes a 26,000 year cycle which has resulted in the Earth's axis currently pointing at Polaris (our Northern Star), so therefore we can expect that in half a cycle, 13,000 years, it will point towards the star Vega. Procession is caused by the gravitational effects experienced by the Earth from the sun and moon.

A graph to show the Earth's procession cycles

As mentioned earlier, the Milankovitch cycles result in long-term fluctuations in energy which reaches the Earth. Although there is evidence to suggest that the changes in insolation have had an influence on the world's climate, these changes alone are not enough to explain patterns in past climate.

A graph to show global temperature changes using deuterium isotopes from the Vostok ice cores

Varying Aspects of Global World Health - 2

This is the second instalment of the 'varying aspects of global world health' post; I will once again be using pictures from Worldmapper. All images belong to them.

Stillbirths

Stillbirths

Stillbirths are much more of an issue in MEDCs than maternal mortality or infant mortality, though once again it is an LEDC (Mauritania), which has the highest rate. In the developed world, there is a greater knowledge and understanding of pre-natal issues meaning warning signs can be picked up more easily by the mother and at frequent checkups which are available in these areas in the world. For example, a mother would know that if her foetus has not kicked in a few days there may be an issue and if at a scan the doctors can see all is not well an emergency caesarean can take place to deliver the baby before it dies inside the womb. In LEDCs they simply do not have the knowledge or healthcare measures to monitor pregnancies and prevent stillbirths from occurring. The UK and other MEDCs are larger in this map than they have been with others because stillbirths can still occur late in a pregnancy for reasons unknown to medical professionals.

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Infant Mortality

Infant Mortality

Infant mortality refers to babies who will die within the first year of their lives and in 2002 there were 7.2 million infant deaths worldwide. As can be seen in the map, it is once again MEDCs who experience this the most, with Sierra Leone having 165 per 1000 live births dying before the age of one. There are many contributing factors which affect infant mortality, with a lack of medical care and postnatal care being the most significant. In countries such as India, there are widespread diseases such as cholera and in Africa malaria, which means newly born infants are highly susceptible to life-threatening illnesses at a critical point in their life as there are little measures in place to prevent the spread of disease. When ill, there are few and widespread medical centres which have little medical resources to deal with such issues and return the children to full health, relying heavily on aid. Therefore, it is only in few cases that the child will live long after one year after developing or catching an illness or disease. Therefore, we can conclude that infant mortality rates are low in MEDCs, such as Sweden who have one of the lowest amounts of infant mortality, due to little or no epidemic type diseases being present in the country and the developed medical system to return ill children back to good health.

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Maternal Mortality

Maternal Mortality

Maternal mortality is linked to infant mortality in the fact that they both occur due to underdeveloped medical systems or the lack of access to what little treatment they can have. Once again on the map it is Africa, in particular Sierra Leone, with the highest rates. India is the most enlarged with developed nations such as the UK and USA being minuscule. In these LEDCs there is not pre-natal and post-natal support available like in MEDCs, meaning health advice is not given and any complications simply are not recognised, with childbirth being the time when the highest percentage of maternal deaths will occur. This is because only few women will have their child in presence of a doctor or health care professional and therefore any unseen issues such as high blood pressure, hemagering or infection after childbirth can easily result in death. 



Thomas Malthus: Pessimist or Realist?

For those of you who don't know, Thomas Malthus was an English clergyman and economist who lived from 1766 to 1834. He is well credited for his text 'An essay on the principle of population' in which Malthus expressed a more negative view on the dangers of over-population.

Thomas Malthus

Human population increases geometrically (2,4,8,16,32 etc), whereas food supplies can only grow arithmetically (2,4,6,8,10,12 etc) so by reading in between the lines it can be seen that population growth is set to exponentially rise above the amount of food which can be supplied. However, according to Malthus, population growth is limited by certain 'checks', which prevent the population increasing beyond the optimum number of people for which resources can support. These are either negative or positive checks, which can further be categorised into 'misery', 'vice' or 'moral restraint'. Malthus went on to predict that, as a result of his research, if the population increased above the carrying capacity of the land, it would have to be controlled otherwise widespread famine would occur as there was no foreseeable way that the demand could be met.

A graph to demonstrate the Malthusian dilema

We of course now know that this is not the case and that food demands, which are beyond what we should be able to meet, have been supplied due to advancements in society. This allows us to identify the limitations of the Malthusian theory:

• He did not take into account the Green Revolution or the Agricultural revolution
• Such remarkable advances in technology and medicine were not predicted
• The increase in agricultural crop yields were not known. Today it is possible to produce enough food for a thousand people from the area the size of a football pitch
• Malthus did not see the improvements in the transport and communication of food which were to come
• He did not even begin to imagine that surpluses of food were even possible, such as the 1992 European surpluses which reached 26 million tonnes

So to conclude, do I believe that Malthus was a pessimist or realist? Well, I think Malthus was an inquisitive man who saw the facts but didn't analyse them, who had a 18th century mind but didn't project it, who worked mathematically and not geographically, but most importantly, a man who needed to realise the capability of the amazing human race. 

Question: Do you believe that Malthus was a pessimist or a realist?

Varying Aspects of Global World Health - 1

Today's post is a reasonably long piece, as I will be exploring certain aspects of varying world health. This post will be aided by the website Worldmapper which is an excellent resource for comparing health situations globally and how they differ in different regions. The website also provides graphics to visually show statistics, providing a clearer perspective. All graphics used are copyrighted to them. The maps you see will show countries to be distorted in comparison to their normal shape and size; this is to show variation. For example, a low life expectancy in Africa will show the country appealing smaller than normal and a comparatively large life expectancy in the UK will show the country to be swollen. 

Life Expectancy



Life Expectancy

Life expectancy follows the general trend that MEDCs have a higher value and LEDCs considerably lower however there can be exceptions to this. The country with the highest life expectancy is Japan, which is arguably an NIC as it is developed in some respects such as its healthcare, accounting for this rank but is underdeveloped, or developing, in terms of its economy. A major factor to Japan having a life expectancy of 81.5 years is the lifestyle choice of its citizens, which contrasts with that of people in the UK, for example. The Japanese have a diet which is proportionally low in processed fat, in particular saturated fats, which means that diseases such as heart disease and associated types of cancer which play a major role in nations such as the UK and North America due to an unhealthy diet and rising rates of obesity. In addition, the Japanese do not indulge in alcohol in a social way as other nations do, reducing liver disease and the other illnesses which come with the toxin. The country with the lowest life expectancy is Zambia, which is an extremely poor, deprived and underdeveloped country within Africa whose other southern nations also have an extremely low life expectancy due to similar reasons. An unequal spread of world resources is a major contributor to this which is linked to the relative climate of each country resulting in famine due to both lack of food and failed crops because of harsh temperatures and a lack of water. Clean water is rarely available and the sources used for drinking result in the wide spread of cholera and diarrhoea. Malaria is also widespread, as well as the other extremes of HIV and Aids. In summary, LEDCs generally have a low life expectancy due healthcare which is underdeveloped and insufficient for the number of patients who are ill due to the other problems of the country as mentioned above. MEDCs have a higher life expectancy due to a vast and developed healthcare system, for example the NHS in the UK, and the education of the nation teaching the importance of a healthy life style, how to prevent disease and most importantly how to cure it.

Question: 'More than a third of babies born in 2010 will live to 100'. Will this be a burden or benefit to future society? 

Interesting article here

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HIV/AIDS Prevalence

I apologise for generalising these two different states of health as one, unfortunately they are often grouped when in the media and therefore some resources do not distinguish between the two. I studied HIV/AIDS at school and found it to be a fascinating topic with an interesting and somewhat questionable origin. Before we look more deeply into the global patterns, here are a few key facts about HIV/AIDS:

• HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
• AIDS was believed to first appear in Central Africa in 1959 but wasn't fully recognised until 1981
• Swaziland is the area in the world which is most affected by HIV - with a prevalence of ~30%
• There are more than 100,000 people living with HIV in the UK
• In the world more than 33 million people are living with HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS Prevalence

HIV is most prevalent within the continent of Africa, with Southern Asia being the nation with the second highest amount of records. In Africa, there is little contraception used due to being unable to access them or the fact that such methods are against the religion of some settlements. Even if contraception is provided by aid groups/NGOs or subsidised by governments trying to lower the birth rate or reducing the spread of HIV, people are not always aware of how to use contraception due to a lack of education and therefore its effectiveness is lost. As a large proportion of sexual intercourse is unprotected, HIV is spread as a STI (sexual transmitted infection) and as it is often culturally normal for polygamy to occur; one man can infect a number of women who may have more sexual partners. It is now becoming more frequent for children to be born with HIV, as it is an infection of the blood, if their mother is a carrier of the disease. In the Western world, the number of HIV cases is rapidly rising, particularly in the UK. The first initial cases were normally within the gay communities as condoms were sparsely used and HIV passed between them as an STI however as casual sex and unprotected sex are now occurring more often, HIV is prevalent between all groups and sexualities of society. Ironically, this is once again due to contraception not being used, just like in LEDCs, even though these nations have high levels of education and knowledge as to why contraception is important. However, the occurrence of death due to HIV/AIDS in these countries is significantly lower than LEDCs as they have the advanced medicine to prolong the life of people with HIV.

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HIV/AIDS Related Deaths

HIV/AIDS Related Deaths

It is clear to see from this map that Africa has the largest amount of deaths due to HIV and AIDS as well as the highest prevalence of HIV. In 2002 nearly 80% of the 2.6 million deaths from AIDS occurred in sub-Saharan Africa where the disease, usually untreated, caused more than 6000 deaths every day and accounted for almost one in five of all deaths and half of the deaths of adults aged 15 to 59 years. This is primarily due to the fact that there is a lack of medicine and treatment available to people who are infected with HIV to prolong this stage and stop AIDS developing which is when death can occur. In 2002 HIV/AIDS caused 40% of deaths in children under 15 years old, who are most likely to be born with it due to blood genetics. Though cases in the developed world are rising, the deaths are significantly less frequent due to superior medical care to stop AIDS developing and prolong life.

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Click here for a link, which will take you to a 'Geofile' which is addressing Aids in the 21st Century - a great piece of extended reading which gives a broad overview of this vast topic.

Question: Do you think AIDS, as a communicable disease, has more of an impact on development of a country than a non-communicable disease such as obesity?