The Kennet Geog Blog

 The Commission on Mitigation of Volcanic Disasters was organized by the Volcanological Society of Japan (VSJ). This commission was set up as a public forum for members and other stakeholders to exchange ideas and views on wide-ranging topics relating to the mitigation of volcanic disasters, to explore possible solutions to various issues pertaining to volcanic disasters and their mitigation, and to put forward recommendations for the benefit of society. In this paper, we present a broad overview of the objectives of this commission, highlighting some of the activities and achievements of the commission to date. The paper also provides an overview of disaster mitigation topics that have been taken up for consideration by the commission. Read the full article  here!

  From Cambodia to California, industrial-scale sand mining is causing wildlife to die, local trade to wither and bridges to collapse. And booming urbanisation means the demand for this increasingly valuable resource is unlikely to let up.  Read more using the following articles:  Article 1 Article 2 Revision notes available here

People who directly depend on the natural world for their livelihoods, like farmers and fishers, will be among the greatest victims of the climate crisis. In vulnerable hotspots, such as the arid lands of Kenya and Ethiopia, farming communities are already struggling with droughts and water scarcity that kill their cattle and threaten their very survival. The glacial-fed river basins of the Himalayan mountains, or the deltas of Bangladesh, India and Ghana, are increasingly prone to floods, landslides and powerful cyclones. As a result, men are often migrating further to keep their families going, looking for casual work in neighbouring towns or villages for a few days or weeks at a time, or to cities further away. Many try to return home when they can, with whatever they have earned. But during their absence, the entire burden of maintaining the family is on women. Read the full article  here!

  Artemisinin-based combination treatments (ACTs) are now generally accepted as the best treatments for uncomplicated falciparum malaria. They are rapidly and reliably effective. Efficacy is determined by the drug partnering the artemisinin derivative and, for artesunate–mefloquine, artemether–lumefantrine, and dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine, this usually exceeds 95%. Artesunate–sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine and artesunate–amodiaquine are effective in some areas, but in other areas resistance to the partner precludes their use. There is still uncertainty over the safety of artemisinin derivatives in the first trimester of pregnancy, when they should not be used unless there are no effective alternatives. Otherwise, except for occasional hypersensitivity reactions, the artemisinin derivatives are safe and remarkably well tolerated. The adverse effect profiles of the artemisinin-based combination treatments are determined by the partner drug. Most malaria endemic countries have now adopted a

Controlling malaria is one of the top health sector priorities in Ethiopia. The concrete prevention, control, and treatment interventions undertaken in the past two decades have substantially reduced the morbidity and mortality attributable to malaria. Emboldened by these past achievements, Ethiopia envisages to eliminate malaria by 2030. Realizing this ambition, however, needs to further strengthen the financial, technical, and institutional capacities to address the current as well as emerging challenges. It particularly needs to step up measures pertaining to diagnosis, domestic resource mobilization, vector surveillance, and seasonal weather forecasting. Read the full article  here!

Foreword from the Secretary of State This country’s fight against COVID-19 has shown just what we can do when we join forces against a common threat. During the pandemic we used this country’s ingenuity and endeavour to put the virus on the back foot, but now is the time to apply this same spirit and determination to another threat: cancer. It is time to declare a national war on cancer, which is the biggest cause of death from disease in this country. It is a menace that has taken far too many people before their time and caused grief and suffering on a massive scale. As a country, we have made great progress in recent years; in just the last 15 years, one-year survival has increased by more than 10 percentage points, a remarkable achievement. But despite this progress, I am determined that we will go much further. This is essential if we are to complete the job of recovering cancer services following the pandemic and use the impressive advances in diagnosis and treatments to radicall

 Video's more your thing? The Viking Geo has a wide array of fantastic videos to support your learning, browse through the channels playlists to find the units that fit our course.  The channel can be found  here.

COVID-19 cases have grown rapidly in a growing number of countries, triggering bold policy responses. This document focuses on containment and mitigation measures to flatten the peak of COVID‑19 and thus decrease as much as possible its huge strain on health care systems. The brief explains what containment and mitigation measures are, why there is a need to adopt a package of measures to enhance their overall impact, and then presents evidence on the relative effectiveness of each main measure, drawing from previous episodes of epidemic outbursts, largely to inform on a possible exit strategy once the virus is under control. Access the  Country Policy Tracker  to navigate the global response. Read more of the report  here!

This short paper explores the close links between diseases in human populations and the economic systems that govern the life of their communities.  Read more  here!

  The world is falling behind on commitments to protect and restore forests, according to the recent  Forest Declaration Assessment . There is no serious pathway to fixing climate change while forest losses continue at current rates, because global climate targets, sustainable development goals and forest commitments depend on each other. Read more  here! Read the forest pathways report  here!

Article Abstract:  In a disaster-prone country like Japan, learning how to live  with  disaster [ kyozon ] has been crucial. Particularly since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, disaster preparedness has been a primary concern of the government. Drawing on Paton’s (The phoenix of natural disasters: community resilience. Nova Science Publishers, New York, pp. 13–31,  2008 ) Community Engagement Theory, which endorses an integrated model that combines risk management with community development, this study discusses the case of Sakurajima Volcano (SV) situated in the south of Japan, with a focus on how the lessons learnt from previous eruption experiences have informed present-day preparedness activities. The study adapts Community Engagement Theory’s quantitative framework to a qualitative analysis to consider the preparedness teaching and learning of a population living with the everyday threat of volcanic hazards in the case of SV. The study argues that two particula

Colonialism profoundly shaped modern universities in Africa. It implanted institutions on African soil that were largely replicas of European universities rather than organically African. For historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe,  one problem  of universities in Africa “is that they are ‘Westernised”. He describes them as “local institutions of a dominant academic model based on a Eurocentric epistemic canon that attributes truth only to the Western way of knowledge production”. This model, he says, “disregards other epistemic traditions”. Read more by clicking  here!

 We often talk in lessons about how to master the art of evaluation and assessment in our essay questions. Read this article  here  which explores in some detail what this looks like. 

  New science shows how air pollution triggers lung cancer, how children are the most vulnerable in Delhi’s smog, and how even small rises in PM 2.5 increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and dementia.  Read the rest of the article  here!