The Kennet Geog Blog

  Rishi Sunak, David Cameron and King Charles are just three of the more than 70,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries at the latest UN climate summit in Dubai,  COP28 . But they are among hundreds who will have travelled there by private jet. In fact, the UK prime minister, foreign secretary and king even travelled in  three separate planes . At COP27 in Egypt last year, around  315 private jet journeys  took place. This is an extraordinary statistic, especially as fewer world leaders attended that COP, as many were busy at a G20 summit in Bali. That’s why we set up a team of academic experts to estimate the carbon footprint of travel to this year’s meeting, COP28 in Dubai, for different modes of transport including private jets. We ultimately want to empower attendees to make informed climate-conscious travel choices. We also compared the carbon footprints for the past three COPs to help see where the conferences could be located in order to dissuade attendees from using private je

 This is a free online lecture / discussion following from the travels of award winning journalist Shafik Meghji. The lecture runs from 7pm-8:15pm on 13th February 2024!  Blending travel writing, history and reportage, Shafik wrote   Crossed off the Map,  which gives an insight into his Bolivia journey from the Andes to the Amazon. He explores Bolivia’s turbulent past and contemporary challenges. He tells the story of the country’s profound and unexpected influence on the wider world over the last 500 years – fragments of history largely forgotten beyond its borders. Once home to one of the wealthiest cities on Earth, Bolivia kickstarted globalisation, helped to power Europe’s economic growth and trigger dynastic collapse in China, and played host to everyone from Che Guevara to Butch Cassidy. He also explores how ordinary Bolivians in and around the world’s highest city, largest salt flat, richest silver mine and most biodiverse national park are coping with some of the touchstone iss

In December 2013, following a political struggle between Salva Kiir and Riek Machar that led to Machar's  removal  as vice president, violence  erupted  between presidential guard soldiers from the two largest ethnic groups in South Sudan. Soldiers from the Dinka ethnic group aligned with Kiir and those from the Nuer ethnic group supported Machar. Amid chaos, Kiir announced that Machar had  attempted  a coup, and violence spread quickly to Jonglei, Upper Nile, and Unity states. From the outbreak of conflict, armed groups  targeted civilians  along ethnic lines, committed rape and sexual violence, destroyed property, looted villages, and recruited children into their ranks. Read more  here ,  here  and  here!

  Perilously situated between rising sea levels and pressures from upstream lie coastal river deltas and their roughly half a billion inhabitants. These regions have played an important role in societal development since the last ice age, offering flat, fertile lands with abundant freshwater which are ideal for agriculture. In recent times, coastal river deltas have become hubs of the global shipping trade, giving rise to fast-growing megacities such as Dhaka, Cairo and Shanghai. But these areas are now  under threat . And not all of the blame can be placed on climate change. Read article 1  here! Read article 2  here!

As the gavel came down on the latest round of climate talks in Dubai, there were declarations of “we united, we acted, we delivered” from the COP28 presidency. This was met by a sense of   déjà vu   among delegates of the Alliance of Small Island States ( Aosis ), an intergovernmental organisation representing the nations most vulnerable to climate change. In her post-summit  statement , Aosis lead negotiator Anne Rasmussen expressed confusion that the  UAE Consensus , COP28’s final agreement, was approved when representatives from small-island developing states (or  Sids  were not in the room. While some delegates hailed the  consensus  as “ beginning of the end ” of the fossil fuel era, Aosis countered that the document contained a “litany of loopholes” which did little to advance the key actions needed to stave off climate breakdown and deliver justice to islands and low-lying states facing the gravest consequences of the climate crisis. Read the full article  here!

  The Global Cooling Watch report demonstrates the potential and the pathways to achieve near-zero emissions from cooling. Using a model created specifically for this report, it presents pathways to get to near-zero emissions in the key cooling sectors and provides a call to action for countries to pursue the policies and strategies that have the greatest impact in reducing cooling-related emissions and advancing sustainable cooling for all. Read the full report  here!

  The EU and the Nato have proved crucial in bringing together their member states around a coordinated response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Recognising the continued Russian aggression, the two organisations recently signed a  joint declaration  committing to play mutually reinforcing, complementary and coherent roles while also reaffirming Nato as the foundation of Euro-Atlantic security. Read more  here.

  On the morning of December 6 1917, a French cargo ship called SS Mont-Blanc collided with a Norwegian vessel in the harbour of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. The SS Mont-Blanc, which was laden with 3,000 tons of high explosives destined for the battlefields of the first world war, caught fire and  exploded . The resulting blast released an amount of energy equivalent to roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT, destroying a large part of the city. Although it was far from the front lines, this explosion left a lasting imprint on Halifax in a way that many regions experience environmental change as a result of war. The attention of the media is often drawn to the destructive explosions caused by bombs, drones or missiles. And the devastation we have witnessed in cities like Aleppo, Mosul, Mariupol and now Gaza certainly serve as stark reminders of the horrific impacts of military action. However,  research  is increasingly uncovering broader and longer-term consequences of war that extend well be

Medicinal plants grow naturally around us. Over centuries, cultures around the world have learned how to use plants to fight illness and maintain health. These readily available and culturally important traditional medicines form the basis of an accessible and affordable health-care regime and are an important source of livelihood for indigenous and rural populations. Increasingly, medicinal species that reside in natural areas have received scientific and commercial attention. In the United States, of the top 150 prescription drugs, at least 118 are based on natural sources. A child suffering from leukemia in 1960 faced a 10 percent chance of remission; by 1997, the likelihood of remission had been increased to 95 percent thanks to two drugs derived from a wild plant native to Madagascar. But we still know little about the treasure trove inhabiting our wild places. As of 1995, less than 1 percent of all tropical plant species had been screened for potential pharmaceutical applications

  Medicinal plants are globally valuable sources of herbal products, and they are disappearing at a high speed. This article reviews global trends, developments and prospects for the strategies and methodologies concerning the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plant resources to provide a reliable reference for the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants. We emphasized that both conservation strategies (e.g. in situ and ex situ conservation and cultivation practices) and resource management (e.g. good agricultural practices and sustainable use solutions) should be adequately taken into account for the sustainable use of medicinal plant resources. We recommend that biotechnical approaches (e.g. tissue culture, micropropagation, synthetic seed technology, and molecular marker-based approaches) should be applied to improve yield and modify the potency of medicinal plants. Read the full article  here!

 A report written within the midst of the pandemic that explores the impacts, strategies for mitigation and suppression tactics that were used to drive the worldwide population out of the Coronavirus pandemic. This links directly with spec point 4.6.  Read the full article  here!