Geography and Oil Spills

This is going to be a week focussed on geography resources for lots of reasons really. Richard is off to Sydney for 3 days to look into setting up HotRock over in the Eastern States bringing our sustainability Education to even more Australians. Yey. So that travelling is a bit of geography. He's flying but offsetting his carbon, although we can't understand how Quantas can do this for only $12. It seems too cheap, do they plant trees somewhere with very cheap labour??? If you know how this can work let us know.

Then he's talking at the Georaphical Association of Western Australia conference on Sunday (back in Perth), so these reosurces and ideas are for you guys at his workshop.

They're also for me as I'm a geographer so I always get excited about geography stuff.

So first off in a fit of patriotism, let me direct you to the Geographical Association of the UK, which I was a member of before I came over to Oz. A pretty cool association with loads going on and a great website that I often make use of. www.geography.org.uk There's often topical and useful stuff. I like the Think Pieces for helping me with my curriculum development and planning and also the resources section.

A great page up at the moment gives loads of ideas about how to use the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in your teaching. This great quote from Barack Obama starts it off:

'We (Americans) consume more than 20 per cent of the world's oil, but have less than two per cent of the world's oil reserves. And that's part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we have talked and talked about the need to end America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight.'

- President Barack Obama, 15 June 2010

The page then gives loads of inspirational teaching ideas. Our Peak Oil module also ties in perfectly with this subject, helping students explore why the days of cheap oil are over and how we can adapt to a world with out it

This topic combines sustainability and geography on so many levels. What do we use that contains oil? How are we connected to others around the world by oil? How can we change our communities to live without oil?

I liked this one where you can move the oil spill to anywhere in the World. www.ifitwasmyhome.com/ I put it over Dunsborough where I live and it covers the whole of the cape and up to Mandurah. Quite a powerful image if you're worried about oil exploration off the coast of the SW. Here's the map it creates...