Maathai is an incredible woman. Her efforts are improving the environment and agriculture in Africa. Another interesting note on her story is that she partnered with a Norwegian group to start the greenbelt movement, showing how globalization can also apply to shared efforts to do good.

This is an incredible peace of Wangari Maathai, who is from the same country i am from Kenya, and she had a powerful movement from a simple act of planting trees in hope of helping her environment, and women was looked at as a fool and looked down upon, she is an icon and vision able leader amongst most Kenyan women today. She created a path for most of the young girls and had her clear message was to protect your environment, create paths and a future for yourself, she is an icon and her movement will continue to impact not only my life but others globally.

Land is a pretty valuable thing. As are civil rights. When a women, a gender traditionally looked upon as inferior in Kenya, takes a bunch of other women and starts a movement to plant trees so they could better the lives of all in the country, she tends to be looked down upon by the government. Maathai even attracted the attention of the Kenyan President who dismissed her as just some women. Her tree planting initiative eventually lead to nationwide movements that lead to demise of that very president that dismissed her movement as a waste of time and effort.

When we watched this clip in class, I was amazed by not only her bravery to stand up to such a ruler but by her devotion to something so simple as wanting to plant trees so the people of Kenya had food to eat and fuel to cook with.

A great visual dispay showing how tempetures have flucuated over the past 130 years and the futer implications of climate change today. Thoughout the video it shows how the tempeture is chaging (rising and falling) all acorss the board. However you cleary see at the end that tempeture stop flucuating and only contiues to rise. While over all it is only a 1 or 2 dagree differnce, its clear that if we go 80 years with a stable tempture and then it starts to only get warmer that weve got a climate change problam on our hands. 

I don’t really know if this is due to climate changes. I do think that yeah we could call it “natural disaster” to the act but all those millions of dollar spended to fix all the damages cost by a hurricane, earthquake. They should be invested in preventing the damages. I do understand that those disaster cannot be prevented but the damages caused by definitely can be.

More and more people are moving to the cities than ever before.  As a result I believe there are more megacities on the way.  However I think there is a limit to these cities.  How are they going to be powered?  How are the people going to be fed? Where will they work?  how will these cities impact the environment?  Where is all the fresh water going to come from?

 It's not just that more people now live in cities than in the rural countryside (for the first time in human history).  It's not just that major cities are growing increasingly more important to the global economy.  The rise of the megacities (cities over 10 million inhabitants) is a startling new phenomenon that really is something we've only seen in the last 50 years or so with the expectation that the number of megacities will double in the next 10 to 20 years (currently there are 23).  This reorganization of population entails wholesale restructuring of the economic, environmental, cultural and political networks.  The urban challenges that we face today are only going to become increasingly important in the future.       

Great info graphic on mega cities. 

From this article i get to know that a child who born to an educated mother will benefit more than a child who born to mothers without an education. Quite a number of women in the world are without a proper education. Is it fair to women without a proper education to be condemn to be told that their child will do poorly rather than a child of an educated mothers. Their child would eventually suceed through hard work and support from their family.

From this infographic, I can see the importance of education and how it can impact us in our lives. Education is key as it can help us in many ways such as being able to teach our offspings survival skills and also help us to earn more so that we can bring up a family and support them. However important education is, it still comes with a price. As such, many are deprived of this oppurtunity to be educated even though education is somewhat considered a neccessity. Other benefits of education to women include a lesser chance of contracting STDs and also having a higher chance to immunize their children compared to non-educated women. Since education is a key to survival and an important part in our lives, why is it that no effort is made to promote this or to fund more projects that help the less fortunate to get a chance to be educated?

This article tells me that a child who born to an educated mother will benefit more than a child who born to mothers without an education. Quite a number of women in the world are without a proper education. Is it fair to women without a proper education to be condemn to be told that their child will do poorly rather than a child of an educated mothers. Their child would eventually succeed through hard work and support from their family. It stated that most children who drop out from school are girls and most of the people cant read live in developing countries. In this century i am sure that proper education are given to those who could not afford it as everyone want to succeed. I think that it does not matter if a child's mother is without an education as they can succeed if they work hard and opportunity is given to them.

In the current ecnomny america is cleary importing more  than its exporting, but suprisingly not by much.  The mos common thing to find on many of todays products, cloths, phones, ect. is made in china , and beacuse of all this its a popular belife that  America doesnt make anything any more, we just buy all of our stuff from china. While this isnt true, america does not produce alot of final produts to distubite world wide. However they do have a large export of goods maily industral supply and capital goods, along with many services that add up to 2.1 trillion dollars. So while we might not be the leading  manufacture for plastic toys or cloths, its  nice to be reminded that we still contibute some things to the global trade community. 

i was surprised to see that our country still exports so many products. What i find even more surprising is that the top countries that are buying our good are our bordering countries, Canada and Mexico. As much Petroleum we receive from the middle east we still are exporting so much of it to Canada and Mexico. It seems that foreign cars such as ones from Japan are taking over the industry yet our top export to Canada is car parts. it is good to see that America still exports.

I was surprised and reassured to see how much the U.S. exports to other parts of the world.  I was unaware that the U.S exported to China because we physically surrounded by items made in China. Although our imports exceed exports, we are still producing,

Access to this area is inhibited due to massive devastation, and there was a LOT of damage done.  These people have needs, and it seems that due to the large geographic spread, it would be near impossible to get these people what they need.  I think if our world revolved less around mandated activity- school, work (specifically the low level jobs that we don't NEED in our society), etc.- that more people could be freed up to help proactively come up with solutions to potential devastation, and groups could be formed, equipped, and trained to deal with whatever Nature could throw at people.  If people didn't work at McDonalds, and they DID work at some sort of international rescue agency, doing all the research on all areas of the world ahead of time, the solutions to these problems (and even prevention) could be at hand within a month of a global task force's initiation into the activity.  I know some Americans think that they need workers at McDonalds, but really... They could be working for something larger than the government- the entire human race.  I'm sure people would be willing to fund such an agency (not just some limited range minimal UN task force, but rather a world-wide formally designated occupation), and I'm equally sure that people would rather work there than flipping burgers and changing french fry oil.  I don't think that the current relief programs are enough to help people in such situations of tragedy as those that were relied on to take care of the issue in the Phillipines, and I think a simple restructuring of society (our society) would yield a greater level of concern and involvement in the welfare of others, as well as greater aid to the species.  Who knows, perhaps one of the people that we could save in the Phillipines is a person who goes on to change the world- an inventor of something new, a holy or political leader, or the scientist that cures cancer?  All this could be made to matter to us more if society were tweaked, even slightly, just to allow people to want to help others.

Due to the fact the Philippines is made up of over 7,000 islands, it makes aid response very difficult. When natural disasters such as typhoons occur in the Philippines it can negatively affect hundreds of islands, making it difficult to help the people on every island. It can takes days for supplies to arrive on some of the islands, and sometimes people do not even receive necessary supplies such as food and water. Countries, which are composed of numerous islands, face many challenges.  

Fortunately, the Philippines has a relatively stable infrastructure so even though lots of areas were hit, the human fatalities and issues are not as bad as they could have been. Unfortunately, these are many islands and getting from one to the next is very difficult when all communications and landing areas are compromised.

Even though this article was published last year, It is still a serious issue with the meat supply in North America. As discussed in class, only 2% of the work force is involved with agriculture. One of the primary reasons for migrating on the East coast, and Middle of the country, was because of its climate and soil, perfect for growing crops. Over the years our country has taken a serious turn with our food. We are trying to produce more food per worker and square foot of land and its only hurting us. This pink slime, ammonia-treated meat is treated in the first place so it kills any trace of ecoli. Which comes from cattle eating too much corn, which is what the cows in the country are fed, when their bodies are designed to eat grass, not corn. However, the US has lots of corn and so here raises a question, do we take care of our animals, give them enough grass to eat and sell Americans healthy beef? The answer is no, our food supply is a corporation burgers have to be sold and therefore the issue contines... 

I feel, generally speaking, that this is a result of our over-consumption of meat. If there wasn't such a high demand for meat these companies might not be looking into these sorts of alternative uses for these meat-like byproducts. The secondary reason for this is the negligence of personal accountability by officials and high paid USDA administrators that lack empathy and understanding of nutrition.

Oh boy I remember when I learned about this. "Pink Slime" is a huge problem. Schools use it because it is cheap but it lacks nutritional value which is extremely unhealthy for kids whom buy lunch from school.

Horsemeat showed up in London and the media interviewed many people who were appalled and wondering "how safe IS our meat?"

We now have to 'backtrack' to see where in the marketing loop  in between countries this actually is occurring, and also to see how regulations fell through the 'cracks'.

What trends in agribusiness are conveyed in this map?

I really enjoyed this article, it was insctieful interesting and had very informitive visual aids. It was very interesting to see all the differnt maps prtayted thoughout the artile. I found that the infomation that they were describing was alot of things I had heard before, but the added affect of the visual aids were able to give me a deeper understading. It also really brings up some key geogragaphical regaions and shows how even thouhg a state might be blue there are still areas(towns, countis) with in the sate that are primarly red party. When this election was going on it sure seemed like it was goiing to be neck and neck, but clearly on election day bule took over .

Electoral college maps can sometimes trick you because it looks like McCain won but although most of mid west is republican there isnt a large population so they dont get as many votes as states with bigger populations like California, New York, Texas, Florida, etc. 

This a very interesting topic. Most of the time we take our earth for granted imagine if we need to pay for every time we use our earth I don’t think we would to afford it. Is very important for us to take care of it. It so sad that we have to force to protect it; for example here in providence we get punish with a fine if we don’t recycle. Taking care of our world should be a feeling from within people shouldn’t be made to do it.

Kabul, a once thriving city is now the product of a war torn Afghanistan. During the fighting mass exodus left the city empty and uninhibited. However, after the war civilians fled back to the slums of Kabul in search of job opportunities. With little infrastructure, no electricity, no water due to evapotranspiration and deforestation and a serious overcrowding problem, residents lack the essential resources needed to survive. Due to the cities destabilized economy corruption runs rampant, in consequence it is unsafe to live in the city center. The advocation for city services is high upon the minds of the people. In response, compounds have been made in the foothills to house impoverished people. These compounds will help the overcrowding problem but the informal economy and dangerous shortcuts will further cause destabilization and create an unsafe city center. 

This audio clip provided a detailed view of the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul. It doesn't speak of the city architecture instead it focuses on the failing logistics of the city. It talks about resource shortages and the sheer amount of people crammed within the city. These problems are largely caused by an influx of refugees from the war torn countryside flooding into the city for safety and work. This clip shows the Kabul of today, a ghost of its former prestigious self.

A war torn country of Afghanistan's capital city Kabul is in the mountains. With a population of five million people, the cities infrastructure is in ruins. Things we take for granted, water, sewers and electricity are all in short supply for Kabul. There is lots of money coming in to the country from corruption of opium trade. Due to terrible construction, it is assumed that when Kabul has their terrible earthquake that there will be much destruction. Cars pack streets that are unpaved and the streets are five to ten times more packed than they are planned out to be. Just to get from one side of Kabul to the other it can take hours. What the government needs to is control immigration and fix the problems that they currently have. 

This article shows how you can improve a city to not only make it bigger but to make it better. not better in the sense that it has to beat out other cities and have the best buildings etc. but to allow the city to be more people friendly which means getting rid of congestion and traffic.

This sound clip highlights an interesting issue today in India, as the population has exploded the logistics to support these people is nonexistent while access to modern technology is present. Its an odd concept that one can readily find cheap accessible technology such as cell phones or TVs yet something as basic as a toilet or running water is out of reach for many. This is the problem when a population expands faster than it is possible to increase its logistical capacity.

With the lack of toilets and the uprising in the use of cell phones in India, the sanitation and living standards of the people of the country are lacking which in turn comes to a place of hazard. With more people moving into the country and from other areas it is causing a massive uprise in the use of technology but government funding and jobs do not create enough money to continuously keep up with the upgrades needed in sanitation and public safety.

there is a constantly recurring theme here, mass population growth and the government of said country not being able to grow at the same rate to provide simple services to its people

Based on the video and the safety of the Chinese workers they tame no precautions to staying safe. If they have this much lack of safety for themselves then how do they regard the safety of the people around them. As China is and has cities up and coming to mega cities with high rises and exponential expanding then how do they create their buildings? As fast as they went up and the city was created then how stable are their buildings?

It isn't surprising that the more a country has developed, the more wasteful they are. I just think that we need to change this standard. We can not keep this up if we want to sustain ourselves for centuries to come. If we are going to change our consumption culture, we need to look at why it has become the way it is. Why do we see food as unappealing? This is an interesting video and certaintly makes you think twice about throwing anything away. 

Ted talks about just how wasteful our planet is. How we just ignore the issue and act like it will  not affect us in the future. When he shows you video and pictures of massive piles of the ends of a loaf of bread or all the food that Stop and Shop throws out because it does not "look" good for the customer. How every little bit of help counts you can try to make a little bit of an effort to be less wasteful. We have so much unnecessary waste. Like when he uses the example of how many people throw away the ends of a loaf of bread then he shows the waste of the ends of bread in massive piles it makes you sick. Especially with all of the hungry people in the world we need to be more resourceful.

No one should be surprised that more developed societies are more wasteful societies.  It is not just personal wasting of food at the house and restaurants that are the problem.  Perfectly edible food is thrown out due to size (smaller than standards but perfectly normal), cosmetics (Bananas that are shaped 'funny') and costumer preference (discarded bread crust).  This is an intriguing perceptive on our consumptive culture, but it also is helpful in framing issues such as sustainability and human and environmental interactions in a technologically advanced societies that are often removed form the land where the food they eat originates. 

Tags: food, agriculture, consumption, sustainability, TED, video, unit 5 agriculture.

It is sad that so much foods gets wasted all the time because it doesn't look appealing to buyers. Just because some potaoe is shaped funny or is a little darker or lighter than what is considered "normal", it is thrown away. To me, that is ridiculous when so many people are starving around the world. Or that these imperfect foods are given to animals for consumption. Why is it acceptable to animals to eat bad food when we are going to eat those animals? Somewhere down the line of history, the way we view food has been changed and not for the better. If we want to be able to sustain ourselves and this world for many more centuries, we need to revalute how we look at food. 

I have eaten McDonalds fries and bunch of times and never thought about what 'golden standard" actually meant. McDonalds like it says in the article is one of the top potoate buyers in the world. I'm sure most other fast food places aren' too far behind. However since McDonalds is one of the top buyers of potatoes farmers much make sure they produce enough of the potatoes that McDonalds sells. However it doesn't stop there. Not only do farmers have to produce enough potatoes, but they have to produce quality potatoes. All of McDonalds fries look exactly the same. You never really get a french fry that looks extremely different. That is done on purpose. McDonalds only purchases potatoes that meet their "golden standard". This makes you think how much goes to watste. Farmers are probably discarding "bad" potatoes all the time that don't meet the "golden standard". Does it really matter what the fries look like, if they taste the same? There are people in the world who are hungry, yet we waste food like this all the time. I really don't think it is that big of a deal if not every french fry looks exactly the same. We should make an attempt at trying to limit our food waste. 

The packaging on the McDonald's fry box states, "Why are our fries the gold standard? Because only a select number of potato varieties make the cut. I'm lovin' it®"  This is a message is primarily aimed at millions of individual consumers.  As geographers who analyze systems, we can look at this message for meaning beyond taste and quality control in how it affect both urban and rural places.  Given that McDonald's is the United States' largest purchaser of potatoes, what are the economic and agricultural implications for their fry selection on the market(s)?  How does this impact farmers, consumers, competitors and other groups?   

Its pretty crazy to think something as simple as ramen noodles can help feed billions of people. in the western world iramen is the butt currently for running jokes about poor college kids, i never thought it would have this impact. I can now say that ramen is a nessicty in some areas. Who cares about the slight health affects because if some of this people didnt have ramen they would already be dead from starvation. 

I think everyone has had ramen noodles at some point in there life. I do enjoy ramen noodles here and there but couldn't eat it daily. I have found in some of my cookbooks they use ramen noodles in their recipes. It is mostly the quick and easy recipes.  if we are the 6th highest country that purchases ramen noodles I am convinced everyone eats it. 

I am sure almost every person in this country has eaten instant noodles at one point in their life. Due to the fact they are very cheap and enjoyable. Today, many impoverished people all over the world eat these instant noodles, as they are economical. Although they are not a nutritious, they can temporarily relieve people’s hunger.

Before 9/11 a lot of Americans didnt know much about the war on terrorism, It wasnt till after the attacks when they were directly affected did they bother to learn more about it to know why it happened and if something like it would happen again. 

This article brings up the topic of educating students on the major topics of current political affairs and serious terrorist incursions in the Middle East and other parts of the world. As it says, it contains 30 lesson plans that all focus on providing resources and factual information on current events that involve US war in Iraq and terrorism. I personally think that this course will successfully provide students with a better knowledge on what's actually happening around them. This can further lead them to knowing how to handle these situations in the future, where they must lead the United States. It will better prepare them for future roles in government.  

This article is extremely eye opening. When I think about Women's freedom in america compared to other countries in the world I feel that most countries cannot compare. Women in america have so much freedom that women in other countries don't have. However one fact in the article that I thought was shocking was that when we invaded Iraq and Afganistan we urged that women be more involved in the government because the numbers were very low. However now both of those countries exceed the percentage of women involved in the U.S. We went in arguing for something we don't even have in our own country. That is so shocking to me. However I do believe that women in other countries have it a lot worse. It is hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that in some countries it is frowned upon that women can recieve an education. In some places it is not just frowned upon, but forbidden. The women in Saudi Arabia just passed a law for some women to play sports. That is amazing! I believe that the United States sets an example of how women should be treated and for every country to get to that point will take a very long time. Thus, I'm not sure if we will ever get world peace. A lot of countries will never view women as equals, at least not in the near future. That is truly sad to think about. Again that goes back to the culture of the location that you grew up in. It's hard for countries to change their cultural beliefs.