Room 611: Friday, October 13. 2023

Today's schedule is ABCD

A Block Legal Studies -

Today is your introductory unit final test in Law. The unit test will cover the first three chapters of the All About Law text (Foundations of Canadian Law, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Human Rights in Canada). The test will have: 15 True/False questions; 15 Multiple Choice questions; 15 Matching questions; and 3 Short Answer questions. Since you had a few days to prepare I am certain that you will do extra well on this test. No lawyer works in isolation and today neither will you, you may not use notes, however, you may collaborate with colleagues on the test. You'll have as much time as you need for the test however it should only take 45-50 minutes to complete.

B Block Human Geography - Today we'll examine the key issue "Why Do Countries Face Obstacles to Development"? Developing countries do not have access to the funds necessary to fund development, so they obtain financial support from developed countries. Finance comes from two main sources: direct investment by transnational corporations and loans from banks and international organizations. To promote the international trade development model (for development investment by transnational corporations), countries representing 97 percent of world trade established the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 (there are 164 member countries as of 29 July 2016).

Two UN agencies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, provide loans to LDCs to develop. An alternative source of loans for would-be business owners in developing countries is microfinance. Microfinance is the provision of a small loan to individuals and small businesses that are unable to get a loan from commercial banks

Commerce in which products are made and traded according to standards that protect workers and small businesses in developing countries is considered fair trade. The fair-trade movement is an alternative vision of the international trade approach which attempts to increase the prices that are paid to producers in LDCs. Fair trade also tries to eliminate the very low wages and extremely poor working conditions for workers in LDCs (check out the who gets what from the price of a banana website here)

You'll have some questions to finish up the Population/Development package for me and next week we'll begin our short look at Migration

C/D Blocks Social and Environmental Sciences - Today you're going to begin working on your first project of the year. Just to remind you

Humans must drink potable water, however water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families across the world. At the current time, more than 2 billion people are living with the risk of reduced access to freshwater resources and by 2050, at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water.

Water is our most precious natural resource. It is essential to life on Earth, for human populations and all other living organisms, for the survival of natural environments and ecosystems. It is also vital to human economic activity and industry. It is a finite resource insofar as there is a fixed amount of cycling and recycling on planet Earth. And this set amount is under constant threat of mismanagement, overuse and pollution, effectively reducing its availability, while worldwide demand for it increases. Like other natural resources, water is unevenly distributed around the globe, thus leading to unequal access to it and competition for it.

Poor management of this resource allows rivers and lakes to become squalid dumping grounds for wastes ranging from untreated sewage, mine leachate, chemicals and other industrial discharges to the contaminated fecal, pesticide and herbicide run-off from agriculture. Groundwater supplies are also subject to contamination, overuse and mismanagement. Global warming threatens regional water supply, but increases the demand for this resource. There is a world water crisis.

The UN Department for Policy Co-ordination and Sustainable Development believes that water should be seen as: 1) a vital element, necessary for survival; 2) a natural resource, of economic value; 3) an environmental resource, of common heritage to all, and 4) a cultural and spiritual resource.

So, if clean water is a scarce resource that could be considered a commodity and has also been deemed both a natural and a human right, what can be done to ease and even eliminate the conflict associated with clean water? You or you and a partner will need to research a case of water conflict around the world. Your task is to use available resources to answer the following questions, to be displayed on a poster board:

Why is there a crisis over water in your area? What social and environmental factors do you think are contributing to the water crisis? What are common factors that go along with the water disputes, such as political instability, social unrest, economic downturn, heavy unemployment, civil warfare, etc.?
Who are the “players” or "stakeholders" in this conflict? What are their motives and interests in the water dispute?
What is the water source in question (river, aqueduct, canal, watershed, tributary, reservoir, dam, etc.)? How large is the water source, and how large is the area through which the water source flows? Approximately how many people use this waterway as their main source of water?
Where in the world and in the country and/or region is the water source? Identify the waterway on a map, and highlight areas of the map involved in or affected by the issues in dispute (locations of villages, industries, crops, next closest water source, other water sources, country/clan borders, etc.).
How would the water source be affected by different outcomes of the water dispute? Use different colors or a symbol to indicate how the water source would be diverted, dammed or re-aligned. How would the items you highlighted in the previous question be affected by these changes?
How, if at all, would this water conflict be resolved? What is the current state of the dispute, if it is ongoing? What are solutions to the water crisis? Can you come up with ways that would provide the basis for a water-sharing plan?

Start by looking at the following links to get an idea of world water conflicts or hot spots: