There is a need for clear case studies which allow the exploration of the concept of management. Bear in mind what management can actually involve (think of the analogy of a football team's manager... is this management ?)
Making the best use of the available resources
Dealing with conflicts that may arise
Helping to overcome problems
Reducing pollution
This tends to be considered within the banner of SUSTAINABILITY these days...
Photo courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (http://www.evostc.state.ak.us) - click to enlarge.
I look at the example of oil exploration on the North Slope of Alaska, which involves looking at the building of the TRAN-ALASKA PIPELINE, and the EXXON VALDEZ incident.
The Pipeline itself has an excellent website (follow the link above) - this forms an excellent case study. The pipeline was recently hit by the Alaskan earthquake, but survived virtually intact, and with no oil spilled as it shut down automatically.
There's a campaign to SAVE THE ARCTIC NATIONAL REFUGE. You can sign an online petition, backed by actor Martin Sheen. President Bush is in favour of developing the area.
There's a rather good article from the EXXON VALDEZ website. This one includes some useful detail and quotes about the background to the ACCIDENT.
The best site to go to for information on this oil spill is the ALASKAN Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council site HERE. This has the advantage of offering copyright free images that you can use in any resource relating to the Exxon Valdez spill, such as the one at the top of this page, and the one below showing protesting food processing workers.
Photo courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (http://www.evostc.state.ak.us) - click to enlarge
This story has not gone away: the whole front page of 'THE INDEPENDENT' newspaper on the 25th of March 2004 was dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the spill and how local people still feel betrayed by EXXON. The report was available to download from the website - it may still be there now unless it's been archived to some section where you have to pay...
New: January 2005 and the Exxon Valdez is in the papers again. This time the effect is on people. An article in 'The Independent' called 'Black Death' looked at the long-lasting effect of the oil on the workers who cleaned up the spill.
See the NATIONAL PARKS page for more details. This is an area which has already been covered earlier in the course, via the Settlement and Economic Activities topics.
There's a great site produced by the NATIONAL TRUST. I'll need to investigate it more, and it's likely that you'll need a fast connection to use it with a group of students, but it's got a FLASH based game looking at a decision to develop an area of farmland, and at the various viewpoints surrounding the decision, and the influence of NIMBYs. There is an interactive series of exercises to work through, along with a series of PDF format worksheets which are suitable for Key Stage 3 age group. Go there now and work through the activity which is called WHOSE LAND ? Excellent graphics.
NIMBY: standing for 'Not in my backyard' - an attitude held by some people that development is needed, but that they wouldn't want it next to their house e.g people objecting to wind farms they may see from their bedroom window, despite the obvious need to increase the use of alternative energy
There's a useful article on the Norfolk Broads available at the GEOPROJECTS page. The Norfolk Broads would be another useful case study as the increasing numbers of rental craft in the area around Wroxham is placing additional pressure on habitats along the broads and broadland rivers such as the Waveney. The GEOPROJECTS site is based at North Walsham in Norfolk, and offers information particularly for TRAVEL AND TOURISM, but is now also the home of KEYFILE.
Remember that for the MANAGEMENT section of the question, you need to know HOW PEOPLE ALTERED THE ENVIRONMENT or the plans that they made to protect it and WHETHER OR NOT THEY WORKED....
Also added a new page in 2007 for QUARRYING in the PEAK DISTRICT (and YORKSHIRE DALES) - do you dig it ??
See BIOMES page for more details on this ubiquitous topic....
MINERAL EXTRACTION IN NATIONAL PARKS
The Peak District's website has a series of factsheets. There are several which relate to environmental problems, including one on MINING. (No. 11 if you're interested) - this links to Geology.
There are details on Lead, Limestone, Shale etc. There are also details on quarry plans like Topley Pike. Many of the quarries had permissions to extract metals before the National parks were established, at a time when people wouldn't have used equipment as they do today.
Go to Keith Phipps' PUPILVISION site for a case study of a Limestone quarry in the Peak District called TOPLEY PIKE (see above..) which is near Buxton (I know it well....there's an old spoil heap near there where a friend and I dug up lots of old fashioned bottles with marble stoppers and old medicine bottles... but if I told you where it was you'd go and get them all...)
THE ARAL SEA
The removal of water from 2 rivers which flowed into the sea in order to use the water for irrigating large areas and growing cotton is covered on a separate page of links on this site all about the ensuing environmental tragedy that is THE ARAL SEA. This is a well visited page on the site, and a good all-purpose example.
Also got the video of the recent Nick Middleton visit in his Silk Road series.
POLLUTION IN THE NORTH SEA
The North Sea is on our doorstep. In Norfolk it's closer than to most. Sometimes it even washes over the doorstep.
For years, rivers such as the Rhine have emptied their cocktail of chemicals into the sea, and the currents mean that the water doesn't really get replaced on a regular basis, so the pollution builds up.
We use the example of the River Rhine and the North Sea as an example of a polluted area of water, although the ARAL SEA could have a dual purpose here too.
Every year, 3 times the weight of the fish that we catch is dumped into the oceans.
How long do things last once they have found their way into the sea ?
We tend to imagine that once things are in the sea they are dealt with, and there will indeed be some dilution of certain effects. However, some of the rubbish that gets washed up on the beaches of the UK shows that the rubbish has come from a long way. Barcodes can be used to identify the country of origin in some cases.
Even in the Highlands of Scotland, the tideline is strewn with plastic waste, fishing nets and crates. They burn quite well, although one fire we made on the Suisnish peninsula, where there are crofts abandoned during the Clearances, got so hot it started to crack the rocks, and one exploded and smashed the cup of tea I was holding... but that's another story...
How long do certain types of rubbish last ?
Orange and banana peel - up to 2 years
Cigarette butts - between 1 & 5 years
Plastic bags - 10 to 20 years
Nylon fabric - 30 to 40 years
Tin cans - 50 years
Aluminium cans and tabs - 50 years
Glass bottles - over a thousand years
Plastic bottles - indefinitely
This means that the legacy of the waste we have already dumped could continue to wash up on the shores for thousands of years to come, and because of the movement of material by ocean currents this then becomes an international issue, and therefore much more difficult to control.
BHOPAL
Union Carbide plant in India - 20 years ago.
To find out more, visit the site campaigning for justice at BHOPAL NET.
ACID RAIN
GLOBAL WARMING
No shortage of resources, and we also use sections from An Inconvenient Truth.
