2012
Patterns in Environmental Quality and Sustainability
The conference will focus upon the 'Patterns in Environmental Quality and Sustainability' sub-unit of the core ‘Patterns and Change’ module, as all DP geography students are required to study this unit.
Within the core module, the sub-unit of ‘Patterns in environmental quality and sustainability’ is critical for enhancing students’ awareness of how their planet is being affected by human actions. It is a section of the course that many students believe they know, as many of them have some personal opinion about ‘global warming’ and perhaps have seen one of the many environmental disaster movies currently available. The conference will seek to challenge students’ perceptions of climate change and push them to excel in this area.
The conference is being organised by Ellena Mart, Richard Allaway and Jaime Williams - members of the Humanities Department at the International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations.
Keynoter
Leo Hickman - Global Climate Change
Leo will present the opening keynote of the conference and then host a discussion workshop.
Leo Hickman is a features journalist and editor at the Guardian newspaper in London. He writes a weekly column about environmental issues. He is the author of A Life Stripped Bare: My Year Trying to Live Ethically (2005), A Good Life: The Guide To Ethical Living (2005), The Final Call: In Search of the True Cost of Our Holidays (2007), and the children’s book Will Jellyfish Rule the World? A Book about Climate Change (2009).
Leo will be focusing upon the following DP geography syllabus point: Discuss the causes and environmental consequences of global climate change.
Watch Leo speak at the recent World Travel Market event, being interviewed by the BBC's Stephen Sackur:
Workshop leaders
Alan Parkinson - Down to the last drop? - Investigating water scarcity
Alan Parkinson is an award winning teacher and author who is currently a freelance geographer, having spent 20 years teaching and three years leading curriculum development in the UK. He works part time with the Open University, and has written materials which have been used in schools across the UK and the USA. Recent projects have included work with Google, National Geographic, Royal Geographical Society, Ordnance Survey and the BBC. He is a member of the Geography Collective: creators of Mission:Explore.
Alan will be focusing upon the following DP geography syllabus point: Examine the environmental and human factors affecting patterns and trends in physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity.
Resource Links:
Living Geography: Water Scarcity for Ecolint Geography Conference - Geneva - 1 of 5
Living Geography: Water Scarcity for Ecolint Geography Conference - Geneva - 2 of 5
Living Geography: Water Scarcity for Ecolint Geography Conference - Geneva - 3 of 5
Living Geography: Water Scarcity for Ecolint Geography Conference - Geneva - 4 of 5
Living Geography: Water Scarcity for Ecolint Geography Conference - Geneva - 5 of 5
Living Geography: Ecolint Geography Conference Follow Up: 1 of 4
Living Geography: Ecolint Geography Conference Follow Up: 2 of 4
Living Geography: Ecolint Geography Conference Follow Up: 3 of 4
Living Geography: Ecolint Geography Conference Follow Up: 4 of 4
Alastair Ronn - The Physics of Climate Change - for Geographers
A friendly physicist, Alastair Ronn, will focus upon the following DP geography syllabus point:
Explain the changes in this balance due to external forcings (changes in solar radiation, changes in the albedo of the atmosphere and changes in the longwave radiation returned to space).
Born too long ago to record and a refugee from the 80's (as far as music is concerned). Alastair was educated in rural Wiltshire, Cambridge, (M.A in Natural Sciences and Engineering) and mountainous North Wales (UCNW). He has taught in England, North Wales, Brunei and Switzerland in national and international schools. He's a part time mountaineer / skier / cook, full time student of current affairs and teacher of MYP Science, DP Physics and ToK.
Dr Maggie Montgomery - WHO - Water Sanitation and Health
Dr Maggie Montgomery from the WHO Water Sanitation and Health will focus upon the following DP geography syllabus point:
Examine the factors affecting access to safe drinking water.
Dr Maggie Montgomery is a technical officer in the water, sanitation, hygiene and health unit at the World Health Organization (WHO). Her primary responsibilities involve coordinating the efforts of the International Network on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (the "Network"). The Network aims to reduce the estimated 1.9 million annual water, sanitation, hygiene-related diarrhoeal deaths by improving drinking-water quality. Prior to working at WHO Maggie spent several years living and working in East Africa where she developed an affinity for sweet mangos and speaking Swahili. She believes in safe water (and sanitation) for all and that small, committed actions can make a difference.
Maggie's session will focus on the factors affecting access to safe drinking-water and the added challenges poised by climate change. Students will be tasked with brainstorming approaches to tackling real-world drinking-water and climate change issues. A recent WHO report detailing the issues regarding water supply sanitation and climate change can be found here.
Scott Poynton - What DP Geographers can do to Stop Deforestation
Scott Poynton will focus upon the following DP geography syllabus point:
Examine the causes and consequences of reduced biodiversity in tropical rainforests.
TFT is a non profit organisation that helps companies source their products responsibly. They work on the ground, in forests, farms and factories across the world, to help companies deliver products that are good for people and the environment.
Since their founding in 1999, they’ve specialised on designing ways to prevent deforestation while also helping local communities that rely on forests to live. Through working closely with large timber-buying companies around the world, TFT has transformed the way wood is taken from forests and used in everyday products. TFT is now applying this same approach to cover a wider range of issues such as palm oil, paper & packaging, cotton, leather and stone.
Scott Poynton has served as Executive Director of The Forest Trust (TFT) since its founding in 1999. He has grown the organization to 90 staff members operating in 13 countries, working with farms, forests, factories, and retailers to build responsible supply chains. TFT’s model has eliminated deforestation from the supply chains of the vast majority of European garden furniture, and is now expanding to responsible sourcing of palm oil, leather, stone, soy, and cotton production.
Scott helped establish the TFT while working as Managing Director of the Vietnam subsidiary of ScanCom International, the world’s largest supplier of wood outdoor furniture products. At ScanCom he presided over tremendous growth while simultaneously converting the company’s entire production for the European market to Forest Stewardship Council certification.
An Australian forester by training, Scott has led forestry-related economic development efforts in Romania, Vietnam, India, Laos, Russia, and Papua New Guinea for the World Bank and other clients. He holds a Master of Science in Forestry from Oxford University, where he was awarded the Oxford Forestry Institute’s Jubilee Prize.