Plastiki

Plastiki is a boat made out of 12,500 recycled plastic bottles filled with air. David de Rothschild came up with the idea to build this awesome Plastiki boat. Not the entire boat is made out of plastic, but only the bottom part that it floats on.

The goal was to ride the Plastiki from San Francisco to Sydney. That is 11 miles of travel. It took them 3 years to build the boat.

To build it David de Rothschild first sketched the boat and then they actually build it.

David de Rothschild wanted to surprise people that it is possible to make a boat out of many recycled bottles.

Why is Haiti so poor? - Haiti History

1) The Haitian Population doesn't have gread industry skills, thats why, Haiti wasn't alowed to trade with the rest of the world.

2) There isn't alot of coherant cash crop in Haiti since the plantations were seperated into individual land parcals.

3) In the 17th and 18th centuries, Haiti was one of the richest countries in the world.

4) Most of the population works in the farming division.

5) Two thirds of the population is living of subsidence farming are vulnerable to tropical storms that ruin their crops and erode the land.

6) Haiti has been a big victim of hurricanes since 2008.

7) Haiti was a considerable lack of human natural resources.

8) Haiti doesn't trade with other polity outside the country a lot.

9) Not a lot of industries are found around Haiti, so to make money, most citizens must sell old clothes, soap and pencils.

10) 80% of the population is living in poverty.

Haiti earthquake part 2

Rescuers are now searching for the victims from the earthquake. They use rescue dogs, the dogs smell the people and help the rescuers to find victims. The aids use video cameras to search for people in the ground.If there is anyone in a collapsed building and is stuck, buggers rescue them from the pieces of the collapsed building. Aids can't hear anything if people try their best to scream for help, but are too quite to hear. For that they use an equipment to hear sounds louder. Haiti is a poor country. They only have weak buildings, which are not that heavy if they fall on you. There is a bigger chance that aids will find alive people that were in these buildings than in cement buildings.

Haiti Earthquake

A major earthquake hit Haiti on the 12/1/10 at 5pm local time. There were over 1000 feared dead in the 7.0 magnitude. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit Haiti in more than 200 years. It's epicenter was only 16km from the capital Port-au-Prince. Aftershocks went through out the night and Wednesday. It's power was 5.9 magnitude. Experts said that the epicenter was very shallow at a depth of 10km. The earthquake ruined the presidents palace, but the president has been saved.

On the map at the right the red places mean that the earthquake was heavy as in the capital Port-au-Prince. The yellow spots are from strong to severe and the green and blue areas are from weak till moderated.

Bintaro Lama Kampung movie about water treatment

This is a movie that I worked on for a very long time and I gave my best for it.

I really hope you will learn something about cleaning water that you haven't known.

Enjoy the movie!!

Why is fresh water scarce?

1. List the main reasons for water scarcity.
The main reasons are variations in climate, land degradation, population growth and water pollution.
2. What is a drought? What type of hardship do you think that a drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia?
A drought is a period of below average precipitation. This can vary in length. You could have no water, no food, you get sick, no hygiene and many people die.
3. How does land degradation effect the supply of fresh water?
It greatly reduce the ability of the soil to store water.
4. (a) What is El Nino?
El Nino is a periodical change (3-5 years) in the atmosphere and ocean of the pacific.
(b) Why does El Nino often cause drought in Australia?
El Nino brings high presume over most of Australia. The result is a prolonged and serious drought.
5. Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-83.
(a) What effect does El Nino have on the availability on fresh water?
Floods, heavy storms, rapid melting of snow and tidal waves affects the supply of fresh water because water becomes heavily polluted and little clean water is available. As a result could be fatal diceases such as cholera.
(b) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall caused by El Nino.
In the Philippines, China, Africa, Papua New Guinea and Australia El Nino caused drought and water scarcity: Bad Wheat export for Australia, lower rice harvest in the Phillippines, high air polution in Indonesia and reduced corn crop in sub-Saharan region.

Bintaro Lama Kampung

This week our class went to the Bintaro Lama Kampung. It was so different from the Water Treatment Plant. Actually the process was similar, just that it was not big but small.

The guide in the kampung first showed us a kind of school or something. The kids sat on the floor and learned about washing their hands and why it is so important.

In front of every house was a water barrel to wash the hands.

Then the guide showed us how to make the water drinkable. The people in the kampung can buy a pack that costs only 1,000Rp. That's not much at all it's only about 0.11$.

The pack has got Alum. As we already know from the water treatment plant, Alum makes the dirt clump together and the go to ground. They people in the kampung stir the water for 5 minutes and then they have a glass with a towel on top and they let the water flow on the towel and then into the glass. from there they first have to wait 20 minutes and then they can drink The guide also told us what to do if you are in the Sahara for instant and you have access to water but not clean water you can take a bottle, put in the water and then let it in the sun. After the water has stayed in the sun for a while, you can drink it. Isn't it cool?

They also showed us two other ways of getting access to clean water. One of them is to use Aqua Tabs ( tablets) and put them into the water that is clean, but not drinkable. they let the tablet dissolve in the water and then again they can drink it.
The second way is to use Air Rah Mad ( I think so I spelled it wrong) to make the water drinkable. Depending on the amount of water you put some of the liquid into the water and the water gets drinkable again.

I just thought the kampung was a very good place to see the live of the people in these kampungs that are located in Jakarta. They use the water very wisely, because they don't have that much of this clean water. Oh I almost forgot. On the end of the trip, when we just were about to leave, we all sang a song about hand washing together with the kampung people. It was a good, but hot trip.

How much fresh water is there

1. What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?
Only 2.5 percent of our water is fresh water.
2. Where is the world's supply of fresh water found?
Supply of fresh water is found in ice, ground soil, atmosphere, rivers and lakes.
3. Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?
Fresh water supply is a problem because water and people are unevenly distributed.
4. Observe the map of world average annual precipitation (opposite).
(a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the southern
to the northern tip of Africa.
The rainfall rises from the southern tip of Africa to central Africa and than it sinks rapidly as you move to the northern tip. The highest rainfall is in central Africa, slightly less in the south while the northern part is very dry.
(b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western
to the eastern tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn.
More than a half of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn is constantly dry. The rainfall rises than towards the east coast.
5. Observe the map above of water availability per person.
(a) Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available
per person?
Northern parts of: Asia, north and south America and Australia appear to have large amount of water available per person.
(b) Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person?
The southern part of Asia, the northern part of Africa and Europe appear to have a small amount of water available per person.
6. Observe the diagram of water use.
(a) What are the main uses of water?
By far the main use of fresh water is in agriculture.
(b) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?
The Industrial use of water increased almost thirty times over the last century. That is more than all other uses have increased.

Water Treatment Plant

Last Thursday we(our class) was on a field trip. In science and social studies we learned about water and now still are. We went to the field trip to see how they make the river water in Jakarta, that is very dirty, clean.

Step 1: They use a gate to capture the big garbage. They have to clean it every hour so it can capture the other garbage even better. When they wouldn't clean it at all then the garbage would just pile and the water cannot get through. That can cause flooding.
The reason why they do this is to stop the big garbage from coming to the water that they want to clean. I wonder how much garbage there is in that one hour.

Step 2: The water treatment plant oxygenates and adds minerals to the water. They do this to give the water oxygen. I am wondering why they do this.

Step 3: In this step they add alum. The dirt gathers together. I would like to know how the alum does that.

Step 4: Now they let the water sit for a while. The water sediments. That means that the clumps of dirt fall to the ground of the water.

Step 5: There is a layer of sand that is 1meter high. It filters the water even more. I was wondering how often they wash the filter.

Earthquake in Jakarta

A powerful earthquake has struck off the Indonesian island of Java, killing 44 people. The tremors were felt also in Jakarta. Earthquakes happen, because we are near the ring of fire.
More than 300 people have been injured and it is feared the death toll will rise as many homes have reportedly been buried by a landslide triggered by the quake.
More than 700 houses were badly damaged by the magnitude 7.0 quake.
The quake struck around 14:55, September 2, 2009. Its epicentre was offshore, 115km south-west of Tasikmalaya. A local tsunami alert was issued.

Animals are very sensitive so they feel the earthquake coming, but we people don't.

I was at school and was about to walk to PIE gym for gymnastics. On my way at the MS drop off point I heard a voice. "Stay where you are !!!", it said. I kept on walking, because I didn't know why we should stop. I didn't feel anything. At the gym I saw a lot of people standing on the grass, but I didn't know why they did that. Then I met my mom and she told me that an earthquake happened. In several minutes my dad called and he said that they had to evacuate, because he was in the 11th floor. Afterwards they had to go home, because aftershockes were expected.

I think that we were lucky, because it could be even worst when we would be closer to the epicenter.