Leaving Cert *Geography* notes - Physical,Regional,Economic,Geoecology etc

yeyeye

So the leaving cert is only in a few weeks, so i decided to write up some of my geography notes to study on the laptop so i thought why not share them with other students on here. I saw a similar thread from last year but it was closed.

Global Interdependence 2013 Q15
Discuss the arguments for and against international aid.
(80 marks)

Marking Scheme :
Number of aspects: 3 @ 27 + 27 + 26 4 @ 20 marks each
Identifying aspect: 4 marks 4 marks
Discussion: 8 x SRPs OR 6 x SRPs
Overall coherence: 7/6 marks graded 4 marks graded

1) In this answer I will discuss the arguments for and against international aid.
2) The main aim of international aid is to reduce economic inequalities between rich and poor countries by helping poor countries to develop both economically and socially.
3) In 2008 over €84 billion was given in aid by donor countries (OECD, 2008).
4) There are many arguments that are in favour of international aid. International aid can have many positive impacts on developing countries when used properly.
5) The first positive impact of international aid is that it saves lives and provides relief to people in times of emergency such as after a natural disaster.
6) This type of aid is known as short-term aid or emergency aid.
7) The main aim of emergency aid is to save and protect lives in emergency situations.
8) Emergency aid is immediate and usually involves giving medical supplies, food and temporary shelter to people following a natural disaster.
9) Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the Irish Government provided more than 130 tonnes of emergency aid to the Haitian people.
10) This aid helped provide clean water, food and shelter for approximately 12,000 families in the wake of this devastating natural disaster.
11) Ireland provided €2 million in direct emergency funding, which was distributed through Irish non-governmental agencies such as Concern and Trócaire.
12) Ireland has also provided emergency aid to people following the flooding in Mozambique and Bangladesh and to people in South Sudan, Somalia and Sierra Leone.
13) Emergency aid has helped to save thousands of lives in countries all over the world.
14) Another argument in favour of aid is that it can improve health and infrastructure in developing countries.
15) Development aid can also have a positive impact on developing countries as it can be the catalyst to economic and social development in these countries and help reduce poverty.
16) Development aid is long term and helps decrease infant mortality and fertility rates in developing countries through the provision of health services, sanitation and clean water supplies.
17) Development aid empowers people by helping them to help themselves. The majority of Ireland’s development aid takes the form of bi-lateral aid.
18) This is aid given directly from the government of one country to the government of another.
19) About 80% of Ireland’s development aid is given to Africa.
20) Irish aid is involved in development programmes in Lesotho, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda and Malawi.
21) These development programmes involve local people in developing countries and focuses on the needs of the people.
22) Over the past ten years the number of children in school in Uganda has doubled as a result of development aid and poverty has been reduced by 35%. In 2010 €35.54 million in Irish aid was given to Ethiopia.
23) Development aid to Ethiopia is focused on a number of key areas such as health care and HIV, agriculture, and water and sanitation programmes.
24) Ireland also supports the Food Security Programme. This provides food and money to the poorest Ethiopians in return for work in public programmes.
25) One of the biggest arguments against international aid is that it is not effective in helping countries develop.
26) It is argued that despite all the aid that has been given by donor countries to combat poverty, it is failing to close the economic gap between rich and poor countries.
27) For example, living standards in Zambia are now 40% lower than they were when the country gained independence in 1964 despite having received €1.4 billion worth of aid.
28) In some cases aid money may be stolen by corrupt government officials.
29) In 2012 €16 million of aid to Uganda was put on hold after a report by Ugandan's Auditor General found that €12m in aid had been transferred to unauthorised accounts in the office of the Ugandan Prime Minister.
30) Another argument against international aid is that it is often given by donor countries with conditions attached. This is known as tied aid.
31) According to a United Nations report in 2004, France, Germany, Japan and the United States insisted that a large percentage of aid given to poor countries must be used to buy products from the donor countries.
32) In the 1980s the United States gave aid to Peru with a number of conditions attached.
33) Peru had to allow the United States to fish in Peruvian waters, Peru had to buy military aeroplanes from the United States and had to allow American companies to drill for oil in Peru.
34) Similarly, aid that has been given to Africa from the United States to combat HIV/AIDS is tied aid.
35) A condition of the aid is that the governments of these African countries must buy anti-Aids drugs from the United States instead of from cheaper sources such as South Africa and Brazil.
36) As a result of the conditions attached, tied aid increases the dependency of the developing country on the developed country and increases the power of the developed country.
37) The developing country also has less control on how the aid money is spent.
38) Developed countries continue to control developing countries and markets of developing countries are opened to multinational companies of developed economies.
39) The recent African Summit held in Libya called for developed countries to stop giving aid with strings attached.
40) Another type of aid that can have negative impacts on developing countries is aid that comes in the form of international loans.
41) Most loans given to developing countries are invested badly.
42) These loans have to be repayed to the developed country and the interest on these loans plunges many developing countries into debt that they will never be able to afford to repay.
43) Many developing countries are often forced to take out other loans to service the initial loan and the result is that these developing countries get further and further into debt creating a debt spiral.
44) Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, pays ten billion dollars annually in debt service. According to UNICEF, as many as 5,000,000 children and adults may have died in Sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the debt crunch since the 1980s.
45) Loans to developing countries come from governments of developed countries or organisations like the International Monetary Fund.
46) Loans from the International Monetary Fund come with strict conditions such as cuts in food subsidies and spending on health care.
47) Cuts like these further increase poverty in these developing economies. According to a recent Oxford study, developing countries that borrow money from the International Monetary Fund are spending just one cent in every dollar received on health care.

yeyeye

Physical geography 2008 Question 3 part C

Examine with reference to actual examples, the measurement and effects of earthquakes.
(30 Marks)

1) The earthquakes I have studied are the Japan earthquake of magnitude 8.9 on the Richter scale that struck on the 11th of March and the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand on the 22nd of February 2011.

2) This measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and occurred close to the passive plate boundary of the Pacific and Australasian plates which are responsible for the major Alpine fault.

Measurement

3) Earthquakes are measured using 2 Types of scale.

4) The Richter scale measures the magnitude of earthquakes.

5) A scale of 1.0 to 10.0 is used, and with each increasing number the magnitude is multiplied by ten.

6) 2.0 is considered to be a mild tremor while 7.0 represents a major earthquake.

7) This is the scale that is most commonly used by seismologists.

8) The Mercalli scale is used after the size and location of an earthquake has been identified.

9) It reflects people’s perceptions of the degree of damage, so it is not considered to be scientific.

10) It is based on a 12 point scale: 1 represents no damage and 12 represents complete devastation.

Effects

11) Japan is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is one of the most active tectonic zones in the world.

12) Here the Pacific and Philippines plates are subducted beneath the lighter continental North American and Eurasian plates.

13) The Epi-centre of the earthquake occurred west of the Japan Trench, 125km off the eastern coastline of Japan, at a depth of 10km.

14) The quake was the 5th largest ever recorded and resulted in a 10 metre high tsunami causing huge structural damage to boats, houses, transport infrastructure and telecommunications.

15) 4 of the 6 reactors in the Fukushima nuclear power plant experienced meltdown.

16) An estimated 11,500 people were killed and 16,500 are still missing.

17) The Christchurch earthquake struck at lunchtime on 22nd of February 2011.

18) The Epi-centre was only 4.8km from the city and the focus was shallow at a depth of 4km.

19) Six months earlier the city experienced an earthquake of magnitude 7.1, which resulted in some structural damage but no casualties.

20) The 2nd quake in Feb 2011 resulted in 131 deaths when many of the weakened buildings collapsed as a result of the quake’s impact.

21) Liquefaction also occurred as Christchurch is built on an alluvial plain.

Laura75

For the 80 mark question is it necessary to write the answer in an essay style? My teacher says to use bullet points for the coherance marks but another teacher says coherance marks will be lost if an essay style is not used.

thelad95

Laura75 wrote: »

For the 80 mark question is it necessary to write the answer in an essay style? My teacher says to use bullet points for the coherance marks but another teacher says coherance marks will be lost if an essay style is not used.

Jesus, do not use bullet points and that goes for the whole paper. You will be slaughtered if you do. We use three or four headings with six or eight SRPs under each

Carton11

Laura75 wrote: »

For the 80 mark question is it necessary to write the answer in an essay style? My teacher says to use bullet points for the coherance marks but another teacher says coherance marks will be lost if an essay style is not used.

You get around 7 marks for coherence in the 80 mark question, so yeah defo use essay style. A lot of people leave this to the last question and run out of time which is why the teacher may have recommended bullet points in order to get the information down. I have seen in the past that if you have a good overall coherence marks throughout the paper the examiner will know you ran out of time and may award 'some' coherence marks if this happens.

carlowmurphy

I've a pretty useless geography teacher and with only 3 weeks left we haven't started on any 80 mark topics or even looked at exam papers. Alot of the course left to do as well. Did well in the mocks but got lucky and it's obvious that she marks them easy. Also the 80 marker was taken out. Should I be worried or can all this be covered in 3 short weeks.

Hotale.com

thelad95 wrote: »

Jesus, do not use bullet points and that goes for the whole paper. You will be slaughtered if you do. We use three or four headings with six or eight SRPs under each

Why not use bullet points? I understand for the 80 marker, but you don't lose marks for the rest of the paper if you do it, do you?

thelad95

Hotale.com wrote: »

Why not use bullet points? I understand for the 80 marker, but you don't lose marks for the rest of the paper if you do it, do you?

Not every bullet point you write will be an SRP even if you think it is. Whoever is correcting will have to start combining information from different bullet points and as a result will get a headache and don't expect any favours if your 2 marks off the next grade. Also, some times they do give coherence marks for the rest of the paper, so if you write in bullet format you will be deducted marks for coherence.