New America: Expanded Boundaries and Hidden Treasures

In the November 2013 edition of the National Geographic magazine an artical was published entitled 'New America'. (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/new-america-map/ballard-text)
With the world poplation already exceeding 7 billion people the rush to find new resources is ever increasing. This artical describes how the US has being exploring its 'Exclusive Economic Zone' and what new resources it has discovered.
What it fails to address is how this and other nations rush to find new resources on and under the bed of the oceans may bring them into conflict in the future.
It links in with your work on sustainability and the work we will be doing about China later this year.
P.s. Creating a National Gographic account is something you really ought to do.

'The Great Deluge' - the story of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast

More of a historical document then a geography text book The Great Deluge tells the story of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Much of the work we do in lessons really just scratches the surface of what went wrong? Yes, there was a storm surge of up to 28 feet (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/outreach/history/#katrina) but a lot more went wrong. What should have been a natural disaster became a human disaster!
Douglas Brinkley explores what went wrong before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans but also then addresses what compounded the problems following the event; how could one of the richest, most developed countries in the world get it so wrong and fail so many people.
The book is long but well worth reading.

Frozen Britain

It is easy to use the phrases 'climate change' and 'global warming' interchangably and frequently you will hear me do this in lessons. In fact they are different and the exam board goes so far as to use the former phrase, 'climate change' in their specification. In fact global warming is just one component of climate change.
There is a suggestion that in the medium term in the UK we may actually see cooling, and to use Gavin Cooke's phrase from his book 'Frozen Britain'; Britain may well be entering a new 'mini ice age'!
Three cold winters with prolonged bad weather, snow and freezing conditions might suggest that he is correct.
The book is worth reading; if he is correct then the Britains future looks bleak; at least for the next thirty years or so.
If nothing else it proves that climate change and global warming are a complex issue and one which we should study in detail.