Agenda March 31

Agenda March 29

7th & 6th Grade: Article for Monday Read

Papua New Guinea ranks last for access to clean water

By Carla Kweifio-Okai, The Guardian, adapted by Newsela staff

03.24.16

 Children fetch drinking water at a pump well in Myanmar, Aug 5, 2015. World Water Day is held every year on March 22. It is a day for understanding problems related to water. A group called WaterAid said that Papua New Guinea is the hardest place in the world to get clean water. Photo: AP/Khin Maung Win. BOTTOM: A vendor delivers water to residents in Papua New Guinea. Photo: Tom Greenwood/WaterAid

Papua New Guinea has the worst access to clean water in the world. Sixty percent of the South Pacific country's population live without a safe water supply. This figure comes from a report released on World Water Day 2016.

World Water Day is held every March 22. It is an opportunity for the world to focus on water related problems. This year, a report by the charity WaterAid focused on the problem of water access, or how easy it is for people to get safe drinking water. 

WaterAid's report ranked countries based on the percentage of households with access to clean water. The five countries ranked lowest for this were Equatorial Guinea (Central Africa), Angola (Southern Africa), Chad (Central Africa), Mozambique (Southeastern Africa) and Papua New Guinea. 

Globally, 650 million people live without an “improved” source of drinking water. "Improved" sources of water include protected wells, rainwater or water piped into households. "Unimproved" sources include rivers and ponds.

Water Delivery Is The Problem

WaterAid also ranked countries by the total number of people without access to safe water. India (Southeast Asia), where 75.8 million people have no access to safe water, was ranked last. The next three lowest countries were China (Eastern Asia), Nigeria (Western Africa) and Ethiopia (Eastern Africa).

Henry Northover is the head of policy for WaterAid. He said the global water crisis was not based on a limited supply of water. Instead, he said it was based on not being able to deliver water to people. 

“This is not always an issue of scarcity – by and large we are dealing with a distributional crisis. It is fixable with clear and coherent government policies, and with the focused support of international agencies,” Northover said.

Poor Often Pay The Most For Water

WaterAid's report also detailed the high costs of water access and why the poorest communities often pay the most for water. When there is no public access to clean water, people are forced to buy their water from other sources. Street merchants, tanker trucks and other informal delivery services sell water in these places. None sell their water cheaply. 

Port Moresby is the capital of Papua New Guinea. There, the average cost for 50 litres (13.2 gallons) of water from a delivery service is £1.84 ($2.61). That is half the daily salary of some workers. In the U.K., which has piped water, the same amount of water costs only £0.07 ($0.10).

The following chart shows how much of a daily salary is spent on water in four countries. Three are countries without public water access, the other is the U.K.:

Billions More People Have Access To Clean Water

Northover made this point even clearer by putting it into words. He said that if you live in a country without public water access, you pay more for water "than if you were living in Manhattan.”

WaterAid's report was not all bad news. It also showed that efforts to make clean water more available have worked, with 2.6 billion people gaining access since 1990. Cambodia (Southeast Asia) is the country with the greatest improvement in this area. It is followed by Mali (Western Africa), Laos (Southeast Asia) and Ethiopia (Eastern Africa):

Various programs have been credited for this progress. Two of these are corporate and governmental partnerships to distribute water, and reduced prices for communities that buy water. 

Still More Work To Do

In 2001, the United Nations set a series of millennium development goals (MDGs) to improve life for those living in poverty. One MDG was to cut in half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. This MDG was achieved, but WaterAid's Northover believes there is still more work to do.

“The MDG target was met, but that was largely due to progress made in China and Southeast Asia,” Northover noted. 

“We know it’s still achievable," Northover said of increasing water access for more people. "Many countries have proved it’s possible." But rather than celebrating success in one country or one region, he wants "water access to be a global priority."

Agenda March 18

Agenda March 18

Agenda March 15

Agenda March 14

Agenda March 11

7th Grade: Article 1 for Friday

The falling price of oil is both good  and bad

By Associated Press

NEW YORK — The price of oil has fallen by nearly half in just six months, a surprising and steep plunge. Vehicle drivers, airlines, shipping companies and anyone who buys oil or gas is cheering. Oil producers, on the other hand, are upset about lost profits. Economists are studying the situation and trying to figure out if this is a good or bad thing for countries and their economies. The amount of business activity and whether jobs are lost or created is tied to it.

The price of a barrel of oil is around $58, down from $107 last summer. It is lower than at any time since 2009, when the United States was still struggling through a recession and tough economic times. During that time, many people lost their jobs and businesses were not doing well.

Today, there is too much oil and not enough people who want to buy it. The effects are being seen across the world's economies.

Years of high oil prices inspired drillers around the world to search the Earth for more oil.

They found it.

The World Has Extra Oil

Since 2008, oil companies in the United States, for example, have increased production 70 percent. They are now pumping 3.5 million more barrels of oil per day. To put it another way, that increase alone is more than the production of any OPEC member other than Saudi Arabia. OPEC stands for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. It is a group of 12 of some of the largest oil-producing countries in the world. Most are in the Middle East and Africa. They work together to decide how much oil to produce and sell.

The United States was beginning to produce more oil while conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa lowered supplies from countries in those regions. Countries outside of OPEC decided to pump more oil to make sure people around the world would still have gasoline to drive their cars, take planes, ship things and more.

Now, OPEC plans to keep pumping oil even with continuing conflicts in the Middle East. In addition, oil supplies from those non-OPEC countries have become more popular. OPEC estimated last week that it will produce more oil next year than the world needs from it. That extra supply is lowering the global price of oil.

Gasoline Prices Have Dropped

People around the world will need more oil this year than they did last year. The top oil consumer is the United States. Its economy is doing fairly well. China, Japan and Western Europe are the next largest oil buyers. Some of those economies appear to be weakening. With a weakened economy, they will not need as much oil.

Even in the United States, demand for oil and gasoline is not increasing. More hybrid or electric cars and changes in population have meant less oil buying. The Energy Department predicts a slight decrease in gasoline demand next year even though gas is expected to be cheaper.

For drivers, shippers, airlines and other consumers of fuel, there is plenty to like about the drop in oil prices.

The national average gasoline price has fallen to $2.55 a gallon, its lowest level since October 2009, according to car and travel organization AAA. It is also $1.15 a gallon cheaper than the highest price it was this year. Those savings mean families have an extra $100 a month when they shop for holiday presents.

"Any time gas prices go down that is a good thing," said 30-year-old Randy Daniels. He was shopping recently at a mall in Atlanta, Georgia. "An extra 20 or 30 bucks in my pocket goes far," he said.

A Boost To Holiday Shopping

Diesel and jet fuel prices have also plunged, helping to increase the profits of airlines and shippers. Heating oil is the cheapest it has been in four years. It also means that heating homes in the cold winter will cost less.

Falling fuel prices put extra money in people's pockets and help increase consumer spending. Americans' spending accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy, so extra shopping gives it a boost. However, economists are growing worried that the low oil prices could still be a bad thing.

The depth of oil's plunge could be a signal that the world economy is struggling even more than economists think. A weak global economy could hurt the U.S. economy by lowering the amount of goods being shipped out of the United States, affecting spending and jobs around the world. If this is true, then those factors will mean the U.S. economy will also struggle, even if fuel is cheaper.

Some Countries Depend On Oil Companies

For oil companies, oil-producing states, and oil-exporting countries, the oil price collapse is painful.

Oil companies usually keep pumping oil from wells they have already drilled. Yet lower prices sharply reduce their profits and force them to reduce spending on new exploration projects. Experts say it could result in thousands of job cuts at oil companies.

States that rely on taxes from oil production on their lands such as Alaska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas will receive less money. Some have already had to cut their spending.

Countries such as Iran, Iraq, Russia and Venezuela own oil companies. They rely heavily on money from them. They use the money from the oil companies they own to run their governments, but many are struggling.

Bank of America is predicting that every $1 drop in the global price of oil costs Venezuela $770 million annually. Current prices are now $46 below last year's average, putting the country on track for a $36 billion loss.

7th Grade: Article 2 For Friday

Youths bring lawsuits to push governments into helping stop climate change

By Associated Press,

SEATTLE, Wash. — Dozens of young people want a say in the planet's future. To make their voices heard, these young people — though not old enough to vote — have been suing states and the federal government to force action on climate change.

The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, creates greenhouse gases that heat up the Earth and change the climate. These youths say global warming will harm their generation the most. They believe the government should protect natural resources, including the atmosphere, as a "public trust" for future generations.

In Seattle, eight youths between the ages of 10 and 15 are represented by the Western Environmental Law Center. They petitioned the state of Washington, arguing that the state has failed to reduce carbon emissions based on the best available science. The youths say the government has violated its duties under the state constitution and the public trust doctrine. This policy requires the government to protect shared natural resources.

Bringing Legal Action All Over America

Our Children's Trust, a nonprofit organization based in Oregon, has been filing lawsuits or petitions in every state and against the federal government. Some of the youth-led cases have been dismissed. Others are awaiting a decision in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Oregon.

The United States courts have so far not wanted to change the laws on climate, said Michael Gerrard. He is a professor and director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

Other experts say it is unclear how a state can combat a global problem.

The eight Seattle activists who petitioned Washington state last year are fighting for the state to adopt stricter regulations to protect them against climate change. Their case has been moving through a state court.

Acid Oceans. Warm Earth. Unhappy Youth.

"We're the ones who have to live with it if the oceans are acidic and the planet is 5 degrees warmer," said Gabriel Mendell, 13, an eighth-grader and plaintiff in the case. "The snowpack is melting. Ocean is acidifying. The Earth is warming. Everything that can go wrong is going wrong, and we need to fix it."

Court documents provided by the state said that the Washington Department of Ecology was working on adopting a rule to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

"Climate change is the most important environmental problem," said Stu Clark, Washington's air quality program manager. "We are doing what we can with what we have."

An Uphill Battle To Win Legal Change They Want

Nationwide, the cases need to pass certain legal hurdles. They need to establish that the public trust doctrine applies to the Earth's atmosphere. They also need to establish whether the law allows minors to sue.

"I don't think this litigation is going to be successful because climate change is a global problem, and it's not clear what a state could do," said Richard Stewart, a law professor at New York University. While a state has certain powers, it can only make a tiny contribution to a global problem, he added.

In Oregon, two Eugene teens are appealing after a state judge rejected their petition in May. The judge ruled that Oregon's public trust does not apply to the atmosphere, water, beaches and shorelines. The teens will take their case to a higher court in hopes that the judge's decision will be reversed.

Making A Federal Case Out Of It

In August, 21 youths across the country sued the federal government. They claimed that approval of fossil fuel development has violated the fundamental right of citizens to be free from government actions that harm life, liberty and property.

"The government isn't doing the best to assure that we have the best quality of life," said Aji Piper, a 15-year old high school sophomore from Seattle. He is a plaintiff in that case and the one in Washington state. "It holds more urgency for us. Our future is at hand."

Julia Olson is the executive director for Our Children's Trust. She says the Washington case has gone the furthest because a judge in King County Superior Court will be hearing arguments on the merits and worthiness of the petition, rather than on a procedural issue.

Agenda March 10

Agenda March 9

Agenda March 7

Agenda March 4

Classroom News

Here's a bit of what's going on in the upper grades:

6th Graders have been working hard on prepping for the Plant Sale this weekend. They've called local nurseries, made presentations to our big donor, Bailey Nursery, made advertisements, placed signage and are running the sale itself on Saturday!

6th Graders are also helping spearhead a revamped garden plan. This will be a step-by-step program with a goal of "small and successful"--stay tuned for more on this soon!

7th Grade just wrapped our Geography and Climate unit on Africa, and are heading into a unit on Asia. Our case study focus will be on China and Tibet toward the end of the unit, with integration of geographic and geologic concepts throughout the unit focused on natural resources and how they relate to country's wealth and environment.

8th Grade have just gotten into Mock Trial teams and will work with various community experts over the next few weeks in preparation for our April 1st Mock Trial.

Stay tuned for updates on all of these and more!

Best,
Mr. Radich

Agenda March 2

Agenda March 1