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Children of the Quake | Christchurch Earthquake

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia and is located within the Selangor territory of the country near the West coast. It is unknown who exactly founded Kuala Lumpur but it is assumed to be Chinese Miners. In the 1840s the coal and tin mining industry was booming and Malaysia was the prime location for this. Many ethnic groups competed to lay claim on the mining land by forming gangs and ultimately the dominant gangs were the Chinese and the Sumatrans. Life in early Kuala Lumpur was not easy. Monsoon seasons were deadly and the jungle climate of the region made Malaria-related death tolls extremely high. Soon after its establishment, the British Empire dug its feet into the mud there, establishing governmental offices and laws.
Despite its very Christian influences from China and the British, Malaysia has remained a largely Muslim country. However, there is a distinct social hierarchy, much like we saw in Serbia. The Chinese Malaysians hold most if not all offices of power and control the corrupt police and prison systems while the Indian and Sumatran Malaysians work the more "civilian" less respected jobs and have significantly less influence due to the threat of the Chinese Malaysian government. Despite it being a very culturally Muslim country, the Muslim population is treated the worst and has virtually no real power in the current system.

Answer question A OR B

a) How do you think the extreme weather and disease problems delayed the development of Kuala Lumpur as a city and the nation of Malaysia as a whole?

b) Why is it that the ethnic minorities in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia as a whole struggle to make a difference in the systems they reside in?

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Novi Sad is the second-largest city in Serbia and lies along the banks of the Danube River, facing the mountain Fruška Gora. This city has a population of roughly 250,000 people and has been affectionately referred to as "The Serbian Athens." The city is an important player in the Serbian and overall Balkan economy and is a major industrial hub for the region. Throughout history, Serbian lands have been occupied by many notable Empires and Monarchies, but most Notably the Hapsburgs. During their rule, Serbia was located in the Kingdom of Hungary as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Serbia and Novi Sad remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until its dissolution at the end of World War I in November of 1918. From then the state of Yugoslavia was born. This state included what we would now call Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Slovenia. This country was unified under the idea of having a united nation for the Southern Slavic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula but had a fatal flaw. All of the countries listed above were so ethnically and culturally different that it was difficult to integrate. This caused a distinct social hierarchy to be built within the state of Yugoslavia. This hierarchy placed Serbs at the top and they quickly became a borderline fascist ruling class. Every country except for Serbia desperately wanted to disband Yugoslavia and return to separate states but was held together by the glue that was Marshal Josip Tito. Tito had a loose association with Stalin and the Soviet Union and was one of the only reasons the Soviets didn't crush the Balkan Peninsula and take it for themselves. After Titos death, Yugoslavia broke its affiliation with the Soviet Union and from there spiraled into a state of near-constant conflict called the Yugoslavic Wars. These ran all through the 90s and much of the "Western" world had to intervene in the conflict out of fear of it becoming another world war. After many bloody years, the states returned to their own former countries with the exception of Kosovo. While Kosovo is its own country, it is still ruled by Serbians.

Do you think these tensions between Serbia and Kosovo could spark another war within the Balkan Peninsula? Why?

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The Bodélé Depression is the lowest point in the African country of Chad, right at Southern edge of the Sahara Desert. This depression is about 150 Kilometers wide and 160 meters deep. This basin produces some of the most nutrient rich dust in the entire world. About 100 days a year there are massive dust storms, from which different parts of the world gain their fertilizer from. One of these places is the Amazon Rainforest. But why is this dust so nutrient rich? Currently there is a large lake located in Chad called Lake Chad, but it used to be 2-3 times the size it is today. As the Sahara dried up, it took much of Mega-Lake Chad with it, but the nutrients in the formerly lively soil never went away. This is how it has been fertilizing soil across South America  and South West Africa for a few thousand years.

What do you think would happen to the environment if the dust from the Bodélé Depression was no longer transported by the wind? What if the dust storms stopped entirely? Consider how this affects the people living within the region as well as those that indirectly benefit from them.

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Amazon Rainforest - Codajás, State of Amazonas, Brazil

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Amazon Rainforest - Codajás, State of Amazonas, Brazil

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Amazon Rainforest - Codajás, State of Amazonas, Brazil

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The Amazon Rainforest is one of the largest rainforests in the entire world spanning over 7 million square kilometers. It spans over most of the South American basin. This forest also produces a large portion of the Earth's oxygen. The Amazon Rainforest may be one of he most powerful biomes on the planet, but it does not sustain itself alone. Dust that is carried from the country of Chad in Africa contains a significant amount of phosphorus, which fertilizes the soil here when winds carry it across the Atlantic Ocean. The region was settled by indigenous peoples around 11 thousand years ago. Surprisingly, it is incredibly difficult to actually farm in this region because the soil is of such poor quality. Because of this, the forest has remained largely untouched by human life until recent years. In 2019, there were massive fires that shredded through the forest, leaving many parts of it uninhabitable for any life. Before this, many were already deforesting parts of the land for construction purposes, displacing much of the life there.

Why is it so important to protect the Amazon Rainforest? What can we do to help preserve it?

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Siberia is one of the coldest places on the planet with an average temperature of 5 degrees Celsius. The bulk of Siberian land is extremely cold, dry steppe at the base of the Ural Mountains, but has historically been a great farming hub. The region even holds the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal. This lake had hundreds of its own unique species residing in and around its waters. Although the early Soviet government made several attempts to explore the depths of the lake, none of them are considered successful. It is simply too harsh of an environment to thoroughly explore. Before being taken over by Russia, Siberia was ruled by several different groups of nomadic peoples ranging from Tibetan Monks to Turkic peoples and even the Mongols. Once they were forced into the Russian Empire, Siberia became the main producer of various kinds of furs and prized jewelry. The Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union sought to destroy the deep culture of the people of the region in an attempt to create a monoethnic state. This cultural genocide was widely successful across most of modern Russia and its propaganda has largely changed the world's perception of what a "Russian" actually looks like.

How do you think the climate in Siberia affected invasions and the production/transportation of raw materials throughout history?

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Paradise is a rural area on the South Island of New Zealand. This location has been a hub for the indigenous Maori people for centuries and is highly protected by the Kiwi Government to preserve the beauty of the land. The soil here is nutrient rich and there are several large bodies of freshwater nearby, giving many options for farming. This region in New Zealand is protected by an expansive mountain range that runs along the South Island's western coast. This causes the seasons here to be fairly mild compared to those on the North Island. There is, however, a major problem: earthquakes. New Zealand sits upon the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean and are volcanic islands themselves. While eruptions are extremely rare, earthquakes are quite frequent and about every 10 years there is a massive earthquake that destroys the South Island's infrastructure.

How do you think these things affect modern life on New Zealand's South Island?