Posts

Apocalypse Now?

Image
The charming seaside metropolis pictured above is facing a far-from-picturesque problem: while it is surrounded by water, it has nearly none left for its residents to drink. Without immediate action, the city will literally run out of water within months, and its 4 millions residents will likely be put under military rule to combat the inevitable outbreak of chaos. Cape Town has been implementing successful water conservation policies in recent years, including the installation of new pipes and meters, as well as steep fines for over-use of water, which is now rationed. However, Cape Town has not done enough to diversify its water supply. Currently it relies nearly entirely on reservoirs that in turn depend on rainfall. An infographic in the attached New York Times article chronicles the shrinkage of the Theewaterskloof Dam upon which half of Cape Town relies. As of now, the dam is at just 13 percent capacity - just one example of the damage caused by several years of persistentl
11 comments
Read more

How Sea Level Rise will Affect Different Cities

Image
It's easy to say that the changes in sea level worldwide due to global warming will affect every city in the same way, but that's not necessarily the case--because different parts of each ice sheet will melt into different parts of the global ocean, every city will be affected differently by sea level rise. That can be an important thing to take into account when planning out cities. A November 2017 study in the journal Science Advances  titled " Should coastal planners have concern over where land ice is melting? " discusses models of how different cities will be affected. There's a lot of good information in there that could potentially aid you in developing policy for coastal planning. The study looks at sea level rise from the two big ice sheets: the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Ice Sheet--both contain  more than 99% of the world's fresh water . For a simulation using the models in the study, you can go to this NASA tool: https://vesl.jpl.nas
5 comments
Read more

Vice Chair Intro--Eric Cherwin

Hi delegates, As you may already know from the topic synopsis, I will be one of your vice chairs for this year's UN Habitat committee. I am a senior Political Science major from Carlsbad, California with minors in Education and History. I hope to go into government administration, public policy, or perhaps law. I also hope to move to D.C. (although the federal hiring freeze has complicated those plans temporarily :( ). Politics aside, I am incredibly excited for my last BMUN conference and look forward to meeting you all soon!
Post a Comment
Read more

Hello & Welcome!

Hello delegates! My name is Patty and I am incredibly excited to be the head chair for UN-Habitat!  I have been involved in MUN since high school, but this will be my first time head chairing.  I am thrilled to be covering topics that I am so passionate about.   Currently, I’m a junior Individual Major: Space & Character at Cal, this means that I have created my own major, which focuses on design based research studying the relationship between spaces and the people who use them.  I am also earning minors in Theater, Architecture and Sustainable Design & Urbanism in Developing Countries.  I am originally from Haiti, but have also lived in Florida, Texas and now California!  Outside of BMUN, I am highly active in the Bay Area theater scene and am also President of my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. I would love for us to use this blog as a form of two-way communication, so please go ahead and comment below and introduce yourself to us as well!  
3 comments
Read more

Vice Chair Intro--Shayna Kothari

Welcome, delegates!  My name is Shayna Kothari, and I'm one of your vice chairs for UN-Habitat! I'm a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering, but I'm also interested in computer science, English, geology, and public policy, to name a few. I'm a Bay Area native (I grew up in Fremont, for any locals!), and I've been doing MUN since my freshman year of high school. In my free time, I like to write poetry, read books (a recent favorite is The Sixth Extinction  by Elizabeth Kolbert), and build things (outside of BMUN, I'm working on a robotic arm for people with limited hand mobility for another club!). I'm incredibly excited for the conference, and I can't wait to see everything you bring to the floor.
Post a Comment
Read more