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Largest Migration in History

China has had the biggest migration in human history around  120 million people so far. This began in the early 1980s, when Deng Xiaoping’s (ex Chinese leader) “Reform and Opening” (experimentation with free markets and foreign trade) started a large surge of migrant workers and entrepreneurs  from rural farms and villages to factories in eastern boom towns. The immigrants  initially focused on smaller settlements which swiftly grew, like Shenzhen, which grew from a small fishing town to a modern conurbation of 4 million just two decades.

The migrants workers are generally young, many having just left school — and drawn by stories of "bright lights". It was initially male workers looking for seasonal work however it soon changed to include year-round work and vast numbers of women (so many that some cities like Dongguan are now 70% female). 

Recently, a number of migrants have started settling in urban areas instead of making their way home after a few years. The laborers typically eat, sleep, and work under one roof , often for pitiful wages, working seven days a week, in western terms sweatshops although many of the workers consider it a chance for a better future. The money they send home is now the biggest source of income in many rural villages, more so than the rice crops of fishing.

China's  population is now rapidly shifting the country from an agrarian society to an industrialized one. As a result society a a whole is changing, moving away from the communists governments original ideals. The change to industrialisation is starting to promote western concepts; individualism, materialism, and feminism for example whether the state likes it or not.

Floods in Australia

A series of floods have been affecting north-eastern Australia, primarily in the state of Queensland, since December 2010. The floods have forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities with at least 22 towns and over 200,000 people affected. Damage initially was estimated at around £650m. This estimate was later revised up to AU$5bn.

Vast areas of Southern and Central Queensland were affected by the flood. About 300 roads were closed, including nine major highways. Coal railway lines were closed and numerous mine sites flooded. The floods have qlso had an economic impact, by boosting fruit and vegetable prices as a result of damadged crops.

The floods were a result of heavy precipitation caused by Tropical Cyclone Tasha that combined with a trough (an elongated region of relatively low atmospheric pressure) during the peak of a La Niña event. The 2010 La Niña weather pattern, which brings wetter conditions to eastern Australia, is the strongest since 1973. Isolated flooding started across parts of the state in early December. On 24 December a monsoonal trough crossed the coast from the Coral Sea, bringing torrential rain that fell from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Gold Coast. By 28 December the worst of the rain had passed. The conditions also led to a large influx of snakes, as well as some crocodiles.