Asia is
the Earth’s largest and most
populous continent, located primarily
in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total
surface area and comprises 30% of its land area [44,579,000 km2(17,212,000 sq mi)].
With approximately 4.3 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current
human population. Asia alone has 49 countries and 5 disputed countries. Like
most of the world, Asia has a high growth rate in the modern era. For instance,
during the 20th century, Asia's population nearly quadrupled, as did the world
population.
The
boundaries of Asia are culturally determined, as there is no clear geographical
separation between it and Europe, which
together form one continuous landmass called Eurasia.
The most commonly accepted boundaries place Asia to the east of the Suez Canal,
the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains,
and south of the Caucasus Mountains (or
the Kuma-Manych Depression) and the Caspian and Black. It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the
Indian Ocean, and on the north by the
Arctic Ocean.
Given
its size and diversity, the concept of Asia – a name dating back to classical antiquity - may actually have more to do with human
geography than physical geography. Asia
varies greatly across and within its regions with
regard to ethnic groups, cultures, environments, economics, historical ties and
government systems.
CLIMATE CHANGE
A survey carried out in 2010 by global risk
analysis firm Maplecroft identified 16 countries that are extremely
vulnerable to climate change. Each nation's vulnerability was calculated using
42 socio, economic and environmental indicators, which identified the likely
climate change impacts during the next 30 years. The Asian countries of Bangladesh,
India, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were among the 16
countries facing extreme risk from climate change. Some shifts are already
occurring. For example, in tropical parts of India with a semi-arid climate, the
temperature increased by 0.4 °C between 1901 and 2003. A 2013 study by the International
Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid tropics (ICRISAT) aimed to find
science-based, pro-poor approaches and techniques that would enable Asia's
agricultural systems to cope with climate change, while benefitting poor and
vulnerable farmers. The study's recommendations ranged from improving the use
of climate information in local planning and strengthening weather-based
agro-advisory services, to stimulating diversification of rural household
incomes and providing incentives to farmers to adopt natural resource
conservation measures to enhance forest cover, replenish groundwater and use renewable
energy.
ECONOMY
Asia has the second largest nominal GDP of all
continents, after Europe, but the largest when measured in purchasing power
parity. As of 2011, the largest economies in Asia are China, Japan, India, South
Korea and Indonesia. Based on Global Office Locations 2011, Asia dominated the
office locations with 4 of top 5 were in Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo,
Seoul and Shanghai. Around 68 percent of international firms have office in
Hong Kong.
LANGUAGES
Asia is home to several language families and
many language isolates. Most Asian
countries have more than one language that is natively spoken. For instance,
according to Ethnologue, more than 600 languages are spoken in Indonesia, more
than 800 languages spoken in India, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines.
China has many languages and dialects in different provinces. However,
English is spoken in these countries and it’s used as the language of the
classroom to teach the English medium of international students. A lot of Asians
especially the younger generation speak English Language.
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