The Geographer: Mashriq, The Place of Sunrise (autumn 2023)

The

Geographer Autumn 2023

The magazine of

the Royal Scottish Geographical Society

Mashriq: The Place of Sunrise

Aspects of a Just Transition in the Middle East “In every circumstance the safety of humanity will be secured only through vision, energy and generosity of spirit.”

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Elder, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

• Sun, Sand and Scarcity • Security and the Sykes–Picot Legacy • People, Places and Political Boundaries • Wetlands and Water Supplies • Dust Storms and Drought • Resources and Renewables • The Magic and Majesty of the Mashriq • Not Much COP28 • Reader Offer: Wounded Tigris

plus news, books, and more…

The

Geographer

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ith our previous President, Professor Iain Stewart, now based in Jordan, we couldn’t resist the opportunity this presented to focus an edition of The Geographer on the Middle East, or the Mashriq, as relates to the Arab world: the place of sunrise.

This area, so often in the news for the wrong reasons, is perhaps not that well understood. But like many areas it is, of course, a region of contrasts, of culture, and whilst it is a region of oil production it is also a region of fairly devastating climate impacts. So perhaps it is fitting that this December it will be hosting the latest UN Climate Conference, COP28. There is much talk politically of a just transition towards net zero, something Scotland, the UK and the whole world is on a trajectory towards.

But how does this relate to the Mashriq, a region of varied culture, hot sands, water scarcity, political and religious insecurity, and environmental threats?

It also has its demographic challenges, being a region with a very high youth population. HM King Abdullah II of Jordan stated recently that “the Middle East has the highest unemployment percentage of any region in the world. We have the largest youth cohort of history coming into the marketplace. That frustration does translate into the political sphere when people are hungry and without jobs.”

But whilst there are plenty of challenges for the Mashriq, there is also a strong sense of hope and optimism. With a burgeoning youth population, there is a sense of real drive to do better. I hope this magazine will help explain and highlight some of the critical issues that are faced in the Mashriq, to give a sense of the place and the culture and the people, and give more dimensions to a part of the world often overlooked.

Mike Robinson, Chief Executive, RSGS RSGS, Lord John Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Perth, PH1 5LU tel: 01738 455050 email: enquiries@rsgs.org www.rsgs.org

Follow us on social media Charity registered in Scotland no SC015599 The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the RSGS. Cover image: Coastline of Dhofar. © Malcolm MacGregor Masthead image: Dune in the Empty Quarter. © Malcolm MacGregor

RSGS: a better way to see the world

Professor Pete Nienow, WS Bruce Medallist In May, we were delighted to present the WS Bruce Medal to Pete Nienow, Professor of Glaciology at the University of Edinburgh, in recognition of his work improving understanding of global warming in polar regions.

With a career spanning more than 30 years, Professor Nienow has emerged as a world-leading scientist in the field of glacial processes, researching the intricate relationship between glaciers, ice sheets and climate change, providing crucial insights into their potential contribution to rising sea levels and their far-reaching impact on global water resources.

His studies have taken him to some of the most remote corners of the planet, including the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, earning him the prestigious Polar Medal in 2017. Working with the European Space Agency CryoSat mission, his research also endeavoured to derive accurate groundbased estimates of ice-sheet elevation change.

International reach We are delighted to be able to reinforce our international cooperation, with a letter from International Geographical Union (IGU) President Michael Meadows saying, “It gives me great pleasure to inform you that membership of the RSGS has been approved under the category Corresponding Member.” We have worked closely with the IGU on a number of initiatives over the past few years, in particular the international geographical gatherings, so it is heartening to receive this official status and we look forward to continued close collaboration.

Policy work For RSGS, this has been a summer of policy meetings, podcasts and planning. Chief Executive Mike Robinson spoke at the NatureScot staff conference, and at August’s Festival of Politics, on aviation. He met with First Minister Humza Yousaf at an environment round table, with Net Zero and Just Transition Cabinet Secretary Màiri McAllan, with Housing Minister Paul McLennan, and with Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon. And he helped to pull together a report by the NGO sector, to help inform the Scottish Government’s new climate change plan which is due out in the late autumn.

We submitted reports from some of our policy work on education and on buildings to the appropriate Ministers and Committees. We were pleased to host the Scottish Government’s Nordic and Arctic Unit for a day in our office, showing Collections items and talking about our current and historical connections to the Nordic, Arctic and Baltic nations.

Scotland: Our Climate Journey Our documentary film Scotland: Our Climate Journey is now available to watch for free at www.waterbear.com/ watch/scotland-our-climate-journey. The film tells Scotland’s climate journey through the past, present and future, narrated by individuals from different sectors, offering different perspectives and all contributing in the battle against climate change.

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Inspiring People 2023–24 Starting in September, our 2023–24 programme of Inspiring People talks features a stellar line-up of speakers, all with incredible stories to share. Audiences at our 13 Local Groups across Scotland (Aberdeen, Ayr, Borders, Dumfries, Dundee, Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Helensburgh, Inverness, Kirkcaldy, Perth and Stirling) will hear in person from leading explorers, photographers, communicators and scientists.

In the first half of the programme, we will hear from: author Tristan Gooley, who will help us discover the simple principles that explain the shapes and patterns we see in trees and what they mean; cyclist Markus Stitz, reflecting on a career defined by pushing the boundaries of what is possible on and off the bike; conservationist and paramotor pilot Sacha Dench, considering the remarkable lives of ospreys and the challenges they face; Chris Lewis & Kate Barron, sharing how they met each other on a 20,000km walk of the entire UK coastline; adventure filmmaker and author Leon McCarron, sharing stories from his journey by boat along

the full length of the Tigris river; mountaineer Alex Moran, on completing the first ever Island Munros Triathlon; adventurer Mark Evans, on retracing St John Philby’s footsteps from east to west across Arabia, on foot, by camel and by 4x4; writer and explorer Louis Hall, telling stories of crossing the Ligurian Alps on horseback; cyclist Lee Craigie, talking about her 550-mile nonstop mountain bike time trial around the Scottish Highlands, before journeying from Canada to Mexico; climber Anna Taylor, sharing stories from her exploits across the world, including bike-packing through the Tasmanian wilderness; and explorer Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent on spending ten incredible weeks exploring Arunachal Pradesh.

come to the talks!

book your tickets now

Learning from Bhutan

24th November

Bhutan is a unique Himalayan kingdom, where happiness is measured over materialism, and where compassion is woven into the fabric of life. Bhutan’s landscapes, cultures and traditions inspire transformational change. They measure progress with Gross National Happiness, are the only carbon negative country in the world, and have leading practices in sustainable tourism and compassionate conservation.

At a special event to be held on 24th November at the University of Edinburgh, RSGS Explorer-in-Residence Karen Darke FRSGS and His Eminence Khedrupchen Rinpoche will take the audience on a journey into Bhutan, happiness, and how we can all help ourselves and the world around us to flourish.

Book tickets now at www.rsgs.org/events.

book a ticket

Tickets for all Inspiring People talks for 2023–24 are now available through www.rsgs. org/events. Tickets are free for RSGS members, students and under-18s, and £10 for general admission. Book now to secure your ticket for what promises to be a popular line-up of speakers.

Professor Jim Skea FRSGS & IPCC At the 59th Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), held in Nairobi, Kenya, in July, Professor Jim Skea FRSGS was elected IPCC Chair for the seventh assessment cycle.

In the sixth assessment cycle he was Co-Chair of IPCC’s Working Group III which focuses on the mitigation of climate change. He was also part of the scientific leadership for the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. Professor Skea is Chair of Scotland’s Just Transition Commission and was a founding member of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, acting as its Scottish champion. He was awarded an OBE in 2004 and CBE in 2013 for his work on sustainable transport and sustainable energy respectively. He has worked with RSGS on several projects and received RSGS Honorary Fellowship in 2021.

Oceans Seven

Friends of Bydgoszcz

In July, Scottish swimmer Andy Donaldson became the first person to swim the world’s seven most dangerous sea channels in under a year, after completing the Oceans Seven challenge in 355 days, beating the previous record of two years and 60 days. He also broke the record for the shortest cumulative time spent swimming, completing the challenge in 63 hours 2 minutes.

In June, Perth marked its 25th year of twinning with the Polish city of Bydgoszcz. To celebrate, Perth Friends of Bydgoszcz and Perth & Kinross Council hosted a delegation that came all the way from Poland and included Bydgoszcz’s Deputy Mayor, for a celebratory week of events. While in Perth the party visited RSGS headquarters, where they were welcomed and shown around by the RSGS Collections Team, who had put together a special exhibition with maps and artefacts of Bydgoszcz and Poland.

Faced with turbulent waters, temperature changes, nighttime swims, squid, jellyfish and sharks, Andy’s feat was gruelling, and even left him hospitalised after swimming the Moloka’i Channel in Hawaii, where he suffered from nausea, dehydration and a swollen throat, thought to possibly be an allergic reaction from swallowing a jellyfish.

Playground maps New playground maps have been installed at Dollar Academy and Grandtully Primary School by Sarah Wakeford, a painter and community artist who splits her time between painting in her studio and completing art for wellbeing projects in healthcare, education and community settings. If you work at a school or community centre and would like to have a playground map installed, please contact enquiries@rsgs.org or 01738 455050.

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Boundary Commission Review

Building a green supply chain

The Boundary Commission for Scotland regularly reviews UK Parliament constituencies in Scotland, to ensure that each constituency has roughly the same number of electors. After a series of public consultations and hearings, the 2023 Review Report was laid before Parliament in late June, with the recommended changes shown on this map. Each constituency must contain 69,724–77,062 Parliamentary electors, except two ‘protected’ constituencies of Na h-Eileanan an Iar (the Western Isles) and Orkney and Shetland.

With globally interconnected supply chains historically being hard to track and trace, Ordnance Survey (OS) is working with several partners to establish a new Supply Chain Data Partnership, now being piloted in Brazil and Iowa (USA). Donna Lyndsay, Strategic Market Lead at OS, said, “We want to demonstrate how location data and technology helps sustainability initiatives succeed by providing accuracy when it comes to monitoring, analysing, and modelling solutions that will help get us one step closer to a sustainable and prosperous future.”

Munro mountain record In June, ultra-runner Jamie Aarons set a new record for scaling Scotland’s 282 Munros. As well as ascending 140km, she ran, cycled and kayaked over 2,500km between the Munros. She finished in 31 days, ten hours and 27 minutes, breaking the previous record for a selfpropelled Munro challenge by more than 12 hours. She raised over £20,000 for World Bicycle Relief, a charity which provides bikes to children in poorer nations to increase their mobility and improve access to essential services such as schools, markets and health clinics.

Pat Brown FRSGS In August, we were delighted to present RSGS Honorary Fellowship to volunteer Pat Brown, for her long-term, consistent and exceptional contributions to the RSGS Collections Team. As well as having multiple careers throughout her life Pat has travelled widely, gathering experiences in many far-flung places through solo wanderings and mountaineering exploits.

Over the last 12 years, Pat’s work has included cleaning and repairing several hundred worn-at-the-edge and torn 20thcentury map sheets. She has also examined and sorted hundreds of 35mm colour slides, and just in the past year has examined, evaluated and listed over 500 donated books.

Water supplies Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, is experiencing a threeyear drought, which has resulted in a desperate race to find new aquifers to supply the city of more than one million people. Poor rains feeding the two main reservoirs have led to the state water company drawing brackish water from the Rio de la Plata estuary to assist with supply.

Desalination investment in Jordan Magnus Hextall, RSGS Young Geographer A country is considered to face water scarcity when it has less than 500m3 of water per person per year. Jordan has less than 100m3 of freshwater per person annually. Jordanians do not have regular access to water. Many keep water tanks on their roofs for when the mains supply runs out.

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See www.bcomm-scotland.independent.gov.uk for details.

Focusing on supply chains is key to overall sustainability efforts. A McKinsey & Company report found that a typical consumer company’s supply chain creates far greater social and environmental costs than its own operations, accounting for more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90% of the impact on air, land, water, biodiversity, and geological resources.

According to the European Investment Bank (EIB), a new flagship project is expected to change all this by the end of 2028. The Aqaba–Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project will take water from the Red Sea at the Gulf of Aqaba in the south, desalinate it, and channel it 450km north to the capital Amman and its surrounding area, supplying a desperately needed 300,000,000m3 of water a year. “Once this project is operational, there will be continuous water supply 24–7, so people will no longer have to ration water,” said Souad Farsi, the EIB’s representative to Jordan. “This project is really transformational.”

The mammoth infrastructure venture, the largest in the history of the country, and the region, is the fruit of cooperation between the Jordanian government, the EIB and Team Europe, as well as other international agencies and institutions. It is expected to cost €3bn and to create 4,000 jobs during the construction phase.

Speirs Bruce Way A newly upgraded shared use path for walking, wheeling and cycling in Edinburgh’s Granton Waterfront has been officially named after William Speirs Bruce, the oceanographer known for his expeditions to Antarctica, who studied at the Scottish Marine Station for Scientific Research in Granton. The path connects the neighbourhood with public transport links and shops, along with Granton Beach and future planned developments, as part of a wider £1.3 billion Granton Waterfront Regeneration programme.

John Blease FRSGS We were sorry to learn of the death, in late June, of RSGS Fellow John Blease. A former geography teacher, John served as secretary of the RSGS Ayr Group for many years. He will be remembered for all of his hard work and support to the Group, for his fascinating talks on his many journeys around the world, for his good humour, and for being a good friend to all.

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OS’s new Chief Executive The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has appointed Nick Bolton as the new Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey (OS). Nick will take up the position in October 2023, joining from software group Oxford Metrics plc where he has been CEO since 2005.

OS Chairman Stephen Lake said, “Nick’s experience driving growth in both existing and new markets is critical in shaping OS’s future.” Nick Bolton added, “In today’s increasingly digitally augmented world, place matters more than ever and OS data and services are at the very heart of this.”

Voices of the Earth For several years, we have been lucky enough to have the wonderfully talented Jo Woolf as our Writer-in-Residence. Jo has worked tirelessly, as a volunteer, to research many of the remarkable people, and the associated artefacts and events, that make up the RSGS, past and present, and to weave her findings into enchanting and illuminating stories.

In 2017, we helped Jo to publish her first book, The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration. Now we are asking you to help Jo to publish a second book of stories related to RSGS’s past and present, provisionally entitled Voices of the Earth, and featuring 50 more incredible people from the past 200 years.

Please visit www.rsgs.org/appeal/voices for details and to contribute to the publication of this book. Thank you.

Blog highlights We continue to make weekly additions to our blog (www.rsgs.org/ blog). Recent posts include: Returning heroes: 70 years since the British Mount Everest Expedition: on 4th June 1953 RSGS sent a telegram to the members of the British Mount Everest Expedition; it said simply, “All Scotland rejoices in your achievement.”

The Heat is On: with news that the Scottish Government has missed another annual climate change target, Mike Robinson reflects on the critical action we must take as the pressure of climate change continues to rise.

Indiana Jones and the colourful real-life characters who might have inspired him: we look at two larger-than-life explorers who bear more than a passing resemblance to Harrison Ford’s swashbuckling character.

Extreme Adventure Trophy Hunting: Mike Robinson discusses the nature of modern extreme tourism, and reflects on his own experience on an adventure holiday.

read the stories at rsgs.org/blog

Scottish Geographical Journal The SGJ is now being published as two issues per year. These are some highlights of the first issue for 2023 (Volume 139, Numbers 1–2).

Editorial • The physical geography of Scotland in the Scottish Geographical Journal Scottish Landform Example • Subaqueous moraines around the Summer Isles and in the approaches to Loch Broom (Wester Ross Marine Protected Area)

free access for members

Theme section • COP26, human geography and earth futures: introduction to a theme section • Encountering COP26 as a security event: a short walking ethnography • COP26 protests in Glasgow: encountering crowds and the city • COP26 and opening to postcapitalist climate politics, religion, and desire • Growing love for the world: COP26 and finding your superpower Position Paper • The vital importance of being open: reflections on peer reviewing in scholarly publishing Making Scottish Geography • Location, location, location: reassessing WHK Turner’s legacy for industrial geography in Scotland and beyond Obituary • Dr Gordon MacLeod (1964–2022) Before being included in the printed journal, papers are prepublished online at www.tandfonline.com/journals/rsgj20. Readers may be particularly interested in these pre-published papers which relate to the theme of this edition of The Geographer: • Groundwater artesian wells allocation: proposing the use of a geographical information system and a dual analytical hierarchical process • Egypt’s energy balance map: a geographical perspective and in a series of articles celebrating the achievements of the late Emeritus Professor Paul Bishop of the University of Glasgow.

One of the benefits of RSGS membership is the option of free access to the SGJ in print and/or online. We strongly encourage any member who currently does not have access to give the SGJ a try; just contact enquiries@rsgs.org to request free access.

Amazon summit In August, representatives of the eight countries that share the Amazon basin (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela) met in the Brazilian city of Belém for a two-day summit, aiming to agree a deal to end deforestation of the world’s largest rainforest.

Ahead of the summit, Brazilian President Lula da Silva had called for a common goal of ending deforestation by 2030, a policy which Brazil has already adopted. The result was mixed.

A joint declaration created an alliance to combat deforestation with an aim to “prevent the Amazon from reaching a point of no return,” but there was no commitment to zero deforestation and no specific measures, with each country left to pursue its own conservation goals and timescales.

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Tropical primary forest loss

Books for schools

The tropics lost 10% more primary rainforest in 2022 than in 2021, according to new data from the University of Maryland and available on the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch platform (gfw.global/3AiJ4fB). Tropical primary forest loss in 2022 totalled 4.1 million hectares and produced 2.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to India’s annual fossil fuel emissions.

Over the past few months, we have distributed many copies of our educational books, Horrible Geography of Stunning Scotland and James Croll and his Adventures in Climate and Time, to schools across Scotland.

We are pleased to be able to bring these resources to more young people, and provide a fun and engaging way to learn about the wonders of Scottish geography. Many thanks to RSGS volunteer Anne McKillop FRSGS for her hard work in preparing the books for distribution. Fancy your own copy? Both books are still available to buy at www.rsgs.org/shop.

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This increased forest loss comes in the first year after heads of 145 countries vowed in the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use to halt and reverse forest loss by the end of the decade, recognising the important role of forests in combating climate change and biodiversity loss.

While primary forest loss ticked up in the two countries with the most tropical forest, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it rapidly increased in other nations like Ghana and Bolivia. Meanwhile, Indonesia and Malaysia have managed to keep rates of primary forest loss near record-low levels. See research.wri.org/gfr/latest-analysis-deforestation-trends for more information and charts.

Water scarcity and COP28: interdependence in action Magnus Hextall, RSGS Young Geographer Water scarcity is an issue that faces many, and increasingly so as a result of rising global temperatures due to climate change. Countries in the Middle East are among the most affected by this, with recent heatwaves and exacerbated droughts emphasising the need for ‘waterstressed’ countries to look to others, such as Israel, whose sustainable water management plans include large-scale reuse of wastewater and desalination of seawater.

Last year, at COP27, Jordan, the second-most arid country in the world, reached an agreement with Israel where it would produce 600 megawatts of solar power capacity in return for 200 million cubic metres of desalinated water.

This year, ahead of COP28, it seems as though Iraq may be looking for something similar, in answer to its water scarcity problems. It has already signed a deal with the Turkish government to double the amount of water that flows through the Tigris river into Iraq, as water scarcity in Iraq along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has caused a dramatic rise in internal migration.

The 14 peaks

Sell-out event with Rory Stewart Isobel Stewart, RSGS Young Geographer In July, we had a great evening with RSGS Livingstone Medallist Rory Stewart, who spoke to a full house in Perth about his experiences travelling on foot across Afghanistan, the journey that inspired him to write his bestselling book The Places in Between. Rory, who originally hails from Crieff, is perhaps best known for his impressive and wide-ranging career as a politician, academic, writer, adventurer, and cohost of the UK’s leading political podcast The Rest is Politics.

Rory said, “thank you to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, which is a very fine institution and has an incredible way of making itself relevant to the modern world. It has found real relevance on climate, the environment, young people, and travel, and I am very grateful to you all for supporting it by coming along.”

David Hope-Jones FRSGS and Laura Cook FRSGS At our event in July with Rory Stewart, we were delighted to present RSGS Honorary Fellowships to David Hope-Jones, former CEO of the Scotland Malawi Partnership, and Laura Cook, Communications Advisor for The Elders, a group of independent global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights.

During his time at the Scotland Malawi Partnership, David made significant contributions towards developing the relationship between the two nations. He played a crucial role in strengthening public support and relationships across Holyrood, Westminster and Malawi’s Parliament.

On 27th July 2023, Kristin Harila and her guide Tenjin ‘Lama’ Sherpa summited K2, the world’s second highest mountain, breaking the record for the fastest time to climb all 14 of the world’s highest mountains, which lie in the Himalayan Laura Cook has a vital role in leading climate change and Karakoram ranges. After successfully completing communication for The Elders, and Shishapangma in Tibet on 26th April, it took them 92 days to elevating intergenerational dialogue within climb all 14, beating the previous record of 190 days, held the organisation. She has helped guide and

by Nirmal Purja. The first person to achieve this feat was advise some of the world’s most esteemed acclaimed mountaineer Reinhold Messner, in 1986, after taking international figures, such as former years to complete, famously including the first solo ascent up President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and Mount Everest and the first without supplementary oxygen. former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

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New RSGS Trustee and Treasurer RSGS’s governing Articles of Association allow the Board of Trustees to co-opt up to two people for a short period of time; this is generally done to help bridge particular gaps in the Board’s expertise or representation. In June, the RSGS Board unanimously co-opted a new Trustee and elected him as Treasurer of the Society.

We are delighted to welcome Barry Hextall, a senior corporate accountant with experience also of the voluntary sector and with a strong interest in climate action. Having recently moved from Northumberland to Fife, Barry is new to RSGS and is keen to learn all about the Society and work on ways to help improve our operations and finances.

New Challenges for Ross Ross McKenzie stepped down as Deputy Chief Executive in July, after nearly a year in post, to take up a new role with the Edinburgh-based international economic development organisation Challenges Worldwide. The job is closer to home for Ross, and builds on his previous experience of working in international youth volunteering.

As he left, moved by the generosity of staff, Trustees and volunteers, he said, “RSGS is a fantastic organisation, and I’m very proud to have been part of it. I will most definitely continue to stay involved as a member, and you will for sure see me at future events.” We wish him well in the future, and look forward to hearing how Challenges develops.

Scottish Geology Festival Scotland is a place like no other, with unique landscapes, heritage, and stories to be told from the rocks beneath our feet and under our seas.

From 1st September to 8th October, the Scottish Geology Trust and partners are delivering a programme 1st September - 8th October of over 50 events and activities across the country and online, showcasing and celebrating Scotland’s unique geology. The festival offers an opportunity to learn more through guided walks, online talks, boat trips and geological exhibitions, from ‘Rock Doctors’ to ‘Volcano Talks’, ‘Tombstones and Tales’ to beach pebble weekends. See www.scottishgeologytrust.org/festival for details.

Global climate finance At the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact held in Paris in June, Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados and joint host of the conference, called for rich nations to do more to help developing countries pay for impacts of climate change.

The ‘Bridgetown Agenda’, named after the Barbadian capital, seeks to generate more finance for the countries that need it most through a wholesale modernisation of the international monetary system.

Climate finance, such as funding for flood defences or solar plants, has long been one of the biggest sticking points in climate negotiations. And low-income countries are charged higher interest rates than developed nations, making it even more difficult for them to afford the necessary changes. Ms Mottley has built a global coalition to support her demand that the international financial system be fundamentally reformed.

“We are all in this together,” she said. “If we don’t realise that, we will not act with the urgency that’s necessary to save the planet and save lives.”

University Silver Medallists RSGS University Silver Medals are awarded to the outstanding graduating honours geography student in each of the Scottish universities as recommended by heads of department.

Sarah Trebo (University of Aberdeen, BSc Geography) earned a Grade Point Average over the course of her honours programme which placed her at the top of her cohort in terms of overall academic performance.

Her final year dissertation, for which she also received a First Class mark, was an investigation into attitudes that surround the conservation management of wolves in South Tyrol, Italy.

Alice MacSporran (University of Dundee, BSc Geography and Environmental Science) gave an outstanding undergraduate performance, achieving A grades in every one of her Geography Honours modules. Since graduating, she has taken up an internship at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, before commencing postgraduate study.

Hannah MacDonald (University of Stirling, BSc Environmental Geography) was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in June 2021; after one year away to focus on her health and recovery, she returned to university. She has been stoic in coping with her illness, battling through immense tiredness, ongoing medical appointments and procedures. Her determination to succeed whilst continuing to smile throughout all these challenges has been truly inspiring.

Medal memories Earlier this year, we were touched to receive this email from the daughter of a previous university medallist: “My dad, Peter Jones, won the RSGS Silver medal in (I think) 1972 as a student at Aberdeen University. Unfortunately, this has been lost in the intervening years. He was recently telling his grandchildren about it and I wondered if there was any way to replace this?”

So we arranged for a replacement medal to be cast and sent to Mr Jones’s daughter. She was delighted to be able to present him with the medal, and made a generous donation to RSGS for our trouble. We were happy to be able to help, and thrilled that an RSGS medal was so warmly remembered!

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Water: Egypt’s perennial challenge John Briggs FRSGS, Emeritus Professor, University of Glasgow, and Chair, RSGS

Today, some 95% of Egypt’s population of 109 million people live in the Nile valley and delta, and depend overwhelmingly on Nile water for food production, drinking water and sanitation. The Nile today is as crucial for modern Egyptians as it was for the pharaohs, and reflecting this importance, Egypt over the last century or so has adopted a broadly threefold strategy to manage its contemporary water challenge.

The first part of this strategy is geopolitical, recognising that the division of Nile waters is a significant source of tension between the riparian states of the Nile system (Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania) and especially between Egypt and Ethiopia. In 1929, the British enacted the Nile Waters Agreement which affected both Egypt and Sudan, but ignored the other riparian states, most importantly Ethiopia. As the Blue Nile from Ethiopia contributes about 80% of the total Nile flow, it is easy to see why Ethiopia in particular considers this to be an injustice.

The 1929 agreement allocated 48 milliards (48km3) of water to Egypt and 4 milliards to Sudan. At that time, the Gezira irrigation scheme in Sudan was only just starting out, so a subsequent agreement was signed in 1959 which raised Sudan’s share to 18.5 milliards and Egypt’s share to 55.5 milliards. Given that the annual average flow of the Nile was set at 84 milliards, this left 10 milliards to be lost to evaporation and seepage. Once again the other riparian states were ignored, but as far as both Egypt and Sudan are concerned, the 1959 Agreement, recognised under international law, remains the fundamental legal document on Nile water usage.

The real game-changer, though, was the start of construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in the highlands of Ethiopia. The Government of Ethiopia had been threatening to build such a dam on the Blue Nile for decades, and finally began construction in 2011. Relations between Egypt and Ethiopia slipped to a new low, and Egypt issued veiled threats of military action. Ethiopia insisted that the basic purpose of the GERD was to generate hydroelectric power, as well as to provide flood control of the Blue Nile downstream, and hence the amount of water flowing downstream into Sudan and Egypt would not be greatly affected. Indeed, arguments were made that because the floods of the Blue Nile would be better controlled, the inflow of water into Lake Nasser in southern Egypt would be more evenly spread throughout the year, in turn reducing evaporation losses. By 2020, enough of the GERD had been completed to start the first phase of lake filling, a process forecast to take between four and seven years, depending on the balance between inflows from annual rainfall and outflows to the downstream river.

“The division of Nile waters is a significant source of tension between the riparian states of the Nile system.”

There have been several attempts to defuse, or at least reduce, these political tensions. In the 2000s, the Nile Basin Initiative produced draft proposals for a ‘fairer’ distribution.

In 2010, these proposals were consolidated into the Cooperative Framework Agreement and signed off by Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, all states with interests around the Lake Victoria region, the source area of the White Nile. However, whilst they were ratified by the Ethiopian government, they were not acceptable to either Sudan or Egypt.

Nile riverside. © redtea from iStock.

As the GERD had now become a reality, Egypt had to come back to the negotiating table, and in 2015 an agreement was hammered out in Khartoum between the governments of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, and signed by all three. Although forceful on interstate cooperation and mutual agreement and understanding, it is silent on the issue of volumes of water usage. It remains to be seen over the next few years how this will play out. As the GERD lake fills, tensions have been rising again between Egypt and Ethiopia, not least because of the uncertainty about what happens in drought years when annual rainfall in the Ethiopian Highlands is below average.

Will Ethiopia feel obliged to keep a larger share of the scarce water for itself and consequently release less through the dam to Sudan and Egypt? It should also be noted that as this agreement was specifically concerned with the Blue Nile, those riparian states with an interest in the White Nile were not included, so the sharing of waters from the White Nile remains unresolved.

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The second part of Egypt’s strategy has been to increase the volume of available water from the existing budget of 55.5 milliards through effective flood control and improved water storage. The key to this has been the construction of dams and barrages, the first of these being the Aswan Dam constructed in the early 1900s. Up until its independence in 1956, Sudan was ruled as an Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, and this meant that the dams programme was extended into Sudan, even though the benefits largely accrued to Egypt. In the 1920s, the Sennar Dam was constructed on the Blue Nile, and in the 1930s the Jebel Aulia Dam on the White Nile. After Sudan’s independence, further dams were completed at Roseires and Khashm el-Girba, which had significant impacts on controlling the annual Nile flood, providing storage schemes for irrigation, and generating hydro-electric power. The largest and most impactful dam, however, has been the High Dam at Aswan, built a few kilometres south of the existing Aswan Dam, and completed in 1970. Covering an area of about 5,000km2 and extending over 500km south of the High Dam across the border into Sudan, Lake Nasser is one of the largest human-made lakes in the world. When full, it is designed to contain about 130km3 of water, about one and half times the annual flow of the river.

development priority list for both Sudan, and now South Sudan, the project is currently halted, although not officially abandoned.

As well as dam construction, efforts also went into reducing water losses, especially in the south of Sudan, now the independent state of South Sudan, where the White Nile flows into the Sudd, a swamp about the size of Wales. Evaporation losses are high, and for much of the 20th century various proposals were put forward to divert the course of the White Nile around the Sudd. By diverting the river flow, it is estimated that available water for Egypt could be increased by 5–7%, and so, unsurprisingly, the Government of Egypt has always been a keen supporter of the proposal. In the 1980s, work at last began on digging the Jonglei Canal, and by 1984 about two-thirds of the 250km canal had been completed. However, as a result of political instability in the region and the project being relatively far down the

As demand for water in Egypt is only going to increase, the challenge of maintaining a secure water supply is not going to disappear. Much depends on how relations between Egypt and Ethiopia evolve over the coming years, especially in relation to the GERD. To add to the challenge, it is still unclear how climate change may affect the two key source areas of the Nile, in the Ethiopian Highlands and the east African plateau around the Lake Victoria region. The nightmare scenario, of course, would be for annual rainfall levels to become increasingly unreliable, and/or even to experience a long-term decline. If that were to happen, the impact on available Nile water would be critical, and tensions between the riparian states would be ramped up considerably. All this points to Egypt’s perennial water challenge not becoming any easier any time soon.

The third element in Egypt’s approach has been to develop new areas for agriculture, outside the immediate Nile valley and delta but still using Nile water. Potential new land has attracted interest from both the Government of Egypt and private entrepreneurs. As the shorelands of Lake Nasser, for instance, are sparsely populated, there is plenty of land available, although there are serious question marks about even medium-term soil sustainability in the area. On the western side of the lake, near the Sudan border, there are a series of depressions in the landscape which are fed by the Toshka spillway, an emergency overspill should Lake Nasser exceed its capacity (which has happened on two occasions since its completion in 1970). About 300,000 acres of this area have been targeted for potential agriculture. However, the programme has faltered due to a combination of factors, primarily soil salinity challenges, high infrastructure costs, and soil fertility issues, so results have been disappointing so far. In recent years, the programme has received revitalised government support, with the aim of planting 2.5 million date palms and establishing a series of wheat farms, but progress still appears slow.

“Various proposals were put forward to divert the course of the White Nile.”

8 Autumn 2023

Dead Sea-rious: shrinking and sinking Prof Dr Djamil Al-Halbouni, Institute for Earth System Science and Remote Sensing, Leipzig University, Germany; MSc Osama AlRabayah, University of Kiel, Germany; MSc Robert Alban Watson, University College Dublin, Ireland; Prof Dr Iain Stewart, Royal Scientific Society, Amman, Jordan “We were simply lucky,” says one of the German students that took part in the excursion to the Dead Sea shoreline near Ein Gedi, Israel, in 2014. The bus with around 50 international students and lecturers stopped at a parking area and students, who were studying the ecological and hydrogeological development at the Dead Sea region, dropped off to take a quick bath in the lake. A couple of months later, the parking area was swallowed by a giant sinkhole. “It could easily have happened the day the bus parked there.” The hole was a couple of tens of metres wide and deep.

being dissolved slowly by groundwater, undersaturated with respect to the hypersaline Dead Sea. In other areas, like on the eastern shore, this layer may not exist (anymore). But sinkhole formation is ongoing via a complex karst network forming in subsurface stream channels carving into weaker materials. Understanding the exact nature of the hydrogeological system is essential to determine future impacts. Flash floods are also related to sinkhole development, and more extreme rainfall events may trigger additional sinkhole collapses in areas that are currently still stable.

“The Dead Sea is dramatically shrinking.”

The Dead Sea, long being an important region in the fertile crescent, where history has been written in dramatic developments, where religions and civilisations met and meet, is It is clear that scientists still have a lot dramatically shrinking. We humans of work to do. But new methods will share the main part in this development, shed more light on aspects that have reducing the overall ground- and surface been invisible until now; for example, water inflow into the lake and, at the Balloon-based aerial photo showing the magnificent and colourful sinkhole-canyon system at the Dead Sea. © constant geophysical monitoring with same time, taking out the water for D Al-Halbouni, E Holohan | GFZ seismic and electric methods that reveal industrial production of fertilisers. Not changes in the sub-surface, or the increasing resolution of to speak of global warming. The level of the lake has been satellites with radar interferometry, or the possibilities of shrinking since the 1960s, and at an increasing rate. deep learning methods. However, looking at the future is not At the same time, since the end of the 1980s and more possible without looking at the past, and researchers are also pronounced since the 2000s, the lake shore exhibits interested in earlier periods of low water. expressions of a spreading ‘disease’; the formation of thousands of sinkholes. Researchers from all over the world have put their attention to this dramatic development.

Knowledge has advanced quite a lot. However, the exact location, time and magnitude of an individual sinkhole appearance, a collapse or sagging of the ground, is impossible to forecast. A collapse in rigid ground can happen within a few seconds with practically no warning.

Nowadays, susceptibility and hazard maps exist for large areas of the coastline, and a lot of attention is paid by the authorities on both sides of the lake to mitigate the effects of the hazard. Roads are being rebuilt, ground stabilised, holes filled, resorts and factories closed or moved, even a water channel from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea has been proposed but not realised yet (‘Peace canal’). How long is the hazard going to last? Is there an end in sight? Is the hazard going to diminish as the Dead Sea is further receding?

As the disappearance of the Dead Sea not only causes natural hazards, changes the microclimate, and has an impact on tourism in the region, surrounding countries are thinking about a different usage of the area, in terms of sustainable geotourism, like a UNESCO Global Geopark. This may help to generate alternative income models for the region, but would only be possible if scenarios like the collapsing parking lot are not likely anymore and safety is assured.

FURTHER READING

D Al-Halbouni, O AlRabayah, D Nakath, L Rüpke (2022) A Vision on a UNESCO Global Geopark at the Southeastern Dead Sea in Jordan – How Natural Hazards May Offer Geotourism Opportunities (Land Vol 11(4) doi.org/10.3390/ land11040553)

Recent studies have shown a kind of saturation and even decrease of the number of sinkholes per year. However, this trend has to be considered carefully. We need to understand a bit more about the complex hydrogeological background of sinkhole evolution to be able to deduce possible development for the future. For example, not just the number of sinkholes is decisive for the hazard estimation, but also the area that is affected, and if sinkholes appear redundant in the same location or keep appearing at new places. The style of collapse is an additional important factor to be considered when talking about changes in the hazard level. For example, sinkholes appearing in the former lake bed mud may form by sagging and wide, slow subsidence; formation in gravelly cover or mixed material, usually more compact, may occur rapidly by collapse and faulting, and produce deeper and steeper sinkholes.

Another important aspect is the geological underground, where the voids actually form. Scientists have shown that a thick salt layer in the near-surface of the western shore is

On the ground, sinkholes look much more frightening and destructive than in aerial images. © D Al-Halbouni | GFZ

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The Marsh Arabs Leon McCarron, writer, broadcater and explorer

We arrived at the edge of the marshes at night and stayed in a village called Al Cheka. With a thick white beard and pristine chequered headscarf that shrouded his eyes, our host Abu Hasan spoke with youthful expression, though heavy, stiff hands betrayed his seven long decades. For as long as he could remember, he said, the waters of the expansive marshes of southern Iraq and Iran had been receding, held back by dams and berms, the rivers that fed them diverted upstream. But after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in the spring of 2003, it seemed for a while as if they might be coming back.

as the Azim Marshes. “I was born here, and my father was born here,” Abu Hasan told me with pride. “In the beginning, we had a reed house, and then a mud one and then a brick one like this. We’ve always been marsh Arabs.” He, like many here, claimed lineage to the ancient Sumerians.

But as Abu Hasan’s home became more robust, the environment around it was being destroyed. First he recalled British soldiers arriving and drilling for oil, probably in the 1950s. Before the war with Iran erupted in 1980, Saddam Hussein drained the marsh directly behind Al Cheka, and a decade and a half later systematically decimated what was left. By 1998, the area was a desert, scorched by fire and encumbered by checkpoints, and the fish and reeds and birds were gone. Over 90% of all the marshes was lost; an area larger than Northern Ireland shrunk to about the size of London.

“Over 90% of all the marshes was lost.”

“When we heard he had gone, there were around 20 of us that started,” said Abu Hasan, sitting cross-legged against the back wall of his guest room. “There were no shovels, so we had to send someone to borrow them from the Ministry of Water Resources. Then we stood on the dam and dug and dug and released all the water back.” He smiled. “That’s when we saw our marshes returning.”

The Mesopotamian Marshes, sometimes thought to be the biblical Garden of Eden and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, lie across the floodplain where the lower Tigris and Euphrates come together to form an extensive inland delta. Historically when winter rains and snowmelt at the headwaters caused floods to the south, the marshes would absorb this excess like a sponge, swelling outwards with seasonal growth and then shrinking in the lean summers by draining to the Persian Gulf. The inundations deposited silt from the mountains that fertilised the land, creating a diverse, lush ecosystem in an otherwise arid environment.

As recently as the 1960s, in Abu Hasan’s youth, the springtime extent of the marshlands was estimated to be as much as 7,700 square miles, harbouring myriad species of flora and fauna and providing an important stopover for migratory birds on their continental journeys. The wetlands are split between three major areas: the Hammar Marsh south of the Euphrates, the Hawizeh east of the Tigris and the Central Marsh wedged between the two rivers. Abu Hasan’s village was in the Hawizeh, 13 miles from the border where the waters spill over to the Iranian side and are known

When they broke down the dikes, there was some hope, Abu Hasan told me, and at least it began to look like a marsh again. But looks can be deceiving. “It was never really the same. We used to have so many plants to grow and eat. Now we just have two or three shitty plants. The marshes never properly came back.”

It’s rare that Abu Hasan uses a boat these days. It’s sore on his joints and it made him sad to see what the marsh has become. Instead, he sent his broad-shouldered nephew, Abu Sajad, to take us out to check on the water buffalo. We followed him down a rough embankment to where waist-high reeds stretch out either side of a narrow channel until the shimmer of heat smudged the horizon.

This article is extracted with permission from chapter 30 of Leon McCarron’s new book, Wounded Tigris, published by Corsair and available at a special offer price to our readers; see back page for details. In October 2023, Leon McCarron is speaking to RSGS audiences across central and southern Scotland as part of RSGS’s Inspiring People programme.

Our boat in the Hawizeh Marshes in southern Iraq. Beyond the expanse of open water, under the rising sun, is Iran. © Leon McCarron

10 Autumn 2023

Dust storms: a shared security challenge for the Middle East Dr Hamid Pouran, Chris Aylett and Glada Lahn, University of Wolverhampton

The first-ever International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms was held on 12th July 2023. The recent United Nations designation is indicative of concern about the growing severity and widespread effects of these hazards.

In 2022, dust storms affected countries from Turkey to Oman, hitting Iraq particularly badly. While orange skies are a natural climatic feature of the region, the severity, frequency and duration of the dust storms in recent years has drawn attention to what is changing.

Dust storms occur in arid and semi-arid environments when winds whip up, suspend and transport loose soil particles.

Dust storm particles are less than 0.05 mm in diameter and can be transported thousands of kilometres, distinguishing them from sandstorm particles which are larger and travel, at most, a few kilometres.

The damming of rivers, poor land and water management practices, and the militarisation of land intensify the problem. Governments in the Middle East, distracted by conflict and fragile economic conditions, have not prioritised land conservation. In Syria and Iraq, for example, years of air strikes and ground battles have stirred up the soil.

Both this and desperate economic conditions have led to the destruction of plant and forest cover across vast areas.

Climate change is compounding this problem.

Drought creates sources of dust by degrading soil and accelerating desertification. Longer and harsher droughts, brought on by climate change, transform land which may once have returned to its previously fertile state into a permanent source of dust.

2017, electrostatic discharges generated by a dust storm caused power transformers to short circuit in the Iranian oil-producing province of Khuzestan. Oil production fell by 700,000 barrels in a single day. Many cities, including the provincial capital Ahvaz, experienced crippling power cuts for up to 24 hours. Mobile and internet services went down, schools and public offices were forced to close for several days, and hospitals struggled with limited backup power. This drove people already frustrated with unemployment and water shortages to protest.

Geopolitical tension In a region riven with geopolitical tension, dust storms can fuel a blame game. In Iran, officials have often placed responsibility with their neighbours, blaming the 2017 storm in Khuzestan on poor land and water management in Iraq.

Similarly, in 2022, the head of Iran’s Department of the Environment, Ali Salajegheh, accused both Saudi Arabia and Turkey of fuelling the recent dust storms.

Although Turkey is not a major source of dust, its extensive programme of dam-building on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has reduced water flows in downstream countries, leading to vegetation loss and the expansion of dust storm hotspots. As climate change reduces precipitation and increases rates of evaporation, access to water becomes intertwined with national security. A future dust storm could light the fuse of interstate conflict in the Middle East, the consequences of which would spread well beyond the region.

“In a region riven with geopolitical tension, dust storms can fuel a blame game.”

On the Afghanistan–Iran border, for example, the Hāmūn Lake and wetlands have been shrinking, with drying intensifying over the last 30 years as a result of both manmade upstream water diversion and extreme droughts. According to an Iranian study, the drying of water bodies leads to increases in dust emissions of up to 80%.

Solutions must address the failures not only of transboundary governance but also those of national governance. Iraq, where most of the agricultural land suffers from or is at risk of desertification, provides a case in point. Oil revenues account for 85% of the national budget, creating a system geared towards serving the hydrocarbons sector, to the detriment of sectors such as agriculture and water.

The human cost

Regional collaboration

Dust storms can be ecologically beneficial, playing an important role in transporting soil nutrients. But the impact on human societies can be devastating. There are immediate risks, as demonstrated by the deaths and injuries from a dust-storm induced vehicle pile-up in the US state of Illinois in May 2023. Long-term health is at risk from the tiny particles which exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular problems and can spread airborne pathogens. Dust storms can also lead to crop failure and animal deaths and therefore threaten communities with fragile food security.

There is scope for collaborative action to tackle both the immediate and long-term negative effects of dust storms.

The harmful effects of dust storms can ‘cascade’ through societies by interrupting critical infrastructure. In February

© Drbouz from iStock.

As members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), all countries in the region benefit from the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System programme, which provides the knowledge and technology required to both mitigate dust storms and reduce their impact. Saudi Arabia received WMO accreditation for its own regional centre for sand and dust storm warning in July 2023.

Some national governments have launched large-scale tree planting initiatives to increase green cover and reduce dust pickup, notably in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. It is critical that

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these use native species, nurture attendant soil-stabilising plant cover, foster livelihoods and learn from each other in scaling up.

Civil society organisations and local communities have been working for years to restore degraded land which has become a source of dust, such as that surrounding the Tigris river, albeit under repressive governmental and security constraints.

Such projects still rely on a sustainable source of river water and ultimately require support from transboundary agreements to ensure minimum environmental flows for ecosystem needs. However, upstream riparian Turkey has little incentive to scale back its hydropower ambitions to mitigate dust storms in downstream countries. Proposals for mutually beneficial exchanges, such as leasing dams for water storage in Turkey’s cooler mountains in return for electricity from Iraq, should be explored.

“Signs of ‘dust diplomacy’ are emerging.”

A pragmatic approach to regional collaboration on resilience to dust storms may be one that initially pursues minimum agreement on water policies and maximum cooperation on land conservation.

Signs of ‘dust diplomacy’ are emerging. In July 2022, the Iranian government convened a ministerial conference with 11 countries from the region, at which President Ebrahim Raisi proposed the formation of a regional environmental

organisation and fund. In addition, Iran has signed memorandums of understanding to increase cooperation and information exchange on dust storms with the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Syria and Kuwait. Even before the restoration of diplomatic relations in March 2023, Iran was actively seeking to cooperate with regional rival Saudi Arabia on the issue. In September 2023, Tehran is hosting an international conference on sand and dust storms, with UN support.

Likewise, in early 2023, officials from Kuwait and Iraq agreed a $13.2 million Kuwaiti-funded cross-border project to remediate land in southern Iraq through UN-Habitat. Given that a regional scientific study identified this area as a major source of dust storms affecting Iraq’s neighbours, this kind of cooperation makes sense.

While promising, fledgling initiatives may take years to take root. In the meantime, the consequences of dust storms should not be underestimated. In the 1930s, the ‘Dust Bowl’ compounded the economic impact of the Great Depression and drove the migration of 3.5 million Americans. In 2021, a dust storm contributed to grounding the Ever Given container ship in the Suez Canal, halting global trade through the canal for six days. With such high stakes, managing dust storms is a shared security challenge, and a key opportunity for cooperation, among neighbours in the Middle East and beyond.

Date palms in Wadi Sharma, Sharma. © NEOM, Saudi Arabia

This article was originally published by the international affairs think tank Chatham House at www.chathamhouse. org/2023/07/dust-storms-shared-security-challenge-middle-east.

12 Autumn 2023

A tale of two desert oases Professor Iain Stewart FRSGS, El Hassan Research Chair for Sustainability, Royal Scientific Society of Jordan

“Oases with rich biodiversity have disappeared within a few decades…” said King Abdullah II of Jordan in a speech at the COP27 climate conference.

Oases are the iconic landscape signature of the expansive drylands of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Scattered human settlements, rooted in natural springs and wells and tethered to cultivated land pockets, are a vital ecosystem of the MENA region, providing water resources, biodiversity and cultural heritage. From Morocco in the west to Oman in the east, oases cover approximately 2.5 million hectares of land, with some of the largest being the Al Ahsa Oasis in Saudi Arabia, the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, and the Tafilalt Oasis in Morocco.

The abandoned hotel resort of Layla Lakes.

concern lies in the desert steppe lands of Jordan’s north eastern Badia region. Azraq (Arabic for ‘blue’) marks the location of a once lush lakeland, rich in wildlife, but now drained and dry from four decades of groundwater removal for irrigation of agricultural lands and drinking water for the swelling cities of Zarqa and Amman. Once referred to as ‘a glimpse of heaven’ owing to its luxurious marshes, the modern town of Azraq now constitutes little more than a truck stop on the edge of an impoverished expanse of scrubby mudflat. Its famed oasis now survives only as a small wetland reserve, artificially maintained by freshwater pumped up from deep below.

“They are beacons of biodiversity.”

Millions of people rely on these desert oases for water and food security. The MENA region has the highest rate of water extraction in the world, with an average of 283 litres of water per day per person, leading to a widespread depletion of groundwater resources. Much of that water is used to maintain agriculture – the cultivation of crops such as dates, olives, and other fruits and vegetables – on which a fifth of the MENA region’s population depend for their livelihood. Across the region they are beacons of biodiversity, offering fertile ground for over 400 plant species, 130 bird species, and 50 mammal species (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

In part for this reason, they are also a beacon for tourists, allowing visitors to explore the special nature of the desert environment whilst also enjoying the unique architectures, crafts and cuisines of its traditional communities.

And yet across this same region these refugia of sustainable land management and traditional knowledge are endangered, under threat from the twin impacts of unsustainable water use practices and worsening climate change. Arguably one of the most pressing examples of this acute environmental

There is no shortage of scientific and technical studies on the demise of the Azraq oasis, the declining aquifer system below it and the growing unviability of farming around it, but there has been little attention paid to the human and cultural implications. Around its former lake strandlines lie three contiguous communities that have witnessed the dramatic demise of this unique desert ecosystem. Two villages are home to immigrant populations that migrated to the oasis a century or so ago: a Druze community in the North Azraq (Azraq al Durzee) along the Iraq highway, and a Chechen community in the south (Azraq al Shishan) along the highway to Saudi Arabia. Bedouin have traditionally frequented the area, but many have now settled and comprise a significant percentage of the population.

The abandoned water pumping station, alongside the dried-up sinkhole at Layla, Saudi Arabia.

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Following their water, more and more of Azraq’s population are moving to Zarqa and Amman. Until two decades ago, salt production around the lake margins had provided the primary employment in Azraq, supplemented by farming and fishing. But closure of the salt factory in 2000 and over-pumping of the freshwater has dramatically reduced local work opportunities.

Most of the Druze now work outside Azraq, and many of the Chechen farmers have abandoned their farmland to a lowering water table and rising soil salinity. Local prospects for a younger generation, who have little or no direct experience of Azraq’s watery past, seem bleak.

Protecting and restoring the Azraq oasis’s rich natural, social and cultural ecosystem presents a truly ‘wicked’ (ie, intractable) socioecological problem, and probably a forlorn task. But understanding the ongoing vital ecosystem services that the wetland and its environs still provides in terms of its natural and cultural heritage can underpin sustainable tourism initiatives to revitalise the communities, and is critical to ensuring their enduring resilience to the impacts of future climate change.

It is a task that will require an integrated approach in which scientists need to work hand-in-hand with the community to determine the environmental, social and cultural values that will shape the future visioning scenarios for this.

Viewing hide at the Azraq wetland reserve.

“Scientists need to work hand-in-hand with the community.”

Across the border, in Saudi Arabia, there is a stark lesson in the fate that might await Azraq. Three hours’ drive south from Riyadh on Route 10 lies the small desert town of Layla and the dried-out remains of its once famous lakeland. In the 1980s, this was a water-filled playground, a hot spot for water sports like skiing and beach recreation. Layla Lakes was so popular that a large resort hotel complex was built along the southern shores, but not a single guest ever checked in.

Before it was completed, the lakes had dried up, as between 1984 and 2020 the water was pumped out to water nearby date plantations. A series of large natural karstic sinkholes that had been filled by carbonate-rich spring waters over many hundreds of thousand years were emptied in less than three decades. Now, with the water gone and the modern pumping station abandoned, farmers across the area are forced to dig deeper and deeper to access groundwaters to sustain the struggling date plantations.

In Layla, the water has gone and the local community must look elsewhere for its future livelihood. But in Azraq, and in many other dwindling desert oases across the MENA, there is a growing urgency to salvage and sustain these desert gems as the spectre of a drying and more extreme climate future looms.

The wetland reserve at Azraq.

14 Autumn 2023

Climate fuelled droughts threaten the Middle East’s future Gökçe Şencan, Research Associate, Water Policy Center, Public Policy Institute of California

As part of the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East is considered a climate hot spot and providing a window into the future as climate change continues to exacerbate. The region is warming at a higher rate than the rest of the world, which results in shifting weather patterns. One of the most evident changes is in droughts, which are becoming more frequent, more intense, and longer in duration. As a result, water is becoming a scarcer and more unpredictable resource throughout the region, but particularly in the Euphrates– Tigris river basin. Iraq, Syria, and Turkey now have to compete over the diminishing water of the two rivers as the need for water grows due to population increase, depletion of other water sources like groundwater, and agricultural development in the region.

The basin’s water woes are nothing new. Since the dam constructions began on the two rivers in the 1960s, countries have been feuding over who is entitled to how much water from the rivers. But as the upstream country, Turkey has been at a unique advantage. Syria and Iraq have objected to its expansive water and energy development strategy in the basin on several occasions. As the tensions rose in the region in the 1980s because of the Iran–Iraq and the Gulf wars, water became a channel for both dialogue and dispute. There were several attempts to build a basin-wide management framework, but the countries had fundamentally different and irreconcilable stances on many critical issues, from how the water should be shared per international law to scientific assumptions over the basin’s hydrology. Another attempt at dialogue and institutionbuilding in the late 2000s was looking promising until it was halted by the Syrian civil war. While the war stifled any dialogue between Syria and Turkey, the drought that has gripped the region in the last three years has been forcing the parties, particularly Iraq and Turkey, to continue the dialogue on water.

For example, in a country that experiences a devastating drought, in the absence of government support, rural populations might be forced to look for a livelihood in urban areas, which might not be equipped to absorb such an influx.

A housing crisis accompanied by a spike in unemployment and poverty could later ensue, causing further disillusionment with the government. With farmers quitting their profession en masse, food imports, hence the food prices and cost of living, might increase to feed the population, further fuelling the discontent. This is the scenario that some experts believe played out in Syria.

Climate change and the droughts it fuels pose an existential threat to the Middle East, and the need for cooperation over water resources has never carried more urgency. While the basin countries are already falling behind in adaptation, there is still a critical window for action. Iraq, Syria and Turkey urgently need to negotiate a cooperative basin management framework for the Euphrates and the Tigris based on the principles of climate-adaptive management, human right to water, and equitable use. The framework should be implemented by an independent and transnational technical commission of scientists and experts for timely, effective, and data-driven decisionmaking. Countries should also explore joint cross-sectoral projects to improve water quality, flood control, water efficiency and even renewable energy, such as water treatment and recycling facilities, transition to waterefficient irrigation, or renewable energy trade at a discounted rate in exchange for flows, or storage space in reservoirs.

“Climate change and the droughts it fuels pose an existential threat to the Middle East.”

Ironically, several studies demonstrate that a regional drought in the 2000s might have caused the war in Syria, which halted the water diplomacy between Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Although assuming that the drought is the only culprit for the war is far-fetched, the role of climate change as a destabilising force is a well-known concern. It might not topple governments or collapse countries by itself, but it can tip a society already suffering from poor governance and inequality over the edge.

© Ghulam Hussain from iStock.

In this climate reality, time is not on our side, and unfortunately we have already wasted a large chunk of it with inaction and disputes. At this point, the only way forward for the countries that depend on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is together. Putting their history aside, the region’s political leaders should recognise climate change as an existential threat to the entirety of the region that transcends international politics, and address it with the urgency that it deserves by forging a fresh path forward. The water future of millions of people depends on them.

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Water scarcity: a challenge for the whole world Stuti Khemani and Dominick de Waal, Senior Economists, World Bank

Unprecedented water scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a problem not just for that region but for the world. Global society and its leaders could learn a lot from MENA’s experience about how to manage water so that our planet remains liveable. Much of MENA has been at the forefront of investing in engineering solutions for non-conventional water, such as through desalination, and could be a pioneer in finding institutional economic solutions without which the demand for water will continue outstripping supply, creating existential threats for people and economies.

By 2030, the amount of water available on average per capita across MENA will fall below the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500m3 per person per year. Newly waterscarce countries in the region, those currently still above this threshold, are middle-income countries. Five of these (Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Morocco) have sizable agrarian communities, amounting to over 70% of the region’s rural population. These populations face an acute conflict of sharing water between cities and agriculture, between lives and livelihoods. As sources of groundwater for agriculture deteriorate or even disappear because of over-exploitation, communities may be forced to migrate.

Third, societies need new institutions at both national and local level that are capable of making informed and difficult choices about how much water can be used in agriculture.

Restrictions on how much water can be abstracted will be necessary, because without them water resources could deteriorate beyond rescue. For example, the Sahel of Doukkala was one of the most productive agricultural zones a few decades ago. Water was provided by the coastal aquifer.

As the aquifer was over-exploited, a saline intrusion occurred, making the water unsuitable for agriculture, which ruined the region’s economy. Relying on community empowerment to find small-scale local solutions is no longer tenable because the source of the problem is not local nor gradual (which could have allowed communities to adapt with local knowledge and innovation). Communities have little time to learn, innovate and adapt sufficiently to shocks that hit them from planet-wide changes in climate, trade and migration.

National and transboundary cooperative institutions of scientific expertise are needed to understand, monitor, regulate and share water resources. Sharing ‘virtual water’ through global trade in food will help the planet as a whole deal with the consequences of climate change, as some parts of the world gain a comparative advantage in food production. Local governments, as representatives of both farming and rapidly urbanising communities, can then help identify opportunities for mutually beneficial trade of water, within ‘caps’ set by scientific analysis of water resources. Local governments can also help build trust and legitimacy of water management, by providing social protection, skills building and agriculture extension to enable people to make difficult transitions of life and livelihoods in increasingly water-scarce economies.

“National and transboundary cooperative institutions of scientific expertise are needed.”

The MENA region has invested heavily in engineering solutions. For example, the largest desalination plants in the world are in MENA. Under current trends of water consumption with population growth, a conservative estimate is that an additional 25bn m3 a year will be needed by 2050. This is equivalent to building 65 desalination plants the size of the Ras Al Khair plant in Saudi Arabia, which cost over US$7 billion to build, and millions annually in operations and maintenance. Other parts of the world are similarly facing the need to invest in non-conventional water as climate change and population pressures make water increasingly scarce.

However, infrastructure projects alone are not going to solve the water crisis. To build the infrastructure and manage water systems across vital but competing needs, new economic institutions are needed.

First, the costs of investment in water are huge. States need fiscal capacity to be able to raise the financing through a combination of water tariffs and general tax revenues. States will have to experiment with policies and reach out to citizens as they design new tariffs while improving the finances of utilities. While lack of state fiscal capacity is a well-known problem of economic development, even the advanced economies of the world are going to grapple with the politics of raising tariffs and taxes sufficiently to finance and regulate resources like water.

Second, even if state fiscal capacity could be raised, the costs of current water technologies are too high, in terms of both money and environmental impact. Incentives and motivation are needed in utilities to improve performance, reduce leakage/waste, and innovate technologies to reduce costs. States need to design contracts with utility staff and managers, regardless of whether utilities are run as stateowned enterprises or privatised, such that the professional staff working in utilities are motivated to innovate and improve performance.

The unique nature of water means there are inescapable roles for the state in regulation, even when some aspects of water management and service delivery might avail of market mechanisms. Institutions – of state fiscal capacity, utilities’ contracts, and decentralisation to local governments within centralised national and global institutions of scientific management of water resources – enable myriad actors, from high-level ministries down to ordinary people living in rural and urban communities, to shape the actions under their respective control, in ways that allow for fair, just and sustainable use of water on a liveable planet.

FURTHER READING

D de Waal, S Khemani, A Barone, E Borgomeo (2023) The Economics of Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa: Institutional Solutions (© World Bank, openknowledge. worldbank.org/handle/10986/39594)

16 Autumn 2023

Growing climate impacts and just energy transition Neeshad Shafi, Non-Resident Scholar, Middle East Institute

The Middle East and North Africa is one of the world’s regions most affected by climate change, one of the hot spots where summers warm much faster than in the rest.

New research published in Nature Sustainability mapped out the impact of extreme heat around the world and reported that global temperatures would rise by more than 1.5°C over the next 50 years. Climatologists have warned that the Middle East region will be 4°C warmer by 2050, far exceeding the 1.5°C limit needed to prevent global ecological collapse.

Thus, the region is not only uniquely affected by the climate crisis, but they are global oil and gas producers, making their economies predominantly vulnerable to the transition away from fossil fuel sources.

A new study has warned that countries in the Middle East and the Gulf region are highly vulnerable to extreme heat, with poorer populations being particularly at risk in the decades ahead. It was well over 40°C in July; not automatically attributable to climate change, but we know from meteorological measurements, climate modelling and IPCC studies that things are getting hot in the Middle East. Amid sweltering temperatures in the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia, where mercury has regularly topped 44°C, was a big source of concerns about the welfare of pilgrims to Mecca to perform the annual Hajj. The research also found that most people in the Middle East will be exposed to extreme heat by 2050.

could have stark implications for regional and international security and the stability of global energy markets.

As the world directs toward a transition to low-carbon energy, Middle East countries are making a shift towards cleaner energy pathways. The current environmental, political, and economic issues across the Middle East are transitioning to a more just and sustainable economic and environmental model, as energy transition projects increasingly take centre stage in the region. The current international events and processes will affect the views on just transition, though the region and its priorities have been marginalised in the recent climate action conversations.

To ensure the success of a global net-zero approach, there are a few critical aspects to be understood regarding the Middle East just transition pathways. First, regions in the Middle East might take longer on the fossil fuel transition because of the specifics of their development or their energy landscape. Second, they need new energy infrastructure and adequate investment. And third, most crucial, we need to tackle socio-economic aspects so we do not end up having winners and losers in the collective roadmap towards just transition.

“Most people in the Middle East will be exposed to extreme heat by 2050.”

Precipitation will also change significantly, aggravating the existing water scarcity in many Middle East countries while causing extreme weather events like rain and flash floods in the UAE, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Yemen.

Also expect rising levels of heat, humidity and seas that will worsen living conditions. Further, in July, wildfires in Algeria killed dozens and forced hundreds to flee homes.

The resulting human and material damages will be extensive in countries with low resilience and adaption plans, which mainly reflects dependency on rain-fed agriculture and underlying structural vulnerabilities. This will further intensify current climate stresses.

Thus, in our path towards net zero and the security of the world’s energy markets not being jeopardised, the Middle East region needs significant international cooperation, which will allow their strategy to exploit the latest technologies, which could help transition to a more sustainable and resilient low-carbon growth model that the region needs to diversify their economies away from and reduce the dependency of government revenues on hydrocarbons.

Also, when it comes to adaptation and resilience in the region, there are big differences between how wealthier nations can adapt to extreme heat over others. Air conditioning is just one example of how wealthier nations, like the Gulf states, protect vulnerable populations from heat.

However, this is not a viable solution in poorer nations, or for locals who cannot afford to pay for it.

Energy transition pathways directly impact Middle East countries, as these countries, both wealthy hydrocarbon exporters and poorer hydrocarbon importers, are home to some of the economies most overdependent on hydrocarbon rents.

A recent International Energy Agency’s roadmap for the global energy sector, Net Zero by 2050, reported that oil production needs to decline from more than 90m to less than 25m barrels a day by 2050. This drop will plunge almost 70% of net revenues for oil-producing economies, especially in the Middle East, which completely relies on oil and gas exports and revenues. An energy transition that doesn’t engage with Middle East fossil fuel producing countries and their needs

FURTHER READING

T M Lenton et al (2023) Quantifying the human cost of global warming (Nature Sustainability, www.nature.com/ articles/s41893-023-01132-6) International Energy Agency (2021) Net Zero by 2050 (IEA, www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050)

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Producer economies in transition Nadim Abillama, Middle East and North Africa Programme Officer, International Energy Agency

Recent climate related events in the Mediterranean region reveal an acceleration of the effects of climate change globally. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is one of the most affected by this acceleration. It is estimated that between 1980 and 2022, temperatures increased by 0.46°C per decade in MENA, well above the 0.18°C global average. In addition, all scenarios predict above-average rising temperatures going forward. Compared with the pre-industrial period, temperatures in 2081–2100 in the region could rise by 2.4°C in a low-emissions scenario and around 6.4°C in a high-emissions scenario.

Climate change tends to exacerbate existing socioeconomic and environmental challenges already existing in the region, which include rapid urbanisation, water scarcity and infrastructure deficits in several countries.

As energy transitions are accelerating globally, energy markets will be rapidly adapting to changing supply and demand patterns. The Middle East and North Africa region currently represents 30% of global oil production, and almost 25% of global liquid natural gas (LNG) supply. This gave the region a dominant role in global energy markets dominated by hydrocarbons.

(pipeline and LNG). While this reflects a positive market share trend, volumes of traded oil and gas are expected to decrease significantly as the global economy decarbonises.

As all MENA producer economies are fuelled by hydrocarbon export revenues (domestic sales are relatively insignificant due to high fuel and electricity subsidies), themselves funding generous public sector employment schemes and social protection systems, any decrease in revenues threatens existing social contracts.

As the energy transition accelerates, we can expect oil price volatility to increase, further exposing the vulnerabilities of producer economies to revenue swings. Several economies in the region have been developing economic diversification strategies and have taken some countercyclical policy measures, such as the development of sovereign wealth funds to address revenue volatility, notably in times of lower oil prices.

While energy transitions come with a wide range of challenges, there are tremendous opportunities which MENA producer economies can benefit from. These countries hold significant assets, infrastructure, experience and skills from the oil and gas industry, which would enable them to be competitive in a lowemission energy system. These include the development and transport of synthetic fuels, low-emission hydrogen and derivatives.

“Volumes of traded oil and gas are expected to decrease significantly as the global economy decarbonises.”

More specifically, producer economies, or economies that are heavily reliant on oil and gas revenues, will remain relevant to global energy production and trade, regardless of future demand and supply trajectories for all sources of energy. However, net-zero pledges now cover over 80% of the global economy, and if they were achieved in full and on time, the share of MENA producers in oil and gas production by 2050 would go up to 43% for oil and 28% for natural gas

The region’s renewable energy potential, with some of the best irradiated surfaces and wind potential, together with land availability in many countries in the region, generates unlimited opportunities to scale clean energy. Similarly, MENA’s geographical location between three continents and on main trade routes provide an extra advantage in areas such as energy transport and services.

To be able to capture this potential, high-income producers, notably several Gulf countries, have already started reorienting their energy sectors through investments in nuclear, solar PV and low-emission hydrogen. These investments are in most cases government-led. However, in lower income producers, the need to attract investments into clean energy will need to rely on foreign and private investment. While the international community needs to step up efforts to support clean energy deployment and climate related investments in emerging and developing economies, there is potential in several MENA producer countries to enhance investment attractiveness to accelerate clean energy deployment.

The International Energy Agency will be releasing a key report later this year on the role of oil and gas in net-zero transitions. This piece of analysis will provide further insights in terms of how the industry will likely evolve as energy transitions accelerate globally, and will shed light on some of the key stakeholders. These include international and national oil companies, consumers as well as producer economies, many of which are located in the MENA region.

Wind farm in the highlands of Jordan. © Stefan Tomic from iStock.

18 Autumn 2023

Libya’s natural resources and the future of renewables Malak Altaeb, Non-Resident Scholar, Middle East Institute

More than ten years ago, Libya encountered a multitude of complicated problems that included political, economic and social instability. Fast forward to the present, and the country is now also grappling with the tangible effects of climate change. Furthermore, successive governments since the fall of Gaddafi’s regime in 2011 have contributed to maintaining the status quo and have taken minimal climate action. It is vital to carefully consider the consequences of conflicts in different regions across the country, as these conflicts harm the various natural resources available within the affected areas.

consequences, Libya must take proactive and meaningful steps to address its populace’s environmental challenges.

By implementing comprehensive and effective measures to mitigate the impact of these issues, Libya can work towards securing a sustainable and prosperous future for its citizens while contributing to the broader global effort to combat climate change. This can further be taken with a focus on the country’s valuable natural resources, including oil and gas.

A mixed energy transition approach utilising the oil sector could be beneficial to implement renewable energies, particularly solar and wind, effectively. Progress can be made by allocating a portion of oil sector revenues towards supporting the diversification of energy sources and developing a comprehensive national energy strategy. However, the development of renewables still needs to be improved, with barriers such as insufficient financial resources allocated towards this goal; the absence of legislation regulating the energy sector in Libya (no laws or legislation have yet been issued in Libya regarding renewable energy and energy usage efficiency); the need for approved incentives to encourage the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Libya; and the absence of manufacturing companies specialising in the field of renewables.

“Although oil production and security have improved, the environment has deteriorated yearly.”

Libya is considered to have an arid climate, with over 95% of its landmass consisting of desert, and a low precipitation rate.

The increasingly felt impact of climate change has contributed to the country’s current problems, as it has caused severe droughts, sandstorms, high temperatures, and other environmental challenges.

The issue of desertification in Libya is a matter of great ecological concern. The country is already limited in arable land and this is at risk of being lost, which poses a significant threat to food security. Despite various challenges that have hindered the country’s progress and development, Libya is a prosperous nation with diverse natural resources, including oil, natural gas, and minerals.

Since the discovery of oil in the 1950s, Libya has wisely focused on developing its oil sector, which has become its primary source of economic revenue, but this sector has been struggling with various problems since 2011. Conflicts and oil field blockages have caused a significant drop in production and revenue. This has harmed people’s quality of life, especially since a large percentage of the population, around 85% according to the World Bank, works in the public sector. According to the IMF’s country report on Libya, a projected 15% increase in oil production is expected in 2023.

This growth is attributed to the country’s improved security situation and rising oil prices resulting from the global geopolitical changes from the Russia–Ukraine war. Although oil production and security have improved, the environment has deteriorated yearly.

Given climate change’s pressing and increasingly severe

Solar energy photovoltaic power plant. © abriendomundo from iStock.

An important area for further research is the involvement of private sector and business stakeholders in the energy transition process in Libya. In recent years, the private sector has become more prominent and positively impacted the country’s economy and society.

Additionally, there has been increased support for local entrepreneurial projects through incubators. Despite their potential, environmental entrepreneurial initiatives are undervalued and not widely accessible due to the influence of social priorities on the market. To address this issue, it is crucial to engage the community and local civil society organisations to raise awareness about the importance of renewable energy for Libya’s present and future, especially in light of current climate change scenarios. Additionally, it is crucial to encourage Libyan and local financing institutions to invest in renewable technologies and projects.

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What future for the Middle East?

Richard Dixon FRSGS, environmental consultant

COP28, the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, is being held in the coastal city and business hub that is Dubai.

Predictions are that nearly a third of its population could be displaced by coastal flooding by 2100. The Arabian Peninsula is expected to see temperatures rising at nearly twice the global average rate as climate change really bites, increasing the frequency of very hot days by a factor of five, as well as boosting the risk of both drought and floods, and making sandstorms more severe.

So what will be the future for the Middle East, with climate change threatening to make some places uninhabitable at the same time as international pressure grows to cut off the oil production that drives most of the economies of the region?

Masdar has invested around $30bn in renewables and ‘clean energy’ projects in 40 countries, including what will be the world’s largest solar power plant at home in the UAE and big offshore windfarms in England and Scotland.

While the oil company has a hundred times more staff than Masdar, there is clearly a growing interest in solar energy and other renewables in the Middle East, for use at home but also for export. There are apparently serious proposals for north African and Middle Eastern solar panels to power Europe via efficient direct current cables under the Mediterranean.

One of the supposed selling points of renewable energy for the region’s oil-producing nations is in using renewable electricity to make green hydrogen, something which may (or may not) be in strong global demand from the steel and cement industries as they try to decarbonise. The vision is that existing pipelines and shipping firms could one day be carrying hydrogen to the same countries who are currently buying oil and gas products.

“Countries in the Middle East are starting to hedge their bets about the future of energy.”

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the COP28 President, has been roundly criticised for being the CEO of the world’s 12th largest oil company, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Part of his defence is to point out that he was the founding CEO of the state-owned renewables investment company Masdar, which he still chairs. This exemplifies how countries in the Middle East are starting to hedge their bets about the future of energy and the future of their economies.

However, hydrogen is only a little less over-hyped than carbon capture. Electric arc furnaces in steel making and low-carbon alternatives in the cement industry threaten to cut off the market green hydrogen before it can even get going.

As far back as 2000, former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Yamani predicted big surpluses of oil by 2030 as demand collapsed. In 2015, Saudi’s oil minister said that the country knew that eventually the world would not need fossil fuels, although he was talking about 2050 or later. More recently Al Jaber, UAE’s industry minister as well as COP President, has acknowledged that there must be a ‘phase down’ of fossil fuels, but this retreats from an earlier statement about a ‘phase out’ and he has not put a timescale on this transition.

One of the dynamics we will see playing out at COP28 in November is this uncertainty about the future of Middle Eastern oil state economies. Saudi Arabia has been a particularly obstructive force in the annual climate negotiations for decades, but the rhetoric has moved from denying there needs to be an end to oil and gas to looking at a (distant) renewable energy future. Renewables are clearly a big part of the answer but CCS is a smokescreen and hydrogen may well be a dead end.

The oil states are talking up carbon capture and storage (CCS) in a big way, just like our own oil industry in Scotland, as the way to keep pumping the oil and forget about the emissions. There are three operational CCS projects in the Middle East, but two of them, including the one owned by Al Jaber’s oil company, use the captured carbon dioxide to extract extra oil, making climate change worse rather than better.

Meanwhile the clock is ticking on keeping the Middle East habitable and reducing emissions as quickly as possible.

“Just like in Scotland, CCS looks more like a delaying tactic rather than a serious industrial strategy.”

20 Autumn 2023

The problem with COP28 Mike Robinson, RSGS Chief Executive

“Today I am calling on all of us to disrupt business as usual, unite around decisive action and achieve game-changing results. We need to challenge old models that were built for the last century. We need to break down silos that are slowing progress. And we need to bridge divides that are blocking critical breakthroughs,” said Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, President of the UNFCCC COP28 in Dubai.

Strong words from the UN COP28 President and the man charged with leading the negotiation between 197 countries of the United Nations this winter to “stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” To date, despite 27 previous annual meetings, the global community has failed in that mission, despite some progress, because emissions are continuing to rise and commitments are still falling well short of what is needed. The hope is that they will eventually reach a ‘tipping point’ in political action which triggers the transformation we know we all need. So, will this December’s meeting in Dubai be any more successful than the previous 27?

With the evidence of climate change all around us, there will be more pressure than ever for progress, yet despite this, I don’t sense that there is currently any real focus or enthusiasm. It is also the first formal ‘report back’ on progress since the Paris Agreement, one where every country is asked to quantify how it has performed against its own proposals (NDCs). This will not be good news. Many haven’t even put in place the mechanism to count their impact, let alone actioned what were after all only voluntary promises. So as a progress report card, it is likely to fit into a category of ‘could do an awful lot better’. This is despite concerns from UN Secretary-General António Guterres that we have now entered a phase of “global boiling” and despite the warning from scientists that we have now exceeded a 1.5°C rise in global temperatures for the first time.

“I don’t sense that there is currently any real focus or enthusiasm.”

It is easy to over-estimate the ability of the international community to find a meaningful accord, even when the science is so overwhelmingly clear and the impacts so increasingly evident in our day-to-day lives. Although there has been progress, it has not been linear and is frustratingly and glacially slow.

COP28 is the latest of a critical, if lethargic and complicated, negotiation, full of gamesmanship, and like many agreements largely determined by the pace of the most reluctant.

Many oil-rich countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, have consistently been the slowest, so what will the effect be of hosting the meeting in the heart of the Middle East? And what will be the appetite for commitment on climate action when the eyes of the world are distracted by such immediate concerns as the war in Ukraine, the cost of living, pandemic recovery and high inflation?

None of this lends itself to the likelihood of a far-sighted, all-encompassing, ambitious, global climate commitment in December. And that is despite record ocean and land Dubai, United Arab Emirates. © alan64 from iStock.

temperatures, wildfires at home and abroad, intense storms and floods, mega-droughts and food insecurities.

COP28 is taking place in the oil state of UAE, chaired by Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Government Minister for Industry and Advanced Technology, and Chief Executive of the state Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. His chairmanship adds an unwelcome distraction and carries a fear of partisanship and industry influence. He has an even more difficult job than usual.

He has laid out his four-point plan for COP28 – the issues he hopes to highlight and deliver on and therefore what this meeting hopes to be judged on: 1) Energy: phasing down (not out, as requested by campaigners) of fossil fuels; doubling energy efficiency; tripling renewables; and doubling hydrogen production, all by 2030. And to “be laser-focused on building the energy system of the future”.

2) Finance: to ensure that a longstanding commitment by rich countries to provide $100bn (£76.5bn) a year to poor nations is finally delivered.

3) People: to take “a human-centred approach that focuses on nature, food, health and resilience,” highlighting the need to transform food systems under threat from climate change and tackling food-related issues.

4) Inclusivity: involving marginalised voices as well as major stakeholders.

Dr Sultan Al Jaber is keen to involve the fossil fuel industry in the discussions more centrally, but he needs to be clear about why.

Previous UNFCCC Secretary Christiana Figueres is certainly sceptical of their involvement: “More than most members of the climate community, I have for years held space for the oil and gas industry to finally wake up and stand up to its critical responsibility in history… because I was convinced the global economy could not be decarbonised without their constructive participation. But what the industry is doing with its unprecedented profits over the past 12 months has changed my mind. Instead [of investing in renewable technology], what we see is international oil companies cutting back, slowing down or, at best, painfully maintaining their decarbonisation commitments, paying higher dividends to shareholders, buying back more shares and – in some countries – lobbying governments to reverse clean energy policies while paying lip service to change.”

The oil industry has the means to invest in green energy production that exceeds the resources of individual governments, but it must invest meaningfully. It is a huge challenge for the Middle East. The oil industry should not simply aim to carry on with business as usual for as long as it can, tinkering with production to reduce direct emissions whilst ignoring the fuel itself, or sit on its hands in the hope that someone will find a way to bury the emissions at some theoretical future point. If the oil industry has a seat at the table, it is because of its wealth, not because of its understanding of climate change, and certainly not because of its moral authority; it lost that when it openly funded decades of climate disinformation.

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It needs to use that vast wealth to invest in the energy transition now. We know we are in the twilight years of fossil fuel use, as we cannot afford to burn the reserves we already know about, let alone go and find more. Organisations selling energy should have an unlimited future. Organisations selling fossil fuels should necessarily have very little.

Whilst oil industry involvement is questionable, the fact that the COP is taking place in the UAE is a good thing. There is a concern in the Middle East that, in many of the conversations on climate change and in international negotiations, it has been marginalised by the West. But with higher than average temperature increases, extreme resource challenges across the region, and an over-reliance on hydrocarbons for much of its income, it clearly needs to have a voice. The fact that COP28 is taking place in Dubai will hopefully help address that perception.

“The oil industry has the means to invest in green energy production.”

Dr Sultan Al Jaber has his work cut out. “I challenge you to act in solidarity, put differences aside and put the interest of humanity first,” he told investors and businesses.

COP28 is already challenging, and will have to work very hard to prove itself against much reasonable scepticism from all sides. It is already susceptible to claims of greenwashing before it has even begun, because of its heavy oil influence.

The fear is that whilst the COP process in general feels like two steps forward, one step back, Dubai’s COP is more likely to deliver only the one step back. If this proves the case, then it will fail to deliver a meaningful step up in action at a time when the world really needs it.

I hope the cynics are proved wrong and real progress can be achieved. After all, climate change is already having huge impacts across the Middle East, so maybe a breakthrough is possible. As the recently knighted Sir Alok Sharma, the former UK government minister and President of COP26, commented recently, unlikely though it may seem “it would be a remarkable achievement of COP28 if it became the COP which sets the pace and timeline on consigning fossil fuels to history.”

22 Autumn 2023

Jabal Misht.

Aeolianite rock in the Wahiba Sands.

Darwat Qabal, Musandam.

Dawn on the dunes of Ramlat Fasad.

Wadi Dimma, Eastern Hajar Mountains.

Dune in the Empty Quarter.

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Wadi Daiqah, Easter Hajar Mountains.

Wilderness Oman All images © Malcolm MacGregor, www.malcolmmacgregor.photo.

Rocks at sunset on Al Jabab al Akhdar.

Dunes in the Empty Quarter.

24 Autumn 2023

Conserving the relationship between cultural and natural herit Alan Forrest, Centre for Middle Eastern Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh

While the predominating public image of the Arabian Peninsula is one of hot deserts and sand dunes, it is more widely becoming recognised that the area harbours areas of interesting and unique biodiversity, alongside its amazing landforms and well documented historical and archaeological sites, artefacts and traditions. Among these pockets of uniqueness lies the Soqotra Archipelago; located around 380km south from the coast of Yemen (of which it is part) and just 100km east from Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia. Like the southern fog oases of Dhofar (southwest Oman) and Hawf (southeast Yemen) and the valley forests of southwestern Arabia, Soqotra is a hotspot for plant diversity (and as a result was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2008) but the cultural heritage of the islands is less well known and certainly less well celebrated compared to that of mainland Arabia. In fact, Soqotra is the only World Heritage Site of more than 50 in Arabia inscribed solely for its natural heritage, although two ‘mixed’ sites exist at Wadi Rum in Jordan and The Ahwar of Southern Iraq.

Soqotra is rightly known for its unique and globally important biodiversity; around 40% of around 850 plant species are endemic, alongside several bird species, the majority of reptiles, and a significant number of invertebrates and marine species, which is quite remarkable for a continental fragment of 3,740km2. However, its cultural heritage and diversity has been less well documented and has received significantly less funding, which on the face of it makes little sense when consideration is given to the fact the biodiversity and its documented traditional uses have such a close relationship. So little is known about the abandoned settlements and wall systems on Soqotra that it is difficult to say how close the relationship with historical sites is to the natural bounty of the islands and the use and trade of products in antiquity. What is known is that the endemic Soqotra language evolved in significant part to describe the environment on which local communities depended for their day-to-day requirements.

and natural heritage is in some cases a construct of scientific principles and the practical applications used for its global conservation.

For biodiversity there are a wide range of different methodologies available to classify, delineate and prioritise Protected Areas – for example Key Biodiversity Areas, Important Plant Areas, Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas among others – and these are determined via quantitative criteria that relate to threat status, uniqueness, diversity and ecological integrity. Key Geoheritage Areas are also in development. Cultural Heritage, especially built heritage, is very much site-based when compared to biodiversity elements that can be mapped and modelled at the landscape scale to enable criteria to delimit priority areas for conservation.

Examples where both cultural and natural heritage values are conserved in a combined system, or even at a single site, are quite rare: for example, of the more than 1,150 World Heritage Sites currently inscribed, just 39 globally are designated as ‘mixed’ sites – those that satisfy both natural and cultural heritage qualifying criteria.

“Soqotra is rightly known for its unique and globally important biodiversity.”

So, how can progress be made from such designations to practical heritage conservation in an insular under-resourced system, and that benefits both conservation outcomes and local communities?

Soqotra is a small island and could easily be designated as a single Protected Area for both natural and cultural heritage: in fact, the use of certain criteria would support such a decision.

Adding cultural heritage criteria to the World Heritage Inscription would be one way to achieve this.

However, such a conservation area would be a ‘paper park’ as

Cultural and natural heritage and associated knowledge can be treated separately, but that distinction is not readily recognised by the Soqotri people themselves. This begs the question as to whether the distinction made between cultural Dragon’s blood tree.

Soqotra’s cultural landscape.

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tage in the Soqotra Archipelago without the political will, community support and resources to conserve the entire archipelago, practical conservation outcomes would be difficult to achieve. Designation of smaller sites for management purposes is a more practical approach, and initial attempts to achieve this were enshrined in Yemeni Law in 2000 via the Soqotra Conservation Zoning Plan, currently in a state of revision. Is it possible to assess whether a manageable system incorporating all heritage values could work?

Current work is approaching this from two directions.

(hence the phrase ‘the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean’) which further focuses the idea that Soqotra is globally significant for its biodiversity but not for its cultural heritage. Sadly, of course, Charles Darwin never visited Soqotra to add to its kudos. However, perhaps a more comparable World Heritage Site lies a little closer to home. St Kilda, a dual-inscribed site, is more conceptually comparable to Soqotra as an insular system harbouring significant biodiversity in terms of bird populations, marine ecosystems and land management systems as well as being testament to a unique society and cultural landscape. One difference is that St Kilda is researched and documented in more depth and detail and managed within a better resource framework.

“The Soqotra Heritage Project has to date documented and assessed over 400 [archaeological] sites.”

The first will assess a series of heritage sites and survey the biodiversity components alongside the cultural heritage values. These sites will inevitably be small and from a biodiversity perspective are unlikely to enable practical conservation at an ecologically relevant scale. Such sites might include Hoq Cave, which harbours unique and significant archaeological and linguistic finds as well as a unique cave fauna surrounded by an excellent example of endemic semi-deciduous woodland.

The second has mapped biodiversity across the entire archipelago and will add known sites of heritage value to assess overlap and potential management constraints. This approach will investigate a more landscape-based approach that could include the conservation of traditional pastoral systems and water management that if managed in a contemporary way might have the added benefit of climate change adaptation locally.

An important, complementary and integral part of this work has been to ensure that the responsible authorities of the Government of Yemen, for both cultural and natural heritage, decide on the most appropriate solutions, and also that those solutions benefit local communities.

There is still, of course, the question of how to resource such sustainable conservation and management in what is a poorly resourced, low-income country currently in a state of conflict. This latter point has so far proven difficult to fund research into.

Additionally, comparisons with similar locations may prove valuable when planning interventions. Soqotra has often been compared to the Galapagos Islands

These processes require information, which until recently has been lacking from a cultural heritage perspective. Building on a number of archaeological missions conducted sporadically over the preceding years, the recently established Soqotra Heritage Project has to date documented and assessed over 400 sites, and also documented a wide range of intangible heritage components ranging from traditional crafts to the harvesting and use of natural products to the management of water and animals.

Coupled with the Ethnoflora of the Soqotra Archipelago (Miller and Morris, 2004) which detailed the traditional uses of almost all plant species found on the archipelago, this body of knowledge is increasing but still falls some way short of the knowledge and Rock art site. evidence required to enable a fully integrated and justified system.

In the not too distant future, an already extensive database of species distributions will have full threat assessments for both endemic and non-endemic taxa as well as extensive molecular data to assess evolutionary uniqueness. Building detailed information on cultural heritage, conservation status and a form of prioritisation, driven by local actors, may enable such an integrated system and ensure values of Soqotri heritage persist for the long term.

26 Autumn 2023

ISIS in 2023 Charles Lister, Senior Fellow, Director of Syria and Countering Terrorism & Extremism programmes, Middle East Institute

Nine years ago, the UK and dozens of governments around the world were rapidly mobilising resources to confront an unprecedented security challenge in the heart of the Middle East. Beginning in June 2014, a terrorist group that had called itself an ‘Islamic State’ since 2006 swept across vast swathes of eastern Syria and Iraq, sending security forces and militia adversaries running. Thousands were killed in an orgy of horrific violence, as ISIS put into play a core pillar of its ideological and strategic vision: to utilise ‘savagery’ to instil a debilitating state of chaos, out of which it would proclaim a territorial and governing entity.

to resolve, will guarantee ISIS’s return. The roots of this challenge lie in the final days of ISIS’s territorial ‘state’ in Syria, when the group’s final holdout in the desert village of al-Baghouz was surrounded by the coalition. Assessments of this final phase of battle suggested several thousand ISIS loyalists remained, but as the village collapsed, more than 70,000 people came out.

What resulted is what I call the detainee crisis. Today, in addition to 20,000 in Iraq, there are 10,000 ISIS militants being held in a network of 26 makeshift prisons in northeast Syria, and a further 52,000 associated women and children in two secured camps: al-Hol and al-Roj. Together, this mass of 62,000 men, women and children represent citizens of more than 60 countries, with roughly 28,000 being Iraqi, 23,000 Syrian and 11,000 from third countries. As the only country with troops on the ground, playing a guarantor role in support of our local Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) partners, the US military has exerted a significant diplomatic effort to encourage other governments to repatriate their citizens. After all, if US troops were to leave Syria one day, an unresolved detainee crisis would be a security catastrophe – and an ISIS dream come true.

“We have an enormous, unprecedented challenge on our hands.”

There can be no understating the significance of what ISIS managed to achieve in Syria and Iraq just a few years ago. In a space of five years, a jihadist terror group fuelled by an apocalyptic ideology recruited at least 53,000 foreigners into its ranks, from more than 100 countries across the globe. That was at least ten times larger than the biggest recorded flow of foreign fighters ever recorded before – to Afghanistan between 1980 and 1992. At its height, ISIS controlled a contiguous territory the size of the UK; it established a global movement with branches in at least 27 countries; and it was earning millions of dollars a day, making it the wealthiest terror group in history.

From 2014 to 2019, the international coalition methodically rolled back ISIS’s control of territory, implementing lessons learned from years past by working ‘by, with and through’ local partners and avoiding any large troop deployments on frontlines. ISIS’s control of territory in Syria and Iraq ended over four years ago, but amid concerted efforts to fight it there, the group has exploited opportunities elsewhere. ISIS’s branch in Afghanistan has taken advantage of the Taliban’s takeover in 2021 and, according to US intelligence, is in a position to attack Western interests abroad within six months.

Even more shocking are ISIS’s gains in Africa, where the group is now operational in 13 countries and from where it is coordinating ISIS’s finances and logistics worldwide. Despite a great many warnings from experts, the international community has not yet truly awoken to the scale of the jihadist challenge developing in Africa.

With the war in Ukraine ongoing and tensions rising with the likes of China, it is not altogether surprising that ISIS has vanished from public attention. But it’s far from finished.

Even in its Syrian and Iraqi heartlands, ISIS holds a worrying hand of cards. While the coalition has achieved a great deal in our ongoing campaign against ISIS, the terror group is gradually resurging in central Syria, a region controlled by the notorious regime of Bashar al-Assad. While ISIS attacks are down 80% in Iraq and 37% in coalition-administered northeastern Syria, the opposite is playing out in regime areas. In April, ISIS achieved its most aggressive and deadly month in regime areas since it was a ‘state’, while simultaneously defeating a six-week campaign launched by the Russian and Syrian regime militaries, and an array of Iranian-backed militias.

There’s nothing we can do about the regime’s inability and often lack of desire to counter ISIS. And while we may be accomplishing much militarily, we have an enormous, unprecedented challenge on our hands which, if we fail

Repatriation is the only solution, but the sheer scale of the challenge is daunting, to say the least. In 2001, 780 men were taken to Guantanamo Bay, a self-contained facility on an island thousands of miles from conflict. Twenty-two years later, after decades of legal and diplomatic efforts to repatriate, 31 still remain. In northeast Syria, we have 62,000 to repatriate within an active conflict zone. Few governments will entertain bringing male citizens home, but there has been some movement on the 52,000 women and children, 65% of whom are under 18 and, as children, are considered as illegally detained, per international law. Twelve thousand of the children were born in the camps and know nothing else.

Since 2020, approximately 7,500 women and children have been repatriated: 5,000 Iraqis, 1,400 Syrians and 1,100 third country nationals. To date, the UK has proven the hardest of all governments to convince, refusing all repatriations except for ten orphans. I recently visited the prisons and camps in northeast Syria and the reasons for concern are staggering.

Decades of experience has taught us that killing terrorists does not defeat terrorism. From 2014 to 2019, we won the military battle against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, but we have a long way to go before we can claim to have won the war.

Failing or abandoning efforts to resolve the detainee crisis will guarantee another resurgence of ISIS and its terror.

The Monumental Arch of Palmyra in 2011, before its destruction by ISIS. © adam_hoszman from iStock.

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Ranulph Higden’s map of the Christian world Chris Fleet FRSGS, Map Curator, National Library of Scotland

This map of the world, by the Benedictine monk Ranulph Higden, has its central focus as the Christian Holy Land, an area which geographically overlaps with much of the Mashriq.

Higden spent 60 years at St Werburgh’s Abbey in Chester, and he is chiefly remembered today as the author of the Polychronicon, a sevenvolume history of the world.

Versions of the Polychronicon written after 1340 often include a mappa mundi to help readers locate some of the main places described in the text. Orientated with east to the top, the three continents of the known world – Europe to the lower left, Asia to the top, and Africa to the right – are surrounded by a green band of ocean, with the Red Sea and Persian Gulf coloured in red.

Maps frame and condition our perspective on the world, for better and worse, and this is very much a Christian perspective, compiled in the 14th century, of a contested area. By this time on mappae mundi, the iconic, circular ‘T and O’ map form, showing the world as a perfect sphere, had morphed into an ovoid shape to take account of more recent discoveries. The map names over 100 places, some clearly recognisable, such as Babylon, the Euphrates river, Jerusalem, Sinai, Arabia and Syria to the upper centre. The names of ‘Scocia’ and ‘Anglia’ (shown on the same island) can just be read, squeezed onto the lower left-hand edge. This is the earliest manuscript map held by the National Library of Scotland, drawn on vellum (calf-skin) sometime in the 15th century.

“The map names over 100 places, some clearly recognisable.”

Ranulph Higden, [Map of the World, from the Polychronicon], (15th century). Image courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. View online at maps.nls.uk/view/213130877.

28 Autumn 2023

The Middle East before the Middle East: the Persian Gulf Dr Guillemette Crouzet, European University Institute, Florence, Italy

It is most common to say that the Middle East, as a geographical region and a geopolitical arena, was born after the First World War. As the Ottoman Empire vanished, the Middle East appeared on the world map. Whole library shelves of scholarly literature have been dedicated to describing how Western powers, mostly France and Britain, drew lines in the sand in the wake of the First World War, and thereby recast the political borders of the region.

This conjuncture saw the disaggregation of the territories of the old Ottoman Empire, and their reformulation into a new and complex territorial mosaic. This new order was conceived largely around the geopolitics of oil. Secret agreements, for instance the Sykes–Picot Agreement, and then the peace conferences, from Versailles in 1919 to Cairo in 1921 and Sèvres in 1923, saw diplomats discussing and inventing a new geography as well as sharing oil wells and the guardianship of the mandate states of Syria, Iraq, Transjordan and Palestine.

It is usually assumed that the concept of the Middle East, with all the territorial and strategic upheavals it promoted, was launched from this early 20th-century juncture. Yet it is possible to tell the history of another Middle East.

And this iteration of the ‘Middle East’ is to be found at a significant remove – not only chronologically but also geographically – from the conventionally-ascribed starting point around the First World War. For, while “Middle East” has long been a ubiquitous term in world affairs, the term’s own antecedents and early invocations have remained curiously underexplored.

to its violent overspill into the Gulf and its hinterlands. British encroachment into the Persian Gulf region began by degrees under the expansionist East India Company in the later 18th century. It would be catalysed by the geostrategic shock generated by France’s invasion of Egypt, led by Napoleon, in 1798. In the decades after that, it would be further ratcheted up by gunboat attacks conducted under British auspices in the name of pacifying Arab ‘pirates’. Throughout the 1800s, this crucial geopolitical arena was then secured and transformed to become the bulwark of an informal imperial system erected around British India.

The creation of this sphere of influence in the waters and sands of the Gulf and its hinterlands was piecemeal and multifaceted. The process involved a triangle of actors in London, on the Indian subcontinent, and in the Gulf region itself. By the end of the 19th century, amid renewed waves of interimperial competition, this nexus of British interests and narratives in the Gulf region would occasion the appearance of a new appellation, the “Middle East.”

“Even before the oil boom of the 20th century, the Gulf region had taken on strategic importance.”

When in fact was this label first imagined, and why? What geographical spaces did it first denote? And what were the entanglements of actors, conflicts, and processes underpinning these shifts, which made the coining of that geographical term both meaningful and necessary? By pursuing such questions, it is possible to present © engin akyurt from Unsplash. a new account. Indeed, the idea of the “Middle East” emerged not from the First World War and its aftermath, but rather from much earlier conflicts centred on the 19th-century Persian Gulf.

Even before the oil boom of the 20th century, the Gulf region had taken on strategic importance for competing global empires. The fundamental dynamic in this was how the Gulf came to form a terraqueous crossroads and borderland guarding British India’s western flank.

The origins of the term “Middle East” can be traced precisely to Britain’s long hegemony over the Indian subcontinent, and

Around this same period, apologists for empire would propagate celebratory retrospective narratives of this century-long unfolding of British interventionism and overlordship in the Persian Gulf and its environs with a view to justifying its transformation into a kind of British ‘lake’, while also seeking to sustain the wider region’s open-ended continuation under imperial tutelage.

In the event, however, the informal empire the British had constructed in the Gulf’s waters and sands would be supplanted and transformed in quite rapid and unexpected ways during the fallout from the First World War. That new conjuncture would see the Middle East ‘reinvented’ around oil.

In the ensuing years, a new kind of British colonial regime administered from London across a swathe of former Ottoman territories quickly overshadowed what had come before.

Given this peak of British direct rule across a very different iteration of the Middle East down to the middle of the 20th century, it has become all the more difficult to comprehend that there had in fact been a much longer history of British imperial entanglement and interventionism in the Gulf region, dating back to the age of Napoleon.

Guillemette Crouzet is the author of Inventing the Middle East: Britain and the Persian Gulf in the Age of Global Imperialism, published in November 2022 by McGill-Queen’s University Press.

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Sir John Bagot Glubb, RSGS Livingstone Medallist 1956 Jo Woolf FRSGS, RSGS Writer-in-Residence

It is a shame that the best-remembered fact about Sir John Bagot Glubb is his dismissal by King Hussein of Jordan in 1956, and his unceremonious departure for the UK only hours later.

The event shocked the western world. ‘Glubb Pasha’, the highly regarded Commander of the Arab Legion, had spent most of his life in the Middle East and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Arab cause. He was an honourable and astute soldier, decorated many times for bravery, and to be sent home as if in disgrace by the young grandson of King Abdullah I, a man whom he had served loyally for over 20 years, must have wounded him greatly. But he didn’t allow it to show for one moment. “I have always been treated with the greatest kindness,” he declared, on his return to Britain. “I am neither shocked, dazed nor angry.”

But what was this diminutive but feisty Englishman doing in Jordan in the first place, and what had inspired him to take the Arab people to his heart?

John Bagot Glubb was born in 1897, the son of Sir Frederic Manley Glubb, Chief Engineer in the British Second Army during WWI. Filling his father’s illustrious shoes must have been a daunting challenge, but on the front lines of France and Belgium John distinguished himself with a Military Cross. He also received a mark of another kind, a blow to his jaw which left the bone partly shattered, later giving rise to the affectionate Arab nickname of abu Hunaik, ‘father of the little jaw’.

Whatever Glubb lacked in stature he certainly made up for in discipline and determination. In 1920 he accepted a British posting in Iraq, which at that time was still governed by Britain under the League of Nations Mandate. Six years later he resigned from the army to work for the Iraqi government; but his true calling came in 1930, when he became an officer of Trans-Jordan’s Arab Legion, a small force which had been set up a few years previously by Major-General Frederick Peake.

Living with the Bedouin tribespeople, wearing their clothes, sharing their meals, speaking their language and watching their customs, Glubb came to respect them for their noble principles and strict code of honour. It struck him that an army of these warriors would be a formidable asset, and in 1931 he set up the Desert Patrol, formed entirely of Bedouin men. The original band of about 20 soldiers grew to become two companies of 350 Bedouins, and a lasting bond was established between the Desert Patrol and the Jordanian monarchy. Glubb also managed to curb the Bedouins’ habit of raiding neighbouring tribes, bringing some sense of peace and stability to that region.

This in itself was a considerable achievement; but it was by no means the biggest challenge that Glubb would face. In 1939 he succeeded Peake as Commander of the Arab Legion: during WWII his forces helped to suppress a revolt in Iraq and fought alongside the Free French and British forces in Lebanon and Syria. Glubb’s legion was now regarded as the best trained and strongest Arab army in the Middle East. It was said that Glubb Pasha ruled the Arab Legion, and that the Arab Legion ruled Jordan.

It was in 1948, when the long-standing tension between Arabs and Jews boiled over into war, that Glubb’s role became

both crucial and impossibly complex. Britain’s mandate in Palestine was coming to an end, but as they withdrew, the Arab Legion advanced on the West Bank.

Acting on orders from King Abdullah of Jordan, Glubb’s men marched into Palestine and conquered the provinces of Judaea and Samaria, capturing the Old City of Jerusalem. Abdullah then incorporated the West Bank into his kingdom – and from then onwards, among Jewish communities, ‘Glubb Pasha’ was a name uttered with absolute loathing. He was seen as a British puppet, a symbol of a dying but still despotic empire.

“In 1931 he set up the Desert Patrol, formed entirely of Bedouin men.”

During Glubb’s last few years as Commander of the Arab Legion, even his close relationship with the Arab people came under strain. Under the 1948 treaty, the British government had retained airbases in Jordan, and in return it contributed a subsidy to the Legion, which was now, in effect, the Jordanian army. But nationalists claimed that the army represented British rather than Arab interests; and unfortunately for Glubb, the fortunes of the Jordanian royal family conspired to end his rule as the ‘uncrowned King of Jordan’.

In 1951 the Arab world was rocked when King Abdullah was assassinated by a Palestinian. The following year, Abdullah’s 16-year-old grandson, Hussein, was hailed as king. But Hussein was under pressure to show himself as a strong ruler, true to his own people, and he needed to prove his independence; so in March 1956 he dismissed Glubb and gave him and his family one night in which to pack all their belongings.

The Bedouin soldiers, still fiercely loyal to their King, found themselves bereft of a commander whom they loved and respected in equal measure.

Later that year, King Abdullah of Jordan and John Bagot Glubb c1947. Public domain, when Sir John via Wikimedia Commons.

Bagot Glubb spoke to the RSGS, he expressed concern for the fate of the men he’d left behind. He described the Bedouin as “the most devoted and most loyal of any soldier who served under the Government of Jordan”, and added, “One cannot help worrying about what is going to happen to them. You cannot help thinking of these people, and when you know them you cannot help loving them.”

Sir John Bagot Glubb was awarded the Livingstone Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society “for outstanding services in the cause of progress and stability of the Arab world between 1921 and 1956.”

30 Autumn 2023

The Sykes–Picot Agreement James Barr, author and historian (www.historythatmatters.org)

“I should like to draw a line from the E of Acre to the last K of Kirkuk.” So said a 36-year-old politician named Sir Mark Sykes, when he was asked by the prime minister to divide the Ottoman Middle East into British and French zones of influence. The meeting at which he said these fateful words took place in December 1915, when the war still had nearly three years to run.

Victory against the Germans and their Ottoman allies was at that point a distant prospect, but Anglo-French relations were certainly strained only a year into the war. While the British trained an army of volunteers to break the deadlock on the western front in 1916, the French had taken much heavier casualties so far.

So they saw Britain’s plan to knock the Ottomans out of the war with a landing at Gallipoli as a distraction. More cynical Frenchmen believed that the British were empire-building again. So, although the Gallipoli campaign would fail, it raised a difficult question about a post-Ottoman future.

Unanswered, it threatened to poison Anglo-French relations.

The cabinet turned to Sykes for a solution. Few if any senior British politicians had ever visited the Middle East, while Sykes had travelled widely there before the war. That day he left at least one member of the cabinet under the impression

he was a fluent Turkish and Arabic speaker: in fact he could speak neither.

As a result, the vestiges of the line Sykes described in the meeting are still visible in the diagonal border Syria shares with Jordan and Iraq, because his proposal formed the basis for a deal that he then cut that winter with a prickly French negotiator, François Georges-Picot. Britain and France were to rule, or effectively control, territory either side of the dividing line. As the two men could not agree on Palestine they proposed that it would have an international administration.

They drew these details on a copy of the map that Sykes had used to make his initial presentation, with freehand lines, in coloured pencil.

Tellingly perhaps, Georges Picot signed his name in black ink, while Sykes, disappointed that he had not got Palestine, scribbled his own name in pencil.

“The map that served as the canvas for the Sykes–Picot Agreement almost invited the carve-up that was drawn on it.”

The Tigris at Hasankeyf in 2008. This valley is now flooded: the tombs visible are medieval and were moved.

The map that served as the canvas for the Sykes–Picot Agreement almost invited the carve-up that was drawn on it. First published by the Royal Geographical Society in 1910, it represented a striking departure in the way the eastern Ottoman Empire was mapped. Almost exactly square and sized to suit the armchair general, it got round the unwieldiness that dogged all earlier large-scale maps of ‘Turkey in Asia’ by zeroing in on the most crucial area, from a historical, religious and strategic perspective.

This was a box of land between five seas: the Black Sea, the Caspian, the Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Its key geographical features were the arc of mountains created as the Arabian and Asian plates collided and the two great rivers that rose out of them, the Tigris and the Euphrates. It was no coincidence that Sykes used the map to illustrate his idea: his own work had been used to fill in blank spaces in what is now eastern Syria and he was proud of his involvement. And so it was that a map that had been designed to raise British commercial interest in this region to counter rising German influence was used for this infamous imperial stitch-up.

The Sykes–Picot Agreement was an expedient designed to stop the ‘the Eastern Question’ from tearing the Entente Cordiale apart. Although its underlying concept – of a Middle East ruled by Britain and France – survived, the area allocated to France was squeezed, first by a British fait accompli at the end of the First World War, and then by Turkish nationalism.

In October 1918, days after the Ottoman armistice, the British advanced north from Baghdad to Mosul, after realising, late in the war, that they needed other sources of oil so that they were no longer reliant on the United States for fuel. In the next few years Mustapha Kemal would fight the French for control of the towns that run east from Antakya.

Through the Balfour Declaration (by which Britain promised to support a Jewish national home in Palestine) and pressure on a war-weakened France, Britain eventually also secured control of Palestine. That achieved what Sykes had wanted: “a belt of English-controlled country” that ran from the Mediterranean to the frontier with Persia (modern Iran), behind his diagonal line.

The political geography of this part of the Middle East reflects British strategic considerations from a century ago.

The Euphrates below the castle of Rumkale, eastern Turkey, in 2008.

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Today Sykes’s line, and the political settlement that flowed from it, create two obvious and somewhat contradictory problems. The first is that the line follows no natural frontier.

Although no state exists in a vacuum, the politics of Syria and Iraq are particularly entangled. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Syria’s government sent thousands of foreign jihadis across the desert border, to bog the Americans down. Syria then reaped the whirlwind when many of those fighters crossed back, together with thousands of Iraqi refugees.

Map of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. © Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc

For Britain the priority was the defence of India, which was crucial as both a captive market and a reserve of manpower.

Sykes’s line was designed to create a buffer zone across the Middle East that kept European rivals away from the Gulf. The concept survives in the way that the three British-ruled states that emerged after the war – Israel/Palestine, Jordan and Iraq – all join together. As in many other parts of the world, the frontiers have outlived the strategy that drove them.

The second problem is that the fractured political landscape makes concerted international action harder, most obviously on the question of water. This area is notoriously sensitive to climatic change, and since Neolithic times the water table has sunk from perhaps 6m below ground to more than 70m in places today. Meanwhile, the political settlement of a century ago divided the Tigris and the Euphrates between three modern states: Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Compare the map from 1910 with one from today and the most obvious difference is how much water Turkey is now hoarding from these rivers. The irony is that, a century after the Ottoman Empire’s collapse, water will ensure Turkey’s ongoing influence in its former eastern territories.

James Barr is the author of A Line in the Sand and Lords of the Desert. See the back page for details.

© Jaffer Hasan from iStock.

32 Autumn 2023

Early 20th-century British interests in the Middle East Jean Smith, RSGS Collections Team

The area located between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, now part of southern Iraq, Kuwait and Western Iran, was important to Britain in the early 20th century, and this map offers a fascinating insight into British understanding of the region at that time. Originally published in 1907 by the General Staff Geographic Section of the British Army, ‘Lower Mesopotamia from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf’ at a scale of 1:1,000,000 (1 inch = 16 miles approximately) is considered to be the first accurate general map of this area. Later versions include additional detail from a variety of surveys and expeditions, listed on the bottom right-hand corner of the map.

The map was revised and updated several times between June 1911 and when this version was published in 1919. It is held by RSGS as part of the Moncrieff collection of 99 maps covering Iraq, Afghanistan and India, donated to RSGS

by Lt Col John Moncrieff, son of Col Douglas Moncrieff MC who served in India after the First World War.

Site but has deteriorated significantly since the 1970s as a consequence of dam construction upstream, drainage for agriculture, oil exploration, conflict, drought, desertification and climate change.

Transport networks depicted include roads, tracks (including several pilgrimage routes) and railways, bridges and crossing points. The number of populated places and the level of detail of land ownership shown on the map highlight how much effort must have been involved in collecting this information during the surveys and must have involved a great deal of interaction with the local population. The number of place names annotated as “place of pilgrimage”, “tomb” or “ruins” is striking. Maps such as these are invaluable sources of information for the collation of databases of historical monuments to support current international efforts to protect cultural property.

“This map is striking in the wide range and level of detail of information it contains.”

Mesopotamia is of great historical importance, acknowledged to be the birthplace of civilization, and a region of significant strategic interest to Britain throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries when the territory was considered to be part of the Arabian Frontier of the British Raj. It had continuing strategic importance during the First World War and afterwards as the area of operation of the Anglo Persian Oil Company, latterly BP, which was the first company to extract petroleum in Iran.

The map is also densely populated with tribal names, collected, among others, by Captain Gerard Leachman, a political officer who spent much of this period in the region as a naturalist with the Royal Geographical Society, which awarded him the Gill Medal in 1911. His 1910 expedition is listed on the additional sources.

While it is typical of mapping produced of the region at this time, this map is striking in the wide range and level of detail of information it contains.

It shows topographic features and descriptions of the terrain, including mountain ranges and hills with spot heights.

Vegetation, agricultural use (and potential use) and hydrology, including seasonal variation and water sources, are described in detail. The floodplains of the Tigris and the Euphrates are shown on the map as seasonally flooding “marshy lakes”. This is the region inhabited by the Marsh Arabs (Ma’dan/ Maden Arabs). This ancient unique ecosystem has been designated a World Heritage © RSGS Collections

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notes from the classroom

Studying Geography in Scotland Ian Selmes, Alastair McConnell FRSGS and Jim Bruce FRSGS, RSGS Education Committee

How might we help Geography to regain a more significant place in Scottish education? There has been a refrain of declining numbers of young people studying Geography when its significance ought to be high, given climate and biodiversity change, geographer employability, etc. Who studies Geography is fundamental knowledge to help address this situation. Why people choose to study Geography has long been anecdotal, and yet systematic evidence of this is also vital to making a difference. The RSGS Education Committee has been investigating these key questions.

A quantitative study looked at uptake and attainment for Geography in Scottish schools and universities. The Scottish Government’s Performance and Attainment Statistics Team provided aggregated data from the Pupils in Scotland Census, broken down by gender, ethnicity, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, and local authority, combined with statistics from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) about entries and attainment from 2016 to 2022. The Statistics Team also provided aggregated tables of comparable data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency student records. The details were published in the Scottish Geographical Journal in 2022, and we reported some of the highlights in the winter 2022 edition of The Geographer.

Then a digital questionnaire, investigating reasons for choosing or choosing not to study Geography, was completed by 93 Scottish school pupils in S4–S6; 59 were studying Geography and 34 had decided not to. These findings were reported in the Scottish Geographical Journal in 2023. Both sets of evidence were shared at the RSGS’s Geography in Scottish Education conference in February.

The good news is that despite the number of Scottish school Geography entries for National 5 and Higher having fallen overall since the academic year 2015–16, the Geography entries at all stages have seen a sustained rise in numbers since the academic years 2018–19 or 2019–20. Furthermore, the numbers of Geography students enrolling at the nine HEIs in Scotland offering Geography has also increased at undergraduate level and more rapidly at postgraduate level.

These explanations were consistent for girls and for boys and at each level of study. In open-ended responses, by far the most common comment was ‘it is fun / I enjoy it’ followed by ‘it will be useful in future’.

“By far the most common comment was ‘it is fun / I enjoy it’.”

Amongst pupils in the survey not studying Geography, the most common explanations for their decision concerned not thinking it necessary for their future career and little interest in its curriculum content. Less common reasoning focused on subject importance, timetabling issues and lesson enjoyment.

The teacher and the influence of friends or family in their decision-making were only suggested by a few pupils.

Explanations varied little between gender, except boys more frequently identified future career as a cause for not choosing to study Geography further.

Geography practitioners and advocates can be positive about our subject having a more significant position in Scottish education in the future. Each individual can make a difference in the way they teach, by using fieldwork and by talking in a positive way about the importance of Geography. By focusing the political eye on Geography and updating perceptions of what geographers do in the workplace, the trends identified in these reports can be nudged in the right direction. There is plenty of research to advise what works best, and by acting on this, there is a potentially bright future for the subject.

FURTHER READING

Selmes I, McConnell A, Bruce J (2022) The geography of geographical education in Scotland: who studies geography and why? (Scottish Geographical Journal, Vol 138, doi.org/10.

1080/14702541.2022.2146174) Selmes I, McConnell A, Bruce J (2023) The geography of geographical education in Scotland: why do pupils choose to study geography? (Scottish Geographical Journal, Vol 139, doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2023.2236065)

The main explanations pupils used as to why they chose to study Geography were lesson enjoyment and interest in the curriculum content.

Their ability in the subject and future career were the only other reasons selected by at least a quarter of respondents. The least common explanations were influence of family and of friends. © monkeybusinessimages from iStock.

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Hayward Review recommendations Alastair McConnell FRSGS and Kenneth Muir FRSGS, RSGS Education Committee Chair

There has been a period of national consultation and review in Scottish education over the last few years, and a series of reports including OECD (2021), Stobart (2021), Muir (2022) and Withers (2023) have culminated in recommendations laid out in the 156-page It’s Our Future: Report of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment (www.gov. scot/publications/future-report-independent-review-qualificationsassessment/documents) published on 22nd June 2023, often referred to as the Hayward Review.

There would be an entitlement for all learners to experience all elements of the Diploma, and a requirement for all elements to be completed in order to gain the award. The Diploma itself would not be graded, but there would be grades assigned to the Programmes of Learning, essentially a continuation of the current practice where subjects are graded. A digital profile for each learner would be developed, allowing additional evidence of other achievements to be added. Parity of esteem between general pathways (academic) and professional and technical pathways (vocational) would be achieved through a greater emphasis on SCQF Levels rather than hierarchical terminology like ‘Higher’.

“The recommendations by Hayward are quite radical.”

This review follows building concern about a number of well-rehearsed problems with the current assessment and qualifications arrangements. These are: • the ‘two-term dash’, especially to the current Higher, limiting the opportunity for deeper learning (and also ultimately subject choice); • three years of back-to-back examinations for most students; • lack of articulation between BGE and senior phase, and Nat 4 and Nat 5; • the perceived heavy Knowledge + Understanding focus in the current examinations, and the lack of recognition given to skills and competencies; • the continuing lack of parity of esteem between academic and vocational/technical qualifications; and • the emphasis on recognising and valuing attainment (as measured through final examinations) to the detriment of recognising and valuing the achievements that all learners make, in varying degrees, which are rarely valued and recognised to the same extent.

Dissatisfaction with Scotland’s current approach to assessment and qualifications was also highlighted following the cancellation of examinations in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid. This was reflected in professional and public concern about fairness, and widespread concern about the results and perceptions of inequity.

The recommendations by Hayward are quite radical and, if adopted by the Scottish Government, could see a significant shift in the experiences and qualifications of our future young learners. Consultation has been extensive, and RSGS has submitted contributions to all stages of this. In addition, RSGS hosted an education conference in February 2023 to discuss how Geography might fit into the various reforms that are being proposed for the future. [Hayward is about qualifications and assessment, but the entirety of reviews comprises potentially wider reform.]

The report recommends the creation of a Scottish Diploma of Achievement, valuing and recognising the attainment and wider achievements of all learners throughout their time in school. This would act as a graduation certificate for senior phase educational settings, covering more than just academic results. The Diploma would recognise: • Programmes of Learning: subject specific, but with better links to Curriculum for Excellence, and greater prominence and benchmarking given to the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF); • Personal Pathways: individual achievement and selfreflection; and • Project Learning: problem solving and interdisciplinary learning.

In the Programmes for Learning section, it is recommended that National Qualifications Levels 1–7 would still be used, but with achievements captured through the year to avoid the much-criticised two-term dash. External assessments would be limited to just SCQF Levels 6 and 7, giving more time for learning and teaching. This would improve progression between stages, and a broader range of assessments would be introduced to reduce the susceptibility for question prediction and over-rehearsal. Modularisation of courses would also be introduced, increasing flexibility.

The aim of the Personal Pathways section is to celebrate interests, competencies, and achievements. Learners would decide what is included, with an emphasis on what they have learned through these experiences and those in which they take most pride. There will be a need for teachers to provide some support to learners through self-reflection on their experiences.

The Project Learning section will allow learners to integrate their knowledge and skills, bringing together experiences of relevance and interest to them. It is proposed that the topic selected for study may be at the discretion of the participant, for example tackling a global or local challenge. There should be a focus on interdisciplinary learning and this section should be an identifiable and distinct part of the school curriculum taking place throughout the senior phase. The expectation would be that this is internally assessed, with external moderation.

The Hayward recommendations are designed to provide a coherent and fully justified plan for curricular change that will prepare learners for the very different future in which they will live. The opportunities this provides for the enhanced relevance and importance of geographical learning cannot be over emphasised. Geography will still have its place as a knowledge and skills-based academic subject in the Programmes for Learning section, and the skills and ethics intrinsic to our subject will be invaluable in the Project Learning section. The potential for enhanced value given to Project Learning and to community involvement and voluntary work in the Personal Pathways section will build on the local and global issues already raised daily in Geography classrooms.

See www.rsgs.org/blog for a fuller version of this article.

36 Autumn 2023

Glasgow Then and Now Professor Michael Pacione FRSGS, Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of Strathclyde

Did you know that Glasgow had a colosseum, a Greek temple, and the largest brick building in Europe? Would you like to see them? Too late, they are gone. How about the oldest remaining 19th century bonded warehouse on the Broomielaw, Springburn locomotive works offices, the first teacher training college in Britain, or former pleasure gardens on the Stobcross estate? Still possible, but don’t delay – in the city, change is a constant.

In Glasgow Then and Now I employ a set of photographs taken over 50 years of urban fieldwork to explain significant changes that have affected Glasgow’s urban fabric over the period. The collection of photo-essays interprets the changing landscape in more than 80 different locations across the city.

Representative extracts from two of the photoessays follow below.

By the 1930s St Vincent Crescent had begun to deteriorate.

The encroachment of further industrial and commercial development caused many of the middle-class families to move away, resulting in houses being let out as ‘rooms’ often by slum landlords leading to overcrowding. By the 1950s the fabric of the buildings was so poor that demolition was considered. By the mid1960s however, interest in restoring these properties was developing, and with the growth of the conservation movement in the 1970s the area’s rehabilitation into a desirable residential environment commenced.

“The new street was the first crescent erected in Glasgow subdivided into flats rather than individual houses.”

The Jamaica Street Colosseum The Broomielaw at Jamaica Street was used as a dock to unload tobacco and sugar from the West Indies landed at the down-river ports of Greenock and Port Glasgow. Warehouses sprang up to store the cargos prior to their distribution further afield. The warehouses lining the west side of Jamaica Street included a range of iron framed buildings with continuous balustrades at numbers 60–74. While in the occupation of Walter Wilson & Co, all three blocks were collectively known as the ‘Grand Colosseum Warehouse’.

Equally interesting as the Colosseum building is the life of its owner Walter Wilson. Originally a hatmaker from the Gorbals, Wilson was an innovative entrepreneur. An early adopter of newspaper advertising, he was also one of the first people in the city to screen moving pictures in his store, staging a show at the Colosseum as early as 1896. Before long he could boast stores in London, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna.

Wilson never forgot his humble upbringing and was happy to share his good fortune with his fellow Glaswegians, regularly donating large sums to help feed and clothe the city’s orphans, and other less fortunate children.

Following his death in 1917, the Jamaica Street emporium was bought over by a succession of retail companies before closing finally in 1957. The building lay derelict until it was demolished in 1994. In 2003, the 320-room Jury’s Hotel, the largest hotel in Scotland, was constructed on the site.

St Vincent Crescent In 1849, the Stobcross Estate Company began speculative building of a new suburb on land just west of the industrialised districts of Anderston and Finnieston. The intention of the developers was to provide a quality environment to challenge that of the nearby terraces on Woodlands Hill.

A significant difference was that the new street was the first crescent erected in Glasgow subdivided into flats rather than individual houses. Comprising a mix of main-door and common-stair flats the main street, Stobcross Crescent (later renamed St Vincent Crescent), follows a serpentine

line for almost 0.8km and was faced by pleasure gardens to augment its southern prospect across the Clyde. Plans to extend the development were undermined in 1884 by the intrusion of railways and light industry on adjacent land that heralded a decline in the fortunes of the suburb as a prime residential location.

Part of the original pleasure gardens remains in two bowling clubs along the south side of the crescent. However, ironically, given the origins of the suburb, these are under pressure from modern-day speculative builders.

Glasgow Then and Now is a contribution to the collective urban memory of an ever-changing city. I hope this collection of photo-essays will stir memories in those familiar with the city and stimulate others to explore a fascinating urban environment.

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Autumn 2023

The history behind Orkney’s vote to ‘join Norway’ Mathew Nicolson, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh

In July, Orkney Islands Council voted on a motion to begin exploring options of “greater subsidiarity and autonomy,” potentially looking beyond the UK and Scottish borders to build “Nordic connections.” This follows a similar motion passed in the neighbouring Shetland Islands in 2020.

The council’s decision made national and international headlines centred on the possibility that the island group, located about ten miles from the north coast of Scotland, may seek to become a Norwegian territory. It also joins a long history of attempts by activists and local politicians to use this distinct identity to draw attention to grievances with central government.

In August 1967, Orkney’s largest settlements of Kirkwall and Stromness awoke to a poster campaign calling for Orkney to return ‘Back to Denmark’. The campaign produced widespread news coverage, making headlines in Edinburgh, London, Denmark and even as far away as Singapore.

The immediate trigger was the government’s policy of centralising police forces and water boards into regional bodies, abolishing Orkney’s local institutions. It was feared that Orkney’s local government would soon follow. There were also grievances concerning the expensive cost of transport and the government’s inadequate response to a shipping strike the previous year.

to fund the replacement of its ageing inter-island ferries or secure adequate ferry fare subsidies. There is also anger at the broader trend of centralisation that followed the reestablishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Invoking the possibility of constitutional change, especially when this draws on the islands’ Norse heritage, is a proven strategy for gaining media and political attention. External actors are often willing to make use of eye-grabbing headlines or gain additional ammunition for national constitutional quarrels.

So is this simply a PR stunt hatched by a council seeking additional funds at a time of increasing crisis within the UK’s public services? Not entirely.

“Historical ties to Scandinavia were used to highlight a thoroughly modern political concern.”

Kirkwall councillor Edwin Eunson observed that “nothing much happened at all” while they made “polite protests,” but “the minute the suggestion of secession to Denmark was raised there was a rush of interest from newspapers, radio and television.” Meanwhile, The Orcadian, Orkney’s sole newspaper, declared “it was all a joke” that had taken the rest of Britain “for a ride” – before adding: “but it has its serious side.”

Orkney’s Nordic ties were invoked again in 1986. Amid a campaign against a proposed expansion to Dounreay nuclear power station in Caithness, activists from Orkney and Shetland drew up the Declaration of Wyre. Addressed to the kings of Norway and Denmark, the declaration called on them to “consult on our constitutional status” and to “inquire into the legality in international law of siting a nuclear processing plant… in an area of unresolved constitutional status.” Once again, historical ties to Scandinavia were used to highlight a contemporary and thoroughly modern political concern.

As in 1967 and 1986, Orkney Islands Council’s motion to explore greater autonomy and Nordic connections is centred on current political issues. The council is frustrated at failures to reach an agreement with the Scottish Government

There is a real history of pro-autonomy sentiment to draw upon, articulated to its greatest extent in the 1980s by the now defunct Orkney Movement.

Most Orcadians (and Shetlanders) would endorse the principle of decentralisation. But more radical visions for autonomy have never gained demonstrable majority support.

Orkney’s councillors are likely entirely sincere in their desire for decentralisation, if perhaps not to the extent of joining Norway or becoming a fully autonomous territory. However, neither Orkney nor Shetland’s autonomy motions passed unanimously.

Like any other community, there are political differences which can sometimes be overlooked from outside perspectives.

It should also be noted that this decision was not taken with any electoral mandate from the Orcadian people. The topic of constitutional change was not widely discussed in last year’s council elections.

Nor is there any active grassroots campaign for autonomy in either Orkney or Shetland, despite several failed attempts to generate momentum in recent years. In contrast to the 1980s, when the Orkney Movement and its Shetland counterpart pressured the councils into taking further action on autonomy, there is currently no such popular push for constitutional change today.

Orkney is not going to become a Norwegian territory and significant constitutional change is unlikely to appear in the near future. However, dissatisfaction with central government and fears of centralisation have been an ongoing theme in Orkney’s recent history, helping to fuel ongoing interest in autonomy.

As long as this remains the case, local activists and politicians will continue to use their islands’ distinct heritages in creative ways to make their voices heard.

Marwick Head, Orkney Mainland. © theasis from iStock.

38 Autumn 2023

Walking the lines on Middle Eastern trails Dr Olivia Mason, Research Associate in Geography, Newcastle University

The past 20 years have seen an expansion of walking trails across the Middle East. These trails weave lines that follow physical features of the land, such as canyons or mountain ridges; follow the material remains of ancient routes; and follow lines not clearly visible on the ground – accounts from religious texts or travel narratives. Many of those who walk these trails do so primarily for leisure, yet to understand these trails as simply tourist sites is to ignore the important ways they can highlight histories of the region and the politics that surrounds movement in the past and present.

I first walked on the Lebanon Mountain Trail (LMT) in the summer of 2017. The cool mountain breeze carried me and three friends along the spine of Lebanon’s mountain ridge. Our first night was spent in a family homestay where we were told how the LMT provided crucial income for rural communities and that this family helped to maintain a section of the trail. The connections between Lebanese people and the trail extends beyond its borders, as emphasised in a speech by the founder of the LMT: “It belongs to every Lebanese and gives us a sense of pride and hope… it gives the Lebanese people, wherever they are, the chance to enjoy nature, to bring their children and to remember where they came from.” Walkers told me the importance of the trail in connecting Lebanese diasporas and Lebanese from across political divides. Trails create connections between communities and places.

In the spring of 2017, I joined the first thru-hike of the Jordan Trail (JT), a continuous walk that took me and my fellow walkers from the green forests of the north, through the Dead Sea canyons, to the rocky deserts of southern Jordan. We walked on the remnants of Roman, Nabatean, and Ottoman roads and passed sites described in religious texts.

Central to the JT are the different histories of movement that comprise it, including migratory routes taken by Bedouins in the past and present. Jordanians told me how the process of walking took them to parts of Jordan they had never travelled to before, allowing them to consider its history, and meet and share stories with communities across Jordan.

In the autumn of 2015, I walked along a rocky canyon in Palestine to the hillside monastery of Mar Saba. While our walk was beautiful, the settler-colonial infrastructure of Israeli settlements loomed over us. It is precisely this domination of Israeli infrastructure that is central to the Palestine Heritage Trail (PHT) which states on its website that it is “more than just a hiking trail… [it] not only invite[s] hikers to experience nature but also to create awareness… about Palestinian

identity, history, and ways of living.” The PHT is formed from a long history of projects in the West Bank that have used walking to tell alternative narratives, including the Nativity Trail and the Masar Ibrahim Al-Khalil.

The Sinai Trail (ST) in Egypt is a means to centre nomadic cultures and identities. It is a 100% Bedouin-run community project involving eight Bedouin communities who each manage different sections of the trail according to tribal borders. In recent years, the ST has also started womenonly hikes led by Bedouin women. In these trips, women share their knowledge of the area, including plants they use for cooking and medicinal purposes, and their histories of moving through the land. Walking can highlight differential mobilities and the cultures associated with these mobilities.

In these four stories of trails, different narratives, mobilities and connections emerge. The stories trails tell are often in relation to wider politics in the region. On the PHT and ST, walking is a means of raising awareness about Palestinian and Bedouin cultures and traditions. On the JT and LMT, walking can reinforce national identities and connections with place. Trails always tell stories and these stories always matter.

Walking creates stories about place that are always multiple and contested. While these trails can be followed as a series of GPS coordinates on a screen, the process of walking creates multiple relationships with place. Opportunities also arise to challenge the knowledge required to navigate terrain.

When we cannot figure out exactly the route on the ground, it is the Bedouin guide with us who knows the way but also where to find phone signal.

The politics of who can and cannot move are also crucial within trail stories. For many Palestinian Lebanese or Jordanian, the Israeli border restrictions mean it is not possible to walk the PHT. The proximity of the LMT and JT to the Palestine–Israel border makes this inaccess more pertinent. As night falls on parts of the JT you can watch the lights of Palestinian cities slowly turn out. The politics of movement emerge too when a Bedouin we meet on the trail laughs at us walking the JT ‘for fun’, as he walks a similar route to move his sheep. Other times, people offer us lifts, presuming we are only walking as we do not have a car. Who can hike on these trails is often dependent on available leisure time and money. To walk for leisure is not a luxury afforded to all.

“Trails always tell stories and these stories always matter.”

The amazing lakes of Aaqoura, Lebanon. © Mario Mrad from Unsplash.

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Autumn 2023

Lady Evelyn Cobbold: a pilgrimage to Mecca Mark Evans FRSGS, Executive Director, Outward Bound Oman

I had forgotten to take into account the distinct difference in weather between east and west coast Scotland. A morning that had dawned full of blue sky and sunshine in Beauly rapidly turned grey as I headed west over the watershed on the road to Lochcarron. By the time I’d reached Achnasheen the wipers were on full, and as I descended the road into Glen Carron the rain had set in for the day, ensuring my 12mile walk was going to be a damp one. I ignored the urge to head back and wait for a better day, and set off into the hills in search of a memory of an extraordinary woman; someone who, like me, loved both the mountains of Scotland and the deserts of Arabia.

Born in 1867 in Edinburgh, Lady Evelyn Cobbold was the eldest daughter of the explorer and politician Charles Adolphus Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore. Every winter Murray took his family to North Africa where Evelyn and her five siblings were immersed in the world of Islam.

“I learnt to speak Arabic and my delight was to escape my governess and visit the Mosques… unconsciously I was a little Moslem at heart…

Some years went by and I happened to be in Rome staying with some Italian friends when my host asked me if I would like to visit the Pope. Of course I was thrilled… When His Holiness addressed me, asking if I was a Catholic, I was taken aback and then replied that I was a Moslem. What possessed me I don’t pretend to know.”

In 1933, she became possibly the first British woman to accomplish this monumental feat, breaking barriers and challenging societal expectations. Her pilgrimage was a significant milestone in the history of women’s rights and interfaith understanding, and she considered Islam the religion “most calculated to solve the world’s many perplexing problems, and to bring to humanity peace and happiness.”

Through her diary, and letters to family, Cobbold chronicled her extraordinary journey in her book Pilgrimage to Mecca, first published in 1934 (and reprinted in 2009). In this memoir, she detailed her spiritual transformation, the challenges she faced, and the awe-inspiring sights she encountered during her pilgrimage. Her eloquent prose and heartfelt accounts provided readers with a unique perspective on Islam and the Hajj, shedding light on a sacred practice that was shrouded in mystery and misconceptions at the time.

“She detailed the aweinspiring sights she encountered during her pilgrimage.”

Lady Evelyn received an excellent education, which was uncommon for women of her time. She had a keen interest in travel and exploration, and her wanderlust led her to embark on numerous journeys around the world. These travels broadened her horizons and fuelled her curiosity about different cultures and religions. Inspired by her encounters with Muslim communities during her travels in North Africa and the Middle East, she would go on to become the first British woman to convert to Islam. This decision was met with astonishment and bewilderment from her peers and the public. However, she remained steadfast in her beliefs and embraced her newfound faith with unwavering determination. The conversion to Islam was not merely a symbolic gesture; it was a transformative experience that led her to undertake the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Cobbold was in her 60s when she ‘confided her desire to visit the Sacred Cities’ to Saudi Arabian Minister in London Hafiz Wahba. He wrote to King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, asking his permission, but before he’d received a reply she had set off, writing first to explorer Harry St John (Abdullah) Philby, whom she had never met, inviting herself to stay with him in Jeddah. There she waited until permission came through for her to carry out her pilgrimage.

Her much-acclaimed book is one of the first known accounts of Hajj which fulfilled all her hopes.

“I am lost to my surroundings because of the wonder of it… I had never imagined anything so stupendous.”

Away from Arabia she was a keen and talented stag hunter and angler, spending much time in her beloved Scotland where she eventually died in January 1963 during a particularly cold winter. She was buried on an isolated hillside on her Glencarron estate as a lone piper played a lament, and an imam who had travelled from London read a verse from the Holy Quran.

Three very wet hours after leaving my car parked down in the valley, the path turned a corner and I finally spotted what I had been looking for. On the top of a small hill sat two simple gravestones, one of which read ‘Lady Evelyn Cobbold 1867–1963. Daughter of Earl of Dunmore, Widow of John Dupuis Cobbold’. In Arabic script below it is written Zainab, the name of the prophet Mohammed’s daughter, and the name Cobbold took when she converted. A small set of prayer beads had been placed at the foot of the grave; I had seen no one all day but was far from the only person to pay homage to an individual who had led an extraordinary life.

FURTHER READING

Pilgrimage to Mecca by Evelyn Cobbold

40 Autumn 2023

An interview with RSGS member Margaret Paterson FRSGS Holly McNair, RSGS Communications Officer

Where are you from originally?

What does geography mean to you?

I have lived in Perth since the 60s, but was born in Fife, then I went to Fairlie in North Ayrshire, and my father was the head gardener at Kelburn Castle. The family moved this direction and I was working in the Royal Bank at the time, so I got a transfer to Perth. I left the bank when I had kids, but once my daughter was five I got a job in a shop. I really enjoyed it because I really liked meeting people, and there was a chap from the college who used to come in to get cakes for his mum at lunchtime, and he always said, “Margie, you have to go to college, you have to go to college.” So eventually I got so fed up listening to him say ‘you need to go to college’ that I did the National Certificate in Business and then I moved on to HNC, HND and Computing. After that I was offered some part-time lecturing with the NC courses, so I ended up getting a job at the college and that was where I was for the next 20 odd years until I retired.

If I go back to when I was small, we had an aunt that used to give us a Christmas present of the National Geographic. So there were always National Geographics in the house, and at that time you used to get maps in them. I was always really interested in geography, particularly physical geography.

What would you pass on to future generations?

I think to appreciate what you’ve got and what you can do, and try and get out there and see what there is. I think it changes your outlook on things when you travel. When I went to Oman, we had foreign students from different countries and it made me appreciate just everybody. And Oman is such a melting pot, with people from all over the world of different nationalities. I remember once when we were doing something, I couldn’t understand why they were doing it and said to somebody, “would you not just use common sense?”

And whoever I was speaking to said, “yes, but Margaret, common sense means something different to different people.” And it’s true; we’re all different in what we think is the common-sense thing to do, and that is something that travelling taught me.

“After dinner we’d go to the beach and have a long walk along the beach, and it was just beautiful.”

How did that take you to Oman?

I was seconded. Perth College had an arrangement with Muscat College. So every year, there were a couple of staff that went out, to act as a coordinator between Muscat and Perth, with the assessments they were doing.

How did you find it?

It was an English-speaking college, so most of the students understood English or had done English as a foreign language course before they came on the courses, so there wasn’t a barrier and the students were lovely. I never felt as if I wasn’t one of them; everybody made you feel really welcome.

Did you manage to travel about Oman quite a bit?

Yes, once I got used to the fact that weekends were Thursday and Friday. After dinner we’d go to the beach and have a long walk along the beach, and it was just beautiful. It was about 45 degrees from June to September, but of course, everything’s air conditioned. However, I felt that when it was that hot, it didn’t feel that much hotter than it did at 30 something. It was lovely not having a winter; the coldest it would get would be about 28. We took four-wheel-drive type trips down the coast. Because we were in that part of the world, we went to Dubai, and I also went to the Maldives and Thailand, which were beautiful.

How did you get involved in volunteering for RSGS? I retired in 2006, and one day in the Perthshire Advertiser I saw that you were looking for volunteers. So I came along, and I started volunteering in the Fair Maid’s House. I thoroughly enjoyed it, lots of lovely people came in from all over the world, so you’d have these great conversations with them. Then when the season finished I started doing stuff in the office.

What do you think RSGS does well?

I think it does lots of things well. I think that anybody that’s interested in anything can get something out of it. When people come into the Fair Maid’s House and you explain all the things that are there and they see everything that we’re doing, they’re so animated about it. I think they do great things with the talks and I enjoy them all.

© Anfal Shamsudeen from Unsplash.

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Autumn 2023

A daunder with the geographer in Yemen Alan Doherty FRSGS, Past President, Scottish Association of Geography Teachers

My wife, Liz, claims that her holidays always seem to turn into geography fieldtrips. Well, she did marry a geographer!

So it was that on the occasion of our 25th wedding anniversary, back in 1995, we found ourselves planning an excursion to Yemen. I would love to say that we had been inspired by the travels of Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, but alas it was the eternal search for additional resources for the river basin management section of the Scottish Higher Geography exam, coupled with a heavy dose of curiosity and maybe an eye-catching advert in a Sunday newspaper, which brought us to the shores of Arabia Felix.

Sana’a revealed a lot. Tall, elegant townhouses greeted us at every turn. The old city resembled an Arabic San Gimignano, with numerous four, five or even six-storey towers. The top floor is always the reception area (mafradsh), above the sleeping floor(s), which in turn sit above the kitchen area, with the windowless animal quarters on the ground floor. The height of these townhouses depended on the size of the family and their wealth. Some of the mudbrick and wood houses were over 200 years old. This vernacular style was evidently much older still.

Hidden behind these elegant facades, the communal gardens were difficult to gain access to, but well worth the effort involved.

Abject poverty ruled in the numerous squatter settlements we observed. It was not an easy journey. A visit to the old ruined dam at Ma’rib with its 800BC irrigation channels cheered me up. The $75 million new dam further up the Wadi Adhana had me wondering though. There was no distribution system at all. The dam collects spring water and then holds it back, allowing the seepage to recharge the aquifer. The public water system consisted of deep well pumps which ran continuously during daylight hours. Water was not being treated as a scarce resource. I’ll bet it is now.

The poverty in the Mashriq is due to failure of governance.

Ancient Ma’rib was bombed during the civil war of 1994. The town was subsequently evacuated and was then occupied on the fringes by Berbers. The modern Ma’rib is a frontier oil/gas town, a boom town by Yemeni standards, but so ordinary compared with the medieval architectural beauty of Jiblah and Al Hajjarah. The latest civil war started in 2014 and stutters on today. The conflict has displaced more than four million people and brought untold misery and poverty to millions more. There are hopes that the present negotiations in Saudi Arabia will bear fruit. The hospitable and gregarious people of the land of frankincense and myrrh certainly deserve better.

“Cities, towns and hilltop villages unfurled before us, each with their own distinctive character.”

The following morning, we awoke to the soundwave of the adhān. The call to prayer starts on the western side of the basin in which Sana’a sits, and then travels according to the aspect of the mosques. Black and white threads have to be distinguishable in the dawn light before the imam calls. The ephemeral Wadi Sa’ila river cuts through the city, but seemed to be permanently dry as it was serving as a thoroughfare. The springs of the Haddah mountains were formerly channelled into subterranean channels called qanats which served Sana’a as late as 1973. Since then the entire city water supply has been via deep (130m) wells. The aquifer is recharged by dams of various sizes. This system did not appear to be sustainable, as the wells were getting deeper and deeper.

The countryside revealed even more. Irrigated fields on the basin floor gave way to dry farming methods on the higher slopes, with the extravagant terraces on Naqīl Sumārah a real showstopper. We drove past fields of citrus fruit, tomatoes, vegetables, vines and qat. Qat is the drug of choice in Yemen, much to the disapproval of neighbouring countries where it is illegal. The leaves are chewed or drunk as an infusion throughout the country. The plain of Ma’bar had fertile volcanic soil and was the only place where we saw large-scale, mechanised agriculture. The roads were up to Tour de France standard. Aid from China, I was informed.

We travelled around as much of Northern Yemen as the security situation would allow. Ta’izz, Yarim, Ibb, Jiblah, Zabid, Hodeidah, Manakha, Harrah and back to Sana’a.

Cities, towns and hilltop villages unfurled before us, each with their own distinctive character. People and place in action.

Peripheral squatter settlements adorned with satellite dishes in Sana’a suggested housing pressures rather than absolute poverty. There were no satellite dishes outside of the capital.

42 Autumn 2023

The Moderator’s homily Right Reverend Sally Foster-Fulton, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

In July, members of the Royal Family, religious and political leaders, and representatives of public sector and civic society, including RSGS, attended a Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication for King Charles III at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. Along with some beautiful music performed by Nicola Benedetti, Joy Dunlop and others, there was a powerful homily given by The Moderator of the General Assembly, reproduced here with permission.

Your Majesties, look around you. Sisters and brothers, look around you, at this beautiful tapestry of humanity – Scotland.

What we learn when we listen to one another, listen to understand, not just respond, is extraordinary. We gather to commit to and celebrate the common good of the place and people of Scotland. How depleted life would be without the creative imagination that explodes through our diverse customs and cultures, faiths and beliefs; the literature, the poetry, the music, the sacred searching, scientific insight and innovation, the beauty of life unleashed.

downgraded, they are not ‘good to have’s’ but part of the fabric of our being.

Are we on the right track? This ancient text reminds us today that a bold vision like this is a tough and very often thankless task. Calling for love when there is so much fear is not for the faint-hearted. But rejoice, it says, rejoice because it is worth it. Love is worth it.

The psalm we heard read is a song, it’s a poem. Concentrated imagery that speaks to the soul, whispers a truth beyond the words. The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork. This beautiful, formidable, yet fragile planet we call home, was here long before we were. And without words, it worships its God. Tides surge, plants push through the earth and bathe in the sun, luxuriating in it. Birds sing full-throated and animals have languages all their own.

Are we too self-absorbed to hear them? Or have we sadly become too preoccupied to listen?

“We are one global neighbourhood, intricately inter-related and completely co-dependent.”

We are a saga, not a short story, a symphony, not a solo. How narrow our sight, and how monochrome our understanding when we do not embrace the richness of different perspectives. We can’t see round ourselves by ourselves, but need other human beings if we are to be what we were created to be; not just humans being, but humans becoming.

The text we heard from the gospel of Matthew is from the ‘Beatitudes’ or ‘sayings of extreme blessing’. The subtleties and nuance in the original language is hidden and makes it very difficult for us to understand. But another way to see this today is Jesus setting out his stall, announcing his manifesto.

‘Blessed are’ can mean ‘this is what my vision looks like’, this is what I will stand for, work for, offer my life for; this is what ‘my kingdom coming’ looks like in real time. Another translation is ‘you’re on the right track if…’

Blessed are we, on the right track are we when we understand that the heavens and the Earth are not commodities or possessions. We are part of it and called to cherish and protect it. Blessed are we, on the right track are we when we understand that our children do not inherit this Earth from us; we have borrowed it from them. And it is our duty to return it still singing and surging and bathing, not baking to a crisp.

Your Majesties, you have made it part of your mission to speak alongside creation; advocating for it. As we present the honours of Scotland to you, we commit ourselves to walking that journey with you. We are all a small part of something so much bigger – this beautiful, sacred creation and everyone and everything in it.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

The ‘poor in spirit’ – they are not weak or poor, the meek aren’t doormats; no, they are the brave ones among us with a deep awareness that no one alone has all the answers. The ones of us who call us together to search for answers that elude us when we search from our one limited perspective: we need them more than ever today. And ‘we’re on the right track if’ our people are brave enough, bold enough, empowered and hopeful enough to listen and learn from, and cherish, each other. To choose collaboration and trust over a fear-filled circling of our wagons.

Sisters and brothers, look around you. We are one global neighbourhood, intricately inter-related and completely co-dependent, woven together, like a tartan. My kingdomcoming in real time comforts those who mourn; the death of someone, of course, but also the life snatched from them by war, oppression, climate chaos, systemic poverty that pulls them down like a whirlpool.

There is no them and us, only us; and when one human being suffers, we all suffer. My kingdom coming means we comfort each other, welcome each other, cherish every human life. Mercy and peace are not ideals to be domesticated or St Giles’ Cathedral. © K Mitch Hodge from Unsplash.

The

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An interview with Dr Bertrand Piccard FRSGS Sue Stockdale, Access to Inspiration

Having done so many adventurous things in your life, how did you then move into focusing on helping us all to manage the planet in a different way?

Solar Impulse was really a symbolic project. It was not to show what we can do with solar aeroplanes, because it was an aeroplane with a 72-metre wingspan; it was bigger than a jumbo jet, lighter than a car, a single seater. It needed 30 people to be able to fly it, but only in good weather. So of course, it’s not a really good way to promote clean aviation.

But I noticed that it was a really good way to promote the solutions that can make our world much cleaner and much more efficient.

Solar Impulse, for me, was really a symbol of the gap existing between all the current technologies available and the world of the past in which we’re still living. Just imagine: I was flying with no fuel, with no noise, no pollution, and I could fly for as long as I wanted. And I was above the world that still uses thermal engines which are wasting 80% of the fuel you put in the tank. A world with badly-insulated houses, inefficient heating, cooling and lighting systems, old industrial processes, dirty ways to use fossil energies.

Well, that was such a gap! It was unbelievable. And we don’t understand that we live in the world of the past, because it’s like a fish that’s in the water and doesn’t know he’s wet. We don’t notice how outdated and inefficient our world is.

A more recent initiative that you have been involved in is Prêt à Voter. Is that correct?

Yes, Prêt à Voter, ready to vote. This is an action that we have run in France. We’re running it now in Switzerland and we are ready to do it a bit everywhere. It [involves] legislative recommendations in order to push some solutions that are blocked by old legal frameworks. There are so many things you can do much better, much more cleanly, much more efficiently. But the law is not ready for that because the legal framework is as outdated as the old energies that we are still using. So we produce these

recommendations that we bring to the parliamentarians, to the senators, to the heads of state and so on… and show them all the success stories that could be globalised and that could be used in their city.

How do you engage people to trust in the unknown, to step out of their comfort zone and to be uncomfortable enough to engage in some of technologies that are part of those solution?

You have to give an incentive to people to change. If you see somebody who is afraid of changing, you have to show him that he has inside himself all the tools, all the resources, all the potentials, that can help him to do something differently.

We have to show him that it’s better to do it in another way.

There are many conversations that I have with leaders on very similar subjects about how difficult and yet how rewarding it is to step out of one’s comfort zone.

But you know, there’s something [else] important to say, which is that we are not big heroes doing exploration and putting ourselves above other people. We have to show to everyone that they can do the same that we have done. If we have a bit of curiosity, if we have a bit of perseverance, if we agree also to take the risk of failing, this is very important.

And sometimes, I meet explorers who say, oh, we should not speak about our emotions, we should not speak about our fears, we have to show that we are much more courageous than everybody else. And I think it’s wrong. I think it’s absolutely wrong. We have to show our doubts, we have to show our problems, we have to show our failures, and tell people, “We’re just like you, but we take that risk. We take the risk to step out of what we know, because we think it makes life much more interesting.”

“It’s like a fish that’s in the water and doesn’t know he’s wet.”

This article was extracted from a podcast interview with Bertrand Piccard hosted by Sue Stockdale. Listen to the full interview, and others in the series, on the Access to Inspiration website (accesstoinspiration.org), or download from the usual platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc).

• Mike Robinson: Collaborating for climate solutions • Jojo Mehta: Making change through policy and law • Iain Stewart: Empowering communities to adapt to climate change • Roisin Hyde: Reducing the environmental impact of concrete • Professor Dame Anne Glover: The importance of communication in science • Bertrand Piccard: Combining science and adventure to tackle climate challenges Solar Impulse test flight over Abu Dhabi. © Solar Impulse

Bertrand Piccard. © Ackermann-Rezo

44 Autumn 2023

Freya Stark, RSGS Mungo Park Medallist 1935 Jo Woolf FRSGS, RSGS Writer-in-Residence

“Surely, of all the wonders of the world, the horizon is the greatest.”

Freya Stark was only four years old when she ran away from home. With careful forethought, she packed a mackintosh, a toothbrush and a couple of pennies before setting off in the direction of Plymouth. Luckily, the postman was walking up to her family’s Devonshire home at that moment, and after politely taking stock of her supplies he persuaded her that she needed more cash. Freya reluctantly agreed, and was returned to her parents; but her wanderlust never went away.

The daughter of two independent-minded artists who moved home almost as often as they changed their canvas, Freya grew up with a wide-eyed awareness of the world and a lifelong hunger to learn more. For her, an itinerant lifestyle was perhaps the only path she ever saw, but she was determined to experience the world on her own terms. Her uncompromising attitude was perhaps inherited from her father, whose free-thinking nature made no judgements and saw only truth:

She saw more than her share of the Great War, and when hostilities broke out again in 1940 she was drafted into the Middle East by Britain’s Ministry of Information, trusted with spreading Allied propaganda; needless to say, she did it extremely well.

Freya’s ultimate joy was to travel alone, accompanied only by locally hired porters, into the uncharted territory represented by blank spaces on a map. She had a natural charm which she used throughout her life to her advantage, turning wouldbe aggressors into anxiously caring hosts with her smilingly persuasive manner; but her apparent vulnerability hid a strong will and an unshakeable instinct for survival. In 1941 she drove her Austin ‘Standard Eight’ 1,200 miles from Cairo to Baghdad via Jerusalem, stopping overnight in villages and eventually pulling up at an RAF station where the servicemen regarded her in open-mouthed wonder: unknown to Freya, a visiting colonel had just sent a telegraph to request an armoured car.

“She learned Arabic and immersed herself in the culture of the desert lands.”

“I have never known anyone with less ‘class-consciousness’... he never thought of people except as individuals, and had the same manner exactly towards all.”

What was it that first led Freya’s footsteps towards the Middle East?

Perhaps it was her childhood passion for Sinbad the Sailor, or the powerful spell cast by One Thousand and One Arabian Nights; whatever it was, she learned Arabic and immersed herself in the culture of the desert lands. In 1927 she travelled to Damascus, and within minutes of leaving civilisation Dame Freya Stark; portrait by Herbert Arnould Olivier (1923). Public behind, she was captivated: domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

“Camels appeared on our left hand: first a few here and there, then more and more, till the whole herd came browsing along, five hundred or more... rolling gently over the landscape like a brown wave just a little browner than the desert that carried it. Their huge legs rose up all around me like columns... I stood in a kind of ecstasy among them. I never imagined that my first sight of the desert would come with such a shock of beauty and enslave me right away.”

Exploration, in the 1920s and 30s, was a fashionable indulgence that was largely the preserve of the rich. What made Freya so shockingly different from her peers was her disregard of class. She met everyone as an equal, a fellow human being worthy of respect and interest; she shared their food, slept under their roofs, heard their stories and offered them kindness. In return, she received friendship and even protection.

It is likely that Freya was a natural healer, because when she worked as a wartime nurse in Italy she discovered that her ‘magnetic hand’ could relieve the pain of wounded soldiers.

If danger registered in Freya’s consciousness, she did not let it trouble her plans. Flying in the face of all sensible advice, she and a female friend trekked into the desert to visit the Bedouin Shammar tribe, who had once held the explorer Gertrude Bell captive. They were received like old friends, and Freya was in her element:

“We have a big tent to ourselves with white mattresses and purple cushions spread in it, and all the tents of the Sheikh’s family and slaves spread around, with horses, donkeys, camels, and small foals and children all out enjoying the short delicious season. I can’t tell you what a scene of peace and loveliness it is: the women sit out with their tents open on the sunny or shady side according to the time of day, and show us their old barbaric jewels and magic beads.”

Freya’s other great gift was her prose. In her lifetime she became a celebrated travel writer, beguiling her readers with titles such as Perseus in the Wind and A Winter in Arabia. Her marriage to the distinguished Orientalist Stewart Perowne was short-lived and perhaps ill-advised, and she had no children; but she counted some of the world’s great leaders among her friends, and even in her eighties she had not lost the appetite for travel. She wrote that everything in life was an adventure – even death itself – and it isn’t hard to see why people loved her.

Visiting the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1936, Freya Stark spoke of her journey through the Valleys of the Assassins, whose name comes from hashishin, the hemp which was traditionally grown there.

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“We left Kazvin on a fine May morning to climb over the long ridge that divided us from the hidden world of the Elburz. The Persian flower-carpet lay on the ground – scabious and white convolvulus, vetches, borage, periwinkles and forget-me-nots, cornflowers and poppies in the patches of cornland, lilies and delphiniums and an infinite variety of small and brilliant blossoms in the waste stretches now glowing in their swift and transitory spring... It would be difficult, I think, to find a greater variety of flora anywhere in the world, in so small a compass of the earth’s surface.”

She also gave a glimpse of the immediate and widespread impact that her charm could have on a Persian community:

“She had a natural charm which she used throughout her life to her advantage.”

“...in a short time I seemed to have most of the notables of the city dropping in to my hotel with gossip, advice and quotations from the poets. The idea of a pilgrimage to the citadel of the Old Man [Hasan-i-Sabbah] whose history is still remembered in his own country, was so popular that the military and police, who were not enthusiastic about my project, were silenced simply by the strength of public opinion.”

In 1935 Freya Stark was awarded the Mungo Park Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society “for her explorations in northern Persia.” © Akua Sencherey from Unsplash.

FURTHER READING

Freya Stark (1937) The Valleys of the Assassins to the Caspian Sea (Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol 53 No 3) Over the Rim of the World: Selected Letters of Freya Stark by Caroline Moorhead Baghdad Sketches by Freya Stark Traveller’s Prelude by Freya Stark

Alamut valley, Valleys of the Assassins, Iran. © suc from iStock.

BOOK CLUB

46 Autumn 2023

Wild History

Bikepacking Scotland

Journeys into Lost Scotland

20 Multi-Day Cycling Adventures Off the Beaten Track

You scramble up over the dunes of an isolated beach. You climb to the summit of a lonely hill.

You pick your way through the eerie hush of a forest. And then you find them. The traces of the past. Perhaps they are marked by a tiny symbol on your map, perhaps not. There are no plaques to explain their fading presence, nothing to account for what they once were, who made them, lived in them or abandoned them. Now they are merged with the landscape. They are being reclaimed by nature. They are wild history.

Lords of the Desert Britain’s Struggle with America to Dominate the Middle East James Barr (Simon & Schuster UK, July 2019) Using newly declassified records and longforgotten memoirs, including the diaries of a key British spy, James tears up the conventional interpretation of the post-WWII era in the Middle East, vividly portraying the tensions between London and Washington, and shedding an uncompromising light on the murkier activities of a generation of American and British diehards in the region, from the battle of El Alamein in 1942 to Britain’s abandonment of Aden in 1967.

ends Reader Offer – 40% discount Offer 31st Dec 2023

Wounded Tigris A River Journey through the Cradle of Civilisation

only

£12

(RRP £20)

Leon McCarron (Corsair, April 2023) The river Tigris has been the lifeblood of ancient Mesopotamia and modern Iraq, but geopolitics and climate change have left the birthplace of civilisation at risk of becoming uninhabitable. In 2021, adventurer Leon and his small team travelled by boat along the full length of the river, from the source, where Assyrian kings had their images carved into stone, through the Turkish mountains, across north-east Syria and into the heart of Iraq. They met fishermen and farmers, artists, activists and archaeologists, and relied on the generosity of strangers to reach the Persian Gulf. Leon is speaking to RSGS Inspiring People audiences in October 2023.

Readers of The Geographer can buy Wounded Tigris in hardback for only £12.00 (RRP £20.00) plus p&p (from £3.10).

To order, please contact hukdcustomerservice@hachette.co.uk, or phone 01235 759555 Monday to Friday 9am–5pm, and quote discount code ‘THWT23’ and ISBN ‘9781472156235’, along with your delivery address.

RSGS: a better way to see the world Phone 01738 455050 or visit www.rsgs.org to join the RSGS. Lord John Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Perth, PH1 5LU Charity SC015599

Markus Stitz (Vertebrate Publishing, May 2023) This guidebook features routes of different lengths, which are mostly accessible by public transport. From the Ayrshire Alps, Dumfries & Galloway and the Borders, to his own take on the North Coast 500, Markus covers Perthshire’s drove roads and the grand architecture of the Central Belt, ferry-hopping adventures around Islay, Jura and Mull, and an epic tour of the Cairngorms National Park. Each route includes all the information needed to help plan a ride, with points of interest along the route, food recommendations and accommodation options, stunning photography and overview mapping. Markus is speaking to RSGS Inspiring People audiences in September 2023.

The Future of Geography How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World Tim Marshall (Elliott & Thompson, April 2023) Space is already central to communication, economics, military strategy and international relations on Earth. Now, it is the latest arena for human exploration, exploitation and possibly conquest. We’re heading up and out, and we’re taking our power struggles with us. From physical territory and resources to satellites, weaponry and strategic choke points, geopolitics is as important in the skies above us as it is down below. If you’ve ever wondered if humans are going back to the Moon, who will benefit from exploration or what space wars might look like, the answers are here.

Five Times Faster Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change Simon Sharpe (Cambridge University Press, April 2023) As Greenland melts, Australia burns, and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, we think we know who the villains are: oil companies, consumerism, weak political leaders. But what if the real blocks to progress are the ideas and institutions that are supposed to be helping us? In our fight to avoid dangerous climate change, science is pulling its punches, diplomacy is picking the wrong battles, and economics has been fighting for the other side. This provocative and engaging book sets out how we should rethink our strategies and reorganise our efforts so that we can act fast enough to stay safe.

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100% FSC certified using vegetable-based inks in a 100% chemistry-free process.

James Crawford (Birlinn, May 2023)