The Geographer: Copenhagen (Autumn 2009)

The

Geographer Autumn 2009

The newsletter of the

Royal Scottish Geographical Society 1884

In This Edition...

125th

Anniversary of RSGS 2009

•E xtra Talks: Doug Scott & Pen Hadow

“It would be good if our descendants looked back on this challenge we face now as the one that allowed us, as a species, to grow up.”

Prof Wallace Broecker

•O pinions on: Copenhagen from Business, Government, a Senator & a President •C ountry in Focus: Maldives • I nside RSGS: Our First 25 Years •E xpert View & Reader Offer: A World Without Bees •E xpert View: Kyoto 2 •E xpert View: Renewables Without the Hot Air plus other news, comments, books...

RSGS – Making Connections between People, Places & the Planet

The

Geographer W

e have now been in our new headquarters for twelve months and almost all of the teething problems have been resolved.

It is worth noting that we hoped that the greater accessibility of Lord John Murray House would help in recruiting more members, and it is pleasing to record that this is proving to be the case with a steady trickle of callers taking out membership. All visitors to our new HQ have expressed themselves delighted at the Society’s new home.

I am pleased, too, that Mike’s initiative for both playground maps and the Perth pavement map is making progress, thanks to excellent support from Harper Collins. We are now looking at the best way of preparing the ‘jigsaw’ of parts. What has been particularly pleasing is that, having arranged for one secondary school to test the project, a further seven schools have asked to be included, without any approach on the Society’s part. Other organisations in Perth are now showing a desire to be involved in the pavement map project too.

The financial situation means that we must do our utmost to increase the Society’s income. To this end, could I please ask you to help promote The Geographer, membership and the talks programme to anyone who might join. Finally, a number of members have commented to me on the friendliness and professionalism of our new staff at headquarters, all of whom are less than one year in post. I am pleased to acknowledge my appreciation to Fiona, Susan and Marie.

Good things are starting to happen in the Society; I ask that you continue to give it your fullest support.

Barrie Brown Chairman

Doug Scott to give 125th anniversary lecture…

28th October 1884 was the official date of the establishment of RSGS. To celebrate our 125th year, world famous mountaineer Doug Scott has agreed to give a talk this 28th October at 7.30pm in Perth Concert Hall. Scott is regarded as one of the world’s leading high altitude and big 1884 wall climbers. He made the first ascent of the th south west face of Everest in 1975 with Dougal Haston, for which the expedition received the Anniversary RSGS’s Livingstone Medal.

125

of RSGS

The talk will be run in conjunction with the 2009 Tibetan charity ROKPA, for whom Doug does a lot of work. Please come along and support us on the night – the funds raised will be split between RSGS and ROKPA.

Admission is £15 for non-members, £12 for concessions, £8 for members, and tickets can be bought direct from Perth Concert Hall box office on 01738 621031.

…and Pen Hadow to celebrate 125 years since first RSGS talk On 4th December 1884, H M Stanley gave the RSGS’s first public talk, about his search for David Livingstone and the opportunities for exploring and trading within Africa. Fittingly, 125 years to the day, explorer Pen Hadow is speaking for the RSGS at an extra talk, to be given on Friday 4th December at 7.00pm in the University of Glasgow’s Sir Charles Wilson Building.

Pen Hadow is one of the world’s most accomplished and inspirational explorers. In 2003 he became the first person to sledge alone from Canada to the Geographic North Pole without any outside help. It took him 3 attempts and 15 years of dedication to achieve his goal. And earlier this year, he was part of the Catlin Arctic Survey team who walked and swam their way to the Pole to record the thickness of polar ice, in order to report back to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

This talk will be run in partnership with the University of Glasgow’s Department of Geographical & Earth Sciences. Once again, RSGS members will benefit from a discount on tickets, and the money raised will support RSGS projects, so please come along and help to make it a success.

Admission is £10 for non-members, £8 for members, £4 for students, £1 for under-18s. Please contact HQ for further details.

RSGS, Lord John Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Perth, PH1 5LU tel: 01738 455050 email: enquiries@rsgs.org www.rsgs.org Charity registered in Scotland no SC015599 The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the RSGS. Masthead picture © Craig Aitchison www.landandlight.co.uk

RSGS – Making Connections between People, Places & the Planet

The

Geographer

1

Autumn 2009

NEWS People • Places • Planet Change to Edinburgh and Glasgow talks – Rosie Swale Pope replaces Aqqaluk Lynge Unfortunately, Aqqaluk Lynge has had to cancel his talks planned for Edinburgh and Glasgow in October, although we are pleased that he is still able to talk for us in Kirkcaldy on Monday 19th October.

We have been fortunate to secure Rosie Swale Pope to speak in his stead in the afternoon in Edinburgh and evening in Glasgow, both on Wednesday 21st October. Rosie is best known for the five year solo journey she made round the world in memory of her husband whom she lost to cancer. Rosie will be talking about her recent book Just a Little Run Around the World.

Talks programme venue changes Some members will have noticed from the recent mailing of talks programme information that it has been necessary to change some of the venues. These are the changes made since printing the Talks Programme that was distributed with the summer edition of The Geographer.

Borders: venue is now Heriot-Watt University, Galashiels, TD1 3HF; except January and 2 February talks at Wynd Theatre, Melrose, TD6 9LD; 23 February talk at Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, EH45 8AD Dunfermline: change to December talk only, now St Andrew’s Erskine Church, Dunfermline, KY12 0BF Edinburgh evening: venue is now Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton St, Edinburgh, EH8 9LE; except October talk at McEwan Hall, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG Helensburgh: venue is now Park Church Halls, Charlotte St, Helensburgh, G84 7QS

World Population to Exceed 9 Billion by 2050 World population is projected to reach 9 billion people by 2050, reveals the 2008 revision of the official United Nations population estimates and projections.

Most of the additional 2.3 billion people will enlarge the population of developing countries, which is projected to rise from the current 5.6 billion to 7.9 billion in 2050, and will be distributed half among the population aged 15-59 and half 60 or over (because the number of children under age 15 in developing countries will decrease).

In contrast, the population of the more developed regions is expected to change minimally, passing from 1.23 billion to 1.28 billion, and would have declined to 1.5 billion were it not for the projected net migration from developing to developed countries.

Scientists discover Amazon river is 11 million years old Researchers at the University of Liverpool have discovered that the Amazon river, and its transcontinental drainage, is around 11 million years old and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago.

The researchers analysed sedimentary material taken from two boreholes near the mouth of the river to calculate the age of the Amazon river and the Amazon deep sea fan.

Prior to this study, the exact age of the Amazon, one of the two largest rivers in the world, was not known. Until recently, the Amazon Fan, a submarine sediment column around 10km thick, had proven difficult to penetrate.

New exploration efforts by Brazilian State Oil Company Petrobas, however, have led to two new boreholes being drilled near the mouth of the Amazon (one 4.5km below sea level) which resulted in new sedimentological and paleontological analysis of samples from the river sediment.

“River sediment records provide a unique insight into the palaeoclimate and geography of the hinterland,” said Jorge Figueiredo from the University’s Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences.

“This new research has large implications for our understanding of South American paleogeography and the evolution of aquatic organisms in Amazonia and on the Atlantic coast. The origin of the Amazon river is a defining moment: a new ecosystem came into being at the same time as the uplifting Andes formed a geographic divide.”

The study was published in the scientific journal, Geology, in July 2009.

NEWS People • Places • Planet National Park inclusion celebrated Perthshire’s campaign for its potentially lucrative inclusion in the Cairngorms National Park has been rubberstamped by the Scottish Government.

Campaigners had called the decision to omit Highland Perthshire from the designated area ‘crazy’, insisting it would provide a beautiful, scenic and entirely natural gateway to the Park.

The hopes and dreams of those fighting for the change were finally realised in August as the modification of the Cairngorms National Park designation order was included in a report published by the Scottish Government.

North Tayside MSP John Swinney has spent years campaigning for Perthshire’s inclusion, beginning when he was a backbencher.

“I am delighted to hear that this report has included the designation order to extend the boundaries of the Cairngorms National Park to include Highland Perthshire,” he said.

Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust Award Scheme Since 2002 the Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust has been running a Student Awards Scheme. It seeks to promote interest in and greater understanding of living society in its environment according to the principles and practice of Professor Sir Patrick Geddes (18541932).

Each summer the Trust launches the competition and invites participation principally by students studying Planning, Architecture, Geography and Environmental Studies in Scotland. The results are made known early the following year with prize winners being invited to receive their awards at the Scottish Government’s Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning ceremony held in March each year.

Full details of the Awards Scheme are on the Trust’s website www.patrickgeddestrust.co.uk

Einstein Award The 2009 Albert Einstein World Award of Science will be presented to Prof Sir John Houghton, for his leading contributions to environmental research, especially on climate change, his remote sensing system of the Earth’s atmosphere, considered one of the most important tools in today’s climate research, and his establishment of the UK’s Hadley Centre.

The Albert Einstein World Award of Science was created as a means of recognition to those men and women who have

accomplished scientific and technological achievements which have brought progress to science and ensuing benefit to mankind.

Prof Houghton has played a pivotal role in the global research community, through his leadership in climate research and monitoring, and his concern for the broader impact of climate on energy, transport and public well-being. He is also chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Prof Sir John Houghton is considered one of the most outstanding and effective environmental scientists of his generation.

The Heart of the Great Alone This exhibition of remarkable Antarctic photography marks the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole. It runs from 2nd October 2009 to 11th April 2010 at The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh (see www.royalcollection.org.uk or call 0131 556 5100).

The accompanying book is by RSGS Vice-President David HemplemanAdams, who in September broke two world records by spending more than 14 hours in a tiny hot air balloon without an airborne heater.

FSA report on organic food Hugh Raven Director of Soil Association Scotland The recent flurry about the Food Standards Agency (FSA) report on organic food was an interesting case study in how media initiatives can backfire. The FSA denied there are significant differences between organic and conventional food. But after initial reports of their findings, the large bulk of coverage (or at least, of that which I saw – which I think was most of the mainstream comment) questioned not the benefits of organic food, but the FSA’s study, their presentation of it, and their independence.

I think there were three reasons why this was so.

Firstly, the FSA’s spin disguised the fact that for almost every nutrient the researchers considered, organic food came out better. This was buried in appendix 12 of the report, and dismissed by the researchers as not statistically significant, or ‘important’.

Secondly, the research and report disregarded known attributes of organic food which most consumers regard as benefits – such as the absence of pesticides, avoidance of routine use of antibiotics on farm animals, and the far fewer additives allowed in organic food.

Third, the FSA is neither neutral nor disinterested. The only independent review of the FSA itself, carried out by someone they picked, said that they were seen as not having stuck to the science in their comments on both organic and GM food – being seen as biased against organic, and pro-GM. The FSA started their research without talking to anyone in the organic movement. We pointed out that their timing meant they would miss the results from an important new EUfunded study on organic food – but they ignored our concerns.

It takes real effort to time a review to exclude almost all the results of the largest ever publicly funded research project on the very subject you’re studying.

The

Geographer

2-3

Autumn 2009

NEWS People • Places • Planet To help celebrate our 125th anniversary, RSGS is running two extra talks in conjunction with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland.

These should prove to be very current and interesting talks from some of the liveliest thinkers on current global concerns.

Oliver Tickell, 7.30pm, Wednesday 4th November, Boyd Orr Building, University of Glasgow Oliver Tickell, who has written for The Geographer on page 13 of this issue, is the author of Kyoto2: How to Manage the Global Greenhouse, a framework for a new climate agreement under the UN Climate Convention intended to replace the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. His talk will provide a stimulating and relevant proposal for the deal that needs to be secured at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.

Andrew Simms, 7.30pm, Wednesday 18th November, Playfair Library, University of Edinburgh

1884

125th

Andrew Simms is the New Economics Foundation’s Policy Director, and author Anniversary of Ecological Debt: The Health of the Planet and the Wealth of Nations and of RSGS numerous other publications about human development and the environment.

His work is currently focused on our increasing global interdependence and what 2009 that means for different models of economic development. Andrew will discuss the concept of a Green New Deal, a massive environmental transformation of the economy to tackle the triple crunch of the financial crisis, climate change and insecure energy supplies.

Admission for both talks is £8 for non members, £6 for members, £4 for concessions.

Zero Waste Plan Scotland’s first ever Zero Waste Plan has been unveiled.

The draft plan details the steps Scotland needs to take on the journey towards a Zero Waste society. It proposes a number of ambitious approaches to reduce waste, increase recycling and send less waste to landfill, including: • t he potential creation of 2,000 jobs through collecting, sorting, reprocessing and treating waste; •e ncouraging businesses to reduce waste, to increase their recycling of commercial waste, and to realise the economic benefits of doing so; • t he possible implementation of further landfill bans on materials including glass, metals, textiles and wood; • i mprovements to recycling facilities in public places, and more kerbside recycling; • i ncreasing the focus on re-use, including potential targets.

Launching a 12-week consultation on the plan in Inverness, Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead, said: “Scotland must reduce its impact on the local and global environment. Our draft Zero Waste Plan maps out how we can reduce the country’s waste, meet our highly ambitious waste targets and contribute to the work on climate change.

“This is a positive step in tackling Scotland’s waste - viewing it as a resource rather than a problem.

There are major economic benefits as well as environmental gains to be had, including creating thousands of jobs and new business opportunities.

“We are making progress but we must go further in relation to all types of waste. SEPA’s latest provisional figures show that we are already recycling and composting 34.3% of our municipal waste, but we need to reach 40% by the end of 2010.

The bar is set and we must work

together to reach our goal of a Zero Waste Scotland.”

Scotland currently landfills 1.26 million tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste in a year.

Scotland continues to meet the EU target of landfilling no more than 1.32 million tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste by 2010.

Dr Richard Dixon, Director of WWF Scotland, said: “We welcome the idea of further landfill bans on materials such as glass, textiles and wood. However, the focus needs to be on the recycling, re-use and composting of these materials rather than incineration. Scotland must avoid the use of large scale mass burn incineration.

“A ‘zero waste Scotland’ provides a huge opportunity for Scotland.

The plan talks about the creation of ‘green’ jobs through collection and reprocessing of waste and increasing the focus on re-use, both of which we support.”

“This is a positive step in tackling Scotland’s waste viewing it as a resource rather than a problem.”

NEWS People • Places • Planet “...in most French wines of the cases, Adapting to climate change is in danger? not just our moral imperative; it’s the lay Leading figures from the French wine and culinary worlds have teamed up community it is also a business opportunity with Greenpeace in writing an open letter, which has been published in the influential that is more If Scotland is to play a leading It is time for strong leadership French newspaper Le Monde. and the benefits of early action role in the global effort to reduce The letter was signed by the proprietors exercised, far outweigh the costs of acting greenhouse gas emissions we of 35 vineyards from across the country’s too late. The Climate Change must act fast, and, as part of an more major wine regions, along with top chefs (Scotland) Bill is unprecedented effort that must engage everyone, Jean-Luc Rabanel, Marc Veyrat and Mauro anxious... in its ambition and will set the the business community in Colagreco, sommeliers Franck Thomas and Antoine Petrus, and oenologist Stéphane framework for future governments Scotland has a significant role to But, in the Derenoncourt. “French wines, elegant and in Scotland to achieve ambitious play. the jewels of our common national climate case, The drive to reduce the impact of targets that will challenge all parts refined, heritage, are in danger,” the letter said. of society. change will have positive “Climate change is rendering our vineyards the experts... climate As we approach global advantages for Scotland. It will ever more vulnerable. Summer heat waves, negotiations on climate change create economic opportunities in are more recent hail storms in the Bordeaux region, in Copenhagen in December this renewable energies, from worldnew diseases arriving from the South, such concerned. year, it is likely that the significant leading technology export and irregularities will soon become far worse leadership in Scotland shown by still,” it warned. opportunities They’re going manufacturing the Scottish Government will have in marine energy and wind“If nothing is done to reduce greenhouse some impact. At home here in out of their power, to rural jobs in biomass gases, vineyards will be displaced 1,000km Scotland we need to work together beyond their traditional borders between and renewable heat. Improving way to say, efficiency in business use of to ensure the promise of targets now and the end of the century. Terroirs is met with action - that will be the will not survive.” energy, water and other natural ‘Wake up!’” resources can also reduce costs real indicator of success.

They call directly upon President Nicolas Prof Robert Socolow and promote the competitiveness Scotland needs, to be a successful nation in the 21st century. Energy services and energy efficiency can also create jobs, reduce costs and aid economic recovery.

Brendan Dick is Director of BT Scotland and Ian Marchant is Chief Executive of Scottish & Southern Energy. Both are members of the Climate Change Business Delivery Group.

Sarkozy to push for an ‘ambitious’ climate change agreement at the upcoming United Nations’ conference.

According to the letter, the developed nations need to strike a deal to reduce their CO2 emissions by 40% between now and 2020.

New planned town project attracts wide interest More than 200 people have already registered an interest in living in Owenstown, the custom-built town which is being planned for South Lanarkshire, after details of the project were announced in August.

“The interest has been intense,” said Stuart Crawford, one of the trustees of the Hometown Foundation, the Scottish charity which has been formed to help create sustainable communities and regenerate rundown urban areas.

“We’ve had people from all over the country registering an interest in buying or renting a home and they’re obviously just as enthusiastic about this as we are.”

The new town will be called Owenstown after the social reformer

Robert Owen who improved the lives and working conditions of mill workers at New Lanark 200 years ago.

In time, it is planned to have 20,000 residents and create 8,000 jobs.

green transport throughout the site. Once established, it’ll be run on a co-operative basis by its own trustees, who will be elected from its residents.

It will be self-sufficient & ecofriendly - recycling its waste to produce energy for the district heating system, and it will have

Alan Douglas The Broadcasting Business Ltd

The

Geographer

4-5

Autumn 2009

NEWS People • Places • Planet Woolly rhinoceros in Bishopbriggs Our new Constitution The Members who attended the Special Business Meeting in Perth on 30th July 2009 unanimously endorsed the new Constitution of the Society as well as its change to a Company Limited by Guarantee.

The last woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) known to have lived in the British Isles, prior to the species becoming extinct, is now known to have lived near Bishopbriggs, just north of Glasgow. This discovery has come about as a result of a new programme of radiocarbon dating, of all the available woolly rhino finds from Britain, at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). These dates have been obtained following rigorous sample preparation (ultrafiltration) and provide ages with a level of precision

not previously available.

The new dates show that woolly rhinoceros lived in the Glasgow area about 35,000 years ago, most probably feeding on tundra vegetation.

It appears that the species was battling (unsuccessfully) against a worsening climate, as the carcases of the beasts have been found in the deposits of meltwater rivers that drained from the ice sheets which were advancing from the western Highlands at the time.

Roger M Jacobi, James Rose, Alison MacLeod, Tom F G Higham

When the running of the Society was examined in the light of the new charities legislation of 2005, two main conclusions were reached: firstly, Council was considered too large and too remote from the day to day running of the Society, and secondly, every member of Council would have been deemed a Trustee with a personal financial liability for the Society’s debts. One office bearer put it very succinctly when he said “I am quite willing to work for free for the Society but I am not prepared to put my house on the line for it”.

And so we now have a Board of nine directors which will meet at least four times a year, and while the directors all have the responsibility of their post, their personal financial liability is only £1.

Council continues in an important advisory role as both a conduit for Members’ views and as the primary source of new directors.

We are fortunate that Colin Shannon, one of the Society’s original Trustees and who did most of the work involved in the change, continues as a director.

Barrie Brown Chairman

Fair Maid’s House funding still remains elusive RSGS worked in partnership with Perth & Kinross Council, Perth Theatre and St John’s Kirk to make a bid to the Town Centre Regeneration Fund earlier

in the summer. Unfortunately the bid was unsuccessful at its first attempt, but it has now been revised and resubmitted.

RSGS is asking for over

£500,000 to help towards the development of the Fair Maid’s House education and interpretation centre. A final decision is due in October.

Bangladesh to get funding for reforestation USAID and the German development agency GTZ signed a memorandum of understanding on 10th August to support global climate change mitigation and adaptation in Bangladesh. They have agreed to donate $19 million for the reforestation of a Bangladesh wildlife sanctuary 350 km southeast of Dhaka.

Low-lying Bangladesh, a country of some 150 million people, is at risk from rising world sea levels

caused by climate change, with experts warning of millions of people being forced out of their homes and encroaching into forests. The funds will be used for the reforestation of Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary, an ecological hotspot that serves as a major corridor for movement of Asian elephants between Burma and Bangladesh

and is a habitat for garjan (Dipterocarp spp), a threatened timber species.

Country in Focus: Maldives

A new democracy in the world’s lowest country The Maldives, an 800km long archipelago to the southwest of India, is made up of 1,190 islands, 300 of which are inhabited and a further 90 of which are resort islands. The average height of each island is 1.5m above sea level, giving the Maldives the lowest high point of any country in the world - just 2.3m.

The Maldives has a population of just over 300,000 and an economy dominated by tourism and fisheries, which directly account for 33% of GDP. With the fourth largest mass of coral of any country in the world it is considered one of the top dive sites in the world, with resident populations of whale sharks, manta rays and turtles.

This beautiful nation is one of the world’s more recent democracies.

On 28th October 2008 (RSGS’s 124th birthday) Mohamed Nasheed became the first democratically elected President in the history of the Maldives, defeating incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the Maldives from 1978 to 2008 in an increasingly autocratic way.

Provided by www.minivannews.com

Nasheed graduated in marine studies from Liverpool University before returning to the Maldives.

In 1990, he helped establish Sangu, a political magazine that scrutinized the ruling political class. The government banned Sangu within a year of its first publication, however, and Nasheed was arrested and jailed for the first of many times, leading to Amnesty International declaring him a ‘prisoner of conscience’. He continued to participate in a campaign of nonviolent protests and was arrested, imprisoned and tortured on

numerous occasions.

In 1999, Nasheed was elected MP for Malé but was stripped of his seat soon afterwards and jailed once again, for 18 months, including long periods in solitary confinement. Then on 20th September 2003, the Maldives was rocked by political unrest when hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Malé after hearing of the murder of prisoner Evan Naseem, tortured by guards.

Sensing an underlying current for change, Nasheed fled the Maldives under cover of darkness for neighbouring Sri Lanka and on 10th November, along with four other co-collaborators, he defied President Gayoom’s police state by founding the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in exile, in a small conference room at the Hilton Hotel, Colombo.

The five men had three simple ideas: that torture and corruption should not be tolerated and that Maldivians should be free to elect their leaders. Hoping that their countrymen and women shared their democratic aspirations and with little more than a handful of supporters and dollars, they set about to topple South Asia’s longest serving ruler. In the same year, Nasheed was granted refugee status by the British Government, and so in the unlikely setting of Salisbury the MDP set about sowing the seeds of democracy. MDP-inspired political dissent mushroomed, and towards the end of 2004, the jails in the Maldives were overflowing with detainees after the Gayoom government cracked down.

Nasheed took a risk and, after 18 months in self-imposed exile, he returned on 30th April 2005 to establish the MDP in the Maldives, defying a government edict banning political parties.

Not wanting to lose the initiative, but nervous of arresting Nasheed because of western pressure,

President Gayoom sanctioned political pluralism on 5th June 2005, yet by August Nasheed was arrested again during a non-violent protest and charged for ‘terrorism’, though the government later dropped the charges. In December 2005 Nasheed became elected Chairperson of the MDP and in April 2008 became the MDP’s Presidential Candidate.

“The ‘other Maldives’ that I promised during my election campaign is a free, democratic country where every Maldivian has access to healthcare, can travel between the islands cheaply and efficiently, where prices for basic goods and services are reasonable, where housing is in plentiful supply and where people’s basic needs are fulfilled.”

The

Geographer

6-7

Autumn 2009

Here President Nasheed tells The Geographer of his concerns over climate change and his hopes for Copenhagen and the future of his country.

“The science is sorted. Left unchecked, climate change will wreak unprecedented global catastrophe. Already, we see the warning signs.The world has warmed by less than 1 degree Celsius yet the ice caps are melting at unprecedented rates.

“Rising sea levels threaten to submerge the Maldives within 100 years. But climate change not only threatens the Maldives, it threatens us all. The Maldives is the front line of the climate battle. But if you don’t defend your front line, the battle may well be lost. What happens to the Maldives today, happens to the rest of the world tomorrow.

“The Copenhagen agreement must help us move towards 350ppm CO2 as an upper limit.

“I don’t want to point fingers or apportion blame. All countries need to come together to resolve the crisis. And citizens need to ensure that their politicians take the steps necessary to get a successful outcome at Copenhagen. We know radical climate action is possible. The Maldives will become carbon neutral in 10 years. If we can make this change, so can other countries.

“Even if we stopped all pollution tomorrow, temperatures will rise a little before they come down because of carbon pollution already in the atmosphere.

We need to plan for that temperature increase. We need to adapt.

“In Copenhagen an adaptation funding mechanism needs to be set up that is adequate, easily accessible and flexible. In particular, the new agreement should make special provisions to adequately address the needs of the most vulnerable countries such as Maldives, who didn’t do anything to cause the climate crisis but whose very survival is at risk.”

And his hopes for the future...

“I want a Maldives where people are not pulled down; where they are not worried or depressed over the everyday hazards of life. I want to see a relaxed, happier Maldives. A Maldives in which every citizen, man or woman, rich or poor, can proudly say: ‘I am a Maldivian; I know my rights and I stand on my own two feet.’”

“The average height of each island is 1.5m above sea level, giving the Maldives the lowest high point of any country in the world - just 2.3m.”

On the Map

The Atlas of the Real World

Daniel Dorling, Mark Newman, Anna Barford, published by Thames & Hudson

Map of world fuel use

ord

lished. modified of the ortance n, health, s in global

ference is e new future

nized into

ms and

and

ources

• ployment nd Media Pollution

rsity of Complex rch

ect to change

Mapping the Way We Live

Here is our planet as you’ve never seen it before: 366 digitally modified maps depict the areas and countries of the world not by their physical size, but by their demographic importance on a vast range of

topics, ranging from basic data on population, health, wealth and occupation to how many toys we import, variations in global house pricing and market hours worked by men vs women. Created by the team behind worldmapper.org,

this compelling reference is an invaluable resource for anyone involved in understanding the new world order: how trends and statistics determine our planet’s future and success.

The Atlas of the Real World is our recommended read for this quarter (see back page).

Extent 416pp

Opinions On: Copenhagen Conference

Size 23.2 x 26.8cm

View from Capitol Hill

Illustrations 366 colour maps Binding PLC

Senator John Kerry

Price £29.95

“...we are confronted with unique moments to act. Talks in Copenhagen represent just such a moment, and we must seize it.”

ISBN 978 0 500 514252

Press Office Contact:

Rowena Stanyer Thames & Hudson Ltd 181A High Holborn London WC1V 7QX

T +44 (0)20 7845 5143 F +44 (0)20 7845 5050

E r.stanyer@thameshudson.co.uk W www.thamesandhudson.com

In December, delegates from over 190 nations will gather in Copenhagen to discuss a new global climate change treaty. This is our best opportunity yet to craft a truly global effort to avert catastrophe. Having come this far, the seriousness of our effort will now be tested as never before.

More than ten years ago in Kyoto, Japan, we debated the hows and whys of meeting this challenge, but we failed to give concrete meaning to the idea of ‘common but differentiated responsibility’ among developed and developing nations. Instead, that conversation was essentially stiff-armed, and the truly global push that this crisis demands was left for another day.

Now the dynamic has changed. America’s President and Congress

are readier than ever to claim a leadership role. China, which passed America to become the world’s largest carbon emitter, has undergone a sea change. China now embraces its responsibility to be a productive player in global talks and is making enormous investments in its own clean energy sector.

None of us can afford to ignore the opportunity that Copenhagen presents us. We must put aside our entrenched negotiating positions and strive to establish a constructive framework for action from everyone. We must secure aggressive emissions cuts from the developed world, but we must also guarantee that developing nations take measurable, reportable and verifiable actions to begin to alter their energy use patterns. The largest emerging economies must embark on a path toward making the long-

term emissions reductions commitments we all know they must eventually accept.

Success in Copenhagen also depends on success at home.

The US House of Representatives has already passed aggressive, comprehensive climate change legislation, and we are working to develop a companion bill in the Senate. These efforts will signal to the world America’s seriousness and give our negotiators enormous leverage to marshal a truly global effort. We cannot do it alone, but we must do our part.

Over a decade after Kyoto, it is painfully clear that opportunities to tackle global climate change cannot be taken for granted.

Instead, we are confronted with unique moments to act. Talks in Copenhagen this December represent just such a moment, and we must seize it.

Opinions On: Copenhagen Conference

The

Geographer

8-9

Autumn 2009

View from Holyrood

Stewart Stevenson, Minister for Climate Change The world’s population have faced many crises in the past but the challenges which climate change is posing will undoubtedly be the toughest.

The Scottish Government recognises that climate change will have far reaching effects on Scotland’s economy, its people and its environment and is determined to play its part in rising to this challenge.

The world-leading legislation introduces targets to reduce emissions by at least 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, and will drive new thinking, new solutions and new technologies putting Scotland at the forefront of building a sustainable low carbon economy.

However, legislation alone won’t deliver the targets. We have already published a delivery plan that sets out in a high-level way what needs to be done and we will develop the detail of that over the coming year. This needs to be translated into real changes in

everyday actions by businesses, the public sector, voluntary and community groups, and individuals.

Action is also needed to reduce the emissions from transport, housing, business, land management and other sources.

The nation must also become better informed consumers. The public sector is a substantial purchaser in its own right and can encourage the development of greener goods and services.

Scotland’s schools, colleges and universities must also work alongside the business sector to increase public awareness and to research and develop innovative solutions and technologies.

Reducing emissions will require a radical change in the way in which society uses its energy and land. Some sectors will find it more difficult without changes in Scotland’s social fabric or significant changes to consumer behaviour which may mean other sectors will need to go further.

Better public understanding is essential if people are to be motivated to act. The Scottish Government, its agencies and its non-government partners will need to work together to explain what’s needed and to incentivise action.

It is important that as a world leader, Scotland is seen taking centre-stage and moving to share our forward-thinking strategies with the rest of the UK and also with the rest of the world at this year’s UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

“Reducing emissions will require a radical change in the way in which society uses its energy and land.”

Pressured by a highly coordinated voluntary sector, the Scottish Government has set a stiff target of 42% cuts in CO2 emissions as from 1990 levels by 2020.

Debates are now springing up across the country to assess the implications and to form action plans to achieve these cuts in many issues including poverty, agriculture, land use, food energy and community engagement.

View from Westminster Joan Ruddock, UK Climate Minister In fewer than 100 days all eyes will be focused on Copenhagen as the world gathers for the UN climate negotiations to reach a planet saving deal.

Climate change is the biggest threat facing our world. We’ve known for decades that pumping heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere has serious consequences.

All of us in government view this as a make or break moment and the UK is pushing for the most ambitious deal possible.

International progress was made at the G8 and Major Economies Forum in July when global leaders agreed to work to limit global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees. The science tells us that this is crucial if we are to avoid catastrophic impacts.

Earlier this year, the Government

published predictions of our own future climate by experts at the Met Office. For the first time, their data is detailed enough to show us what the 2080s could be like in Scotland. Living conditions for our grandchildren could be unbearable, with more flooding, heat waves and droughts.

In the developing world, droughts, floods and intolerably high temperatures would kill millions and create millions of refugees.

With the science clear, the global community must not let political momentum falter.

With the annual toll for climate change related deaths already at 300,000 there is no more room for procrastination.

So what would a successful deal at Copenhagen look like? Well, we need an agreement that leads the

world to cut its emissions by at least 50% by 2050 and, crucially, to put in place the measures to ensure global emissions start to fall within the next decade.

Alongside this, the UK is also seeking a deal that helps to deliver new and additional sources of funding for low carbon development and adaptation in developing countries.

It’s a big ask but the clock is ticking for everyone to agree a deal which is ambitious, effective and fair. Failure in 100 days is not an option as climate change doesn’t offer us a Plan B.

“Failure in 100 days is not an option as climate change doesn’t offer us a Plan B.”

Inside The RSGS

1884

RSGS The First 25 Years Alistair Cruickshank

“a clear distinction was drawn between the SGS and the august RGS, a distinction exemplified by the statement that, ‘Ladies are eligible as Members’.”

One can only guess at the ferment of informal meetings and discussions involving many of the most influential Scots which took place prior to the launch of the Scottish Geographical Society (SGS) at the first meeting of its Council on 31st October 1884.

The former Prime Minister, the Earl of Roseberry presided, nine Peers of the Realm, appointed Vice-Presidents, together with two pre-eminent scientists in James Geikie FRS and Alexander Thomson FRS, later Lord Kelvin, were among Council’s 56 members.

However, it is hardly surprising that this geographical society should appear to spring up fully formed with a Prospectus prepared and ready for adoption, for Edinburgh was long renowned not only as the place of publication of the celebrated encyclopaedias Britannica and Chambers, but also as the leading centre of cartographic innovation and publication through houses such as “It was at North Berwick on a Bartholomew and Sunday afternoon in the summer Johnston. Scots of 1884 that the project of forming were engaged a Scottish Geographical Society around the world was proposed to Mrs Bruce. It as administrators, came up rather as a sort of remote entrepreneurs, and ideal that had little prospect of engineers while realisation. It had been proposed Thomson and before and discouraged by various others, following kind friends! But Mrs Bruce’s Livingstone’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, example, were and she said it was just what her synonymous with father would have welcomed – Why scientific exploration should it not be possible? As we with a humanitarian talked on, the possibilities became purpose. Each in more hopeful, and eventually, when their way ensured Mr Bruce appeared an hour later, a flow to Scotland all difficulties seemed to vanish of geographical under the influence of his cheery information, whether optimism. Before midnight a topographic, prospectus was drafted, and by next scientific, or day Professor Geikie had given it his economic. blessing. That was the beginning of As enumerated in its Prospectus the SGS would identify and aim to increase geographical knowledge and meet growing educational needs. For example

the Scottish Geographical Society.”

Opening paragraph from Mrs Livingstone Bruce and the Scottish Geographical Society

by J G Bartholomew, printed in the Scottish Geographical Journal of 1912

I. T o interest people in the practical uses of Geography, and impress them with its great value in connection alike with science, civilisation, and international commerce.

II. T o promote enquiry into all subjects of geographical interest, national and other, and to keep the Public informed, through the

medium of its magazine, of all important discoveries, changes and undertakings, relating to Physical, Commercial, Political and Historical Geography.

V. T o correspond and exchange publications with kindred societies.

A ‘New Geography’ was being propounded and a clear distinction drawn between the SGS and the august Royal Geographical Society (RGS), exemplified by the SGS statement that, ‘Ladies are eligible as Members’.

By December there were 750 Members and the category of Honorary Member created to recognise outstanding contributions to geography. The first awarded were to Lord Aberdare, President of RGS, and Joseph Thomson, ‘the African Explorer’. By January 1885, Branches of SGS had been established in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee and petitioned for by Aberdeen. A Secretary cum Editor was to be appointed. A Scottish Geographical Magazine (SGM) was to be published monthly.

Thus, in a practical sense, certain priorities were established: SGS was to be nationwide in membership, to establish and sustain relationships with other geographical societies, and to have an interest in exploration. Then in 1887 the Society was honoured by having the title ‘Royal’ bestowed upon it.

As a result of the tour by H M Stanley, when he delivered lectures in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, the demand for tickets to attend these lectures was overwhelming and, as Members had priority, 348 new Members joined.

As increasing the membership had been identified by Council as a priority, such a response to celebrity lectures was welcomed.

In future the greater proportion of non-academic Members joined the Society to attend lectures rather than to obtain the scientific journal (SGM now SGJ).

The presentation of ‘The Society’s Medal in Gold’ to Stanley marked the beginning of a process by which every eminent explorer/geographer would be invited to give lectures and to receive a medal. The most prestigious, such as Nansen, Peary, Sven Hedin, Captain Scott, Younghusband, and Shackleton received either the Society’s Gold Medal or the Livingstone Gold

125th

Anniversary of RSGS 2009

Medal, endowed by Livingstone’s daughter, Mrs Bruce, in 1901.

Silver Medals were awarded for other remarkable achievements, for example to Captain Sverdrup of the Fram, and to H J Mackinder, first Professor of Geography at Oxford.

Meanwhile, SGM went from strength to strength, being subscribed to by libraries world-wide. Many pioneering articles were published and SGM became the medium by which geographers learned, through translated abstracts, of the latest advances by non English-speaking geographers.

The nature and location of a permanent Headquarters for the Society, finance, and staffing proved to be inter-related and recurring items for discussion by Council.

Already by 1888, feeling the need for financial support and noting that RGS received Government Grant, application was made and over the years continued to be made for an equivalent grant, always turned down. In May 1890 Council thought that a permanent home had been found when rooms within the National Portrait Gallery were made available to rent. However, when in 1907 the rental was raised yet again, rooms were rented in the Synod Hall, Castle Terrace, for a rental of £150 per annum.

1909, the Society’s 25th anniversary year, ended on a series of high notes.

The effort begun in 1899 to bring about a Lectureship and eventually a School of Geography at Edinburgh University, had at last succeeded.

The Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow accepted an offer to fund an annual Silver Medal for the best geography essay.

Membership, at almost 2,000, was the highest to date. Shackleton, whose charismatic personality had been largely responsible for the surge in membership during his 18 months as Secretary (1904 – 05), had returned a hero after reaching ‘farthest South’ in Antarctica, had lectured at the Branches, had received the Livingstone Medal and had been knighted. And so the dream of John George Bartholomew and W Ralph Richardson to found an eminent learned society, and who served as Joint Honorary Secretaries throughout the first 25 years, had been achieved.

The

Geographer

Off The Beaten Track

10-11

Autumn 2009

Nanda Devi and Kumaon H W Tilman and Jim Corbett, two eminently readable 20th century writers focusing respectively on the mountains and the tigers of India, long ago kindled in me the ambition to visit the Kumaon Himalaya, roughly 200 miles northeast of Delhi and wedged between Tibet to the north and Nepal to the east.

Intrepid travellers Dave and Julia Thompson, both RSGS Edinburgh members, had never been to high altitudes before and asked me, who had, to help plan a Himalayan trek.

Literature was my primary inspiration. Harold (Bill) Tilman, one of the most distinguished of Himalayan climbing pioneers, was the first to find a way to the base of, before in 1936 with Noel E Odell becoming the first person to climb, the beautiful Nanda Devi (25,660 ft / 7,816m) – the highest summit ever attained at that time. And then there was Jim Corbett, big game hunter turned conservationist and still a hallowed name in India today, who wrote of his battles of wits with man-eating tigers and leopards, most notably in the classic Man Eaters of Kumaon published in 1944.

Our itinerary planned, if not to follow in the footsteps of these inspirational writers, then at least to see something of the environments they brought so vividly to life on the page. In late September 2008 we drove up the precipitous road from Delhi to the little town of Munsyari, the roadhead and gateway to the Ghori Ganga Gorge.

Four days march, following the Ghori Ganga on a frequently narrow and precipitous track, brought us to the windswept, chilly and now deserted village of Martoli standing at 3,385 metres, where Tilman had rested after descending from Nanda Devi via the Longstaff Col on the retreat from his epic climb.

Two more days of trekking

through increasingly remote terrain brought us to the entrance to the Pachhu Glacier valley, where for the first time we feasted our eyes upon the sensationally beautiful twin peaks of Nanda Devi and Nanda Devi East. To awake just before dawn and to look out from our chilly tents set on a frosty meadow, as the twilight dwindled and the sun rose to strike these peaks, created an impression which will live in the memory perhaps for as long as I draw breath.

After a day spent ascending as close to the base of Nanda Devi as we could, to stand on the vast moraine of the Pachhu Glacier at 4,350 metres, our plan was to cross the Ghori Ganga, a raging torrent of glacier melt and to walk north to the village of Milam. Monsoon snow and rain had however swept away a vital bridge and our muleteers were not encouraging.

Instead our Ladakhi born guide, Rashid, a man of great resource and mountain experience, suggested we retrace our steps to make an attempt on the Martoli Peak (4,586 metres). Rashid, Dave Thompson and I set off at 8.00am, armed with lots of enthusiasm and a stout rope (but minus crampons and ice axes which we had neglected to bring). As we began belaying up the increasingly steep and exposed snow and ice fields, it occurred to us that discretion is the better part of valour and if one of us took a tumble we all would, so reluctantly, at 4,400 metres, we abandoned our attempt to reach the summit.

As we retreated we were rewarded with fabulous views, not only of Nanda Devi close by, but north to the Milam Glacier, Trisuli, and the superb Changabang (22,520 feet) climbed by 6 alpinists including Chris Bonington, Dougal Haston and Doug Scott in 1975. Tilman’s

spirit seemed to be very present as we looked around us.

The 12 day trek completed, we unwound at the hill station of Binsar where a leopard had, the previous day, boldly visited the guests as they took afternoon tea on the verandah. From there we proceeded to Naini Tal, the picturesque and lively capital of Kumaon, created by the Victorians beside a beautiful lake in nostalgic imitation of Windermere (one time summer home of Jim Corbett), and on to Kaladhungi to see the atmospheric museum to Corbett set in the bungalow he shared in the winter months with his sister.

As I pushed open the door of the little annex, a troop of startled monkeys scuttled out chattering furiously at me.

The Corbett National Park nearby, named in his honour, is one of the most important refuges for the much endangered Indian tiger, at least half of which is closed to humans to give the tigers maximum protection from disturbance and poaching.

On one occasion our elephant stumbled upon a tiger feasting on its kill, but by the time I had looked over our mahout’s shoulder the tiger had backed into thick ground cover and invisibility.

To know one was in the close presence of a wild tiger, with the alarm calls of the rest of the creatures of the jungle around us, has inspired me to return to Corbett’s wonderful narratives and to relive my memories of Kumaon.

Jim Henderson RSGS Edinburgh

In October, Martin Moran is speaking in Ayr, Dumfries, Helensburgh, and Perth, about his ascent of Nanda Devi.

“ ....to look out from our chilly tents set on a frosty meadow, as the twilight dwindled and the sun rose to strike these peaks, created an impression which will live in the memory perhaps for as long as I draw breath.”

An Expert View: What’s Killing Our Bees?

Colony collapse disorder

“A decade before CCD was discovered, militant French beekeepers took to the streets to get pesticides banned on sunflowers and sweet corn.”

Honeybees pollinate around a third of everything we eat; that’s most fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds and even cattle feed. Their pollination services have been valued at $15bn to the United States economy, where millions of honeybees are trucked thousands of miles every year to pollinate almonds in California, apples in Washington state and blueberries in Maine.

Such research was possible because the honeybee’s genome has been decoded in full. But despite these sophisticated new tools of detection, are the right questions being asked?

With so much at stake, it is perhaps little surprise that their plight has made headlines around the world. Ever since the alarm was first raised almost three years ago about honeybees mysteriously disappearing from the hives of east coast beekeepers in the US, reports have spread across the globe of healthy looking worker bees deserting their hives.

Beekeepers we met and interviewed in the US and Europe laid the blame on a new type of systemic pesticide.

Neonicotinoids are often coated on the seed of a crop and grow with and through the plant. While the manufacturers insist that the chemical won’t come into contact with honeybees, independent research has identified 17 different pesticides in one grain of pollen. A decade before CCD was discovered, militant French beekeepers took to the streets to get pesticides banned on sunflowers and sweet corn that tests showed interfere with the bees’ communication and navigation systems, preventing them from finding their way home.

Around a third of all honeybee colonies have collapsed in this way in the States in the last couple of years, leading the strange phenomenon to be dubbed ‘colony collapse disorder’ (CCD). When London beekeeper, John Chapple, found empty hives scattered across the capital, he called the vanishing bees the Mary Celeste syndrome.

Any number of possible causes for CCD have been suggested by entomologists, beekeepers and journalists. They include bee viruses, parasites, fungal infections, nutrient deficiencies, lack of genetic diversity, and environmental triggers such as pesticides and climate change.

But despite a global search for the killer, the culprit has yet to be found.

The latest study in August shows that bees from CCDaffected hives exhibit genetic damage, indicating that they are overloaded with viruses.

When we began writing A World Without Bees, we were concerned that no one was looking at the bigger picture. Like investigators at a crime scene, we began to piece together the pieces of a jigsaw. Honeybees, like humans, can live perfectly well with numerous viruses, but not if their immune system is shot to pieces.

So for us the key question was why was the honeybee too weak to fight off its assailants?

Yet increased pesticide use is an inevitable consequence of planting huge swathes of countryside with one crop. These monocultures are a feature of our intensive farming practices and rob honeybee colonies of the nutritious diet they need to be strong and healthy.

Honeybees have also lost their genetic diversity. The same type of Western honeybee is used worldwide. Bred for its docile nature and productiveness, its origins in the warm climes of the Mediterranean may make it less able to withstand our wetter springs and summers.

The UK government has never

confirmed cases of CCD this side of the Atlantic. Instead it attributes the 30% losses of honeybee colonies in 2007-08 to the rain, which stopped the bees going out to forage and allowed disease to be spread more easily in the hive by blood-sucking varroa mites that live on the bees and larvae.

While the mystery of what is killing the bees remains unsolved, there have been some encouraging developments since the first edition of A World Without Bees was published in June 2008. Awareness about the crucial role honeybees play has rocketed, and people are taking up beekeeping in cities and towns or planting bee friendly gardens as a potential way to boost numbers. Its cause in the UK has been taken up by organisations from the Women’s Institute to the Co-op, which has banned neonicotinoids on its own label produce and donated money to restore our indigenous ‘black’ honeybee, and the Wellcome Trust which has contributed to a £10m fund to research pollinator health. Perhaps most significantly, the European Union is phasing out bee-toxic chemicals, and in the US tests are being developed for pesticide registration that will examine a chemical’s impact not just on foraging adult bees, but on the larvae and young bees.

As to whether the CCD killer will ever be found? We call the honeybee the barometer of our environment and their demise is unfortunately a poignant symbol of man’s destruction of that environment.

Alison Benjamin A World Without Bees by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum, published by Guardian Books, is our Reader Offer for this quarter (see back page).

The

Geographer

An Expert View: Climate Change

12-13

Autumn 2009

Kyoto2 Negotiations towards a new climate agreement to be signed in Copenhagen this December are well and truly stuck. At the heart of the deadlock are the opposed interests of developed and developing nations, and the entrenched world views of their negotiators.

Developing countries such as China and India point to the fact that industrial countries are responsible for the overwhelming bulk of greenhouse gases so far emitted to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. As such, the global warming we are currently experiencing is their fault and it is up to them to act first.

Industrialised countries such as the USA, EU member states and Japan point to the rapidly rising trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries. China is already the world’s biggest emitter. Thanks to deforestation and peatland degradation Indonesia is not far behind.

Emissions from India, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and other rapidly industrialising countries are also rising steeply.

So, say the industrial countries, any agreement to limit emissions must include the developing countries. Otherwise it would not work, while also giving developing country industries a huge comparative advantage against the industrial countries - on top of the comparative advantage they already enjoy from cheap labour, low environmental standards and generally weak regulation.

The problem here is that both sides are right - and caught in a logical loop whereby the developing countries won’t contemplate taking on emissions reductions until the industrial countries commit to deep and rapid cuts in their emissions. And the industrial countries won’t commit to those cuts until the developing countries at least agree to join the game. Result, impasse.

Also consider the especially difficult position of the USA. Having failed to cut its emissions under George W Bush, the USA now needs to take on impossibly deep and rapid cuts in emissions from their present bloated levels to keep the rest of the world happy. The only way it could succeed is by buying in carbon credits from other countries - potentially costing US taxpayers billions of dollars.

Understandably, President Obama has no desire to commit political suicide.

So how can we break the deadlock? By moving to a totally new climate governance architecture in which individual countries no longer occupy centre stage - a genuinely global system in which emissions are treated exactly the same no matter where they take place. This immediately resolves the issues of taxpayer exposure to unlimited potential liabilities, and of comparative advantage.

And so creates the possibility of progress. Here’s how it would work.

Countries agree, through the Climate Convention or UNFCCC, to a global cap on greenhouse gas emissions - or a series of annual caps. Each year permits are sold, through a global auction open to all bidders. Emissions are controlled not ‘end of pipe’ but ‘upstream’ at the point of production of fossil fuels, for example at the oil refinery, coal washing station or natural gas export terminal. Thus fossil fuel producers surrender permits based on the carbon embodied in their production. The funds so raised at a price of $30 per tonne of CO2 would come to around $1 trillion per year - just about the sum needed to solve the climate crisis with sufficient sums available to: • i nvest in renewable energy development and deployment; • f inance a huge programme of energy efficiency;

•b ring deforestation to a halt, and rebuild forests already lost; •s equester carbon in soils where it contributes to fertility and moisture retention; • i nvest in adaptation to climate change impacts, such as drought, flood, sea level rise and spread of insect borne disease; • r esearch geo-engineering options in case emissions cuts alone are insufficient to restore climate stability; •s upport the work of UNFPA and other agencies in raising reproductive health and reducing unwanted births.

The funds would mainly be spent in developing countries where the need is greatest, also addressing the historic equity issue. And all these measures would be supported by direct regulation along the lines of the successful Montreal Protocol which has largely phased out the CFC gases that were destroying the stratospheric ozone layer. This is the right approach, for example, for eliminating the potent industrial greenhouse gases such as the HFCs widely used in refrigeration.

The key task now is to impress on governments and their negotiators at Copenhagen that there is an alternative structure for global climate governance that would be effective, efficient and equitable. So that when the conference fails to agree on a sufficient response to the climate crisis, all is not lost.

Oliver Tickell Oliver Tickell is author of Kyoto2 (Zed Books 2008) which sets out his proposals for global climate governance. He is speaking at an extra talk in Glasgow on 4th November (see page 3).

See also the website www.kyoto2.org

“China is already the world’s biggest emitter.

Thanks to deforestation and peatland degradation Indonesia is not far behind.”

Education

from concrete 2 cookers... fromconcrete2cookers is an exciting and timely web-based game, developed at the School of the Built Environment at HeriotWatt University, Edinburgh. It encourages children to explore their school environment and spot ways of reducing the school’s carbon emissions.

With a bit of guidance from helpful characters they meet along the way, they can make wise decisions about technological interventions which will reduce energy demand.

By playing the game successfully, the carbon cutters will reduce the school’s carbon emissions by 50% and so meet the Scottish Government’s emissions reduction interim target for 2030. Bonus points will earn them solar panels to give overall carbon emission reductions of 65%, helping towards the Government’s target reduction of 80% by 2050 (from the 1990 baseline).

The game was developed with the assistance of around 100 children from primary and secondary schools in Edinburgh.

Through a series of workshops, they provided the web developers with invaluable advice throughout the exercise. The feedback from children and adults alike is extremely positive: Learning & Teaching Scotland consider it

‘a fantastic resource’ which is currently sitting on their ‘to be exemplified’ list, ie an example of good/best and innovative practice in relation to the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).

Educational materials will shortly be available to support the individual outcomes and experiences of CfE. They are designed to stimulate further discussion in the classroom and inform planning. Teachers’ packs and links to exercises are available on the website www.concrete2cookers.org The materials can be used to support the skilful use of varied learning and teaching strategies that are useful, for example in the sciences.

What students want from Copenhagen Post-graduate students from the University of Edinburgh’s landmark MSc Carbon Management programme have developed the following recommendations for a post-Kyoto global deal. It is based on limiting global average temperature increases to a maximum of 2°C. The 5 themes chosen are interlinked and structured along the 4 areas that the climate change deal will cover.

Contact information: EdinburghCMS@googlegroups.com The new deal must continue to use the current policy instruments (eg flexible mechanisms), to establish over time a global price for GHGs, but they must be improved.

FINANCE

Adaptation Funding

Establish an additional funding mechanism to enhance current ODA packages. Ensure that the funds are managed appropriately, as part of existing or future sustainable development initiatives.

These initiatives should be tailored to the individual requirements of the countries concerned and be based on robust climate change impact assessments.

Targets

Targets for GHG emission reductions must be based on the principles of contraction and convergence and guided by the science over a 3 to 5 year period. All countries must agree to reduce their emissions with the developing countries taking the lead.

The IPCC 4AR recommended a 50% global GHG emission reduction on a 1990 baseline. We now know that emission pathways need to be more stringent and based on cumulative cuts. Establish cumulative targets and more rapid emission pathways covering the period from 2012 to 2020 as well as targets for 2050 and beyond.

Forestry

The new agreement must include an agreement on REDD which must address the issues of: • Demand: what drives up the need for forest products • Law & governance • The needs and rights of the local people • Forest fires and pest control

TECHNOLOGY

MITIGATION

ADAPTATION

For example, for CDM:

Economic Mechanisms

Technology Transfer

• • • • •

Extend accessibility Increase scale through sectoral approaches Incentivise more CO2 and CH4 projects Create sectoral and technological benchmarks Include Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Successfully deliver a stream of low carbon technologies, via partnerships between governments and the private sector, that enable new funding mechanisms eg revised CDM to improve investment flows. Revise the rules of engagement with regard to technology transfer between Annex 1 and Non-Annex 1 countries so that it facilitates technology transfer in both directions.

The

Geographer

14-15

Autumn 2009

Geographers at Dundee University have been awarded in September 2009 £87,000 from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to investigate flood risk in urban areas across the UK. So called ‘pluvial’ flooding caused by over-loaded urban sewers - as happened in Hull in 2007 - is arguably the greatest flooding threat facing the UK. There has been no UK-wide research on the patterns of pluvial flooding or the social composition of the areas at risk and new ways of managing this increased risk.

The research will fill these gaps by addressing the following aims: 1. p rovide the first predictions for the whole of the UK of the urban locations most at risk from pluvial flooding; 2. m ake the first assessment of the socio-economic composition of urban areas at risk from pluvial flooding both across the UK and in more detail in four high-risk localities; 3. e ngage with key stakeholders (at both local and national levels) to assess current awareness and responses to pluvial flood risk and help inform appropriate policy responses across contrasting jurisdictions (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland).

The research will last 18 months and will be published in the summer of 2011. The project is being led by Dr Donald Houston with Professor Alan Werritty and Dr Alistair Geddes.

University of Aberdeen New cross-Research Council award funds Exploratory Network in environment and behaviour research.

A grant of £200,000 has been won under the cross-Research Council Understanding Individual Behaviour – Exploratory Networks programme. Behaviour for Well-being, Environment & Life: BeWEL will operate for 12 months with funding support from three Research Councils: the ESRC, MRC and BBSRC. The BeWEL proposal developed from the ideas of a core of University of Aberdeen (all three Colleges) and Macaulay Institute staff, but involves a total of 15 investigators, including members from the Universities of Gröningen, Kent, Leeds and Sheffield. BeWEL is designed to better understand how interactions with nature influence personal well-being, and key potential drivers of, and barriers to, pro-environment behavioural change. The Network brings together expertise in environmental sustainability and sustainable behaviours, environmental psychology, cognition and ageing, social network analysis, conservation biology and

participatory conservation, e-Science, aural soundscape composition, and neuroscience and brain imaging.

BeWEL is led by Colin Hunter, with Jillian Anable and Mark Reed also from the School of Geosciences as co-investigators, and will bring a new Post-Doctoral Research Fellow appointment to the School.

BeWEL activities include core Network meetings, pilot projects, the production of ‘state of understanding’ reports, and open workshop and lecture events. These activities will be supported by the use of a prototype web-based virtual research environment to aid communication and information exchange between Network members, and to facilitate external engagement and dissemination work. BeWEL will help shape future UK environment and behaviour research, with the preparation of further funding applications being a key expectation of Network members.

UHI Millennium Institute The mountain.TRIP project, funded through the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme, will start in November 2009 and run for 24 months.

The consortium is coordinated by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Institute of Mountain Research: Man & Environment), and also involves the Mountain Research Initiative, Euromontana, EcoLogic (Germany), Jagiellonian University (Poland), and the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI. The goal is to provide stakeholders, end-users and practitioners with readily accessible and understandable forms of research-based information relevant to sustainable development in mountain regions.

Mountain.TRIP will start where other EU projects have finished, translating research findings into useful information and developing relationships between users and researchers. Research projects often produce valuable results, methods, tools and instruments, but at the end of the project neither time nor money remain to disseminate these results among practitioners and to the interested public.

Furthermore, research results usually exist in forms recognized by the research community but not easily or quickly assimilated by communities of practice.

University of Glasgow We can clearly visualise when asked what is a glacial, igneous or volcanic landscape, but what is a carbon landscape? How does it look? How does it function? How stable is it? To what environmental parameters and processes is it most

sensitive? How will it change under a changing climate? Answering these questions is the research ambition of Dr Susan Waldron in the Dept of Geographical and Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow. Currently her Carbon Landscaping Research Group is primarily funded by NERC to undertake the following projects: 1. £ 430,000 to undertake research to quantify CO2 emissions from aquatic systems within the Amazon basin (2008-13). This is one work package within a wider consortium grant, Amazonica, to determine current and future greenhouse gas balances of the Amazon Basin.

2. £ 183,000 for developing the Knowledge Exchange network CLAD: Carbon Landscapes and Drainage (2009-12). Collaborating with Waldron in developing this network are colleagues from Stirling University. Together we will bring together those who manage carbon landscapes - regulatory and conservation bodies, landowners, developers - and academics who understand intimately how carbon is transferred from our rich terrestrial stores to catchment drainage systems, to pool our knowledge to produce guidelines on how to minimise carbon loss to catchment drainage.

University of Stirling It is widely known that small, isolated populations of rare animals can suffer from inbreeding which may then push them to extinction. Recent research by Penelope Whitehorn and colleagues at University of Stirling, published in BMC Evolutionary Biology (vol 9: 152), has shown that bumblebees are particularly prone to this because of the very odd way in which their sex is determined. The work in a bee nest is done only by daughters of the queen; the males are lazy and interested only in sex. Bizarrely, if a queen mates with a related or genetically similar male, as is inevitable in a small population, then half of her worker daughters develop instead as transexual sterile males, which do no work but cannot effectively mate, and so are useless to the nest. Such nests are doomed to die due to a shortage of workers. Hence small populations of bumblebees surviving in isolated nature reserves are very unlikely to survive in the long term.

See Whitehorn, Tinsley, Darvill, & Goulson, D 2009. Impacts of inbreeding on bumblebee colony fitness under field conditions.

BMC Evolutionary Biology.

University News

University of Dundee

These reports are part of a rolling programme that will capture other areas of research in forthcoming issues.

Making Connections

News from SAGT The SAGT field excursion to Iceland this August has been the highlight of the summer for more than thirty geography teachers, with the stunning glacial and volcanic scenery leaving them speechless… well almost! When are geographers ever really speechless for long when confronted with breathtaking landscapes?

Val Vannet, General Treasurer SAGT, a real fieldwork enthusiast (with a ‘bit’ of help from her husband, John), organised the trip through Rayburn Tours where Ian Hardie acted as field guide for the tour. Even in the sometimes less than wonderful ambience of a school hall, Ian can enthuse an audience of prospective pupils and parents for a school trip… but once he is out there his knowledge brings the landscape to life! The questions from geography teachers on this trip may have

been more testing than usual but did not go unanswered. Roger Crofts, Patron of SAGT, former Chief Executive of SNH, is another Iceland fan who was on the tour and was able to add his particular knowledge both on the trips themselves and in providing background and stimulating discussions in the evenings.

This was a trip where not only the weather forecast was interesting but also checking where the most recent earthquakes had been! Apart from an excellent excursion to Prague to mark SAGT’s 25th Anniversary year all other excursions have been in Scotland, but this ‘flight of fancy’ has meant that there has been more lateral thinking and has made for interesting suggestions for future excursions!!

The SAGT Annual Conference in October has already attracted many delegates for its mix of addresses and seminars as well

as the ever popular publishers’ exhibition.

The Council for British Geography, COBRIG, exists to bring together organisations interested in geography.

Both RSGS and SAGT will be represented at the September meeting which will highlight the developments in geography in Scotland at school, university and in the learned societies.

As convener of RSGS Education Committee, I would welcome suggestions from members of the Society of ways in which they think we could be engaging with centres or other bodies to further develop the educational aspect of the Society’s remit.

Erica M Caldwell Honorary President SAGT Education Convener RSGS

What Geography Means To Me

T

hink about your

An insight favourite view. If into the you’re wistfully wishing you’d rather life of a be there, then you’re working having the same geographer thoughts I have about Machrihanish Bay in Kintyre.

Your favourite view has been shaped by elected decision takers and law makers, affecting policy areas including planning, forestry, agriculture, architecture, natural heritage and environmental protection.

Politics shapes our landscapes, and our future.

My job is to inform politicians.

I’m privileged to work in Scotland’s Parliament (not for the Scottish Government there’s a difference!). I try to contextualise issues that are Graeme Cook sometimes best considered from Senior Research a height. Think of the issues that Specialist, Scottish Parliament Information could be analysed from Dundee Law, or Fort Dunadd, or using Centre (SPICe) satellite imagery - wind farms, www.scottish. planning, marine environment, parliament.uk/ business/research sea level rise, coal fired power

stations, aviation, protected areas, native species – these all come across my desk.

Politicians are only folk and are as capable as anyone of applying reasoning to understand why things are as they are. However, Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) cannot be experts on every subject they are expected to comment and vote on. The Parliament supports them with twenty impartial researchers. I am one of these, covering climate change, energy, sustainable development and environment.

On a day to day basis this means supporting Parliamentary committees as they scrutinise legislation, most recently the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill, or as they hold inquiries into key issues, such as Scotland’s energy future. I respond to information requests from MSPs – from constituency issues (my constituent’s neighbour is polluting a watercourse) to scrutiny of Government (I’ve a slot at First Minister’s Questions) to policy development (I

want to introduce plastic bags legislation). I also write published briefings on important issues, whether high profile or not (Personal Carbon Allowances or International Polar Year).

My route to the Parliament involved studying geography and environmental science at the University of Dundee, before further postgraduate environmental studies at Strathclyde. I volunteered and worked with the Prince’s Trust and Community Service Volunteers Environment programme, before working with Energy Action Scotland, a charity campaigning for energy efficiency and against fuel poverty.

Why haven’t I really mentioned ‘geography’ yet? The phrase goes ‘if you don’t do politics you don’t do much’. Geography is even more all encompassing geographers must use the discipline to help decision takers and law makers better understand the context in which their musings will be played out.

That’s what I try to do.

The

Geographer

An Expert View: Renewable Energy

16-17

Autumn 2009

We need an energy plan that adds up The public discussion of energy options tends to be intensely emotional, polarized, mistrustful, and destructive. Every option is strongly opposed: the public seem to be anti-wind, anti-coal, anti-waste-to-energy, anti-tidalbarrages, anti-carbon-tax, and anti-nuclear.

We can’t be anti-everything!

We need an energy plan that adds up. But there’s a lack of numeracy in the public discussion of energy. Where people do use numbers, they select them to sound big, to make an impression, and to score points in arguments, rather than to aid thoughtful discussion.

I would like to help people have honest and constructive conversations about energy. We need to understand how much energy our modern lifestyles use; we need to decide how much energy we would like to use in the future; and we need to choose where we will get that energy from.

I think it sheds light on the scale of the energy problem if we discuss all forms of energy in simple personal units. In my book, Sustainable Energy - without the hot air, I express everything in kilowatt-hours. One kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the electrical energy used by leaving a 40-watt bulb on for 24 hours. The chemical energy in the food we eat to stay alive amounts to about 3 kWh per day. Taking one hot bath uses about 5 kWh of heat. Driving an average European car 50km uses 40 kWh of fuel. With a few of these numbers in mind, we can start to evaluate some of the recommendations that people make about energy. Take, for example, the idea that one of the top ten things you should do to make a difference to your energy consumption is to switch off your cell-phone charger when you are not using it. The truth is that leaving a phone charger switched on uses about 0.01 kWh per day - one hundredth of the power consumed by a lightbulb.

Switching the phone charger off

for a whole day saves the same energy as is used in driving an average car for one second.

Switching off phone chargers is like bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon. I’m not saying you shouldn’t switch it off - do switch if off, but please realise, when you do so, what a tiny fraction it is of your total energy footprint.

In total, the European lifestyle uses 125 kWh per day per person for transport, heating, manufacturing, and electricity.

That’s equivalent to every person having 125 lightbulbs switched on all the time.

And most of this energy today comes from fossil fuels. What are our post-fossil-fuel options?

Among the energy-saving options, two promising technology switches are the electrification of transport (electric vehicles can be about four times as energyefficient as standard fossil-fuel vehicles) and the delivery of winter heating and hot water by electric-powered heat pumps (which can be four times as energy-efficient as standard heaters).

Among all the energy-supply technologies, the three with the biggest potential today are wind power, nuclear power, and solar power – especially solar power in sunnier countries, which Britain could buy via a European electrical super-grid (yet to be built).

As a thought-experiment, let’s imagine that technology-switches and lifestyle changes manage to halve British energy consumption to 60 kWh per day per person.

How big would the wind, nuclear, and solar facilities need to be to supply this halved consumption?

Here is the scale that is required if (for simplicity) we wanted to get one third from each of these sources: we would have to build wind farms with an area equal to the area of Wales; we would have to build 50 Sizewells of nuclear power; and we would need solar power stations in deserts covering an area twice the size of

Greater London.

Of course I’m not recommending this particular mix of options; there are many mixes that add up; and a more detailed story would discuss other technologies such as ‘clean coal’ with carbon capture and storage (as yet, unproven); and energy storage systems to cope with fluctuations of supply and demand.

What about tidal power? What about wave power? What about geothermal energy, biofuels, or hydroelectricity? In a short article, I can’t discuss all the technology options. But the sober message about wind and solar applies to all renewables: all renewables, much as I love them, deliver only a small power per unit area, so if we want renewable facilities to supply power on a scale at all comparable to our consumption, those facilities, whether centralized or decentralized, must be big.

Whatever mix you choose, if it adds up, we have a very large building task. The simple wind/nuclear/solar mix I just mentioned would involve roughly a one-hundred-fold increase in wind power, and a five-fold increase in nuclear power; the solar power in deserts would require new long-distance cables connecting the Sahara to Surrey, with a capacity 25 times greater than the existing England-France interconnector.

It’s not going to be easy to make an energy plan that adds up; but it is possible. We need to get building.

David MacKay Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge.

“Switching the phone charger off for a whole day saves the same energy as is used in driving an average car for one second.”

www.withouthotair.com

Book Club

Higher Than the Eagle Soars

Recommendations

Last Recommended Book.

A Path to Everest

Palestine

Stephen Venables

Joe Sacco

Stephen’s autobiography explores how and why he became a mountaineer. He describes early alpine climbs, winter Scottish journeys, Afghanistan before the Russian invasion, the North Face of the Eiger, and a fantastic journey through the heart of the Karakoram mountains. He revisits his dramatic success without oxygen on the Kangshung Face of Everest, described by Reinhold Messner as the most adventurous in Everest’s history.

As Stephen writes: “Although we didn’t go seeking deliberately an epic near-death experience, it did turn out that way – the ultimate endurance test for which all the previous adventures seemed, retrospectively, to be a preparation.”

Stephen is speaking at seven RSGS Centres in the 2009-10 season.

Joe Sacco’s graphic novel deals with the repercussions of the first Israeli occupations of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The story follows the author through the many refugee camps and towns around Palestine as he tries to gather information, stories and pictures to inspire his graphic novel.

The people Sacco encounters are desperate to tell their stories to a stranger and so it is obvious they have no hopes on political promises. Ultimately Sacco wrote his novel in a comic book form to address the extremes of a war zone and emphasise the plight of individual Palestinians.

Kirsty McCubbin

A Kids’ Guide to Going Green Dave Reay, illustrated

by Alan Rowe

Next Recommended Book.

Maximus, Saviour of Worlds, Protector of Humankind and Chocolate Fanatic, has been given a mission by the President “I loved It’s fiction Mapping theit.Way We Live of Earth: stop the planet from and non-fiction in the heating up, and do it FAST!

Mapping the Way We Live

The Atlas of the Real World

Daniel Dorling, Mark Newman, The Atlas of the Real World Anna Barford

This book (see On the Map, page 8) is recommended by RSGS same book and you Daniel Dorling, Mark Newman andNeil Anna Barford who says: Join Max and his sidekicks Henry member MacKinnon, get to see different and Flora as they become Global- interesting places. It’s “This Atlas at once explains and Warming Warriors, taking on Publication Date: 13 October 2008 our view of the world and challenges funny because Max the Big Climate Culprits one byPrice: £29.95 hardback our disproportionate impact upon it. is always hungry and one. They’ll give you some top I am minded of a line in a Peter it’s not got too many tips about energy conservationThis is one of the most significant works Gabriel song which has become my geographic mantra: “I speak of reference ever published. words or too much at home, in the classroom, in the in pictures not in words”.

Pore over the fantastic cartograms in Here is our planet as you’ve never seen it before: 366 digitally modified science.” garden, from recycling to greedy this resolve to try and make a difference: the UK is, by maps – known as cartograms – depict thebook areas and and countries of the Extent (aged 8) worms to turning off that switch! worldJamie not by their physical size, but turn, by their demographic either too big importance or too wee.”

416pp on a vast range of topics, ranging from basic data on population, health, Please send your reviews of this book to enquiries@rsgs.org or wealth and occupation to how many toys we import, variations in global Size to the RSGS HQ in Perth, marked “Book Review”. house pricing and market hours worked by men vs women.

23.2 x 26.8cm

Created by the team behind worldmapper.org, this compelling reference is an invaluable resource for anyone involved in understanding the new world order: how trends and statistics determine our planet’s future and success.

Illustrations 366 colour maps

Reader Offer - save 30% Binding PLC

Readers of The Geographer can purchase A World Without Bees for

366 cartograms on over 200 separate subjects, • Features £6.99 including p&p, a saving oforganized £3 offinto RRP! 16 easy-to-navigate chapters.

Price £29.95

ISBN 978 0 5004232 514252 Order via www.guardianbooks.co.uk or call 0845 606

• Each cartogram is supported by charts, tables, graphs, diagrams and using the code ‘rsgs’ to redeem this offer a full explanatory commentary.

(RRP £9.99) • The product of years of research and development, the maps and ends 1 December 2009. softwareOffer are made available to the public for the first time.

Contents

You can help us to make people, places & the planet by joining the RSGS. Landconnections Area and Populationbetween • Travel and Transport • Natural Resources Press Office Contact:

and Energy Globalization and Internationalism • Food and Perth, PH1 5LU, or visit www.rsgs.org Please contact us at Lord John• Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Consumables • Minerals: Natural Products and Petrochemicals • Manufactured Gooods and Services • Wealth and Poverty • Employment and Productivity • Housing and Education • Communication and Media

Rowena Stanyer Thames & Hudson Ltd 181A High Holborn

Printed by www.garthland.co.uk on 9Lives Offset 120gsm paper. 100% FSC certified recycled fibre using soya based inks in a 100% chemistry free process.

Your Planet Needs You!

The book’s imagery is vivid and memorable of the landscape and cities of Palestine, punctuated by moments of sardonic humour. Through this imagery Sacco promotes a sense of existence in Palestine; his novel achieves no goal in terms of a journalist searching for a story. Sacco is there to find out why things are the way they are and his art gives rise to details and perspectives usually excluded by regular media coverage.