The Geographer: National Parks (Spring 2012) by Royal Scottish Geographical Society

The

Geographer Spring 2012

The newsletter of the

National Parks

What’s the Point? “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” John Muir

Royal Scottish Geographical Society

In This Edition... •E xpert Views & Opinions: The Development of National Parks •O ff the Beaten Track: Cairngorms to Grand Canyon • L etter from Libya •O n the Map: Mapping Ice in Greenland •B ringing Learning to Life •E xpert View: Wallace Broecker on Temperature & Rainfall •R eader Offer: Scottish Hill Tracks plus other news, comments, books...

RSGS: helping to make the connections between people, places & the planet

The

Geographer

national parks

012 got off to a great start for the Society, with the visit to Perth by our Vice President, HRH The Princess Royal, on 17th January.

The Princess Royal Visits the RSGS

Her Royal Highness toured the Fair Maid’s House and met many volunteers, Patron members, and invited guests. It was very clear that she enjoyed her visit and appreciated the items on display in the Cuthbert Room; these had been specially selected by Margaret Wilkes (Collections Convener) and her colleagues, something that is routinely done where special interests are known beforehand. And, like so many visitors before her, Her Royal Highness wished that she had more time to spend. She was delighted, too, with her gift of a signed copy of Scotland: Mapping the Nation. Later that month, we had a visit from Alex Neil MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, along with his own team and members of Perth & Kinross Council. He was responsible for the Town Centre Regeneration Fund and wished to see how the Fair Maid’s House had turned out, given that the Society had benefited from £450,000 of that funding and that it was one of the few projects that was completed on time and within budget. When I met him in the Explorers’ Room, he described the Fair Maid’s House as “a wonderful resource – we must make it more widely known”. I did ask him not to be too hasty, explaining that the Society is still reliant on volunteers to staff the place. I close, then, by asking those members who can to consider becoming volunteer guides (no experience required). I believe that this facility can help us grow our membership, which is the largest single answer to solving the Society’s finances.

The Princess Royal attended Fred Pearce’s talk, Peoplequake, given in Perth Concert Hall. Her Royal Highness then met Patron members, volunteers and other guests in the Fair Maid’s House, where volunteers explained parts of the Society’s fascinating collection.

Scotland’s seventh city

Barrie Brown Chairman 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. Cover image: Rothiemurchus Forest, Gleann Einich, Cairngorm © Craig Aitchison Masthead image: Culra Bothy, near Dalwhinnie © Mike Robinson

In March, it was announced that city status would be awarded to Perth, making it Scotland’s seventh city, after a sustained campaign by the Provost, the Council and local businesses, including RSGS. In a departure from the original plan, three towns were honoured in recognition of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – Perth, Chelmsford and St Asaph. Her Majesty The Queen, Patron of the RSGS, will be visiting Perth in the summer as part of her UK tour. Congratulations to Perth and the Provost in particular who has championed the campaign throughout.

Fair Maid’s House The RSGS’s public visitor

VOLUNTEERS

–– NEEDED –– and education centre will reopen for the 2012 season on Monday 2nd April 2012. The usual opening times will be Monday to Friday, 12.30pm-4.00pm. Please contact us on enquiries@rsgs.org or 01738 455050 if you are interested in being a volunteer guide.

RSGS: helping to make the connections between people, places & the planet

The

Geographer

1 Spring 2012

NEWS People • Places • Planet Welcoming Our New President Professor Iain Stewart became President of the RSGS at the Society’s AGM in Edinburgh on 9th February, taking over the position from The Earl of Lindsay, who has been President of the Society since 2005, and who now takes up the role of Vice-President. Iain is the 28th President of the RSGS, in a line stretching back to 1885 and including many remarkable figures. Lord Lindsay said “When I took on my role, I knew that the RSGS was one of Scotland’s oldest and finest charities; however, what I did not know was the period of breath-taking and unavoidable change that lay ahead. Now, near the end of my presidential term, it is deeply satisfying to see how much has been achieved. It is a delight to be handing over to a successor whose skills-set make him the right man for the moment as the Society aims onwards and upwards.” Iain is Professor of Geoscience Communication at the University of Plymouth, where his research interests include natural disasters, with a particular focus on past major earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in the Mediterranean regions. He is known for presenting the BBC series Making Scotland’s Landscape and Men of Rock, and his most recent series How to Grow a Planet.

Inspiring People The 2011-12 Inspiring People talks programme has been a highly successful season. We’ve seen great turn-outs for talks, with speakers such as Timothy Allen, Iain Stewart, Rosie SwalePope and Stephen Venables proving to be great draws. © Timothy Allen

Unfortunately, weather stopped play for a few talks in December, with John Beatty and Bruce Gittings unable to give their talks as the extreme winds forced venues in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Airdrie to close. We had a couple of late-minute stand-ins, in the form of wildlife photographer Colin Prior, who shared stunning photographs with the Glasgow audience in February, and walker and broadcaster Cameron McNeish, who gave the Edinburgh crowd a behind-the-camera look at his successful TV series. We are of course looking to continue to build upon our success, so if you have any suggestions of any ‘Inspiring People’ you would like to see talking for the RSGS in our next season, let us know. Email Fraser on fraser.shand@ rsgs.org or get in touch through our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/RoyalScottishGeographicalSociety. The talks continue to be one of the most popular reasons for being a member of the RSGS, so please remember to renew your membership if it expires this summer, and encourage your friends to join too!

Expedition to the Fair Maid’s House

After the AGM, the outgoing and incoming Presidents jointly awarded a number of RSGS Fellowships. Pictured (from left to right) are Don Cameron, one of the world’s leading balloonists; Steve Dowers, a pioneering contributor in the field of geographical information science; David Sugden, Coppock Research Medallist; Lord Lindsay; David Edwards, known to many as a regular and popular speaker for RSGS; Sandy Robertson, a highly regarded geography teacher, principal assessor and RSGS volunteer; Simon Taylor, a leading expert on historical place names in Scotland; Jim Bruce, a long-standing supporter of geography and SAGT, and member of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education; and Professor Iain Stewart.

Coppock Research Medal One of Scotland’s most highly regarded glaciologists received the RSGS’s highest research-specific accolade, with the presentation of the Coppock Research Medal to Professor David Sugden of the University of Edinburgh in February. Dr Sugden has published some 115 research papers, supervised 40 PhD research students, and authored five books, including Glaciers and Landscape, a path-breaking text (reprinted 15 times) that links glaciology with glacial geomorphology. And he remains actively engaged in a range of other roles, such as his recent position as chair of the extensive RSE climate change enquiry.

In February, the Edinburgh University Expedition Society (EXPED) visited the Fair’s Maid House – an educational and enjoyable experience. EXPED is very international, engaging students from Kazakhstan, Poland, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, China, etc, so it was an amazing opportunity to visit the RSGS, one of the leading centres of geography. We received a very warm welcome, and enjoyed a wonderful presentation about the history of the RSGS and its associations with the world’s most famous travellers and explorers, such as Shackleton, Amundsen and Scott. We viewed a series of interactive exhibits illustrating various geographical processes, and then moved to the map room to see a unique collection of travellers’ diaries and old maps dating back to the 15th century. Finally, we walked around the famous RSGS Explorers’ Room, with a beautiful atmosphere which inspired us to pursue our own explorations! With great thanks to the RSGS, , EXPED President

NEWS People • Places • Planet New Fellows in Perth The RSGS move from Glasgow to Perth was made easier by the overwhelming warmth of the people of Perth and especially of Perth & Kinross Council. Support came from many in the Council who shared our joy in seeing an old building given a new lease of life, assisted in providing solutions to storing our collections, and embraced us in their plans for the continued development of the city. By way of thanking the people of Perth, and the many people in the Council who have assisted us, and the one man in particular who has consistently supported us throughout this process, we were delighted to confer the Honorary Fellowship of the RSGS on the Provost of Perth, Dr John Hulbert. He has remained one of our most enthusiastic advocates and embodies the positive support we have received.

Miniature chameleons found in Madagascar

Four new species of tiny leaf chameleons, including Brookesia micra (pictured), have been discovered in both rainforests and dry forests in extreme northern Madagascar by Miguel Vences of the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany and his colleagues. The striking differentiation amongst the miniaturized lizards evolved some 10 to 20 million years ago, the authors suggest in PLOS One (www.plosone.org). With a distribution limited to a very small islet, this species may represent an extreme case of island dwarfism.

Thank you to those members who have contributed books for the RSGS’s biographical library. We are still looking for more biographies and autobiographies of inspirational people who have been associated with the Society (as Medallists, public speakers, or volunteers). We are particularly keen to build up the Society’s collection of books about mountaineers. From Murray to Mallory to Moran, and from Harrer to Hillary to Haston, we have a rich association with many of the leading mountaineers of the past 100 years, so please get in touch if you can help.

Concert for Trees Thank you to those members who supported last year’s Concert for Trees at the Usher Hall, sponsored by the Forestry Commission. One of Scotland’s official celebrations of the UN’s International Year of Forests, the concert highlighted the exciting and creative work being done to preserve and enhance woods and forests in Scotland and worldwide. Organised by Alasdair Guild and violin-maker Steve Burnett, the concert featured the ‘Sherlock Violin’ and the ‘Conan Doyle String Quartet’, instruments built by Steve from a sycamore from Arthur Conan Doyle’s childhood garden. The evening was well received and, after costs, the RSGS and three other nominated charities each received £750 from the proceeds.

Arran Mountain Festival This exciting four day event offers a wonderful variety of guided walks and scrambles throughout Arran’s stunning hills and mountains. There is a wide choice of routes, ranging from wildlife-watching walks along the island’s coastline, to airy exposed scrambles on towering granite ridges. The Festival is an opportunity to meet like-minded people; to discover ‘Scotland in Miniature’; to learn about some of the Gaelic culture; to look across Scotland’s first No Take Zone; or to see where James Hutton, the father of modern geology, in 1787 found his first example of ‘Hutton’s Unconformity’! All walks are led by qualified and experienced mountain guides. See www. arranmountainfestival.co.uk for details.

Loch Lomond National Park Gold Mine Scotland’s first commercial gold mine in Loch Lomond National Park has been granted planning permission, with work expected to start this summer. Mine developers Scotgold Resources plan to extract more than £50m worth of gold and silver from a hillside near Tyndrum. The developers have agreed a £2m financial package with national park officials, largely relating to conservation work, including bonds totalling £1.3m which would allow park officials to enter and restore the site to an agreed standard at any stage of the development, should the operator fail to meet its obligations or abandon the mine, and a commitment from the developer to contribute £325,000 towards other conservation and visitor projects in the national park. It is 500 years since gold was successfully mined in Scotland, but the high price of precious metals now makes the work costeffective. Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford said, “The decision to approve this project is excellent news, and I am delighted that this gold and silver mine will now proceed.” Scotgold Resources have started a comprehensive drilling programme, and reported on 7th March that they had made the “exciting” discovery of an area said to feature “highly anomalous gold and platinum group elements (PGE) with copper, nickel and cobalt”.

national parks

Dr Hulbert’s award (a surprise to him on the night!) was presented in Perth by RSGS VicePresident, HRH The Princess Royal. Her Royal Highness also presented Honorary Fellowships to Fred Pearce, and to RSGS Chairman Barrie Brown and Vice-Chairman Bruce Gittings in recognition of the enormous assistance they have given in delivering the positive transformation that has been so evident over the past three years, in what has been an unprecedented period of change for the Society.

Mountaineering Biographies Sought

The

Geographer

2-3 Spring 2012

NEWS People • Places • Planet Bromine Explosions in Arctic

Rosie Swale-Pope FRSGS Round-the-world runner Rosie Swale-Pope was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Society after her talk in Perth Concert Hall on 7th February. Her talk was well attended, with over 300 visitors, some even turning up in running kit, eager for some tips from the woman who crossed the world on foot. Sadly it was not all good news for Rosie. She had joined us midway through a run from Paris to Rome, which she was forced to abandon on doctor’s advice due to a knee injury that was causing her considerable pain. As if that wasn’t enough, on the way back home to Tenby by train Rosie fell asleep, only to find that her bag was missing when she awoke. We would like to wish her all the best, and welcome her as a Fellow.

To charge and not be charged In March, SSE opened the UK’s first dedicated free electric vehicle charging, hiring and parking facility. The showroom, with an exhibition known as ‘Power of Now’, is at the Scottish Hydro Centre for Renewable Excellence, on the ground floor of SSE’s Waterloo Street building, opposite Glasgow Central Station. Aspiring to attract thousands of visitors and schoolchildren each year, the exhibition reveals an insight into energy technologies. The showroom features six charging car park spaces, electric car hire, and an all-electric test car for anyone to try out. For those who prefer two wheels, electric scooters and bikes are also available to rent. Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said “We aim to be one of Europe’s most sustainable cities and we are working hard to ensure Glasgow becomes cleaner, greener and healthier.” At the launch event he made a surprise announcement, offering to provide free parking for all electric vehicles in Glasgow.

A new study suggests that changes in Arctic sea ice may intensify the release of bromine into the atmosphere, resulting in ground-level ozone depletion and the deposit of toxic mercury in the Arctic.

Marine wildlife and marine energy A new report on marine wildlife in the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters will help to inform marine energy developments in the area. The report was commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), with funding from Marine Scotland. Orkney and the Pentland Firth is one of the richest areas in the UK for whales and dolphins, with 19 species recorded in the past 30 years. “The waters around Orkney and the Pentland Firth have huge potential for marine renewable energy development,” said Karen Hall, marine ecologist with SNH. “Our role is to help the marine energy sector to balance the needs of the industry with those of nature.”

The interaction between salty sea ice, frigid temperatures and sunlight releases bromine into the air, starting a ‘bromine explosion’, a cascade of chemical reactions that rapidly create more bromine monoxide; bromine then reacts with a gaseous form of mercury, turning it into a pollutant that falls to Earth. An international team of scientists combined data from six space agency satellites, field observations and a model of how air moves in the atmosphere, to link Arctic sea ice changes to bromine explosions over the Beaufort Sea. “Shrinking summer sea ice has drawn much attention to exploiting Arctic resources and improving maritime trading routes,” said team leader Son Nghiem of NASA. “But the change in sea ice composition also has impacts on the environment.” Perennial sea ice is being replaced by seasonal ice, which has not had time to undergo processes that drain its salts. Nghiem said that if sea ice continues to be dominated by younger saltier ice, and Arctic extreme cold spells occur more often, bromine explosions are likely to increase. See www.nasa.gov for more information.

New Communications Officer Our new Communications Officer, Fraser Shand, joined the team in January. Fraser is a graduate from the University of Stirling. He previously worked as Communications Officer and Assistant Editor for a nanotechnology magazine and market reports company. Fraser enjoys (or endures) running, and is currently involved in setting up Stirling On Stage, a new drama society in Stirling.

Crackers but no cheese There may still be some geological activity on the moon, according to new images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

Climate Justice Fund Ahead of the Rio+20 Conference in June, the Scottish Parliament has set another global lead on the issue of climate change, with February’s historic debate on climate justice. As probably the first such debate in the world, it resulted in unanimous cross-party support to establish a ‘climate justice fund’. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN Commissioner for Human Rights, commented “Scotland’s commitment to climate justice, and the practical actions it is taking to reach that goal, show the way for all countries.”

The moon’s crust is being stretched, forming minute valleys in a few small areas on the lunar surface. The NASA team believes they may have been created less than 50 million years ago, pretty recent compared to the moon’s age of 4.5 billion years. The images show graben – small narrow trenches, much longer than they are wide, which form when the crust stretches, breaks and drops down along two bounding faults. The broadest graben is about 500m wide by almost 20m deep. “We think the moon is in a general state of global contraction because of cooling of a still hot interior,” said Thomas Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington. © Dan Gallagher, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

NEWS People • Places • Planet Global Partnership for Oceans A coalition headed by the World Bank hopes to raise $1.5 billion in new money from governments, the private sector and other groups to help to improve the world’s oceans. Unveiling the Global Partnership for Oceans in February, the bank’s president, Robert Zoellick, said, “To make our oceans healthy and productive again, we need greater cooperative and integrated action around the globe, so that our efforts add up to more than the sum of their parts.” Many of the Partnership’s targets mirror existing UN goals. They include increasing marine protected areas from less than 2% to 5% of ocean area. “No organization has the ability to single-handedly resolve the challenges facing the world’s oceans,” said Sebastian Troëng, vice-president of marine conservation at environmental group Conservation International. “Working with the World Bank in this Partnership, we bring together governments, businesses, financial institutions and local communities to support healthy and productive oceans in a way we could not have done alone.”

Orkney UHI Conference Heritage provides an important avenue to place-based learning and education for sustainability. An interdisciplinary conference to be held at Orkney College UHI in May will discuss and critically analyse heritage and 29th-30th May sustainability, under the themes: •m edium-long term trajectories (centennial-millennial scales) of key sustainability issues; •h eritage and resource management, sustainable development and participation; • r ole and potential of heritage in education for sustainability and in underpinning sustainability literacy initiatives. See www.uhi.ac.uk/sustainabilityconference for further details.

Spring Clean 2012 Thank you to all of you who have contributed so far to our funding

appeal, which at the time of writing has raised more than £5,000. The RSGS collection is a

The RSGS Spring Clean 2012 Appeal

wonderful archive of geographical treasures and an inspirational resource for our educational activities. Consequently, we need to ensure that it is properly conserved, and where necessary restored, so that items such as the Burn-Murdoch globe or the evocative RSGS ephemera are available for current and future generations to enjoy. RSGS Appeal Envelope 16.indd 1

21/02/2012 15:31

We are very lucky to have an enthusiastic team of expert volunteers who work on the collection every week, but we also need money to buy the equipment they use and the services of professional specialists. It’s not too late to donate to this appeal – simply send a cheque to RSGS HQ, or donate on-line at www.rsgs.org. Thank you.

RSGS Constitution At the last RSGS Council meeting in December 2011, discussions took place around the necessary revisions to the constitution which will finally bring the Society up to date and better reflect its structure. With the roles of the advisory committees being expanded, and the development of the Board’s functions, the main change is that Council in its current form will no longer exist. Instead there was enthusiasm for a broader ‘advisory council’ composed of the members of the main committees, which can be convened to offer guidance and direction to the Society going forwards. On the basis of comments received, and wider discussions with Board, the constitution is currently being redrafted and will be checked for legal compliance before being brought to an Extraordinary General Meeting for approval later in 2012. We very much hope that this will be the last change for some years.

Getting the best from our land Scotland’s first Land Use Strategy, a key commitment of the Climate Change

(Scotland) Act 2009, was laid before the Scottish Parliament in March 2011. The Scottish Government and partners then worked to develop an action plan to outline how the 13 Proposals stated in the Strategy would be taken forward. The Action Plan, published in December 2011, brings together an integrated set of commitments from across Scottish Government policy, all of which contribute to the long-term policy agenda on land use. The Land Use Strategy is perhaps the first of its kind in Europe, and the Action Plan brings together for the first time all the Scottish Government’s land use related commitments under a single unifying framework. See www.scotland.gov.uk/landusestrategy for details.

national parks

Snow Leopards in Bhutan In February, WWF revealed phenomenal camera-trap footage from Bhutan’s newest national park, Wangchuck Centennial Park, giving the first pictorial evidence that snow leopards and their prey species are thriving there. Field biologists from the government of Bhutan and WWF captured over 10,000 images during the survey; the results suggest that the network of protected areas and corridors is helping to link local snow leopard populations, invaluable to ensure their long-term survival in the region.

Snow leopard, Wangchuck Centennial Park, Bhutan, October-November 2011 © Royal Government of Bhutan (DoFPS) and WWF

Snow leopards are elusive and endangered, with only c4,500-7,500 in the wild. It’s unknown how many exist in Bhutan, and where, but it’s critical to find out as threats are mounting – from retaliatory killing from herders, loss of habitat to farmers, poaching for their pelts, and now climate change. Warming is causing tree-lines to ascend, isolating snow leopard populations; if climate change continues unchecked, up to 30% of the leopards’ range could be lost, as their ability to move upslope is limited by oxygen availability.

The

Geographer

4-5 Spring 2012

NEWS People • Places • Planet Online OS County Maps for Scotland

The main map search interface, showing sheet boundaries.

Chris Fleet, Senior Map Curator, National Library of Scotland We have added a further 25,000 Ordnance Survey maps to our Maps of Scotland website (maps.nls.uk). This includes the second edition (1892-1960) 6” and 25” to the mile map series. The first edition (1840s-1880s) maps at both scales are already on our website, so this completes the availability of the OS County Series maps for Scotland, some 40,000 map sheets in total.

A detail of the Holyrood area of Edinburgh in 1931 (OS 25 inch Edinburghshire III.8).

The 6” series covers all of Scotland; the 25” series just covers what OS considered to be the more inhabited regions of Scotland, less than half the total land area. All sheets were revised between 1892 and 1907; thereafter, only urban or rapidly changing areas were updated. The detailed 25” maps allow specific features to be seen more clearly – every road, railway, field, fence, wall, stream and building is shown, even including smaller features such as letter boxes, bollards on quaysides, mile posts, and flag-staffs. Cultivated and uncultivated land is distinguished into different categories, as are different types of woodland.

A detail of the Port Dundas area of Glasgow in 1933 (OS 25 inch Lanarkshire VI.7).

Maps can be searched, or overlaid onto modern Google maps. See maps.nls.uk/os or geo.nls.uk/search for maps and supporting information.

Concerns Over Curriculum for Excellence A major survey of Scotland’s secondary school teachers has raised serious concerns regarding the implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). The survey was carried out by Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, which represents 80% of Scotland’s teachers, including the majority of secondary teachers. Amongst the survey’s key findings are: • Over 70% of respondents are “barely confident” or “not confident at all” of their department’s readiness to deliver the new qualifications on the current timescale. • Over 80% of respondents rated Scottish Government information or support for their work in developing CfE senior phase as “unsatisfactory”. Commenting on the survey results, EIS Education Convener and General Secretary Designate Larry Flanagan, said, “Curriculum for Excellence is too important to be allowed to fail, but the results from the EIS survey clearly show that the current pace of implementation of CfE in the senior phase is putting the programme, and the interests of pupils, at risk.”

Mudmen, Pogla Village, Waghi Valley, Papua New Guinea © Jeremy Hunter

Sacred Festivals Exhibition Plan This summer, if we are successful in raising the necessary funds, we hope to bring to the new RSGS visitor centre our first exhibition – a wonderful selection of images from leading photographer Jeremy Hunter, taken over several years and reflecting some of the world’s most spectacular and important religious festivals. Our intention is to ‘share’ the exhibition amongst a handful of Perth retailers, so that visitors follow a ‘trail’ culminating at the Fair Maid’s House. Please look out for further announcements on the RSGS website.

New Year’s Honours Green RSGS Medals 2012 – Call for Nominations RSGS Medals are awarded for outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge and practice, including in the fields of research, humanitarian service, exploration or adventure, leadership and citizenship, conservation and sustainability, education, cartography and GIS. Please send nominations, including c150-250 words of supporting explanation, to enquiries@rsgs.org, or by post to RSGS HQ in Perth, to arrive by 30th April 2012.

Many congratulations to Brian Cameron and Stuart Haszeldine (University of Edinburgh) for their inclusion in the 2012 New Year Honours list. Brian has been awarded an MBE for “services to science engagement in Scotland”, and Stuart has been awarded an OBE for “services to climate change technologies”. These awards represent recognition of outstanding achievement.

Investment Bank Business Secretary Vince Cable announced in March that the first UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) would be based in Edinburgh (headquarters) and London (main transaction team), enabling the GIB to become a world leader, playing to the strengths of both cities.

I visited Leptis Magna the other day. I didn’t really know how many Roman sites there are in Libya! Apparently it is the largest Roman site outside of Italy. Anyway we had it to ourselves basically.....the potential for tourism in this country is massive.

Opinion: Libya

Letter from Libya Robert Trigwell

“...the optimism of the people is prevalent everywhere...“

After graduating from the University of Edinburgh’s GIS 2010-11 master’s course, I was lucky enough to be offered a six month GIS internship with ACTED, an international NGO, in Libya. Since my arrival in Libya in January 2012, I have been placed in various cities across the North African country’s Mediterranean coast line, in particular Benghazi, Tripoli and Misrata. I am working for the mapping department (called REACH) and am primarily working on two large projects.

This blown-up building, with a tank outside it, is in Tripoli Street in Misrata.

The first is a shelter assessment project, which involves assessing the homes damaged in all the cities that experienced fighting throughout the 2011 revolution. The data is collected by national staff using surveys, inserted into an on-line database (constructed by the REACH team), and then subsequently mapped using GIS software onto satellite images provided by the United Nations satellite group (UNOSAT). The outcome is clear and easily interpretable maps which are distributed to the local government and stake holders interested in the reconstruction of the homes. The second project, still in its infancy, is a nationwide schools assessment, working with the Ministry of Education and UNICEF. Until now, there has been no formal record of the number of schools in the country, the level of education, special needs facilities, water sources and many more important indicators. It is predicted there are around 5,000 schools across the almost 1,800,000km2 country. Our job, as with the shelter assessment, is to go into the field, collect all the data for all 5,000 schools, populate a nationwide database created by the REACH team, and produce local, regional and nationwide maps of the schools and their consequent needs. It is predicted that this project will be finished by May 2012. Honestly, I was more excited and interested in what the war-torn country would be like, than apprehensive before my arrival in the country. And rightly so; indeed, since arriving in Libya on 19th January I have only experienced exceptionally warm welcomes from Libyan people, amongst whom there is a very strong community spirit. In recent weeks there have been a few worrying events, mostly involving different katibas (‘brigades of the revolution’) fighting against one another, for different areas to control within a neighbourhood of a city (in particular Tripoli and Beni Walid). Hopefully, with the elections in June, the country will stabilise and these random events will subside. Only time will tell on this matter!

This is the famous hand in front of which Gaddafi used to give speeches; it is now spray-painted with the Libyan National Transitional Council colours (red, black, green). We had snow in Tripoli the other day, the first time in at least a generation, and amazing the people I am working with.

Despite the ‘random’ events in recent weeks, the optimism of the people is prevalent everywhere and I am very confident that this ‘new country’ will become a fairer and better country for all. If the country stabilises after the June elections, then it is inevitable that Libya will see an influx of tourists, particularly given the wealth of archaeological treasures on display at the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna, Cyrene and Sabratha. Please feel free to contact me at Robert.trigwell@acted.org for more information.

Robert

NATO blown-up tanks on the outskirts of Misrata; there are about 50 of them.

The

Geographer

National Parks Lessons From Around the World and the Situation in Scotland

6-7 Spring 2012

Professor Roger Crofts CBE National parks - 2,781 at the last count - have been established in many countries. Yet they are very variable in their rationale, size, location, purpose and management. In the short articles presented in this edition of The Geographer, a number of international experts explore these variations, identify key issues in relation to climate change, and describe the historical development of national parks in Scotland and assess their effectiveness. There is not a standard international definition of a national park. The International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN), in its seminal guidance published in 2008, classifies the majority of national parks globally as areas for either ecosystem protection or cultural landscape protection, such as the Serengeti in Tanzania, the Yosemite and the other national parks of the North American Rockies, and the Vanoise and other national parks in the European Alps. In Britain, by contrast, national parks are classified as areas of landscape protection in recognition of the values of managed landscapes heavily used for informal recreation.

Triglav National Park, Slovenia: the mountain is depicted on the national flag. © Roger Crofts

The conclusion from this distinction is that a national park is what the nation thinks it is. For example, many are based on mountain areas, as in the parks in England, Scotland and Wales, or the iconic mountains of the Tatra of Slovakia or the Triglav of Slovenia (a key symbol on the national flag), where they are a key element of the national cultural heritage. In the

Doa Inthanon National Park, Thailand: cultural monuments and vegetable growing by local people. © Roger Crofts

establishment of national parks in Denmark a few years ago, it was clearly recognised by the government that national desire rather than any ecological or environmental construct was the driving force in bringing in the new system. This association of national park establishment with the feeling of nationhood is clearly the case in Scotland. Here, after virtually a century of lobbying by highly informed sources, including the RSGS, it was ten days after the referendum vote in favour of the establishment of a Scottish Parliament that the political leaders formally announced

that national parks would be established. Whilst there are many and varied opinions, many of the national park articles included here are written by members of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, a global expert network on all aspects of the establishment, management, science, culture, governance and evaluation of all types of protected areas, including nature reserves, landscapes, and national parks. See www.iucn.org/wcpa (and in particular Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories). Data on protected areas, including national parks, can be found on www.protectedplanet.net, the excellent web site developed and managed by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge.

Rila National Park, Bulgaria: mountain recreation and water extraction side by side. © Roger Crofts

“There is not a standard international definition of a national park.”

Expert Views: National Parks

Why do we have national parks? Adrian Phillips, Director General of the Countryside Commission 1981-1992, and Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas 1994-2000

“...they sustain the human spirit the world over.”

It was a Dunbar-born man, John Muir, who inspired the first national parks movement, but in the USA. His was a powerful influence in the creation of national parks around the world. Muir’s vision was “wild is superior”, and his idea of preserving pristine nature against the forces of destruction was behind many early national parks in the USA and in other countries settled by Europeans in the 19th century: Canada, Australia and New Zealand. All these countries had begun to create their own national parks, nationally owned and managed, well before 1900. But as the national park idea travelled around the globe, it was adapted to serve different ends and took different forms. In Africa and India, it was at first more often about creating game reserves for ‘charismatic megafauna’. Big game hunters, like Jim Corbett or Frederick Selous, underwent Pauline conversions and set up refuges to save the animal species they had once shot. The conservation of nature was another driver, and by the start of the 20th century there were movements in many countries which led to legislation that helped set up nature reserves to protect habitats and individual species. In Europe especially, but also in Japan, livedin, working landscapes were often the focus of conservation effort. In the more recent past, parks, reserves and many other specially protected places have been created ever more rapidly, and in nearly every country. They include the vast National Park of Northeast

Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia: a coastal and marine national park. © Roger Crofts

Greenland (covering 973,000km2, bigger than 163 countries), huge marine areas like the Great Barrier Reef, and many more places, big and small. They protect: every kind of terrestrial, freshwater, marine or other habitat; many individual species; many kinds of humanised landscapes; and a great variety of geological and geomorphological features. They support tourist economies and scientific research; they sustain rivers, store carbon, regulate the climate and protect against flooding; they are the homelands for indigenous peoples; and they sustain the human spirit the world over. They are run by national, provincial, regional and local governments; by NGOs and private groups; and by local communities and indigenous peoples (whose homelands protect nature in large areas of Canada, Australia and South America). There are now hundreds of thousands of such places, totalling about 12% of the Earth’s land surface, though a far smaller proportion of the marine environment. Collectively, we call them ‘protected areas’. Because they have been created for so many different purposes, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has devised a global system to categorise them according to their primary management objectives. This helps dialogue between countries about conservation, makes sure that we compare like with like, and encourages a range of conservation approaches. The system has six categories of management: (Ia) strict protection and (Ib) wilderness; (II) protection of large ecosystems, with opportunities for visitors;

(III) protection of natural monuments; (IV) nature reserves; (V) protected landscapes; and (VI) sustainable use areas. Now we come to a confusing point. A Category II protected area is identified in this international system as a ‘National Park’, but the term is sometimes used differently at the national level. In the UK, for example, national parks are protected, working landscapes, and not largely unaltered ecosystems as they usually are in most other countries. Our national parks are in fact Category V protected areas, or ‘protected landscapes’. So when we speak of ‘national parks’ at the international level, they are one of six different kinds of protected areas reflecting the full range of management objectives. But when the words are used in the national context they can mean something different. Yet there is a common thread binding together all the places that are called ‘national parks’ in every country. They are all nationally iconic places that enjoy the highest esteem in a country’s conservation efforts. It is in that sense that they are national; and they are all parks, because they need to be protected and respected.

The

Geographer

8-9 Spring 2012

National Parks - making our future better Gordon Dickinson FRSGS

There are national parks in almost all countries in the world, reflecting each nation’s interpretation of the concept, and its distinctive environment, biota and heritage. The world’s first national park, Yellowstone in the USA, was created to protect a large tract of wilderness from the advancing frontier. The federal government was persuaded to create the protected area in 1872, remarkably less than a decade after the civil war and at a time of breakneck expansion of ‘civilisation’ westwards. This was a bold and far sighted decision. Yellowstone is about one-eighth the area of mainland Scotland, rich in wildlife with stunning scenery. Untouched by development, it had however been used by indigenous Americans for millennia.

Their landscapes bear witness to use as hunting reserves, with extensive range lands for sheep and cattle. They have resident populations now often working in local tourism. They have extensive areas of wild land, but no true wilderness. Landscapes are often aesthetically beautiful, but also have major heritage value for the nation. These landscapes represent the interplay between humans and their environment that is so much of our national story. Reconciliation of tensions is a major part of the work of the parks’ governing authorities. However, it is worth reflecting upon the fact that such tensions existed long before parks were created. Two examples illustrate the challenges that face Scottish national parks.

This model was a catalyst for the Loch Lomond, readily accessible establishment of national parks from much of Scotland’s central all over the world. belt, is a Many of these base for are of global several conservation thousand importance. power The UK was a boats. late starter; the This is a first national popular park in England activity (Peak District with Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA: part of one National Park) visitors of the world’s largest volcanic craters. © Roger Crofts was established and of in 1951, and the first in Scotland economic importance to the (Loch Lomond & The Trossachs local population. Conflicts may National Park) in 2002. arise between this use and In the UK, as in other countries in Europe in which national parks were created during the 20th century, there were factors that promoted a different kind of park from those in the USA. The growing interest that the burgeoning middle classes in the expanding cities took in nature and the countryside, and the transport means to make visits, was important. Slowly at first, but gaining momentum apace from mid-century, came public concern about the welfare of natural ecological and environmental systems, a concern supported by rapidly increasing scientific knowledge. These are the bases on which our national park system has developed. The reality of our Scottish parks is that they are complex in origin.

other resource uses, such as management of the water body for public water supply, and between boat users and other recreational users of the loch, such as anglers or shore-based visitors seeking tranquillity. The park authority has tackled the issues by progressive development of by-laws, including some protective zoning of the water body. The by-laws were developed through extensive consultation with all parties concerned about Loch Lomond. Subsequent evaluation indicates that most park users support the introduction of the by-laws. Cairngorms National Park includes extensive tracts of wild land; wild land, once lost, is very difficult to recreate. Even if they are not wilderness in the

American national park sense, these areas are of genuinely international conservation and heritage importance. Yet there are even conflicts between different dimensions of conservation. The drive to generate the power upon which our civilisation depends from renewable sources requires that the power must go to where it is needed. The location of the new Beauly to Denny power line has attracted much controversy. Though it skirts the park area and there will be actual removal of some lines within the park, adjacent areas will be affected by ‘super pylons’. In the past, Scotland’s rural resources were managed, with the best of intentions, in a piecemeal manner. National parks, with their unitary planning responsibilities and extensive network of liaison, are well placed to protect our environment whilst serving local communities and national concerns, and thereby facilitating integrated resource management. However, perhaps the real point of national parks is that they can help educate and point the way forward for the whole nation. National parks can help all of us to understand the complex responsibilities we have to our environment and ecosystems, to all of our people and to generations to come. National parks are as much about making our future better as about protecting our remarkable heritage.

“These landscapes represent the interplay between humans and their environment that is so much of our national story.”

Black grouse lek, Speyside © Desmond Dugan www. abernethyimages.co.uk

Expert Views: Scottish National Parks

Scottish national parks: overstepping the mark? Professor Roger Crofts CBE, Chief Executive of Scottish Natural Heritage 1992-2002

“Political correctness, rather than sticking to the basic role, has become a problem.”

National parks are a relatively new entrant to safeguarding and celebrating some of Scotland’s highest value landscapes. How successful have they been? They were sanctioned by Donald Dewar immediately after the referendum in 1997 to establish the Scottish Parliament. A political moment had arrived. Dewar asked Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to develop proposals for consultation. The legislation crucially defined the purposes, powers and governance. Novel measures were a socio-economic aim to support communities, but with

Loch An Eilein, Rothiemurchus © Ann Glen

an overriding duty to ensure that conserving and enhancing the natural and cultural heritage was safeguarded when it came to any conflict. Marine areas could be classified as national parks: this was unusual, as other countries needed separate legislation. And the governance system, largely modelled on national parks in England and Wales, had an added item of election of five members by local plebiscite. Selection criteria were developed and rigorously applied by SNH

with a great deal of national and local consultation. The two most obvious areas were selected: Cairngorms and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs, but the boundaries of each were subject to political manipulation. The extension to Cowal to satisfy political demands from the junior coalition partner, and the determination not to extend to Highland Perthshire to keep an opposition party out of play, were examples. The latter exclusion was overcome when the SNP came to power as a minority administration. The governance system was originally 25 members, later reduced to 19 for Cairngorms and 17 for Loch Lomond & The Trossachs following a review. Both the original size and the reduced size are far too large for effective governance, but are a reflection of the perceived overriding need for local representation at the expense of national overview. The development of national park plans was an innovation set out in the legislation in the light of best practice in other parts of the world. The plans were well drawn up by the earlier working parties, and there was unnecessary duplication of effort by the new bodies. But, at least, there is a clear sense of mission and purpose in the plans, they have been up-dated, and they are being reviewed to meet changing circumstances. The issue of responsibility for determining applications under the town and country planning system has been fudged, with Cairngorms having full powers and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs only advisory powers.

Sense of purpose is one of the most critical aspects of the two parks. The benefits to the management of natural heritage assets from their establishment, other than the work by land owners, are not obvious. Decisions made are highly dubious and arguably a breach of the legislation, especially the approval of a new village opposite Aviemore and the failure to stop the Cononish gold mine development near Tyndrum. The park authorities have not followed the original proposition to add value, but have strayed into other territory which is properly the responsibility of other public sector bodies. A senior member of the Cairngorms authority regards affordable rural housing as its primary concern! Extraordinary, when that is the responsibility of the local council. Political correctness, rather than sticking to the basic role, has become a problem. The level of resources granted to the two parks, at £12.4m, is much higher than needed for the concerting and co-ordinating role, and too many staff are employed. As a result, there are no government resources for other novel mechanisms such as maintenance of the UNESCO Geoparks (Lochaber has folded), and for new initiatives such as the proposed Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere. Should there be more national parks? The Scottish Council of National Parks says yes. National politicians of all parties remain implacably opposed to more than two.

My current assessment is: Positive

Negative

Jury out

• comprehensive legislation process for extensions and new parks

• over resourced in cash and staff • outmoded governance style

• r eal added value beyond existing organisations

• large areas designated

• inadequate partner engagement

• value for public money invested

• multi-dimensional approach

• stray beyond core purpose

• clear plans

•w eak in resisting inappropriate development

• i mprovements in the management of the natural heritage

The

Geographer

10-11 Spring 2012

Scottish national parks: why it took so long

Bob Aitken, Former Board Member, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority

In the 1990s, Scotland was almost alone in having no national parks a sharp irony when John Muir had led the development of national parks in the USA a century before. That failure was not for want of attempts dating back a century, in which the RSGS played a part – an extended saga of tension and conflict between public and private interests, national aspirations and local sectionalism, conservation and rural development. National parks have been part of the historic wrangling over the legal and moral ownership and appropriate use of land, particularly in the Highlands, and political power struggles. Each halting step along the way to the designation of Scotland’s first national parks highlights the key obstacles. That the classic US park model – protection of undeveloped state-owned land – had scant practical relevance to Scotland was recognised early on by James Bryce, who campaigned actively from the 1880s for public access to mountain and moorland, and for landscape protection. An admirer of Muir, Bryce nonetheless identified the hegemony of private sporting estate landownership, with strong support in the House of Lords, as a virtually insuperable barrier to the creation of Scottish national parks along American lines. Advocacy for parks has often lacked force and clear direction. The first specific lobbying for a national park in the Cairngorms in the 1920s and ‘30s was led by mountaineers and amenity groups, but never gelled into a coherent campaign. In the 1930s, the nascent National Trust for Scotland opened a new conservation ‘front’ by buying

land of potential national park status in Glen Coe. The emergence of a ‘mixed-economy’ mode of protection by conservation charities may have ensured localised protection and effective management, but it arguably blunted the edge of campaigning for a concerted approach to achieving national park status over wider areas. National parks for Scotland featured in the dynamic of postwar reconstruction. The Ramsay Committee on National Parks in Scotland, recommending five parks, reported in 1947 when the ‘heroic phase’ of hydro development was gathering pace across the Highlands. The Committee’s case study of Glen Affric, by accommodating the new dams, sought to demonstrate that parks could combine conservation with the promotion of tourism and appropriate economic development. Nevertheless, Ramsay’s proposals met with vituperative resistance from landowners and from local authorities protective of their autonomy, and were stymied by a lack of political will and resources. At that same time, the transfer of ‘scientific’ conservation of species and habitats to the new Nature Conservancy removed an important strand of concern and significance from national parks. From its inception in 1967, the Countryside Commission for Scotland made periodic tentative explorations into this field, in studies of ‘Special Parks’ and ‘popular mountain areas’. By the 1990s, the upsurge in outdoor recreation and of voluntary bodies campaigning for conservation of mountains and wild land – some venturing into land acquisition,

often with direct or indirect government funding – created fresh pressure for consideration of park status. An adroit shift of focus by advocates towards sustainability helped to allay fears that designation would constrain economic development. A reluctant Government set up partnership bodies to review management of the two most frequently mentioned candidate areas, the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs – bodies widely acknowledged to be merely a diversionary tactic. The devolution settlement of 1998 proved crucial to the achievement of national parks. The necessary statute was pushed through on a tide of national aspiration and the assurance that Scottish parks would be specifically tailored to ‘unique’ Scottish circumstances. The disempowerment of the House of Lords under devolution fatally weakened landowning objections; the structuring of the Park Boards, with a strong emphasis on local representation, including a new directly elected component, disarmed local sectionalism. The two Parks still demonstrate the tension between the protection of public goods and private interests, between national aspirations for the conservation of landscape and nature conservation and local concerns for social and economic development – persistent themes of the conflict that so long delayed the creation of national parks in Scotland.

“The first specific lobbying for a national park in the Cairngorms in the 1920s and ‘30s was led by mountaineers and amenity groups...”

Loch Morlich © Cairngorms National Park Authority

Off The Beaten Track: Cairngorms

The Big Heart of the Cairngorms Cameron McNeish

to a landscape that is as bare and desolate as any. This is the very roof of Scotland, with the biggest areas in the UK over 2,000ft, 3,000ft and 4,000ft, and its redeeming qualities are well known to those who enjoy the tangle of wind on an upturned face.

The Lairig Ghru from Macdui, flanked by Carn a’Mhaim and The Devil’s Point © Cameron McNeish

“The heart of the Cairngorms is, for me, Beinn Macdui, the second highest mountain in the UK after Ben Nevis...”

Beinn Macdui from Braeriach © Cameron McNeish

The call of the Cairngorms’ high tops grows strong in the spring, when the high recesses of the plateau are still patchworked in snow, and the song of the cock snow bunting delights those who love these empty uplands. It’s at times like these we realise the importance of national park designation for an area like this. It sometimes feels as though our two Scottish National Park boards are hell bent on development, and while this is an important factor in the ‘mix’ of park aims and aspirations, surely the most fundamental aspect of national park status is the protection of the landscapes, the natural features and the wildlife that contribute to make the place special in the first place? And it’s those aspects of our national parks that make the Cairngorms and the Trossachs special, the characteristics that make up the heart of two glorious regions of Scotland. The heart of the Cairngorms is, for me, Beinn Macdui, the second highest mountain in the UK after Ben Nevis, a sprawling high level tract of scree and stone, a place of constant surprises. Arctic plants, turgid with new growth in the spring and early summer, create a splash of colour amongst the slate-grey screes, bringing new life

Best to go there on a day of spring showers, when light and shade contrast sharply and the colours change constantly. I had chosen a marvellous route to enjoy the spectacle of it all – a tour of the central massif of the Cairngorms, starting at Linn of Dee near Braemar, visiting the pine-scented and deer-haunted Glen Luibeg, climbing the long Sron Riach shoulder of Beinn Macdui to its spacious summit, touching the edge of the crags and cliffs of Coire Sputan Dearg, and admiring the spectacular Arctic setting of Loch Etchachan, before heading off down the long ridge of Derry Cairngorm back to Glen Luibeg. It’s a big day, not far short of 20 miles, but the walking distance can be reduced by riding a mountain bike up the four-miles track from Linn of Dee to Derry Lodge. Beyond Glen Luibeg, the Sron Riach ridge of Ben Macdhui, the brindled nose, climbs steadily all the way to its conical peak, descends slightly, then climbs again onto the bare, wind-scoured east slopes of Macdui. Wide, empty slopes lead to the broad summit where a view indicator suggests you can see both Morven in Caithness and the Lammermuirs in the Borders. Don’t take too long enjoying the views, for there’s still a long way to go! Head back down to the edge of Coire Sputan Dearg and enjoy this high walkway round the corrie rim. Steep cliffs drop away below you, sweeping down to the verdant green

of the Luibeg pines, and on your other side the Arctic splendour of Coire Etchachan is the setting for the finest loch in the Cairngorms – Loch Etchachan whose shores caress the 3,000ft contour. The tor-studded whaleback of Beinn Mheadhoin looms beyond the loch, and away across the deep chasm that holds Loch Avon rises Cairn Gorm itself, its glaciated cliffs forming an acute angle with the gentler swells of its summit slopes. From the shallow col below Creagan a’ Choire Etchachan, the long ridge of Derry Cairngorm forms a highway to the south, dropping first to another, grassy, col before rising in slopes of scree and boulders to the rocky summit, yet another magnificent viewpoint. To the east,

Loch Etchachan © Cameron McNeish

the green and brown sweep of the Moine Bhealaidh flows onto the rounded slopes of Beinn a’ Bhuird and the empty miles of the Forest of Glenavon. It’s all downhill now, but it’s a rocky course that demands considerable attention before you can begin to relax. The broad ridge runs south before sweeping to the south-west towards Glen Luibeg and a gentle wander beside the burn back to Derry Lodge. This is a day to linger over, returning in the cool of the evening with memories of massive skies, Cyclopean mountain architecture, secretive lochans and the haunting, joyous call of the cock snow bunting still ringing in your ears.

The

Geographer

Off The Beaten Track: Grand Canyon

12-13 Spring 2012

Why everyone needs a Grand Canyon David Edwards FRSGS

The party of British pensioners were very disappointed. “We’ve saved for years for this holiday and we can’t even see the Grand Canyon”. Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona seems the epitome of wilderness to many, yet on days in the summer when the wind comes from the southwest, pollution from southern California can obscure the view across its ten miles. The National Park Service has two main remits: to make the area enjoyable for visitors, and to safeguard it for the future. They realise that to achieve this they may have to push for environmental changes outside the Park boundary and, critics would argue, therefore outside their jurisdiction, but pollution is not an observer of man-made boundaries and the Park therefore monitors particulates in the air.

The reduced sediment load (by 90%) and changed flow regime of the river (there are no spring floods any more) have caused beaches and sand bars to erode, and have allowed the alien invader tamarisk to choke the banks.

On the geology walks, visitors can Five million visitors a year can learn that the Earth is 4,500 million also make preservation of the years old, but compressed Park difficult to achieve. They can into a one year time-scale, the present a formidable pressure, Canyon only which has forced the formed about Service to draw up lunch-time on an ambitious General 31st December, Management Plan to, and the amongst other things, industrial society restrict vehicles in which affects it the Park and provide came into being more public transport. two seconds Coupled with this, before the end though, is a realisation of the year. This that visitors can also highlights the become powerful allies rapid impact for the good of the Park. that the first The extensive range of Tamarisk (salt cedar), an alien invader. species on Earth free nature walks and that can deliberately change its ranger programs allows the Park environment has had on the planet. Service to introduce visitors to Carefully presented programs a range of environmental issues educate visitors almost without which they may not have thought them realising it, turn them into impinged on their lives, including friends of the Park, and ensure pressure on natural resources, they will take an interest when they disruption of wildlife, and the hear of threats to it. Threats to the speed of species extinction. funding of interpretive programs An example of the latter is the for visitors have therefore been controversial Glen Canyon dam, strongly opposed: visitors would built upstream in 1963: what many then look, photograph, and return people think of as the ‘wild’ white home having learnt little of why it water Colorado River is in reality is so special, but more importantly tamed and unnatural. Below the what it can teach us about the dam, the river stays cool all year interconnectedness of people round, thanks to the dam releasing and natural systems. Visitors who deep, cold water from the reservoir thought the Canyon was just a hole behind it. This has affected native in the ground have the opportunity fish species, which have lost the to realise that it is very much trigger to breed as the river no affected by humanity’s activities. longer warms up in the summer.

It is almost the world and its challenges in microcosm. It is not enough to admire nature; one has to be able to learn from it, because with understanding and appreciation comes concern. It is important to comprehend natural beauty and to draw out the lessons it shows us. Specialness can be eroded away if no-one realises it is special. Environmental interpretation therefore becomes an essential aid to survival. And not just for a national park. A National Park Service ranger gives a talk.

Dana Butte in the evening light.

“It is not enough to admire nature; one has to be able to learn from it...”

Expert View: Cairngorms National Park

Cairngorms National Park - a park for all Duncan Bryden, Board Member, Cairngorms National Park Authority

“...this Cairngorms ‘man-scape’ is wild but not a wilderness, and it is assuredly multipurpose.”

Canoeing on the River Spey © Ann Glen RSPB Loch Garten Visitor Centre © Ann Glen

Cairngorm Mountain Railway © Ann Glen

A 2011 VisitScotland survey suggested 97% of visitors would recommend the Cairngorms National Park as a holiday destination, three quarters said they would return soon, and 90% were satisfied with their visit. Not put off by high petrol prices and pressure on family budgets, clearly many people get the point. Frederick Olmsted, designer of New York’s Central Park, articulated the social and cultural purposes of the world’s first ever national park in Yosemite. “They should be managed for the use of the whole body of the people forever”, he said in his 1865 report to the California Parks Commission. I like to think the late Donald Dewar had these ideals in mind when, in 1998, he announced the first set of legislation for the new Scottish Parliament. But, welcoming crossparty support in Holyrood for a new park in the Cairngorms was one thing, convincing sceptical communities and the wider public was another! Demands and imperatives on park purposes from worried issue groups affirmed the Cairngorms were ‘contested mountains’, as Robert Lambert described in his book of the same name. Groaning under a plethora of specialist designations, including Scotland’s largest National Nature Reserve, Cairngorm hillsides also gathered water to supply renewable energy to Scotland’s cities. Conservationists campaigned vigorously in favour of wildlife, and

remote bureau/technocrats making science-based decisions were seen as unsympathetic to local needs. Land managers muttered darkly about further designations imposing unreasonable constraints. People plainly think it is good to live in the Park and, unlike much of rural Scotland, the Park population has increased. Even young people are moving here to live and work. Every year, over 1.3 million visitors enjoy outdoor pursuits, with affluent walkers and skiers snapping up surplus rural properties for holiday homes, as traditional farming and estate activities shed labour and capitalise on vacant properties and sites. The ‘wildest’ areas in the Park are still the desolate and edgy Arctic alpine plateaus where, despite modern equipment, for an unwary few each year caught in an infamous Cairngorm ‘winter hoolie’, safety is never reached. So, worked and enjoyed for centuries from river to hilltop, for fish, timber, deer, grouse, sheep, whisky, tourists, power and now conservation, this Cairngorms ‘man-scape’ is wild but not a wilderness, and it is assuredly multipurpose. What then is the point of a national park? Dewar promised Scottish solutions to distinct Scottish needs. Intent on writing a new chapter in Scotland’s rural history, nation building politicians strode into this messy and contested ground. Uniquely, they gave weight to social and economic issues, to be considered collectively alongside environmental concerns. Radically, some members of the Park’s governing board were to be elected by local residents, acknowledging a demand for local influence on decisions – a first for any quango. Ethically, “A park for all – not just the fit and the few” said Andrew Thin, the

National Park farmers. © Cairngorms National Park Authority

first convenor, in 2003. The Cairngorms are home to 17,000 people and are crossed by 10,000 vehicles each day on the A9. Yet by supporting 25% of the UK’s most threatened species, and with over 50% of its area covered by Natura sites, biodiversity is a massive priority in the Park. It underpins people’s quality of life and is stewarded carefully. Importantly, the staff and board of the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) are not ‘the national park’. That privilege is afforded to the iconic landscape, the people, businesses and land managers who live and work there. The CNPA relies on working with a broad spectrum of partners to help deliver agreed outcomes and to run services like Park Rangers. Does the Cairngorms National Park work? Neat measures of success will always remain elusive, I suspect, and the ‘contested’ tag will be omnipresent when a much loved sensitive area is required to deliver multiple objectives. Squeezed budgets have driven many other older national parks to knock on Cairngorms’ door, enquiring how their park services could be delivered through community engagement and partnership. The world has changed dramatically since John Muir. In 2016, the US National Park Service is 100 years old. Visitor numbers are well down and Americans are losing interest in their national parks and may become less willing to pay for them through taxes. Their second century relaunch embraces job creation, boosting local economies and contributions to society, alongside stewardship, as central roles for the 394 American national parks. I would suggest the Cairngorms got there first. I am sure Olmsted and Dewar would approve.

The

Geographer

Opinions: Cairngorms National Park

14-15 Spring 2012

Scottish National Parks - a test case Bill McDermot, Chair, Scottish Campaign for National Parks

We will shortly know, courtesy of the Court of Session, whether or not the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) was exercising due diligence in adopting its Local Plan in 2010, by allowing the building of 950 houses, mostly in Badenoch and Strathspey. The appellants to the Judicial Review (Cairngorms Campaign, Badenoch & Strathspey Conservation Group, Scottish Campaign for National Parks) certainly feel strongly that the CNPA’s primary duty to uphold the conservation value of the National Park was set aside in its determination to support its other duty to promote the social and economic development of the area, even though the legislation expressly states that where there is conflict between the two, the conservation of the National Park must come first.

affordable housing for sale or rent. The problem is that the CNPA seeks to deliver such housing on the back of allowing large-scale developers to build open market houses for large profits to enable a proportion of lower profit, affordable housing to meet local needs. In practice, that means providing a total supply of new housing amounting to three times more than is necessary for the maintenance of the rural population. What this policy actually amounts to is selling off the environment of the National Park to subsidise housing.

“...the definition of sustainable development, as currently used, is too vague to live up to the aims of the legislation.”

It is accepted by all sides that we need thriving local communities in the National Park. By definition that means a good spread of age classes to maintain functioning schools and local services, and the only way that young local people can buy into that is through

Yet Category V parks (cultural landscapes), in the definition set by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), should be at the forefront of humans coming to terms with a ravaged planet. All around we hear of declining biodiversity, overfishing, species extinction. Clearly we need to stabilise the situation with immediate effect, and we probably can only do that through securing large areas which remain unexploited. But we

Cairngorms National Park -

also need to find new ways of living within the limits of our resources, and maintaining and enhancing what we have of conservation value. This will require radical thinking, not business as usual. If we are not careful, such examples as we have of the treatment of sustainable development in Scottish national parks risk bringing the whole notion of the Scottish model of national parks into disrepute. Clearly the definition of sustainable development, as currently used, is too vague to live up to the aims of the legislation. National park authorities, above all others, should be teasing out this issue of sustainability rather than acting as enterprise agencies, which, in the case of the CNPA, sees it actually advocating a new town of 1,500 houses at An Camas Mor. It would also help if they could stop describing damaging housing developments as enhancing the conservation value of the area! What nonsense!

Cairngorms National Park entry marker © Ann Glen

too big for its own good?

Ann Glen After lengthy consultations and public debate dating back through the 20th century, the Cairngorms National Park was established in September 2003. It covered 1,467 square miles, being the biggest in Britain and twice the size of Scotland’s first National Park, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs (LLTNP). Whereas the local authorities associated with LLTNP were content to hand over planning control to the Park Authority, the Highland Council and its partner authorities in Moray, Aberdeenshire and Angus were not willing to do so. Boundaries were also an issue – some estate owners, fearing more bureaucracy, hoped that their land would be ‘outside’ the Park. In 2010, after much campaigning, the

boundary in highland Perthshire was extended, thereby increasing the Park by 20%. Cairngorms National Park’s Category V status allows for ‘sustainable development’, recognising the Park’s farmed and managed countryside, with villages in which tourism is encouraged. Inevitably the Park Authority faces controversy over appropriate developments, about where and how much. The lack of social housing is a vexed issue; second homes make up one-third of the housing stock in many villages where local people are priced out by incomers. Although the Cairngorms National Park cannot be compared in scale with Canada’s parks, the policies in the Banff

National Park regarding housing are instructive. In Banff itself, houses are only available for those who work there or have family rights to residence. Second homes are kept outside the Park at Canmore. This contains the size of Banff and prevents the destruction of its wilderness setting. There is a view that the Cairngorms National Park Authority favours development over conservation. The Park needs our care, protection and vigilance.

“...second homes make up one-third of the housing stock in many villages.”

Expert View: National Parks

National parks as

carbon stores

Nigel Dudley, Equilibrium Research

“...some of their components, such as peat deposits in the Cairngorms, may have previously unrecognised values...” Further Reading Dudley et al, 2009. Natural Solutions: Protected areas helping people cope with climate change.

National park authorities from the Canadian tundra to the Colombian rainforest are recognising that the land and water under their management can play a key role in combating climate change. Protected areas, such as national parks, help in three ways: by storing carbon in vegetation and soils; by sequestering additional carbon from the atmosphere; and by securing the ecosystem services we need to survive current and future global warming. All these benefits come from healthy, functioning natural ecosystems. Forests and mangroves, peat, wetlands, grassland, seagrass beds and coastal kelp forests all store significant amounts of carbon. Furthermore, this is not just a static store: natural ecosystems sequester an additional 4.7 gigatonnes of carbon annually. Unfortunately, their ability to store and capture carbon is reduced by continuing loss of natural vegetation, which contributes almost a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Even if these ecosystems are replaced by crops or timber plantations, the ‘pulse’ of carbon released when they are destroyed can take hundreds of years to recover. Repeated research shows that protected areas are the single most effective tool to slow, halt and reverse ecosystem loss. Well-

managed protected areas that were originally set aside for biodiversity and landscape values are now seen as contributing enormously to climate change response strategies. In Canada, an estimated 4,432 million tonnes of carbon is stored in 39 national parks; protected areas in Bolivia, Venezuela and Mexico store over four billion tonnes of carbon; while protected areas and indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon are expected to prevent around 670,000km2 of deforestation by 2050, representing eight billion tonnes of avoided carbon emissions. Although economic equivalences are difficult to calculate, each of these carbon stores is worth tens of billions of dollars. However, climate is already changing at an accelerating rate. While it is critical to reduce carbon emissions, it is also important to manage the inevitable changes in ways that cause as little hardship as possible. Natural ecosystems are also cost-effective vehicles for providing many services needed under climate change. Mangroves, coral reefs, coastal marshes and dunes all provide a living wall against sea-level rise, storm damage and ocean surges; while forests stabilise landslides and buffer against floods; and fragile dryland vegetation helps to prevent desertification and dust storms. National and municipal governments around the world are increasingly factoring ecosystem protection into disaster reduction plans. Similarly, conserving natural vegetation is often a cost effective way of ensuring a pure supply of drinking water, and some ecosystems (particularly cloud forests and Latin American paramos

vegetation) can also increase total flow. Marine protected areas protect breeding areas for fish and ensure sustainability of fishing stocks, thus protecting the major protein source for many poor coastal communities, while terrestrial protected areas in centres of crop diversity conserve rare crop wild relatives needed for agricultural breeding. All these services depend on ecosystems remaining in good condition, and protected areas again provide powerful tools to achieve this. National park managers are embracing these wider functions, and neighbouring human communities are starting to recognise the values of protected areas that many once regarded as a waste of valuable resources. What does this mean for Scotland’s national parks? It suggests that some of their components, such as peat deposits in the Cairngorms, may have previously unrecognised values that require specialised management approaches. It means that the economics of some ecological restoration, of Caledonian pine forests for instance, may be transformed once forests gain additional values through their carbon sequestration. And it implies that, in the future, local communities may come to value ecosystems in protected areas as much for their climate benefits as for their traditional values, such as farming, hunting or tourism. Integrating these newly recognised values into existing land management systems will need careful planning and much negotiation. Scotland’s national parks could provide an ideal laboratory for management responses that may be needed more generally in the future.

The

Geographer

On The Map

Times Atlas New Map of Greenland Keith Moore, Head of Cartographic Services, Collins Geo

Fresh data from previously unavailable sources has enabled the Times Atlas team to produce the most comprehensive, up-todate account of the extent of permanent ice cover in Greenland, in a new insert for the Atlas. It became apparent on publication of the 13th edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World in November 2011, that we at the Times Atlas had not represented the permanent ice cover in Greenland fully and clearly. This section of the map did not meet the usual high standards of accuracy and reliability that The Times Atlas of the World strives to uphold. To correct this, we decided to produce a new, more detailed map, using the latest information available, in consultation with the breadth of specialists with whom we are now in contact. There are two key changes to the map. The first is that, with the assistance of the scientists, we have been able to identify, and have been granted permission to use, the best datasets available to determine the current extent of permanent ice cover. This has involved the Times Atlas team moving away from using ice thickness in isolation, to combining ice thickness with sea level elevation and ice extent data. The ice extent data was kindly made accessible to us by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, who have researched and analysed thousands of aerial photographs and satellite images of Greenland to show permanent ice changes. The second is that the new map is shown in much greater detail, using a scale of 1:8million instead of 1:12.5million. Many of the important glaciers and ice features are now labelled and depicted more clearly due to the new data and the scale of the map; for example Jakobshavn IsbrĂŚ on the western coast of Greenland, which is one of the fastest flowing outlet glaciers

in the world, and most visited places in the country; Petermann Gletscher (Petermann Glacier) in the north; and FrederikshĂĽb Isblink, south of Nuuk near the west coast. The larger scale map also means that it is easier to accurately locate the extent of ice cover on Greenland.

To request a copy of the insert, which will be posted out free of charge, please email times. atlas@harpercollins.co.uk or write to Times Atlases, Collins Geo, HarperCollins Publishers, Westerhill Road, Bishopbriggs, Glasgow, G64 2QT.

16-17 Spring 2012

Education

Bringing Learning to Life Dr Joyce Gilbert, RSGS Education Officer

The Fair Maid’s House is rapidly establishing itself as a hub for creative approaches to teaching and learning. Two innovative workshops were held recently, which involved working in partnership with Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Perth & Kinross Education and Children’s Services, and the Scottish Creative Learning Network.

Dr Joyce Gilbert, the RSGS’s new Education Officer, on secondment from Perth & Kinross Council until June 2012.

The first event followed the theme of ‘Creative Connections: Linking People, Place & Planet’ and was documented by graphic artist Graham Ogilvie, who cleverly captured thoughts and feedback from the participants - including teachers, youth workers, experts and volunteers throughout the evening. The Explorers’ Room was brought to life by local storytellers, who adopted the roles of Isabella Bird and David Douglas. A colourful character, Isabella Bird was a 19th century explorer and writer who travelled extensively in America, Asia and the Middle East. She was also one of the first women to receive an RSGS Fellowship, and contributed to the Society’s lecture programme in 1902. David Douglas from Scone was the famous plant collector who explored in North America and Hawaii. At the second event, educators were introduced to a range of resources on the theme of climate change. Participants found the projection of surface sea temperature on the globe in the Earth Room was a stimulus for discussion about climate change, and were delighted to be given access to some of the Society’s polar archive, including the flag taken by William Speirs Bruce on an RSGSfunded expedition to the Antarctic in 1902-04.

Curriculum for Excellence: the good, the bad and the worrying Erica Caldwell, Director and Education Convener As the consultation period draws to a close, RSGS continues to gather views and respond to documents relating to the developments at National 4 and 5 (to replace Standard Grade and Intermediate exams) and at Higher. The recent Course Support Notes for National 4 and 5 provided much more detail of the knowledge content. This will be a relief to teachers planning courses for next year, as they will now be able to plan changes to courses currently offered at Standard Grade and Intermediate, helping them ensure that their pupils are not disadvantaged. RSGS is proposing to help teachers in this by preparing and providing up-to-date case studies which can be used directly in the classroom. However, development of the new Higher is at an earlier and more worrying stage. The questions which RSGS has asked in its response include:

•D oes marking a university entrance exam out of 90 marks really reflect the same rigour as the current Higher Geography qualification? •D oes this really reflect the idea of assessment appropriate to the subject (one of the thrusts of CfE)? •W ill this still be able to be benchmarked at the same level (eg against GCSEs)? •H ow are Scottish students applying for further training or jobs going to compare in the ‘balance’ of quantity and quality of their qualifications? •H ave universities been informed and what are the implications for approving and accepting new students? Of major concern to RSGS is not just the apparent ‘dumbing-down’ of this qualification but also the lack of choice which candidates will now have at National 5

and Higher. Pupils will, in future, be able to choose only five or six subjects at National 5, compared to the normal eight subjects at Standard Grade and Intermediate. This will reduce their choice of Highers. Pupils will have to carry on with all these chosen subjects whether or not they continue to be appropriate to their changing career aspirations. Geography, along with the vast majority of subjects, will be squeezed even more than it is currently. And after three years of general education (not two as at the moment), will pupils and parents be in a position to choose discrete subjects if they have been taught an integrated social subjects course? Will they know what Geography is and how its breadth of knowledge and range of transferable skills will fit them for a wide range of career opportunities? We need your support to make sure they do.

The

Geographer Enhancing transport technologies Geographers at Aberdeen are conducting a 14 month study, Enhancing transport technologies to support personal security in travel by public transport. Transport and transport-related technologies have an important role to play in supporting personal security in travel by public transport, ranging from underpinning the operation of transport systems and services to facilitating individual travel choices. The theme of the research is the role of technology and its interaction with user needs and perceptions. The key aim is to enable transport technologies to better support personal security in travel by public transport. The project, funded by the EPSRC under their First Grant scheme for new lecturers, starts on 1st May 2012. Contact Dr Mark Beecroft (m.beecroft@abdn.ac.uk) for more information.

University of Glasgow Measuring surface movements from space

University of St Andrews Housing Scotland’s People The Centre for Housing Research (CHR, part of the School of Geography & Geosciences) sponsored a round-table event in February, organised by Sharon Chisholm, to discuss and agree on the housing issues that need urgent attention in Scotland, by stimulating a conversation with key stakeholders in the policy and practice community.

Megafans in Northern Amazonia Amazonian fluvial megafans are large sand deposits, commonly exceeding 1,000km2, found within tectonically active continental basins. This is the first attempt to describe and characterize in detail this type of landform in an area dominated by tropical forest.

Frozen Planet At any one time during the year, ice and snow cover over one-third of our planet. Ice has shaped the landscapes, it determines the structure of the ecosystem and the animals that prosper, and it drives our global climate. Using specially filmed material from the BBC TV series, the OU’s new short course The Frozen Planet explains the underlying science and wonders of the polar world. See www.open.ac.uk/ study for more information.

Permission to play

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) uses the phase differences between two complex radar images acquired over the same area at different times, to measure the Earth’s surface movements in the satellite line of sight with millimetre precision. Funded by NERC through the GAS (Generic Atmosphere Solution for radar measurements) project, Dr Zhenhong Li, Senior Lecturer in Space Geodesy, has developed an advanced InSAR time series technique that has been successfully used to separate small inter-seismic and post-seismic signals from atmospheric effects and orbital errors. Dr Li is leading his Space Geodesy Research Lab to employ InSAR to respond to natural and anthropogenic hazards such as earthquakes, landslides and mining subsidence. Contact Zhenhong.Li@ glasgow.ac.uk for further details.

University of Stirling

The Open University

University of Strathclyde

An example from the 2010 New Zealand earthquake.

to support wellbeing for individuals and communities. The focus is on how approaches and practices which encourage ‘play’ in a variety of social and community contexts can reveal the defining attributes of playfulness.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council has awarded a grant to a project team led by Dr Robert Rogerson, and including Dr Hayden Lorimer (Glasgow), partners in Cardiff and Liverpool Universities, and nonacademic organisations, to explore connections between culture and sport under its Connected Communities programme. The project, Permission to play: taking play seriously, making sport playful, will explore different notions of playfulness associated with arts, culture and sport, to assess the extent to which playfulness can be fostered in adults

Natural open vegetation grows in alluvial deposits, which are related with a megafan depositional system.

Analysis based on multi-temporal satellite images revealed a remarkable paleochannel network, arranged in a distributary pattern. Such morphology is not found in modern Amazonian rivers, and may suggest that Quaternary environmental changes were responsible for the formation of the drainage system in this area. The findings suggest that mild Quaternary tectonic reactivations were an important component in the formation of the modern drainage system and hold promise as an explanation for the origin of open vegetation patches in Amazonia. Contact Andrew Tyler or Peter Hunter at Stirling, or Hiran Zani at Brazil’s Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (hzani@dsr.inpe.br), for more information.

18-19 Spring 2012

University News

University of Aberdeen

Grainia Long, Interim Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, gave a stimulating review of where we have come to, what opportunities have been missed, and the urgent need for immediate action. CHR staff delivered keynote presentations focusing on: the issues facing younger people in the housing market (Dr Kim McKee); the possible impacts of Housing Benefit Reforms (Dr Donald Houston); and the role of equity release mortgage products in family welfare (Dr Beverley Searle). CHR Director Prof Duncan Maclennan rounded off the day by summarising the themes emerging from the discussion, and identifying how the key housing issues highlighted might be addressed.

Scottish Geographical Journal

University Medals RSGS University Medals are awarded to the best graduating honours geography student in each of the Scottish universities. The 2011 winners were: Aberdeen: Anna Hannus Dundee: Carlyn Stewart Edinburgh: Lettice Cricket Hicks Glasgow: Sabina Louise Lawrie St Andrews: Caroline Buchanan Stirling: James Farquharson Strathclyde: Skye Elizabeth Greig Three of the Medals were presented by HRH The Princess Royal at an event in Perth in January. The other four medallists were unable to attend as they were working or studying abroad – not an uncommon circumstance for top geography students!

The RSGS’s academic journal is available from Taylor & Francis on-line at www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ RSGJ or in hard copy. All RSGS members are entitled to receive the Scottish Geographical Journal for free. If you are not currently receiving the SGJ but would like to, please contact us by emailing enquiries@rsgs.org or phoning 01738 455050.

Making Connections

Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) Senior Chinese leaders visit the UK on low carbon issues In February, ECCI hosted 25 senior officials from the Chinese National Development & Reform Commission and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The delegation spent a week at the centre’s base at the University of Edinburgh undertaking an intensive bespoke programme on Low Carbon Economic Policy & Implementation. ECCI designed and delivered a tailormade programme to help the Chinese delegates understand how to develop and implement a low carbon economy, with specific work-strands geared at improving resource efficiency, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and supporting new (low carbon) market opportunities. See edinburghcentre.org for more information.

Principal Sir Timothy O’Shea & ECCI Director Andy Kerr with the delegation.

Tackling the transition to a low carbon economy In January, ECCI hosted a series of events – including a Low Carbon Enterprise & Innovation Showcase and a Low Carbon Entrepreneurship & Investment executive education workshop – that attracted over 500 delegates from all over the world. The Showcase saw 50 of Scotland’s most innovative low carbon enterprises assemble to showcase their innovations. Exhibitors included large-employer technology companies such as Flexitricity Ltd, which created and now operates the first, largest and most advanced smart grid system in the UK; and one-man bands such as the urban beehive scheme that utilizes vacant pieces of ground in inner cities to produce low carbon honey. Launching the Showcase, Minister for the Environment and Climate Change Stewart Stevenson said “This event provides an excellent marker of how the opportunities offered by a low carbon economy are already being seized in Scotland and shows how Scotland’s businesses and research base continue to rise to this challenge.” What Geography Means To Me

An insight into the life of a working geographer

rom a very early age, I was always interested in the landscape. It was up hill and down dale to Barthol Chapel School in Aberdeenshire: the two miles was very easily calculated – the distance from home to school (the church spire could be seen as I set off). Soon after, I would discover how to draw a mountain (or I thought it was then) - yes, Bennachie was a great view from the Oldmeldrum side, and I would later see it every day on my way to secondary school at Inverurie Academy.

Mary R Murray

RSGS Aberdeen Group

Rivers held a fascination too as I was growing up – where did they come from? Little did I know that one small stream near home

would eventually flow into the River Ythan. Rock types also held a fascination (and still do). I always admired the grey granite of Aberdeen when we went ‘into town’ to shop at those department stores which are, sadly, no longer there: the labradorite facing on the Esslemont and MacIntosh building I found particularly beautiful. A chance to study at Aberdeen University as a mature student was grasped in the early 1970s. It was then that I decided to subscribe to a life membership of the RSGS. We also had a local group of geography teachers called South Grampian Geographers. Many friendships are still maintained from those days when we would travel to the annual SAGT Conference. The hundreds of miles of travel turned into thousands of miles

of travel by air and sea (more so since I retired) – South East Asia is a favourite. Fascinating limestone caves, dormant and active volcanoes, the physical landscape is wonderful. So too are the changing faces of our towns and cities. But engaging in conversation with people from other parts of the world is also a delight, and it is so easy to continue with modern A Stockholm Welcome, technology. July 2011 What better than the RSGS to set us thinking of what we might do or become, while listening to and viewing the feats of the quality speakers that we have in place each year. They share their experiences for us to enjoy.

The

Geographer

Expert View: Climate Records

20-21 Spring 2012

Late Quaternary Temperature and Rainfall Wallace Broecker, Newberry Professor of Geology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University

During the last million years, the Earth’s climate has undergone large and cyclic changes. Through radiodating it has been demonstrated that these cycles were paced by periodic changes in the Earth’s orbit. The most prominent of these is the 20,000-year cycle related to the precession of the Earth’s spin axis. It alternately enhances summer insolation in one hemisphere and depletes it in the other, thereby shifting the location of the Earth’s thermal equator. In the tropics, as recorded by the ratio of heavy to light oxygen atoms in cave stalagmites, the precession cycle modulates the strength of monsoon rainfall (see figure). Surprisingly, the records for sea level and for atmospheric CO2, while modulated by this 20,000-year periodicity, are dominated by a 100,000-year duration asymmetrical saw-toothed cycle (see figure). It has taken climate scientists a long time to gain an understanding of what might drive this sawtoothed cycle, and to explain why it is so different from the more straightforward tropical monsoon cycle. While questions remain, it appears that the saw-toothed cycle reflects an interplay between the ocean’s conveyor circulation and the size of the northern hemisphere ice sheets. The changes in circulation pull CO2 in and out of the ocean, and hence cool and warm the entire planet. The drawdown of CO2 occurs over a time interval making up 90% of the saw-toothed cycle. During this time period, the ice sheets grow. But then, at some point, a portion of the North American ice sheet covering the Hudson Bay region collapses and slides into the northern Atlantic. The melting of this armada produces a fresh water lid which shuts down deep water formation. This has repercussions in both polar oceans. Massive winter sea ice forms in the North Atlantic, creating climate conditions in the surrounding lands similar to those in frigid Siberia. At the same time, sea ice cover in the Southern Ocean shrinks, opening a window which allows CO2 trapped in the deep sea to escape. This warms the atmosphere and melts the large

sheets. Thus, the 100,000-year sawtoothed cycle appears to be driven by CO2. The lowered CO2 content cools the planet, leading to the expansion of continental ice sheets and mountain glaciers in both hemispheres. The monsoon cycle is a different kettle of fish. It is driven by interhemispheric differences in summer temperature created by differences in summer insolation. When the Earth passes around the long end of its elliptical orbit, it receives less sunlight. Today this occurs during northern hemisphere summer. Ten thousand years ago (ie, one half precession cycle), northern hemisphere summers occurred as the Earth passed around the short end of its elliptical orbit. At that time, summers were warmer and the monsoons were stronger. Of course, the opposite is true for the southern hemisphere. It is currently experiencing warmer summers and its monsoons are stronger than they were ten thousand years ago. Compared to ordinary rainfall, monsoon rainfall is depleted in the heavy oxygen (18O) relative to light oxygen (16O). As the water percolating into caves is supplied by rain, the oxygen isotope composition of the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) deposited in caves reflects that rainfall, and hence the monsoonal contribution to this rainfall. Similarly, the water used in plants is supplied by rain; hence the isotopic composition of the O2 they produce also reflects the monsoonal contribution. As can be seen (in the figure), the isotopic composition of both Chinese stalagmites and atmospheric O2 undergo similar cycles. Both show a greater deficiency in heavy oxygen at times when the northern hemisphere receives larger than average summer insolation. However, the amplitude of the cycle for atmospheric O2 (~0.8‰) is five times smaller than that for Chinese cave CaCO3 (~4‰). The reason is that, while the caves are fed by monsoonal rainfall, half of the world’s plants are in the ocean and a sizable fraction are on land outside the tropics. One might ask why the isotopic composition of atmospheric O2 follows northern

hemisphere summer insolation? Shouldn’t production in southern hemisphere monsoonal areas oppose that in the north? This is certainly the case, but, as the area of northern hemisphere tropical lands exceeds that of southern hemisphere tropical lands, the northern hemisphere dominates. So, although changes both in Earth temperature and in tropical rainfall are paced by cycles in the Earth’s orbital parameters, the nature of these cycles is very different. That for temperature is triangular with a duration averaging 100,000 years, and that for precipitation is sinusoidal with a duration of 20,000 years. Thus, it appears that, while the Earth’s temperature follows the asymmetrical CO2 saw-toothed cycle, its rainfall distribution is driven by the variance in solar radiation reaching Earth differing between northern and southern hemispheres.

“It has taken climate scientists a long time to gain an understanding of what might drive this saw-toothed cycle...”

Two temperature-related and two rainfall-related climate records covering the last 350,000 years: (1) atmospheric CO2-content record derived from air trapped in polar ice; (2) ice-volume record derived from sea level reconstructions; O record in O2 trapped in polar ice;

(3)

(4)

O record in Chinese stalagmites.

These latter two are thought to be stand-ins for the strength of northern hemisphere monsoon rainfall.

Book Club

Alyson Hallett & Chris Caseldine

Scotland Chris Townsend

Inspired by a geography field trip, and the culmination of a year-long project to explore the synergy between art and science, Six Days in Iceland includes poems by Alyson Hallett, the first poet in residence in any UK geography department, photographs taken by Alyson and secondyear geography students, and scientific essays on Iceland by Professor Chris Caseldine.

Scotland offers a variety of wild landscapes – the rolling hills of the Southern Uplands, the great granite plateaus of the Cairngorms, the steep castellated rock peaks of Torridon, the jagged arêtes and spires of the Cuillin hills on Skye, and below the many majestic summits lie splendid pine forests, beautiful lochs, deep glens, rushing rivers – a magnificent northern landscape.

Alyson said “My understanding of landscape has deepened and I am fascinated by the differences in language that poets and scientists use. The experience has shown me that it’s inspiring for everyone when artists and scientists come together and share their ideas and working practices.” Chris added “Having Alyson on the trip added a totally new way of looking at the landscape and the poems offer so much more than a straightforward ‘academic’ understanding of everything we did.”

For those planning a day scramble, a long-distance walk, a challenging climb or a ski tour, this handbook includes: • area-by-area descriptions of the Scottish mountains from south to north, to help you identify the best locations for hill walking, mountaineering and ski touring; • classic ascents and walks described, from scrambles up Ben Nevis to ski tours in the Cairngorms; • information on accommodation, maps and guides; • a planning tool for long-distance treks in Scotland.

Paddle

A long way around Ireland Jasper Winn One summer, writer and musician Jasper Winn set himself an extraordinary task. He would kayak the whole way round Ireland – a thousand miles – camping on remote headlands and islands, carousing in bars, and paddling clockwise until he got back where he started. But in the worst Irish summer in living memory, the pleasures of idling among seals, fulmars and fishing boats soon gave way to heroic struggles through stormtossed seas, and lock-ins playing music in coastal pubs. Circling the country where he grew up, Jasper reflects on life at the very fringes of Ireland, the nature and lore of its seas, and his own eccentric upbringing. Charming, quietly epic, and with an irresistible undertow of wit, Paddle is a low-tech adventure that captures the sheer joy of a misty morning on Ireland’s coast.

Cicerone have kindly donated a set of their Scotland guides to the RSGS; these are now available in the Fair Maid’s House for visitors to browse through.

Following our Fathers

Two Journeys among Mountains Linda Cracknell This little book is non-fiction mountain literature with personal stories at its craggy heart. Two men made significant journeys on foot, one in Nazi-occupied Norway in 1944, and one in the Swiss Alps in 1952. Both died as young men from cancer in 1961. More than half a century after their journeys, Linda Cracknell followed their routes, the first in the company of the children of the man who had escaped 200 miles across the mountains from west coast Norway to neutral Sweden pursued by Nazi soldiers, and the second in the footsteps of her own father’s traumatic climb on Finsteraarhorn, the highest summit in the Swiss Bernese Oberland. With maps, photos and illustrations, Following our Fathers overlays accounts of these earlier and later walks in Norway and Switzerland.

Scottish Hill Tracks Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society Review by Dr Sandy Crosbie Anyone who loves the Scottish countryside owes a debt of gratitude to the Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society (ScotWays for short) for its role in ensuring that access is available to all. This fifth edition of Scottish Hill Tracks is a comprehensive guide to hill paths, old roads and rights of way from the Borders to Caithness. Organised into 24 sections, clear maps, precise directions for every route (usually from the nearest public road), and well chosen photographs combine in a sturdy volume suitable for the pocket or rucksack. It is an irresistible invitation to explore the magnificent diversity of Scotland.

Reader Offer - only £15

Offer ends 30th June 2012.

Readers of The Geographer can purchase Scottish Hill Tracks direct from ScotWays for only £15.00 (RRP £18.00) plus £1.00 p&p. To order, send a cheque to the Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society, 24 Annandale Street, Edinburgh, EH7 4AN, quoting the reference ‘RSGS’, or pay through PayPal on www.ScotWays.com, choosing the ScotWays member rate.

You can help us to make connections between people, places & the planet by joining the RSGS. Please contact us at Lord John Murray House, 15-19 North Port, Perth, PH1 5LU, or visit www.rsgs.org

Printed by www.jtcp.co.uk on Cocoon Preprint 120gsm paper. 100% FSC certified recycled fibre using vegetable based inks in a 100% chemistry free process.

Six Days in Iceland