Geographer - Royal Scottish Geographical Society

Autumn 2010 

eographer 

The 

The newsletter of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society 

A rocky situation for wildlife? 

Taking stock of biodiversity and geodiversity 

In This Edition... 

• News Features: 

Christchurch After the 

Earthquake, Iceland 

After the Eruption 

• Country in Focus: 

Pakistan After the 

Floods 

• Expert Views on 

Biodiversity & 

Geodiversity 

• James Croll - A 

Forgotten Genius? 

• Off the Beaten Track: 

Chasing the Devil 

• Reader Offer: 

High Light 

HIGH LIGHT 

A V I S I O N O F W I L D S C O T L A N D 

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest 

source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; 

the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest 

source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” 

Sir David Attenborough, RSGS Livingstone Medallist 

C O L I N P R I O R 

plus other news, 

comments, books... 

RSGS – Making Connections between People, Places & the Planet

The 

Geographer 

biodiversity & geodiversity 

It has been reassuring to see the development 

of the Fair Maid’s House proceeding as it is. We 

can now see clearly the four spaces that we will 

have available to bring to a wider public, not only 

the history of the Society but also the continuing 

importance of geography, particularly in view of the 

global issues faced by this and future generations. 

Work is proceeding on the interpretation and display 

elements of these spaces which will, of course, 

include the fascinating history of the building itself. 

However, never has it been more important to demonstrate 

that we have not inherited the planet from our parents but 

that we are simply looking after it for our children. 

Our small staff at headquarters have expanded to four and 

a half, thanks to a generous anonymous donation from a 

member who correctly recognised that this is a critical time 

for the Society. And, as a regular visitor to Perth, I can tell 

you that the Society is fortunate to have such committed and 

enthusiastic employees. 

But they cannot, of course, do everything. Mike tells me that 

he has calculated the work of all the volunteers in the Society 

equates to almost the same as our staff in headquarters. And I 

was reminded again of a comment by one of my predecessors, 

“If it wasn’t for the volunteers, Barrie, the Society would be 

finished”. 

I cannot thank them enough; none receive payment for their 

services and many do not even claim the expenses to which 

they are entitled. All, however, share our conviction that the 

Society got it right all these years ago, and that it is now even 

more important to continue to pursue its objective of inspiring 

people to develop a greater understanding of all the issues 

affecting our planet. 

The Fair Maid’s House development will give the Society 

the best opportunity yet to promote its aims to a wider 

public, but for this we will need even more volunteers. I ask 

you all to give serious consideration to putting your name 

forward to help. All of our current volunteers enjoy making 

a contribution, in whatever way they do, and I can promise 

that you will all be given appropriate training before the time 

comes (currently expected to be around late spring 2011). If 

you are interested in helping, please just give your name to 

headquarters. 

I conclude my comments with another of my ‘straws in the 

wind’. Last week, Fiona told me that she had recruited three 

new members who had rung our doorbell and said they were 

interested in joining the Society. It cannot be anything but a 

good sign. 

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: Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone Park, Wyoming (part image) 

© Yann Arthus-Bertrand 

Masthead image: Japanese macaques bathing in Jigokudani hot spring 

© www.istockphoto.com 

Yann Arthus-Bertrand Receives 

Inaugural Geddes Environment Medal 

Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the legendary photographer, journalist, reporter 

and environmentalist, came to the Edinburgh Filmhouse in September 

to accept the inaugural RSGS Geddes Environment Medal, and to 

speak at a screening of his award winning documentary film, Home. 

The evening was a great success and, addressing the audience, 

RSGS Chief Executive Mike Robinson gave a few of the reasons Yann 

was chosen for the accolade, stating “We require to be continually 

reminded of our place in nature, to be mindful of the beauty and 

fragility of our planet, and to be inspired to want to protect it... Yann 

has captured that beauty, reminded us of that fragility, and enthralled 

millions of people in more than a hundred nations around the world, 

inspiring them to make the connections between people, places and 

the planet and to work towards positive long-term change.” 

HQ Open Day 

Work on the Fair Maid’s 

House is progressing 

well, and is expected to 

finish in early November, 

a little behind the original 

schedule because of 

under-pinning required 

on the existing old wall. 

To coincide with the Ray 

Mears event in Perth, the 

RSGS headquarters at 

Lord John Murray House 

will be opening its doors 

from 2.00pm to 4.30pm 

on 28th October 2010, 

giving members the 

opportunity to visit the 

HQ, to learn more about 

the development of the 

Fair Maid’s House project, 

and to get an insight into 

some of the other work of 

the Society. 

RSGS – Making Connections between People, Places & the Planet

NEWS People • Places • Planet 

The 

Geographer 1 

Autumn 2010 

Vultures 

The scale of the 

Asian vulture 

problem is 

immense, with 

populations down 

by more than 96% since the early 

1990s, and several species critically 

threatened with extinction in the 

near future. The white-rumped 

vulture was so abundant in India in 

the 1980s, that it was probably the 

most common large bird of prey in 

the world. Only one in a thousand 

now survives. 

The services provided by vultures 

in cleaning up large carcasses 

were taken for granted until the 

birds were gone. Now there are 

huge health issues, and economic 

and cultural losses. Conservation 

organisations have been pressing 

for a total ban on the use of 

veterinary diclofenac (which causes 

kidney failure in vultures who eat 

Betting on Food 

RSGS staff were particularly 

concerned to hear the recent 

reports highlighting the increased 

price of chocolate after financial 

speculators moved in to the 

cocoa markets. But the actions of 

speculators are also influencing 

the price of other more basic 

foodstuffs. 

Research published at the end of 

July by the World Development 

Movement (WDM) shows that 

financial speculation on the future 

price of food creates instability, 

pushes up global food prices and 

is forcing millions into poverty and 

malnutrition. 

Jim Carson OBE FRSGS 

We are delighted 

that Jim Carson’s 

long-term dedication 

and outstanding 

contribution to 

geographical 

education in Scotland has been 

formally recognised, with the 

awarding of the Order of the British 

Empire in the Queen’s birthday 

honours list of May 2010. 

the carcasses of recently treated 

cattle), and have established 

captive breeding centres where 

birds can be reared before release 

into areas where diclofenac is no 

longer a threat. 

Some progress is being made, 

but it is slow. Diclofenac has 

been banned in some countries, 

but is still used in others. In July, 

for the first time, all three of 

the critically endangered Gyps 

vultures successfully bred and 

fledged young in captive breeding 

centres in India – but there were 

only ten young in total. And in 

September, the annual census of 

vultures in Cambodia showed that 

three species were stable or even 

increasingly slightly, giving hope 

that Cambodia can act as a refuge, 

and eventually a source from which 

the vultures can spread out and 

repopulate all of Asia – but the total 

number for all three species was 

less than 300. 

Liz Murray, head of campaigns for 

WDM in Scotland said, “Bankers 

are quite literally gambling on 

hunger. In 2007-8 there was a 

huge rise in food prices fuelled by 

financial speculation; the price of 

wheat shot up dramatically by 80% 

and maize by 90%. These sudden 

price hikes are catastrophic for the 

world’s poor who spend most of 

their income on food.” 

WDM is calling for regulation of 

the food commodity markets and 

for strict limits on the amount that 

bankers can bet on food prices. To 

find out more about WDM’s food 

speculation campaign, see www. 

wdm.org.uk. 

Jim’s tremendous efforts towards 

the teaching and encouragement 

of geography in Scotland and 

further afield, his work on behalf 

of RSGS as chair of the education 

committee and in running the 

schools essay competition for 

30 years, and his crucial role in 

establishing and developing the 

Scottish Association of Geography 

Teachers into the successful body 

that it is today, make his OBE richly 

deserved. 

2010 is the 

International Year 

of Biodiversity, and 

fittingly this year is 

the tenth meeting 

of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). From 18th 

to 29th October, Nagoya in Japan will play host to 

officials from 193 countries, seeking to agree how 

to tackle biodiversity loss, to set targets for the next 

ten years, and to develop a vision for 2050. 

The Convention has three main objectives: 

1 Conservation of biological diversity 

2 Sustainable use of its components 

3 Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from 

genetic resources 

In August, Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary 

of the CBD, told a high level forum in Chengdu, 

China, “The target set by world governments in 

2002, ‘to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction 

of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, 

regional and national level’, has not been met. … 

No government claims to have completely met 

the 2010 biodiversity target. Indeed, the current 

biodiversity statistics are as worrying as ever. 

Species that have been assessed for extinction risk 

are on average moving closer to extinction. … The 

five principal pressures directly driving biodiversity 

loss (habitat change, overexploitation, pollution, 

invasive alien species and climate change) are either 

constant or increasing in intensity.” 

Ray Mears to visit Perth 

Bushcraft expert and star of recent ITV 

series Survival, Ray Mears is bringing his 

unique one-man show to Perth Concert 

Hall at 8.00pm on 28th October 2010. 

Ray will also be presented with the 

RSGS Mungo Park Medal, in recognition 

of his work in adventure travel and his 

distinguished contribution to popularising geographical 

issues. In his turn, Ray has agreed to present the 2010 

RSGS University Medals, given to the best 

graduating honours geography student in 

each of the Scottish universities. 

28 th 

October 

Tickets (£15 for RSGS members, £21 for nonmembers) 

are available from Perth Concert Hall 

(www.horsecross.co.uk or phone 01738 621031). 

Bio- & Geodiversity 

Inspiring Sponsors We are grateful for the financial support we have received so far from our generous sponsors, 

towards the 2010-11 Inspiring People programme of illustrated talks. Our appreciation goes to Airdrie Savings Bank, Glasgow 

City Council, The Green Insurance Company, Hillhouse Quarry Group, Magnox North, Neilson Binnie-McKenzie, and Scottish 

Power. Thanks also to Spex Direct Scotland, which supported the RSGS Dunfermline Centre’s traveller’s talk in September.


Finding the 

target 

RSGS’s Chief Executive 

was asked by Stewart 

Stevenson MSP, the 

Minister for Transport, 

Infrastructure & Climate 

Change, to chair a 

Scottish Parliamentary 

Short-life Working 

Group this summer, 

to find a resolution to 

the setting of annual 

targets in carbon 

emissions, after the 

proposals presented 

to the Parliament by 

the SNP back in June 

were thrown out. This 

group, of MSPs and 

civil servants, reviewed 

the basis for target 

setting and the sorts 

of measures that will 

be needed to achieve 

a 42% reduction in 

greenhouse gases by 

2020, and considered 

what was currently 

being proposed, what 

else could be added, 

and whether any form 

of action had been 

overlooked. 

The group has 

now concluded its 

deliberations and the 

Minister is expected 

to bring a new 

proposal in front of the 

relevant Committee, 

and ultimately 

the Parliament, in 

late autumn. The 

Government is working 

with a number of bodies 

and advisory groups, 

including the 2020 

Business Leaders Group 

(on which Mike also has 

a seat) to develop the 

next step, the Report 

on Policies & Proposals 

(RPP), which will lay out 

the Government’s plan 

of exactly how it intends 

to reach these targets 

from now until 2022. 

New Staff 

Member 

Thanks to a 

donation from 

a generous 

member, the 

RSGS has been 

able to appoint a much needed staff 

member to assist with the talks 

programme, media, the website and 

in supporting Susan and Mike in 

producing The Geographer. Kirsten 

Smith joined us on 10th June, 

having graduated from Glasgow 

Caledonian University in 2009 with a 

degree in Media & Communications. 

Kirsten has previously worked in PR, 

and volunteered for six months with 

Conservation Volunteers Australia 

whilst travelling around the country. 

The Plastiki 

After sailing more than 8,000 

nautical miles and spending 

128 days crossing the Pacific in 

a boat made of 12,500 plastic 

drinks bottles, the Plastiki 

expedition (inspired by the 

famous Kon-Tiki voyage) and her 

crew successfully reached their 

destination of Sydney. 

The inspiring, one-of-a-kind 

catamaran set sail under the 

shadow of San Francisco’s 

Golden Gate Bridge in March 

2010. With a crew of six, the 

Plastiki set out to alert the world 

to the shocking and unnecessary 

effects of single use plastics on 

the health of our oceans and its 

inhabitants. 

“This is a complex, challenging 

and now hugely catastrophic 

issue that scientists estimate 

is causing devastation on an 

unprecedented scale - every year 

at least one million seabirds and 

100,000 marine mammals and 

Sad Losses 

We are sorry to announce the 

deaths of three of the Society’s 

long-standing colleagues and 

friends. 

On 31st July 2010, Ronald 

McLaren, a former Chairman of 

the RSGS Kirkcaldy Centre, passed 

away peacefully at the age of 78 

in Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy. 

Some hope for Bengal tigers 

In September, a BBC 

natural history camera 

crew filmed a ‘lost’ 

population of Bengal 

tigers living in the 

mountains of Bhutan, 

at a higher altitude 

than any others known. 

The Bengal tiger is 

the most numerous 

of all tiger sub-species, but habitat loss and poaching have 

reduced numbers in the wild to only c1,850. The creation of 

tiger reserves in the 1970s helped to stabilise numbers, but 

poaching inside the reserves has again put the Bengal tiger 

at risk. This new discovery could be crucial; creating a nature 

reserve around these tigers could connect up fragmented 

populations across Asia, helping to prevent their extinction. 

sea turtles die when they become 

entangled or ingest plastic 

pollution.” said expedition leader 

David de Rothschild. 

The vessel, which is fully 

recyclable and is powered by 

solar panels and wind turbines, 

sought to turn attention to the 

state of our oceans, in particular 

the colossal amounts of plastic 

debris, by showcasing waste as 

A beloved husband, father and 

grandfather, he will be greatly 

missed by all that knew him. 

After a lengthy treatment for cancer, 

Alan McAndrew, a long serving 

trustee and advisor to the Society, 

passed away on 7th August 2010, at 

St Columba’s Hospice, aged 57. He 

is survived by his wife Heather, and 

sons Hamish and Finlay. 

Barrie Hepworth, a former 

a resource and 

demonstrating 

real world 

solutions 

through its 

design and 

construction. 

See www. 

theplastiki. 

com for more 

information. 

Chairman of the RSGS Helensburgh 

Centre, passed away peacefully 

on 24th August 2010, in the Royal 

Alexandra Hospital, Paisley. He is 

survived by his wife Jane, and two 

children Grace and Adam. 

Our condolences go out to all 

friends and family, and we would 

also like to thank each of these men 

for their work and dedication to the 

RSGS over the years. 

Bio- & Geodiversity


The 

Geographer 2-3 

Autumn 2010 

Letter from 

New Zealand 

After the Quake 

Moira Mallon 

At 4.35am on Saturday, an 

earthquake hurled me out of 

bed and into the violent roar of 

a natural disaster. 

Other than a few bruises, I 

am unharmed. Other than 

numerous cracks, splits and 

holes, the structure of the house 

is unharmed, though the inside 

of the house was literally tipped 

upside down. So unharmed? Yes. 

But OK? No. Not at all. It has 

been the most terrifying, violent, 

traumatic experience. There are 

no words. No words. 

Whilst it is an utter miracle that 

there have been no fatalities, 

the sense of loss and trauma 

is profound. To see this 

beautiful city destroyed is so 

heartbreaking, to see friends 

and neighbours with their homes 

and belongings destroyed is 

overwhelming, and to be woken 

up by a 7.0 Richter scale 

earthquake is terrifying (I will 

never again groan at the sound 

of a car alarm). 

I don’t quite know how to 

describe the experience that 

lasted for 17 minutes (and 

has been ongoing ever since). 

It’s like being mugged and 

then someone jumping out 

of a cupboard to say ‘boo’ 

every few minutes. It was like 

roaring thunder inside your 

head, vicious roars of the earth 

opening up and splitting open, 

volcanic-like pressure from 

underneath rippling through the 

floor, the whole house shaking 

violently. 

I was being thrown around on 

the floor at a rapid speed, and 

there was nothing to hold onto. 

I could hear everything 

smashing and falling around me, 

glass smashing, furniture being 

flung through the doors and 

into the walls, pictures falling, 

chimneys crumbling, the wall 

cracking. The first thought I had 

was ‘Haiti! Oh god this is what 

those poor people went through 

but they had it so much worse’. 

My gut instinct was to reach 

out and call out to connect with 

someone, but there was no one 

there, no power, no phones, 

nothing. My instinct was to get 

out of the house and out of 

the danger of everything falling 

around me, but I couldn’t – it 

was impossible to move. 

Many of us are now motion-sick 

from the constant rolling of the 

earth. For the first 48 hours, 

we had aftershock earthquakes 

every 20 minutes. Now they are 

down to every couple of hours. 

They are quite unsettling. I am 

just so tired now that I think I 

might just sleep through a few! 

I think I will sleep tonight and I 

am looking forward to it. 

Whilst the headlines and news 

stories around the world have 

changed, it is our only story. 

It’s not a headline for us, it’s 

a lifeline. I cannot tell you the 

depth of gratitude we all feel 

to be alive, but whilst there has 

been no loss of life there is a 

profound loss of emotional, 

social and psychological 

wellbeing. The eerie silence after 

such brutal noise, adults and 

children vomiting and urinating 

in fear and terror, the flocks 

of birds disappearing seconds 

before another earthquake, the 

disappointment that you are in 

fact not a bird and can’t fly off 

with them, the constant hum 

of sirens and fire-engines, the 

need for people to be close to 

each other, and the delightful reassurance 

that everyone around 

you knows what you are going 

through. It is one day at a time 

at the moment... 

I need to settle down for the 

night as the earth continues to 

settle back down to its natural 

state of being. The process of 

nature settling down is scary... 

Last night we had our worst 

night since Saturday, with two 

very bad earthquakes 

through the night. 

I was jolted violently 

from my chair 

onto the floor by 

the most violent 

aftershock yet. It was 

so gut-wrenchingly 

terrifying that it left 

many of our poor 

emergency workers 

in tears. It is just too 

much and we are 

not done yet. It was only 5.4 on 

the Richter scale, but only 6km 

below the surface. More things 

broke and fell over, and more 

buildings were destroyed and 

roads and pavements cracked 

open in seconds. We did manage 

to get a few hours sleep, which 

we are all in desperate need 

of; 350,000 sleep-deprived and 

frazzled individuals doesn’t help 

when we have so much to do. 

Christchurch is still in a state of 

emergency. Schools are closed, 

the city is cordoned off, the 

water is contaminated, and each 

day our historical buildings and 

friends’ homes get pulled down. 

We crawl around on our hands 

and knees regularly and check 

our survival kits daily. We laugh 

every day, but not about this! 

We know that only good will 

come from this, and there is a 

strong future for Christchurch 

and we will re-build and re-open 

for business. Our spirits are 

resilient and our communities 

determined. But right now 

we are not in that space. The 

future will evolve when the earth 

settles. Right now the present 

priority is the physical and 

emotional safety and wellbeing 

of people, and getting through 

each aftershock, and providing 

support to each other and those 

most affected. We all need 

to talk about it and it’s all we 

talk about here. It’s our coping 

mechanism. 

All my love from ‘continuing-tocrumble’ 

Christchurch. 

Moira 

At 4.35am on 4th 

September 2010, 

New Zealand’s South 

Island was struck 

by a magnitude 7.0 

earthquake, the most 

powerful to hit the 

country in almost 80 

years. 

New Zealand straddles 

the boundary between 

the Pacific and Indian- 

Australian plates, at a 

point where the nature 

of the plate boundary 

changes fundamentally: 

to the north of New 

Zealand, the Pacific 

plate moves beneath the 

Indian-Australian plate; 

within the South Island, 

the plates rub past each 

other horizontally; to the 

south of New Zealand, 

the Indian-Australian 

plate moves below the 

Pacific plate. 

The tremor’s epicentre 

was about 90km from 

two active faults, 

the Alpine fault and 

the Hope fault, and 

about 50km west 

of Christchurch, the 

country’s second largest 

city, which suffered 

widespread damage. 

The earthquake toppled 

building facades, 

buckled rail lines, and 

damaged 100,000 

homes in the city of 

350,000 people. Prime 

Minister John Key has 

described the lack of 

fatalities as a miracle.


Bio- & Geodiversity 

Sharks 

The battle against shark extinction has found some unusual 

allies. Nine shark attack victims, in association with the 

Pew Environment Group, have called on the UN to ban 

finning, a practice where fishermen cut off a fin for shark 

fin soup, then throw the shark back into the water to drown 

or bleed to death. 

Conservationists have said that nearly a third of all shark 

species are, or are on the verge of being, threatened with 

extinction. Scientists argue that eradicating sharks, the 

ocean’s top predator, will have a disastrous ripple effect on 

the rest of the marine environment. Yet unlike other ‘atrisk’ 

species, there is no global management plan for shark 

fishing and no limit on how many can be caught. 

Krishna Thompson, a New York banker who was nearly 

killed after a shark attack that took his left leg, stated, “I 

was attacked by a shark. Yes it was a tragedy, but that is 

what sharks do. I can’t blame the shark for what it did, you 

have to put that aside and look at the bigger picture: 

73 million sharks killed yearly for shark finning”. 

Scottish Beaver Trial 

Simon Jones, Scottish Beaver Trial Project Manager 

This ground-breaking five-year project began in May 2009, 

with the release of three Norwegian-born beaver families 

into Argyll’s Knapdale Forest. The trial, run by Scottish Wildlife 

Trust, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Forestry 

Commission Scotland, sees the first formal re-introduction of 

a mammal back into the wild anywhere in the UK. 

Two of the families have settled well, establishing territories 

on freshwater lochs, and building substantial lodge dwellings 

and dams to allow them easier access to feeding areas. Most 

importantly, and to the delight of many, these beavers have 

now bred successfully, with a single ‘kit’ born to each tightknit 

family group. This highlight followed earlier low points, 

when the third family dispersed from the trial area, and two 

male beavers died soon after release. Although the loss of 

these beavers has been a disappointment, it is to be expected 

in the establishment of any reintroduced population. 

This summer, the beavers enjoyed a time of plenty. Field 

staff recorded beavers making repeated diving sessions 

through the lily beds, to dig up individual tubers of water 

lilies, a favourite food. This scientific monitoring work into 

beaver behaviour, and the effect of beavers on aquatic 

plants, is being recorded and analysed, along with studies 

into woodland structure, dragonfly communities, fish 

populations, water chemistry and the hydrological impacts, 

all coordinated by Scottish Natural Heritage. This will give a 

picture of how beavers affect the local natural environment, 

complementing a study on the economic impacts too. 

In only 12 months, the Knapdale beavers have proven 

themselves to be a real attraction to local people and 

visitors, and many people have been rewarded, after patient 

vigils, with the sight of these remarkable creatures happily 

going about their business, blissfully ignorant of all the 

excitement, fuss and attention that surrounds them. 

www.scottishbeavers.org.uk 

© Steve Gardner 

Paris, London, 

Amsterdam… 

Dumfries 

On 7th September 2010, 

Dumfries joined the likes of 

Paris, London and Amsterdam, 

when Scottish Transport Minister 

Stewart Stevenson formally 

launched the first public bikehire 

scheme backed by the 

Government in Scotland. The 

scheme, Bike2Go, will make 30 

bikes available at nine different 

docking stations around the 

town, which users can access 24 

Excellence Group in 

Geography Formed 

As part of the plan for 

developing Curriculum for 

Excellence, the Cabinet Secretary 

has set up a number of 

‘excellence groups’, comprising 

a mixture of teachers and 

others within the education 

sector with individuals who are 

widely recognised as experts or 

leaders in their particular field. 

These groups are looking at the 

skills, attributes and features of 

excellence in education in each 

of the subject areas, with the aim 

of promoting deeper learning, 

better teaching, active learner 

engagement, the development 

of skills, and enhanced 

achievement. The messages 

from the groups will be fed into a 

report which will be published in 

the spring of 2011. 

The groups are looking at 

questions such as: 

• What promotes essential 

knowledge in curriculum 

content in the context of 

Curriculum for Excellence? 

hours a day by entering a PIN 

code. Membership is charged 

at an annual rate of £10, with 

the first 30 minutes riding free 

and £1 per hour thereafter. See 

www.hourbike.com for more 

information. 

• What promotes the high 

standards we seek to promote 

through Curriculum for 

Excellence? 

• What is innovative subject 

practice in the context of 

Curriculum for Excellence? 

Groups have been set up in 

15 subject areas: English, 

Modern Languages, Gaelic, 

Maths, Science, Technologies, 

Geography, History, Modern 

Studies, Business Studies, 

Physical Education, Food 

and Health, RME, RERC, and 

Expressive Arts. 

The members of the geography 

group are: Liz McGlashan, 

Dalkeith High School & SAGT 

(Chair); Caroline Robertson, 

James Young High School; 

Deirdre Cassidy, Hermitage 

Academy; Lisa Allan, Barrhead 

High School; Jim Bruce, HMIE; 

Julie Gallacher, Learning & 

Teaching Scotland; Alan Barclay, 

Scottish Qualifications Authority; 

Mike Robinson, Royal Scottish 

Geographical Society; Vanessa 

Collingridge, BBC Radio 4 

presenter. 

Rory Stewart Receives Livingstone Medal 

The 2009 Livingstone Medal was presented to Rory Stewart, at a very 

enjoyable event in Stirling’s Albert Halls in August. Rory received the Medal 

in recognition of his work in Afghanistan, and his establishment of the 

Turquoise Mountain Foundation in 2006. 

Speaking about his Livingstone Medal, Rory stated “I am very honoured to 

have received this award and don’t feel deserving of it at all. Of course, I 

am very excited as so many of the past winners are my childhood heroes. 

However, really the award should be going to the people who looked 

after me on my way, and also those who run the projects at Turquoise 

Mountain.”


After the Eruption 

Professor Roger Crofts 

The 


Autumn 2010 

The summer 2010 edition of 

The Geographer reported the 

eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. For 

the moment it has stopped, but 

the consequences for the land 

and the people certainly have 

not. Farmers, local elected and 

paid officials, priests, and land 

restoration specialists interviewed 

all expressed concern about the 

longer term mental health of 

residents in the directly affected 

area. Two farmers had already 

left the area and did not intend to 

return, such had been the trauma. 

They had sent their stock to the 

farms of relatives elsewhere in 

Iceland. Another two farmers 

were seriously thinking of leaving. 

Those remaining were concerned 

that their livestock, which had 

been removed from the area to 

avoid ingestion of noxious fluoride 

on the vegetation and to find 

new pastures, considered that 

there was insufficient action by 

government agencies and a great 

deal of buck passing. 

For many families, coping with 

the potential of an eruption 

and memories of eruptions in 

the nearby Vestmann Islands 

were kept private, as were the 

normal tensions between people 

in the home. The eruption and 

its aftermath brought many of 

these problems to the surface. 

A priest described to me that 

people had lived in a box with 

their emotions private, but the ash 

had got into the box and forced 

the individuals out and exposed 

them in an uncomfortable way. 

Already two couples had divorced. 

And many had been treated 

for mental illness locally or in 

Reykjavik, almost 100 miles away. 

The attention of the media had 

caused a great deal of harm 

and little identifiable benefit. 

Journalists continually pestered 

families looking for stories and 

novel angles. The locals felt that 

sometimes they made up stories 

just to report something, One has 

to question the morality of the 

media in these situations, where 

getting a story is more important 

than those traumatised being 

allowed to cope with the situation. 

At least the support of many 

Icelanders who just turned up and 

said “what can we do to help?” 

was warmly welcomed and gave 

great comfort. 

The prolonged warm, bright 

weather has also heightened 

spirits. But there are real fears 

about the onset of the dark winter 

nights, the potential for further 

eruptions and the recurrence 

of the nightmares of the two 

eruptions. Their concerns were not 

helped, they said, by the President 

of Iceland suggesting on UK TV 

that much larger eruptions could 

occur. Whilst he acknowledged 

this point in an interview, he felt it 

necessary to warn other European 

countries of the need to prepare 

effective contingency plans. The 

memories of the darkness during 

the daytime, the overwhelming 

and constant noise of the 

eruption and the accompanying 

thunder and the brightness of the 

lightening during the night time 

severely disrupting sleep, were 

still real. Conditions in the houses 

were difficult as the fine volcanic 

dust penetrated everywhere 

despite double glazing, 

necessitating wearing of masks 

indoors and causing breathing 

difficulties and sinus problems. 

On the ground there are 

always longer standing effects. 

Massive amounts of ash 

were spread across Europe, 

but much has landed locally 

around Eyjafjallajökull and 

Fimmvorðuhals. The ice cap is 

black with the ash to a depth of 

almost a metre. The snow beyond 

the glacier is covered with ash, 

giving beautiful circular patterns 

as the snow slowly melts. The 

highland grazing areas have 

largely disappeared under the 

ash, and above 600m there are 

virtually no signs of growth. Below 

that, the grass is beginning to 

show through following a long 

warm spell. But there is a very 

significant reduction in the area 

of land for 

sheep to 

graze, and 

alternative 

sources of 

feed have 

had to be 

found. It 

is very 

difficult to 

© Chapman-Burton 

reseed these areas because they 

are not accessible for machinery, 

so the traditional pattern of taking 

the sheep to the highlands in June 

and gathering them in September 

is diminished. Fortunately, the 

fodder crops on the lower ground 

are growing, but initially with a 

reduced production. The milk 

from the cattle has, to everyone’s 

relief, been passed as fit for 

human consumption. 

The river valleys and the deep 

canyons are filled with ash. A 

90m deep lake at the front of the 

glacier where the main flood came 

is totally filled with sediment! The 

water released by the eruption 

under the ice cap carried vast 

quantities of ash down the valleys 

across the fields and over the 

roads. The rivers are now being 

dredged to allow for more ash to 

be carried down once the autumn 

rains begin, otherwise it will spill 

out over the fields and block 

the roads and threaten the farm 

houses. 

Will the volcano erupt again? 

Geologists are uncertain. The 

last time Eyjafjallajökull erupted 

in 1821/22, there was a second 

eruption seven months after 

the first. The adjacent Katla 

volcano, fed by a separate 

magma chamber, is overdue an 

eruption, the last having been in 

1918. More to the point, locals 

are worried about the possibility 

of another eruption and the 

continuing consequences of the 

last one: ash blow, flooding and 

mud flows. Whatever happens in 

practice, the local population are 

not looking forward to the dark 

winter nights and the memories 

they will bring back. 

“Conditions 

in the houses 

were difficult 

as the fine 

volcanic dust 

penetrated 

everywhere 

despite 

double 

glazing, 

necessitating 

wearing 

of masks 

indoors and 

causing 

breathing 

difficulties 

and sinus 

problems.”

On the Map 

Global Surface Temperature Anomalies 

© NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies 

(GISS temperature analysis) 

This July 2010 global map 

of surface temperature 

anomalies, relative to the 

average July in the 1951-1980 

period of climatology, provides 

a useful picture of current 

climate. 

It was more than 5°C warmer 

in areas of eastern Europe and 

eastern Asia, and unusually 

warm in the eastern United 

States. Substantial areas 

appeared cooler, including 

central Asia and southern 

South America. The emerging 

La Niña is now moderately 

strong, evidenced by the 

cool band along the equator 

in the eastern and central 

Pacific Ocean. 

Indus River Flooding, August 2010 

Thanks to the Met Office and Mike Thomas for 

providing helpful information for this piece. 

© NASA/GSFC/METI/ 

ERSDAC/JAROS, and US/ 

Japan ASTER Science Team 

This 18th August 2010 

ASTER image shows 

the extent of flooding in 

and around the city of 

Sukkur in Pakistan’s Sindh 

Province. The Indus River, 

Pakistan’s longest, snakes 

vertically through the 

image (dimensions 62x77 

km). 

The Indus, the world’s 21st largest 

river, really defines Pakistan – the 

country is virtually split lengthways 

by this river. Much of the land to the 

east is low lying and is a flood plain, 

especially the Punjab. Perhaps this 

is no surprise – Punjab means ‘five 

rivers’, part of the reason the area is so 

rich in nutrients, (it is the ‘breadbasket’ 

of Pakistan), but also explaining 

its propensity to flood during the 

monsoon. 

This summer however, according 

to some reports, nearly a third of 

the country was underwater, and 

the Punjab bore the brunt of what 

have been seen as the worst floods 

for generations. In the neighbouring 

region of Sindh, too, more than seven 

million people have been affected, and 

according to the UN, flood waters are 

still spreading as we go to print. 

Pakistan typically receives about half 

its annual rainfall of 250–500mm 

during July and August, so reports of 

24-hour totals in excess of 300mm, 

particularly in the head waters of the 

Indus River, were exceptional. 

The weather and airflow patterns 

over the whole of Asia had been very 

disturbed, resulting in record-breaking 

high temperatures in Moscow, leading 

to fatalities, forest fires and damaged 

crops, a once in a thousand year event 

according to Russian meteorologists. 

Another consequence was the excessive 

rainfall over China, which caused major 

mudslides and filled the Three Gorges 

Dam almost to capacity. 

The Indus River formerly flowed east 

into the Ganga system. It became 

diverted by tectonics to its present 

course five million years ago, since 

when its lower channel has shifted 

many times in response to extreme 

floods and climate changes. 

The Indus, with one of the highest 

sediment loads among world rivers, 

discharges on average 6,600 m 3 / 

second to the Arabian Sea. Reports 

indicate that the recent floods reached 

over 31,000 m 3 /second at Sukkur. The 

mountain catchment of the Khyber 

region received six times its average 

rainfall, and downstream Khanpur 

received nearly 16 times its average. 

Lahore, however, had lower than 

average rain. 

NASA reported a probable transition 

to La Niña conditions in July, which 

have been a factor in the strengthening 

of the Asian monsoon. An unusual 

jet stream in the upper atmosphere, 

flowing from the north and replacing 

the normally dominant westerly flow, 

is thought to be mainly responsible for 

the formation of large scale (Walker) 

cells of exceptional weather. 

Such strong fluctuations away from 

‘average’ conditions must, however, 

reflect deeper causes, and global 

climate warming is a likely candidate. 

The World Meteorological Office argues 

that the extreme weather events of 

2010 accord with predictions by the 

IPCC. 

None of this should obscure the human 

component of these tragic events: 

increasing population spreading across 

the floodplains, combined with water 

control measures to provide 80% of 

Pakistan’s irrigation from the Indus 

River, have both contributed to the 

tragic consequences of extreme natural 

events. 

Donations to help the victims of the Pakistan floods can be made to The Disasters E

Country in Focus: Pakistan 

The Flood Problem 

Dr Brian Cook, IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, University of Dundee 

The 


Autumn 2010 

The flooding in Pakistan represents 

a catastrophe that borders on 

unimaginable for those fortunate 

enough to live in the relative 

safety of the developed world. 

The hardship and suffering expose 

the natural environment as both 

provider and menace. This duality 

is rarely more evident than in 

agriculturally productive floodplains, 

which are periodically inundated to 

the detriment of inhabitants, the 

people dependent on the produced 

resources, or the neighbours forced 

to accommodate displaced people, 

disease, and needs. This type of 

event provokes questions of ‘what 

should be done?’, implicitly seeking 

a solution to the flood problem. 

While we must be cautious 

when comparing developed and 

developing world disasters, the 

floods in Pakistan provide us with 

an opportunity to reflect on the 

changing nature of hazards and 

their management. Furthermore, in 

the context of recent flooding in the 

United Kingdom (Midlands 2007, 

Bowmont Valley 2008, Cockermouth 

2009), there is a need to consider 

how understandings, expectations, 

and approaches should evolve 

to promote sustainable social, 

economic, and environmental 

development. 

Managing Environmental Hazards 

Management of the natural 

environment has undergone 

significant change over the past 

100 years. Historically, with a 

growing understanding of the 

natural world and a corresponding 

growth of technology, people 

were confident in their ability to 

shape the environment to suit 

their needs. This allowed society 

to make use of floodplains in ways 

that would have been too risky for 

earlier generations. With hindsight, 

such actions appear misinformed 

and perhaps misguided. Instead, 

we now recognise endemic 

unpredictability and uncertainty 

within environmental systems. 

With less predictable and more 

extreme events, we have at least 

three forces pulling in opposite 

directions: 1) the relative infrequency 

of extreme events results in an 

ill-prepared populace liable to 

make poor decisions; 2) increasing 

extremes of drought and flooding 

suggest that higher, stronger, and 

more extensive infrastructures are 

required to deliver the same level 

of security enjoyed by previous 

generations; and 3) the ongoing 

development of floodplains 

increases the concentration of 

people and wealth within high-risk 

locations. These issues suggest 

both that disaster prevention is 

impossible and that disaster 

mitigation is more difficult 

than envisioned. 

In the case of 

Pakistan, there 

is coupled 

environmental 

and societal 

change, fuelling 

significant 

uncertainty. 

Extreme events 

are unpredictable and occur 

seemingly at random, with concerns 

over drought oscillating to flood 

year on year; infrastructure is both 

aging and insufficient for extreme 

events, with government challenged 

to weigh long-term preventative 

planning against immediate 

concerns; and population growth 

is forcing intensive development 

and occupation of floodplains. In 

addition, Pakistan must address 

these issues within the context 

of poverty and the associated 

inequalities. 

How Poverty Exacerbates the 

Impact of Flooding 

Disasters can be detrimental (for 

people whose homes are damaged) 

or beneficial (for people who build 

or repair houses). Furthermore, an 

individual may experience immediate 

detrimental impacts (loss of crop) 

while enjoying long term benefits 

(recharged soil moisture and nutrient 

replenishment). The complex and 

diverse range of experience suggests 

that pre-disaster conditions are a 

critical determinant. 

Poverty exacerbates disasters 

in multiple ways. The poor often 

must inhabit undesirable and 

high-risk locations (hill slopes 

and floodplains), increasing the 

likelihood of exposure. People 

in poverty do not have food and 

resources to fall back on. Poverty, 

and its resulting malnutrition and 

chronic ill health, affects people’s 

susceptibility to water-borne 

diseases, eg cholera and dysentery. 

Amongst the impoverished, there 

are further hardships faced by 

women, children, minorities, and day 

labourers. These groups receive less 

of what little there is, and are often 

first to lose their livelihoods during 

disasters. Finally, such weakened 

and resource-poor individuals are 

vulnerable to unjust relations, 

direct force, price escalation, and 

profiteering by 

those capable of 

mitigating impacts, 

producing situations 

in which the least 

able face the largest 

detriments. 

Conclusion 

While there are significant 

differences between the 

UK and Pakistan, there are 

also common themes and 

opportunities to learn and share 

knowledge. For both nations, the 

problem of catastrophic flooding 

is unsolvable: bigger structures will 

fail, floodplains will continue to be 

populated, and the environment will 

continue to change. 

Large-scale technical solutions are 

unlikely to be economically viable 

outside of densely populated, 

urban, or culturally significant 

locations, which may be protected 

at great economic and social 

cost. Elsewhere, individuals 

and communities will need to 

assume greater responsibility, 

emphasising the importance of 

pre-existing resources, abilities, 

and opportunities for all vulnerable 

people. Thus, in response to those 

asking ‘what can be done to resolve 

the flood problem?’, we require 

an understanding that does not 

assign blame to a changing or 

unpredictable environment, but 

rather an understanding that 

accepts responsibility for 

how our decisions 

contribute to 

catastrophic 

situations. 

“The poor 

often must 

inhabit 

undesirable 

and high-risk 

locations (hill 

slopes and 

floodplains), 

increasing the 

likelihood of 

exposure.” 

Thanks to Ben Wisner 

for his helpful suggestions 

on this commentary. 

mergency Committee at www.dec.org.uk or by phoning 0370 60 60 900

Off The Beaten Track 

Don’t Miss the Boat 

Ed Gillespie, co-founder of specialist sustainability communications agency Futerra, and a global, slow traveller 

Ed trying on an immersion/ 

survival suit 

Arriving at Brisbane, 

Australia on the cargo 

ship Theodor Storm 

from Singapore 

“We were 

fantastically 

remote, 

potentially 

vulnerable, 

yet constantly 

lifted and 

inspired by 

the vivid 

blue beauty 

of sea and 

sky: rolling 

cloudscapes, 

wildly 

flamboyant 

sunsets and 

star-peppered 

nights.” 

Ed is speaking to 

RSGS audiences 

in Perth and 

Stirling in March 

2011. 

This time two years ago I was 

literally in the middle of the 

Pacific. Rolling in a gentle swell 

just north of the equator, on the 

32,000 tonne container ship, the 

Hansa Rendsburg. It was a 175m 

long Chinese-built vessel with 

what one of the crew described 

charmingly as a ‘deciduous’ 

engine – it regularly shed parts. 

Tahiti, our last 

port of call, was 

2,000 miles 

behind us, and the 

next, Ensenada in 

Mexico, was 2,000 

miles ahead. In the 

context of ‘getting 

away from it all’, 

I’m not sure how 

much further away 

we could possibly 

have got. 

The trans-Pacific 

crossing in the 

Hansa Rendsburg 

was the third of 

four ‘freighter 

cruises’ we took as part of 

our year-long round-the-world 

trip without flying (www. 

lowcarbontravel.com), sailing as 

passengers on cargo ships from 

Singapore to Brisbane, then from 

Melbourne to Napier in New 

Zealand, and finally from Costa 

Rica back to good old Dover. 

While we were not actually 

expected to swab the decks 

in exchange for our passage, 

it’s a far cry from conventional 

cruising. Contrasting cargo 

ships with cruise liners is 

like comparing a truck with a 

limousine – both get you to your 

destination, but only one has a 

champagne fridge and leather 

seats. The luxurious pampering 

of clubby retirees is all part of 

the cruise liner experience and 

comes with a price tag to match. 

Cargo ships are very much the 

‘no-frills’ option. 

The core business of our vessel 

was to shift stuff around the 

world. The financial benefit of 

our presence to the company, 

when fuel costs run into many 

thousands of pounds a day, was 

minuscule. We were essentially 

a welcome distraction, mainly 

The Hansa Rendsburg in dock in Auckland, 

New Zealand 

because, after several months 

at sea, the crew, if not exactly 

sick of the sight of each other, at 

least appreciate some fresh faces 

and new conversation. 

We occupied a ‘suite’ that was 

pleasant and spacious enough – 

in a Slough Travelodge sort of 

way. There was also a fridge, 

which we stocked with beer from 

the ship’s store 

(sadly, no Möet). 

Onboard with us 

were 21 crew, a 

mixture of Kiwis, 

Ukrainians, 

Filipinos and 

Kiribatis (from 

a remote group 

of equatorial 

Pacific atolls). 

There was one 

other passenger, 

a retired female 

Canadian 

Mountie who 

“couldn’t 

stand flying”, 

and around 1,000 boxy, metal 

containers. These were stuffed 

with dried milk products, white 

goods, fruit and, in the 150 or so 

refrigerated ‘reefer’ containers, 

fish, meat and ice-cream. We 

even had a cargo of ‘low-specific’ 

radioactive material going to 

Canada. 

With no cinema aboard, the 

only ‘pirates’ we saw were in the 

ship’s library of DVDs of dubious 

origin and suspect titles, of the 

lewd, nude variety. The male 

crew, it must be remembered, are 

alone at sea for very long periods. 

There were also opportunities 

for wildlife spotting. On previous 

ships, we saw pods of whales in 

the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, 

skittering flying fish off Tahiti, 

gangs of tiny petrels, and a lone 

majestic albatross wheeling 

gracefully around the ship in the 

Tasman Sea. 

Nature was less visible in the 

mid-Pacific, but there was still 

plenty to stimulate the senses. 

We were fantastically remote, 

potentially vulnerable, yet 

constantly lifted and inspired by 

the vivid blue beauty of sea and 

sky: rolling cloudscapes, wildly 

flamboyant sunsets and starpeppered 

nights. We were 

truly at the mercy of the 

ocean’s might, which 

was as profoundly 

humbling as it was 

scary. 

Cargo ship travel is not 

for everyone, but in an 

age when anyone can get on a 

plane and twang themselves to 

the other side of the planet, there 

is something uniquely satisfying 

about a long voyage by sea. You 

gain a respect for the crews who 

spend so many months of their 

lives each year half a world away 

from their nearest and dearest. 

You get to explore the mechanics 

of the biggest engines you’ll 

probably ever see, hang out 

on the bridge, and try on thick 

orange Neoprene immersion 

suits that make you resemble a 

cross between a Teletubby and a 

lobster fetishist. 

Freighter cruising also gives 

a fascinating insight into the 

logistics of the way much of 

the world’s trade is conducted – 

sobering when you see first-hand 

the scale of maritime shipping 

operations and the challenges 

involved. Cheap oriental 

Christmas decorations are seen in 

a new light when you appreciate 

how they’ve reached the UK. 

A cargo ship journey is a 

contemplative, relaxing 

experience – if the weather 

obliges. Freed from the 

distractions of telephones, the 

internet and the modern world, 

that permeate even the remotest 

holiday resorts, at sea your mind 

can wander, ruminate and truly 

escape. The tragedy is that these 

opportunities are in decline 

and capacity is limited to a few 

passenger cabins per ship. 

Compounding this, Orwellian 

security and immigration 

measures introduced by the US 

in recent years have created so 

many headaches for shipping 

companies that many have simply 

stopped carrying passengers 

at all. A long, proud tradition 

of travel by sea is in danger of 

disappearing altogether. Don’t 

miss the boat.

Expert View: Geodiversity 

Engaging with Geodiversity - Why it Matters 

Mike Thomas, University of Stirling 

The 


Autumn 2010 

Geodiversity has emerged as 

a topic of debate and policy 

development amongst the 

conservation agencies of many 

countries over the last decade. 

In this, the International Year of 

Biodiversity, geodiversity merits 

enhanced exposure and exploration 

across the geographical sciences, 

to highlight its potential for the 

supply of environmental services 

to a plethora of stakeholders in 

environmental management. 

Geodiversity provides the essential 

underpinning for plants, animals 

and human beings to flourish, 

and is key to the conservation 

of geological sites and valued 

landscapes. It is an asset of 

national and international 

importance, that informs us of 

the globally significant geological 

processes that shape our world 

in ways that we rarely fully 

appreciate; from the drivers of 

tectonics, volcanism and long-term 

climate evolution, to the changing 

meteorological drivers that model 

the Earth’s surface. 

The interface between geodiversity 

and biodiversity is mediated by the 

fragile mantle of soils. Geodiversity, 

however, has a wider relevance 

as an expression of landscape 

character and quality, and as a key 

influence on habitats and species, 

sustainable management of land, 

river catchments and the coast, 

economic activities, and historical 

and cultural heritage. It is also of 

crucial importance to how we adapt 

to, and mitigate the impact of, 

climate change. 

Within Scotland’s cities, there 

are close links between urban 

landscapes and open spaces, 

architectural heritage and geology, 

thus broadening the concept still 

further to embrace aspects of the 

cultural landscape. Geodiversity 

can be a source of inspiration for 

art, sculpture, music and literature. 

Although this wider concept of 

geodiversity is now recognised 

within the activities of Scottish 

Natural Heritage (SNH) and the 

British Geological Survey (BGS), 

there is a need to extend the 

discussion, to promote the nature 

and scope of both geodiversity and 

biodiversity to a wider audience. 

Scope also exists for consideration 

of the role and range of 

applications, ‘geodiversity services’, 

that can potentially be offered 

in the fields of geoconservation, 

geotourism, geoeducation, and 

in development planning and 

environmental management. 

The need for a greater awareness 

of geodiversity extends to better 

integration within existing policy 

frameworks, for example in the 

conservation of protected sites, 

in physical planning in urban and 

rural settings, in flood control and 

land stability issues, including 

many coastal and near-shore 

marine environments, as well 

as inclusion in climate change 

adaptation scenarios. 

The establishment of 

GeoConservationUK, and the 

creation of Geoparks in Scotland as 

a result of UNESCO and European 

initiatives, further highlight the 

emergence of geodiversity whilst 

providing for the involvement of 

local communities. In its wider 

relevance, geodiversity has a 

fundamental bearing on the health 

and wellbeing of Scotland’s people, 

and an important contribution to 

make in delivering the Scottish 

Government’s strategic objectives 

and key themes for a greener 

Scotland. 

It is therefore timely and important 

to explore the scientific basis 

for geodiversity studies and to 

recognise the services that are 

provided by geodiversity, since 

these are of key importance to how 

we plan for a sustainable future 

through our national policies for the 

environment, for detailed planning 

provision, and for formal and 

informal education. 

Geodiversity is the 

variety of the Earth’s 

materials, forms and 

processes: it is rocks 

and minerals, fossils 

and sediments, soils 

and water; it is folds, 

faults and landforms; 

it is plate movement, 

sediment transport 

and soil creation. It is 

the variety of building stone used 

in the construction of Scotland’s 

towns; Edinburgh’s Castle 

Rock, once a volcano; Glasgow’s 

city centre drumlins, produced by 

the passage of great ice sheets; 

the Flow Country’s peat that 

supports a wealth of biodiversity; 

Caithness’s 380 million year old 

fossil fish; the River Spey, carrying 

sand silt and other sediment 

eroded from the Grampian 

Mountains into the Moray Firth. 

Britain has more geological 

diversity than any other 

comparable area in the world. 

Geodiversity provides raw 

materials and supplies water; it 

affects where and how we can 

build; it determines biodiversity, 

cultural heritage and a sense of 

place. Geodiversity conservation is 

increasingly seen as important in 

its own right, and as an essential 

support to biodiversity and 

cultural conservation programmes. 

The Wave, Arizona, a sandstone rock 

formation eroded by wind and rain. 

“Geodiversity 

is a property 

of the earth’s 

rocks, 

landforms 

and soils, 

all of which 

interact to 

provide the 

essential 

underpinning 

for plants, 

animals and 

human beings 

to flourish.” 

The RSGS, SNH, BGS and the British Soil Science 

Society (BSSS) have organised a conference, sponsored 

by Scottish Power and Tarmac, entitled Engaging 

with Geodiversity - why it matters, to be held at Our 

Dynamic Earth, Holyrood, Edinburgh on Wednesday 

1st December 2010 (see www.rsgs.org/events/ 

Geodiversity_flyer.pdf). The opening plenary of the 

conference will be given by Professor Iain Stewart, who 

will also be speaking about the making of Scotland’s 

landscapes to RSGS audiences in Aberdeen, Dundee 

and Edinburgh in late November and early December. 

Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh – IPR/126-35CY British 

Geological Survey. © NERC. All rights reserved.

Opinion On: Geodiversity 

James Croll - Joiner. Janitor. Geologist. Genius? 

Mike Robinson, Chief Executive, RSGS 

“Finally, 

at the age 

of 38, at a 

time when 

the average 

life span 

was barely 

mid forties, 

he got his 

lucky break, 

becoming 

a janitor 

at the 

Anderson 

College in 

Glasgow.” 

James Croll is one of 

those characters who 

has been all but 

forgotten in Scotland, 

and is virtually 

unheard of in his home 

town of Perth. Yet he 

made a fundamental 

contribution to our 

current understanding of 

science and the ice ages. 

This contribution might merit 

greater attention in itself, but is 

all the more remarkable in light 

of his personal story. How did a 

man of modest birth, plagued 

throughout his life with ill health, 

and who left school after only 

three years, become one of the 

leading scientific thinkers of his 

day? 

James Croll was born in 1821 

to David Croil, a stonemason 

and crofter, and Janet Ellis, in 

the crofting hamlet of Little 

Whitefield, about five miles north 

of Perth. When he was three 

years old, the family croft was 

cleared by the landowner Lord 

Willoughby. Some families were 

offered an area of bog-land a mile 

or so west, in recompense for 

being displaced. This became the 

village of Wolfhill, and here David 

managed to clear four to five 

acres, and to build a house. It was 

not possible to feed the family 

from such a small landholding, so 

David had to revert to his trade 

as a stonemason and to travel 

regularly away from home. 

James was afflicted with a pain in 

his head, and had to wear a hat 

to keep his head from hurting. 

This was enough to put him off 

attending school, so he was taught 

in part by his parents, but in the 

main by his brother Alexander, two 

years his elder. Sadly his brother 

died at the age of ten, and James 

had to attend school himself from 

that point onwards. 

James attended school in 

Guildtown from the ages of nine 

to 13, and when he left, to help 

manage the croft, he was 

by his own admission 

below the average student. 

But it was around this 

time that he stumbled 

upon the monthly Penny 

Magazine of the Society 

for the Diffusion of 

Useful Knowledge, and 

suddenly his intellect was 

unleashed. 

James read avidly from this 

moment forth, and by his late 

teens he felt he had a pretty 

good grasp of most of the 

main disciplines in science. “I 

remember well that, before I 

could make headway in physical 

astronomy,… I had to go back 

and study the laws of motion 

and fundamental principles of 

mechanics. In like manner I 

studied pneumatics, hydrostatics, 

light, heat, electricity and 

magnetism. I obtained assistance 

from no one. In fact there were 

none of my acquaintances who 

knew anything whatever about 

these subjects.” Ironically, geology 

was one of the few subjects 

he struggled to find much 

enthusiasm for. 

At the age of 17, James had to 

get a job, and he moved to Collace 

to learn to be a millwright. It 

was at this time that a leading 

Swiss scientist, Agassiz, rocked 

the geological community at 

a conference in Neuchâtel. Up 

until this time, most scientists 

believed that massive rocks which 

had travelled large distances 

from their source (erratic rocks) 

had been washed there in the 

diluvian floods that Noah survived, 

either directly or transported 

in icebergs that floated on the 

flood waters. The idea that 

glaciers once covered larger areas 

was controversial and widely 

disputed, but in 1837 Agassiz 

first presented this idea formally, 

explaining the theory of an ice age 

being responsible. 

Croll, after almost six years of 

fairly poor living 

conditions on the 

road, finally tired of 

the job of millwright 

and moved back to 

Wolfhill where, at 22, 

he took himself back 

to school to learn 

algebra. A deeply 

religious man, he 

helped to build the 

new kirk at Kinrossie for his friend 

the Reverend Andrew Bonar, then 

moved to Paisley where he worked 

as a joiner until 1846, when his 

elbow became ossified and he 

returned again to Wolfhill. 

He then made a lifelong friend 

through a moment of fate – 

wandering into Perth to seek 

work, he was handed a leaflet for 

a new tea and coffee merchant 

in the High Street. Croll took this 

as a ‘sign’, went to the shop, 

befriended the owner, David Irons, 

and worked for him in Perth for 

some months, before Irons set 

him up with his own shop in Elgin. 

There, he met and married 

Isabella MacDonald, but within 

three years he became too ill to 

work and had to sell the shop. 

Staunch teetotallers, the couple 

established a temperance hotel 

in Blairgowrie, but it was perhaps 

predictably unsuccessful. He then 

worked as an insurance salesman 

in Dundee, Edinburgh and 

Leicester, when his wife became 

seriously ill, and they moved back 

to Glasgow where her sister could 

help with care. 

Croll then produced his first 

book, The Philosophy of Theism, 

reflecting his religious convictions, 

and for the next year and a half 

was a journalist on a temperance 

newspaper in Glasgow. 

Finally, at the age of 38, at a 

time when the average life span 

was barely mid forties, he got his 

Little Whitefield, 

near Wolfhill.

The 


Autumn 2010 

lucky break, becoming a janitor at 

the Anderson College in Glasgow. 

Paid £1 a week, plus taxes, coal 

and a house, it was barely enough 

to sustain him, his wife, and his 

brother David, who now lived 

with them after the death of his 

mother. But James Croll was the 

happiest in his work that he had 

ever been. Often his brother would 

come to work with him and, whilst 

David did the chores, James would 

sit and read his way through the 

books in the extensive library. 

The theory proposed by Agassiz 

that glaciers were once much 

more advanced, and that their 

advance and retreat had shaped 

the landscape, was now much 

more firmly established. In 1864, 

Croll waded into this debate and 

wrote a paper for the Philosophical 

Magazine, On the Physical Cause 

of the Change of Climate During 

Glacial Epochs, based on the 

eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit 

and its effect on the ice ages. He 

developed the idea that there were 

several ice ages, brought about 

in part by changes in the orbit of 

the Earth round the sun, by the 

tilt of the Earth in relation to the 

sun during different seasons, and 

by the ‘wobble’ of the magnetic 

poles over time. The combination 

of these factors, exacerbated by 

‘feedbacks’ like changes in the 

extent of ice and the consequent 

variation in the Earth reflecting 

sunlight back into space, could 

explain the regularity and causes 

of several historical ice ages, and 

indeed predict future ones. 

This began a period in which Croll 

corresponded regularly with many 

of the greatest scientific minds 

of the day – arguing, commenting 

on and explaining theories about 

subjects such as the ice ages, 

ocean currents, and evolution. His 

regular correspondents included 

Darwin, Tyndall, Lyell, Wallace, 

Lord Kelvin, Joseph Hooker 

and Fridtjof Nansen, and his 

reputation grew. 

In 1867, he was persuaded by 

Archibald Geikie (one of RSGS’s 

founders) to join the Geological 

Survey of Scotland, despite failing 

the entrance exam. Unfortunately 

once again Croll was blighted 

with increasing head pains which 

affected his concentration and 

limited his ability to develop his 

thinking – something for which he 

was typically apologetic. 

In 1875, he published his most 

critical work, Climate and Time, 

the distillation of his theory of 

ice ages and Earth’s orbit. In 

1876, he was made a Fellow of 

the Royal Society and an Honorary 

Member of the New York Academy 

of Sciences, and was awarded an 

honorary degree by the University 

of St Andrews. 

Aged 59, forced to retire early 

from continuing ill health, Croll 

moved into rented lodgings in 

Perth. In all, he produced 92 

scientific papers, but in his last 

years he returned to the earlier 

themes of his religious papers, 

producing his fourth book, The 

Philosophical Basis of Evolution, 

which was rushed to print so that 

he saw a copy a few days before 

he died. Reportedly, he celebrated 

with a glass of scotch, saying “I 

don’t think there’s much fear of 

me learning to drink now”. 

James Croll died on 15th 

December 1890, and is believed 

to be buried in an unmarked 

grave, close to the area in which 

he grew up. Maybe it is time to 

recognise this man from humble 

beginnings, whose intellect 

shone through despite his lack 

of formal education, misfortune 

and illnesses. A joiner? Yes, by 

necessity. A janitor? Yes and a 

happy man with it. A geologist? 

Somewhat ironically, given his 

indifference to it as a young 

man. A genius? Maybe. But 

an inspirational individual? 

Undoubtedly. 

James Croll is one of the pioneer 

Scottish geologists to be featured 

in the new three-part BBC TV 

series Men of Rock, presented by 

Professor Iain Stewart and due to 

be broadcast in November 2010. 

James Croll’s theory of climate change 

Dr Diarmid Finnegan, Queen’s University Belfast 

James Croll’s scientific reputation largely rests on his book, 

Climate and Time, which tackles a range of subjects, all 

related in some way to Croll’s astronomical theory of longterm 

climate change. The first third of the book is largely 

devoted to the cause, behaviour and climatic effects of 

ocean currents. In the middle third of the book, Croll points 

to some striking and original implications of his theory, and 

uses it to calibrate geological time. The final third deals 

with a more eclectic set of topics that in one way or another 

supplement and develop the book’s central argument. 

Against a general scepticism about the influence of orbital 

variations on the Earth’s climate, Croll argues that when the 

eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit is particularly pronounced, 

a glacial period is triggered in the hemisphere in which 

the winter solstice coincides, or nearly coincides, with the 

Earth being at the point in its orbit furthest from the sun 

(‘aphelion’). It followed from this deduction that when one 

hemisphere was experiencing a glacial period, the other 

was largely or completely ice-free. It also followed that the 

glacial epochs caused by pronounced eccentricity were 

characterised by a series of glacial and inter-glacial periods 

traceable to the precession of the equinoxes. 

Vital to Croll’s theory was an account of how the severe 

winters caused by pronounced eccentricity triggered other 

mechanisms that more than countered the effects of a short 

but hot summer. It was only by showing how pronounced 

eccentricity set in train a series of ‘feedback’ mechanisms 

that he could overcome objections to any astronomical 

theory of long-term climate change. In the final chapters of 

his book, he tackles subjects as diverse as the age of the 

sun, the causes of sea level change, the behaviour of ice 

sheets and the physics of glacier motion. Climate and Time 

is then a book of stunning range and original insight which 

was well received at the time. Croll’s leading ideas were 

widely contested and his book fed into a series of important 

scientific disputes over the age of the Earth, the 

dating, duration and effects of the ice age 

(ages) and the evolution of organic life. 

Croll, from our perspective, did of 

course get some things wrong. 

On the face of it, he was wrong 

about the dating of the last ice 

age and wrong about glacial 

periods occurring out of 

phase in the northern and 

southern hemisphere, 

amongst other things. 

However, taken on its 

own terms, Croll’s book 

stimulated significant 

scientific debate, 

opened up new research 

questions and, along 

the way, captivated 

scientific and nonscientific 

readers alike. 

It remains a remarkable 

tribute to a self-educated, 

coy but tenacious man. 

© NASA

Expert Views: Biodiversity 

Polar bears and their disappearing world 

Dr Andrew E Derocher, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada 

“Polar bears 

are marine 

mammals. 

In parts of 

their range, 

bears are 

born, live, 

and die on 

the sea ice 

without ever 

setting foot 

on dry land. 

Dietary 

energy 

comes from 

the marine 

ecosystem.” 

For good reason, polar bears 

have become ‘poster-species’ 

and embody the perils of climate 

change. From a reductionist 

perspective, the problem is 

habitat loss and their sea ice 

home disappearing or being 

fundamentally changed in ways 

that put their existence at risk. 

Polar bears evolved, perhaps as 

little as 134,000 years ago, during 

a warm spell called the Eemian 

interglacial. It may have been the 

warm spell that removed them 

from their brown bear ancestors 

but it was the abundance of naïve 

seals that drew them onto the sea 

ice in the first place. In an example 

of quantum evolution, polar bears 

rapidly diverged to become the 

largest and most predatory of the 

extant bears. 

While some consider polar bears 

to be the largest terrestrial 

predator, such a perspective is 

flawed. Polar bears are marine 

mammals. In parts of their range, 

bears are born, live, and die on the 

sea ice without ever setting foot 

on dry land. Dietary energy comes 

from the marine ecosystem. 

The prey of polar bears is 

primarily the 70kg ringed seal, the 

small meal deal, and secondarily 

the massive big seal meal, the 

bearded seal which can top 400kg. 

Both species are ice-breeders 

and only found over the shallow 

continental shelves of the Arctic 

Ocean and adjoining waters. 

Using ice projection models, it is estimated that two thirds of the world’s 

20,000-25,000 polar bears will disappear. 

Technically, polar bears are the 

most carnivorous bear but they 

do not each much meat. It is the 

massive energy-rich blubber stores 

of seals that allow polar bears to 

live in the Arctic. 

While most consider polar bears 

to be the quintessential Arctic 

species, they are found to latitudes 

south of Edinburgh in James Bay 

in Canada. The lifeline for polar 

bears is sea ice. Throughout the 

Arctic, sea ice is disappearing and 

is projected to continue to decline, 

but the pace of change varies 

dramatically in the 19 polar bear 

populations. 

The first polar bear symptom is 

a loss of stored body fat. Being 

skinnier sounds wonderful from 

a human perspective, but for 

polar bears it represents a loss of 

fasting ability. Polar bears take in 

the vast majority of their energy 

during the three to four spring 

months when seals are giving birth 

and nursing their pups. During 

this bout of gorging, polar bears 

direct the blubber from their prey 

directly onto their own bodies with 

astonishing efficiency and use this 

store when seals are unavailable. 

One female in Hudson Bay was 

caught in the autumn weighing 

99kg, but one year later, the now 

pregnant female had ballooned 

to 410kg and went on to produce 

triplets. Such huge females are 

now history in the area, but they 

used to fast for eight months 

while giving birth and 

rearing cubs on land, 

before heading back 

onto the sea ice to 

feed. Now, earlier sea 

ice break-up is forcing 

the bears ashore up 

to six weeks earlier. 

The bears burn 

almost a kilogram of 

fat every day spent 

fasting, and skinnier 

females produce 

fewer and lighter 

cubs that have lower 

survival rates. There 

are physiological 

limits to what the 

bears can do. Breakup 

in Hudson Bay in 

2010 was the earliest 

on record, and the 

western Hudson 

Bay population has 

declined over 20% in 

the last decade. 

Some people have either hopefully 

or ignorantly suggested that 

polar bears will adapt to a more 

terrestrial life. Unfortunately, 

we well know the fate of polar 

bears when sea ice becomes 

unreliable. Only 10,000 years ago, 

polar bears were abundant in the 

Baltic Sea. Fossil remains from 

throughout the area attest that 

they were a common species until 

the climate warmed. At the end of 

the Weichselian glaciation, polar 

bears disappeared from the Baltic 

even though sea ice still forms 

in some areas and ringed seals 

are still present. The ice does not 

last long enough to support polar 

bears, and the fasting period is too 

long. 

Such a fate appears to be in 

waiting for many polar bear 

populations. Using ice projection 

models, it is estimated that two 

thirds of the world’s 20,000- 

25,000 polar bears will disappear. 

It will still get cold in the Arctic 

in winter, but it will not be cold 

enough to provide sufficient ice 

for polar bears. The Arctic marine 

ecosystem will shift to an open 

ocean ecosystem, with Atlantic 

and Pacific species moving 

northward. Such changes are 

already occurring. Harp seals are 

pushing north and killer whales 

are showing up in places they 

have never been seen before. The 

new top predator will be the killer 

whale. Polar bears may hang on 

to the end of the century at the 

highest latitudes in the Canadian 

Archipelago and northern 

Greenland, but they cannot shift 

further north. 

The science of human-caused 

climate change is incredibly well 

founded; we understand the 

perils of global warming. We can 

ignore the fate of polar bears and 

continue along our current path, 

but future generations will mourn 

our collective selfishness. Polar 

bears are not the only species 

at risk from climate change, but 

they have come to represent what 

we stand to lose. By the time 

polar bear populations are in dire 

condition, we will be too busy 

to help them because we will be 

attending to the humanitarian 

disasters precipitated by climate 

change. Nonetheless, there is 

hope; it lies in reducing our carbon 

footprint.

The 


Autumn 2010 

The Exploration of Subglacial Lake Ellsworth 

Dr Neil Ross, University of Edinburgh 

The underside of the West 

Antarctic Ice Sheet might 

not at first appear the most 

obvious environment to recover 

and analyse liquid water 

containing new and unique 

microbial life, but a major 

project led by the University of 

Edinburgh and funded by the 

Natural Environment Research 

Council (the ‘Lake Ellsworth 

Consortium’), is planning to do 

just that. 

Subglacial lakes are surprisingly 

common beneath the Antarctic 

ice sheets, and are one of the 

last unexplored environments and 

ecosystems on Earth. Two goals 

are driving interest in subglacial 

lakes: (i) understanding the 

origin, evolution and support 

systems for life in these water 

bodies; and (ii) the recovery of a 

record of ice sheet history from 

the sediments deposited on the 

lake floors. 

Subglacial Lake Ellsworth, 

beneath the West Antarctic Ice 

Sheet, has been selected as an 

ideal subglacial lake for achieving 

these goals through direct 

exploration, measurement and 

sampling. Geophysical surveys 

have shown that the lake, which 

is about the size and shape of 

Windermere, is up to 156m deep 

and underlain by soft, finegrained 

muds similar to those at 

the bottom of the deep oceans. 

These discoveries have confirmed 

Lake Ellsworth as an ideal target 

for exploration, and have enabled 

a very specific access location to 

be defined. 

The exploration of Lake Ellsworth 

is planned for the 2012-13 

Antarctic field season. There 

are evident logistical challenges 

associated with delivering a 

major scientific project in West 

Antarctica. In Antarctic terms, 

however, Lake Ellsworth is very 

much accessible: it is within the 

typical operational area of the 

British Antarctic Survey (BAS) 

and it is less than 200km from 

the ‘blue-ice’ runway at Union 

Glacier run by Antarctic Logistics 

and Expeditions (ALE). This 

means that even heavy, bulky 

equipment can be transported 

relatively easily from South 

America (by plane to Union 

Glacier and by ground-based 

tractor traverse from there to the 

lake). 

Hot water drilling will be used 

to create the lake access hole. 

Pressurised hot water (produced 

from melted and heated snow 

and ice) will be pumped through 

a long (>3km) hose with a metal 

nozzle at its end. The nozzle will 

be gradually lowered into the ice, 

melting an approximately 36cm 

diameter borehole through the 

entire ice sheet. A remarkably 

straight access hole can be 

drilled this way, simply by letting 

gravity do all the hard work. 

There are two reasons for using 

hot water drilling. Firstly, it 

enables rapid access through the 

ice in one field season (ice core 

drilling of similar ice thicknesses 

normally takes several seasons). 

Secondly, and importantly, it 

maximises the cleanliness of 

the lake access operation. The 

cleanliness and sterility of 

equipment is central to both the 

success of the science and the 

environmental stewardship of 

the subglacial environment, and 

such considerations are therefore 

being integrated, from the outset, 

into equipment design, build and 

deployment. 

A custom-built probe, equipped 

with an array of sensors, will be 

used to measure and sample the 

lake. This probe will be deployed 

via the access hole and will be 

linked to the ‘command-centre’ 

on the ice surface with a tether, 

through which the probe can be 

controlled and data and imagery 

relayed for real-time viewing 

and analysis. Initially, the probe 

will descend through the water 

column, making measurements 

of the physical and chemical 

properties of the water. The 

sampling sequence will be 

initiated once the probe reaches 

the lake floor where it will recover 

a very short (

Opinion On: Biodiversity 

Survival: saving endangered migratory species 

Stanley Johnson 

Stanley Johnson 

is a trustee 

of the Gorilla 

Organisation and 

an Ambassador 

for the United 

Nations 

Convention 

on Migratory 

Species. In 

1984 he was 

awarded the 

Greenpeace Prize 

for Outstanding 

Services to the 

Environment 

and the RSPCA 

Richard Martin 

Award for 

services to 

animal welfare. 

He is co-author 

of Survival: Saving 

Endangered 

Migratory Species, 

a richly illustrated 

and meticulously 

researched 

book published 

by Stacey 

International 

earlier this year. 

A few months ago I travelled in 

a hot-air balloon over vast herds 

of wildlife as they migrated from 

Tanzania’s Serengeti National 

Park into Kenya’s Masai Mara 

Game Reserve. The sight was 

unbelievable, unforgettable. As far 

as the eye could see the plains 

were black with animals. One and 

a half million wildebeest; 

half a million zebra; 

another half 

million topis, 

elands and 

Thompson’s 

gazelles. 

This truly 

is one of 

the world’s 

great 

migrations, 

perhaps the 

greatest wildlife 

spectacle on 

Earth. 

For the last five years, as I 

undertook research for the book 

Survival: Saving Endangered 

Migratory Species which I have coauthored 

with Robert Vagg, I have 

been privileged to visit the most 

far-flung corners of the globe. I 

have been in the Sahara desert, 

in the very heart of Niger, looking 

for the addax, the rarest of all 

desert antelopes. I have trekked 

gorillas in both Central and West 

Africa, spent time with giant river 

otters in Brazil’s Pantanal and in 

the Amazon, and camped among 

the orang-utans in Borneo’s now 

much-threatened forests. 

This has been one of the most 

exciting projects I have ever 

undertaken. One day, from the 

deck of a small former fishingboat 

in Mexico’s Sea of Cortes 

(otherwise known as the Gulf 

of California), I saw at least 20 

blue whales, thought to be the 

largest of all the creatures that 

have ever lived on this planet, a 

species which for decades has 

been hovering on the edge of 

extinction. On Española Island 

in the Galapagos, I was able 

to observe at close quarters 

colonies of waved albatross. (Of 

the 19 currently listed albatross 

species, 15 are classified as 

threatened with extinction.) I once 

spent a week with researchers 

from the environmental charity 

Earthwatch, pacing up and down 

a Costa Rican beach to protect 

the newly-laid eggs of the mighty 

leatherback turtle. Once there 

were 90,000 mating female 

leatherbacks in the Pacific. Today, 

there are fewer than 5,000. 

The book is about the battle 

to save the world’s 

endangered 

migratory 

species. 

Because 

many 

of them 

move from 

country 

to country, 

international 

action is often 

essential. Since 

January 2007, I 

have been honoured 

to be an Ambassador for the 

United Nations Environment 

Programme’s Convention on 

Migratory Species (CMS). Under 

the auspices of the CMS, more 

than two dozen international 

treaties and other instruments 

have been negotiated with a view 

to protecting migratory species. 

Elephants, African and Pacific 

cetaceans, saiga antelopes, 

South American grassland birds 

and flamingos, Atlantic monk 

seals, Africa-Eurasian birds of 

prey, Indian Ocean and Pacific 

dugongs, gorillas, sharks and 

houbara bustards – international 

agreements of one kind or 

another have been reached in 

respect of all of these – and 

more. I pay special tribute here 

to Robert Vagg, who has so 

painstakingly helped to research 

and record the substance of 

these measures. 

The challenges that remain 

are great. Treaties have to be 

implemented, as well as signed. 

New threats are constantly 

arising. As I write, in July 

2010, plans are afoot to drive 

a road right through the heart 

of the Serengeti with untold 

consequences for migrating 

wildlife. Last June, at the meeting 

of the IWC (International Whaling 

Convention), the international 

moratorium on commercial 

whaling came close to 

unravelling. The consequences for 

wildlife, such as marine turtles, 

of the horrendous oil-spill in the 

Gulf of Mexico have still to be 

assessed, as do the implications 

for species like the orang-utan of 

the mad rush, mandated by the 

EU, to fill our cars with biodiesel 

made from palm oil. 

Recent research undertaken 

for the CMS by the Zoological 

Society of London (ZSL) shows 

that even the subtle changes in 

environmental conditions that 

could be caused by climate 

change could have catastrophic 

consequences for animals that 

migrate. At a meeting held at ZSL 

to launch Survival, CMS Executive 

Secretary Elizabeth Maruma 

Mrema said “Migratory species 

are particularly threatened by 

climate change as they depend 

on different habitats to breed, 

feed and rest. The findings from 

the (ZSL) report will facilitate the 

Convention’s response to assist 

migratory species in adapting to 

climate change at a global level.” 

It is my sincere hope that this 

book may play its part in helping 

create greater public awareness 

of the astonishing treasure 

represented by migratory 

species, and of the threats which 

they face. I also hope that it may 

inspire decision-makers, both in 

the UK and elsewhere, even at 

this time of budgetary stringency, 

to press for more effective action 

to protect some of nature’s most 

precious resources.

Opinion On: Population 

Peoplequake 

Fred Pearce 

The 


Autumn 2010 

Here is some good news. We are 

defusing the population bomb. 

And it is being done without 

draconian measures by big 

government. Instead, it is being 

done by the world’s poorest 

women. Today’s women have just 

half as many children as their 

mothers – an average of 2.6. 

It’s a reproductive revolution 

going on round the world, right 

now. And 2.6 is getting close to 

the replacement level. Allowing 

for girls who don’t make it to 

adulthood, women need to have 

around 2.3 children to keep up 

numbers. 

They are having that number or 

fewer in half the world today, 

including Europe, North America 

and the Caribbean, most of the 

Far East from Japan to Vietnam 

and Thailand, and much of the 

Middle East from Algeria to Iran. 

Yes, Iran. In the past 25 years, 

behind the veil, the number of 

children that Iranian women are 

having has crashed from eight 

to less than two. To 1.7 in fact. 

Women in Teheran today have 

fewer children than their sisters 

in New York. 

How much coercion has been 

involved in this change? A bit, 

especially in China. The one-child 

policy is brutal and repulsive. But 

the odd thing is that it may not 

make much difference any more. 

When Britain handed Hong Kong 

back to China in 1997, it had 

the lowest fertility in the world – 

below one child per woman. It 

was their choice: Governor Chris 

Patten was not running a covert 

one-child policy. 

Family planning experts used 

to say that women only started 

having fewer children when 

they got educated or escaped 

poverty. Pessimists feared that 

if rising population stopped 

people getting rich, they would 

get caught in a vicious cycle of 

poverty and large families. 

But tell that to women in 

Bangladesh. It is one of the 

world’s poorest nations. Its girls 

are among the least educated in 

the world, and mostly marry in 

their mid-teens. Yet they have on 

average just three children now. 

India is even lower at 2.8, half 

the figure in 1980. In Brazil, 

hotbed of Catholicism, most 

women have two children. And 

nothing the priests say can 

stop millions of them getting 

sterilised. 

What is going on? I think 

something very simple. Women 

are having smaller families 

because, for the first time in 

history, they can. In the 20th 

century, medical science largely 

eradicated the diseases that used 

to kill most children. So today’s 

mothers no longer need to have 

five or six children to ensure the 

next generation. Two or three is 

enough; and that is what they are 

doing. 

There are holdouts, of course. 

In parts of the Middle East, 

traditional patriarchs still hold 

sway. In much of rural Africa, 

women still have five or more 

children. But the big story is 

that rich or poor, socialist or 

capitalist, Muslim or Catholic, 

secular or devout, with tough 

government birth control policies 

or none, small families are the 

new norm in most of the world. 

Now it is true that population 

growth has not ceased yet. We 

have 6.8 billion people today, 

and could end up with another 

two billion before the population 

growth ceases. But this is mainly 

because the huge numbers of 

young women born during the 

baby boom years of the 20th 

century remain fertile. 

The good news is that we do not 

face ever-rising numbers. If, as 

seems likely, most of the world 

reaches below replacement 

fertility, we will see peak 

population by mid-century. After 

that, the world’s population will 

probably begin shrinking. 

What does this mean for the 

environment? Well, it is good 

news, of course. But don’t put 

out the flags. Because rising 

consumption today is a far 

bigger threat to the planet than 

a rising head-count. And most 

of that extra consumption is still 

happening in rich countries. 

Take climate change. The world’s 

richest half billion people – 

that’s about 7% of the global 

population – are responsible for 

half the world’s carbon dioxide 

emissions. Meanwhile the poor 

50% are responsible for just 7% 

of emissions. So there is no way 

that halting population growth in 

the poor world is going to have 

more than a very marginal effect 

on climate change. 

Yes, some of those extra poor 

people might one day become 

rich. And if they do – and I 

hope they do – their impact on 

the planet will be greater. But 

it is the world’s consumption 

patterns we need to fix, not its 

reproductive habits. Every time 

we talk about too many babies 

in Africa or India, we are denying 

the fact that the population bomb 

is being defused, while we have 

not even begun to defuse the 

consumption bomb. 

“The good 

news is 

that we do 

not face 

ever-rising 

numbers. 

If, as seems 

likely, most 

of the world 

reaches 

below 

replacement 

fertility, we 

will see peak 

population 

by midcentury.”

On Opinions the Map On: Biodiversity 

Valuing Nature 

Dan Box 

“For some, 

this kind of 

talk is ugly. 

Bringing 

nature on to 

the balance 

sheet 

involves 

letting go 

of the belief 

that nature 

is valuable 

in its own 

right.” 

The city of Nagoya in Japan 

is one of the major organs in 

the global body corporate. Its 

skyscrapers provide offices for 

Toyota, Mitsubishi and Boeing, 

and industrial output from the 

region is the highest in Japan. A 

telling choice of venue, then, for 

a meeting of the UN Convention 

on Biological Diversity to assess 

whether governments have met 

their public commitments to 

protect wildlife, which takes place 

in October 2010. 

By any measure, these 

governments have failed. The 

man in charge, Secretary-General 

Ahmed Djoghlaf describes the 

situation as “a total disaster”. 

One hundred and ninety three 

countries have committed to the 

legally binding treaty to reduce 

species loss, but only 140 have 

even submitted plans and only 

16 have revised those plans since 

1993. 

The result, according to the 

United Nations Environment 

Programme, is a mass extinction 

of life worldwide. Scientists 

estimate 150-200 species of 

plant, insect, bird and mammal 

become extinct every 24 hours. 

Time then to try something 

different? 

One set-piece event at the 12-day 

long meeting in Nagoya will be 

the publication of the final The 

Economics of Ecosystems and 

Biodiversity (TEEB) report, which 

aims to do for species loss what 

the Stern reports did for climate 

change; that is, put a monetary 

value on something most 

businesses have previously been 

happy to ignore. In the words of 

their outline report, how do we go 

about “recapitalising nature”? 

As a starting point, take a recent 

study that put the global value 

of honey bees and other insect 

pollinators at $189 billion a 

year. These insects busy at 

work ferrying pollen from plant 

to plant are an example of an 

‘ecosystem service’, something 

that nature provides for free and 

which humans would have to pay 

for if the natural system broke 

down. Others include clean air 

and water, soil formation, and 

the health benefits wild green 

spaces have for those with access 

to them. 

All of these depend upon 

biodiversity – the range of 

species in any given area that 

make up an ecosystem. One 

landmark study put the estimated 

global value of ecosystem 

services at US$33 trillion per 

year at 1994 prices (almost 

$50tn today) – far more than 

the $18tn figure for global gross 

domestic product (the total value 

of everything actually produced 

by the global economy). The 

TEEB report is now expected to 

say that saving biodiversity is 

also cost-effective. The financial 

benefits that ecosystem services 

provide are between 10 and 100 

times the cost of saving the 

relevant habitats and species 

themselves. 

For some, this kind of talk is ugly. 

Bringing nature on to the balance 

sheet involves letting go of the 

belief that nature is valuable 

in its own right. For those who 

have long campaigned on this 

basis against, say, oil companies 

and mining giants, doing so is 

like agreeing to fight on your 

opponent’s ground. For others, it 

is just about boxing clever. 

Putting an economic value on 

nature is the first step to saying 

businesses have to account 

for the cost of causing natural 

damage by, say, cutting down a 

tree to build a road. Historically, 

companies have never had to 

do this. Such damage was an 

‘externality’, a natural or social 

cost that they themselves did not 

have to meet. Yet picture this: a 

separate recent survey calculated 

the value of a single tree in 

central London to be about 

£78,000, measured in terms of 

carbon capture, flood prevention, 

quality of life etc. Imagine if that 

cost had to be accounted for by 

the road-builder. Suddenly, nature 

has an influence where it matters 

most, on the bottom line. Would 

that tree still be felled? 

Seeing nature in terms of profit 

and loss would also affect 

national policy. Given the huge 

value of what they produce, 

if ecosystem services were 

measured up within the national 

accounts, saving the biodiversity 

that produces them would 

suddenly no longer be a liability. 

It would be smart economics 

instead. 

Yes, all this means some 

dedicated conservationists, 

anti-oil and anti-mine protestors 

will find the ground shift 

uncomfortably beneath their feet. 

They may resent the cause they 

have championed for so long 

being taken up in boardrooms, 

by men in suits. Yet both the 

British Institute of Chartered 

Accountants and the International 

Accounting Standards Board 

have discussed new rules forcing 

companies to publish data on 

their environmental impacts with 

Pavan Sukhdev, the Deutsche 

Bank banker in charge of the 

TEEB report. If the tree remains 

standing, does it actually matter 

who made the decision to let it 

remain, a conservationist or an 

accountant? 

Dan is speaking to RSGS 

audiences in Inverness, Perth 

and Stirling in October.

Biodiversity teetering on the edge 

Dr Deborah Long, Conservation Manager, Plantlife Scotland Mike Robinson, Chief Executive, RSGS 

The 


16-17 

Autumn 2010 

The United Nations has declared 

2010 as International Year of 

Biodiversity, celebrating biodiversity 

and committing to its long term 

conservation. This year is a good 

year to take stock, assess how we 

are doing and look forward to where 

we need to be in the future. There is 

wide acknowledgement that neither 

Scotland, nor any other part of the 

UK, will meet the European target 

to halt the loss of biodiversity. 

The most recent assessment of 

the priority species and habitats 

in Scotland showed that 61% 

of species and 56% of habitats 

were declining or showed no clear 

trend. Why are we still losing native 

species and habitats in Scotland, a 

nation which often defines itself by 

its wildlife and landscape? 

A good place to start is with plants 

and fungi, the bottom of all food 

chains. Between 1998 and 2007, 

the plant species richness in our 

countryside declined by about 

10%. Even in botanically rich areas, 

plant diversity declined by 12%. 

High species diversity confers 

stability to ecosystems: every 

species has a role, even if we don’t 

know what that role is, and every 

time we lose a species, a tiny piece 

of the jigsaw falls away. Because 

plants and fungi are at the bottom 

of all food chains and ecosystems, 

their loss has heralded catastrophic 

environmental change in other 

parts of the world. Are we watching 

the decline of our native plants 

and fungi as a precursor to more 

dramatic environmental losses here 

in Scotland? 

“The last word in ignorance is the 

man who says of an animal or a 

plant: “What good is it?”…If the 

biota in the course of aeons has 

built something that we like but 

do not understand, then who but 

a fool would discard seemingly 

useless parts? To keep every cog 

and wheel is the first precaution 

of intelligent tinkering.” 

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) 

Scotland’s landscape is the result 

of thousands of years of human 

activity, all shaping the landscape, 

its species and habitats. Five 

thousand years ago, Scotland was 

heavily wooded. Now less than 

3% of our landscape is native 

woodland. Indeed, if we stopped 

ploughing, draining, grazing and 

building, much of the country 

would revert to woodland, our 

climax vegetation everywhere, 

except for the high mountain tops 

and exposed coasts. Instead, we 

have largely become used to more 

of an ‘anti-climax’ vegetation, 

characterised by over-grazed 

hillsides, degraded soils, drained 

peat bogs and mono-cultural 

agriculture. 

Much of the 

native wildlife 

that depends on 

these woodlands 

has experienced 

similar declines – 

red squirrels, 

pine martens, 

capercaillie, 

twinflower, even 

the Scots pine. 

Historical accounts 

clearly show that 

there used to 

be a lot more woodland wildlife 

than we are used to now: in the 

19th century, for instance, more 

capercaillie were shot in a single 

day on a single estate in Perthshire 

than now live in total in the various 

small pockets from Loch Lomond 

to Spey Bay. These isolated pockets 

of wildlife are doomed to continued 

decline unless we can expand their 

habitats and start to link these 

tiny fragments back together so 

species can spread and thrive. 

We are beginning to see efforts to 

reconnect populations but we have 

a long way to go before their future 

is secure. 

It is an irony that today, at a time 

when we have unprecedented levels 

of understanding of organisms, 

and when we continue to find new 

species even in Scotland, we are 

finding it impossible to stem the 

rate of their loss. 

Despite access to very secure 

food supplies, available in an 

ever astonishing variety, all year 

round, British farmers struggle 

with ever smaller margins. Despite 

worries about the increasing use of 

industrial agricultural technologies, 

we depend more and more on 

a limited genetic range of food 

plants. There are more than 2,000 

varieties of apple known in Britain, 

yet only 30 of them are grown 

commercially and as the protection 

from natural genetic diversity 

narrows, pesticide use goes up to 

try to replace it. 

Even more worryingly, more than 

80% of the world’s population 

depend on herbal medicine for 

primary health care. Today, about 

15,000 species of medicinal plants 

are threatened globally, because 

of habitat loss, 

commercial 

over-harvesting, 

invasive species 

and pollution. And 

these are just the 

species we know 

about. More than 

60% of drugs 

discovered in the 

last 20–30 years 

have originated 

from plants and 

they will continue 

to be a significant 

source for future cures, if we let 

them. 

We have pushed back, built on, 

chipped away at, dumped, drained 

and polluted so many areas of our 

wild land that only small sections 

remain in remote corners, where 

species cling to mountain tops 

and cliffs, or are being inexorably 

marched over a cliff into the sea 

and off the land forever. They would 

not teeter on the edge of these 

unstable habitats by choice: they 

have retreated to these aeries, 

driven out of more benign spots 

by our voracious appetite for large 

scale management. But we can and 

are seeing some signs of change. 

If you need convincing, look out 

when you next drive through 

Drumochter. Reductions in deer 

pressure are leading to saplings 

of varying heights bursting out of 

the heather in all directions. It is 

inspiring to stop and take it all in, 

for here before our eyes is the birth 

of a new forest. It can be done. 

To find out more, visit www. 

plantlife.org.uk and download a 

copy of Plantlife’s Ghost Orchid 

Declaration: Saving the UK’s wild 

flowers today. 

“To protect 

the environment 

costs 

a lot. To do 

nothing will 

cost much 

more.” 

Kofi Annan

Education 

Orang-utan research project 

Graham L Banes 

“In 2008, the Society took a ‘leap of 

faith’ and made a small grant to fund 

our expedition: by June of that year, 

Orang-utan ’08 was in full swing.” 

Main shot: 

Kusasi is the 

dominant male 

orang-utan. 

An orang-utan 

welcomes us to 

Tanjung Puting 

National Park. 

Counting ‘nests’ 

involved looking 

up at the tree 

and trying to 

distinguish 

the sleeping 

platforms from 

the foliage 

surrounding 

them. When a 

tree contained a 

nest, we tagged it 

with bright-orange 

tape to facilitate 

re-counts and 

prevent us from 

counting the 

same nest twice. 

All travel within 

the Park, 

including along 

the crocodileinfested 

Sekonyer 

river, was by 

kelotok, a sort 

of motorised 

longboat; here, 

local children 

watch us load up. 

An infant orangutan. 

The Bornean orang-utan is an 

endangered species endemic 

to the island of Borneo, where 

less than 54,000 individuals are 

thought to remain in a small 

number of wild populations. Of 

all species, they are among the 

most closely-related to humans – 

we share 96.5% of our DNA with 

orang-utans and their name, from 

Malay, even translates to ‘person 

of the forest’. Despite 

this, we do little to 

respect our arboreal 

kin: orang-utans 

are continually 

threatened by 

habitat loss, 

hunting and the 

pet trade. More 

than 90% of 

original orang-utan 

habitat is thought to 

have already been 

destroyed. 

My intention to study orangutans 

was realised at the 

University of Aberdeen, while 

reading my Bachelor’s degree in 

Zoology. When given the option 

of writing a ‘standard’ thesis or 

going further afield to collect 

primary data, I opted to head 

for Indonesia to study orangutans 

in the wild. I was fortunate 

to receive ample support from 

academic staff, notably Dr David 

Burslem and Prof Paul Racey, 

who encouraged me to plan 

an expedition and to recruit 

three fellow students to assist 

in data collection. Procuring 

financial support was rather 

more difficult, however. Despite 

having spent months planning 

a sound expedition, and despite 

having gained approval from the 

Indonesian authorities, we were 

turned down by innumerable 

funding organisations. Nobody 

wanted to fund undergraduate 

students, especially those who 

had no experience of field work 

and who had never seen orangutans 

outside of the zoo. 

An orang-utan and I sit 

companionably around a tree. 

The RSGS was a notable 

exception. In 2008, the Society 

took a ‘leap of faith’ and made 

a small grant to fund our 

expedition: by June of that year, 

Orang-utan ’08 was in full swing. 

Over five months, we conducted 

line-transect surveys of orangutan 

sleeping platforms to 

determine population density in 

Tanjung Puting National Park, 

Central Kalimantan. Our 

study was the first to 

assess the orangutan 

population 

in Tanjung Puting 

since 2003 and was 

the first to conduct 

line-transect surveys 

at primary peatswamp 

forest sites. We 

determined Tanjung 

Puting to harbour up 

to 9,000 orang-utans, rendering 

it home to the world’s largest 

orang-utan population. We also 

found that the orang-utans there 

could adapt well in the long term 

following logging, once forest 

has been left to recover. Notably, 

we observed no evidence of 

orang-utans in sites disturbed 

by fire, concluding that efforts to 

safeguard Tanjung Puting should 

remain a conservation priority. 

I remain eternally grateful to 

the RSGS: our expedition would 

not have been possible without 

the support and encouragement 

of the Society’s board and 

members. However, our research 

doesn’t end here: I remain 

committed to the orang-utans of 

Tanjung Puting and now continue 

my work at the University of 

Cambridge. Please visit our 

website (www.prime.bioanth. 

cam.ac.uk/graham) to read more 

about our orang-utan research 

programme, funded in part by 

the RSGS.

Curriculum for 

Excellence and 

Outdoor Learning: 

Geography can lead the way 

Erica M Caldwell 

RSGS Education Convener 

Part of the conclusion of the report 

Curriculum for Excellence and Outdoor 

Learning, published by Learning and 

Teaching Scotland earlier this year, 

states “As Curriculum for Excellence 

becomes embedded in every 

establishment and other contexts 

for learning, now is the ideal time 

for all educators and partners to 

create, develop and deliver outdoor 

learning opportunities which can be 

embedded in the new curriculum. 

From school grounds to streets 

of cities, forests to farms, ponds 

to paths, coastlines to castles, 

moors to mountains, Scotland has 

a rich wealth of outdoor learning 

opportunities which will help children 

and young people make connections 

within and across curriculum areas.” 

Geography departments are in an 

ideal position to lead the way in 

addressing this aspect of Curriculum 

for Excellence. Geography teachers 

have been taking their pupils out of 

school for a long time, and have built 

up an expertise which they may not 

realise they possess. Departments 

and teachers need to capitalise on 

their skills in outdoor learning at 

this crucial time in the development 

of Curriculum for Excellence in 

secondary schools. 

What kind of skills? Skills such as 

having aims so that the work is 

purposeful, enjoyable, safe, and 

perceived as ‘worthwhile’ by pupils, 

parents and other staff; getting 

permission from head teachers 

and parents; negotiating with other 

departments; liaising with landowners 

for permission to visit; working with 

various organisations (eg Dynamic 

Earth, National Parks) and bus 

companies; keeping the minibus 

driving licence up to date; making 

lists of pupils, and of tasks to be 

done before/during/after; preparing 

work booklets; organising class cover; 

leaving work for other classes while 

doing fieldwork during the school 

week; negotiating with family if it’s at 

the weekend or during the holidays; 

booking hostel/hotel accommodation; 

working with a tour company if going 

abroad; and, of course, doing the risk 

assessment! 

Geography teachers use these 

skills regularly. They can share 

this experience and expertise with 

other departments to allow cooperation 

and develop outdoor 

learning which can also cross subject 

boundaries and which “contributes to 

delivering the Scottish Government’s 

overarching strategic objectives 

towards ‘creating a more successful 

country’”. 

University of Edinburgh 

Malawi 

Dr William Mackaness was awarded 

a fellowship by the Scotland 

Malawi Partnership (SMP) to allow 

him to work in Malawi for three 

months this summer. The vision 

of the SMP is to foster mutually 

beneficial links between Scotland 

and Malawi and encourage the 

development of sustainable 

projects in Malawi. Dr Mackaness 

was based at Chancellor College 

in Zomba, working with staff in 

the Department of Geography and 

Earth Sciences. The ambition has 

been to set up two way research, 

drawing on the expertise of both 

institutions. 

Informal economies 

Dr Abel Polese is exploring the 

origins of informal economies in 

transitional countries using the 

case study of three regions in 

both Turkey and Ukraine. Whilst a 

single citizen’s extra-legal income 

may have limited relevance, when 

informal economies become a 

widespread, and accepted, way 

to produce welfare, this may be 

taken as an indicator of two things. 

Firstly, if people feel unprotected 

by their state they may refuse to 

acknowledge its role as economic 

regulator, creating a situation 

similar to pre-state societies. 

Secondly, informal economies may 

also become a way to oppose and 

renegotiate measures of political 

economy and can be taken as a 

sign that state attitude has to be 

changed. 

Open University in 

Scotland 

Volcano-Ice Interactions 

We are delighted 

that Dr Dave 

McGarvie has 

joined us; he will 

be continuing 

his long-running research into 

volcano-ice interactions, a topic that 

has raised its profile considerably 

due to Eyjafjallajökull’s 2010 

summit eruption. Dr McGarvie has 

recently returned from a research 

trip on the Askja volcano in central 

Iceland, working with a team of US 

and Icelandic geologists. Askja is 

a well-exposed and ice-free central 

volcano which may hold the key to 

a better understanding of Iceland’s 

ice-covered central volcanoes. While 

in Iceland, Dr McGarvie recorded 

material for a podcast, to be 

published on The Open University’s 

iTunes U site, open.edu/itunes, 

giving an insight into what it is like 

to undertake geological fieldwork in 

Iceland. 

University of Dundee 

Professor Alan Werritty FRSGS 

Alan retired from full-time academia 

at the end of September, after a 

distinguished career spanning over 

40 years. Always a charismatic 

and engaging ambassador, Alan 

has contributed greatly to raising 

the profile of geography, and is 

internationally recognised for his 

research into the dynamics of 

gravel-bed rivers, flood risk and 

climate change, and sustainable 

catchment management. Though 

retiring from full-time duties, Alan’s 

enthusiasm and commitment to 

geography remain undiminished 

and he looks forward to the joys of 

being more selective in terms of 

future research projects. 

Historic airmail found 

on Alpine glacier 

Freya Cowan, University of Dundee, with one of 

the letters that was found. 

Geography staff and students 

made an unexpected discovery 

during recent fieldwork to monitor 

conditions on the Miage glacier, 

Italy. Third-year student Freya 

Cowan stumbled across a bag 

of letters from an aeroplane that 

crashed on Mont Blanc in 1950. 

Astonishingly, the letters had 

survived 60 years in a very harsh 

environment. Over this time, the 

glacier had transported them over 

3km, with a descent of over 2.5km, 

to the spot where Freya found them. 

The finds include several personal 

letters, as well as company invoices, 

banker’s drafts and even a birthday 

card. Most seem to have been 

on their way from India to the 

United States, when the aeroplane 

tragically crashed on its way in to a 

stop-off in Geneva. 

The 


Autumn 2010 

University News 

The RSGS’s 

academic journal 

is available 

from Taylor & Francis 

in hard copy 

or on-line at 

www.tandf.co.uk/ 

journals/RSGJ

Making Connections 

The Making of Scotland’s Landscape Professor Iain Stewart 

Iain’s two TV 

series, The Making 

of Scotland’s 

Landscape and 

Men of Rock, and 

the radio series 

of downloadable 

audio walks, 

Walking through 

Landscape, are 

being broadcast 

this autumn. 

Having lived away from Scotland 

for some 20 years, one of the 

biggest surprises is just how 

fantastic it is – truly one of the 

most beautiful places in the 

world. I’ve always known that 

on some level, but having been 

immersed in it for six months, 

filming and recording, it has really 

hit home. 

But Scotland’s great ‘natural’ 

beauty is anything but natural. 

Renowned as a fabulous 

wilderness, Scotland’s landscape 

has been extensively shaped by 

man. 

The Making of Scotland’s 

Landscape looks at how man 

harnessed five elements of our 

landscape – wood, earth, sea, 

water and air – with stories of 

amazing pioneers who dared to 

think beyond the parameters 

of their times, to come up with 

some terrific breakthroughs that 

we now take for granted. Take, for 

example, the episode on water. 

Only a few hundred years ago, 

Scotland was to a large extent a 

water-logged country, its capacity 

to produce food stymied by boggy 

fields, but now there is hardly a 

river or water way whose path 

hasn’t been controlled by man. 

And along the way, the power 

that water supplies has been well 

and truly harnessed. In a waterrich 

country like Scotland, water 

represents a new kind of power. 

Men of Rock also pays tribute to 

this land and the inspiration it 

provided for pioneer geologists. 

Scotland is one of the geologically 

oldest countries in the world, 

and it was this strange, beautiful 

stuff beneath our feet which 

provoked some men to find the 

answers to things people didn’t 

even know were questions at that 

time – men like James Hutton, the 

father of geology who was once a 

humble Borders farmer, or Arthur 

Holmes, who was the first to give 

a proper geological timescale 

of the world’s development, or 

indeed James Croll (see pages 

10-11). It is a rich heritage of 

thinkers based on a rich heritage 

of geology. 

Our geoheritage is something to 

celebrate, but it is not as simple 

as straightforward conservation. 

We need to use our resources with 

the same inspiration as drove 

these men of the past, to make 

them work for us sustainably – as 

tourism attractions, as mineral 

resources, as power – and as part 

and parcel of a modern resourcerich 

country. 

Iain is speaking to RSGS 

audiences in Aberdeen, Dundee 

and Edinburgh in November and 

December. 

The talk in Edinburgh on 2nd 

December will be hosted by Sally 

Magnusson and run in conjunction 

with BBC Scotland. Tickets are free, 

and must be booked in advance. 

See www.rsgs.org for details. 

What Geography Means To Me 

An insight 

into the 

life of a 

working 

geographer 

Malcolm Fleming 

Campaigns & 

Communications 

Manager 

Oxfam Scotland 

I’ve always had an 

ongoing frustration at 

the state of the world, its 

inequality and unfairness. 

In particular I get angry that 

people’s life chances, and 

even chance of life beyond 

infant years, are completely 

and utterly different from 

others through no fault of 

their own, but because of 

where they are born. 

Despite high principles that 

suggest every human life is of 

equal value, the way the world 

works means that that is not 

the reality, and today and every 

day tens of thousands of our 

fellow global citizens die from 

preventable poverty in a world 

where the number of billionaires 

continues to rise. Whether it’s 

malnutrition related, as a result 

of preventable diseases such as 

diarrhoea or malaria, or from 

maternal mortality, I find it 

incomprehensible that we allow 

the death toll to continue to rise. 

Geography first brought these 

issues alive for me and helped 

me begin to understand them. 

By comprehending the links and 

dynamics between people and 

places and the environment, I 

was able to begin to get to grips 

with what is going on in our 

complex world, and was also 

spurred to try to do my bit to 

solve some of the problems. 

Given my interest in people and 

places, it was perhaps inevitable 

that in studying geography at 

the University of Aberdeen, I 

specialised in Human Geography. 

And of course where there 

are people and inequalities to 

study, understand and solve, 

it doesn’t take long before you 

need to consider the power 

struggles involved in the mix. 

That’s perhaps why I started my 

working life in politics, as a way 

to try and change things for the 

better. 

Seven years ago I moved to 

work for Oxfam Scotland, first 

as a Media Officer and now as 

Campaigns & Communications 

Manager, leading a team 

campaigning to do all we can to 

address some of the structural 

reasons that cause poverty in 

the first place, such as climate 

change, broken promises on 

aid, and a lack of access to basic 

health and education services. 

We also respond to disasters 

and emergencies such as the 

recent Haiti earthquake, to 

publicise what is happening and 

to raise vital funds which help 

our colleagues and partners incountry 

respond with life-saving 

and life-changing aid. 

To really tackle the issues that 

keep people in poverty, we need 

to maintain and increase pressure 

on those who are in power, to 

ensure that their policies and 

actions help reduce and end 

poverty, not increase it. To join 

our campaigning on these vital 

issues, please get in touch via 

our website www.oxfam.org. 

uk/scotland. It doesn’t need to 

take much of your time, but 

people power can make all the 

difference!

Off The Beaten Track 


Tim Butcher 

The 


20-21 

Autumn 2010 

In 1906 the members and 

fellows of the Royal Geographical 

Society in London heard a 

presentation by Sir Harry 

Johnston, a redoubtable explorer 

and geographer with many 

years of experience in Africa. In 

his speech he addressed what 

was still not known about the 

continent, focussing his attention, 

perhaps surprisingly, on Liberia, 

the small nation on the West 

African bulge that had been 

founded in the mid 19th century 

by descendants of former slaves 

from America. 

He described it as “still the least 

known part of Africa”. 

Scroll forward in time to the 21st 

century and one could be forgiven 

for holding the same view. 

Years of brutal conflict 

destroyed links between 

Liberia and the outside 

world and although the 

country is today at peace, 

its reputation for violence 

and political chaos make 

it a rare target for outside 

travellers. 

In part, it was that sense of 

remoteness that drew me 

there last year. But I also 

had some acute personal 

issues outstanding from the latter 

stages of the Liberian war which 

I covered as the Daily Telegraph’s 

Africa Correspondent. 

Back in 2003 when rebels 

were attacking the capital city, 

Monrovia, and the regime of the 

warlord-president Charles Taylor 

was in its endgame, I had flown 

to Liberia for my first visit. It 

was dangerous on many levels, 

none more so than having to deal 

with Taylor’s unpredictable and 

ruthless regime. 

My reports brought me to 

its attention and earned me 

something I never encountered 

in 19 years as a war reporter – a 

death threat. 

It meant that after I left it was 

not prudent for me to return, 

something that niggled me as 

a journalist and gave me an 

unsettling feeling of having failed. 

It was in part to deal with that 

sense of failure that I went back 

on a long overland journey in the 

spring of 2009, a trip conceived 

deliberately to try to better 

decode the country, its people 

and its future. 

To help my understanding I 

used the writings of Graham 

Greene. As a young writer of 30, 

struggling to survive as a novelist, 

he had journeyed through Sierra 

Leone and Liberia in 1935 and 

wrote a book about it, Journey 

Without Maps. If I could follow 

his same route, his observations 

would give me fixed reference 

points from which to chart the 

development and changes of 

Liberia’s recent history. 

It was a methodology I first used 

in the Congo, another of Africa’s 

more turbulent regions, back in 

2004 when I followed the route 

of Henry Morton Stanley’s first 

journey of discovery through 

the Congo River basin in the 

1870s, comparing what he 

saw in the late 19th century 

with the situation in the early 

21st century. It was a journey I 

described in my first book, 

Blood River – A Journey To Africa’s 

Broken Heart. 

Greene was accompanied by 

his cousin, Barbara Greene, 

on a journey that began in 

Freetown, capital of the then 

British colony of Sierra Leone in 

the dry season of 1935. A train 

took them almost all the way to 

the country’s eastern frontier 

with Liberia where they hired 24 

bearers and set off along a jungle 

trail that would stretch 350 miles 

all the way to the Atlantic. 

Theirs was very much a journey 

of its time, with runners carrying 

messages in cleft sticks to 

villages further down the trail, the 

two white outsiders sitting down 

to three-course lunches in the 

middle of the jungle with bread 

baked freshly each morning. 

Graham Greene wore a sunhelmet 

and they took hammocks 

in which they could be carried 

by their porters, although he 

appeared only to use his when he 

got ill. The whole trip was much 

lubricated by whisky drunk with 

lime juice squeezed from fruit 

found along the way. 

After a year of planning, I made 

my way to Freetown and set off 

for the same eastern frontier 

crossed by the Greenes. The 

train was long gone – sold for 

scrap back in the 1970s – but, 

with luck, I was able 

to find the exact same 

remote border crossing, 

and from there follow 

jungle trails to the same 

villages touched on by the 

Greenes. I even met, on 

two occasions, villagers 

with clear recollections 

of the Greenes passing 

through. 

It took a month of 

walking but after 350 

miles, blistered, filthy and 

exhausted, I reached the coast. 

The challenge of the terrain 

and climate, the risks from 

lawlessness, the poverty of 

today’s Liberia and the fact that 

the near neighbour, Guinea, had 

a coup just weeks before I set 

off, all made a remarkable trip, 

one that I will be describing at a 

number of talks being hosted by 

the Royal Scottish Geographical 

Society. 

For those who cannot make the 

talks, I have written a book on the 

adventure called Chasing 

the Devil – The Search 

for Africa’s 

Fighting 

Spirit. 

Reader Offer 

Readers can buy 

Tim Butcher’s 


(RRP £18.99) for 

the special price 

of £12.99, with 

free UK p&p. 

To order, please 

call 01206 

255800 and quote 

the reference 

‘RSGS’. 

Tim is speaking to 

RSGS audiences in 

Aberdeen, Dundee, 

Dunfermline, 

Edinburgh and 

Glasgow, in early 

October.

Book Club 

High Light 

Colin Prior 

HIGH LIGHT 



A leading landscape 

photographer, Colin 

captures in this book 

the transient nature 

of the Highlands & 

Islands landscape. 

As well as his 

trademark mountain 

top panoramas, he 

explores the detail of nature, with close up shots that 

reveal order amongst chaos. 

Colin’s love of mountaineering and photography go 

hand in hand. His photographic talent is his means of 

expressing a great passion for the natural world. “High 

Light is a distillation of my passion for the landscape of 

Scotland, an attempt to understand my place within it,” 

he says. “Many of the mountain images in this portfolio 

are the result of wild camping. Pitching a lightweight, 

one-man tent on mountain summits allows me to shoot 

in remote locations at dusk and dawn and to create 

images not possible by any other means. 

“When I finally arrive at the summit, there’s a 

tremendous feeling of excitement – a combination of 

anticipation and trepidation. If the weather develops 

the way you anticipate, anything is possible. Connecting 

with the landscape is crucial, and I have found that 

spending a night in its midst is one of the best ways to 

appreciate its rhythm and nuances.” 

HIGH LIGHT 


Wild Animals Anita Ganeri, illustrated by Mike Phillips 

Want to know: 

• how to cope with a 

killer croc? 

• why you shouldn’t 

turn your back on a 

tiger? 

• what to do if a shark 

bumps into you? 

With wild animal facts, life-saving tips, and heart-stopping survival 

stories, this pocket-sized colour book is a fantastic addition to the 

Horrible Geography range. 

“Wild Animals is great, it’s full of facts and funny stories – 

I have learnt loads from the Horrible Geography books 

and would recommend them to anyone.” said Jamie, aged 9. 

The Faded Map 

Lost Kingdoms of Scotland 

Alistair Moffat 

The Faded Map 

remembers a 

land that was 

once quiet and 

green. It brings 

to vivid life the 

half-forgotten 

kings and 

kingdoms of 

two thousand years ago, of the 

time of the Romans, the Dark 

Ages and the early medieval 

period. In this fascinating 

account, Alistair describes 

the landscape through which 

the men and women of these 

times moved, and talks of a 

Celtic society which spoke in 

Old Welsh, where the Sons 

of Prophesy ruled, and the 

time when the English kings 

of Bernicia held sway over 

vast swathes of what is now 

Scotland. 

Alistair is speaking to RSGS 

audiences in Ayr and 

Helensburgh in late September, 

and in Dunfermline and Glasgow 

in early November. 

Reporting Live From 

the End of the World 

David Shukman 

When frontline BBC reporter 

David Shukman switched beat 

from world affairs to environment, 

he feared 

he might be 

in for a dull 

life. He could 

not have 

been more 

wrong. His 

new job has 

seen him 

journeying 

through 

the fabled North West Passage, 

chasing after loggers in the 

Amazon, battling through plastic 

waste in the Pacific Ocean, 

and getting trapped in Siberian 

blizzards along the way. Vivid, 

engaging and often very funny, 

Reporting Live From the End of the 

World charts David’s extraordinary 

broadcasting adventures, and 

provides a fascinating eyewitness 

account of the state of the planet. 

David is speaking to an RSGS 

audience in Dumfries in February. 

Reader Offer - save 25% Offer ends 31st December 2010. 

Readers of The Geographer can purchase High Light for £22.50 (RRP £30), 

including FREE p&p in the UK. 

Order now by using the special offer code ‘Highlight2’ when ordering 

by email to cashsales@tbs-ltd.co.uk or by phone on 01206 255800. 


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 9Lives Offset 120gsm paper. 100% FSC certified recycled fibre using vegetable based inks in a 100% chemistry free process.

Geographer - Royal Scottish Geographical Society

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