LivingGeography

GA Model Making Competition

2026-05-21T20:01:24.805+01:00

Details of the latest GA model-making competition.... the theme this time is Fragile Environments.

Outdoor Classroom Day 2026

2026-05-21T11:38:00.000+01:00

You could do worse than download a cheeky little booklet that the Mission:Explore gang: myself, Helen, Dan, Tom and Mark produced about ten years ago...

Outdoor Classroom Day - Mission Explore Outside the Classroom by Alan Parkinson

Booklet shared under CC license

Illustrations by the wonderful Tom Morgan Jones.

Why do you never go hungry on the beach?

2026-05-20T16:19:30.316+01:00

Because of all the sand which is there...

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license

Sand is the most extracted solid material in the world.

That's the answer to one of the questions on the Gapminder Misconception test as well.

This Guardian piece is the latest in a series of articles suggesting that the world is running out of this material.

It’s used in everything from swimming-pool filters, to creating metal castings and oil wells to smartphone screens and toothpaste. And glass of course... and there's a lot of that around - particularly in modern architecture.

If you say to students that we are running out of the sand, their first response might be... what about all the deserts there are in the world, or why not take it from some of the beaches in the world?

But it's not as simple as that.

Beach sand is salty for example, which would rot any concrete that was made with it. Its use in construction is banned. The tumbling motion of the oceans also changes the nature of the sand grains reducing the surfaces to which they can bond with other materials.

This means that even Dubai... in a desert... has to import the sand it uses for construction.

And some resorts have even resorted (sorry) to 'fake sand' which is harmful to wildlife.

New Climate Risk report

2026-05-20T16:00:42.936+01:00

The Government has released its 4th Climate Risk Assessment.

These are published every five years.

Lowe, J. A., Harrison, M. and Perks, R. J. (2026). CCRA4-IA Technical Report. UK Government.

Each time, the risks get larger.

One study quoted by the CCC found students were more likely to fail an examination if taken at an outside temperature of 32C rather than at 22C. Though the CCC has advised that all schools should have air conditioning by 2050, overstretched education budgets mean this may be rolled out unevenly, if at all.

There has been quite a bit of coverage in The Guardian: the paper that does this sort of thing best. They have a number of articles on the report and what it has to say.

One quote they pick up on is that "Britain was built for a climate that no longer exists".

Our food security is at risk too.

£3 billion worth of food comes from countries which are experiencing disruption due to climate change which is affecting how much food is produced, but may also lead to these countries keeping the food to feed their own populations as other crops struggle too... we can't assume we will continue to get food from overseas.., but are failing to support the farmers here in the UK.

A lot more to come on this...

Robots: changing the garment industry

2026-05-20T12:27:39.606+01:00

Every year the organisation called Fashion Revolution organises a week when people are encouraged to ask the question "Who made my clothes?".

This BBC article explores the changing nature of the fashion industry and the potential for the answer to that question to become "a robot" before too long.

Instead of sewing the clothes together, which is how clothes are generally assembled, a firm called CreateMe has come up with a solution: to glue the clothes together instead. Or bonding as they call the process, as it sounds a little better. This can also be done using robots.

CreateMe has designed robots that do this and the firm is already making women's underwear this way. It will begin producing t-shirts, too, in the coming months. Mass production could follow next year.

The garment industry faces a lot of challenges.

As the BBC article says:

Roboticists have eyed the garment manufacturing industry for decades. If machines could ever take over such work, clothes-making could come back to countries in the West, and the environmental footprint of garments might be slashed in the process. But millions of textile workers could also be out of a job.

I didn't know roboticist was a word.

As it says though, millions of low paid workers could be affected by this technology... one of many jobs that technology may replace in the years to come. I am perhaps heading for retirement at exactly the right time...

The Future of Exploration - with Bruce Parry

2026-05-20T12:26:49.642+01:00

A live recording of a podcast with Bruce Parry takes place down at the RGS on the 15th of June.

Join us for the first live recording of The Future of Exploration podcast, featuring explorer Bruce Parry, in conversation with host Matt Pycroft.

Bruce Parry is renowned for his immersive documentary work, living alongside Indigenous communities across the globe to better understand their cultures, belief systems, and relationships with the natural world. His deeply personal storytelling challenges conventional ideas of progress and invites us to reconsider how we live and what we value.

Together, Bruce and Matt will explore how the meaning of exploration is shifting in a time of environmental crisis, cultural change, and increasing global connection.

Hosted by Matt Pycroft, this new RGS podcast series is an inquiry into what it means to explore in a rapidly changing world. We’ll speak with leading thinkers, scientists, and explorers to examine both the practical frontiers and the philosophical questions that define modern discovery.

The series asks what’s left to explore, how exploration is changing, and why it matters more now than ever before – a conversation that will challenge assumptions, broaden perspective, and help shape how we understand the unknown in the decades ahead.

As it happens, I am down at the Society that day, so may well stay on to see this event.

Worldly Wednesdays #63: Feeling hot, writing about cold

2026-05-20T10:44:00.000+01:00

Welcome to another Worldly Wednesday.

This morning, the 4th Climate Risk report was published by the government's Climate Change Committee. The Guardian published a range of stories on its contents and implications. These include a piece with the memorable quote that "Britain was built for a climate that no longer exists."

Late afternoon, I published the latest issue of the LivingGeography Substack Newsletter.

This is issue 72. Read it here.

Some writing completed as well. Another day of sunshine and showers outside, but due to warm up from tomorrow.

Slow TV treat

2026-05-19T20:22:48.638+01:00

One of my few shows that I watch on TV is Canal Boat Diaries with Robbie Cumming on board the 'Naughty Lass'. It's slow, nothing much really happens, but you get to experience the canal network and some views of cities which you wouldn't normally see unless you were on the boat, and also slow down...

I caught the first 2 episodes yesterday, and the whole series is ready to stream on 'U'.

DG Outtake #8: Sakurajima, Japan

2026-05-19T17:23:24.657+01:00

This is one of a series of blog posts linked to the research I did for the 'Discover Geography' series, and mentioning some of the reading I did to prepare some of the chapters.

Not all of this material made it into the final book so I'm sharing it in these posts.

David Roberts: a former colleague on the GA Secondary Phase Committee sent some pictures from a recent trip to Kagoshima. This featured as a case study of hazard preparation and planning in the Discover Geography book, followed by an activity which explored how Mexico City is preparing for a future eruption of Popacatapetl.

Images: Copyright David Roberts - Volcano preparation

Recognition for the D3 ERASMUS project

2026-05-18T13:42:12.005+01:00

I worked on the ERASMUS+ funded D3 project: Developing Digital Data literacy (D3)

I heard that we had been given a special mention in a forthcoming event.

The D3 project has been selected as an example of "inspiring education initiatives" to be part of the “International Cooperation Dialogues – Global Perspectives” day organised by France Éducation international, in partnership with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP‑UNESCO), the French Education Ministry’s Directorate for Digital Education – Sub-directorate for Digital Uses in Education and Higher Education (DNE‑AMDAC) and the Delegation for European and International Relations and Cooperation (DREIC).

Good news.

We have also previously received extra recognition for other projects that I have been involved with.

Time and Water

2026-05-17T12:36:31.210+01:00

A cross-posting from my Geography and Film blog.

A new trailer for Sara Dosa's documentary based on Andri Snær Magnason's book 'On Time and Water' - out at the end of May.

Renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs, and films, as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him.

From Academy Award-nominated director Sara Dosa (Fire of Love), Time and Water is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change.

I shall be at the BFI IMAX on the 13th of June to see the film, with an extended introduction by Sara Dosa and Andri-Snær Magnason.

Weather Replay

2026-05-16T21:47:28.721+01:00

Weather Replay is a site which uses Copernicus data (EU) to reconstruct previous weather readings in an excellent visual display for any day and location of your choice. Weather Replay provides fast access to hourly weather information from the extensive ERA5 reanalysis archive.

Data goes all the way back to 1940.

Here are some of the layers that you can choose to display for your chosen date and location.

At the risk of giving away some personal information.... here's the weather on the day I came into the world, in a maternity hospital just outside of Rotherham in South Yorkshire. It wasn't a bad day overall it seems...

Give it a whirl.

As with all these sites, there is a tutorial to take a look at.

Weather Replay complements other apps from C3S, including Climate Pulse, an app monitoring global temperature and sea surface temperature, the ERA Explorer, an app for exploring a range of historical climate data, and Thermal Trace, an app exploring heat and cold stress. Further applications can be found in the C3S Applications Catalogue.

Monthly Climate Bulletins and the annual reports on the European State of the Climate and Global Climate Highlights are also available.

Amundsen's Tent

2026-05-16T15:06:22.516+01:00

In Antarctica there's a Historic Monument that no-one can visit, and no-one really knows where it is.

Image source: Olav Bjaaland (1873–1961) - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation: De Aarde en haar Volken, Jaargang 1913.

The tent - which they called Polheim (their home at the Pole) - was erected by the Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen on its arrival on 14 December 1911. It is buried beneath the snow and ice in the vicinity of the Pole. It has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 80), following a proposal by Norway to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.

It lay unvisited for decades after Captain Scott left for the return journey, and was covered with drifting snow, and eventually ice... It will now stay undisturbed for ever.

When he arrived at the Pole, he found that in the tent were:

3 half bags of reindeer containing a miscellaneous assortment of mits [sic] and sleeping socks, very various in description, a sextant, a Norwegian artificial horizon and a hypsometer without boiling-point thermometers, a sextant and hypsometer of English make.

These had been used to confirm that the Pole had been reached...

The precise location of the tent is unknown, but based on calculations of the rate of movement of the ice and the accumulation of snow, it is believed, as of 2010, to lie between 1.8 and 2.5 km (1.1 and 1.6 mi) from the Pole at a depth of 17 m (56 ft) below the existing surface.

Some information via Wikipedia

This period fascinates me, and I am not alone in that.

This blog explores more detail on the tent and what happened to it.

A research paper here.

I have also previously used this Google Doodle as an example of an image to query... there are several issues with it... can you spot them?

Royal Society Lecture

2026-05-16T11:25:54.672+01:00

The Royal Society has awarded its prize to Professor Balmford.

Here are the details of a lecture that is forthcoming:

Tuesday, June 16

6:30 PM - 7:30 PM

Food production does more damage to wild species than any other sector of human activity, yet how best to limit its growing impact is greatly contested.

Looking first at recent progress in encouraging less damaging diets and trying to cut food loss and waste, Professor Balmford will conclude that both are essential but far from sufficient.

On the production side, field studies from five continents quantifying the impacts of different farming systems on almost 2000 individually-assessed species reveals, perhaps surprisingly, that land-sparing – adopting high-yield farming to in order make space nearby for natural habitats – consistently outperforms approaches focused on retaining wildlife within farms. Sparing also offers considerable potential for mitigating climate change.

But delivering land sparing raises important challenges—in particular, identifying and promoting sustainable higher-yielding farm methods that are less environmentally harmful than current industrial agriculture, and devising mechanisms which ensure yield gains also deliver habitat conservation. These findings challenge current conservation orthodoxy but suggest that without novel collaborations between conservation and the agriculture sector we will not succeed in bending the curve of biodiversity loss.

Andrew Balmford is Professor of Conservation Science in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, where his research focuses on how to reconcile biodiversity conservation with meeting human food needs and other land-demanding activities, on the effectiveness of conservation actions, and on the costs and benefits of retaining intact ecosystems.

Thoughtful Thursdays #26

2026-05-14T21:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the 26th of my Thoughtful Thursdays.

What was I thinking about today?

I was thinking about some forthcoming events which I have been preparing for.

It was another day of alternating between bright sunshine and sharp showers. Interesting weather and much needed rain.

This time last year I was at a special event representing the Royal Geographical Society: one of the opportunities that my current position gives me.

I also got some new events booked in, and started in on some forthcoming projects. Some exciting things on the way...

Pork Pie Way

2026-05-14T19:35:11.836+01:00

Place names.

Careers and the Built environment

2026-05-14T13:56:18.081+01:00

Earlier this year, a webinar was held in association with the RGS.

The webinar can be viewed on the link above.

Students heard from three geographers, Olivia, Suha and Lauren, who studied geography at university and are now pursuing careers in the built environment sector.

From working on the development of Heathrow's Third Runway, to property management and quantity surveying, speakers shared their career journey so far and talked about the importance of being a geographer in their industry.

This event was aimed at teachers and students studying geography at GCSE and A Level, and contributes to Gatsby Benchmarks 4 (linking curriculum learning to careers) and 5 (encounters with employers and employees), and was run in collaboration with the Built Environment Schools Trust's My Environment My Future programme dedicated to integrating built environment careers education into the geography curriculum.

Lauren Lemcke is an Associate Quantity Surveyor at AECOM. She studied BSc Human Geography at the University of Reading.

Suha Islam is a Geography graduate from King’s College London and a Junior Land Consultant at WSP.

Olivia Caravello is a Senior Quantity Surveyor at Ridge and Partners LLP. She has a BSc in Geography with Geoinformatics from the University of Brighton.

GA Conference 2027

2026-05-14T12:38:01.741+01:00

The dates and venue for next year's GA Conference have been announced. Fiona Sheriff will be President for 2026-27 and has chosen the theme 'Passionate about Geography'.

The conference will take place at the same venue as this year. It worked really well and is a central location for many, and also very convenient for GA staff as the Association is based in Sheffield. There are plenty of accommodation options and it is a short walk from the train station for sustainable transport options.

Keep an eye out for the announcement of the call for papers, and I hope to see you there.

"Once there was a mountain called Peak XV"

2026-05-14T09:47:03.519+01:00

Public Service Broadcasting telling the story of the expedition that conquered the mountain for the first time...

And here's the StoryMap that we used - which used to be hosted by National Geographic.

Worldly Wednesdays #62: Sunshine and showers

2026-05-13T21:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to another Worldly Wednesday.

One which started with a torrential downpour about 4 o' clock and they came regularly all day after that... good news for the local farmers.

I started by posting Issue #71 of my LivingGeography Substack newsletter. Feel free to subscribe. Another bumper issue.

I have quite a few events coming up which I am completing presentations for:

- IAPS Conference next week in North Norfolk

- Homerton College Fieldwork CPD session

- PTI Geography Symposium - at the RGS

- an EFL Showcase keynote - coming up after the summer, but am thinking about it now.

Also completing my final set of student reports for the year and working on EMO-GI research report.

I discovered from Facebook memories that it was 14 years ago today that my profile picture was taken, by Richard Allaway up on the Aiguille du Midi. I haven't changed a bit...

Image: Richard Allaway

Free RGS CPD on the forthcoming El Niño and local resilience

2026-05-13T19:47:05.889+01:00

From disaster to opportunity: bringing the El Niño phenomenon to the classroom

Tuesday 30 June

5.00pm-6.00pm

A free online webinar presented by the Royal Geographical Society.

As a potentially severe El Niño Costero is currently gathering force in Peru, you are invited to participate in a briefing workshop about the ‘El Niño: a phenomenon of opportunities’ teaching resource.

Based on materials generated by Peruvian and British teachers alongside researchers from the University of St Andrews, the resource explains how their community has historically managed the flooding hazards associated with a major El Niño event.

Their videos, stories and images show how intense rains can bring both challenges and opportunities for local communities.

Led by the resource editors Dr Grace Healy and Professor Nina Laurie, this online session provides a chance for teachers to learn more about the resource and the research behind it.

The session will invite participants to explore beyond the dominant global disaster narratives in order to learn from desert communities in northern Peru about how they deal with crises in productive ways that reflect a hopeful geography of resilience and climate-event adaptation.

The resource can be seen here.

Wanted: a new name for 'Geography Review'

2026-05-13T19:33:14.993+01:00

As I blogged recently, the magazine 'Geography Review' which was cancelled, along with a range of other subscription journals by Hachette, is being taken 'in house' by the Royal Geographical Society, with continued involvement by the original editorial board.

A new name is needed for the journal, and you have a chance to offer your suggestions.

Use the Google Form here - you have until the 22nd of May.

RGS Awards and Medals 2026

2026-05-13T15:29:57.202+01:00

Congratulations to all those who will be receiving an RGS Medal or Award this year.

The RGS has just announced its list of medallists and prize winners for 2026.

I’m pleased to have been on this list back in 2008 - not for the last time I hope.

Congratulations to all this year's winners - and to those who were nominated but didn’t win on this occasion. I look forward to seeing them receive their awards on the 8th of June and catching up with several of them. If you’re going to be at the RGS, come and say hello!

Tickets for the Awards Ceremony can be obtained here.

Particular congratulations to this year’s recipients of the Ordnance Survey Award (which I received back in 2008): Ryan Nock and Sandra Patterson - both of whom I bumped into at this year's GA Conference. You will have a lovely day in a few weeks' time.

Congratulations also to Felicity Aston, MBE, who I am proud to have worked with on several projects, and who is receiving this years’s RGS Geographical Award. I look forward to catching up in a few weeks’ time at the Society.

EMO-GI #13: Algorithms and Love

2026-05-13T14:24:48.138+01:00

Thanks to my EMO-GI colleague Michaela for the tipoff to this resource: a talk given at a conference.

While algorithms are a set of recipes, or a set of instructions, that help us filter data on the outside, it is our intuition that helps us with a lot of data on the inside. Now, that intrinsic data doesn't have the same kind of boundaries as extrinsic data, so holding theme together makes for a very interesting tension -- that I want to explore today.

This explores the difference between BIG DATA and DEEP DATA.

A key aspect of the EMO-GI project is to connect socio-emotional learning and the link with AI and Climate Change.

The talk finishes with a quote from the Dalai Lama:

“Technology can greatly increase human ability but technology cannot produce compassion.”

Speaking of which, the Compassion Bot is an AI tool founded in 2025.

I've been having a go with it, and will report back in a later blog post.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Cal Flyn's 'The Savage Landscape'

2026-05-13T09:54:10.938+01:00

Cal Flyn is a Scottish author who has written a number of thought provoking and well received books on a range of topics.

Her previous book 'Islands of Abandonment' was a favourite of mine, and Cal was kind enough to make a contribution to my GA Conference, and zoomed in to speak to a group of teachers about her work and the idea of islands of abandoned places. This was then turned into a workshop for the SAGT Conference later that year.

Her latest book is definitely one for geographers.

The cover features a striking vertical image of lava covering a road and an ice covered landscape by Ael Kermare.

In the book, Cal explores the ideas of wilderness. Is this an area which has an absence of human activity, or is wilderness actually a human construct. Is it possible to find oneself in a wilderness?

In the book's 10 chapters Cal travels to different parts of the world to investigate a different facet of 'wilderness' as a concept.

I am preparing a full review of the book and some curriculum links, as I did for Anjana Khatwa's 'The Whispers of Rock' and it will appear here shortly.