Time to start talking about positive messages and hope for the environment, a positive message from Chris Smith http://ow.ly/yJzo2
This post is a little off topic for me, but my wife is currently working all the hours she has on a major event happening in July.
It is the first ‘Girl Summit’, aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) within a generation.
These are issues which, until this event, had not really crossed my radar, but it’s become increasingly clear to me, through Alice’s work, that these are issues which should cross all our radars. So I thought I would share a few little facts I have picked up over the last few weeks:
So what can you do…SIGN THE PLEDGE NOW click on the pledge link here and then click the facebook or twitter link to pledge your support. A pledge takes 1 minute to do but shows we all have a role to play in bringing attention to this issue and making a change. Lecture over!
To find out more see these fantastic organisations doing critical work on FGM and child and forced marriage…Girl Effect, Girls Not Brides, Plan UK, Forward, Equality Now, Orchid Project and UNICEF
This morning I was lucky enough to be on BBC Radio Cumbria talking about my Lake District Project. I was fence sitting like a good ‘un, trying to maintain the academic rigour but also because I genuinely feel there are strong arguments on all sides of the debate and a real need to work towards compromise and pragmatic solutions.
The debate was taken up by George Monbiot and Julia Aglionby of the Foundation for Common Land and I was pleased that I was raising what I think it is a really important issue which residents and visitors alike should discuss more openly about what we all want to see from the National Park. Of course it was a bonus that is spread the word about my Lake District Futures survey!
Listening back to the interview I was even more pleased to realised that I had been played in with ‘Could it be Magic’ by Take That! I never thought that this project would place me firmly between Take That and George Monbiot but I think that’s a pretty cool place to be!
If you’d like to listen to the debate it is on listen again for the next few days. I start at 11 minutes but I suggest winding back to 9 minutes and enjoying a little Take That intro!
It’s very exciting to see the questionnaires coming back in, up to nearly 350 responses so far which really is an amazing start. Thanks so much to those who have filled it in and stopped to chat on my travels around the Lakes. It is really great to see so many people interested in the survey and thinking about questions like what is the Lakes for and how could it be in the future.
Is this what the Lakes is about? Trees, lakes, boats, picnics… what is your Lake Distict for?
I can’t give too much away in terms of results so far – wouldn’t want to bias any future participants but a few observations:
Lost pens and the honesty of the nation
I have been in town centres, parks and visitor attractions across the Lakes handing out questionnaires and in most cases have had to provide a pen to the participants to take away, fill in the questionnaire and bring back. So far, in four days of surveying I have only lost 4 pens! The best location was Rheged were I didn’t lose a single one and I am afraid the worst was Brockhole where I lost three. However, overall, it has been really great to see how helpful people have been and how they will even go out of their way to return a completed questionnaire and pen. At the rate of one pen lost a day this is considerably lower than the number of biros I lose a day when working at home.
Weather survey
I am also carrying out a high tech weather survey during my travels. So far Rheged also scored the highest as I managed to get sun burnt in just under three hours of surveying. Fell Foot park had the worst weather, meaning two spots of rain and having to wear a jacket for an hour! Overall I’d say I’ve been pretty lucky and the Lakes is looking magnificent – if I had to chose somewhere to hang about in car parks all day handing out questionnaires I can’t think of a much better spot.
The project
Am looking at the updated stats every day and there are some really interesting things appearing about people’s preferences for scenarios, how people see the Lakes and how they may like to see it in the future. So keep the responses coming (you can take the survey online) and I look forward to sharing the results when the survey closes and all the analysis is done.
First day in the new office, and it has to be said that it beats the dingy basement computer room where I have spent most of the last two weeks.
First day as well out in the Lakes handing out questionnaires and glad to say it is off to a good start – thanks to the fine people at Rheged who allowed me to hand out questionnaires there today, managed to get 40 more questionnaires which was a great haul and really nice to chat to lots of people who were interested in the questionnaire and the future of the Lakes in general.
The online ones are flooding in too, hit the 100 mark today! But need lots more, so have your say here…
I am very excited today to be launching a survey which will form a crucial part of my research project at Imperial College.
You can take the survey here now!
There are a huge range of issues already beginning to affect the Lake District – discussions about re-wilding, cultural history and landscapes, attempts to manage climate change through schemes to capture carbon, changes in farming, the sale of Blencathra, projects to improve water quality, conserve wildlife and develop sustainable tourism.
All of these will have an effect on how the Lake District may look and feel in the future so it is crucial to get an understanding of the attitudes of members of the general public about the possible future of the Lake District National Park.
This short questionnaire will hopefully help me to get a picture of this, and the more people who take part, the better my understanding can be. The guinea pigs who have trialed the questionnaire have taken an average of seven minutes and have said they found it interesting and enjoyable so I hope you will too.
Please take the survey now and pass it on to anyone else who may be interested.
Thanks very much for your help and I will be posting updates and the final results of the project on this blog if you want to follow what happens.
Whilst most of my posts are environment related, I think for the next month I will mainly be thinking about football. I made a conscious decision ten days ago that I was going to allow myself to get excited about the World Cup, obsessively, like when I was a kid. I had found myself feeling the cynicism of age pressing down on me – England will be hopeless, they are all over paid prima donnas…
But, thankfully, I felt that old, childlike excitement building up. I found myself unable to think about anything but if Sterling should start or be an impact substitute, is Barkley ready… could this new, young, exciting England team maybe be better than we thought…
Maybe, and maybe not – but either way, how can you not be excited about a World Cup in Brazil – Copa Capabana, capoeira, samba rhythms and samba football.
So I am excited, but I also started to wonder what the World Cup may be able to tell us about saving our environment:
1 – The haves and the have nots
The build up to the World Cup has been dominated in many quarters by discussions of public unrest and dissatisfaction in Brazil with the money which has been spent on hosting a football tournament, when so many people living in Brazil face much bigger problems. It shows the essential interconnectedness of the issues of poverty to the success of anything else you want to achieve. We have to find a way to allow development of the poorest, whose impact on the planet is least but whose suffering at the hands of climate change will be the greatest. The challenge to do more with less, to develop and yet reduce our impact is a big challenge but one in which we must succeed or face an increasingly divided, dysfunctional society in which achieving any sustainable future could be increasingly challenging.
2 – The power of power to corrupt
In the face of the considerable challenges of a World Cup, or an increasingly stressed environment, real leadership is required. Sadly the leadership of our World Game seems to paint a depressing picture of the ability of power to corrupt. Whatever happens with the investigations into the Qatar corruption investigation, there is no doubting that once again we have a picture of faceless suits running an institution driven by commercial self interest, personal power and influence. It is hard to imagine that those involved in running FIFA didn’t get into football governance through a real passion for the game, a desire to make it better, to protect and enhance the game they loved. However, the longer they cling to power, the more money and influence becomes involved, the more political priorities complicate and ultimately dominate and the more remote and isolated these people begin to feel from those playing, living and loving the game.
In politics the same challenge remains. Politicians are faced with personal battles for power, the constant media scrutiny, the desire to pander to a fickle electorate and complex international politics and power struggles. In the face of all this, can they provide genuine, passionate and innovate environmental leadership – on the evidence of the ‘greenest government ever’, and the struggles of Obama to move forward an environmental agenda in any meaningful way, it appears unlikely.
3 – The desire to believe
You might be wondering, by this stage, why I started by saying that I was excited by the World Cup – it all sounds pretty downbeat, and doesn’t paint positive hopes for my analogue with saving the planet. However, whilst it is easy to become burdened with cynicism, easy to lose faith – the thing the World Cup never ceases to remind me of is the endless capacity and desire of people to believe. Particularly speaking as an English man, cynicism is almost embedded in our genes. We fear the embarrassment of over enthusiasm, of admitting to believing in anything and yet, in spite of ourselves, we can’t help letting belief and enthusiasm seep in. It takes so little to capture our imagination – we want to believe that our team can surprise us. We are essentially a happy, hopeful, striving being – and nothing brings that out more than a World Cup, where people congregate from around the World, an explosion of colour, dancing, car horns, belief, disappointment and joy.
So I am allowing myself once more to get excited – I know there will be disappointment and set backs, but without hope we are nothing. Maybe we will beat Italy today, and maybe, we might just save this planet.
I am currently working on a project at Imperial College looking at perceptions of possible land use change in the Lake District National Park.
I am looking at opinions on what the Lake District National Park should be all about. I carried out a survey, to look at what people think about the future of the Lakes, rewilding, cultural landscapes, farming in the park, wildlife or eco-system services and public benefits.
The survey is now closed and I owe an enormous thanks to over 1000 people who took the time to complete it. I am now working on analysis of the results and look forward to sharing the results via this blog.
You can read about the latest updates on the project in the Lake District Project section.
Just spent a wonderfully tranquil weekend at the Knepp Safaris campsite. It’s part of the Knepp rewilding project – a fascinating project and amazing relaxing spot just an hour from London! http://ow.ly/xyHHC
Great article about the connection to nature and risk for kids by http://ow.ly/xoP2g
Dom Hall - Journeys with a Purpose 