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National Character Areas: The Fens and beyond

Natural England has updated the National Landscape Character assessments on their website.  Wherever you are in England you are in one of these areas, which has a particular character. Each NCA represents an area of distinct and recognisable character at the national scale.  Their boundaries follow natural lines in the landscape, not county or district boundaries.  This makes them a good framework for decision-making and planning for future change.  The information contained within the NCA profiles aims to help guide land management and other activities to strengthen character and resilience, responding to pressures such as climate change. I was born in Area 38: Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield I studied in Area 37: Yorkshire Southern Pennine Fringe I trained as a teacher in Area 41: Humber Estuary My first job was in Area 69: Trent Valley Washlands The first home I owned was in Area 76: North West Norfolk and my school was on the very edge o...
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Human Impact on the Planet

Not a new post - a few years old - but relevant today when teaching about the geography of our consumption and the impact it has on the planet. Visual Capitalist has produced a striking visualisation of which parts of the planet have been most affected by human activity. A high definition version is available from the link below the image: Source:  https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/human-impact-world-map/
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Earth in 100 Seconds - crowdfunder open

Daniel Raven Ellison has previously behind the making of a number of films, including: The UK in 100 Seconds  - narrated by the late Benjamin Zephaniah The UK National Parks in 100 Seconds  - narrated by Cerys Matthews The Netherlands in 100 Seconds See them here. He is now planning to release his latest film. Of the UK film, Dan said: "I don’t think anyone really has a clue what Britain actually looks like. It's just too big and complicated for us to get a proper sense of proportion. And that’s a problem when people are making decisions about how we feed ourselves or how much more affordable housing we can build. Or, crucially, how much more space for nature we can have. If we don’t have a proper sense of what the country looks like then how can we fix our problems?" His latest film is going to be his 'largest' yet: The Earth in 100 Seconds'. Here's a preview: What are we using planet Earth for?  Each second of this film reveals 1% of land and how we...
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South Downs National Park - support for teachers

David Rogers has started a new role leading on Youth and Community Engagement for the South Downs National Park. He is offering to support schools and posted this message on LinkedIn. If you are a school, youth group or outdoor learning provider inside, or within 10km of the South Downs National Park (or farther afield) I'd love to talk to you about how we can help support learning. We can help with the DfE's Sustainability and climate change strategy ; connecting young people with nature and helping them have agency toward improving nature and climate change though a number of bespoke opportunities. Get in touch with me via learning@southdowns.gov.uk Sign up to our newsletters: - Schools https://lnkd.in/e8zar4kv - Learning Providers https://lnkd.in/eJFGZvRR - Young People https://lnkd.in/e7WGwa6X Image: South Downs from above - taken by Alan Parkinson and shared on Flickr under CC license
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Biome Viewer

Thanks to Hannah Steel for the link to this useful visualisation tool. Biomeviewer displays a range of information in a visual way. It's really useful for identifying biomes in a general way, and rotating the globe to see where they are located and identifying their characteristics. There are accompanying resources in a folder, student worksheet and apparently an iOS app too. The worksheet takes students through the various features which are built into the app. You can also explore anthromes : anthropogenic biomes. These are where the majority of humanity lives. A classification proposed by E.C. Ellis, October 25, 2005 lists them. Minimum mapping scale greater than or equal to one square kilometer. Source:  https://ecotope.org/about/anthropogenic_landscapes/ There is a lot more information and some useful maps on this website too , which is the new home of the previous link. Lovely work and I now want to do something with this as well...
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Music and Landscape... and bream

One of the nicest programmes on the telly is Gone Fishing with Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer. The latest series has just ended. Each programme features short snippets of music to sit alongside the beautiful close-up, slow motion and drone cinematography. There are Spotify playlists for each episode which can be found by searching. Some of them are curated by people involved in the show, and others by fans of the show.  Some really good music is included and it's always good to hear a snippet of something you like, such as Goldfrapp...
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Farmers are stewards of the countryside...

 ...but they can't do it free of charge... this is not a great idea. Story here. And in totally unrelated news... "The newly created Alliance for Wales’ Rainforests (AWR) says only about one in five of the 68 temperate rainforest sites it has surveyed are in good condition" New report urges Welsh Govt to safeguard Cymru's rainforests: https://t.co/G6S7eGI6ZA — Guy Shrubsole (@guyshrubsole) November 26, 2024 And finally.... 
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