"Look at it this way"

Quite good for a blog about a book that is now quite old... and available in limited quantities. Thanks for reading. 

  You have until the end of August to join in with the Slow Ways Crowdfunder to fund the next stage of development and get some benefits in return. Details are here. Where we’re coming from Thanks to thousands of people we’ve already created a Slow Ways national walking network with 140,000km of routes that connect all of Britain’s towns, cities and national landscapes. We’ve proven the idea. Now it’s time to take it to the next level. Where we’re going With your support we’ll help millions of people to find, follow and enjoy great routes that match their diverse interests and needs - making places more enjoyable and inclusive in the process. We'll make the network much bigger and better, add more ways of getting around, enable groups and organisations to share routes for communities and develop website and app to make it all happen. Slow Ways routes will always be publicly available and free for everyone to follow and enjoy. We’ll be introducing memberships for people and group...

 The Nunataryuk project explores the changes taking place in areas which have previously had permafrost which has lasted for decades or centuries. From the Grida.no website which I've used for years, comes a really thorough definition of permafrost - a feature which is almost as threatened as coral reefs... Permafrost, defined as sediment or rock that remains at or below 0°C for at least two years, is found on land, along coastlines, and below the seafloor. The thawing of terrestrial permafrost leads to increased coastal erosion and ground instability that stresses infrastructure, posing serious problems for Indigenous communities and other people who live in the Arctic, as well as for industry. The thawing of both terrestrial and submarine permafrost can lead to the release of methane and other greenhouse gases, which can trigger a positive feedback loop that results in further atmospheric warming. Numerical modelling suggests that almost all submarine permafrost is thawing. Map...

A cross posting from my Geography in/on Film blog. A new short film, featuring Mark Rylance   Written and Directed by Jack Cooper Stimpson  Produced by Lewis Brierly, Izzy Meikle-Small, Jack Cooper Stimpson  Executive produced by On the Edge and made in association with the wetland conservation charity WWT (Wildfowl and Wetland Trust). A brief summary of the plot: Athel and Edward enjoy visiting the wetlands. Edward likes watching the birds, whilst Athel seems to have a much deeper connection to the landscape. When Athel makes a discovery, she is forced to re-examine what the wetlands mean to her.  A meditation on identity, nature and wellington boots.  The story explores human identity, discovery, and the mystery of these under-represented eco-systems. A note from the director: “Our wetland habitats were not on my radar prior to this project and it has been fascinating researching them and learning more about their quirks and characteristics, alongside their sc...

Always good to have little map 'experiments' / projects like this appearing. Glastonbury's gates opened yesterday. Glastonbury is big. Fifteen years ago today, I was there... in the heat, working with the Geography Collective in the Greek Kids Zone. I've blogged about it before - search the blog for 'Glastonbury'. This map shows you how big, although from my experience it felt quite a lot larger than it is shown here. I think there are other areas still beyond what is shown here - whether car parking or additional camping and the security zone. It's made by Geoffrey Prytherch. Here's Ely compared to the site. And here's one of my images from up near the letters... at night, it looks pretty awesome too. This was sunset on the 24th of June. Image: Alan Parkinson - shared on Flickr under CC license

There are some dramatic pictures and videos emerging from the Swiss village of Blatten , and plenty can be found online. The village had been evacuated some days ago because of fears the Birch glacier was disintegrating, one person has been reported missing, and many homes have been completely flattened. Blatten's mayor, Matthias Bellwald, said "the unimaginable has happened" but promised the village still had a future. Local authorities have requested support from the Swiss army's disaster relief unit and members of the Swiss government are on their way to the scene. The disaster that has befallen Blatten is the worst nightmare for communities across the Alps. The village's 300 inhabitants had to leave their homes on 19 May after geologists monitoring the area warned that the glacier appeared unstable. Now many of them may never be able to return. For more on this, check out David Redfern's Substack , which includes an excellent analysis of the situation. Sub...