| WRAO - Field School in the Preseli landscape 2012 |
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Saturday, 16 June 2012
Preseli Rock Art in landscape, course
Diesel particulates - visible in London atmosphere - cause cancer, as dangerous as asbestos and mustard gas?
The World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer has explicitly said diesel fumes cause cancer http://press.iarc.fr/pr213_E.pdf . Diesel particulates and vapour were found to be carcinogenic MP4 Video Link (full info follow links on this page http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/2012/mono105-info.php and Lancet ). Diesel fumes have been compared to asbestos and mustard gas in their toxicity.
Both the very small particles, considered most harmful to health, and much larger particles form a visible brown haze over central London. So often cancer is considered to have been caused by lifestyle choices such as smoking, and that is linked to poverty and lack of choices by poorer inner-city dwellers. And yet much of it may be caused by the lifestyle of richer, suburban and rural dwellers, who support their idylls off the labour of the inner city. For the health of society, and to make cities productive AND desirable locations to live, we need a new Clean Air Act - http://www.air-quality.org.uk/03.php - such as the one that cleared up London's choking, killing, smogs
Both the very small particles, considered most harmful to health, and much larger particles form a visible brown haze over central London. So often cancer is considered to have been caused by lifestyle choices such as smoking, and that is linked to poverty and lack of choices by poorer inner-city dwellers. And yet much of it may be caused by the lifestyle of richer, suburban and rural dwellers, who support their idylls off the labour of the inner city. For the health of society, and to make cities productive AND desirable locations to live, we need a new Clean Air Act - http://www.air-quality.org.uk/03.php - such as the one that cleared up London's choking, killing, smogs
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22nd June 2010 before rain, Canary Wharf blocks all-but obscured by filth
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29th June 2010, after rain, air visibly cleaner
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The role of particulates in city-centre air pollution is well known - they are tiny pieces of diesal/petroleum smuts that can stick in your lungs like tar, increasing risk of respiratory diseases. They also trigger the release of stress hormones that release more cholestorol into the blood stream increasing the likelihood of heart attacks (see Environmental Health Perspectives New England Journal of Medicine ). And yet we blithely attribute many of these factors to other "lifestyle choices", shifting the blame onto the individual for their ill-health, whilst "fit" middle-classes live in suburbs with fewer particles and healthier air. Take a look at the two photographs above and below. Both are taken from the far east of London, looking towards the centre. The top one of each set was taken , on a sunny day, after a week of sunny days. The bottom is taken a few days later, after some decent rainfall. In the second picture, the Canary Wharf office tower blocks are clearly visible, whilst they are obscured in the first. This visible pollution is
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23rd June 2010 looking west, before rain - line of filth visible in atmosphere
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29th June 2010, after rain - note Canary Wharf Tower blocks in centre and line of filth in atmosphere gone
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Friday, 1 June 2012
Ramblers Routecards - a democratic way to publish your own favourite walks
I saw this in the Ramblers magazine "Walk", and as a lifelong pedestrian with a family heritage of walks going back to my grandmas midnight rambles on Kinder Scout with the Clarion Ramblers (long before the mass trespass), I thought it worth a little more publicity.
"Putting down routes" (sic)
Fancy creating your own routecards? Guidebook writer Andrew
McCloy asks fellow authors and route developers for their tips, and
uncovers the Ramblers’ new web project, which allows anyone to plot and share
their favourite walks… www.ramblersroutes.org
What makes a great walk? It’s one of those pleasantly vexing questions that everyone has a view on but on which few can agree. Is it the scenery and views? Is it the time of year or whether it’s suitable for the whole family? Or is it a secretive dell or welcoming village pub along the way that makes the route truly special?
There are so many things to enjoy about a walk, it’s no wonder so many of us want to share our favourites and pass that experience on. Well, thanks to an exciting new Ramblers’ web project, everyone can now do just that. Ramblers Routes allows you to create and share your favourite walks as part of a comprehensive library of online route descriptions with maps, which the public will be able to search and then print off or download. Originally funded through the Get Walking Keep Walking project, which develops easy-access routes for people new to walking, it’s now being expanded to include a wide range of walks from all over Britain, and all Ramblers members are invited to get involved in creating and checking routes to share with others.
“There’s been a great deal of enthusiasm for the idea so far, both for contributing routes and enjoying those contributed by other walkers,” says Routes project manager Justin Bend (left). “Ramblers members have unrivalled levels of expertise when it comes to walking, and this is a great
way to share that, particularly with those who prefer self-guided walks, or even with experienced walk leaders looking for new ideas. We’ve long held the ambition to create a great library of routes, and finally we’re on the verge of achieving it.”
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| Fiona |
“The most important thing is to make the route as attractive and interesting as possible to entice the reader to go out and actually walk it,” says Fiona Barltrop, left, a professional guidebook writer and photographer who is responsible for producing many of the Routemaster routecards in walk.
It’s not just the physical landscape that will capture a walker’s imagination – a well-researched route with a strong theme works well, too. “Careful research helps the reader interpret the landscape around them,” says Rebecca Macnair, below right, a route developer for Get Walking Keep Walking, who recalls creating a local-history walk at the request of a primary school in east London.
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| Rebecca |
The audience for your walk is another key point to consider before you start plotting your route. Obviously, Rebecca’s route needed to be tailored to the needs of schoolchildren in terms of how demanding it was and in the nature of the information provided. But there are some things that all routecards should strive for, says Fiona.
As walk leaders will know, there are many other practical issues to consider, too. For example, does the route have any challenging terrain or perilous heights that some walkers might find difficult and of which they should be made aware? Are there any awkward stiles, safe road crossings or public toilets with baby-changing facilities that it would be useful for families to know about? If you’re considering a longer route, are there any short cuts or exit points to make it more adaptable?
The nature of the footpaths you use and the direction you walk them may also be factors. If the paths or land have permissive access only, are there any restrictions on when they can be used by the public? And while you want the progress of your route to take into account scenic views and lunch stops, the sightlines for some road crossings might be safer if approached from a specific direction.
But even seasoned walk leaders need to be careful when writing up a route, says Sheila Smith of Norfolk Area Ramblers. The author and editor of several local guidebooks, including Around Norfolk with the Ramblers, believes that a good route for leading is not necessarily a good one for publication. “While a leader knows the way and has identified potential problems, the route may be difficult to describe clearly and provide too much scope for inexperienced walkers to go astray,” she warns. “So never hesitate to state what may appear to be obvious.”
The paths less travelledBy making more walks available to more people, Ramblers Routes has the potential to benefit the wider walking environment. One way is to help promote under-used footpaths and reduce the erosion along more popular routes. Geoff Mullett has seen the benefits of this after writing a series of Walk West guidebooks, launched in 2000, which asked readers to report any problems along the routes he describes. “I tried to use little-walked paths where possible,” he explains, “and many of these have since been improved by the highway authorities, such as kissing gates replacing barbed-wire-topped locked gates.” It’s what Geoff calls ‘walker power’, and he hopes by contributing some of these published routes to the Ramblers Routes database that popular pressure to maintain local footpaths will be enhanced.
Of course, your chosen location or theme can promote more than just a path. It’s your chance to be original and not just rewrite someone else’s idea. How about studying the local bus or train timetable to work out not just how to get to the start of a walk, but actually devise an interesting linear walk in itself? Fiona Barltrop’s ridge-top route over the Tarrens in southern Snowdonia for walk is a good example. “This is a super linear walk with lovely views, which involves just a 10-minute bus journey to the start from where you’ll make your way back on foot,” she says. “It’s not in any guidebook I’ve seen, and you meet very few people, but it’s one of the best in the area and a firm favourite of mine.”
Ramblers Routes is also a crucial part of the charity’s mission to encourage more people to walk, so it includes urban-based and easier strolls, too. Ben Douglas, who devises and leads local walks for Dalgety Bay & District Ramblers, is committed to that aim with his route-development work for Ramblers Scotland’s Medal Routes project. It aims to improve public fitness as a key legacy benefit of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games by promoting short, circular local routes from walking hubs across Scotland. “The Ramblers should not be perceived as representing only those who are fit enough to go on long walks,” he says.
Online training
So, you have a brilliant idea for a route, you’ve thought about your audience and what information you need to cover in your description and you’re raring to go – now how do you set about composing your routecard on Ramblers Routes? First, you’ll need to take some simple online training, which covers some basics of route development and how to use the online tools. Once you’ve taken the training and are on the system, you have two choices: you can develop new routes or check those developed by others. (There’s no reason you can’t do both, but the website will prevent you from checking one of your own routes – for obvious reasons!)
After you’ve plotted your route and then walked it on the ground, you
can submit the map and a simple route description to the Ramblers Routes
website, including optional photos. Next, another user will need to check it for
accuracy and clarity, including potential hazards, making changes where
necessary. Then there’s a final edit before it’s approved for publication on the
website. It may seem exhaustive, but the site’s emphasis is most definitely on
quality, ensuring that the routes reach the standards people expect from
Britain’s leading walking charity. The peer-checking process is central to this,
and there’s also extensive advice and help on the system that includes how to
present points of interest, alternative route text and safety information, plus
how to complete a risk assessment of your route.“The consistency, quality and accuracy of the information we have about the routes, combined with their availability across the whole of Britain, will be the unique selling point of this service,” says Justin Bend. “We want to make Ramblers Routes Britain’s number-one resource for high-quality walking routes, and, alongside our extensive programme of led walks, it really will ensure the Ramblers is at the heart of walking.”
Inspired? Check out www.ramblersroutes.org and help Ramblers build the most comprehensive library of walking routes across Britain!
Landscape in a Changing World Conference, Lesbos, Greece
19th - 28th,
September 2012
Lesvos Island, Greece
Lesvos Island, Greece
Context
COURSE
CONTEXT AND RATIONALE
Changing
land/ resource uses and priorities are gravely impacting 21st century
landscapes globally, and specifically in Europe , which is
facing multiple landscape-related crises, at present and in the foreseeable
future: economic, environmental, housing, energy, resources, etc. According to
the recently formulated by the European Science Foundation and COST (10/2011)
Draft Action Plan for the European Landscape, rekindling political action for
the European landscape, one of the main assets of
Europe ’s cultural identity is its great landscape
diversity. A repository of culture, nature and history, landscape is always
changing, reflecting the goals, values and priorities of the societies that have
been shaping it, as these are imprinted on the land and conceived and enjoyed by
its users, the people.
Thus, a
re-direction of interdisciplinary scientific interest to landscape matters is
required, as external (collective, social) and internal (personal,
psychological) parameters are currently evolving in new and sometimes
unprecedented ways. The latter developments also dictate the investigation a-new
of methods, strategies and tools of addressing landscape issues, in today’s
multiply changing world, at various geographical scales. Circumstances also
demand more comprehensive and democratic ways of dealing with the landscape, as
a collective public good, in order not only to secure and safeguard sustainable
human/ societal development, but also representation, participation and
multi-vocality, in shaping our landscapes of tomorrow. In all of these respects,
landscapes constitute key aspects in understanding and shaping social relations,
cultural identities, local economies and land-based political agendas. Such
understandings of multifunctional contemporary landscapes lie at the basis of
this course’s objectives and subject matter.
Accordingly,
the course’s focus is on an in-depth and all-around investigation of the
relevance and value of Landscape Science to sustainable economic growth and
development, quality of everyday life, environmental and cultural preservation,
tourism and recreation planning and the formulation of policy. This focus is
upheld both because of the timeliness and urgency in dealing with relevant
issues, in view of adapting an evolving landscape science, politics and practice
to various crises, but also as a requisite for the implementation of the
European Landscape Convention (Florence 2000, signed and ratified by Greece on
16/2/10), throughout Europe. The issues mentioned above, however, also have
direct relevance for many other current European Union policies, such as CAP
2014-2020, the Renewable Energy Directive, Cohesion Policy 2014-2020,
Biodiversity Policy 2020 and—all of which, among several others, touch on the
landscape.
“This Summer School is supported by the University of the
Aegean’s Summer School project which is part of «The University of the
Aegean, the prominent and driving factor for the economic and social growth of
the wide Aegean area» partially funded by the Operational Programme “Education
and Lifelong Learning” (OP EDULLL)”
With the support of: 
“This Summer School is supported by the University of the Aegean’s Summer
School project which is part of «The University of the Aegean, the prominent
and driving factor for the economic and social growth of the wide Aegean area»
partially funded by the Operational Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning”
(OP EDULLL)”
“This Summer School is supported by the University of the Aegean’s Summer
School project which is part of «The University of the Aegean, the prominent
and driving factor for the economic and social growth of the wide Aegean area»
partially funded by the Operational Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning”
(OP EDULLL)”
The Lost Hospitals of London: St Luke’s
This Gresham College lecture, by Prof. Nick Black, focusses on a district of London just north of the City, around the modern-day Moorfields Eye Hospital, which by the late 19th century had seven major hospitals, of which only the Eye Hospital remains.
PDF Presentation Download audio Gresham College Page
Speaker
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PDF Presentation Download audio Gresham College Page
Speaker
Department of Health Services Research and Policy, The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
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