Soils, Society, Science & Sustainability
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At this difficult time for schooling, we have been working hard to create and make available a number of online lesson plans and resources for geography learners at home. In addition to providing linked lessons to sit alongside each publication of The Geographer, we are pleased to be collaborating with Professor Lorna Dawson of the James Hutton Institute on an educational pack based around soil science, including bespoke videos connected to the Scottish geography syllabus. To view the first of these, please follow the link below:
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Faced with the huge uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, we took a view back in April not to give up, but to try to prepare a complete talks programme for the 2020-21 season, despite the obvious risk of some events not going ahead. This was in part because it was impossible to know how the situation would evolve, and we couldn’t construct a programme at short notice.
As a result, we are pleased to say that we have managed to prepare a talks programme for 2020-21, and to have secured some excellent speakers including Mark Carwardine, Tara Shine, Colin Prior and Sal Montgomery. We really hope that we can deliver the programme in full. However, much uncertainty still remains. We are of course mindful of government and other guidelines relating to COVID-19 so, despite having found speakers, we are well aware that there are still many issues, including confirmation of the availability of venues and the essential contribution of our local volunteers, which may make live hosting of some events impractical – in which case, we will try to host speakers virtually.
The safety of our Members, speakers and public is of primary concern. We will try to ensure that we give at least one month’s notice of whether or not each event can go ahead, subject of course to any sudden local changes. Please bear with us, and look to our website and social media for all updates, or subscribe to this newsletter.
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Shackleton at the RSGS: A Sketch
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This is an attempt to explain why there are no newspaper cuttings in the RSGS archives from early 1904 until late 1905. This is approximately the length of Shackleton’s tenure as Secretary.
But first, imagine the RSGS offices within the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, sometime in January 1904...
“Morning, Finlay!”
“Good morning, Mr Shackleton!”
“What the blazes are you up to? Looks like there’s been a wedding, with all this confetti strewn about the place.”
“I’m collecting cuttings from this morning’s newspapers, sir.”
“What the deuce are you doing that for?”
“It’s one of the tasks that Mr Bailey, the last Secretary, explained to me, sir. It’s so that the Society has a written record of lectures and important events. He said…”
“Never mind what he said. The man’s a doddering old fool..."
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Departing the Island on 'The Edge of the World'
By Kenny Maclean, RSGS Tivy Education Medallist
Ninety years ago, on August 29, 1930, the last 36 residents of St Kilda were evacuated from the archipelago. Huddled together near the stern of HMS Harebell they were conveyed from Village Bay on Hirta, the largest of the St Kildan islands, on a 17-hour voyage to mainland Scotland. Most of the islanders disembarked at Lochaline in the Morvern peninsula, a Gaelic-speaking area, and, as planned, many worked for the Forestry Commission. The remainder alighted at Oban and dispersed more widely to Inverness, Portree, Culross and Stromeferry.
Whilst the authorities hoped the evacuation would receive minimal attention, it was inevitable that an exodus from such an iconic island attracted the exuberant media attention as it did. As expressed by Tom Steel: “The shy people from Village Bay did not expect the throng that surrounded them” at Lochaline pier. One of the islanders, Lachlan Macdonald, recalled: “There was an awful lot of reporters and journalists there... As far as I can make out, they were thinking when they were coming from St Kilda that they were odd folk who didn’t know anything, they were more like wild beasts ... a curiosity, just as if you were going to the zoo to see some wild beast or something like that.”
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Young film-maker Eilidh Munro spoke in our Inspiring People talks series last season about her geographical documentary, Voices on the Road. And now, the full film can be watched online following a year of screenings at international festivals. The 23-minute documentary follows the building of a road that is quietly destroying a protected rainforest deep in the remote Peruvian Amazon, causing conflict, fear and large-scale deforestation. The road is cutting through a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Manu Biosphere Reserve in the jungle of south-eastern Peru. Scientists predict the road will cause over 40,000 hectares of deforestation by 2040, an area equivalent to the combined size of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
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We are currently making plans for the 2020-21 season of Inspiring People talks. Public events are still quite uncertain for the coming autumn, and some of our talks may move online, while others may have to be cancelled.
However, we are keen to hold events live, if it is possible and safe to do so: we know most of you like to see and hear speakers deliver their presentations in person.
Some RSGS Local Groups will need extra help this year with stewarding, to keep audiences safe. If you would like to volunteer to help them, please email us at enquiries@rsgs.org and we’ll put you in touch with your local committee.
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