#348: National Insect Week

I missed posting this at the time.

The final week of June is designated as National Insect Week. Another one for the calendar of events.

Organised by the Royal Entomological Society.

Entomology is crucial to our understanding of human disease, agriculture, evolution, ecology and biodiversity.

What is an insect?

An insect is one of the most common types of invertebrate (an animal without a backbone). They have six legs, antennae and a body divided into three segments called a head, thorax and abdomen. This segmented body is covered in a hard outer casing called an exoskeleton (a skeleton but on the outside of their body).

Globally over 1 million species of insect have been described but some estimates think there might be as many as 10 million in total. Across all these species, scientists think there could be over 1.4 million billion insects alive right now! This would mean that insects outnumber humans 200 million to one!

"The most diverse group of organisms on the planet are in trouble, with recent research suggesting insect populations are declining at an unprecedented rate." 🐞 🕸

Why insects are essential for the maintenance of our environment？

👇👇https://t.co/3lnJkxXsEm

Via @Reuters

— UN Biodiversity (@UNBiodiversity) July 28, 2024

#347: July 28th: International/World Bog Day

One resource that is being collated is a calendar of global / international 'days' which are relevant to natural history. 

Today is World Bog Day.

This follows the recent designation of the Flow Country as a World Heritage site as mentioned in the previous blog post.

Bog Day is celebrated around the world every year on the fourth Sunday in July.

This annual event, in celebration of bogs, fens, swamps & marshes is an opportunity to raise awareness of peatlands – the benefits they provide, the threats they face and the ways we can all help protect them.

This site is linked to the work of the Global Peatlands Initiative.

A day to read Annie Proulx's book, which is coming up in a future 'Reading List' post.

#346: Flow Country gets World Heritage Listing

Good news that Scotland's Flow Country has been granted World Heritage Listing. It gained its status on the 26th of July 2024.

It's the most intact and extensive blanket bog system in the world.

It's an area I've visited just the once, and many years ago, while on a round-Scotland trip heading for the Isle of Skye.

Peatlands are important carbon sinks as well as habitats for rare species.

#345: Passed 25 000 page views

A small milestone, and a number of views which my LivingGeography blog regularly exceeds on a monthly (sometimes weekly) basis, whereas this blog started in January 2023, so is now over 18 months old.

However, to say that it is a blog about a qualification which is still waiting for a consultation before being finally released, and which is running late and subject to political whim, this isn't too bad... and if (when) it is finally approved, we have a very valuable set of resources, books, websites and other materials which will prove helpful for anyone new to teaching GCSE Natural History which will be... (checks notes) everyone teaching GCSE Natural History...

#344: Jonsi turns to nature...

It's almost exactly 14 years since I went to Latitude festival with the Mission:Explore team. This followed an earlier visit to Glastonbury in the same year.

We were working in the children's area running our missions, entertaining young people amongst the festival goers with our subversive take on the festival and its surroundings. Once we'd finished our shift, we were free to enjoy the music. On the 2nd evening, I headed over to the tent where Jonsi from Sigur Ros was going to be performing that evening. I caught a set from American band Yeasayer who were excellent. I then noticed someone wandering in a familiar tasselled jacket and realised it was Jonsi, and had a brief conversation with him. It was just after the launch of his 'Go' album, which remains one of my favourites.

Later that evening he gave the most amazing performance in this tent, and I was up front as the music unfolded. 

For a taster, catch the track on this film here...

Jonsi's new album was announced recently...

It features a lot of natural sounds such as birdsong...

“Writing this music at a time of manmade global turmoil and unrest for a video game. I imagined First Light as a momentary fantastical, over-the-top, utopian world where everyone and everything lives together in everlasting peace and harmony. Choosing beauty over disorder, hope over fear, our universal divine angel guardians watching over us and connecting us all as one through love, melody, and music.”

Here's one track from the album, which is out at the end of August, and which I'm very much looking forward to:

#343: Curriculum review incoming

The new Labour government is turning its attention to the curriculum.

There are already new specifications which are going ahead. This includes the uncertain fate of the GCSE in Natural History - we are waiting for news of that.

Bridget Phillipson, the new Secretary of State for Education has announced a review of Curriculum and Assessment led by experts.

✏️ Today I've announced an expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review

🤔 What does that actually mean?

📺 Watch below 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/lRgzSw2BvK

— Bridget Phillipson (@bphillipsonMP) July 19, 2024

 

Our Curriculum & Assessment Review will give every child:

🧮 Strong foundations in core subjects
🎨 Access to music, sport, art & drama
🗣️ More digital, speaking & life skills

We'll deliver a broad, rich curriculum so children leave education ready for life, work & the future. https://t.co/54QrEWkwJZ

— Bridget Phillipson (@bphillipsonMP) July 19, 2024

The person leading that review is certainly an expert, having worked with the Education Endowment Foundation - we used their toolkit when developing our work on the D3 ERASMUS project.

Professor Becky Francis was also the previous Director of the UCL Institute of Education - another organisation I have been involved with in the past - firstly as somone who helped develop the GeoCapabilities project and as a UCL Fawcett Fellow for 2022-23.

Thanks you for all the generous and kind comments about my appointment by @bphillipsonMP to lead the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review. I am really overwhelmed by your support.

— Prof Becky Francis (@BeckyFrancis7) July 19, 2024

They will also take a look at OFSTED too.

The Labour government knows we need accountability to drive high & rising standards in education.

But today’s Ofsted system is high stakes for staff, low information for families — it needs proper reform.

Pleased to speak to HMCI about delivering the change our children need. pic.twitter.com/hsRmzjYq3V

— Bridget Phillipson (@bphillipsonMP) July 20, 2024

I look forward to seeing what emerges, and hopefully having a say in anything which touches on the geography curriculum and the place of geography generally.

One good outcome will hopefully be a focus on SEND and those pupils who need more support and removing overly strict behaviour policies.

The TES article here outlines what we know so far.

#342: New John Lewis Stempel in October

Due out in October is the latest book by John Lewis Stempel.

I have several of his books already, but this looks like it has the potential to be particularly valuable for teachers who want a larger picture drawing together the various elements which comprise England's 'natural history'. 

Here's a description from the publishers which provides a summary of the contents.

Our countryside is iconic: a series of distinctive habitats that unite to create a landscape that is unique for the rich diversity of our flora and fauna. In England, his most magisterial book to date, John Lewis-Stempel explores each in turn, taking us from coast to moor, from downs to field, from the park to the village to create a vivid living portrait of our natural history.

In his trademark lyrical prose, Lewis-Stempel reveals the hidden workings of each habitat: the clear waters and dragonflies; the bluebells, badgers and stag beetles; wild thyme; granite cliffs; rock pools and sandy beaches; red deer standing at ancient oaks; the wayside flowers of the lane; hedgehogs and hares; and snow on the high peak. Each landscape - be it calm green or wild moor, plunging cliff or flatland fen - has shaped our idea of ourselves, our sense of what it is to be in England.

In a stunning package, complete with decorated boards, endpapers, chapterheads and a map, England: A Natural History is the definitive volume on the English landscape and the capstone of John Lewis-Stempel's nature writing.

It has the potential to be an important book alongside others which we have been adding to our reading list. Seach 'Reading List' top left to see the previous books that we have added.

It would be good to have sight of a review copy if one were available. They are already going out.

His recent piece for 'Country Life' bemoaned the simplistic use of some management options, which took land out of food production, and turned areas of countryside into 'eco-Disneyland'.

"Rewilding wants us gone because we have no part in a reconstructed preagricultural, self-regulating ‘wild’ landscape, financed by carbon credits, biodiversity credits, nutrients offsets and other ‘public goods’ subsidies. That is, the taxpayer’s money. Why bother farming, producing food, if there is greater income from taking the wild green pound? Plus, of course, the income from the coach loads of Homo touristicus to your eco-Disneyland."

An advertisement for an Idler event includes the following information:

England’s landscape is iconic, a tapestry of differing environments that together make up a country unique in its rich diversity of flora and fauna. Discussing his new book England: A Natural History, author John Lewis-Stempel will take us through each habitat in turn, leading us from estuary to park, chalk downland to woodland, river to field, village to moor, lake to heath, fen to coastal cliffs.

The draft specification for the GCSE Natural History - which we are still waiting to appear in consultation form - includes reference to a number of habitats which students will need to be familiar with, along some of the flora and fauna that call them home.

#341: Podcast with Mary Colwell - June 2024

GCSE Podcast with Mary Colwell.

From the transcript

A subject criteria panel were established. Now this is a panel that decide the overarching content of the GCSE. It's not the detail that's set by the different exam boards, but it's the principles which the exam boards have to adhere to. So the criteria panel was set up and although I couldn't be on it, I wasn't allowed on it and it's secretive, I did manage to influence two things. One, I managed to get them to concentrate on making habitats, the centre of how it would be organised, so that habitats around the country would be understood in terms of the species that live in there. So you'd go anywhere and be able to say, oh, this must be a wetland or this must be an ancient woodland or this must be a disturbed urban area or whatever it is. And these key indicator species of different habitats would form the sort of core of the GCSE. And I also to persuade them to send the content out to a range of really good field naturalists before it went public. So that panel was set up and that all happened. And the next thing that has to happen is that it goes to public consultation. All new GCSEs have to go to public consultation, which means you, me and everybody can comment on the content. Normally, and there haven't been very many GCSEs recently, so it's not something that's been tested much. In fact, the only one recently has been the sign language, British sign language, which probably doesn't need much consultation because that's a very defined and understood thing. But natural history, you know, garners a lot of interest. And so to get ready for the public consultation, they sent it round to naturalists and got it ready. But for some reason, just before the consultation was due to be announced, it was stuck. it got stuck in a process whereby all ministers have to sign off new legislation, new input. And for some reason there was some disagreement amongst ministers, so although the Department for Education had agreed it, somewhere somebody or a collection of people didn't agree to it, and there was no furtherment of that before the next, this recent general election was called. So it didn't get to public consultation. And now we have a general election. It looks likely we'll have a change of government. And I have literally no idea how the new incoming Labour government, which we're all assuming, is going to feel about a GCSE in natural history. If they don't like it, it might be dead in the water.

And some interesting thoughts on the teaching of the GCSE and the support that people will need...

There's also though, a lot of concern that we lack the expertise and knowledge to teach it. Because there was this everybody could say, oh, it's fine, it's fine, we'll get the GCSE and natural history and geography and biology teachers will do it. Well, not necessarily, because it's not always biology and geography teachers that are naturalists. And in fact, I would say that we're really missing naturalists everywhere. You know, you can be a biologist and not a naturalist, definitely. And the same is true for geography. So we need a whole level of support. for teachers and for schools to take this. We need to give them the confidence that there is the expertise out there, that the support out there whenever they need it. In terms of online resources, courses, teacher training, money for equipment or even to go on trips if that's what's needed. You know, we need to know, schools need to know they're supported and I then think it will absolutely take off. So there's a huge amount of enthusiasm, but there's also concern that we're not getting the support in place that's needed to make it really fly.

#340: Mary Anning

Mary Anning was an early palaeontologist. She was particularly linked with the town of Lyme Regis in Dorset. There is a museum largely dedicated to her life there, and she has also been a recent stamp release with images of her finds.

She knew far more than other learned gentlemen of the time, but her gender prevented her from being included in debates and other aspects of work at that time.

A few years ago, a fundraising campaign was successful in raising funds for a statue to be installed in Lyme Regis.

A statue of pioneering 19th-century fossil hunter and palaeontologist Mary Anning was unveiled in her home town of Lyme Regis on what would have been her 222nd birthday. A monument worthy of this monumental woman was revealed on Saturday 21 May 2022 by Professor Alice Roberts.

The installation of the statue marked the culmination of a four year campaign by the Mary Anning Rocks group which was started by schoolgirl Evie Swire, then aged 11 and her mother, Anya Pearson.

The statue is situated at the junction between Long Entry and Gun Cliff Walk.

I've been to pay my respects each time I've visited since it was unveiled. I shall be heading back there next month.

Image: Sam Parkinson

#339: Romani gypsies and the landscape

Via Twitter - Historic England

Alternative views on our landscape and history.

Romani Gypsies arrived in the United Kingdom over 500 years ago, leaving an indelible mark on everything from art, music, and film to food, language, and politics. It could be assumed that with a culture historically centred around nomadism, tangible remains of this ethnicity are hard to spot. But the heritage of Romani Gypsies is all around us, seen in street names, old stopping places, at crossroads, cemeteries and meadows. 

In this short film, archaeologist and broadcaster John Henry Phillips explores the Suffolk countryside where he grew up to search for what remains and reflect on whether Romani Gypsy history has been forgotten or overlooked.

John Henry Phillips is an author, archaeologist, and filmmaker. He co-founded the non-profit Romani Community Archaeology, which excavates historic Romani sites alongside present-day Romani communities. John Henry is the author of The Search, presenter of Channel 4’s The Great British Dig, and created PBS’s No Roses On A Sailor’s Grave. 'Searching for Romani Gypsy Heritage' was created and composed by John Henry Phillips.

#338: Natural History Playlist #3: 'Duinne'

The song Duinne by Mari Boine is sung in Sami, the language spoken by the Sami people, the indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The lyrics are about the connection between the land and the people who live on it. It describes the deep connection that the singer has with the land, and how it has shaped her identity. 

She sings about the mountains, the rivers, and the sky, and how they have influenced her life in many ways.

The meaning is explained here.

#337: The State of Nature

This piece in Unearthed explores the state of the River Test in Hampshire, one of our rare chalk streams and it is under pressure. Many of our natural treasures (chalk streams are very rare on a global level)

I have a chalk stream running through my village: the River Nar, and am concerned that it will be polluted eventually.... 

Let's hope that the new Government will get to grips with the water companies ....

#336: Green Party message following the recent election

We now have a new Labour Government and a new Education Secretary in Bridget Phillipson. She is going to be very busy. The new Government has already shown that it is different in that it has placed people in key ministerial positions who have some knowledge of the spheres in which they will be working.

The Green Party quadrupled its number of MPs at the election.

They have released a list of 10 priorities they think the Government should have to improve the environment, and Britain generally.

Number nine is of particular interest to us.

#335: Wilding

This movie has been getting a lot of attention.

It tells the story of a farm taken over, and a decision to change how it was managed. 

Linked to a book by the same name written by Isabella Tree which I also have a copy of.