Svalbard / Spitzbergen = Case Study

Welcome to any KES students who’ve made it this far. As you’ll know, our chosen case study area is SVALBARD.

We are using the GA’s CAPE FAREWELL pack (pictured above...)

The magic words are “LEMON CHEESECAKE”

Have you been to Spitzbergen / Svalbard ? No ?

OK, so in the absence of your personal experience, you need to talk to someone who HAS been there.

http://www.ig.uit.no/~kei001/svalbard-longyear-summer.htm - Karsten Eig’s page from Norway

http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/scan/rossarticle.htm - a personal perspective on travelling to Svalbard

http://travels.larp.se/svalbard/svalbard.html - Urban Fredrikkson visited Svalbard in 1995 - here's his diary of his travels - did he enjoy it ? What is there to do in Svalbard as a tourist ?

If you’re reading this, you also have a chance to ask some questions to people who HAVE been there. As I said in the lesson when we saw the PhotoJam, the pictures were taken by someone I met in Dundee over the summer, who has been to Svalbard twice and has seen not only the landscape, but a great deal of the wildlife that lives there.

If you have a question about Svalbard, let me have them, and I’ll e-mail them to him shortly in a batch.

Please also note that I have set up an area of the GeographyPages website where I am putting all the lesson ideas and some of the resources. The PhotoJams I show are too large to be put online…

Oh, and also remember that you should be happy with what it is that makes an environment ‘extreme’. Bear in mind that extreme environments are DESERTS, POLAR REGIONS and MOUNTAIN RANGES as far as the specification is concerned, but that there are also extreme in the rainforest, in the deep recesses of the ocean, in volcanic areas and also within some of the interiors of many continents.

And just remember, the magic words are “LEMON CHEESECAKE” – the meaning of that will become obvious shortly.

We’re going to be using extracts from Tim Moore’s book “Frost on my Moustache”. He visited Svalbard as part of a journey following a Victorian diplomat called Lord Dufferin. Recommended reading!