Polar Bear Site

A new Polar Bear site has been launched by WWF and Canon.
They are monitoring Polar Bears, which have been fitted with radio collars to track their movements. Some of the bears are on Svalbard.
Check out the KIDS ZONE too.

Various Pilot Postings

The TIMES has a story which suggests that the USA want Polar Bears added to the list of Endangered Species.

Also a story about how SAT NAVs are affecting the ability of people to use a map...

Lots in the paper about the waste of Christmas. Bins around the village are overflowing with stuff - went to recycling centre today to get rid of some of our rubbish.

People as Consumers refers to the fact that we all consume things – lots of things – all the time! You’re consuming electricity right now reading this… unless you’re reading this from a printout in which case you’re consuming paper and ink.

Consumption is not just shopping, it’s about how what we consume changes the landscape, the management of local areas and the relationship between people and place.

Fragile Earth is a rather wonderful coffee table book produced by Collins. It shows some of the impacts that we are having on the world. I received a sampler booklet as part of my swag from SAGT 2006. There’s a good price at the moment on Amazon. Worth a look at the images.

There’s a nice FLASH MOVIE here.

Extra Svalbard

A few further Svalbard links have come to my attention recently.
The WWF has a very useful page which looks at the impacts of CRUISE TOURISM on the islands, and has a day by day account of a cruise taken by someone working for WWF.
This gives the sort of detail that would be useful if using Tourism as the basis for your coursework.
Also on the same site is the archive of a project from 2004 to track 2 Polar Bears, along with an ANIMATED MAP.
Coming soon - some more of Steve Johnston's images.

Planet Earth : Ice Worlds

I hope you watched this last night. If not, it's available to view again tonight (Monday)
Excellent images of extreme environments, and the struggle to survive, particularly the Polar bear sequence, and the little huddle of shivering baby penguins lost in the blizzard...
There is an excellent WEBSITE to accompany the series which includes a FLASH EARTH, which you can rotate and then zoom in to see video clips.
You'll need a recent version of Flash on your PC to use this application.
For more on the animal and plant species which live in extreme environments, visit ARKIVE.

Another answer, and some Global Warming sites

It goes without saying that for your Futures task, you will need to visit my website: the Geography Pages Global Warming Page will be particularly useful.

Here are some more answers from the Svalbard questions that I sent - more later.

Anon

How high does the temperature get in summer?

Sorry, I can’t answer this – you might try Google.

Also try Svalbard.com, and the CIA World Factbook at https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/sv.html

While I was there, in July 06 and August 04, daytime temperatures were in the range 0⁰ – 6⁰C. There were brief periods when the temperature was higher, probably around 14⁰C. In the picture you’ll see plenty of blue sky and sunny weather
What’s the highest mountain on Svalbard ?

Newtontoppen 1,717 m. You can check this out using the CIA World Factbook.

Does Svalbard have its own language ?

No. Svalbard is a Norwegian territory and so the main language is Norwegian. Most of the inhabitants are either scientists or are employed by the Norwegian Mining Company.

Like most Scandinavian countries, many people also speak very good English.

Also watching Incredible Animal Journeys: Steve Leonard following Aurora the Polar bear and her cub in Svalbard. Incredible landscape and the effects of ice. About 3000 Polar bears are thought to live in Svalbard, which means there are more bears than people... They are known as Ice Bears in Norwegian. He's just turned to the camera and said "See, Geography can be exciting kids!.."

Work for 10th October

This is my cover work for today's lesson, as I'm on A level fieldwork.
You need to follow the advice at this webpage:
http://www.geographypages.co.uk/pilotcover.htm
Also check out a few websites:
The Cape Farewell website (the original journey which the CD ROM pack you have was based on...)
We have a copy of the Burning Ice book that is mentioned. Ask me if you want to take a look.

Using the links from my Global Warming page, collect 10 pieces of evidence that Global Warming is happening.
Think about how Global Warming is likely to affect:
a) the landscape of Svalbard
b) the wildlife of Svalbard
c) the people of Svalbard

For section b) I recommend you visit the Greenpeace THIN ICE website, which looks at the effect of thinning sea ice on Polar Bears.
For more, read the cover work. Good luck ! Work hard !

Also keep an eye out soon for Mrs. Clarke's first postings on the blog.

Svalbard on TV again

The first in a new series of Amazing Animal Journeys follows a Polar Bear and her cub through the wilderness of Svalbard tonight. These programmes tend to be a little anthropomorphic in approach. Can you explain what I mean by that ?

Should be another opportunity to appreciate the extreme nature of the climate and the environment, and also to look at the influence of Global warming, which is threatening the existence of the migratory ursus maritimus.

The programme is on BBC1 at 8pm tonight (Sunday)

I also discovered a book I was given by a colleague at the first SLN Field Weekend: Simon Chapman’s “Explorers Wanted at the North Pole”

It’s got a good section which is a little like the old Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone ‘Fighting Fantasy’ game-books (what do you mean you’ve never heard of them….) where you read a section then make a decision. Whichever decision you make, you turn to a particular numbered paragraph and basically take a different route through the story which could end up in you dying a horrible death or surviving… The section is all about survival in the Arctic and making the right choices, a similar activity to the Race for the Pole game which is part of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures site to support the Antarctica lectures from a few year’s back.

You may also notice a new section in the column on the right hand side of the screen / blog. This is to show the LABELS, which I have attached to each post. This means that if you are interested in posts on a particular topic, you can now view them sorted accordingly, for example the label "Michael Palin" will take you to the post where we used the video of Pole to Pole in the lesson.

This should make it easier for you to find a particular post that you're interested in.

This is an experiment. Below will hopefully appear an updated picture from a WEBCAM on Svalbard: one of many excellent images gained from http://www.svalbard.com which also has the latest weather details (it's -5 degrees Celsius as I type this...)

Update: Very excitingly this seems to work - as I write this, a ship has berthed at the dock, its engines running. Cool !