Kawah Ijen

I've been teaching a lesson that I have been using for a few year now, using a clip from the BBC's Human Planet series - I have the DVD box with all the films from this series on how humans and nature coincide and the challenges that humans overcome.

Carlo Falk also made a film that tells a similar story.

Short Documentary Film - The Sulphur Miners of Kawah Ijen

In 2019 I was sent to Indonesia by the Swedish paper Arbetet as a photographer and filmmaker together with journalist Ivar Andersen. “The sulphur miners of Kawah Ijen” is a short documentary film about the toxic and dangerous work of the Indonesian miners in a volcano. In the short film we follow Beni and other sulphur miners at Kawah Ijen who shares their story with us about the hardships and the costs of working as a miner.

Kawah means "crater".

Ijen lies in a Geopark on the island of Java.

There are lots of tourists who now visit the location and Tripadvisor has details of lots of tours.

UK's UNESCO sites - which are you visiting?

We hope King's students are enjoying their global travels, and not affected by some of the climate related problems across Europe, or other hazards further afield. A lot of French travel is being disrupted by wildfires.

A new updated map has been shared from the UK National Commission for UNESCO.

It can be downloaded as a PDF leaflet with details of each location.

It shows the 65 locations in the UK which have some sort of UNESCO designation.

These include cities of literature, national landscapes and World Heritage Sites, such as the Jurassic Coast and Stonehenge.

How many of these are you visiting this summer?

Pictures welcome....

Everest controversy

At the very end of the climbing season we had one final news story which led to some controversy.

Science and Tourism in Antarctica

Should tourism to Antarctica be restricted?

We teach about the impact of tourism on the Polar ecosystem as part of our Year 8 topic.

This article from the i newspaper features the Viking line's ship which is part of their commitment to introducing more science into their offerings.

Union Glacier

A highlight of the year is the showing of the Union Glacier film

A very short guide to Union Glacier Camp from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

See the full range here.

Antarctic Tourism

This piece in 'The Guardian' by Peter Hannam is well worth reading by Year 8.

We have been exploring the impact of tourism in Antarctica and this provides some useful perspective on this issue, and also some excellent images to show the juxtaposition of the landscape and the visual impact of cruise ships and tourists with their high visibility clothing.

London

I've been finishing the year off with a unit on London and a city's stories.

London attracts many visitors from around the world. I liked the look of this map.

When looking at the significance of London in geography, students annotated a tourist map to highlight key features and show the importance. I think next time I’ll get the highlighters out to show whether they are socially, politically, economically important etc. pic.twitter.com/sPceU5jT0w

— Chorlton High School Teaching Team (@ChorltonTeach) June 22, 2022

Here's the origin of the original map.  (A large JPG which can be zoomed into) and showing the area of London I visited last weekend.

Antarctic Tourism

We finish our Antarctica unit by exploring the position of tourism in Antarctica and the relative issues and benefits of tens of thousands of visitors arriving in a fragile location, using air or sea travel which is polluting and arguably completely unecessary. The Antarctic Treaty was created in an era when only scientists, explorers and the military were heading that far South, and there was no need to add any specific mentions of tourism to the document or protocols.

This article looks like being an ideal addition to those discussions:

Each Antarctic tourist effectively melts 83 tonnes of snow – new research https://t.co/ZRTvVCEQho via @ConversationUK

— Rob Chambers (@RobGeog) February 23, 2022

This Conversation research shared earlier by Rob Chambers suggests that every visit to the continent 

Antarctic Tourism

 

This is part of the resource that is being created and shared by Shackleton clothing during a week of talks and sessions as part of Antarctica Now.

A useful article on the fragile nature of Antarctica, in a year when tourism has been halted, and the continent is broadly being 'left alone'.

White Desert in the Independent

Have used the White Desert resort for a couple of years now, to explore the changing nature of tourism in Antarctica.

This piece follows Buzz Aldrin on a trip to Antarctica.

Aldrin is very much in the news at the moment because of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11

Should tourism be banned in Antarctica?

A question that Year 8 are considering.
Should we deprive people of the chance to see these sights? and sites?

White Desert

WHITE DESERT - ANTARCTICA - PROMO from White Desert on Vimeo.

Better World Detectives

Tui is the travel company formerly known as Thomson. 
They have made available a suite of resources for KS2 pupils, which involves 6 fully resourced lessons. There is an accent on sustainability, which connects with the company's approach of promoting sustainable tourism.

An e-mail is required to download the resource pack, which runs to almost 300Mb as it includes a range of assets including videos and teacher resources to print off. These are fun, and well packaged materials, with nods to social media use, and themes which will be familiar to many young people. The lessons introduce students to a fictional island first, before exploring plastic in the oceans, coral reefs, and the impact of tourism on local communities and people.

Say hello to the Better World Detectives, and you may find a use for some of these resources within your KS2 curriculum.

Game of Thrones locations in Northern Ireland

Game of Thrones and tourism in Northern Ireland

Games of Thrones is coming to the end, with the final season about to start filming in Northern Ireland, Iceland, Croatia and other places. Each of those places has gained in many ways from the series, with many jobs being created both at the locations, and also in the local area. It has also generated a lot of interest from tourists who want to visit the locations they've seen in the series.

We have a plan to run a fieldtrip to Northern Ireland in 2018, and we will be visiting some of the locations featured in this Independent article.

Welcome to Antarctica

Used this today... great fun, and introduces some of the sights that tourists in Antarctica have the chance to see...

Hurtigruten comes to Antarctica from Hurtigruten AS on Vimeo.

Year 9 - we talked about this idea yesterday… whether eco-tourism existed or not...

“‘It’s not sustainable tourism…just tourism!’” by @WTTC https://t.co/mXFWlae3iy

— Dr David Jarratt (@DavidJarratt1) June 11, 2016

Affordable housing in St. Ives

Thrown up here so I don't forget it later for something I'm writing...

Why go to Antarctica on holiday ?

The video we watched today which might help answer that question....




Antarctica from Kalle Ljung on Vimeo.

Can you 'bear' to watch this Year 8 ?

An interesting video on the Guardian site for Year 8s.

Connects with work on Polar Bears and the Inuit, and the communities in the Arctic.
It takes you to a place called Churchill.

Churchill in northern Manitoba bills itself as the the polar bear capital of the world and its tourism-based economy depends on it. But as climate change forces the polar bears inland in search of food, attacks on humans are increasing. Can this small community continue to co-exist with the world's largest land predator? 
Suzanne Goldenberg reports from Churchill where its bear alert programme uses guns, helicopters and a polar bear jail to manage the the creatures 

Polar Bears International has more on these creatures, which have become an emblem of global warming due to their reliance on sea ice to patrol their huge territories.