Cultural Geography Blog

A trailer has been released for the new film Ocean. OCEAN WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH takes viewers on a breathtaking journey showing there is nowhere more vital for our survival, more full of life, wonder, or surprise, than the ocean.  The celebrated broadcaster and filmmaker reveals how his lifetime has coincided with the great age of ocean discovery. Through spectacular sequences featuring coral reefs, kelp forests and the open ocean, Attenborough shares why a healthy ocean keeps the entire planet stable and flourishing. Stunning, immersive cinematography showcases the wonder of life under the seas and exposes the realities and challenges facing our ocean as never-before-seen, from destructive fishing techniques to mass coral reef bleaching.  Yet the story is one of optimism, with Attenborough pointing to inspirational stories from around the world to deliver his greatest message: the ocean can recover to a glory beyond anything anyone alive has ever seen.  Screening in c...

I refer to this picture and the associated quotes quite a lot in my teaching. It was taken on 14th February 1990 - 35 years ago today. The picture was remastered in 2020. The one I often show was taken by the Cassini Spacecraft in 2013 as it approached Saturn. Here's an animation I show...

 As per the previous post, here's a bit of TD with an Earth-related video projection they used...

A cross-posting from my GeoLibrary blog which has hundreds of books recommended and with some information about where they might be used, and why they deserve a shelf on the GeoLibrary. This book is on the Booker longlist . It's a fiction book, but is packed with geography. It's about four astronauts and two cosmonauts in the International Space Station. The author said of the book that she wanted to write a 'space pastoral' The book follows one day, and the orbits they trace over the world. In between their routine jobs and exercise, we hear about them and their families and their thoughts as they stare down on the earth below - tracking the path of a super-typhoon with their privileged view of the world below. There are some truly wonderful passages, and it's definitely a geography book. The descriptions of each landscape and country as they appear are really beautiful. The section here is part of a chapter - they are all very short and this helps you subdivide t...

I've been following the latest installation by Oliver Jeffers. It allows people to find out their Place in Space: to put Earth into its context. "The only place where... stories are told." Astronauts have the 'overview effect' when they look down on the planet and Oliver wanted to show the scale of the Solar System. Oliver  has created a walk way which runs through the city of Derry and is shortly heading for Cambridge. See more details here .  If you can’t get to Belfast or Cambridge this summer, there is a free app which allows you to follow the walk virtually. Download it from this link. One of the aims of the walk is to consider scale – an important idea in geography too.   There are also teaching resources to download exploring some of the ideas, which may be of interest even if you don’t follow the trail. Let us know if you take part with your class, or perhaps your family. The trail is about humanity's place in the solar system. It's going to Cambr...

“The scientists and the policymakers who are concerned about climate change are extremely sympathetic to the massive suffering a huge number of people have had through this pandemic. The entire point is that this is what societal change looks like when something changes.” Helen Czerski Covid-19 has provided a crucial opportunity to make drastic changes to tackle climate change, experts behind this year’s Royal Institution Christmas lectures have said. The talks, Planet Earth: A User’s Guide , will take audiences on a deep dive into our planet’s workings, from rock formation and Earth’s ancient climate, to the fundamental role of the oceans and the makeup of the air we breathe. Each of the three lectures will be presented by a different scientist from a trio of experts: the oceanographer Dr Helen Czerski , environmental scientist Dr Tara Shine and geologist Prof Chris Jackson. Watch previous lectures here. Details of the lectures this Christmas are here. In this y...