Rosalie Tostevin reviews ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’, the on screen adaptation of Paul Torday’s novel. A visionary Sheikh (Amr Waked) dreams of bringing his beloved sport, fly-fishing, to his home in the Yemeni desert. He seeks help from a consultant (Emily Blunt), who turns to Britain’s leading fisheries expert, Dr Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor). The project seems both abs ...[Read More]
Water and Sanitation
Guest Blog: Community Water and Sanitation at Cranfield University
Alison Parker explains how and why she ended up lecturing in International Water and Sanitation at Cranfield Water Science Institute. Over millions of years, geological forces have built the Himalayas and carved the Grand Canyon and put abundant natural resources at human beings’ disposal. However, it is obvious that in the short time that humans have been on the planet they have had an eno ...[Read More]
Guest Blog: Holes, Hazards and Honey
Tim Middleton, GfGD Advocacy Officer, interviews Dr. Andrew Longley, Director of the Nicaragua-based NGO Nuevas Esperanzas. It’s a warm June day, so I suggest that we sit outside. We take our coffees onto the rooftop terrace and admire the view across Oxford. Before long, however, Andrew is zipping up his fleece and starting to shiver; he’s used to the rather warmer climate in Nicaragua. In fact, ...[Read More]
Upcoming GfGD Placements
July will be a busy month for a few GfGD members – as they undertake geoscience-development based placements with a variety of hosts. Below we introduce you to the three students, and give them the chance to say a few words about the opportunity they’ve been given. Each student will be preparing a report on their placement, which will be made available on our website. All future placem ...[Read More]
In the News (June 2013)
We highlight some of the items that have caught our eye in the news recently Volcanic History In a recent study, published in IOP Science, Irish historical records were used to trace the impact of volcanic eruptions on climate over a 1200 year period. Geological events are recorded by geochemical proxies and physical changes within the rocks – these are the lines of evidence that geol ...[Read More]
Borehole Implementation in Tanzania: The Story of Kabalekela
Joel Gill writes about the implementation of a borehole in Kabalekela, a village in the north-west of Tanzania. In 2009 and 2010 I visited the village of Kabalekela in the Kagera region of Tanzania to observe the situation there with regards to access to clean and safe water. In short, the village severely struggled to access any clean water. The nearest sources were several kilometres away, and t ...[Read More]
Big River Rising: a Tale of Seasonal Flooding in Manila
To highlight the importance of Christian Aid’s disaster risk reduction (DRR) work, partly funded by the UK government, the charity produced an interactive web documentary called Big River Rising, which demonstrates the importance of science in helping Filipino slum dwellers cope with the seasonal flooding that regularly destroys their shantytown homes. The web documentary was shot during the drama ...[Read More]
GfGD at #EGU2013: Day two
Here is an insight into what the GfGD team got up to on day two of #EGU2013! c Geoethics and Natural Hazards This morning saw sessions on ‘Geoethics and Natural Hazards’ that contained plenty of enthusiastic discussion on the L’Aquila case. Joel Gill, GfGD’s Director was there bright and early and covered the session on Twitter: Keep up with all of the GfGD team at #EGU2013 ...[Read More]
World Water Day
Tim Middleton is GfGD’s Advocacy Development Officer, working to ensure GfGD’s voice is heard in relevant discussions, and helping geoscience students to understand the important role of effective advocacy work. Today, the 22nd March, is World Water Day. This is a day when the general public are encouraged to show their support for water-related issues and when countries announce speci ...[Read More]
In the News (March 2013)
A look at some of the issues that have caught my eye in the news recently Deep sea mining: Speculation surrounding the possibility of mining metal rich seafloor nodules has been going on for decades. These nodules grow slowly, so they adsorb high concentrations of metals from seawater, including the increasingly valuable rare earth metals. This resource has not been widely exploited before now bec ...[Read More]