Britain is more culturally diverse than ever before. 8 million people, 14% of the population of England and Wales, belong to an ethnic minority group, up from 9% in 2001. London is home to 270 nationalities speaking 300 languages. Should we be doing more to support integration and avoid segregation and isolation? A new infographic, commissioned by the RGS-IBG as part
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An infographic commissioned to accompany the 21st Century Challenges discussion series illustrates the challenge of tackling flood risk in the UK. The infographic was displayed at a 21st Century Challenges public discussion on ‘Flooding: National Problem, Local Solutions‘ at the Rheged Centre on Saturday 11th March. Infographic by Greg Stevenson.
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The Prime Minister, Theresa May, has signalled that the UK is on track to trigger Article 50 by the end of this month, following the Government’s decisive win for the ‘Brexit Bill’ in the Houses of Parliament on 13th March. There is no doubt that the process of the UK beginning to remove itself from the EU is a ‘defining
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In an article published in Geographical this month, writer Karen Lloyd reflects on the experiences of those who were hit by severe flooding in Cumbria in the winter of 2015/16. In a few weeks’ time, on 11th March, the RGS-IBG is hosting a public discussion meeting at the Rheged Centre in Penrith, bringing together for an afternoon those who have
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“We need to take environmental discussions out of the technocratic closet and make them popular” was Baroness Kate Parminter’s take home message from this year’s Burntwood Lecture, held by the Institution of Environmental Sciences. In her lecture, Baroness Parminter, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson in the House of Lords for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, addressed the ‘separation anxiety’ that
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The energy system is inherently geographical; the current system is dominated by centralised points of large-scale transformation, connected spatially to sites of consumption through infrastructure that transports and transmits electricity and natural gas via the National Grid and the national transmission network. Yet this system is based on fossil fuels. To meet the legally binding targets within the UK’s 2008 Climate Change
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A new guide produced by the Know Your Flood Risk campaign and co-authored by one of the speakers at the RGS-IBG’s forthcoming Policy Forum on flood risk management, encourages home owners to do more to protect themselves and their properties from flooding. The ‘Homeowners Guide to Flood Resilience‘ aims to ’empower people to be aware, prepare and take practical precautions
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The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Parliamentary Select Committee has today (2 November) released a report into flood risk management in the UK that the committee’s chair, Neil Parish MP, describes as ‘radical’ in its proposals. Setting out their view that the current systems of flood risk management (FRM) in this country are unfit for purpose, the Committee call for
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A low-carbon economy – with a target of an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide levels, on 1990 levels, by 2050 – is a long-standing objective of UK energy policy. But what will a low-carbon economy look like and what will it be like to live there? A paper in Energy Policy by Gavin Bridge and colleagues (‘Geographies of energy transition:
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There is growing recognition amongst policy-makers and land managers that poor land stewardship can exacerbate the risks of floods and droughts, with the need to ‘work with natural processes’ in order to both increase resilience to climate change and deliver positive conservation outcomes. Such ‘win-wins’ resulting from the integrated management of land and water are the focus of a joint statement from the Society
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21st Century Challenges 