IBGeography Session for Richard Allaway and Matt Podbury Presented 20th May 2021

1. Exploring and evaluating
geographical possibilities
Alan Parkinson, CGeog.
Vice President: Geographical Association
HoD King’s Ely Junior
https://www.remove.bg/ - add
yourself to an image or background
https://www.remove.bg/ - add
yourself to an image or background
Possibilities
“The alternative events, futures
and outcomes that
geographers can model,
project or predict with varying
degrees of certainty.”
Key contemporary questions
include the degree to which
human and environmental
systems are sustainable and
resilient, and can adapt or
change.

2. Possibilities
“The alternative events, futures
and outcomes that
geographers can model,
project or predict with varying
degrees of certainty.”
Key contemporary questions
include the degree to which
human and environmental
systems are sustainable and
resilient, and can adapt or
change.
Exploring possibilities
A
future-focussed
approach
David Hicks
David
Hicks
Despair Fear Dread
Doomscrolling Weltschmerz
Thanks to David Alcock
Future timelines (Hicks,
2007: Lessons for the
future: A geographical
contribution – Geography
92(3): 179-188
Framing the future
Thanks to David Alcock

3. David Alcock - from possible / probable /
preferable to Hoped-for & feared
Thanks to David Alcock - adapted from David Hicks
From
Roman
Krzanic
Short termism Long term thinking
From
Roman
Krzanic
TED Talk
October
2020
From
Roman
Krzanic

4. From
Roman
Krzanic
‘Speed’ - James Gleick -
globalisation
Social media -
soundbites
Internet -
communication
From
Roman
Krzanic
Political decisions -
accountability
Brexit
Speculative capitalism
Futures markets
From
Roman
Krzanic
Suggest some examples from IB
From
Roman
Krzanic

5. From
Roman
Krzanic
Suggest some examples from IB
From
Roman
Krzanic
Suggest some examples from IB
From
Roman
Krzanic
Suggest some examples from IB

6. The Thing from the Future
http://situationlab.org/project/the-thing-from-the-future/
Card Game
Which possibilities to focus on in geography?
At the moment, due to COVID-19, we face a number of challenges to
some of the longer term processes because of the need for short term
responses:
Ocean plastics vs. LRT testing kits & face masks
Shortages of sand vs. huge demand for boro-silicate glass vials
Metal futures vs. huge demand for hypodermic needles
Also the trends in cases and lag in response to changes.
Does geography give us a different perspective on events?
“Powerful Knowledge”
● Does it provide new ways of thinking?
● Does it help pupils explain and understand the
world?
● Does it give them power over what they know?
● Does it mean that young children can join in
conversations and debates?
● Does it give them knowledge of the world?
After Alaric Maude, seek him out…
See previous session for Matt & Richard
“Cathedral thinking” Image: Martyn Fordham

7. To be truly sustainable, we need to
think in the longer term & set in
place changes which we will not
see within our lifetimes...
Image: Alan Parkinson
Ocean Plastics
https://unctad.org/news/growing-pla
stic-pollution-wake-covid-19-how-tr
ade-policy-can-help
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-1
3/coronavirus-pandemic-plastic-waste-recycling
“The coronavirus pandemic has brought a
dramatic increase in the use of plastic, the
main component in masks, gloves, hand
sanitizer bottles, protective medical suits,
test kits, takeout containers, delivery
packaging and other items central to our
new, locked-down, hyper-hygienic way of life.”
Melton, Suffolk, UK
How did ‘your country’ fare?
https://www.independent.co.uk/new
s/uk/home-news/covid-uk-ppe-cont
ainers-suffolk-nhs-b1760678.html

8. https://ichemeblog.org/2015/01/02/c
an-you-drink-all-the-water-in-an-oly
mpic-size-swimming-pool-day-220/
Ever Given
https://evergiven-everywhere.glitch.me/
https://www.leventhalmap.org/projects/insizeor/
Vaccine programme
Resource implications…
Vaccine programme

9. Bill
Gates
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/
17/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster-by-bill-gat
es-review-why-science-isnt-enough
The Dasgupta
Review - 600+pp &
abridged version
Foreword by David
Attenborough
Partha Dasgupta, St.
Johns College,
Cambridge

10. David
Attenborough -
UN message
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesi
gn/2021/apr/25/thomas-heatherwick-the-
city-will-be-a-new-kind-of-space
“Outdoors must once again be a place,
and no longer be treated as garnish, like a
sprig of parsley in a serving suggestion”.
The ventilation requirements of the
pandemic have made people realise, he
says, “the insane degree to which air
conditioning has been taken up in the UK
– where most months of the year it’s fine
to have windows that open; instead, we
seal ourselves in.”
1000 Trees, Shanghai - Thomas Heatherwick
Planetary
Boundaries -
Johan
Rockstrom
Doughnut
Kate Raworth
“A safe and just
space…”
https://www.nature.com/articles/461472a

11. Feeding the
future
population
Super
powers
Keeping
the lights
on
Living
Spaces:
sustainable
cities
The
world
of
work
Living spaces
Singapore - Tengah Eco Town
Tengah Eco Town
What makes a city ‘smart’?
15 minute city

12. Gulp - Food deliveries - changing urban areas Gulp: Economist
https://www.economist.com/1843/2021/01/26/gulp-the-secret-economics-of-food-d
elivery
‘Energy island’ - Denmark h
ttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-5
5931873
Energy

13. “The geopolitics of carrots”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000d1yp - Energy and Geopolitics podcast
Superpowers
Changing
power
relations...
Governance https://experience.arcgis.com/e
xperience/a1ae7fc97c0f4eaab2
0ee5e82098ac11/ - world globe

14. Caiti Walter - Steve Puttick
https://youtu.be/rMW2-3f1E6A?t=5010
GA Conference 2021 - Teachmeet - also features Richard
https://www.theguardian.com/busine
ss/2021/feb/06/ikea-recycling-schem
e-furniture
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56186217

15. Home learning
WFH
Bitcoin and Blockchain
Climate crisis
Bill McKibben
New Yorker
January 2021
https://www.newyorker.com/news/a
nnals-of-a-warming-planet/to-count
er-climate-change-we-need-to-stop-
burning-things
Evaluating
possibilities
gauge, assess, appraise;
identify; classify, class,
categorize, catalog, sort,
group, factor; estimate;
rate, rank, value, place
or set a value on, prize,
appreciate; size up or
take one's measure
Consider several
options, ideas or
arguments and come
to a conclusion
about their
importance/success/
worth / likely
outcomes...

16. “Why should I care about future
generations – what have they
ever done for me?”
Groucho Marx
Stephen Scoffham - Environmental Emergencies
Alarm
Wisdom
Well being of future generations - Welsh
Government Act (2015)
Rebecca Solnit article - disaster
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/
what-coronavirus-can-teach-us-about-hope-rebe
cca-solnit
Geographical Association
Resources to be produced during 2021
Requests for emphases
https://www.mentimeter.com/s/b92b89fcace79130f41b911
5e02ae4fb/5d63ffc5a3d3

17. Reading
“Footprints” - David Farrier
‘The Ministry of the Future” - Stanley Kim Robinson
“The Good Ancestor” - Roman Krzanic
‘Weapons of Reason’ - journal in 8 volumes
References
6-9:: David Alcock, Bradford Grammar School, GTE Conference January 2021
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/singapore-tengah-eco-town/index.html
https://www.takingti.me/articles/sixwaystothinklongterm
Hicks, 2007: Lessons for the future: A geographical contribution – Geography 92(3): 179-188
BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000d1yp
http://situationlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FUTURETHING_Print-and-Play.pdf - Thing from the
Future Cards
Living Geography http://livinggeography.blogspot.com - over 10 000 posts - all
searchable.
Image credits
1,2: https://wallpaperaccess.com/akira-neo-tokyo
David Alcock
Singapore Credit: Courtesy The Housing & Development Board
https://www.takingti.me/articles/sixwaystothinklongterm
Soundtrack...