Walk Highlands

Walk Highlands not only refuse money, which is rather odd in times of austerity. In the Battle for Brough Bay they were implicated as well. They sided with another “charity” in the matter of stealing our land at the Bay. What is it with these people. You put your heart and soul and time into a project, and they want to ruin it for their own purposes. All they have done this time is get the charity sued. they fit into the category “impeding the progress of economic and environmental sustainability”.

Oh well. Back to Education then. Clearly none there.

Green conference

“Scotsman Conferences is thrilled to announce the return of this LIVE event to the heart of the Highlands and Islands for its third year.

Scotland has set itself a tough target of hitting net-zero targets by 2045, five years ahead of the rest of the UK.

Can Scotland emerge as a frontrunner on the global stage in renewable energy? What role does the Highlands and Islands region play in this endeavour, and what practical measures are necessary to ensure success?

Join us for a day of insightful discussions and debate on the challenges and opportunities in the Highlands and Islands as Scotland aims to lead in green energy transition. Pose your questions to our expert panels and network with industry leaders.” This looks like an excellent conference. However, my focus is Lincolnshire in June and July, after Orca Watch.

www.northighlandway.co.uk

Following the original Clearances

Some people have dubbed the economic situation in Scotland as the second Clearances. As properties go on the market, still being bought by people from the south, the prices continue to rise, keeping out the local people.

This weekend this journalist had the honour to meet Rob Gibson again, after many years. His story was much the same as that in Ireland. Great tracts of land bought up by the Lairds, though this time, apart from Mr. Poulvson, they are smaller “lairds” but still with deep pockets. Don’t come to Caithness expecting to make money though. You won’t. Only Mr. Gibson seems to recognise that time is precious and should be paid for.

Over the weekend, this journalist enjoyed the company of a lovely Irish lady from County Meath. She had a lot of good ideas and, as with most Irish from the Republic, a strong feeling of community. However, these ideas have to be implemented and the will is just not there.

Peatlands the Code

https://www.academia.edu/26542949/Peatland_Code_Research_Project_Final_Report?email_work_card=view-paper. Does the Peatlands Project follow the code? This journalist does not propose looking into this. She has moved on to pastures new.

The North Highland Way continues to thrive, and is forming an alliance with Environmental Rights Scotland and several local community groups.

Scotland is not the UK

As the general elections are imminent, this journalist thought she would have a look at this subject again. While England and Wales are not doing well on their climate change targets either, Scotland ‘s targets will definitely not be met, and are played down again. While those with the expertise are kept out of the market, and register their businesses in England, including Orbex, the Scottish purse dimininishes as well.

Never mind, the North Highland Way project is doing very well, thank you. How we measure our carbon footprint will be in the forthcoming book to be published on Amazon at the end of 2024.

Route to NetZero

It is well over a year ago now that Highland Adapts agreed that” Can the North Highland Area reach Net Zero and still meet economic demands?” would be a good study for us to do. Since then input to their system is interesting, but non revenue earning, so not too much time can be spent on it. It is now April 2024, and one book has been published already, as a starting point, and we continue to look at projects such as the excellent one at the Wick Campsite which will do wonders for the town in the long term. At the Campsite itself, the transformation is just incredible, and with solar installations and ground source heatpumps, electric hook ups and charging point, waste management as well as great walking routes around the site, it is a fantastic project for the area, and they are well on the way to being self sustaining.

Edinburgh University has just launched its project specification: “Landscape-scale collaboration to benefit biodiversity and climate
change outcomes – stakeholder engagement” The need for this research
ClimateXChange (CXC) wishes to commission stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange research on collaborative landscape-scale practices and their potential to deliver positive outcomes
in response to the climate and biodiversity emergencies in Scotland. This fits with our own biodiversity project and the work we did on Just Transition in 2023.

You can see our environmental news here.

The truth about the Sutherland Space Hub

After extensive research, a new book, which is modules 6 and 7 of the course, How to become a Green Advisor, will include the economic and environmental truth behind the Sutherland Space Hub.

www.friendsofthenorthhighlandway.com

No commitment to Climate Change

We have been busy looking at the big picture again, and note that neither EventScotland or The Highland Council even know what climate change is. EventScotland refused to assist with a Climate Change event and The Highland Council are slipping in their targets.

LetsGoGreen

Economics classes

From ScotEconomics

Friends of the North Highland Way

Focus North

The Focus North Conference took place last week (28 March 2024).. It looked like a good event. This journalist was up to her knees in bog at the time out and about collecting evidence of lack of biodiversity monitoring. Did you know that the UK POMS only have four squares in Caithness, two of them taken and the other two not good… one inaccessible, and the other is arable.

The Conference focussed on the big picture, while climate change was hardly mentioned at all. Offsetting the effect of the Peatlands against the Sutherland Space Hub is an interesting question, and is being posed to our academic partners.

There was not a word about climate change and The Highland Council area is still slipping in its targets.

https://focusnorth.scot/conference-2024

My next job is to find a study which would highlight the carbon offset of the Peatlands against the Sutherland Space Hub.

It is an interesting question….  Meanwhile, our environmental news is published here… and will, hopefully, soon be available in Tesco stores.. fingers crossed.

Meanwhile Friends of the North Highland Way gets even more traction further south.