Pastel Positivity and a Climate Change Conversation

Whilst having some after work drinks on Friday night the conversation of climate change came up. This is not unusual, as after all I’m in a DTC specialising in the subject. But what did surprise me was the attitude of a couple of members of my course. The thrust of the argument was that the impacts weren’t going to be that bad and that the science isn’t that clear anyway. Really!?! Over the weekend I despaired slightly – if the people who are trained in this area don’t get the message then what chance is there for anyone else.

But on Monday my friend sent me something that renewed my hope that climate change can be communicated to people effectively and in a very emotional way. The link was to a video on National Geographic on the artist Zaria Forman. Zaria does large-scale pastel drawings of landscapes communicating climate change. The video focussed on her extraordinary works of Greenland and it took a few moments to realise these were not photographs.

I have been interested in art ever since my parents dragged me to galleries in Paris and St Ives as a child – no Disneyland for me – something that I am extremely grateful to them for now. I have seen some amazing works of art but Zaria’s work sparked something extra in me. It really brought home the beauty of the world and why I am trying to stop it being destroyed. I defy anyone to look at these pieces of art and still feel like climate change does not matter.

The work was also important to me for another reason. I have always loved drawing and painting and more recently have started using pastels. They have turned out to be by far my favourite medium as I feel that I can create real atmosphere in my pictures. Of course I will never be as good as Zaria, but it has made me realise how important it is to create more pictures for myself. I hope to be able to get those pastels out and explore nature a bit more once my PhD is finished.

Greenland #62 by Zaria Forman

By taking a step back from the science and politics, I hope that more people will be inspired by the beauty of the world from works like this, or even just getting out there and seeing it for themselves. And next time someone tells me that its not that important I will think of Zaria’s work and tell them what I really think!

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/illustrating-the-beauty-of-a-disappearing-world?source=relatedvideo

http://www.zariaforman.com

The end is in sight!

I haven’t updated this page in a while as I hit a bit of a setback after Christmas. It was a really busy start to the year with two conferences back-to-back. The Universities Transport Study Group conference was first up, where I was shortlisted for the SMEED prize. It was great to be around so many transport researchers at similar points to me in there PhD’s and to get some feedback on my own work.

After a day a home I then jumped (or reluctantly walked) onto a plane to Washington. As I’ve mentioned before, I am pretty scared of flying, but I am definitely getting better – I think I might even be able to leave the diazepam at home soon. But I love going to Washington – its one of those cities that I feel I could go to over and over again and just walk around without getting bored. I think its because of the political aspect, it always feels like its the center of things. I also love TRB which is why I was there. It is a huge conference but that means there is always something interesting to go to. This was my first time orally presenting and I was in the emerging researchers aviation session. It went very well and I met some interesting people as a result.

I also went to a session about MH370 where experts put forward their views on what happened and how it will/has affected the industry. I am reminded of this session this week as the first parts of the aircraft appear to have been found. I hope this will bring some closure to the families of those onboard, but the sad fact is that we may never know what actually happened. Even if the black box is found, its limited recording time means the moments in the cockpit when the aircraft was turned around are unlikely to become known.

After returning from TRB, it was down to the business of writing up. I also was working on two journal papers: my first CI paper that I had presented at TRB and my long overdue paper on high speed rail, which I had put aside to work on my actual PhD work. It was during these two months that I hit a snag. I was really tired and kept getting ill. I thought I was just run down and motivational issues were kicking into full force after over three years working on the same project. I muddled through but I did mention it to my doctor during a routine appointment and she suggested I get a blood test. Everything came back fine apart from a raised liver enzyme. After a couple more months of tests it was found that I actually had glandular fever during that time. This came as somewhat a relief as it meant that I wasn’t just being lazy and losing motivation. Looking back now it was pretty hard to get through those months, but at least I am on the mend.

I am now only two months away from the expected end date of my PhD and I am happy to say the writing up is going pretty well. I have a working model to optimize the calculation of the cost index and have three chapters written. I’m hoping to get a draft of the whole thesis done by the end of August. So watch this space…

SESAR Innovation Days – Madrid, November 2014

This is the only conference I have attended without presenting, which took the pressure off. However, it was the first time I had a). been on a Ryanair flight and b). been to Spain without knowing a word of Spanish, so I was still feeling a bit nervous. I survived the flight with minimal hyperventilating! I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t like flying. On the positive side I have recently downgraded my dislike of flying from “hate” and/or “terrified” of to “dislike” and/or “uncomfortable” – experience and flying alone makes a lot of difference! I also managed to get by in Spanish and actually realised that I think the language is really beautiful and now I want to learn it.

Anyway, the innovation days were really informative and it was good to be immersed in a conference where everything was about aviation, unlike most the general transport conferences I had previously been to. One presentation really stuck out by Massimillano Zanin entitled “Enabling the Aviation CO2 Allowance Trading Through Secure Market Mechanisms”. The presentation discussed how aviation could be included in emissions trading by using a “Secure Multi-Party Computational Framework” to ensue that airlines could participate in emissions trading without having to share any confidential information with each other. I am all for any research that looks at the issues below the surface of including aviation in emissions trading. Making it a robust system is the only way that it will have a lasting effect on emissions.

As well as the presentations I spoke with a number of people who were helpful in directing my research. Key among these were people who worked for Eurocontrol and understand first hand the practical everyday issues of airline operations. My research does have a big question mark of how to make Cost Index work over the entire system and the comments I received backed up the importance of this.

The final day of the conference was actually my birthday. My two best friends came out to Madrid to take me on a day of surprises after the conference ended at lunchtime. I had an amazing time seeing the sights and eating in a excellent restaurant off the beaten track in the back streets of the city. All in all a great four days in Madrid.

RGS Conference and Hong Kong

The end of August and the beginning of September was a crazy time for me. It started with a much needed trip home with my friend Jo, including a trip to Hay-on-Wye. This was my dream town as it is just full of bookshops. It was then down to London for the annual Royal Geographical Society conference where I was presenting on policies to reduce aviation emissions. It was a busy and informative three days and it was weird to be back at Imperial again since doing my masters 4 years ago.

Once the conference was over on Friday evening it was then off to Hong Kong. I was pretty nervous, as although I spend all day researching aviation, I’m actually pretty afraid of flying. But once on the plane I was feeling OK about it and looked out the window for the first time ever on take-off. The reason for me facing my fears – visiting the Cathay Pacific headquarters to interview people for my PhD. I first went out to visit Cathay two years ago for my placement but this time I was going back with a much better idea of what I was doing and the people I spoke to there provided invaluable information for my thesis.

The only downside was that I was staying at the airport hotel as Cathay City is just down the road. This meant I didn’t really experience central Hong Kong much, but by Friday I was determined I would make a one proper visit. I chose to go to Mong Kok where most of the markets can be found. This is one area that a didn’t experience much the last time I visited and it was fantastic. I visited the flower market where blooms overspilled the pavements as far as the eye could see and the ladies market which had some pretty convincing looking fake bags. However, my favourite was the goldfish market. A whole street was lined with shop fronts displaying hundreds of plastic bags containing tropical fish, interspersed with pet shops selling a range of other animals. I had mixed feelings about whether what I was seeing was cruel but I also couldn’t help feeling wonder at the atmosphere of the place. Whilst I enjoyed my time away I am pretty happy to be back where the temperature is a little bit more bearable and I am looking forward to getting on with my thesis.

Engage 2014 – Finalists!

Yesterday I attended the Engage 2014 award ceremony at the Natural History Museum along with the director and manager of the DTC. Our project, Dreams of a Low Carbon Future, was runner-up in the Engaging with Young People category. Although we didn’t win just being a finalist was an achievement being chosen out of over 200 applicants. The project involved going into schools and conducting workshops on energy and climate change and then getting the pupils to draw their vision of the future. These ideas were then turned into a graphic novel containing both the kids work and that of professional artists. 5000 copies were produced and distributed to schools, galleries and the public at events. The awards ceremony was great with video presentations of all the finalists, Alice Roberts presenting the awards and even dramatic music to add tension along with gift bags containing dinosaur chocolates! The reception afterwards was held in one of the galleries and included awesome cake and bubbles. The day was really inspiring and I am now looking forward to following up the project with more public engagement!

Ich habe angenommen, um Verkehr und Klimawandel 2014

For those who don’t speak German ( which pretty much includes me too) – I just found out that me and my fellow transport researcher, Clare Linton, are off to Karlsruhe in Germany to present at “Climate Change and Transport” hosted by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Although it is not until October we are already looking at hotels and things to do there. The city looks pretty impressive from above being dominated by circular grounds which radiate from the 18th century Baroque palace. I am also very excited that there is a zoo! Of course the main reason we’re going is to present our research.

I am doing an oral presentation on what will affect operations of aircraft in the future and whether this will have an overall positive or negative effect on carbon emissions. This includes mapping these impacts worldwide including everything from geopolitical issues to new aircraft technology. My favourite aspect to look at is how climate change itself will affect flight particularly when you start looking at the effect on the jet stream and the impact of more severe weather events. Meanwhile Clare will be presenting on the role of transport models in climate change mitigation. 

The final thing that makes me excited about this conference is that we can reach it by train! I’m a bit of a high speed rail addict and usually travel to visit my brother in Frankfurt by train and Karlsruhe isn’t that much further. I also know that it will be easier than when I did Leeds to Switzerland in a day last year! We will need to firstly go to London St Pancras and get the Eurostar to Paris, then it is an easy direct TGV to Karlsruhe. I just hope I don’t drive Clare mad with train facts and taking pictures of all the high speed trains I can or I might end up under one.