Arran’s first VegFest coming in March

ARRAN VEGFEST 2020

Arran High School Lamlash, 10am to 5pm, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th March 2020

Lamlash Bay NTZ paves the way for revival of UK seabeds

A dramatic increase in species abundance and biodiversity has been documented in a long-term study of Arran's No Take Zone. COAST's pioneering work is now acting as a blueprint for similar marine conservation projects elsewhere in Britain, paving the way for the revival of UK seabeds.

Marine life has returned at dramatic levels to the waters of the Lamlash Bay No Take Zone, a new study from the University of York has shown. Numbers of some species have increased by nearly four-fold since this community-backed project started twelve years ago. Authors of the study say, that at a time of unprecedented pressure on our seas, the project has kick-started a national movement to protect UK coastal waters from over-fishing and loss of biodiversity.

A History of the Vikings in four parts

By Jim Henderson

A history of the Vikings

THE VIKINGS 8th to 13th CENTURY

Part 1

TYPES OF LONGSHIP

The Busse was the largest of the Longships at 150 feet in length with 34 rowing benches, capable of carrying crew, cargo and passengers.

The Dreker was used mainly for raiding and plundering in the 13th century.

The Skei was built for speed with more than 30 rowing benches. It was 98 feet in length with a beam of 10 feet capable of carrying a crew of 80. The remains of one built in Dublin around 1042 was found in 1962, buried in a bog, the Oak timbers were used to determine the age of the craft.

Chinstrap Penguins and Turtles: Two animals at risk due to climate change and human activities

The world’s oceans take up more than a quarter of the carbon humans are emitting into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, partially mitigating the greenhouse effect of that carbon. The Southern Ocean accounts for nearly 40 percent of this marine carbon absorption, even though it makes up only one-fifth of Earth’s ocean surface area. There could be enormous consequences for our already warming planet from even a small reduction in the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.
Scientists say this reduction may already be happening, and they suspect that the westerlies in the Southern Hemisphere, which are stronger than their northern counterparts because they blow mostly over open water, are to blame. Records of actual wind speeds, as well as estimates of wind speeds from measurements of atmospheric pressure, provide clear signs that the westerlies in both hemispheres are shifting toward the poles and intensifying. Climate models show that these changes are partly due to global warming, and research is afoot to determine if they are hindering the Southern Ocean’s capacity to extract carbon out of the atmosphere.

Join Eco Savvy for the Arran Spring Fest 21st March

ARRAN ECO SAVVY SPRING FEST

Findings of The Big Climate Conversation

In the October issue of the Voice we reported on the The Big Climate Conversation event that Eco Savvy hosted. It was part of a series of discussion events organised by the Scottish government to gather the views of people across Scotland on the climate issues that they find most pressing and what they think the government needs to be doing to tackle the climate emergency. This includes implementing policies that better enable individuals to change their behaviour to help reduce carbon emissions and lead more environmentally sensitive lives. The findings of the exercise have now been published. The following is a summary of the exercise, and the link to the full report can be accessed below.

Citizen science helps to protect dolphins and whales in Scotland

Record numbers take part in citizen science to protect whales and dolphins off Scotland’s west coast

By Morven Summers, 21 February 2020, published by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust. Feature image shows a common dolphin in waters near the Summer Isles. Copyright to HWDT.

Record numbers of volunteers took part in research expeditions organised by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust last year, helping to launch a new year-round programme of monitoring marine mammals and basking sharks in the Hebrides.

The law of the Seas, a licence for lawlessness

By Sally Campbell

Ocean-Dwelling Species Are Disappearing Twice as Quickly as Land Animals. The law of the Seas, a licence for lawlessness

Open call for the 2020 Makers’ Festival Exhibition

Summary and Open Call for the Makers’ Festival Exhibition

Arran’s Paul Tinto takes the lead in a new production of Macbeth

Three witches on a heath have a disturbing prophecy for a victorious warrior. Macbeth will be king of Scotland. As this wicked seed is planted, daring Macbeth and his determined wife Lady Macbeth draw bloody daggers and set out on a fateful path. But seizing the crown comes at a terrible price, as guilt grows, enemies draw close and the fight for survival hurtles towards a tragic conclusion…

Arran’s Paul Tinto is currently touring with a new production of Shakespeare’s classic. A Derby Theatre and Queen's Theatre Hornchurch production, this epic and intensely terrifying period version of Shakespeare’s most regal and timeless classic warns of the effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake.

The 91st Isle of Arran Music Festival

91st Isle of Arran Music Festival 2020

incorporating

LAMLASH BURNS CLUB SCHOOLS BURNS VERSE SPEAKING COMPETITION

WHITING BAY HALL -18th to 20th March

Can you help keep the Whiting Bay Thursday Club running?

The Need for a Scottish Visa

A report by Kenneth Gibson, MSP 

The SNP Government has unveiled proposals for a new Scottish Visa to address depopulation and the growing risk of a skills gap.

The proposals have been designed to work under devolution but the principles and practical measures proposed could be adapted for an independent Scotland.

Under the current constitutional arrangements, these plans would see responsibility for immigration policy split with the UK Government.

Migrants wanting to live in Scotland could choose to apply for a Scottish Visa, or one of the existing immigration routes offered by the UK Government. Residence in Scotland and maintaining a Scottish tax code would be a requirement.

A new strategy to protect Scotland’s environment

Scotland’s leading environment charities have welcomed the Scottish Government’s announcement today of a vision and outcomes for an environment strategy, applauding the government’s commitment to restore nature and end Scotland’s contribution to climate change.

They have called on the government to back up this commitment with legally binding targets for nature recovery and an action plan for delivery.

The charities, members of Scottish Environment, also welcomed the announcement of a new environment watchdog to oversee compliance with environmental law, but cautioned that the new body must have real independence and power to protect Scotland’s iconic nature.

Students seek to take Climate Education into their own hands

Students last week took their education into their own hands and launched a climate emergency education bill in parliament, to call for rapid education reform and with the hopes of gaining support from MPs.

Their calls contrast starkly with similar bills introduced by Conservative MP Christopher Chope, who was one of only five MPs to vote against the UK’s Climate Change Act.

The students’ bill is being launched by Teach The Future, which has been set up as a collaboration between the UK School Climate Network that organised the Fridays For Future school strikes, and SOS UK, which is an offshoot of the National Union of Students. Teach The Future has a six-point list of actions they want to see implemented, including an English Climate Emergency Education Act and the inclusion of the climate emergency and ecological crisis in teacher training and a new professional teaching qualification.

Music Arran concert – ADlibitum

Music Arran present

ADlibitum

Saturday 21st March Brodick Hall, 7.30pm

ADLibitum are violin and accordion duo, Andrea and Djordje Gajic.  Both extremely proficient artists in their own solo careers, together they perform an exciting repertoire and have given concerts in Scotland, England, Serbia, and at the Victoria International Arts Festival in Gozo, Malta. In March 2018 ADLibitum performed with double bassist Nikita Naumov in Rostov, and in June 2018 they were performing again at Victoria International Arts Festival in Gozo.

A talk on Arran’s lochs and lochans

Author Alex Drain is coming to Arran and will be giving a talk in the library on the subject of his new book - Arran: Lochs and Lochans.

Providing 1,000 Computers for Malawi

A report by Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North.

The SNP Government has provided 1,000 used computers to African trainee teachers and students through its latest donation in partnership with the Turing Trust.

The computers are no longer suitable for corporate use and will be sent to educational projects in Malawi.

This is the second batch of IT equipment the Information and Technology Services Division has donated to the trust, co-founded by James Turing in honour of his great uncle, the World War II codebreaker Alan Turing.

Marine News

Car park seal released into wild

A seal that managed to navigate its way up through a harbour and into a car park has been released back into the wild in the River Tay. The young pup was found near Stewart Street in Greenock last November. He was taken to the SSPCA wild life rescue centre at Fishcross in Clackmannanshire, where staff named him Dot-to-Dot.

They believe the seal was severely underweight, and was two or three weeks old when discovered. Steven Gray of SSPCA said “What made his story was that he had managed to get up the harbour steps along the promenade and into the car park. The fact Dot to Dot managed to negotiate these obstacles especially as he was so young and underweight was incredible. We suspect he became separated from his mum, took to the water out of desperation and got swept back by the current. It is likely that Dot to Dot was exhausted which is why he came up the harbour stairs and into such a dangerous situation”.

Corrie film club in March

The film showing on Sunday March 8th at 8pm is The Guilty (Denmark 2018. Gustav Moller. Cert 15. 85 mins).

Gustav Möller’s nerve-jangling thriller about an emergency police dispatcher and one fateful call uses minimal ingredients to devastating effect. Asger is a police officer who enters a race against time when he answers an emergency call from a kidnapped woman. Soon he realises that he is dealing with a crime that is far more complex than he first thought.

Poem for March

Love after Love