Gardiner V., Matthews H. The changing geography of the United Kingdom

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VINCE GARDINER

486

BOX 22.2 Suburban London

A flat in Wandsworth. Sitting at the window, the view is of other blocks of flats,

both Council and private, TV aerials on the top, satellite dishes facing south-east,

like technological sunflowers following the sun. Above, planes roar overhead as,

with monotonoous regularity, they approach Heathrow Airport, the busiest

international airport in the world—a constant reminder of the capital’s role in the

UK, as a major international city, and a hub of the global economy. Trains can be

heard on the privatised South Western Trains route, and on the Underground, as

can traffic on the A3, with commuters ebbing and flowing their daily cycle, feeding

and sustaining the economic vitality of the capital. Separately numbered car park

spaces house cars, some used only at weekends as their owners use public transport

to commute, and others used to transport their owners (usually individually) to

work—or to the station only a kilometre away, with their cars never even reaching

a pollution-minimising operating temperature. Many carry their lap-top computers

ostentatiously during the week, and wear their designer clothes equally

ostentatiously at weekends. A few kilometres away is the heart of London—the

City, with its temples to the generation of wealth; the West End, with its temples

to entertainment and consumerism; the dispersed centres of culture and sport,

and globally significant centres of learning.

Surely, this is the heart of modern Britain, where technology and consumerism

have triumphed, and nature has no role to play?

Yet there is another side to suburban London (or is it another interpretation of

the same side?).

The very existence of the country’s largest conurbation is dictated by the

physical environment, with the fluvial history of the Thames dictating the early

development of a crossing place which has endured and developed throughout the

centuries, with even today archaeological evidence of the long occupance of the

site emerging from beneath the urban fabric to be rescued for posterity. The very

shape of the urban area is determined at some levels by the physical environment,

with river terraces introducing interesting topographic variety to the city centre,

and areas of poorer sandy soils in the suburbs being conserved as commons. Indeed,

nature has never been stronger than within this leafy enclave of the urban area.

Wimbledon Common is a hundred metres away, with its historic status as a common

land protected by legislation, and the Commoners managing it to conserve its wildlife

and diversity. Urban foxes regularly cross the car park at night, and the regular

sightings of magpies testify to all being well in the ecological food pyramid.

Magnificent pine trees around the car park enjoy protected status, and teem with

grey squirrels. The very fabric of the urban area modifies the climate—funnelling

winds, increasing convection and hence rainfall—and interactions with air pollution

intensify these effects.

What is the geographical reality of these case studies? We are not going to answer this

question, although it might dismay student readers of this book who are looking for ‘the

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answers’. For one editor of this book (myself) both case studies, and both interpretations of

both case studies, have elements of reality; this book was edited whilst employed in London

and Liverpool, from houses in Wandsworth and West Kirby. But how this editor saw and

experienced those landscapes is unique to that editor. If there is an answer to the question it

is that each landscape of Britain is not only a complex product of physical and human

processes but is also the landscape perceived both through the vision of each individual’s

eyes and also through the filters of their attitudes, knowledge, experience and even mood.

The physical environment has not one definite place in the nation’s consciousness, but an

infinite number of different places.

A striking example of how physical ‘reality’ and people’s consciousness interact in

the context of one part of the physical environment is Tunstall and Penning-Rowsell’s (1998)

study of the English beach. They point out that the beach has a special place in the nation’s

consciousness, with the typically British experience of the day at the beach being one rich

in ritual, symbolism, nostalgia and myths. Perhaps one of the most important elements it

gives is the opportunity for tactile physical contact with the physical world, where children

and even adults are allowed or even expected to pick up, touch, shape and play with its

physical material—for example, sand and water, and the associated wildlife such as crabs

and shellfish —without restrictive rules concerned with protecting the environment, or health

and safety. The beach visit therefore reconnects people with nature in a very traditional

way, as well as having definite memories associated with family, childhood and romance

for many people. People seem in general to have the view that the seaside should always be

like the seaside always was. However, a problem occurs when this has to be reconciled with

the physical reality of a changing coastline. People seem to prefer to see the familiar beach,

promenade or whatever, as they had always known them—no matter that this might be a

long way from any ‘natural’ state in which physical processes could establish any degree of

equilibrium between erosion and rock types. People are resistant to any notion of allowing

natural processes to do their work at the coast, with a clear conflict between notions of

‘nature’ and ‘control’, and holding dear the notion of ‘naturalness’ —in Tunstall and Penning-

Rowsell’s words’ ‘taking in the view of the incoming tide while standing by the amusement

arcades’ (1998:331). They see these attitudes as being a throwback to the Victorian image

of coast as adventure and freedom, in a controlled environment where adventure and freedom

are rendered risk-free by people’s intervention, with the sea and its power being comfortably

viewed from safe refuge. Such notions are of immense importance in devising ways for the

management of coastlines in ways that are publicly acceptable as well as being physically

sustainable.

How natural are the landscapes of the UK? If it were possible to remove the direct

evidence of the impact of people (the structures such as buildings, roads, railways and so

on, as well as crops and other planted and managed vegetation), would the landscapes

remaining be in any sense ‘natural’? Whilst the answer in terms of the gross relief (the

existence of major valleys, hills and so on) must be ‘yes’, the answer in terms of much of

the detail of the relief must be ‘no’. Research has shown that people’s activity, from the

Neolithic onwards, has had major effects upon land use, and hence upon geomorphological

processes such as sediment yield and sediment transport. Thus river patterns have changed,

producing fluvial landscapes very different from what might have existed had people not

intervened. Palaeoecological reconstruction based on evidence such as that of the pollen

preserved in upland peat shows that people’s impact upon vegetation has been dramatic.

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Whilst the upland landscapes of areas such as Dartmoor and the Highlands of Scotland

might seem wild and unspoilt, they are in some senses every bit as unnatural as our urban

areas. The climatic climax vegetation for most of the UK would be some form of forest, but

virtually no natural forest now remains, with most of even our oldest woodlands being

planted or managed to some degree, or at least modified in detail, and our ‘wild’ upland

areas being produced by early anthropogenic activity, clearing the natural vegetation for

agriculture.

Just how real is the physical environment to the average Briton? Two hundred years

ago almost everyone had direct and intimate contact with the environment—the walk to

work; work itself, often outdoors; recreation, if any, often in the outdoors. Even buildings

arguably offered a far lesser degree of protection from the vagaries of the weather, although

a case can be made for ‘traditional’ building materials and methods being much more effective

in some ways than our theoretically more advanced methods. It could now at least in theory

be possible to live life without any explicit contact with a natural environment— transported

to and fro by air-conditioned car or train; working in a completely artificially controlled

environment; recreation in completely artificial environments within leisure centres, or at

home, with the workplace’s workstation being echoed by the home’s playstation, providing

arcade-type games, and the Internet providing, potentially, access to every computer in the

world. Yet in many ways the technological sophistication of people’s activity has, at least

through the rose-tinted spectacles of retrospect, perhaps paradoxically made life more rather

than less dependent upon the physical environment—steam trains usually made their

destinations, despite wet leaves on the line or the wrong kind of snow to which electric and

diesel trains are prone to fall victim; buildings and other structures were less vulnerable to

storms—or were able to be replaced without the need for substantial investment; and less-

intensively bred crops were less vulnerable to changes in climate and crop pests. At one

level, people in Britain have never been in more contact with their environment, as

membership of organisations with an environmental or wildlife concern, such as the National

Trust, Greenpeace, and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds continues to rise, and

growing numbers of people continue to participate in outdoor recreation of various kinds.

However, at another level, that of genuine oneness with the physical environment, contact

has never been less than in the past. Fewer and fewer people work regularly outdoors, with

the number of people employed in activities such as agriculture, extractive industry and

fishing declining. Fitness levels of children in schools are a serious concern of government,

with the decline of organised competitive outdoor sport, the rise of solitary and sedentary

activities such as computer gaming, and undesirable habits such as smoking, particularly

amongst females, having unwelcome effects amongst young people. For many, the

environment, and all that it stands for, is packaged as a commodity, to be experienced in a

tamed and moderated way, rather as Tunstall and Penning-Rowsell describe for the beach

visit. A day out in the country might consist for many of a drive to a country park, a leisurely

stroll around a nature trail, and an ice-cream from the convenient vendor. The wild osprey

at Symond’s Yat is observed nesting through the telescope from the viewpoint, with RSPB

guide at hand—certainly it’s better than no osprey at all, but is it really a genuine contact

with nature?

Questions such as those raised above are of great relevance to the question of whether

the present existence of people in the physical environment of the UK is a sustainable one;

if people do not experience the environment, can they value it, cherish it and safeguard it in

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any meaningful way? Apart from its people, Britain’s finest resource is its rich diversity

of landscapes, yielding many tangible physical resources, such as water, minerals and

soil, as well as less tangible resources such as landscape and a topography suitable for

human activities of many kinds. The sustainable use of this resource, against a background

of changing economic, social, political and physical processes, is perhaps the biggest

challenge faced by Britons today. By sustainable is meant the present use without adversely

affecting the resource for future generations. Too often in the past attempts have been

made to separate the activity of people from environmental hazard, and to mitigate the

impact of people on the environment, by what might be termed hard engineering, based

on a rigorous understanding of environmental processes and relevant scientific principles.

However there is increasingly a realisation that many physical processes are inherently

unpredictable, at least at the detailed level which is relevant to the activity of people,

being often dependent in a very sensitive way upon the sequence of historical events, as

well as sometimes upon their spatial distribution. Thus policies for environmental

management should be flexible, and should recognise this inherent unpredictability of

many physical processes. This argument is developed in detail for coastal management

by Turner et al. (1998), who in addition point out that for many ecological economists

policy analysis must also incorporate both ethical and philosophical dimensions, and

those related to considerations of social equity. For example, in considering pollution, it

can be argued that those who suffer from the actions of others should be given full

compensation; more generally, those who benefit from actions which adversely affect the

environment should compensate those who suffer. Whilst monetary compensation does

not necessarily ensure sustainability, it does provide an incentive towards it.

The future will hold many challenges for the ways in which people interact with

their environment in the UK, with the complexly linked effects of climatic change, the

Greenhouse effect, stratospheric ozone depletion and sea-level change being obvious

contenders for the most significant. However, other developing issues and potential

problems identified by some chapters in this book, such as increasing urbanisation,

decreasing biodiversity, diminishing stocks of primary resources, increasing subsidiarity

of the UK’s political system to that of the EU, increasing globalisation of economic activity,

and increasing commodification of nature might in the final analysis be more important.

This chapter set out to raise questions, not to provide answers. If it has stimulated thinking

which will in any way contribute to an increased effectiveness of the custodianship of the

land of the UK by its citizens of the twenty-first century it will have served its purpose, as

will the rest of this book.

References

Tunstall, S. and Penning-Rowsell, E.C. (1998) ‘The English beach: experience and values’, Geographical

Journal 164(3): 319–32.

Turner, R.K., Lorenzoni, I., Beaumont, N., Bateman, I.J., Langford, I.H. and McDonald, A.L. (1998)

‘Coastal management for sustainable development: analysing environmental and socioeconomic

changes on the UK coast’, Geographical Journal 164(3): 269–81.

490

Aberdeen: climate change 423, 424; energy 50,

52; local government 297, 299; transport

114,

Aberfan 347, 375

accessibility 221–3; see also transport acid rain

46, 385–6, 390, 392–3

Adams, W.M. 437, 452

Afro-Caribbean groups 174–5, 183, 204–6,

205, 280

age 182–3, 184; ageing population 181; child-

bearing 172; life expectancy 242–4;

migrants 175

Agenda 21 of Earth Summit 87, 201, 402, 438–9,

472, 476

aggregates 72–4

agriculture 84–107, 405; climate 415–17, 431;

conservation 443, 447–8, 458–9, 462;

environment 87, 102–3, 371, 447–8; food

quality and safety 87–8; marketing

developments 103–5; post-productionism,

portents of 96–103; productionism 86, 88–96;

reregulation of 85–8; restructuring 88–103;

water (irrigation) 10–11, 12; see also land air

transport and airports 76, 109, 121–3, 368

airflow and climatic hazards 366–7

Anglesey 67, 68, 297

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs)

68, 73, 455, 456, 457

Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs) 452,

457

Armitage, B. 171, 173

Arnell, N.W. 408–9, 433

Ashford, S. 470, 471

Asian: immigrants 174–5, 185, 204–6, 205, 279,

280, 286, 288–9; industry and firms in UK 3,

4, 140, 142, 146–7, 193

Atkinson, T.C. 409, 410

atmosphere see under pollution automotive

industry 3, 140, 142

Babb, P. 171, 173

Banham Commission 306–7

barytes 64, 65, 68, 70

Bath 203, 262, 267, 351

beaches see under coast

Beaver Committee and Report 347

Bedfordshire 62, 65, 146, 193, 297, 396

Beeching Report 113

Index

Note: Emboldened page numbers indicate chapters and italicised page numbers indicate maps and

boxes. People mentioned only once and places and organisations mentioned only once or twice have

generally been omitted.

INDEX

491

behavioural influences on health 253–6

Belfast 2, 206, 297, 322, 372; multiculturalism

289–92; transport 114, 117, 122

Berkshire 125, 126, 193, 227, 267, 283, 297

biodiversity 337, 461–5; Convention 438–9,

461, 463–4, 466

biofuels 54, 57, 58

Biogenetic Reserves 452, 453

Biosphere Reserves 452, 453, 456, 460

Birmingham 99, 181, 292; environment 357,

365, 366, 369, 384, 385; labour and industry

2, 200; leisure and consumption 270;

politics and management 208; transport 52,

108, 114, 116, 117, 119, 121–2, 125, 126

birth rate see fertility

Black Country UDC 208; see also Birmingham

Black Report 246–7, 251

Blair, T. 164–5, 166, 305, 317, 402, 438

Blunden, J. xvii; agriculture 84–107; earth

resources 61–83

Borders, Scottish 18, 96, 297, 325, 426

Bowler, I. xvii, 88, 90, 96, 104

Box, J. 440, 453

Bradford 2, 179, 204, 278, 289

Bristol 297; immigrants 206; politics and

management 208, 307; transport 114, 119;

water resources 20, 29

British Coal (earlier NCB) 2, 45

British Gas 45, 52–3, 54

British Rail 108, 110, 111, 124

Brookes, A. 351, 352

Brundtland Report 438

Buckinghamshire 72, 183, 193, 297, 339

buildings see housing

Bynner, J. 470, 471

Cambridgeshire/Cambridge 20, 21, 193, 219,

297

Cannell, M.G.R. 414, 416

CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) 85–90, 92,

98, 101, 103–5, 447–8, 451

carbon dioxide see greenhouse gases

Cardiff 2, 297, 372; devolution 322, 328;

politics and management 206, 208; transport

114, 117

Carter, T.R. 414, 415

CCGT see combined-cycle gas turbines

Central England Temperature (CET) 410–14,

417–21, 427

Champion, T. xvii, 191, 193; demography 169–

Chaney, D. 264, 269

Channel Tunnel 108, 112, 113, 123, 124–5,

127, 372

Chapman, K. xvii; energy 32–60

Chernobyl disaster 43, 341, 342, 399

Cheshire 65, 96, 218, 232, 297, 373; Chester

20, 121, 203, 267

children see young people

Children’s Rights Office 470, 479–80

china clay 64–5, 71–2, 76–9 passim, 339

cities see urban areas

Clark, G.L. 85, 265, 269, 270

clay (brick and ball) 62, 64, 65, 79; see also

china clay

climate change 363–4, 401, 406–36; adaptation

to 433; environment 428–31; extremes and

variability 414–15; future 423–31; hazards

337, 344–51 passim, 354, 362–71, 414–15;

history 409–13; Holocene 409–11;

mitigation 431–2; policy 431–3; pollution

368–71, 394–5, 428–9, 431–2; sensitivity to

413–17; urban areas 338, 365–71; see also

gales; greenhouse gases; precipitation;

temperature

Cloke, P. 194, 216, 217, 265

cloud cover 367–8

coal 2, 42, 47–8, 55, 217; consumption 33–4,

35, 37; environment 338–9, 395; policy 44–

5; reserves 37; trade 35, 36

coast: beaches 21, 400, 487; conservation 452,

456, 460, 465; floods 347, 349–50, 357–61,

360; landslides 372–3, 374–5; pollution

400, 403; reclamation 339–40, 372; see also

sea-level change

combined-cycle gas turbines 53–4, 59

commodifying multiculturalism 283–8

Common Agricultural Policy see CAP

community involvement of young 475–9

Compton, P.A. 169, 179

computers, Internet and Information

Technology 3, 268, 270–1

conservation and preservation 203, 437–68;

competition and conflict 446; hedgerows

443, 449–50; institutional change 439–41;

lakes and ponds 450–1; land cover changes

447–9; non-statutory protected land 452–3;

statutory protected land 453–61; stone walls

449–50; strategies 446; streams 451–2; see

alsobiodiversity; sustainable development

Conservative Party 108, 471; dis(United

Kingdom) 315–17, 319–20, 323–6, 328–9,

331; energy 44–5; labour markets 150, 161–

3, 164; local government 7, 303, 305–10

INDEX

492

passim; multiculturalism 277, 279; water

resources 14–15

construction industry 73, 76, 81, 89

consumption: energy 33–5, 37, 41–2, 51, 52–4;