Wildlife Corridors

Not all animals live a stationary existence. The movement of species may occur for a variety of reasons, including the search for prey or breeding grounds. As habitat loss becomes a greater problem, these migratory species are coming into more frequent contact with human populations. This can create a crisis situation whereby animals inadvertently destroy farmers’ crops, or local people block a key route that has been used by these species for generations. Wildlife corridors provide a solution to this problem.

In the main, it is possible to predict the movements of many wild animals, especially once the groundwork has been done in terms of studying their behaviour through the use of tag and release programs. Modelling this data can aid researchers to find flash points where animals and humans may come into contact. Based on this research, the correct use of wildlife corridors can ensure that animals are free to move from one place to another without impacting on the lives of local people.

As forest space is reduced, it is essential to maintain clear links between areas making up the core habitat: undeveloped land that is already protected. Different areas may be linked in ways that are not always obvious to an outside observer. For example, elephants may frequent one part of a forest through most of the year but move to another during periods of drought. In order to facilitate this movement, local governments need to preserve smaller areas of forest that function as a stepping stone between two larger protected areas. The animals can then move freely without entering heavily populated areas.

The scale of the problem is difficult to imagine. A single elephant herd may have a range of over a thousand kilometres, especially where forest cover has already been destroyed. This movement will be affected by any large-scale building work, which may also include the construction of railways which criss-cross land that is being used by the elephants. The solution is not simply earmarking land to be protected as reserves because these reserves would need to be extremely large. The only realistic answer is to manage the land effectively.

Wildlife corridors alone cannot hold back the ravages of habitat loss. They work best when included as part of a suite of measures to conserve and expand the local environment.

In many cases, wildlife corridors can be facilitated by exploiting natural boundaries such as rocky or hilly areas, which would be unsuitable for pastureland. Using these to delineate the limits of the corridor removes some of the burden on local authorities in managing the terrain.

Habitat loss is not necessarily permanent. Farmers who live on the fringes of natural parks can be encouraged to grow native plants on their land as a process of revegetation. By enlarging the amount of forest cover, they will provide further distance between themselves and local wildlife. Greater flora means more habitat protection for fauna.

Regenerating the habitat may just entail allowing nature to take its course. Flood plains around rivers can cause great damage to property if people build on them, but by leaving this terrain and allowing rivers to flood it periodically, new plant growth can be encouraged.

Furthermore, education can save farmers from seeing their land damaged by migrating animals. Elephants are extremely adept at finding sources of food. If farmers plant tasty crops on the land that touches the natural parks and elephant reserves, they are effectively encouraging the animals to come into contact with them. Elephants don’t respect human boundaries and no wild animal is going to pass up the opportunity of a free meal.

Without needing too much hard work on the part of local people, wildlife corridors can be put in place and shielded from the human population by exploiting the inherent features of the landscape and by predicting the behaviour of the species in question. It is one environmental innovation which is a win-win for all concerned.

Wildlife Corridors

Not all animals live a stationary existence. The movement of species may occur for a variety of reasons, including the search for prey or breeding grounds. As habitat loss becomes a greater problem, these migratory species are coming into more frequent contact with human populations. This can create a crisis situation whereby animals inadvertently destroy farmers’ crops, or local people block a key route that has been used by these species for generations. Wildlife corridors provide a solution to this problem.

In the main, it is possible to predict the movements of many wild animals, especially once the groundwork has been done in terms of studying their behaviour through the use of tag and release programs. Modelling this data can aid researchers to find flash points where animals and humans may come into contact. Based on this research, the correct use of wildlife corridors can ensure that animals are free to move from one place to another without impacting on the lives of local people.

As forest space is reduced, it is essential to maintain clear links between areas making up the core habitat: undeveloped land that is already protected. Different areas may be linked in ways that are not always obvious to an outside observer. For example, elephants may frequent one part of a forest through most of the year but move to another during periods of drought. In order to facilitate this movement, local governments need to preserve smaller areas of forest that function as a stepping stone between two larger protected areas. The animals can then move freely without entering heavily populated areas.

The scale of the problem is difficult to imagine. A single elephant herd may have a range of over a thousand kilometres, especially where forest cover has already been destroyed. This movement will be affected by any large-scale building work, which may also include the construction of railways which criss-cross land that is being used by the elephants. The solution is not simply earmarking land to be protected as reserves because these reserves would need to be extremely large. The only realistic answer is to manage the land effectively.

Wildlife corridors alone cannot hold back the ravages of habitat loss. They work best when included as part of a suite of measures to conserve and expand the local environment.

In many cases, wildlife corridors can be facilitated by exploiting natural boundaries such as rocky or hilly areas, which would be unsuitable for pastureland. Using these to delineate the limits of the corridor removes some of the burden on local authorities in managing the terrain.

Habitat loss is not necessarily permanent. Farmers who live on the fringes of natural parks can be encouraged to grow native plants on their land as a process of revegetation. By enlarging the amount of forest cover, they will provide further distance between themselves and local wildlife. Greater flora means more habitat protection for fauna.

Regenerating the habitat may just entail allowing nature to take its course. Flood plains around rivers can cause great damage to property if people build on them, but by leaving this terrain and allowing rivers to flood it periodically, new plant growth can be encouraged.

Furthermore, education can save farmers from seeing their land damaged by migrating animals. Elephants are extremely adept at finding sources of food. If farmers plant tasty crops on the land that touches the natural parks and elephant reserves, they are effectively encouraging the animals to come into contact with them. Elephants don’t respect human boundaries and no wild animal is going to pass up the opportunity of a free meal.

Without needing too much hard work on the part of local people, wildlife corridors can be put in place and shielded from the human population by exploiting the inherent features of the landscape and by predicting the behaviour of the species in question. It is one environmental innovation which is a win-win for all concerned

Fashion Students Learn How to Weather the Storm

A Climate change is wreaking havoc worldwide. Flooding is causing devastation in Bangladesh, while parts of Australia are caught in the ‘the Big Dry’. They are experiencing one of the longest periods of drought in living memory. Alongside these global tragedies, there are other everyday effects of climate change, which, while they are less dramatic, can still have a devastating impact on people’s lives. One such problem is gripping the fashion industry, but today’s students are already learning how to solve it.

B The fashion industry is one which is particularly vulnerable to changes in the weather. When stores introduce their winter lines, they will have a large number of scarves and similar garments on sale. However, if their target market experiences a warm winter, many of these items will remain on the shelves. Conversely, a cool, damp summer can lead to a huge drop in sales of items such as shorts and T-shirts. Although they are not perishable goods like butter or meat, which can spoil over a period of time, the stores cannot just box these items up and leave them in store for next year. Fashion changes fast, and consumers want to see clothes that are new, not the previous season’s look. Thus unpredictable weather patterns can damage the profitability of clothing stores and even put them out of business.

C Like all investors, clothing stores and others involved in the supply chain are keen to achieve avoidance of risk. Risk is the unknown, events that take place without our foreknowledge. Yet the weather is a particularly random and unquantifiable phenomenon. As a result, one solution has been the development of ‘seasonless clothing’. The principle is to create clothing that can be worn at any time of the year so that what’s on the shelves will be unaffected by weird weather fluctuations. It certainly removes dependence on a nice summer or a frosty winter. Critics of this approach have pointed out that such seasonless clothing is only suitable for people who spend a great deal of their time in air-conditioned places around the world, where the temperature is always the same. Out on the street in drizzly Britain or scorching Spain, what is happening outside your window will have a greater impact on what you wear.

D If it is unrealistic to change the clothes to fit the market, another, more scientific approach is needed. This is why the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York (FIT) has introduced a new course entitled ‘Predictive Analytics for Planning and Forecasting’. The basic idea is to use case studies, data analysis, graphs and equations to predict what the future may hold. The course is geared more towards those with an interest in merchandising and marketing than the Institute’s former alumni, such as Calvin Klein, whose typical focus was in tailoring and fabrics, not computer spreadsheets.

E It may be argued that retailers have always had an eye on the future when ordering their stocks. A main clothing store will have its new swimwear line launched in spring in time for people’s summer holidays, since there is no point in trying to sell swimming costumes to people who are already out of town and on the beach. However, the FIT course moves the science of predicting the weather to a whole new level, one that could have huge repercussions for the health of the industry. It is hard not to be impressed.

F Instead of just looking back at the last year’s season, the students on the Predictive Analysis course observe longer-term trends. In a competitive marketplace, this can make the difference between success and failure, with the losers being those who just glance at the previous season’s highs and lows. Though there remains plenty of margin for error, correct predictions over a wide timescale mean that mistakes will be evened out in a way that cannot happen when taking an approach that uses ‘hit and miss’ to make the final call.

G One other aspect of their work is ‘de-seasonalising’. Predictive Analysis can help retailers respond to the reality of the weather, rather than blindly following what it says on the calendar. Imagine a scenario where the weather is unseasonably warm in Chicago. A shop there might have a large amount of unsold coats in their storeroom. Using data analysis, experts can study the weather patterns and buying behaviour of consumers elsewhere, and act on it by moving the coats to where the demand lies.

H By cutting down on waste in this way, the course is not just responding to climate change, it is actively helping to reduce the problem. Businesses can increase their sales whilst reducing their carbon footprint, further evidence of the many real-life applications provided by the course.

Fashion Students Learn How to Weather the Storm

A Climate change is wreaking havoc worldwide. Flooding is causing devastation in Bangladesh, while parts of Australia are caught in the ‘the Big Dry’. They are experiencing one of the longest periods of drought in living memory. Alongside these global tragedies, there are other everyday effects of climate change, which, while they are less dramatic, can still have a devastating impact on people’s lives. One such problem is gripping the fashion industry, but today’s students are already learning how to solve it.

B The fashion industry is one which is particularly vulnerable to changes in the weather. When stores introduce their winter lines, they will have a large number of scarves and similar garments on sale. However, if their target market experiences a warm winter, many of these items will remain on the shelves. Conversely, a cool, damp summer can lead to a huge drop in sales of items such as shorts and T-shirts. Although they are not perishable goods like butter or meat, which can spoil over a period of time, the stores cannot just box these items up and leave them in store for next year. Fashion changes fast, and consumers want to see clothes that are new, not the previous season’s look. Thus unpredictable weather patterns can damage the profitability of clothing stores and even put them out of business.

C Like all investors, clothing stores and others involved in the supply chain are keen to achieve avoidance of risk. Risk is the unknown, events that take place without our foreknowledge. Yet the weather is a particularly random and unquantifiable phenomenon. As a result, one solution has been the development of ‘seasonless clothing’. The principle is to create clothing that can be worn at any time of the year so that what’s on the shelves will be unaffected by weird weather fluctuations. It certainly removes dependence on a nice summer or a frosty winter. Critics of this approach have pointed out that such seasonless clothing is only suitable for people who spend a great deal of their time in air-conditioned places around the world, where the temperature is always the same. Out on the street in drizzly Britain or scorching Spain, what is happening outside your window will have a greater impact on what you wear.

D If it is unrealistic to change the clothes to fit the market, another, more scientific approach is needed. This is why the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York (FIT) has introduced a new course entitled ‘Predictive Analytics for Planning and Forecasting’. The basic idea is to use case studies, data analysis, graphs and equations to predict what the future may hold. The course is geared more towards those with an interest in merchandising and marketing than the Institute’s former alumni, such as Calvin Klein, whose typical focus was in tailoring and fabrics, not computer spreadsheets.

E It may be argued that retailers have always had an eye on the future when ordering their stocks. A main clothing store will have its new swimwear line launched in spring in time for people’s summer holidays, since there is no point in trying to sell swimming costumes to people who are already out of town and on the beach. However, the FIT course moves the science of predicting the weather to a whole new level, one that could have huge repercussions for the health of the industry. It is hard not to be impressed.

F Instead of just looking back at the last year’s season, the students on the Predictive Analysis course observe longer-term trends. In a competitive marketplace, this can make the difference between success and failure, with the losers being those who just glance at the previous season’s highs and lows. Though there remains plenty of margin for error, correct predictions over a wide timescale mean that mistakes will be evened out in a way that cannot happen when taking an approach that uses ‘hit and miss’ to make the final call.

G One other aspect of their work is ‘de-seasonalising’. Predictive Analysis can help retailers respond to the reality of the weather, rather than blindly following what it says on the calendar. Imagine a scenario where the weather is unseasonably warm in Chicago. A shop there might have a large amount of unsold coats in their storeroom. Using data analysis, experts can study the weather patterns and buying behaviour of consumers elsewhere, and act on it by moving the coats to where the demand lies.

H By cutting down on waste in this way, the course is not just responding to climate change, it is actively helping to reduce the problem. Businesses can increase their sales whilst reducing their carbon footprint, further evidence of the many real-life applications provided by the course.

Fashion Students Learn How to Weather the Storm

A Climate change is wreaking havoc worldwide. Flooding is causing devastation in Bangladesh, while parts of Australia are caught in the ‘the Big Dry’. They are experiencing one of the longest periods of drought in living memory. Alongside these global tragedies, there are other everyday effects of climate change, which, while they are less dramatic, can still have a devastating impact on people’s lives. One such problem is gripping the fashion industry, but today’s students are already learning how to solve it.

B The fashion industry is one which is particularly vulnerable to changes in the weather. When stores introduce their winter lines, they will have a large number of scarves and similar garments on sale. However, if their target market experiences a warm winter, many of these items will remain on the shelves. Conversely, a cool, damp summer can lead to a huge drop in sales of items such as shorts and T-shirts. Although they are not perishable goods like butter or meat, which can spoil over a period of time, the stores cannot just box these items up and leave them in store for next year. Fashion changes fast, and consumers want to see clothes that are new, not the previous season’s look. Thus unpredictable weather patterns can damage the profitability of clothing stores and even put them out of business.

C Like all investors, clothing stores and others involved in the supply chain are keen to achieve avoidance of risk. Risk is the unknown, events that take place without our foreknowledge. Yet the weather is a particularly random and unquantifiable phenomenon. As a result, one solution has been the development of ‘seasonless clothing’. The principle is to create clothing that can be worn at any time of the year so that what’s on the shelves will be unaffected by weird weather fluctuations. It certainly removes dependence on a nice summer or a frosty winter. Critics of this approach have pointed out that such seasonless clothing is only suitable for people who spend a great deal of their time in air-conditioned places around the world, where the temperature is always the same. Out on the street in drizzly Britain or scorching Spain, what is happening outside your window will have a greater impact on what you wear.

D If it is unrealistic to change the clothes to fit the market, another, more scientific approach is needed. This is why the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York (FIT) has introduced a new course entitled ‘Predictive Analytics for Planning and Forecasting’. The basic idea is to use case studies, data analysis, graphs and equations to predict what the future may hold. The course is geared more towards those with an interest in merchandising and marketing than the Institute’s former alumni, such as Calvin Klein, whose typical focus was in tailoring and fabrics, not computer spreadsheets.

E It may be argued that retailers have always had an eye on the future when ordering their stocks. A main clothing store will have its new swimwear line launched in spring in time for people’s summer holidays, since there is no point in trying to sell swimming costumes to people who are already out of town and on the beach. However, the FIT course moves the science of predicting the weather to a whole new level, one that could have huge repercussions for the health of the industry. It is hard not to be impressed.

F Instead of just looking back at the last year’s season, the students on the Predictive Analysis course observe longer-term trends. In a competitive marketplace, this can make the difference between success and failure, with the losers being those who just glance at the previous season’s highs and lows. Though there remains plenty of margin for error, correct predictions over a wide timescale mean that mistakes will be evened out in a way that cannot happen when taking an approach that uses ‘hit and miss’ to make the final call.

G One other aspect of their work is ‘de-seasonalising’. Predictive Analysis can help retailers respond to the reality of the weather, rather than blindly following what it says on the calendar. Imagine a scenario where the weather is unseasonably warm in Chicago. A shop there might have a large amount of unsold coats in their storeroom. Using data analysis, experts can study the weather patterns and buying behaviour of consumers elsewhere, and act on it by moving the coats to where the demand lies.

H By cutting down on waste in this way, the course is not just responding to climate change, it is actively helping to reduce the problem. Businesses can increase their sales whilst reducing their carbon footprint, further evidence of the many real-life applications provided by the course.

How Memory Creates Identity

Who are you? What is it that makes you, you? We are not merely a machine programmed by DNA. We also have a personality, a character, an identity. To a greater or lesser extent, that identity is created by what we have experienced in our lives. However, what we experience and what we remember are two different things. Modern research is now suggesting that our personal identity is created by our memory. The problem is that memory is not as trustworthy as we sometimes like to believe.

Memory is selective. The mind has a monitoring system. This effectively chooses which mental concepts to record and keep as memory. These memories tell us who we are. Not all memories are equal to the monitoring system, so it will select which experiences are the most relevant to be stored in this way. Naturally, these are most likely to be emotionally powerful ones. They may also be ones where we experience exciting and interesting moments, things we want to remember in the future.

Using these memories, our mind constructs a personal history. This personal history creates and reaffirms our self-image. The monitoring system will choose memories that fit our existing personal history, and possibly reject memories that don’t fit. For example, if we think of ourselves as a fun member of our social circle, it may choose not to retain a memory of a time when we were uncommunicative when out with friends. Not fitting the personal history, this event does not need to be stored alongside other memories.

Memory is fluid. It creates the identity that we have or that we need. Sometimes a person may take on a new role which requires different skills from a previous position. Perhaps a person may be promoted from being a member of a team to assuming a leadership role, responsible for guiding the work of others. In this case, the individual’s identity may alter as he or she thinks of himself or herself as a more decisive, responsible person. Thus the memories that the monitoring system chooses tend to become ones that reinforce this new identity, as we establish a new personal history. In addition, the mind will start to dig up events from the past that had previously been passed over simply to expand this revised personal history. In this case, our recently promoted person will remember moments when he or she had been called into performing leadership tasks, such as captaining a sports team at school.

It is possible to take these theories and use them to make positive change in our lives. For example, in 2018, the England football team surprised everyone, including themselves, by reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup. Part of the cause of their sudden success had been a greater reliance on team psychologist Dr Pippa Grange. Although Grange had been working with the team for some years, previously players had simply been notified that her services were available. Few took up the offer.

In 2018, new manager Gareth Southgate integrated Dr Grange’s work more intimately with his preparations for the tournament. Grange asked the players to express their hopes for the future and their fears. She also asked them to focus on their lives and previous achievements and discuss them together. This would strengthen their self-image and help them build on past success for the future.

By sharing their experiences, the intention was for the players to create their own personal narrative of who they are and where they are going in life. Owning their history means that they can control how they see their future. The success of this approach was evident on the pitch as the players put in much more consistent and effective performances.

Our mind creates our identity using our memories. Psychologists can show people which memories to use in creating this self-image, and have a major impact on how people live their lives, as shown by the work with the England team. If such success can be achieved with people who are already over-performers, such as elite athletes, the possibilities for people in other fields of life are limitless.

How Memory Creates Identity

Who are you? What is it that makes you, you? We are not merely a machine programmed by DNA. We also have a personality, a character, an identity. To a greater or lesser extent, that identity is created by what we have experienced in our lives. However, what we experience and what we remember are two different things. Modern research is now suggesting that our personal identity is created by our memory. The problem is that memory is not as trustworthy as we sometimes like to believe.

Memory is selective. The mind has a monitoring system. This effectively chooses which mental concepts to record and keep as memory. These memories tell us who we are. Not all memories are equal to the monitoring system, so it will select which experiences are the most relevant to be stored in this way. Naturally, these are most likely to be emotionally powerful ones. They may also be ones where we experience exciting and interesting moments, things we want to remember in the future.

Using these memories, our mind constructs a personal history. This personal history creates and reaffirms our self-image. The monitoring system will choose memories that fit our existing personal history, and possibly reject memories that don’t fit. For example, if we think of ourselves as a fun member of our social circle, it may choose not to retain a memory of a time when we were uncommunicative when out with friends. Not fitting the personal history, this event does not need to be stored alongside other memories.

Memory is fluid. It creates the identity that we have or that we need. Sometimes a person may take on a new role which requires different skills from a previous position. Perhaps a person may be promoted from being a member of a team to assuming a leadership role, responsible for guiding the work of others. In this case, the individual’s identity may alter as he or she thinks of himself or herself as a more decisive, responsible person. Thus the memories that the monitoring system chooses tend to become ones that reinforce this new identity, as we establish a new personal history. In addition, the mind will start to dig up events from the past that had previously been passed over simply to expand this revised personal history. In this case, our recently promoted person will remember moments when he or she had been called into performing leadership tasks, such as captaining a sports team at school.

It is possible to take these theories and use them to make positive change in our lives. For example, in 2018, the England football team surprised everyone, including themselves, by reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup. Part of the cause of their sudden success had been a greater reliance on team psychologist Dr Pippa Grange. Although Grange had been working with the team for some years, previously players had simply been notified that her services were available. Few took up the offer.

In 2018, new manager Gareth Southgate integrated Dr Grange’s work more intimately with his preparations for the tournament. Grange asked the players to express their hopes for the future and their fears. She also asked them to focus on their lives and previous achievements and discuss them together. This would strengthen their self-image and help them build on past success for the future.

By sharing their experiences, the intention was for the players to create their own personal narrative of who they are and where they are going in life. Owning their history means that they can control how they see their future. The success of this approach was evident on the pitch as the players put in much more consistent and effective performances.

Our mind creates our identity using our memories. Psychologists can show people which memories to use in creating this self-image, and have a major impact on how people live their lives, as shown by the work with the England team. If such success can be achieved with people who are already over-performers, such as elite athletes, the possibilities for people in other fields of life are limitless.