Cape Wrath & Farewell

My 500 mile coach trip finishes by winding its way round the deep lochs and windswept rocks of Cape Wrath, on the North-Western tip of mainland Scotland. I am here to visit my friends Phil Knott and Jenny Grant, Scottish Wildlife Trust rangers on the island of Handa. The ferry boat heads to the southern shore fringed with seaweed strewn rocks, before turning into a cove, where a white powder beach appears. Crossing heathland, the gradient climbs and the sea breezes become more pronounced. The sting of ammonia in your nostrils, and the shrieks and calls reach you before the ground tumbles towards the sea, and the view out to the horizon is obscured by thousands of pairs of wings. Thus is revealed the importance of the island as a breeding and nesting colony for Puffins, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Fulmars and Giant and Arctic Skuas.

Phil counts guillimots on Handa's Great Stack

The SWT manage the island as a nature reserve, eradicating introduced rats in 1997, inviting tourists to view the colony, and studying the breeding populations each summer. In May, the roost sites of parents along the cliffs are noted, and the fledging of chicks is monitored until the nests are empty by mid September. Data collected this year revealed that productivity is up on previous years. However, long term results show that the numbers of seabirds on the island are declining. This trend is thought to be driven by changes in the Climate. A rising sea temperature has driven glass eel populations towards cooler polar waters, leaving the coasts of Scotland devoid of a food source not only for seabirds, but also for the Cod which has sustained the local economy.

Climate Change is an issue which has captured our global community in recent years, given its fatal predictions for our future livelihoods. Daily reports of rising sea levels, cataclysmic extinctions, and predicted climate refugees filled the newspapers in the lead up to the COP15 talks in Copenhagen in 2009. But alongside this ran the inevitable politic of international governments, fraudulent academia and forced guilt of the green NGOs so that by the time the wave of publicity had subsided, the general public were left with a bitter taste of patronising rhetoric in their mouths. The gargantuan challenge of facing up to our impact on the climate remains, and whilst progress is being made, most people understandably prefer the "ignorance is bliss" approach.

In 2001, just as the issue was beginning to boil over, artist David Buckland created the Cape Farewell project, a collective of scientists, artists and communicators who aim to bring about long term cultural attitudes towards climate change. The collective takes part in regular expeditions to collect scientific data on the shrinking of the icecaps and other receding habitats, with invited artists (including Rachel Whiteread, Daro Montag) musicians (Feist, Jarvis Cocker, Martha Wainwright) and writers (Ian McEwan, Vikram Seth, Yann Martel) to culturally reflect on the changes in the landscapes. The video piece above accompanied a live choral performance at the Eden Project, created by Beth Derbyshire and Cape Farewell, with the aim of exploring nations, landscapes and identities soon to be lost as the ice melts.

Like me, this years expedition headed north to the highland isles on a marine mammal research vessel, in order to explore the impact of climate change on island cultures and ecologies, and investigate stewardship projects which are revitalising the relationship between communities and their contexts.You can find out more on their website. The use of art to create a cultural shift in attitudes to the loss of habitats such as the Scottish islands represents a brave attempt to engage the wider public, who may otherwise be sick of institutionalised spoon feeding.