President - Dr Mary Rodgers
Treasurer - Richard Greenwood
Secretary Elect - Margaret McMullan
Email: Margaret McMullan
GA Belfast Branch
Contact
Programme
All lectures are held in the School of Geography QUB (except Decision Making on 7 December) and start at 7:30pm.
There are no events in the system for this Branch.
Past Event Report
Annual Spring Conference and Workshop - A Third Runway at Heathrow?
Around 80 sixth formers from nine different schools attended the Annual Spring Conference and Workshop organised by the Belfast Branch of the Geographical Association and held in the Central Building at Stranmillis.
The topic for debate was whether or not a third runway should be built at Heathrow Airport. Dr Patricia Warke from QUB and Dr Stephen Roulston from C2K gave introductory presentations covering atmospheric pollution caused by aircraft, the similar but smaller scale issue of an extension to the runway at Eglinton Airport, Londonderry, and the background to the Heathrow issue. It was stressed that there would be winners and losers at Heathrow - increased flight capacity and flexibility would bring economic benefits but also increased noise and atmospheric pollution, as well as the destruction of around 700 homes around the villages of Sipson and Harmondsworth.
The sixth formers were broken up into seven different interest groups, representing the TUC, the CBI, the owners of Heathrow and travel agents, as well as representatives of local residents and environmental groups. Using background material provided to them as well as access to the internet, they had to come up with arguments to support their positions and deliver them in a five minute group PowerPoint presentation.
Professor David Lambert, Chief Executive of the Geographical Association, travelled over especially for the event - he gave a reasoned summing up and presented prizes to the winning group.
<<< back to Branch list
Comment on this page
Comments made by GA members appear instantly - make sure you're logged in! Guest comments will be sent to a moderator for approval.
Current conversations
What our website visitors are talking about.