Peat, Diesel and Seaweed - A Poetic Inquiry into the Green Transition in Northwest Highland Coastal Communities

if you lack all hope 

take good things from the past 

into the future 

This research project has aimed to find out how people in coastal communities in the NW Highlands feel about climate change and to explore their hopes for effective climate action. The project is a partnership between the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and the Northwest 2045 network of community organisations (hosted by Assynt Development Trust), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to run from 2023-5. The three topics of peatland restoration, marine diesel and seaweed were selected as the research focus because they are issues with significant carbon emissions and/or sequestration potential in our area, but all relatively under-discussed. They are also all mostly hidden and distinctively aromatic! 

The research began with a survey of local people, then involved interviews with local and regional experts on peat and marine diesel, plus creative workshops, particularly involving young people, on peat and seaweed. The research method is unusual as we take a creative approach – it’s a poetic inquiry, which means that words and phrases from survey responses, interview transcripts and workshop data have been used to write poems and other ‘poemish’ texts. The lead researcher is Dr Mandy Haggith, an Assynt-based writer who also teaches creative writing and literature at UHI.  

Summary of our findings 

• The starting point, revealed by the preliminary survey and reinforced in subsequent encounters, is that there is a deeply negative feeling around the issue of climate change and climate action, and a lack of hope, especially among young people.  

• Peat bogs excite wonder and curiosity. Peatland restoration is underway and has huge potential in our area to stop some land-based emissions and turn them into absorption, thus contributing to net zero aims, whilst restoring a special ecosystem and creating jobs for ecologists and digger drivers. The World Heritage listing of the Flow Country impacts the east of our area and could extend further in. This merits a skill-development focus. 

• Marine diesel is a major source of our emissions. The future of marine propulsion is renewable – electricity and hydrogen or ammonia – but our area is excluded from the main opportunities in this sector, despite huge potential. Offshore wind developments and their electricity transmission and hydrogen production will by-pass our harbours, only benefiting the northeast and east coast. This merits a campaign. 

• Seaweed is cool and could help us cool the planet - maybe a bit, anyway. Seaweed cultivation is being actively pursued by our communities and could offer some exciting opportunities. This merits ongoing monitoring, skill development and research support. 

• Time travel generates hope and the sea is a time machine – this is the main discovery of the project, resulting from the development of a creative workshop method involving imaginary time travel, which has repeatedly seemed to turn despairing participants into optimistic ones. This merits further research. 

• Poetry is a powerful tool for distilling and blending data (e.g. survey responses and interview transcripts) into more digestible forms and generating creative insights, and it can be shared at occasions like community events, thus transmitting research findings to people who would otherwise miss out.  

To find out more about the research methods, see here - https://www.mandyhaggith.net/peat-diesel-seaweed 

For more information, please contact Mandy.Haggith.ic@uhi.ac.uk, 07734235704