2019-08-10_The_Week_Junior_UK

People

10 August 2019•The Week Junior 9

F

or Iain Cameron, almost every day isasnow

day.Hespends his free time hunting for the

white substanceand climbs the mountains of

Scotland every year tokeep track of howfast

the snow at the top has melted.

Cameron’ssnow hunting started at an

early age. When hewasnine, hisfamily

moved toanew house nearPort Glasgow

in Scotland, wherethey hadaview of the

mountain BenLomond. Around the end of

March, Cameron spottedapatch of snow at

the top of the mountain that hadn’t melted

yet. He becamefascinated by it and made

anote in his diary on the day that it finally

disappeared. This simple act became the start

of alifetime’swork.

Now,att he age of 46,

Cameron goes onregular

walksupthe mountains

of Scotland tokeep

track of how long the

snow has lasted.

His findings areused

by the Royal

Meteorological Society

(an organisation studying

the scienceofweather) and have been used to

track changes in thecountry’sclimate.

Cameron’sresearch has shown that since

1840 –when recordswerefirst kept –snow

has disappeared from the whole of Scotland’s

mountains just six times, and half of these

times have occurred since2000. Cameron told

theinewspaper,“This year,again, itcould be

touch and go for anything (any snow)

surviving (not melting).”

Although Cameron doesn’t makemoney

from hunting snow,hehas found lots of

climbing kit on his travels.“One of thecaps I

still use, it must have been brand new when it

blew off the top of the person’shead,”hesays.

However,hedidn’t start snow hunting to

help researchers or to get free hats.

ining why he does it,

e says,“I just find it

interesting”.There’s

no chanceofhim

getting bored either,

as Cameron points out

at even if you go year

year ,“The snow never

ame waytwice.”

IainCameronturnedachildhoodcuriosityintoalifelongpassion.

Thesnowhunter

IAIN CAMERON

·PSIGRIST/CC-B

Y-SA-4.

Lord JimKnight

Theformeractorhasdevotedhis careertohelpingteachers.

BECOMING ME

Becoming meis created in partnership with Dr Ger

Graus OBE, Global Director of Education, Kidzania.

If youhadto draw your li

line, what would it look like?feas a

Describe yourself in

three words.

Educator,politician, optimist

(someone who thinks

positively about things).

Who do you love?

My family and Claudia –

my partner–most of all.

As achild, who did you

want to be likeand why?

Fred Astaire(af amous

dancer,singer and film star).

One dayIwill learn to tap

dance, althoughIwill ever

be amatch for him!

When you were11, what

did you dream of doing?

Beingafilm star.

What do you do now?

Chief education adviser at

TES (an organisation

that supports teachers

and schools);member of

the House ofLords;

chairperson ofadigital

technology charity.

How did you get there?

As achild Iappeared for six

months in the musicalOliver!

in London. In my final year at

university,Istartedatheatre

company.Iwent on to run

theatres untilIbecame so

angry with politicians that I

decidedIshould get elected

myself.Ifirst got elected as a

local councillor,then became

the Mayor of Frome, in

Somerset, and eventually an

MP (Member ofParliament)

for Dorset South. Nine years

later,having been the

Government’sminister for

schools,Ilost the election

and wasoffered a

permanent placeint he

House ofLords. This is not

full-time, and after doing

anumber of jobs,Ifinally

ended up back with my

passion for education

by working for TES.

What do you love about

what you do?

Isupport the most important

profession for the world –

teaching.Ateacher’sjob

is tough but vital.

What areyou doing

today?

Sitting on the main island of

Orkney looking out at the

Atlantic Ocean.

“My motto is

be clear,be

kind andkeep

listening.”

r

g

p

Expla

h

th

after y

melts the sa

DIDYOU

(S)KNO

W?

TheCairngorms in Sc

otland is

the snowies

tplaceint

he UK.

It gets an

average

of^76 .2 days

ofsnowe

achyea

r.

Iain Cameron on the mountain

Ben Macdui, in Scotland.