Kenneth Thomson – författare

This book assesses the regional territorial impact of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Rural Development Policy (RDP), asking the question of how far these are compatible with objectives of territorial cohesion across the enlarged European Union. It considers both the incidence of CAP expenditure and producer subsidy equivalents across NUTS3 regions, and the impact of current CAP reforms, through detailed statistical analysis and case studies. It also assesses how far the CAP is consistent with the goals of European Union policy, as set out in the European Spatial Development Perspective. It concludes with proposals for policy reform and attempts to highlight good practice in rural development.

12,000 years ago the area that now forms the southern North Sea was dry land: a vast plain populated by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. By 5,500 BC the entire area had disappeared beneath the sea as a consequence of rising sea levels. Until now, this unique landscape remained hidden from view and almost entirely unknown. The North Sea Palaeolandscape Project, funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, have mapped 23,000 km2 of this “lost world” using seismic data collected for mineral exploration. "Mapping Doggerland" demonstrates that the North Sea covers one of the largest and best preserved prehistoric landscapes in Europe. In mapping this exceptional landscape the project has begun to provide an insight into the historic impact of the last great phase of global warming experienced by modern man and to assess the significance of the massive loss of European land that occurred as a consequence of climate change.