An unwelcome CO2 milestone – The Met Office is predicting that the annual average CO2 concentration will be 416.3 parts per million (ppm) between April and June 2021. This will be 50% higher than 278 ppm that existed in the late 18th century when the industrial revolution began. The Met Office says that It took more than 200…
Ben Ballin reviews The World We’ll Leave Behind – Grasping the Sustainability Challenge by William Scott and Paul Vare; publisher Routledge. ISBN 9781783537730 The foreword to this encyclopaedic book sets the bar high: this is to be a brief introduction to the chief environmental and social challenges facing the world, the key ideas underpinning them…
Doing this often turns out to be a mug’s game, but it is important to try; how else are we to plan a low-carbon future? Over the last few years, we have featured a number of posts from Netherlands blogger, Roy Rovers – see this for example. In a pre-Christmas post, Rovers shared his thoughts…
Dirt is Good – Global Action Plan has partnered with Unilever/Persil UK on their Dirt is Good project and is launching a piece of research on Feb 2nd ahead of the roll out of a brand new schools programme. The research investigates the ‘Values-Perception Gap’ problem, looking at when it starts to show-up, its implications for young people…
Today’s blog is the latest in a series from Richard Jurin who, before his retirement, ran the Environmental Studies programme at the University of Northern Colorado, launching a degree in Sustainability Studies. His academic interests are environmental worldviews and understanding barriers to sustainability. As ever, with our blogs, Richard’s views are not necessarily shared by…
Teach the Future – Anna Brown argues that it’s been a great year for the Teach the Future campaign, especially for our new nations and international groups. For example: “Teach the Future has become a major stakeholder in the Fridays for Future Europe climate education forum. It sends 8 representatives to work on campaigns and demand…
In the USA, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) and the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund (TFNEF) looked at how each US state science standards for public schools addressed climate change. These standards identify the basic information and skills students are expected to master in their courses of study. They guide the content of…
Student’s views on sustainability – A report from Students Organising for Sustainability details their 2019-20 research into Higher and Further Education student’s views on sustainability in their education settings. Only 36% of respondents say that understanding how human activity is affecting nature has been covered during their time in higher education so far, but 70% agree that…
Today’s post is by Dr Karen Kerr, a previous science teacher and now lecturer in education at Queen’s University Belfast. Karen teaches future science teachers and is involved in research in outdoor learning and environmental education, with a specific focus on researching with children and young people. Karen is also a member of the Education for Sustainable Development Forum…
Goodbye to 2020 – Last year is perhaps not one that we shall want to recall with much fondness, but it’s worth remembering that not all the news was gloomy. Future Crunch has set out a collection of global good news stories including these: – [i] all six major US banks have now ruled out…