Climate Action Awards – The Climate Action Awards will recognise schools and colleges that have brought about change at an institutional level, supporting their students in developing green skills, championing nature and working towards a sustainable future. This includes recognition of the work already underway in many education settings through existing awards and schemes that can be built upon over time. There will be several levels within the Climate Action Awards that recognise progression. More information on the Awards will be available in the autumn, and settings can take part from the spring term 2024. They launch on October 4th
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Voices from Environmental Education – A new publication which is co-produced with Masters and PhD students at King’s is available here. Published in July 2023, the essay collection shares a year-long project aiming to capture and distil some of the learnings and debates from the MA module ‘Environment, Sustainability and the Role of Education’ taught within the School of Education, Communication & Society.
Staff and students co-produced their environmental education-related research projects into digestible chapters and images to communicate new understandings beyond the gates of the university. The authors of the extended essays have previously been, or currently are, students exploring environmental education, either as part of the MA in STEM Education or as part of their PhD programme. All have participated in the ‘Environment, Sustainability and the Role of Education’ MA module, with the majority going on to complete their dissertation research projects in the area.
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Victorian School Legacy – Last week’s NAEE blogpost from David Dixon explores the problems of school buildings. It begins: The media and the political classes have become very agitated by the latest news on the Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (Raac) issue. This seems to be a classic case of a can being kicked down the road by successive governments for various financial and political reasons dating back many decades. However, this blog intends to ignore the recent ignominy being whipped up and to an extent created by media and opposition, because I feel there’s a bigger issue at large that relates to sustainability and this issue is beyond the realms of party politics, although not politics in general. It has a wider history that can throw additional light not only on Raac, but the short-termist outlook of aspects of our unsustainable culture.
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Communicate 2023 speakers –The Communicate conference returns from the 14th to the 16th of November, with a diversity of speakers from a wide range of sectors and industries. To help us get to know this year’s speakers, there’s a collection of their material to read, watch and listen to. You can read speakers’ videos, talks and podcasts here.
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Ofsted Reviews – Ofsted has published three more subject reviews: geography, PE and music. These identify areas of strength and development potential in how the subjects are taught. Each shows that there is still scope for improvement if students are to benefit from their studies. NAEE is currently carrying out its own expert (Ofsted-style) review of environmental education.
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Green Mentoring – Check out the US Green Mentors program(me). This is a “non-government responsible education solution provider organization with special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)”. It is also a partner of UNESCO’s Greening Education Partnership: getting every learner “climate-ready”.
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Keeping Scotland Beautiful – It’s Climate Action Week in Scotland. This year it will focus on examples of the people and actions that are helping Scotland move towards becoming a net zero nation with restored biodiversity by 2045.
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Inter Climate – The InterClimate Network (IN) is working with Birmingham City Council to offer a UN-style COP28 climate conference for secondary schools. The conference will be held in the Council Chambers on Wednesday 6 December and will:
- Enhance critical climate thinking and bring the ‘real world’ global climate negotiations to life as they represent 16 nations as at COP28 in Dubai.
- Investigate local climate action and what more can be done in our schools and communities.
This is free to schools, and suited to Years 8-13, places are limited (max of 16 teams with 4 per team) so register your interest asap: schools@interclimate.org
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Eco Anxiety – Polling for Triodos Bank says that more than 50% of UK adults are concerned about what is happening to the planet. One in six people say they have eco-anxiety (defined as distress caused by climate change where people are becoming anxious about the future), with one in three 18-34 year olds saying this. Happily 75% say that they have already taken action to reduce their environmental impact.
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Rivers Day – World Rivers Day was on Sunday, September 24 with more than 100 countries participating across 6 continents, in what has become one of the planet’s biggest environmental celebrations. Organisers say that the types of river-related celebrations and events that can take place are limited only by our imagination.
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Grassland Action – Plantlife believes that positive action, such as their Grassland Action Plan, to restore 10,000 hectares of species-rich grassland and its commitment to a peat-free future, can make real change for people and nature alike. It says that protecting and restoring plants, fungi and the landscapes they thrive in is a vital part of the solution for a greener and sustainable future.
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Missed Deadlines – Governments around the world have missed deadlines for submitting or updating their plans for tackling climate change more than half of the time over the last decade, according to analysis by IIED, published as the United Nations prepared to convene last week’s Climate Ambition Summit in New York. Here’s the press release.
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Ants – Maximillian Tercel, from Cardiff University, says that invasive ants are a major threat to biodiversity in an article for The Conversation. His article begins: Invertebrates are often described by experts as the “little things that run the world”, and ants are certainly one of the top contenders for this role. Ants help ecosystems to function normally and the total weight of all ants on Earth is roughly equivalent to 1.4 billion people, or 33 Empire State Buildings. Unfortunately, some ants have become invasive species – organisms transported to a new ecosystem that cause damage. These introductions typically happen accidentally by people but can have dire consequences, as my team’s new research shows.