IUCN Webinar – On Monday (July 31st), the monthly IUCN webinar is an update on the DfE Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy presented by Dr Laura Soul and Dr Jade Gunnell. Sign on details here c/o Eventbright.
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Spark of Active Citizenship – Young Citizens has a vision of a society where people are empowered to shape their communities and institutions to enable a thriving democracy. To achieve this, it provides learning experiences that create a “spark of active citizenship for children and young people”.
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Empowering Students – Clare Cunningham, York St John University, Catherine Heinemeyer, York St John University, and Jude Parks, York St John University say that getting involved in collaborative projects can help students feel they can make a difference. Their The Conversation article is: The climate crisis leaves students feeling helpless – what universities can do to empower them
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UKSSN – The UK Schools Sustainability Network brings together networks of students to connect and collaborate on issues they care about, fully supported by school staff. It’s hosted by Global Action Plan. UKSSN’s latest news is here and you can break this down into regions. For example, here’s details from the North.
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Award Redesign – The John Muir Trust is setting out to extend its reach to a greater number of people and communities across the UK to further build awareness, experience and understanding of the many and varied benefits a connection to wild places can bring. They are looking for help to redesign a vital part of the Award.
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ESD News – Unesco has published its latest ESD Newsletter. There’s news of webinars, conferences, resources, stories of ‘ESD in Action’, and more.
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Intellectual Adventure – Click here to read about the New School of the Anthropocene. This London-based initiative says that it offers an alternative higher education that will “seek to reinstate the intellectual adventure and creative risk that formerly characterised arts education before the university system capitulated to market principles and managerial bureaucracy”. It says that it will explore radical new possibilities – that are affordable, flexible, transparent – for non-residential degree-level education, and explore how higher education can shift away from reproducing the destructive practices of the present.
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Tools for the Job – There is a new Global Schools Online Toolkit to support practitioners, policymakers, and researchers in creating or adapting curriculum on sustainable development, as well as integrating this curriculum into national priorities.
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Helping Nature – The Woodland Trust says that wildlife needs a helping hand and their latest blog offers top tips on how your outdoor space (in schools, homes, etc) can make a difference, whatever its size.
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Powerful Pledge – Time reports that the eight South American countries that make up the Amazon rainforest have pledged to end its illegal deforestation by 2030. Spurred on by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s own national target, which has, according to Aljazeera, already seen deforestation rates decline, it is the most ambitious international plan yet to protect the rainforest.
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Restoring Nature – Six nature recovery schemes have been launched by Natural England, covering 176,000 hectares of land from the Tees Estuary to the South Downs. They build on five similar projects announced in May last year and will protect nesting birds such as nightjars and Dartford warblers, amphibians such as the great crested newt, and marine life such as the short-snouted seahorse.
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Reversing Red – This a global movement aimed at raising awareness of the work being done to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss and ensuring the survival of wild species and ecosystems. The initiative brings together a coalition of scientists, advocates, and partners who use data-driven and science-based approaches to plan and act for species conservation. The Red List is the world’s most comprehensive list and is organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There are also other more localised red lists, such as the Great British Red List as reported by the JNCC – Joint Nature Conservation Committee – the only statutory nature advisor to all four parts of the UK.
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Favourite Spot – Discover Wildlife celebrated BBC Wildlife’s 60th birthday, by asking 60 conservationists, writers, presenters and photographers to share their favourite places for wildlife in the UK. The results were then put to a public vote and the Top 10 decided in a YouGov poll. The winner was the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland. Details here.
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Counting Down – The Big Butterfly Count is a nationwide citizen science survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment. It was launched in 2010 and the 2023 event ends on 6th August. All the counts can be viewed on the interactive map. Details here.