Early Days – Nadia Whittome MP recently presented Teach the Future’s Climate Education Bill in parliament, and there was a drop-in briefing for MPs, which you can read about here. Lots of MPs from across parties came to show their support, and there was good Twitter coverage. The second reading is due later this month and pressure is on the DfE from Teach the Future to implement its asks. In trying to gather further support from MPs for the Bill, Teach the Future needs your help. If you can, email your local MP asking them to sign the Early Day Motion. Just enter your postcode here and the software will provide a letter template you can use to write to your MP.
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Elephant Times – The latest edition of ET features articles from:
- Tim Brighouse … Should schools teach about climate change?
- Chris Berry … Putting sustainability at the heart of all we do
- Stephen Scoffham & Steve Rawlinson … Passionate about sustainability
- Güliz Karaarslan Semiz … Whole school approach to sustainability
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Teaching Teachers – If you click here you can see what Teach the Future’s Teach the Teacher programme does. Teach the Teacher is an international, youth-led workshop campaign bringing students into schools to talk to educators about climate change. The workshop explains what it is like to be a young person experiencing a climate emergency, what climate anxiety is, and how exploring climate action can help students turn their fear into power. Whether you’re a student, educator or on a school board, sign-up to receive further guidance and resources.
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Tracking Changes – Teach the Future’s Track Change [Curriculum for a Changing Climate] project has just announced new subject reports: English and modern foreign languages (MFL) curricula for KS3 and KS4. These highlight the range of opportunities for climate change and sustainability to be integrated into these subjects throughout secondary school. Full details of subjects are here.
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Exploring KS1 and KS2 – Join this webinar from The Harmony Project on March 16th to find out more about the teaching pack they’ve put together to help teachers explore the links between climate change and fossil fuels with their primary students. Click here to read more.
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7 Asks – Let’s Go Zero, the Ashden-led coalition campaign to make every UK school zero carbon by 2030, has seven policy actions for government. Click here to see how many it says have been reached. Over 2,000 school are taking part. Here are details of its IKEA-supported programme.
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Earthday 2023 – This is on April 22nd, and you can access a toolkit for taking action, register your event, or find nearby events to take part in online. Read more here.
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Dirt – The Dirt is Good project helps students aged 7-14 to take action on the social and environmental causes they care about, whilst working towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Click here to find out about what they day about Earth Day.
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EE 30 Under 30 – NAAEE has recently launched its EE 30 Under 30 call for nominations for the Class of 2023. This is an opportunity for young professionals around the world who demonstrate leadership while using environmental education. If you’re a young professional using environmental cal education or know someone who would be a great fit for the programme, please consider submitting a nomination. The deadline is March 29th. All information about the programme, including eligibility requirements and submission guidelines, can be found on the EE 30 Under 30 webpage.
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A B C – WWF (USA) says use its alphabet tools with learners in grades K-5 (age 4 to 10 over here) to enhance their vocabulary skills while learning about animals, habitats, and the importance of biodiversity. The Species ABCs flashcards (in landscape orientation) can be printed out double-sided, flipping along the short edge and cut to create individual cards. The Species ABCs PowerPoint displays the visual and fact as slides to go through with young learners.
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Living Planet – Every two years, WWF publishes The Living Planet Report – a thorough summary of the health of the natural world. In a forthcoming talk, WWF’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Rebecca Shaw, will explain the state of biodiversity around the planet and discuss what this means for climate change, the environment, and human health. She’ll also discuss what is contributing to biodiversity declines and what we can do to protect biodiversity for the future. You can register here.
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EIP 23 – The Government has published its Environment Improvement Plan. This is a revision to the 25-Year Environment Plan that was published in 2018. The new plan includes targets to restore 650km of English rivers, 500,000 hectares of wildlife habitat and create 25 new or extended National Parks. The plan also includes a species survival fund intended to support the recovery of endangered native species. There’s more detail here, and a DEFRA blog here.
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You won’t like this idea – Oil and gas companies are usually seen as climate villains as we know. But we shall need their expertise to make green hydrogen a reality argues Murray Shearer, from CQUniversity Australia, in The Conversation, adding: “You won’t like this idea”. Something for students to chew over.
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USD 1 trillion – Fossil fuel consumption subsidies soared in 2022 as market turmoil sent international fuel prices well above what was actually paid by many consumers. The International Energy Agency tracks fossil fuel subsidies, and its new report provides the first estimates for 2022, which show that subsidies doubled from the previous year to an all-time high of USD 1 trillion. This is in sharp contrast with the Glasgow Climate Pact which called on countries to “phase-out … inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, while providing targeted support to the poorest and most vulnerable”. Climate Action has more detail, and the full report is here.