Green Steel – With funding from the steel industry, NAEE has produced a freely-available resource for chemistry and science teachers which explores what steel-makers across the globe are doing to find low-carbon and zero-carbon routes to steel in the face of global warming and climate change. Currently, the global steel industry uses 8% of the world’s energy and generates 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions (2020 data). Manufacturing steel without these emissions – to produce ‘green steel’ – is an important industrial priority and a great challenge if we are to reach net zero. After an Introduction, the resource has four sections:
- Reducing carbon dioxide emissions with green steel – this sets the context for the transition to green(er) steel
- Iron and steel in the curriculum – this explores where and how iron and steel feature in the UK school curriculum
- Making steel: using carbon as a reductant – this sets out an up-to-date picture of how most steel is currently produced across the world
- Making steel: alternatives to carbon as a reductant – this explores using natural gas and hydrogen as reductants, the extent to which these are currently used, and the challenges in expanding their use
You can read it here.
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Excluded Young People – As we know, despite their being important agents of climate action – with new ideas, perspectives, and solutions – young people are often excluded from climate decision making. An IIED study commissioned by World Vision Ireland explores the barriers young people face and their solutions to overcoming them. Details are in this blog by Sarah McIvor.
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Big Schools Birdwatch – The Big Garden Birdwatch is running again this January – from the 27th to the 29th. Details are here. If your school want to get involved, there’s a Big Schools Birdwatch. Details here.
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Cutting Carbon – Eco-Schools is asking schools to participate in a campaign to reduce their carbon emissions through a few simple actions. Cut Your Carbon runs from the 6th to the 10th of February and is a national week of action, inspiring pupils to raise awareness and cut the carbon footprint of their school. Details are here. You can find out more about the difference schools can make through the programme in Eco-Schools’ 2022 impact report.
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PGCert –-Chester Zoo is developing a programme for schools. Launching in 2023, the Conservation and Sustainability Education PGCert aims to provide educators with the knowledge and skills needed to help learners maximise the impact they can have in carving a better future for the planet.
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Balance and Support – WWF’s Learn to Love Nature campaign is full of resources to use with students of all ages to support learning about biodiversity and how ecosystems maintain balance and support life. You can read more here.
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Teaching Teachers – Students Organising for Sustainability UK is one of 3 charities supported by the OVO Foundation to deliver climate action. The support will enable SOS-UK to scale up its Teach the Teacher work during 2023.
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Change for Climate – The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has launched a free circular economy learning resource — Change for Climate — designed to inspire and mobilise 13 to 18 year old students in Africa. The one-hour lesson plan, for educators to use in a classroom setting, includes an introduction to the circular economy, examples of the circular economy in action across the continent, and a design challenge — with a prize for the winning entry. Details here.
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More than Conservation – The Ellen MacArthur Foundation also says that, today, more than 90% of biodiversity loss is due to the extraction and processing of natural resources, and that to halt and reverse this loss, we need to fundamentally transform the way we produce, use, and consume our products and food. It says that conservation and restoration efforts alone – crucial though they are – will not be enough. With COP15 now ended in Montreal, the Foundation offers ways of learning how the circular economy offers a framework for such a transformation. You can also explore examples of projects aiming to boost biodiversity:
- Food by-products as a safe alternative dye
- A solid paste alternative to nut milk cartons
- Continuous cover forestry to retain habitats
- Urban planning that safeguards nature
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Biodiversity Tops – Guardian writers have chosen their selection of the top biodiversity books they recommend reading, covering issues from animal extinction to marine degradation and loss of habitat. You can read more about them here.
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Communicating about Communicating – The final recordings from Communicate 2022 are now available:
- Opening Plenary: Putting Nature at the Heart of the Conversation
- The State of Direct Activism
- Environmental Communications and the Cost of Living Crisis
- Wild Isles and the People’s Plan for Nature
- Closing Session: Amplifying Awareness, Focusing Action
- When Nature Sets the Communications Agenda
- Tackling Eco-anxiety: Behind the Scenes of www.holdthis.space
- Involving Young People in Conservation Decision-Making
- In Our Hands: Behaviour Change for Climate and Environmental Goals
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30 by 30 – At COP15, the UK government announced funding for a 30by30 target. £30 million will support developing countries to protect least 30% of the world’s land and ocean habitats by 2030. The target has the support of over 100 countries globally.
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Badger Terror – Masked gangs have been hunting badgers in Norwich, filming the animals’ deaths to post on social media. A report by the Wildlife and Countryside Link found an increasing number of teenagers were attacking the wild animals to gain online status.
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Land Management – Defra has announced that farmers will receive increased payments for protecting nature and producing food sustainably under the Environmental Land Management schemes. In a speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, farming minister Mark Spencer announced the additional money, saying that it would “ensure farmers are not out of pocket for doing the right thing by the environment.” The NFU has warned that the increased payments could be “too little too late” given the rising cost of food production, and the Wildlife Trusts has said that the announcement is not ambitious enough.