NAEE is now, along with a growing number of others, is a formal supporter of Teach the Future. ∫∫∫
The UKSCN has a page of helpful advice for students planning action on November 29th. It says:
The UK Student Climate Network draws a lot of inspiration from the ideas and campaigning of Swedish 16 year old climate activist Greta Thunberg. The movement she founded, Fridays for Future, refers to how she strikes every Friday to protest the lack of effective climate legislation on a governmental level. Thanks to Greta, students throughout Europe now regularly strike on Fridays. Below is a step by step guide on how you can join #FridaysforFuture
- STEP 1 Learn about Greta and #FridaysforFuture
- STEP 2 Get permission
- STEP 3 Take action ∫∫∫
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Here’s a link to a BioSciences article: World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency. It begins:
“Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it like it is.” On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.
Exactly 40 years ago, scientists from 50 nations met at the First World Climate Conference (in Geneva 1979) and agreed that alarming trends for climate change made it urgently necessary to act. Since then, similar alarms have been made through the 1992 Rio Summit, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and the 2015 Paris Agreement, as well as scores of other global assemblies and scientists’ explicit warnings of insufficient progress (Ripple et al. 2017). Yet greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are still rapidly rising, with increasingly damaging effects on the Earth’s climate. An immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis (IPCC 2018). …”. ∫∫∫
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The Ashden Less CO2 programme works by engaging pupils and the wider school community to integrate sustainability into school culture. There are workshops on buildings, behaviour change and incorporating clean energy into the curriculum. Ashden says that LESS CO2 reduces energy consumption, lowers bills and educates the next generation on the importance of sustainability. It focuses on ways to integrate energy and carbon savings, making our schools more sustainable through simple behavioural changes and retrofits. ∫∫∫
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The Wildlife Trusts are urging us to take action for insects. They say:
“Habitat loss and chronic exposure to pesticides, are two of the major causes of this looming catastrophe. In a report just published, Professor Dave Goulson, summarises some of the best available evidence of insect loss and proposes actions that must be taken to recover their diversity and abundance.” …
“Insects are dying out up to 8 times faster than larger animals and 41% of insect species face extinction. In the last fifty years, we have reduced the abundance of wildlife on Earth dramatically. One of the biggest casualties and one that is least talked about is the devastating loss of insects. Today we are asking you to help us to stop this catastrophic loss of insects by signing up to Take Action for Insects.” ∫∫∫
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#TeachTheFuture says it is working hard to make sure it reaches parliamentary candidates and to get its demands into manifestos so that whoever forms the next government knows that education is key to solving the climate and ecological crisis.
They will be re-launching their petition reached after the election, and asking for our support. In the meantime, it says, the most important thing we must do is speak with local candidates about Teach the Future.
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Attend a local candidates’ meeting or event and ask a question related to Teach the Future
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Write an email to your local candidates
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Tweet your local candidates or party leaders asking them to support Teach the Future ∫∫∫
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Global Action Plan and Reboot the Future are meeting on Friday (it’s Black Friday) to develop their work on values and explore what they offer environmental education. They note:
“Is a values revolution key to solving youth anxiety and climate breakdown? The recent surge of attention on the climate crisis poses a huge opportunity for sustainability educators in building youth engagement and action. However, it also risks students feeling overwhelmed and anxious by the scale and urgency of the challenge. Young people are left with the struggle to reconcile the values clash of a climate conscious lifestyle with mainstream narratives celebrating looks, likes and shopping.
As sustainability educators how can we come together to nurture values that are beneficial to all our causes? What steps could we take to counter the drivers of individualism and our consumerist culture, as epitomised by Black Friday? How can we apply insights from a values-led approach into meaningful changes to sustainable education and the wider education system?”
At this meeting there will be a range of experts – psychologists, academics and values and environmental education practitioners – contributing on these questions. A possible outcome is a joint funding bid to explore this important area. ∫∫∫
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Click here to read the latest UNESCO ESD newsletter. Features include:
- Youth & policymakers get together in New York to discuss education for climate action
- Building teachers’ capacity in Southern Africa
- The #VirtualGandhiMarch campaign
- ESD for SDGs: Resource bank for educators
- Teaching tools for Climate Education
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Here is link to Slack – the London Schools Eco-Partnership which says:
rimarily for staff sustainability reps from schools of all types (state, independent, primary, secondary) across London to share news, ideas and resources. However, we welcome input from those beyond London too for broader sharing of initiatives and tips. For school staff only, not for parents or students, and open to some reps from environmental education organisations. With channels for separate topics like energy, waste, travel etc., also for general discussion and sharing resources. Many of the London-based members will meet face-to-face for the first time on 28th November. If you join, please say a few words about yourself in the #Introductions channel.” ∫∫∫
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Plantlife asks: Did you participate in the Every Flower Counts earlier this year?
All together, the flowers in 4,950 individual square metre quadrats were counted in the survey. That’s an area equivalent to 1.2 acres that you’ve examined in detail on your hands and knees. And this was often patient and meticulous work; over 500 of you counted more than 100 daisies in your quadrats and 9 people counted more than 1000!
The preliminary results show that …
- Daisies are by far the most common lawn flower, followed by white clover and then selfheal
- But while daisies dominate in May, by July white clover has taken over
- Most of the nectar produced by our lawns comes from white clover
The full results are available in in April 2020. ∫∫∫
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Advance notice of FutureFest festival in 2020. This will be themed around the environment, innovation, the future of education and how to build a survival kit for the future. Confirmed speakers so far include eco activist and columnist George Monbiot, Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook and women’s rights activist and author Elif Shafak. There will also be debates, immersive experiences, comedy, music and art installations exploring different future scenarios. ∫∫∫