Nature Park – A recording is available of the of the 30-minute: Nature Park and Climate Awards teacher webinar (July 2023) in case you missed the broadcast. There is also a Teaser webpage ahead of its October 4th launch. Go to: Home | Education Nature Park.
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Do You See What I See? – NAAEE says join NASA educator Tina Harte-Ballinger for a webinar on October 3rd, exploring nature-based activities designed to harness the curiosity of young minds. Do You See What I See? provides a look at NASA’s nature-based explorations for young people that build upon their natural curiosity. “Putting a magnifying glass into the hands of young learners, providing them an opportunity to take a closer look at nature, and prompting them to verbalize what they see, hear, and feel are key components of these explorations. Each exploration is designed to capitalize upon the unique qualities of individual learners through the lens of equitable learning opportunities.” Details here.
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Challenges & Solutions – London’s Natural History Museum has a podcast series – Our Broken Planet. In this you can “hear from activists, scientists and those most affected as we unpack the challenges we face as well as the solutions that lie within our grasp.” The podcast, explores “the interconnected issues facing our planet and explore what we can do about them together.”
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Climate Curriculum – Teaching Times has professional development articles and resources for teachers and education leaders. There are also articles and blogs and a climate curriculum section.
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RCEs – A new publication from the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) features innovative education projects on the topic of sustainable consumption and production (SCP). It has been developed by Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development and features 12 projects from RCEs around the world that demonstrate the impact of multi-stakeholder community-based education on SCP. The projects, all focused on SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) cover a range of critical factors of SCP: resource efficiency, waste management and minimisation, and consumer behaviour.
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Saving Nature – Richard Gregory, UCL, writes in The Conversation about the recent state of nature report. This says that that wildlife populations continue to decline in the UK, which is one of the world’s most nature-deprived countries. Richard says that one in six UK species threatened with extinction. He writes about what we could lose and also about how to save them.
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Offshore Wind Doldrums – In an article in The Conversation, Phil McNally, who’s a Research Fellow in Electricity Markets at UCL ,explores problems in setting prices for off-shore wind farm developments. This begins: “In what many have deemed a disaster, the UK government’s latest auction for renewable power – an annual attempt to incentivise private sector investment in a range of power sources – has failed to bring forward any new offshore wind projects. Consequently, the government’s own target of achieving 50 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030 is hanging by a thread, and investor confidence has hit a new low. The UK’s rollout of offshore wind has been one of the few sustained successes the government could turn to in recent years. Supported by the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme – the shining star of the government’s low-carbon policy suite – the price of offshore wind has consistently fallen further than expected in each round of auctions.”
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Mega Solar – The largest European solar farm has begun generating electricity. The former rubbish dump in Ockenden, Essex, features more than 100,000 solar modules over 70 hectares, generating enough energy to power approximately 15,000 homes during daylight hours. The project has been designed so as not to disturb wildlife already on the land.
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Welcome Back – A butterfly thought to be extinct has returned to an area of Scotland after almost 100 years. The Northern Brown Argus was once found in abundance throughout the Ochil Hills, north of the Forth valley, but due to overgrazing and encroachment of scrub, was believed locally extinct in Stirlingshire and across much of its former range.
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UNESCO – You can now discover 58 unique UNESCO sites in the UK and our crown dependencies thanks to a newly illustrated map, now available for download from the UK National Commission for UNESCO. From expansive mountain ranges and stunning coastlines to vibrant cities and rural landscapes, the UK’s UNESCO sites are destinations of world-class natural and cultural heritage. For the first time a map, designed by Birmingham-based creative cartographer Tom Woolley, brings together all of the Biosphere Reserves, Creative Cities, Global Geoparks and World Heritage Sites across the British Isles. The new map includes 29 World Heritage Sites, 13 Creative Cities, 9 Global Geoparks and 7 Biosphere Reserves that cover 13% of the UK’s landmass. Most sites are free to enter and conveniently accessible by public transport, offering the public new experiences to discover UNESCO sites in the UK and mark this summer with a visit to one of the world’s most special places.
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Comparing Budgets – Net Zero: an analysis of the economic impact has been published by Civitas. The paper sets out to provoke discussion and inform debate on the likely costs of Net Zero. It also assesses the assumptions made by the government and the Climate Change Committee (CCC) in economic forecasts and budgets. It reckons that the probable costs will be at least £4.58tn, more than three times the CCC’s estimate of £1.3tn.
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Unstable Bananas – Antimatter is in the news this week after a CERN experiment explored whether it responds to gravity in the same way that everyday matter does. The experiment involved anti-hydrogen: a negatively charged proton and a positively charged electron (positron). Making this exotic stuff is surprisingly easy; stopping it reacting with matter in a burst of mutual annihilation is not. Even more surprisingly, perhaps, a banana emits ten positrons per second because it contains a small proportion of Potassium-40 an isotope that naturally emits positrons. And we emit them as well because of the potassium in our bodies (normally between 3.5 and 5 millimoles per litre – mmol/L – of blood). Happily, we manage to avoid being annihilated.
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Possums – If you want to see fetching pictures of Australian possums and other animals, just go to Paperbarkwriter. You don’t have to buy the tea towel.