After the voting finished in the final Mock COP26 caucus the treaty and letter to world leaders were published. The press release is here. Don’t forget the MC26 YouTube channel which captures some of the activities that took place at the Mock COP.
.
Karine Polwart, Edinburgh street band Oi Musica, and the Soundhouse Choir produced Enough is Enough to mark the non-happening of COP26. The song’s lyrics embody a lament from a weary Mother Earth: “I give you all I have but you always want more. … Enough is enough, but it’s never enough . . .”. The song, filmed in woodland and Glasgow, has attracted zillions of views on Facebook and YouTube. It lasts 7 minutes 27 seconds.
.
This is a link c/o Ashden to a Yorkshire Times article about eco-ctivities at St Francis Xavier School in Richmond. It focuses on attempts to get the school’s MP, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to help students advance their plans to be a zero carbon school. You’ll see the letter the students wrote.
.
Have you come across Elephant Times? It’s a welcome resource from the work of the much-missed Teachers in Development Education: TIDE~. The first edition has an article by NAEE Executive Director, Nina Hatch.
.
Here’s a 20 question climate change quiz for you (and your students) in a multi-choice format. 15-17 correct answers looks like a good score given the wide-ranging nature of what’s covered. If you get a response wrong, you’re very helpfully given a link to a source for the information. It comes from Bedales School. Unhelpfully, perhaps, it’s labelled a Climate Change Ignorance Test.
.
The Marine Conservation Society is currently doing a review of its existing education resources in order to create new resources to meet the needs of teachers. The MCS wants teachers and educators to help in the education review, to provide their own perspectives on ocean education and literacy. We want to know what works, what’s missing and what your needs are. Please click on this link to complete our short online survey. Participants will be entered into a prize draw to win an ocean teaching pack for their school.
.
The UK in 100 seconds is a video tour of the UK where each second of the film is devoted to 1% of the country’s land: 9.3% for peat bog; 5&% for coniferous forest, etc, etc. It’s 2 minutes 19 seconds long, but the crucial information comes 2 minutes 18 seconds in where there’s a slide of UK land use stats. The video comes from Daniel Raven-Ellison via Friends of the Earth and would be good to use with students who can compare these stats with what is said. Corine Land Cover is the data source.
.
This week has seen a lot of coverage of the changes to UK agriculture because of our leaving the European Union. The Agriculture Act received royal assent on November 11th and will allow DEFRA to phase out per-hectare payments over the next seven years, and spend more on public goods such as natural systems and wildlife. DEFRA has pledged to keep the overall level of support constant during this parliament. Whilst many welcome the end of the Common Agriculture Policy [CAP], there is concern about what is to replace it, and the lack of available detail about the payment regime that will be put in place. This article by James Rebanks sets out some of these concerns, and this feature in The Economist sets the changes a wider context. That the CAP has been a disaster for wildlife and the environment more generally no one seems to dispute. A view from LEAF – Linking Environment and Farming – is here.
.
Are you interested in LfES and inspiring new teachers to engage with complex global issues? If so, there’s a facilitated online professional development course – fully funded and successfully piloted with ITE colleagues across the UK Change in Learning for Equity and Sustainability in ITE It’s on between 10 February – 24 March 2021 and led by Learning for Sustainability Scotland (LfS) and University of Edinburgh who say that the course responds to growing recognition of the need to inspire new teachers’ engagement with issues relevant to young peoples’ development in local and global contexts.
.
Plantlife has published a review of the year, promoting some of the more positive aspects of the last 12 months.
.
Saturday was World Soil Day and this year’s theme was soil biodiversity. Serpertine has a free online event with an artistic take on soil. This is a link to the soil are network.
.
How well do you know UK rodents? Do you, for example, know that there are six mice species, five of which are native? And can you always tell whether it’s a mouse, vole or shrew that’s crossed your path. If not, the Woodland Trust is here to help.