Goodbye 2021 – You can see SOS-UK’s review of the year on YouTube. They say: “From ethical finance to sustainable food, from fuel poverty to ESD, from wellbeing to youth-led campaigns and more, we’ve reached hundreds of thousands of people. We’re looking forward to continuing our work towards environmental justice through education in 2022.”
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Partnerships Policy – SOS-UK believes in supporting students and society to learn, act on and lead for environmental justice, creating a more sustainable and fair society for all. As part of this – and in response to some questionable, greenwashing corporate partnerships – it has applied its values to policy. Here is their newly published partnerships policy.
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Climate Ready? – UNESCO has a new report: Getting every school climate-ready: how countries are integrating climate change issues in education. It’s here.
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ESD Prizes – You can read here about UNESCO’s reflections on a year that “mobilized global momentum for the transformation of education so learners are empowered to act for sustainable development, address the climate crisis and build a better future for all”. This includes details of the three winners of the 2021 UNESCO-Japan prize from Ghana, Palestine and Peru.
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Young People’s Activism – The latest research digest from the Children and Nature Network has a focus on children and climate change activism. It says that “both children and the climate change action movement can benefit when children are actively involved in the process. Factors motivating and/or supporting children as environmental activists are perhaps less understood than factors influencing adults.” You can access it here.
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Place Changers – Young Placechangers, which is organised by greenspace Scotland, has used a co-production approach to develop and pilot a training and support programme, enabling young people to transform both the place they live, their relationship to it and the wider community. The Young Placechangers Toolkit has been put together to help young people get involved in place discussions and decisions.
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Nature’s Good for You – Marc Harris from Cardiff Metropolitan University wrote an article for the Conversation on how children at urban schools can benefit from learning in nature. He says: “Children flourish when they learn in nature. It can improve their health,attention capacity and social skills. The enriching experience of outdoor learning can also lead to significant improvements in children’s mood and wellbeing, which last through the academic year.” The full article is here.
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Tree Design – The Trees and Design Action Group brings together individuals, professionals, academics and organisations from wide ranging disciplines in both the public and private sectors to improve knowledge and good practice to support the role of urban trees through better collaboration in the planning, design, construction and management and maintenance of our urban places. More detail here.
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Outdoor Learning Ideas – Click here to see the latest teaching resources – from measuring trees to worm charming – that are available from Learning through Landscapes.
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SDG Evaluation – In a new podcast mini series, IIED, the German Institute for Development Evaluation, and EvalSDGs (a network of development institutions, policymakers and practitioners), discuss the challenges of assessing progress against the SDGs. In episode one, IIED hosts a discussion about the principles, practice and challenges of Adaptive evaluation: considering climate risks in theory and practice
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Intangible Heritage – Truffle hunting has been awarded recognition by Unesco in its Intangible Cultural Heritage convention. The UK is not a member despite having a wide range of cultural traditions.
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The Slaughter Continues – Rhino horn is prized as an ingredient in some traditional Asian medicine. This explains why poaching is still rife across southern Africa. The charity, Outraged South African Citizens Against Poaching, reported that 23 rhinos were poached in 36 hours in early December.
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Indian Ocean Red-tailed Tropicbirds – The calls of endangered birds got into the top 10 in the music charts in Australia before Christmas. Songs of Disappearance featured recordings of 53 species nearing extinction. PhD student, Anthony Albrecht, used the project to raise awareness of Australia’s threatened species.
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Coal News – The Future Crunch December newsletter reported that Portugal has shut down its last coal-fired power plant, nine years ahead of its 2030 target. Belgium quit coal in 2016, and Austria and Sweden followed suit in 2020 – and that India has achieved its target of having 40% of installed electricity powered by non-fossil fuel energy sources. Energy, mainly from renewables and a small amount of nuclear sources, generates 157 (out of 391) GW of the country’s electricity.
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