Peers for the Planet – Lord Knight of Weymouth has introduced an Education (Environment and Sustainable Citizenship) Bill into the House of Lords. This aims to “make provision in the national curriculum regarding sustainable citizenship and protection of the environment.” You can track its progress here. Lord Knight came 6th in the ballot for private members’ bills in the Lords. The DfE has not yet commented on the proposal. Teach the Future says that it is similar to much of what it put in its own proposed Climate Emergency Education Act in 2019. SEEd has been working with Peers for Planet to support this initiative. Our Chair of Trustees explores the Bill here and wonders what the DfE’s attitude will be.
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The Sustainability of Schools – Teach the Future says that the Department for Education has established a sustainability unit, with a remit for operational and educational sustainability, and that they are working on a strategy for consultation. It’s possible that this might have just as much significance as Lord Knight’s attempt to change the national curriculum, but we can’t find a link to this initiative on the government website.
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Votes for Students – In the run up to COP26, Votesforschools is working with UNICEF UK to explore climate change with children and the effect on their rights. There is going to be a free package of resources to support debate at Primary, Secondary and 16+, and a chance for young people to vote and comment on the question; ‘Will climate change affect children’s rights?‘ The aim is to get 100,000 children’s voices heard at the highest level.
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Look at those Horses – The BBC recently carried a story on its science and environment website about nature-friendly schools, and the issues they face.
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STEM and the SDGs – Over the next 14 months, students in 33 schools across four countries will participate in hands-on actions around the themes of waste, water, energy, climate change and biodiversity. The Alcoa W5 project aims to provide students with opportunities to work with real-world sustainability issues where their learning outcomes help solve concrete problems in their school and local community through collaboration and critical thinking. Schools in the project will be connecting their learning and activities with the SDGs to help accelerate the achievement of the goals. The catch phrase is Warming-Waste-Water-Watts-Wildlife.
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Oceans 2050 – The Great Imagining says why not embark on an aquatic adventure with Sea Stories: Live from 2050, an immersive podcast that explores three thriving ocean habitats in a future era of abundance and marine conservation. This was launched to mark World Oceans Day on 8th June 2021, and is the first in a series of audio ‘Sea Stories’ created by The Great Imagining in collaboration with the National Maritime Museum. An immersive podcast follows two time-travellers as they enter the oceans of 2050. With new protective laws having allowed a biodiverse seascape to flourish, you will experience a world of giant kelp forests, barnacled scientists and futurist submarines piloted by young marine ambassadors.
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Zoe Ball and the BBC – BBC Radio 2 has launched a competition in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) called the Big Bee Challenge (BBC). This is open to children between 6 and 12 and the challenge is to design a “bright, buzzy garden that will attract bees and other pollinating insects. The winning design will be built by the RHS at an NHS Trust site used by children and young people with mental health needs, and the winner will be invited to the open the garden during an outdoor broadcast of The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Friday 20 August 2021.
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Pedagogy & Transition – The Transformative Learning blog says, although many educators are now asking whether we are educating for the world we want, and despite many valuable on-the-ground initiatives, the answer is a clear “no”. The blog draws our attention to The Pedagogy of Transition: Educating for the Future We Want that was published by the Great Transition Initiative. This is an international network for the critical exploration of concepts, strategies, and visions for a transition to a future of enriched lives, human solidarity, and a resilient biosphere. We’re encouraged to read and respond.
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Eagles and Falcons – The LIFE programme is the EU’s funding instrument for environment and climate action. It has been running since 1992 and has co-financed about 5500 projects across the EU and in other countries, with some 1100 projects currently taking place. The budget for 2021–2027 is set at €5.4 billion. It has just honoured a number of projects supporting nature, environment and climate action. One of these was Italy’s Choose Nature (Choo-na!) project in which more than 300 young volunteers from the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) went on field missions to take care of 11 endangered bird species like the stork, golden eagle, Kentish plover, Lanner falcon and lesser kestrel. These volunteers worked alongside scientists, professionals and other experts.
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Hedging and Ditching – CPRE says that hedges have been overlooked in the new government action plans for nature. CPRE notes that whilst the environment secretary has laid out the government’s new vision for restoring and enhancing the country’s trees and peat, hedgerows also have a vital role to play and should be included in the target. CPRE is concerned that the value of hedgerows in capturing carbon and providing other benefits such as habitats and corridors for wildlife, is neglected here. It notes that the 2019 report from the Committee on Climate Change urged greater investment in creating new hedgerows with a recommendation for a 40% extension of the current hedge network. There’s more detail here.
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Quads In – If you’re old enough you’ll remember the British Thermal Unit [BTU] as this was taught in schools before the adoption of SI units brought some relief. One BTU – some will recall – is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. The Americans still happily use BTUs so if you’re going to make sense of what follows, you need to know that one quad is a quadrillion (1015) BTUs. It is the energy in 8,007,000,000 gallons of petrol / gasoline. The TreeHugger website reports that the total estimated energy consumption in the USA fell in 2020 to 92.9 quads. This is 7.3 quads fewer than in 2019. As the website notes, if the decline continues at this rate, it will be good news for global heating. So, all we need is another pandemic.
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Big Butterflies – Starting on Friday, 16 July and running for three weeks, the Big Butterfly Count (run by Butterfly Conservation) will again encourage us to benefit from being out in nature by spending 15 minutes outdoors counting the amount and type of butterflies and moths. This will help assess the health of the environment and provide feedback on how species are coping. The campaign also aims to inspire people to help protect butterflies and other pollinators, which are declining in the UK. Details on how to take part are here.
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Battery Costs Fall – Our World in Data says that the price of lithium-ion batteries has dropped by 97% in the last 30 years. What’s promising, they say, is that prices are still falling steeply: eg, the cost halved between 2014 and 2018. This article is useful starting point for students looking into battery technology in particular and technological change more generally. There is also an informative article on how child mortality has a changed over the centuries.
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July 29th – Earth Overshoot Day this year is July 29th. The Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what the Earth can regenerate in that year. To determine the date, Global Footprint Network calculates the number of days that Earth’s biocapacity can provide for humanity’s Ecological Footprint. The process is explained on this page. There is also information on how to compare the date of Earth Overshoot Day to previous years and Ecological Footprint data for more than 200 countries and regions.