From Little Acorns – Lost Woods is a project designed to inspire, educate and empower young people about their environment. In March 2020, it distributed almost 50,000 sessile oak acorns to 135 primary schools across Glasgow to enable children to grow oak trees. Resources and lesson plans were designed by teachers to fit to each primary school level and each school pack included a signed copy of the book The Promise by Nicola Davies. Lost Woods has now secured a 13 hectare site for a Glasgow Children’s Woodland which will involve all the primary schools in the city planting their trees this Autumn. This is a collaboration with Glasgow City Council and Green Action Trust.
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The Berlin Declaration – The UNESCO Conference on Education for Sustainable Development has concluded with the Berlin Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development, which outlines a range of policies to transform learning encompassing teaching, learning, professional training and civic engagement. It also highlights the need to implement ESD with joint emphasis on cognitive skills, social and emotional learning, and action competences. The conference video message is here. The ESD for 2030 Framework and its Roadmap for implementation will guide UNESCO for the next 10 years.
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Office for Climate Education – The climate in our hands – Ocean and Cryosphere is the first teacher’s guide in the collection The climate in our Hands, which is a series of books on climate change. It has been researched and written by the UNESCO Office for Climate Education. Teachers around the world can order a free paper version of this guide by filling out this form.
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Edinburgh Resources – The TES website now hosts a series of teaching resources for schools developed by the University of Edinburgh. For example : Climate Change – Interdisciplinary STEM challenge, Ages 7-11; Sea Level and Climate Change, Ages 16+; Food Production and Insects (Interdisciplinary Learning) Ages 14-16; Sustainability and Conservation (Interdisciplinary Learning) Ages 7-11; Climate Change Game, Ages 14-16; Plastics in the Ocean (Interdisciplinary Learning) Ages 7-11; Sustainable Schools – an IDL STEM design challenge Ages 7-11.
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Footprint Reduction – SOS-UK has announce a new Carbon Reduction Engagement programme in collaboration with the carbon footprinting and reduction organisation Giki Zero. There’s a programme of engagement, training, learning and development that utilises SOS-UK’s sustainability and learning experience. The detail is here.
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Carbon Removal – Cameron Hepburn, professor of environmental economics at Oxford, writes in The Conversation about removing CO₂ from the air. He says that meeting the UK’s net zero target is likely to require the removal of 100 million tonnes a year. This is similar in size to total emissions from our largest-emitting sector, road transport, but in reverse. Although the government has announced £31.5 million for research and development about carbon removal, Hepburn says that there are many social issues that need to be tackled if removing greenhouse gases is to succeed. Social issued suggest there’s a role for education somewhere in there. Meanwhile, students interested in carbon capture will likely find much of value in this article.
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From the Inkcap Journal – Around 60% of natural features in Wales’ protected sites are in an “unfavourable condition”, according to a new report from Natural Resources Wales with only 20% are doing well. Natural England has downgraded the environmental condition of the Somerset Levels and Moors SSSIs because of water quality issues caused by high phosphate levels from agriculture and the water industry. The UK was ranked last in Europe for bathing water quality in 2020, according to the Guardian; you can see Defra’s response here.
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A New Way of Life? – A report from the Office for National Statistics looks at how lockdown changed our relationship with nature. Drawing on several sources, the report looks at the impact of lockdown on exercise levels, usage of public green spaces and the link between nature and wellbeing. It asks: Has the pandemic changed our relationship with the outdoors forever, but concludes that we don’t yet know whether the changes brought about will be a temporary trend, or a new way of life.
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Wilderness and Plenty – In 1969 the BBC Reith Lectures were given by Frank Fraser Darling and many give them the credit for moving “the environment” into the public discourse. Their overall title for the 6 30-minute talks was Wilderness and Plenty. In his first lecture entitled ‘Man and Nature’, he considers how humans have dominated the natural world by constantly challenging it and altering it to their advantage. Bringing together economics and ecology, he discusses what circumstances might lead to the need to conserve the human race. This is how the first began: “If I were asked to interpret briefly what I mean by wilderness and plenty, I’d reply: ‘population, pollution and the planet’s generosity’; meaning the history of man and the effect he’s had and is having on the economy of nature since he appeared on the planet.” You can listen to them all here c/o BBC Sounds.
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7th out of 7 – In the run up to this week’s G7 meeting, using data from the London Natural History Museum, RSPB produced a new assessment of how much of the natural world is left in each of the G7 countries. It shows the UK at the bottom of the list and twelfth worst of 240 countries and territories. RSPB says that its assessment reinforces the case for a UK nature restoration revolution, in line with UN aspirations doing this both for the 70,000 species with which we share these islands and for ourselves as well.
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Global Education – DERC’s free online course Global Education for Teachers is running again from 21st June. This 3 week course has been designed to help teachers increase their confidence and ability to introduce global issues into teaching. More details here.
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Schools Climate Action – London Climate Week is a series of events from 26 June to 2nd July, with a Schools Climate Summit on June 29th. You can read the 1st newsletter of the Summit here.
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Solarpunk Storytelling – Wordsmiths for XR will be launching a writing competition for young people. We’ll bring you details when confirmed.