Student-led Change – If you missed the BBC 1 Countryfile programme on Sunday night, you can catch it again on i-Player. About 10 minutes into the programme you’ll find a feature on what presenter Tom Heap variously called eco education, nature education and environmental education. It featured NAEE Fellow, Dr Melissa Glackin of King’s College London, Joe Brindle of Teach the Future, Mary Colwell, who’s spearheading the campaign for a GCSE in Natural History, and Rachel Dooley a newly qualified teacher in Wolverhampton. One strong theme of the feature was the way that it’s young people who are demanding and driving curriculum innovation. Another was the way that GCSE biology currently squeezes out young people’s hands-on experience of the natural world.
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Radio Natural Histories – The BBC radio archive contains many gems; one of these is a series of 30 minute programmes in a Natural Histories series. You will find them here. There are 95 of them, and they are as much about culture as they are about nature, but so is natural history. They present wide-ranging backgrounds to mostly familiar plant and animal species from both the UK and across the world. There is something for everyone, from the louse, flea and leech to the honeyguide, burbot and rose.
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More EE on the Radio – NAEE President Professor Justin Dillon, was interviewed on BBC 3 Counties Radio last week on the Roberto Perrone show. The focus of the programme slot was the open letter sent to the PM (see below) about the need for legally-binding targets for greater nature protection. It begins with an interview with environmentalist, Chris Woodard, who called or more education: specifically for ecology and natural history from primary school upwards. Justin was happy to confirm this in both his academic researcher and NAEE Presidential roles, calling for radical reform of who influences the curriculum. The session begins 2 hours 35 minutes into the show and Justin’s interview starts at 2 hours 41 minutes. Justin will be expanding on what he said in a blog for NAEE next week.
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Signing the petition – Around 100 environmental leaders, together with many others, have written to the Prime Minister with a proposal for a legally-binding target to halt the decline of nature in England by 2030. A petition has been launched and we are all urged to sign it calling for the target to be set in the current Environment Bill.
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This is the letter – Dear Prime Minister, Please make sure the Environment Bill sets a legally binding ‘State of Nature’ target to begin to reverse nature’s decline by 2030. I urge you to back this up with significant funding and a strong and independent Office for Environmental Protection that can enforce important targets like this and will hold current, and future Governments to account. We cannot tackle the nature and climate crisis without this crucial action.
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Insights from Experts – FEE has announced a new course on its online learning platform. This aims to introduce learners to “the basic foundations of Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), including the origins of EE and ESD and the educational processes connected to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. Enrolment for the course runs until 18 April. if you want more details or would like to join, go to the FEE Academy and create an account.
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Climate Futures – SOS_UK has a free four-part on-line conference running from the 9th to the 18th of March that will explore young peoples’ thoughts on environmentalism, stewardship of the natural world, grassroots activism, and the limitations or possibilities of representative democracy and international collaboration. You can register here.
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A Shout Out for Teachers – Dr Haira Gandolfi of the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education is running a small-scale study about the perspectives and work of teachers around issues related to climate change, environmental emergencies and social participation. Dr Gandolfi wants to interview UK schoolteachers who have been engaging with these issues as part of their teaching work in any school subject and age group. This will be on-line and will take about an hour. Anyone interested in contributing to this study, should contact heg38@cam.ac.uk
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Glasgow Green – Here’s a handy guide to COP26 and its blue and green zones. Even if you’re not going, by reading this you will at least know what everyone else is talking about. The conference is split into Blue and Green Zones. The Blue Zone is managed by the UN and will bring over 30,000 people [“experts and decision-makers”] together. This zone will host COP’s panel discussions, side events and exhibits. In order to be part of this, you must be accredited by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The host nation (the UK and Italy) oversees the Green Zone which as an area where members of civil society can interact and learn more about COP-related initiatives and projects. All sectors are likely to be represented, from youth groups and academia to artists and businesses. The Green Zone also hosts workshops, exhibitions and discussion groups whose aim is to promote collaboration towards social action and education.
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Neither Green Nor Blue – Happily, if you can’t get into either of these exclusive zones, the City of Glasgow, NGOs and others are also planning their own events, including mass mobilisations and protests. Youth organisations and action groups will be represented and both offer a multitude of ways of getting involved. Wrap up warm.
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Rivers Matter to People – This year, on March 14th, the International Day of Action for Rivers is dedicated to solidarity – when diverse communities around the world come together with one voice to say that rivers matter: that communities having access to clean and flowing water matters; that everyone should have a say in decisions that affect their water and their lives; that it’s our time to stand up for these rights, now more than ever.
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The Red Admirable – In an article for the Spring edition of the Butterfly Conservation magazine, naturalist and wildlife author Peter Marren explores the history of the naming of the Red Admiral (as we now tend to call it) butterfly. It was not always so, however, with Admiral and Admirable both being used over the last 300 years. Either way, it is always something to wonder at. Click here for one example of Marren’s writing about conservation on Mark Avery’s blog.
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The Silver-studded Blue – An increasing number of British butterflies are having second broods in the South of England. Examples include the Dingy Skipper, the Duke of Burgundy and the wondrously-named Silver-studded Blue.
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Saving Daylight – The Explaining Science blog has a feature on the background to that most welcome of Spring phenomena: putting the clocks forward. This first happened in Port Arthur, Ontario in 1908 when a local businessman petitioned the town council to adjust the clocks so the locals could enjoy an extra hour of summer sunshine. It became more widely established during the first world war as it reduced energy use in the wartime economies.