naee-logo1. Does your West Midlands school want to get involved in the Ashden Less CO2 programme which provides support to help with energy saving measures in schools?

Schools must sign up to 4 workshops and will receive a free energy audit. It’s most suitable for Bursars, Eco-leaders and Site Managers.  The programme includes further support through one to one advice on the steps to reduce energy use across your school and resources to enable your school to further incorporate sustainability within your curriculum programmes.  Please contact Sarah slardner@solihull.gov.uk if you want to know more.

CLOTC_NEWSLETTER_BANNER2. The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom says that there has never been a better time to take up membership because, if you join now your membership will not be due for renewal until April 2019.  Once a member, you’ll have access to a things that will help you improve the quality of your learning outside the classroom.  These include: a members guide, free CPD, a free copy of the School Travel Organiser magazine, access to national and local events, training and resources, etc.  For more information and an application form download a membership pack

86fe1cec-6e16-4f3e-9bf2-2df81bf8d7aa3. Learning for Sustainability Scotland is increasing its engagement with students and young professionals with an interest in teaching and learning about sustainability, doing this through the development of a Youth Network.  You can find our more about it here.  The first Youth event was in Climate Week in September (see photo), and is keen to keep the momentum going.  It has designed a survey to gather ideas on what type of engagement activities would be useful and enjoyable for the roughly 18-35 age group (please note any activities would be open to all).

So, if you are 18-35 (ish), self-identify as a “youth”, or know what people in this group would want, then we would like to hear from you!  The survey survey should only take 5-10 minutes.

df72fc48-5688-4adb-ae1a-43cc19f80bfc4. Learning for Sustainability Scotland also says join it on Monday November 6th to explore how to effectively embed the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into your work.  This combines practical ‘hands on’ guides, workshops, discussions, presentations, sharing best practicing sessions and lots of opportunities to network.  Details from Abi Cornwall .

6e7f440a-dc56-4cc9-9884-28a87b9b26ba

5. Slimbridge says come to have Floodlight Swan Supper from December 2017 – February 2018 and experience the beauty and sounds of hundreds of wild swans on a floodlit lake – and then have a meal in the Kingfisher Kitchen. This is, they say, “perfect for wildlife lovers”.  More details here.

NPCLogo_200x2006. Do you support the plan to make London the world’s first National Park City?  It will be good for both people and nature the proposers say.  “Why not?”, they say, adding:

“Let’s make London the world’s first National Park City. A city where people and nature are better connected. A city that is rich with wildlife and every child benefits from exploring, playing and learning outdoors.  A city where we all enjoy high-quality green spaces, the air is clean to breathe, it’s a pleasure to swim in its rivers and green homes are affordable.  Together we can make London a greener, healthier and fairer place to live.  Together we can make London a National Park City.”

You can support the proposal here.

logo7. The Military Mutual has created an interactive infographic showing some of the longest animal journeys.  It says:

“A colony of ants; a herd of cows; a shoal of fish.  In the natural world animals group together for companionship, to feed, reproduce and ultimately to ensure the survival of their kind.  In doing so they travel in tremendous groups over vast distances; various reasons drive animals to migrate and when they do, it creates an incredible spectacle of the natural world.  We document some of the grandest of these migrations to see how strength really does come in numbers.”

naaee-logo8. As part of NAAEE‘s 2017 virtual conference, members of the Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP) discussed Tbilisi+40, a global Call for Action, and what the future of EE holds for communities around the world.  NAAEE is encouraging us all to continue the discussion, or start our own thread using the category “2017 virtual conference”.   You will find the discussion here.

0*ly0gmxUayosPDhn-9. The BBC Radio iPlayer has a 15 minute programme on dust which you should listen to.  Jay Owens argues that dust is a lot more interesting than we think, and we ought to pay more attention to it.  Jay produces a newsletter on dust in which she shares dust research stories.  About 7 minutes into the BBC piece, there’s a few words about the Greenland ice sheet which will likely make you catch your breath.  You can follow Jay at tinyletter.com/hautepop .  Jay is a recovering geographer.

journal_cover10. The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions, is a paper in Environmental Research Letters which illustrates how authorities fail to highlight the individual actions that would most effectively reduce carbon emissions.  The paper ends:

“We have identified four recommended actions which we believe to be especially effective in reducing an individual’s greenhouse gas emissions: having one fewer child, living car-free, avoiding airplane travel, and eating a plant-based diet. These suggestions contrast with other top recommendations found in the literature such as hang-drying clothing or driving a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Our results show that education and government documents do not focus on high-impact actions for reducing emissions, creating a mitigation gap between official recommendations and individuals willing to align their behaviour with climate targets. Focusing on high-impact actions (through providing accurate guidance and information, especially to ‘catalytic’ individuals such as adolescents) could be an important dimension of scaling bottom-up action to the transformative decarbonisation implied by the 2 °C climate target, and starting to close this gap.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment