Learners Stakeholder Council – The FED is looking for up to 20 people aged 16-25, who are either current learners or have recently left education within England, to join the FED Learners Council in 2021-2022. It is also looking for up to two current learners aged 25 or over who are in full-time or part-time education to join the Council. The Council will focus on the English education system. If you are interested to hear more, or to put yourself forward to be involved visit the websiteand complete the short application form.
.
Youth Pre-COP – There was a three-day Youth4Climate Summit in Milan last week as a prelude to the COP26 meeting in Glasgow. Around 400 young people from all over the world presented their proposals for tackling climate change to the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italian Minister for Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, COP26 President-Designate, Alok Sharma, and environment ministers from more than 40 countries. You can see a series of videos from the event here.
.
Twitter COP – Tide~ is going to encourage a Twitter discussion about education and the climate crisis in the lead up to COP 26. Starting on Friday 15th October and finishing at the Half Term break, there will be a daily post with the hashtag #climateCOP Tide~ will encourage people to use the hashtag, to share their own thoughts or profile related opportunities, or to reply to the stimulus tweets. It is doing this because its trustees think that dialogue about this is both timely and essential. We are all are welcome to borrow the hashtag to help generate discussion. A summary of what has been said may be published afterwards.
.
Diving into Discussions – On October 14th, the Economist Educational Foundation is hosting Children in charge: COP26. This is an interactive webinar that asks students how they would run a climate-change summit. The EEF says that “Students will dive into discussions about how things would be different if children were in charge: what changes would they make? Who should be involved in the climate conversation, and when would they be willing to compromise?” You can register here.
.
Students for Trees – SOS-UK, in partnership with the Woodland Trust, is relaunching the Students For Trees programme a new Students for Trees Council is needed. Students for Trees is a student led network supporting students across the UK to learn about, and take action for, woods and trees, with a focus on helping to fight the climate and nature crises. This is an opportunity to develop skills and help engage young people with trees and woodlands through organising and delivering events, all whilst helping to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis! Read this blog to find out more and apply by 10th October.
.
A Sustainable Future – The following free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are beginning this October for a limited time and are an opportunity for anyone, anywhere who is interested in sustainability, to learn more. They will be of particular interest to those involved in formal and informal sustainability education, as there are specific activities and resources for teachers/facilitators. Both have been co-developed by University of Edinburgh, Learning for Sustainability Scotland and the British Council, with input from Education Scotland.
– Learning for a Sustainable Future begins on 4th October and runs for five weeks. It will also run again in Spring 2022. Currently available to join here.
– Learning for a Sustainable Future: Live at COP26’ begins on 31st October and will run for the duration of COP26 in Glasgow. The content will be available for six weeks as a learning resource. Join the mailing list to be notified when enrolment opens here.
.
PM 2.5 – New World Health Organization (WHO) Global Air Quality Guidelines provide clear evidence of the damage air pollution inflicts on human health, at even lower concentrations than previously understood. The guidelines recommend new air quality levels to protect the health of populations, by reducing levels of key air pollutants, some of which also contribute to climate change. Since the last 2005 global update, there has been an increase in the evidence that shows how air pollution affects different aspects of health. For that reason, and after a systematic review of the accumulated evidence, WHO has adjusted almost all the AQGs levels downwards. It has reduced its annual recommended limit for PM2.5 from 10 to 5 micrograms per cubic metre. Recommended limits on NO₂ have also been tightened – from 40 to 10 micrograms per cubic metre.
.
Carbon Literacy – Students at the University of Bath will be able to learn how they can reduce their carbon emissions, as well as learning how organisations and systems can reduce their emissions too, and have the chance to get a Carbon Literacy certificate if they complete the follow-up training with The Carbon Literacy Project. Dr Steve Cayzer, Climate Action Learning & Teaching Liaison at the University, said: “By introducing Carbon Literacy right at the start of the University experience we begin to get people into that mindset and thinking straight away, as well as helping them develop knowledge and skills that will be valuable throughout their lives.” This initiative is part of the University’s Climate Action Framework, committed to achieving a series of climate goals, including offering students’ education on climate change, and achieving total carbon neutrality by 2040.
.
The Cry of the Earth – Ahead of COP26, the leaders of Christianity’s three largest groups have issued a joint call for nations to embrace a more sustainable future. They say: “We call on everyone, whatever their belief or world view, to endeavour to listen to the cry of the Earth and of people who are poor, examining their behaviour and pledging meaningful sacrifices for the sake of the Earth which God has given us.”
.
Round the World in the City of Culture – There’s an exhibition at Holy Trinity in Broadgate Coventry throughout October and November featuring posters depicting the effects of climate change round the world. These have been created by students in Coventry and Warwickshire Schools to raise awareness to COP26. This is organised by the Savers charity. Ice Floe – Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and neighboring basins appears to have hit its annual minimum extent on September 16, after waning in the spring and summer. The summertime extent is the twelfth lowest in the satellite record, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and NASA. There’s more on this at the ENN.
.
Talk is cheap – Nations must act now to achieve long-term ambitions for biodiversity. So say James Watson and colleagues in a new paper for One Earth. They go on: “Nations of the world failed to fully achieve any of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2010 targets, and the future of biodiversity hangs in the balance. Nations must not let unambitious targets in the current draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework prevent them from maximizing their biodiversity-conservation actions over the next decade.” You can read more here, but the paper itself is behind a pay-wall.
.
A Mammoth Task – Rewilding Monthly Bite reports that a private company and geneticists working at the Harvard Medical School have successfully raised £11M in funding to help pioneer gene editing to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction. The scientists plan to create an elephant-mammoth hybrid by making embryos in the laboratory that carry mammoth DNA. The scientist want to express genes in these hybrids that are responsible for mammoth hair, insulating fat layers and other cold adapted physiology. “Our goal isn’t just to bring back the mammoth, but to bring back interbreedable herds that are successfully rewilded back into the Arctic region.” There’s more info here which shows how controversial all this is.
.
Encyclopedia Goalactica – The Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals was launched in New York, as part of the Global Goals Week (18th-25th September). The Global Goals Week is “a shared commitment of over 140 partners across civil society, business, academia, and the UN system to accelerate action on the implementation of the SDGs”. The Encyclopedia contains 17 volumes, each devoted to one SDG.