NAEE is looking forward to contributing to the work of Our Shared World – a consortium of organisations whose overarching goal is that “by 2030, the UK education community ensures every learner receives an education that equips them to contribute to a just, sustainable and resilient world through the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4.7″.
The draft objectives are:
1 (embedded, cohesive approach) The UK Government ensures all education institutions take an embedded approach to SDG 4.7 and recognise this as integral to achieving quality education.
2 (research & evidence) The UK Government supports research to inform future policy and practice, engaging with devolved administrations and internationally to share and learn from good practice.
3 (holding education community to account) The UK Government commits to naming SDG 4.7 explicitly in teachers’ standards and in assessing the quality of provision through inspection frameworks, particularly Ofsted.
4 (upskilling educators to deliver) The Education community commits to delivering education for SDG 4.7 through long-term professional learning programmes and expert partnerships that sustain impact, expertise and evidence-based policy and practice. ∫∫∫
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The Department for Education has been running a Sustainable School award as part of its Education Estates Awards. The deadline was last Friday but we didn’t know about it. Did you? This is sponsored by Engie, and will be awarded to the school that demonstrates an innovative and impactful sustainability programme. The department wants to identify and share best practice across the education community. There will be a £2,500 reward for the winning school. Ashden is helping DfE with their judging for the award. ∫∫∫
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Did you see the speech by Greta Thunberg to the UN last week? If not, it’s here, uncut. It’s only just over 4 minutes long and few punches were pulled. There is a transcript on Treehugger. ∫∫∫
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Here’s a link to an eePRO / GEEP blog about Empowering Young People to Adapt to a Changing World – the international student conservation leadership summit. It’s by Melissa Taggart. Here’s how the overview begins:
Using the internationally-recognized Eco-Schools and GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) frameworks, federal and non-government organization (NGO) partners from the U.S. and Taiwan conducted a week-long immersive learning exchange program called Student Conservation Leadership Summit (SCLS) with 28 high school students from the U.S. and Taiwan. The theme Watersheds, Oceans, and Wetlands-Water Connects Us All provided student teams with real-world and relevant opportunities to investigate environmental issues facing our oceans. Students shared how the issues impacted their community, where they saw evidence of the impact, and questions they wanted to research. ∫∫∫
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Here are details of the ASE Primary conference on October 5th in Leicester. Highlights are:
- Stuart Naylor – Let’s talk about animals and their lifestyles
- Jules Pottle – PSTT Primary Science Teacher of the Year 2015 – Science Through Storytelling. ∫∫∫
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It was World Rhino Day last week. WWF has facts and figures about the plight of these ancient creatures and how humans persecute them. There’s information about anti-poaching methods (notching, micro-chipping, DNA sampling) and 10 top rhino facts. ∫∫∫
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Last week the West Midlands Sustainable Schools Network had a first joint meeting with the East Midlands Network. As well as an exchange of views and updates, this meeting explored the potential for further collaboration. Anyone interested in joining, please contact Ben Ballin benballin@hotmail.com (west) or Lee Jowett lee.jowett@leicester.gov.uk (east). ∫∫∫
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The reason that electric cars in Europe have grossly inflated milage ranges is because of how these are estimated. The EU insists on the tests being carried out at 23 degrees C without the use of any air conditioning or heating. It said that turning on the heating system in external temperatures between 4C and 14C can reduce the range by as much as 40%. This increases range anxiety and adds to customers’ reluctance to buy. The Times reports that What Car? published a study last year showing the real range of electric cars against the official range. It found that the Nissan Leaf had an on-road range of 128 miles compared with the official distance of 168 miles. The Renault Zoe R110 travelled 146 miles in the test but had an official range of 186 miles. A fact that no one ever seems to mention is that if your journey is uphill there will be a similar reduction in range (though the return journey will be much less demanding on the battery). ∫∫∫
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Climate Action has a feature on a new report from the Office for National Statistics [ ONS ] which has found that in 2018, road traffic in Great Britain rose to 328 billion [ 328,000,000 ] miles travelled – 29% higher than in 1990. However, greenhouse gas emissions from road transport in the UK increased more slowly – by [only] 6% from 1990 to 2017. This is despite efforts to reduce them. Road transport is responsible for significant contributions to emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matters 10 and 2.5. The report found that at the end of 2018, out of the ~39.4 million licensed vehicles in the UK, only 0.5% were ultra-low emission.
Many campaigners say that there plan to increase this figure is not ambitious enough. The government is committed to phasing out new petrol and diesel models by 2040. So far in 2019 some 17,393 pure electric cars have been sold, almost double the number at the same point last year. However, they make up only 1.1% of sales. ∫∫∫
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Click here to read about what afoot at Kew Gardens this autumn, and here’s a link to Plantlife in Scotland. Finally, Pinterest has some fine maps for you to look at. ∫∫∫