Zero Carbon Schools – The Green Schools Project has announced the next stage of its Zero Carbon Schools Programme that will be available from September. The programme is fully funded and will provide 50 schools with an educational opportunity to involve pupils in the school’s journey towards zero carbon emissions. The programme includes plans and resources for a series of 30 pupils sessions suitable for years 4 to 9, a monthly online ‘how to’ session for teachers delivering the programme and support to calculate the school’s carbon footprint. If you are interested, please contact Beth Newman on beth.newman@greenschoolsproject.org.uk and she will send an information sheet and school agreement.
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Imagining their Futures – CAMFED has a new-look website and invites us to explore it to find out more about its work to promote girls’ education and women’s leadership: “CAMFED catalyzes the power of the most vulnerable girls and young women to create the future they imagine: for themselves, for their communities, and for Africa.”
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Global Week to #Act4SDGs – We are invited to make our actions count from 17-28 September by going to act4sdgs.org Whether as an individual or an organization aiming to catalyse action on the SDGs through networks, there re ways to take action in this toolkit.
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COP Resources – The Our Climate Our Future official COP26 school materials aim to introduce and reinforce the significance of climate change, COP26, and the role of schools in shaping the future, by providing age-appropriate resources for ages 5 to 16.
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A Loss Down Under – Peter Fensham, the first national President of the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) died last week, age 93. You can read an appreciation of his career here although it downplays his role in the emergence of environmental education in Australia. This offers a bit more detail.
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Conservation in the UK – “Britain, according to a 2016 report, is the world’s 189th most depleted country out of 218, in terms of its nature. That’s a spuriously precise number, in an area hard to measure, but it’s probably in the right ballpark. This is a densely populated country that industrialised earlier than most others. Since we killed our last wolf in (probably) 1680, we’ve driven many species to the edge of extinction. Yet while the long-term story is pretty gloomy, if you look at what’s been happening recently there are some signs of hope.” This is from a Times article that tries to take a balanced view of how well the country is doing in terms of conservation efforts and outcomes. Some (many, perhaps) will dispute what is written here as being too complacent. It is grist to the mill of a good debate though.
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Field & Stream Review – If you wander the countryside these days, it’s possible that you’ll come across a pheasant or two. Given that there were over 30 million of them in the country – at least before the shooing season started in August – this is unsurprising. Together with partridges, they make up around half the wild-bird biomass. The Economist says that the number released into the wild each year after rearing has risen by around 900% since the 1960s. Animal activists tend to say that rearing and shooting pheasants is cruel. Some environmentalists say that their faeces damage the soil, and that they lead to an unwelcome increase in the number of foxes. But do they also bring benefits? The work of Dr Joah Madden in the Pheasant Ecology and Cognition (PEC) group at the Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter explores these issues.
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Wild not Feral – National Museums Scotland (NMS) and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) want to reduce interbreeding between wildcats and feral domestic cats, a process that damages the genetic inheritance of the wildcat. They are partners in a UK-wide collaboration called CryoArks, which aims to create a biobank to help with the conservation of many species. This will be the first national collection of frozen animal material in Britain and offer a “library service” of genetic samples from across the globe.
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Trees Under Pressure – A new report, the State of the World’s Trees says that 30% of all tree species – more than 17,500 of them – could be threatened with extinction. That is more than double the total number of globally threatened mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians says Global Trees. The report has been produced by Global Tree Assessment (GTA), and brings together expertise from over 60 institutional partners and over 500 individuals who have contributed to assessing the risk to tree species over the past five years. The group has launched the GlobalTree Portal, an online database tracking conservation efforts at the species, country and global level. The Guardian has a report with more detail.
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Origin of Species – The Economist has a special feature on what a species is (and isn’t). This is part of a series of updates on modern views on biology. The magazine says that the term species, though widely used, is hard to define.
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Welcome E10 – The unleaded petrol being sold across the UK now has 10% bioethanol in it rather than the previous 5% contents. The government argues that the use of E10 petrol is an environmental move to reduce CO₂ emissions, adding that doubling the proportion of the renewable component (the ethanol) in the fuel will bring about a 750,000 tonne reduction in CO₂ – the equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road. The Conversation has more detail.
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Leading the Way – UNEP has announced the end of leaded petrol now that Algeria – the last country to sell the fuel – stopped doing so. Tetraethyl lead had been added to increase engine efficiency since the 1920s, despite lead being known for centuries to be poisonous. The additive resulted in lead compounds being exhausted from engines, contaminating air, dust, soil, drinking water and food crops for almost 100 years. Campaigns to remove it as an additive began in the 1970s and it was finally banned in the UK in 2000
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recyclemytent.com – Although this website doesn’t (yet) exist, thousands of those attending the Reading and Leeds festivals this Summer behaved as if it did. Rather than take their tents (and other belongings) home, they were left behind for others to sort out. Various media websites had the shameful pictures. According to AIF, the Association of Independent Festivals, around 250,000 tents are left at music festivals in Britain each year. John Read, founder of Clean Up Britain, said that those who had dumped “perfectly good tents” were self-indulgent and lazy. Just so, but where did they learn to behave like this?
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Postscript – NAEE is 50 years old this month. It emerged into the world at the AGM of the National Rural and Environmental Studies Association in September 1971. As such, its birth was an evolution which reflected the significant growth of interest in (and concern for) “the environment” over the preceding years. The proposer of the motion at the AGM made this point in his introduction of the motion:
“We are looking for a title for a National organisation which has evolved very slowly over the past 10 years out of the enthusiasm of rural studies teachers. Recent events must make us accelerate the rate of our own evolution and cause us to accept a title under which all subjects contributing towards environmental education identify themselves. Each individual subject teacher has and will continue to have his or her part to play and contribute to the whole – environmental education. The rural studies teacher has now an even more important and significant contribution to make and … must be prepared to defend himself and his subject, fight for recognition, be prepared to teach up to ‘A’ level; and participate in projects … . After all, sixth formers are the people who are most likely to be tomorrows decision-makers, tomorrows planners and above all live in a world which you and I have helped shape or mis-shape for them.”
Although this looks as if changing the name was the key issue here, it was also agreed that the change needed to be accompanied by steps to broaden the aims, objectives and membership of the Association. You can read more about the arguments at the AGM here in a personal view from our Chair of Trustees.