Delivering subject content through nine life themes
The unveiling earlier this week of plans for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June included several headline-grabbing announcements — not least, for a nation seemingly addicted to TV programmes like The Great British Bake-Off, an initiative called Platinum Pudding, a nationwide baking competition… Continue Reading “Jubilee competition encourages children to think about a greener future”
The Green Planet, the latest Sir David Attenborough-fronted natural history series on the BBC, has earned rave reviews — well, at least as far as the production and presentation are concerned. The visuals are (as ever) stunning and Sir David is a national treasure,… Continue Reading “Sir David shows that plants are just as interesting as animals”
This year’s Big Garden Birdwatch, organised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), begins a week today, and it really couldn’t be easier to take part, even if you know next to nothing about birds. As it says on the RSPB… Continue Reading “The upcoming Big Garden Birdwatch is a great way to introduce children to nature”
Newly published research indicates that Britain has the potential to massively increase the amount of homegrown fruit and veg by making better use of overlooked and neglected space in towns and cities. We currently import a large proportion of our food, at considerable environmental… Continue Reading “A ‘grow our own’ food revolution could have huge educational and other benefits”
The consumer organisation Which? has published a league table — Which? reveals the greenest supermarkets — ranking UK supermarkets according to how well they meet sustainability criteria around greenhouse gas emissions, plastic use and food waste. Like all such league tables, these supermarket sustainability… Continue Reading “League-table information about sustainability is useful if handled with care”
Yesterday (21 February) was the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, which runs until 6 March. Fairtrade Fortnight is a promotional campaign which runs every year, organised by the Fairtrade Foundation to increase awareness of Fairtrade products. ‘Fairtrade’ (one word) is an international certification system. ‘Fair… Continue Reading “Children need to be learning about fair trade as an aspect of sustainability”
It hasn’t — for obvious reasons — received the coverage it properly warrants this week, but the UN’s latest assessment of the impact of climate change is deeply disquieting. We should guard against overuse of phrases such as ‘existential threat’, but in this case… Continue Reading “Learning about sustainable living needs to be at the heart of the curriculum”
As the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed, the vast majority of experts agree that the threat posed by climate change to the planet and to humanity is real, that extreme weather events will become more frequent and more devastating,… Continue Reading “Persuading people to live more sustainably is not going to be easy”
The climate crisis is probably the biggest long-term challenge that humanity faces. Doing nothing is not a viable option. We cannot go on with business as usual. Our lives and livelihoods will be affected in the coming years and decades – by how much… Continue Reading “Problems with going green”
