Europe/England/23-02-2020/Author (a) and Source: www.bbc.com
Climate change activist Greta Thunberg is to join a school strike in Bristol.
She tweeted she was «heading for the UK» and was «looking forward» to joining strikers on College Green in the city centre on Friday morning.
Bristol Youth Strike for Climate (BYS4C) said it was «honoured to be welcoming» the 17-year-old.
Ms Thunberg, who is expected to travel by train, is due to make a speech before joining a samba band-accompanied march.
Izzy Smitheson, from BYS4C, said Ms Thunberg had contacted the group because she «wanted to strike with us».
Image copyrightARCHIE RICHARDSImage captionThe first school strike in Bristol took place in February last year
Ms Smitheson, 17, said: «We didn’t have a strike planned, so it’s a lot of last-minute organisation.
«The whole Bristol community has come together to make it happen. We think Greta’s presence will make it very big and bring a lot of energy to the strike.»
Image captionArtist Jody Thomas painted a mural of Ms Thunberg in Bristol last year
Two years ago, Ms Thunberg started missing lessons most Fridays to protest outside the Swedish parliament building, in what turned out to be the beginning of a huge environmental movement.
She has become a leading voice for action on climate change, inspiring millions of students to join protests around the world.
Source and Image: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-51597922
‘When Greta Thunberg and other young campaigners met US legislators this week, it was not to propose a specific course of action but to assert their right to a liveable future.’ Thunberg listens to speakers during a climate change demonstration at the US supreme court in Washington DC on Wednesday. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
This Friday’s school strike, which adults around the world have been asked to join, is the largest mobilisation yet attempted by the youth climate movement launched last year by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. As such, it is an event of international significance. History shows not only that social change is possible, even when the interests ranged against it are formidable, but that peaceful protest is among the most effective ways to bring it about. The campaigns against slavery, for female suffrage and for workers’ and civil rights, as well as the independence movements of former colonies including India, all harnessed new forms of civic participation and activism to the cause of progress.
Movements on behalf of people who lack voting rights, of course, have little choice but to try to exercise influence outside the ballot box. As adults in democracies, we have become used to making our political choices in elections, with only a small minority in most countries actively involved in parties or campaigning. That does not mean political action should end there. And except for 16- and 17-year-olds in a handful of countries, children cannot vote. If they want their voices to be heard they must seek other means – such as a school strike.
Some of the young people demonstrating on Friday will have been influenced by adults. But teenagers, who are typically rebellious and open to new ideas, have been important in social movements before. No one should be surprised if young people are more alarmed than their grandparents about effects that are predicted to become more severe in 20 or 30 years’ time.
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Covering Climate Now: how more than 250 newsrooms are joining forces this week to spotlight the climate crisis
It is the simplicity of the movement’s message, as well as the youth and determination of the protesters, that has made them unignorable. Less than a year ago, the world’s leading climate scientists issued a warning that we are running out of time to avert the worst effects of global heating, at a meeting at which some scientists were reported to be in tears. Temperatures are continuing to rise and the effects are already punishing, particularly in poorer parts of the world. But increases of more than 1.5 degrees celsius would lead, scientists warn, to food scarcity and water stress for hundreds of millions more people. Heat-related deaths, forest fires and mass displacements by flooding become far more likely in this scenario, while for species including coral the consequence would be extinction.
Yet despite these dire warnings and the attempts at decarbonisation overseen since 1988 by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world is failing. Carbon emissions in 2018 reached a record high of 37.1bn tonnes. There has been some progress, measurable in pledges by governments and notably a decade of emissions cuts in the EU. The profile of green issues is higher, the cost of renewables is falling fast and public opinion in many countries is shifting. But our path is taking us towards a painful and dangerous future.
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Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot make short film on climate crisis – video
The climate strikers demand that the world faces these facts. Their aim is to force us to confront a problem that, for far too long, we have found it convenient to ignore. When Greta Thunberg and other young campaigners met US legislators this week, it was to assert their right to a livable future. In a short film with George Monbiot, also this week, she was more specific, advocating the protection and restoration of ecosystems as a natural climate solution.
A reckoning is overdue with those who, seeking to avoid the transition to clean energy, misled the public. Without the lost decades of inaction and denial, global heating need never have become the emergency it now is. Many politicians as well as fossil fuel industry executives and lobbyists are deeply culpable. But Friday is an opportunity to take action – as the Guardian is doing by declaring a climate emergency.
Environmental campaigners, scientists and others deserve praise for their climate work over many decades. That we are nowhere near where we should be, in spite of their efforts and knowledge, is a cause for anger. The freshness and seriousness of the school strike movement is a reason to hope
Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/19/the-guardian-view-on-the-school-climate-strike-protests-that-matter
North America/ Canada/ 29.07.2019/Source: www.cbc.ca.
Curricula lack emphasis on impacts, solutions and scientific consensus, study finds
Most provinces and territories are failing to teach at least some of the basic tenets of climate change, a new study has found.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Plos One last week, found that in some cases, climate change education is not even consistent with scientific understanding.
«[It’s] a good start, but [there’s] room for improvement,» said lead author Seth Wynes, a PhD candidate in the geography department at the University of British Columbia.
Wynes and co-author Kimberly Nicholas of Sweden’s Lund University, studied science curricula and textbooks across the country to figure out what was being taught and how.
They analyzed the documents to look for six essential concepts in learning about climate change:
The basics of climate.
That temperatures are warming.
That climate change is mainly caused by humans.
That there is overwhelming scientific consensus about it.
That climate change is bad.
That we can mitigate it.
«We’d recommend that Canadian curriculum documents ought to cover these basic ideas, these core topics that are important for understanding climate change and also for motivating students and taking action,» said Wynes, who is also a former high school science teacher.
Seth Wynes is a PhD candidate in the geography department at the University of British Columbia. (Submitted by Seth Wynes)
While all provinces and territories teach students about the basics of climate, including topics like ocean currents and the greenhouse effect, there were many gaps across the country.
The researchers found that Saskatchewan had the most comprehensive coverage, teaching all six basic concepts. Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Prince Edward Island taught five of the six, Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut taught four of the six, British Columbia, Manitoba and Yukon taught half, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick taught only one of the six.
The curricula were particularly weak in teaching students about the strong scientific consensus that humans are causing climate change.
«That’s important because if students don’t understand these facts, then they are less likely to be motivated to help solve the problem,» said Wynes.
Waves and debris cover the roadway near Nova Scotia’s Lawrencetown Beach after a storm in January 2018.(Submitted by Allan Zilkowsky)
Manitoba’s supplementary materials, for instance, recommend that students read publications produced by Friends of Science — an organization that believes the sun is responsible for climate change and that opposes the understanding of climate change put forth by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a Nobel Prize-winning UN organization — and tells students «there is significantly polarized debate» on whether humans cause climate change.
However, there is virtually no scientific doubt that climate change is caused by humans, Wynes’s study notes. A 2013 study of 11,944 peer-reviewed climate science abstracts found that of the papers that expressed a view on human-caused climate change, 97 per cent supported that view.
Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island encourage students to debate what’s causing climate change.
Wynes said while encouraging students to be critical, evaluate evidence and draw their own conclusions is important, that’s not appropriate for something that has already been settled by scientists.
«We don’t ask students to decide whether or not second-hand smoking causes cancer in health class. And in the same way, we would suggest that probably climate change is a subject where we need to be communicating with certainty that it is happening.»
During the summer drought of 2015, metro Vancouver reservoir levels dropped to 73 per cent below norms.(CBC)
The study found that some textbooks pointed to «positive» aspects of climate change, such as extended growing seasons and the notion that cruise ships could visit the North «so tourists can follow in the wake of Arctic explorers.»
Another area of weakness across most of the country’s curricula was in teaching students that climate change can be mitigated through action, the study noted.
Wynes said he’d like to see more jurisdictions teaching students how to take action.
«I think the health metaphor holds up,» he said. «If we’re talking about healthy eating, we tell students, ‘Look, here are some options for healthy eating.’ … We encourage providing that information to students. It makes sense that we would do the same thing for climate change.»
Firefighters make their way through a flooded street in May in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, a suburb northwest of Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)
Wynes and Nicholas also examined the curricula in relation to political conservatism and greenhouse gas emissions in each province and territory, but they did not find a relationship between them.
However, they suggest there may be a weak correlation between when the curricula were written and how extensively climate change is covered.
Manitoba’s climate change curriculum was published in 2001, making it the oldest in Canada, with New Brunswick’s 2002 curriculum a close second.
A spokesperson for New Brunswick’s Education Department said staff are in the process of updating the science curriculum, but it may take a few years before changes are implemented. In the meantime, staff are developing resources to help teachers integrate climate change into the current curriculum.
Wynes said he wasn’t surprised by the age of some of the curricula, because developing and implementing them can take a long time. But he said he’s optimistic that climate change education will improve as the issue gains more momentum in the media and politics.
What Nova Scotia education officials are doing
Sue Taylor-Foley, Nova Scotia’s executive director of education innovation, program and services, said despite the study’s findings about the province, the Education Department has incorporated environmental stewardship, climate science and sustainability into the curriculum since at least 2000, from Primary to Grade 12.
She said the province will be renewing the curriculum for grades 9 to 12 this fall.
Source of the notice: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/climate-change-curriculum-canadian-high-schools-1.5221358
Oceania/ New Zealand/ 29.07.2019/ Source: www.odt.co.nz.
Education is needed to create a sustainable world, write Roger Browne and Mary Ann Baxter.
In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly accepted a set of 17 goals to be achieved globally by 2030.
These are referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and encompass the physical and social world we inhabit.
The full details are available at sustainabledevelopment.un.org.
Among these goals are many which will be familiar to New Zealanders.
Goal number 12, responsible consumption and production, envisages a world where repurposing and recycling will replace our «throw-away» habits. Avoiding food waste will not just avoid food going to landfills but, through appropriate adjustments to production and distribution, will assist in alleviating hunger.
Energy-efficient appliances will, on a global scale, assist in limiting carbon emissions. Planting trees will support the restoration of native habitats and biodiversity.
Avoiding plastic bags will help protect life in the oceans.
Goal number 13, climate action, states: «Educate young people in climate change to put them in a sustainable path early on.»
What will drive the achievement of the SDGs at the local level?
One key element is education. In rural New Zealand one of the most effective vehicles to deliver that education is the Reap (Rural Education Activities Programme).
There are 13 Reaps in New Zealand, including one in Central Otago. Our local Reap, based in Alexandra, services an area stretching from Makarora in the west to the outskirts of Dunedin, and up into the Maniototo. The Central Otago Reap was formed 40 years ago.
So much has changed in that time. The world population has grown by 75% and the global inflation-adjusted GDP has grown by a factor of almost three. With economic growth comes the growth of waste and the production of carbon emissions.
Globally, waste production is forecast to triple by the end of the century in the absence of any measures to counter this trend.
The United Nations’ SDGs seek to ensure economic growth is channelled towards wellbeing and away from waste.
Achieving this will require buy-in from all sectors of society.
If economic activities continue to be linked to the production of waste then society faces a bleak future.
Understanding the need for change involves education on a broad scale.
Some of this can be driven by central government (for instance, through changes in school curricula) and by local government (for instance, through supporting community-based recycling facilities).
Alongside this, partnerships with education providers at the local level have proven very effective.
Such partnerships have enabled and supported the Central Otago Reap’s well-established track record in initiating and embedding educational programmes on sustainable living across our local community.
The 17 SDGs are central to the way in which the Reap delivers all of its programmes.
Activities such as Plastic Free July are indicative of how Reap’s skilled communicators can be seen to have endorsed and implemented the SDGs ever since our partnership was initiated in 2006.
Skilled communicators in subjects supporting the sustainable development goals are to be valued.
Their message is vital to our future wellbeing.
We live in a part of the country where our regional identity is «A World of Difference».
Our belief that we can and are making a difference together at the local level is vital to our future wellbeing.
Source of the notice: https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/reap-delivering-more-rural-education
Thousands of Australian school students have urged greater action on climate change in protests across the country.
The students skipped school on Friday to highlight what they say are inadequate climate policies by the Australian government.
On Monday, Australian PM Scott Morrison rebuked their plans for «activism» during school hours and insisted his government was tackling climate change.
Many students said his remarks had bolstered their resolve to protest.
«We will be the ones suffering the consequences of the decisions they [politicians] make today,» protester Jagveer Singh, 17, told the BBC.
Australia has committed to reducing its emissions by 26-28% on 2005 levels by 2030, under the Paris climate agreement.
Mr Morrison most recently cited a renewable energy target, a clean energy purchasing fund, and a hydropower project as evidence of Australia’s progress.
He told parliament on Monday: «What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools.»
Resources Minister Matt Canavan, meanwhile, angered protesters by saying students would not learn anything from «walking off school and protesting».
«The best thing you learn about going to a protest is how to join the dole [welfare] queue because that’s what your future life will look like,» he told a radio interviewer.
Many students held placards criticising the government, and PM Morrison specifically. «I hate ScoMo [Scott Morrison] more than I hate school,» one said.
Australia had made «no improvement» in its climate policy since last year, according to the emissions gap report.
School Strike 4 Climate Action protests have been held in every state capital and 20 regional towns.
The BBC asked several students why they were taking part.
‘Education is our only power’
Image captionMilou Albrect (l) and Harriet O’Shea Carre organised the protest
The idea started with Milou Albrect and Harriet O’Shea Carre, both 14, in the state of Victoria.
«The climate change emergency is something we have been thinking about for a long time,» Harriet said.
«We wrote letters and did different things but they never seemed to make a difference. Really, education, is our only power. By sacrificing that [on Friday], it’s making a big point.»
Milou said: «We want our government to acknowledge publicly that climate change is a crisis. Stop digging coal, stop making new coal mines, switch to renewable energy.»
‘It’s really scary for us’
Image copyrightJULIAN MEEHANImage captionJean Hinchcliffe, 14, organised a rally in Sydney
Jean Hinchcliffe, 14, saw the idea to protest grow in Victoria and decided to start one in her home city, Sydney.
«I can’t just sit around until I’m old enough to vote,» she said.
«Everyone, all young people, we can see that climate change is a real issue and we’re completely sick of politicians’ inaction.
«It’s really scary for us, to see how it’s going to impact our future,» she said, citing fears about rising sea levels and extreme weather events.
‘It’s been an issue our whole life’
Image copyrightRUBY WALKERImage captionRuby Walker says her generation has grown up thinking about climate change
Ruby Walker, 16, organised a protest in her town of Inverell, about 570km (350 miles) north of Sydney, after seeing others’ plans on Facebook.
She had also been inspired by the activism of high school students in the US during environment and gun control debates, she said.
«I think social media is a big part of it. You’re constantly seeing these issues happening around the world and seeing other students stick up for things you believe in,» she said.
«I feel like Australia is an embarrassment when it comes to climate change.»
Source of the notice: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-46380418
On World Environment Day, there will be plenty of words spoken about the obvious damage being wreaked by climate change – the chaos of hurricanes, wild fires and melting polar ice caps is there for all to see.
But there’s another more hidden casualty of this new world of rising temperatures, drought, and increased natural disasters: the education of our young people.
At the simplest level, the wilder weather that we’re already seeing means children are prevented from getting to school. Hurricanes Irma and Harvey meant 1.7 million US students were temporarily unable to go to school last year – and officials in Puerto Rico have also recently announced plans to close over 280 schools following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria.
In wealthier nations, the damage caused by the increasing occurrence of extreme weather events more often than not tends to cause temporary disruption to children’s education.
But in poorer countries, the consequences can be far more long lasting.
Buildings and infrastructure can take months or years to rebuild, with devastating implications for learning. Girls are most likely to be taken out of school in the wake of climate-related shocks, as was found in studies in Pakistan and Uganda after natural disasters there.
So, indirectly, climate change is compounding educational inequalities that already exist.
But the hardest hit parts of the world are those where universal education is still denied millions and Sub-Saharan Africa is on the front lines. Adult literacy rates are around 65%, compared to a global average of 86%. Here, over a fifth of children aged 6-11 are out of school, and a third of those aged 12-14.
In Rwanda, we know the devastating impact of being forced from one’s home can have on a child’s education.
But the big refugee crises of the future will not just be driven by war, but by the environment, with experts warning tens of millions are likely to be displaced in the next decade by droughts and crop failures brought about by climate change.
What’s more, rising temperatures are predicted to result in the spread of lethal diseases. It is thought that a 2°C rise in temperatures could lead to an additional 40-60 million people in Africa being exposed to malaria.
The disease is already one of the most significant factors in student absenteeism on the continent, with estimates ranging from 13 – 50%depending on the region.
Environmental changes are diminishing children’s education in other ways too. Malnourishment directly affects children’s ability to learn. The World Food Programme has identified hunger and malnutrition as one of the most significant impacts of climate change.
Poor maternal diet means the odds are stacked against a growing number of children even before they are born.
Food shortages and crop failures can also cause conflict and political extremism – which can also blight educational chances. In Mali, for example, where rainfall has dropped 30% since 1998, the instability has created an environment where poisonous anti-education ideologies can flourish.
Recent years have seen many tragic attacks on African schools, from Boko Haram in Nigeria to rebels in DR Congo. States weakened by the economic and social damage of climate change will be less able to counter these destructive forces.
If states start to fail, then precarious state funding for education – which is already being squeezed even before the impact of climate change is taken into consideration – will be at risk.
The percentage of trained primary school teachers in sub-Saharan Africa has already fallen by 27.5% in just 15 years, from 84.4% in 2000 to 61.23% in 2015, according to UNESCO data.
Meanwhile, teachers from Nigeria to Kenya frequently find themselves unpaid at the end of the month. This despite the chronically low levels of remuneration; UNESCO has found there has been a decline in teacher pay across Africa since 1975.
As states grapple with increasingly perilous priorities in the face of so many threats borne by climate change, education funding may be one of the first things to get cut.
It is vital that we understand the threat posed by climate change to education and act against it. That is why I support the Dubai Declaration on Education and Climate Change made at the Varkey Foundation’s Global Education and Skills Forum in March. The declaration calls on the international community to take action in educating the next generation about the perils of climate change along six key principles: education is the responsibility of all; global interdependence and the imperative of planetary stewardship provide the critical context for education in the 21st Century; averting catastrophic climate change calls for improved climate literacy for all; education needs to foster a sense of global citizenship and ecological responsibility in all; and education reform and climate action should be pursued as mutually reinforcing objectives in public policy.
The Dubai Declaration is an important start in ensuring education does not become the forgotten casualty of climate change. But in the face of the multitudinous and multifaceted threats climate change poses to education right now, from children kept out of school due to extreme weather events to those forced to flee their communities by longer term climactic conditions, to conflicts, hunger and disease, governments must act urgently to ensure that every single child is given access to a good school and a well-trained and qualified teacher.
On this World Environment Day, ahead of the G7 Leaders meeting in Canada, it’s a timely reminder that climate change is doing immediate damage to the life chances of children all over the world who are being denied their birthright of a decent education.
The writer is the former Minister of Education of Rwanda and a member of the Atlantis Group of former Education Ministers around the world, an initiative of the Varkey Foundation since March 2017s.
Commonwealth countries have resolved to include climate change in their curriculum from Early Childhood Education to institutions of higher learning.
In a declaration of the 20th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers in Nadi, Fiji, on Friday, the ministers said they will double efforts to educate present and future generations on climate change.
Speaking during the conference, Education CS Amina Mohamed said rising seas and extreme weather changes are the greatest threats facing humanity.
Mohamed, who also chaired the conference, said there was need to promote climate awareness, including through mass education beyond the classroom.
The CS called for stronger engagement with the private sector and other industry players.
The conference also called for increased awareness of green and blue technologies and emerging alternative for clean energy sources.
The ministers said progress has been made in expanding access to education. They stressed the need to improve quality of education to ensure learners master both numeracy and literacy skills.
Member states also agreed to focus on training, recruitment and motivation of teachers.
The ministers said there was need to tackle emerging challenges like employment and ensure learners get the best start in education.
The conference called on governments to invest at least four to six per cent of their GDP or between 15-20 per cent of government spending in education.
The meeting in Fiji also resolved to have Kenya host the next conference in 2021.
The conference brings together education ministers from all the 52 Commonwealth countries to discuss key issues affecting the sector.
Mohammed appreciated the decision to have Kenya host the next conference.
“I wish to confirm, with gratitude and humility, that Kenya accepts the honour of hosting the 21st CCEM. Kenya looks forward to hosting the 21st Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in 2021,” Mohamed said.
“We will work with the Commonwealth Secretariat to ensure that the logistical, administrative and other preparations are in place for a successful conference.»
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