Category: ecology

COP 26

Today is the start of COP26, the annual UN Climate Change Conference running for the next fortnight in Glasgow, Scotland.

This is a significant moment in history and we will be following the proceedings closely here on ELT Footprint UK.

There are many excellent COP26 teaching resources for educators wanting to talk about the Earth emergency, for example:

For more general information, especially on solutions to climate change, see TED Countdown

See also my personal favourite way of staying up to date with the issues: the wonderful podcasts from Outrage and Optimism

And if you know of additional resources you’d like to recommend to readers of this post, please leave your comments below.

Tags COP 26

climate change ecology nature podcast

Outrage and Optimism is a weekly podcast that provides everything you need to keep up to date with the latest environmental developments: ‘We explore the challenges, frustrations and genuine outrage we need to face this crisis, and we explore the real changes already happening that offer the stubborn optimism we need to play our part in building a thriving new economy and world.’ This week’s podcast is about the nature agenda and how we cannot deal with the climate crisis without also addressing nature. Some wonderful music too from Marie Spaemann. Highly recommended.

biodiversity ecology politics sustainable development the future

Emperor with no clothes

“Climate change is as big a threat to world peace as war,” the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, recently told the UN Security Council, as he committed the UK, host of this year’s key climate conference, COP 26, to leading the world on action. Yet the UK’s own influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) comprised of UK Members of Parliament says ministers have “no plan” to meet climate change targets, two years after setting them in law. Renowned economist Andrew Simms lays all of this bare in a brilliant article settings recent UK spending commitments in perspective: “What that leadership currently looks like is a government which announced an increase in its military spending of £16.5 billion in November 2020, and in 2020-21 spent at least £41.2 billion on the military and just £3.1 billion on reducing carbon emissions.” Strip away the green rhetoric and what lies beneath looks very much like business as usual with all its toxic legacy for our children and grandchildren.

climate change ecology nature

Mad World

‘A Backwards Catastrophe’ is a BBC Radio 4 production that is part polemic, part satire, part lyrical collage. Beautifully produced, it travels in reverse through the BBC archives to trace some of the present problems and oblique antecedents of the environmental crisis. The programme rolls along to variations on and reversals of the appropriate Mad World melody. Highly recommended. The best way to escape for an undisturbed hour and really appreciate the sound experience is by using head phones.

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Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill

Post author By Christopher Etchells
Post date 12 February 2021
No Comments on Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill

Here’s a really simple and clear explanation about the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill. It’s a great chance to build consensus both inside and outside parliament on a road map to an environmentally sustainable future. In a year when the UK Government seeks to persuade the rest of the world that it is serious about the Climate and Ecological Emergency, the least you can expect from your MP is that they support the bill. Here’s a letter I wrote to mine:

Dear Laurence Robertson,

As one of your constituents I am writing to ask you to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill – see https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/57374/climate-and-ecological-emergency-bill.

Scientists are increasingly sounding the alarm as to the inadequacy of governmental response to this real and urgent problem. I am deeply concerned for the future of our planet and the wellbeing of my children and grandchildren.

In a year when the UK Government seeks to show the rest of the world at COP 26 that it is serious about the climate and ecological emergency, the least I can expect from you as my MP is that you support this bill.

By so doing you will help to propel action and signal to the increasing number of environmentally concerned people in this constituency that you care about their future.

Yours sincerely
Christopher Etchells

Writing to your MP is easy: just enter your postcode at https://www.writetothem.com/?a=westminstermp then follow the simple instructions. MPs really do listen to this kind of thing, so please take a few minutes out of your day to let your MP know how you feel on this vital issue.

climate change ecology events youth

Get ready for MockCOP

Post author By Christopher Etchells
Post date 16 November 2020

This international, youth-led climate conference, mobilising in the absence of the postponed COP 26 UN climate talks, aims to bring the passion and energy of young people to address the world’s climate and ecological crisis. It begs the question as to why young people can organise a virtual conference like this while their elders have to fly around the world and stay in expensive hotels. Takes place 19 November to 1st December. Why not show the MockCOP programme to your students to see what interests them? Then follow along for motivating, challenging, real world content to discuss with your students.

ecology education publications

Education at the heart

Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine

This from the excellent Resurgence and Ecologist Magazine for May/June 2020: “We need a new ideology based on connection: between individuals, between institutions, and between our societies and Nature. At the heart of this is education.” Food for thought indeed.

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Ecology home schooling

Author George Monbiot turns out to be a natural educator too. In this article he describes how he has explored ecology education with his daughter during lockdown. A project-based approach centers learning on the living world. The results speak for themselves. Truly inspirational.