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Inspiration Politics

History gives us hope

XR child
Don’t be fooled – this is one of their most dangerous operatives

A communication from Extinction Rebellion today: “If the old ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win’ is true, we appear to be transitioning from the ridicule stage into the fight.”

If that gives you hope, read this extremely interesting article from Open Democracy.

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Inspiration

The Time is Now

The very first – Summer 2020 – edition of Bloomberg Green climate magazine aims to chronicle a new era of climate solutions alongside a frank appraisal of climate facts and figures: “The world has been brought low by the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has the means to rebuild itself better. Let’s take this era of climate solutions as seriously as our real fear of reaching a dead end.”

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Inspiration Resources

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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Inspiration

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.

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Finance and money Inspiration

Oxford University to divest from fossil fuels

Oxford University
Photo by Sidharth Bhatia on Unsplash

Excellent to see that Oxford University has at last committed to removing its investment money from fossil fuels. It’s no wonder: when young people are choosing which university to attend, this is one of the first things they need to ask. It’s their future after all.

More here.

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Inspiration

A chance to rebuild

A recent survey by Ipsos of 14 countries suggests that, on average, 65% of people want climate change to be prioritised in the economic recovery.

Let’s take this chance to avoid going back to business as usual.

Read this excellent recent article in The Guardian by George Monbiot.

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Inspiration

Covid-19 upside

Spring countryside

Has anyone else noticed how beautiful the countryside is at the moment? Yesterday I was out for my allowed one period of exercise in the UK, which I intend to make the most of.

The absence of traffic is a delight. The countryside is quiet, the air is clean and the skies are approaching the depth of blue last seen during the Icelandic volcano airspace shutdown.

The night skies, too, are a joy.

Let’s try to recognise and remember this and *not* go back to business as usual when Covid-19 is over, instead using it as a springboard from which to continue resetting our relationship with the planet.

See here

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Inspiration

Liverpool School of English Green Group

A guest blog by Ricky Anderson

The Green Group at Liverpool School of English started in January 2020 as an attempt by a handful of teaching staff to convert our environmental frustration into meaningful action. The intention has been, from the beginning, to collectively take action and do our bit within our context – So teachers and English language learners working together to make our school, local area and shared lifestyles more sustainable.

We began by arranging a series of lunchtime meetings to which all staff and students were invited. We regularly had 10-15 attendees -split into action groups, each identifying environmental issues and doing the ground work to achieve a related action point. We also have a Green Group Whatsapp group used to share ideas, research and so on. The action points that have taken place have included:

  • The setting up of a Library of Things at our school -adaptors, umbrellas, hairdryers, textbooks, cutlery and crockery saved from landfill and used.
  • homeless donations box –bedding, clothes, unused toiletries saved from landfill and used.
  • TrashTalk – our weekly local litter pick and conversation class.
  • The addition of litter pick and tree planting activities to our social programme.
  • Increased energy waste awareness Switch it off stickers.
  • Student-led improvements in our recycling provision- including joining Terracycle and collecting all used pens for recycling.
  • Student-written emails sent to residences and host families re. recycling provision.
  • Student-written emails to local politicians.
  • Green Talks: 30-minute talks from local green entrepreneurs, Green Party councillors, ecologists etc
  • Reuse of one-sided misprints across the school.

We have failed thus far /  continuing to try and implement some of the following:

  • Composting
  • Water butt -rainwater collection ad use
  • Bug hotels, bird boxes, bird baths
  • Sustainability based workshops
  • A carbon offsetting button on school booking forms
  • A bike share scheme
  • Increased nature walking and woodland based social activities
  • An environment/ climate crisis themed week of lessons and activities
  • A teacher car share system

Those involved in setting this up have without exception felt an immense pride in seeing what a small group of people working together for 30 minutes a week can achieve. We’re hoping that our Green Group could provide a model for other similar sized  language schools to take action collectively against the climate crisis.

For further information please contact, Ricky Anderson, Academic Coordinator at Liverpool Schools of English.

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Inspiration

The Re-planning of Cities

bike priority lane

One of the most effective ways to energise your response to climate change in the present is to visualise a better future. This article also available here does that while describing hopeful changes happening right now in cities around the world.

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Inspiration Resources

If you do one thing….

..buy and read This Is Not A Drill, a collection of ‘pithy, punchy essays designed to shake us out of our collective despair-induced lethargy’. Superb. More information. Read it from £4.99. A small price to pay to be enlightened and encouraged on the issue of our lives.