Climate Thinking

Declaring a Climate Emergency: A Beginner’s Guide! This decade is our make-or-break opportunity to limit warming to 1.5°C and steer the world toward a net-zero future; as educators, we play a vital role in helping to create a better, greener world.  One way to let everybody know of your intentions to be part of the solution is to declare a Climate Emergency.  This is not as daunting as it sounds  - it's increasingly impossible for any leadership team to deny that we face a crisis, especially if that message  - with the plea for a declaration  - comes directly from pupils.  The Chase School eco group regaled our Head with impassioned speeches, petitions and home-made videos  - take a look at one example here:   https://www.chase.worcs.sch.uk/about-us/climate-emergency/ ONE: Shout Out! Once you have the go-ahead from your Headteacher, the first step is to raise awareness of your pledge across the school community.  Easy wins and ins...

Despite not explicitly featuring in this morning’s headlines, BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ program featured a whole host of climate stories: from the wild-fires causing such thick smog across Canada and the East Coast of the US that pupils are forced to stay home from school, to cartographer Eleanor Field and Professor Michael Meredith discussing the rapid loss of Arctic ice and subsequent rise in sea levels.  Canada Wildfire Tracker: Maps, Air Quality and Latest Smoke Forecast - The New York Times Amongst these horrifyingly apocalyptic news stories was novelist Anne Atkins’ ‘Thought for the Day’ which started with an exploration of the headline: “Climate Change is harming my mental health.”   Atkins spoke of the debilitating effects of eco-grief, detailing a PHD student who abandoned her study on shrinking ice sheets when she realised nothing in society was changing: she experienced deep depression and has decided not to have children. Whilst acknowledging the entirely apt angui...