February 2016

  • Even UNESCO now talks about education, not ESD

    UNESCO is sidelining its flagging ESD project.  Although its website recently had this headline: Education for Sustainable Development placed firmly on the COP21 map ... it was followed by this: "The critical role of education in climate change was given the stamp...

  • How can we make UK higher education sustainable?

    This is not my question.  It's a headline in today's Times Higher [THE]. Needless to say, it's got nothing to do with the sort of sustainability that usually features in this blog.  Rather, it's about the financial viability of higher...

  • The Kaya Identity

    One of the issues that Michael Finus discussed last Tuesday night in his I-SEE seminar was the Kaya Identity, which is an equation relating to human impact on climate.  I had not come across it before – such a sheltered life! The idea...

  • UNESCO's badly-run lottery

    Flush from the triumph of its first UNESCO-Japan Prize on ESD, UNESCO has issued a second call for nominations for the next round (2016) where three lucky winners will receive $US 50,000.  It was awarded for the first time in November 2015 to organizations...

  • The inclosure acts and environmental education

    The NAEE blog recently carried a guest posting from Geoffrey Guy who lectures at Reaseheath College, and is the Director of Education for Bushcraft Education Ltd, and founder of the Bushcraft Education blog.  It was about the enclosure of land and...

  • Sustainable Schools Alliance case study

    The February edition of SEEd's newsletter contains what it says is a case study of the sustainable schools alliance [SSA].  It begins ... "This case study is not a single initiative nor a one organisation programme. Rather is has been...

  • Will the Brexodus be going through the Brexit?

    Environmentalists whom I know tend to want to claim that much of the UK's recent pro-environment legislation 'n' regulation stems from the EU rather than from our own parliaments.  I don't know enough to adjudicate on that view, but it...

  • The contribution of economics to the gloomy debate about climate change

    Another day; another seminar – it's just the hectic life of a retiring academic. This time, it was a trip to Bath to listen to Michael Finus, who has a Chair in Environmental Economics, give an I-SEE seminar on the contribution of...

  • AUDE forgets about learning

    AUDE, the Association for University Directors of Estates, has launched a HE Sector Sustainability Evaluating Methodology  – known colloquially as the Green Scorecard. AUDE says that the intention of the scorecard is to "improve and promote sustainability, reflecting and demonstrating progress and...

  • Learning in the Mesolithic

    The Stonehenge seminar on Monday night was a great evening with 6 varied presentations, as I outlined the other day, and a tribute to Buckingham's approach to their MA. I thought the best piece of work was that outlined by...