April 2016

  • Yet another UNESCO strategy on ESD

    The Second International Conference of the UNESCO Chair for Education, Training and Research into Sustainable Development took place at the Bordeaux Institut National Polytechnique last month.  The conference: What strategy 2016-2019 for education, training and research into sustainable development brought representatives...

  • Questioning the metaphors we live by

    The Circulate newsletter from late February has an article on metaphors "A circular economy requires us to fundamentally change our metaphors, our subconscious assumptions, about the way our economy works, the role banks and money play, how we think about the resources...

  • More on motes and beams

    It is probably a commonly-held view amongst those with an interest in sustainability that the world's financial system is part of the problem.  That may be the end of any consensus, however, as arguments abound about what to do about...

  • Is it Nice Outside?

    Natural England has a new report: Is it Nice Outside? which presents research into dementia and the natural environment.  The report is the result of a collaborative project with Dementia Adventure, the Mental Health Foundation and Innovations in Dementia.  Here is the...

  • Let them weave their own

    The Economist recently had an article about attempts to suppress the used clothes trade in East Africa: Let them weave their own. The UN estimates that Kenya imported 18,000 tonnes of used clothes just from the UK in 2015, and...

  • Do ideas advance, one funeral at a time

    Max Planck said that "science advances one funeral at a time".  By this he meant that the death of prominent / dominant figures in a field freed up others to claim the limelight for their personalities and ideas.  These days,...

  • The national curriculum as a benchmark

    I wrote the other day about the latest DfE rebuttal of the idea that it should do anything to encourage a focus on sustainability in schools.  However, I think this response seems to go beyond the usual answer which was all about...

  • Motivated rejection of (climate) science: causes, tools, and effects

    This was the title of the I-SEE seminar the other week by Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol.  This is his Abstract: "Although the relevant scientific community long ago settled on the conclusion that human economic activities...

  • Letter from a civil servant

    The indefatigable Chris Southwood (of learning 2B sustainable) has been writing to the DfE again about a focus on sustainability in schools, and if you're a DfE civil servant, how apt it must be these days to work in Sanctuary Buildings.  Below,...

  • Forest Schools and Environmental Attitudes

    Forest Schools and Environmental Attitudes: a case study of children aged 8–11 years, which was published last year by Cogent Education, was made available to celebrate International Forest Day (March 21st). This is what the paper's Abstract says: "There is growing evidence that children in...