{"id":7861,"date":"2021-02-26T08:11:20","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T08:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7861"},"modified":"2021-02-26T08:11:20","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T08:11:20","slug":"dasgupta-ngos-and-the-silence-on-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2021\/02\/26\/dasgupta-ngos-and-the-silence-on-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Dasgupta, NGOs and the silence on schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I noted the other week that the Dasgupta Review\u00a0has been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Ffinal-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cedswahs%40bath.ac.uk%7C091f5c38b1c849d7462608d8c756225f%7C377e3d224ea1422db0ad8fcc89406b9e%7C0%7C0%7C637478520065416170%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=J2SPcdekUjhKC7pYdnh5oueGyZ9s3SzITB2ZtA%2FWPP8%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>published<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0It has been widely welcomed with some NGOs publishing extensive comments. \u00a0See, for example,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwf.org.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/2021-02\/WWF_UK_response_Dasgupta%20Review_1_2_21.pdf\"><em>this<\/em><\/a> from WWF-UK. \u00a0The WWF commentary makes a number of key points, the first two of which are:<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 2\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<ul>\n<li><em>We welcome the Dasgupta Review, which uses a robust analytical framework to demonstrate how nature\u2019s contribution to our continued economic prosperity and wellbeing is not reflected in current economic models, tools and policymaking.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The powerful but unsustainable incentives that this embeds within our economic and financial systems are a primary reason for humanity\u2019s overuse of nature and for the environmental crisis we now face<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Another key point (agreeing with Dasgupta) was that a transition towards a nature-positive global economy will require a fundamental transformation of our institutions and systems \u2013 particularly our finance and education systems \u2013 to ensure our collective actions align with this overarching goal. \u00a0Reading this, I hoped to find more about it; perhaps that some detail might be proposed for the bare bones that Dasgupta itself had proposed. \u00a0I was disappointed as two other references to education just repeated this point, whilst a third\u00a0was about business needing to educate its customers. \u00a0There was no mention of schools, teachers or students. \u00a0I was disappointed then, but not surprised.<\/p>\n<p>I tried the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wildlifetrusts.org\/blog\/elliot-chapman-jones\/dasgupta-review-its-time-invest-nature\">Wildlife Trusts<\/a>\u00a0next to see what they had to say. \u00a0They at least had a section [<em>Make nature central to our education<\/em>] of their comments devoted to education. \u00a0Here it is:<\/p>\n<p>\"<em>The Review also recognises that at the heart of our unsustainable engagement with nature lies deep-rooted and widespread institutional failure. \u00a0To enable the changes we want to see, our institutions also need to change \u2013 this should start with our education system. \u00a0By experiencing the natural world, people are far more likely to take better care of it. \u00a0But inadequate teaching and learning for all ages is creating a growing disconnection\u00a0between people and the natural world. \u00a0If we don\u2019t take the opportunity to ensure that future generations nurture a connection to nature through nature-based learning, nothing will change. \u00a0Learning about our natural world should be embedded within the education system at all levels, through the Natural History GCSE and by ensuring at least an hour of learning outside every day. \u00a0The evidence shows that this will improve children\u2019s confidence and educational attainment, their mental and physical wellbeing, as well as teaching them the skills they need for the future<\/em>.\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Most of this just repeats what Dasgupta says, and suggests that they don't understand that the proposed GCSE in natural history will be optional.<\/p>\n<p>I then tried the RSPB, but a search on their website revealed no comment at all, although Mark Avery's <a href=\"https:\/\/markavery.info\/2021\/02\/02\/rspb-response-to-dasgupta-review\/\">blog<\/a> features a brief comment by RSPB's CEO, Beccy Speight who doesn't mention education. \u00a0I then went back to the RSPB site to see if she had said more than this, but I couldn't even find what Avery had spotted. \u00a0Am I so inept, or is there a problem with the RSPB search mechanism? \u00a0And with how environmental NGOs continually sideline the education of young people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I noted the other week that the Dasgupta Review\u00a0has been\u00a0published. \u00a0It has been widely welcomed with some NGOs publishing extensive comments. \u00a0See, for example,\u00a0this from WWF-UK. \u00a0The WWF commentary makes a number of key points, the first two of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}