In September 2021 in California, two wildfires, one called the Colony Fire and the other Paradise Fire merged together to became the KNP Complex, a terrifying front of flames. These big fires burned through the Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada that is home to some of the largest trees in the world, which … Continue reading “2021 California wildfires: Giant Sequoia Killers”
The British Royal Foundation is awarding five prizes a year till 2030 for innovative ideas to help the planet. The Earthshot prizes have been named in reference to President Kennedy’s Moonshot project which concentrated innovators’ energies on putting a human on the Moon in the 1960s. Prince William explained that the aim of the Earthshots … Continue reading “The Earthshot Prizes”
The Extinction Rebellion ecological movement first came to prominence in 2019 when after 11 days of protests it persuaded the British government to declare a state of ecological emergency. This twelve-minute-long film starring Emma Thompson is a fiction based on real events and was shot during the 2019 protests in an eco-friendly sustainable way. It … Continue reading “Extinction Rebellion Short Film”
Sir David Attenborough has fascinated viewers around the world for decades with his documentary series like The Blue Planet and Life on Earth. Now the 95-year-old naturalist is using his communication skills to try to explain the complex issues to be tackled the United Nations’ COP26 environmental summit in Glasgow from 31 October. Attenborough was … Continue reading “David Attenborough: People’s Advocate for the Planet”
This inspiring documentary features teen activists around the world who see a problem and try to fix it. From Malawi to Colorado they are fighting pollution, opposing child marriage, supporting education, freedom of speech and sustainable agriculture and demanding rights for the planet and indigenous people. Melati Wijsen and her sister founded Bye Bye Plastic … Continue reading “Bigger Than Us”
We have a teacher recommendation for a site for creating posters for your classroom, and an example of a poster on the theme of Halloween to use in collège to work on the BE+ing present and reading comprehension around this celebration. Plus a worksheet on Halloween celebrations from A2, with a focus on the plastic … Continue reading “Create a Poster: Halloween”
Just ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow at the end of October, a cinema release for the documentary I am Greta. The young environmental activist who started School Strike for the Climate in 2018 is still only 18, but has had a profound effect on environmentalists young and old. The documentary was made almost … Continue reading “She is Greta”
A middle-school student from Florida used a science-fair project to convince the Miami-Dade School District to begin converting its fleet of school buses over to electric. Eighth-grader Holly Thorpe measured CO2 levels inside the diesel school buses and her alarming results convinced the district to make the switch. The yellow school bus is a classic … Continue reading “Teen Convinces Florida District to Switch to Electric School Buses”
19 November is Unicef’s annual World Children’s Day. This year, the UN organisation is highlighting how children have been impacted by the global pandemic. Although children are the group in society which is least affected by actual infection by Covid-19, many children are being negatively impacted by all the collateral affects. Loss of schooling and … Continue reading “Masked But Not Muted on World Children’s Day”
The 17-year-old founder of the School Strike for Climate movement has been awarded the inaugural Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. And immediately announced that she would donate the one million euro prize money to environmental projects through her foundation. This is the first year the Portuguese philanthropic Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation awarded the Prize for Humanity, which … Continue reading “Greta Thunberg Donates Million Euro Prize”
