NASA shows our wonderful world. Are we willing to destroy this…?
The Independent reports http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-image-shows-its-a-wonderful-world-1914988.html that NASA has just sent back to Earth, ‘a most spectacular image of the Earth’.
Climate skeptics would have us think we can go on using and abusing our planet, with no consideration for the consequences. The reality is, in the words of the famous saying, ‘we have borrowed the earth from our children’.
Al Gore has challenged these sceptics. We need, all of us, to do what can and help our children to do what they can! Copenhagen, rather than being perceived as a ‘failure’, should be seen as the first small step – real political acknowledgement - leading towards a much larger one – local , national and global action!
Waterworld .. but with biodiversity dead! Is that what we really want?
The Independent reports that coral reefs are showing rising acidity.
All of the tropical coral reefs in the world will be disintegrating by the end of the century because of the rising acidity of the oceans caused by a build-up of man-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a study has found.
Coral reefs are sometimes considered to be the “rainforests of the oceans” because they are home to a wide variety of fish and other wildlife, supporting about a quarter of all marine organisms. They also provide food for about 500 million people around the world. Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are higher now than at any time in the last 650,000 years, and are continuing to rise as a result of the burning of fossil fuels. Between a third and a half of the CO2 produced since the start of the industrial revolution has dissolved in the oceans.
Corals have a symbiotic relationship with the microscopic algae that live in their tissues. As well as giving coral its vibrant colour, the algae provide the reef creatures with most of their energy. “Even if we froze emissions today, the planet still has some warming left in it. That’s enough to make bleaching dangerously frequent in reefs worldwide.”
MY VIEW: I have been fortunate to have seen coral reefs on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (World Heritage Site) and the Red Sea, both several years ago. Whilst snorkelling at these sites, I noted the wonderful habitat rich in fish and marine life; I also was very aware, too, espedially in the Red Sea, how some of the coral was turning white – a change that was graphic! Even as a non-marine scientist (I am a geographer by training), I realised what I was witnessing was unnatural – and wrong!
Recalling the film Waterworld – in which kevin Costner’s character lived – no survived – in a world dominanted by sea, but with no beauty and few plants and animals.
We must all take steps to protect our marine environment, including:
* reducing CO2 emissions
* not taking it for these amazing – and fragile – habitats for granted!
We as a human race are speeding up the timer on the planet’s ecosystem … and the ‘blue planet’ is being drained of potential to keep us alive!
The Indy article in full
Coral reefs in danger of being destroyed
Rising acidity of the oceans is threat to marine ecosystems, study warns
By Steve Connor, Science Editor in San Diego
All of the tropical coral reefs in the world will be disintegrating by the end of the century because of the rising acidity of the oceans caused by a build-up of man-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a study has found.
Coral reefs start to disintegrate when the acidity of the oceans rises beyond a certain threshold, and this point is likely to be reached before 2100, said Jacob Silverman of the Carnegie Institution of Science in Washington.
Carbon dioxide in the air dissolves in the sea to form carbonic acid, which interferes with the ability of coral organisms to make their calcium carbonate shells which form coral reefs, Dr Silversman said. But once the shells stop forming, the reef quickly crumbles.
A mathematical model was used to study how 9,000 coral reefs from around the world would respond to rising levels of carbon dioxide and increasing ocean acidity, Dr Silverman told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.
“A global map produced on the basis of these calculations shows that all coral reefs are expected to stop their growth and start to disintegrate when atmosphere CO2 reaches 560 parts per million – double its pre-industrial level – which is expected by the end of the 21st-century,” he told the meeting.
“Thus these ecosystems, which harbour the highest diversity of marine life in the oceans, may be severely reduced within less than 100 years.”
The findings were based on a detailed study of how increasing acidity affects the metabolism and growth of a large area of fringing coral reef in the northern Red Sea. The scientists found that the ability of corals to form their calcium skeletons was strongly dependent on acidity and, to a lesser extent, temperature.
Coral reefs are sometimes considered to be the “rainforests of the oceans” because they are home to a wide variety of fish and other wildlife, supporting about a quarter of all marine organisms. They also provide food for about 500 million people around the world. Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are higher now than at any time in the last 650,000 years, and are continuing to rise as a result of the burning of fossil fuels. Between a third and a half of the CO2 produced since the start of the industrial revolution has dissolved in the oceans.
Scientists have estimated that some 118 billion tonnes of carbon released into the air as carbon dioxide between 1800 and 1994 has been taken up by the oceans.
Dr Simon Donner, of the University of British Columbia in Canada, said increasing ocean temperatures also make coral reefs more susceptible to “bleaching”, caused by the loss of the photosynthetic algae on which the coral organisms depend.
Corals have a symbiotic relationship with the microscopic algae that live in their tissues. As well as giving coral its vibrant colour, the algae provide the reef creatures with most of their energy.
Dr Donner said: “Even if we froze emissions today, the planet still has some warming left in it. That’s enough to make bleaching dangerously frequent in reefs worldwide.”
Children need to get outside … precisely for their ‘health and well-being’!
The Independent Education section reports on forest schools.
At any one time in Britain it is conservatively estimated that more than 60,000 children are escaping into forest classrooms, usually for half a day per week, to improve their health, social skills and confidence.
A pupil explains what’s good about Forest School: ‘freedom’. After a moment, he adds: “There is no excitement in the classroom but I’m learning how to be safe here and do things I’m interested in.”
MY COMMENT: The recent icy and snow weather sweeping the United Kingdom is encouraging Headteachers to signal ‘wet play’ all too easily, stopping children – even those near buidings – to get some fresh air. So-called ‘health and safety’ considerations are being over-egged at the expense of kids getting the chance to let their hair down, run around and just be themselves! Children are, in my opinion, much hardier than we often give them credit for or appreciate. Yes, I found being on ‘duty’ in the playground the other day very brisk – but then I had the spent the morning teaching in an over-heated ‘sauna’ of a classroom…
The Forest Schools movement, takes the outdoors concept to a whole new level and promotes the idea that kids out-of-the-classroom is a ‘natural extension, not something ‘special’ or ‘unique’.
Some of the llong list of benefit: ‘addressing childhood obesity, sustainability and the environment, ‘Forest schools are teaching children about sustainable development and connect with all areas of the curriculum. They can also help with those important skills impossible to teach, such as socialisation and communication.’ It’s a concept supported by groups such as NAEE – the National Association for Environmental Education.
As the Norwegian saying goes: ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.’
The Independent full article
Forest gumption: Why children should take lessons outdoors
If you think today’s children spend too much time indoors, you’re not alone. A radical educational movement is showing pupils how to build shelters, make fires and get in touch with their inner caveman. Gordon Cairns reports
We are in a clearing in the North Wood of Pollok Country Park on the south side of Glasgow. If you concentrate, you can pick up the low hum of traffic on the M77 motorway, but to all intents and purposes the 12 pupils from Govan High School’s autism unit are in a haven, sheltered from the cold winds of the outside world by sycamore, horse chestnut, beech and elm trees and warmed by the fire they have built.
But this haven is also a classroom in a Forest School, part of a growing trend whereby children go into the woods as a learning experience and build shelters, make fires and care for the environment.
Children who would normally spend their spare time staring at electronic consoles appear content to wander through trees and gather wood. The bickering that has punctuated the journey has almost ceased as the group breathe in, exhale and relax.
At any one time in Britain it is conservatively estimated that more than 60,000 children are escaping into forest classrooms, usually for half a day per week, to improve their health, social skills and confidence.
Sally York, the education policy adviser to the Forestry Commission, which is behind the trend and is running sessions for children aged three to 18, believes that educational experiences shouldn’t be limited to the classroom: “Learning happens all over the place,” she says. “Teaching happens in space and that space can be indoors or out.”
The move to outdoor classrooms addresses a number of issues; childhood obesity, sustainability and the environment, according to York. “Forest schools are teaching children about sustainable development and connect with all areas of the curriculum. They can also help with those important skills impossible to teach, such as socialisation and communication.”
The literacy specialist and author of Toxic Childhood, Sue Palmer has studied the benefits of Forest Schools in Scandinavia where the idea originated. “In Denmark, the Forest Schools tend to be kindergarten – for children aged three to seven, and they are there all day, every day. Here it tends to be a day or an afternoon.”
Palmer favours the Danish approach but, even though she believes we are introducing British children to the outdoors too late and for too short a period of time, she still thinks it is a step in the right direction.
“I have to admit a couple of hours are better than nothing, but children today are getting out and about so little, it’s really just a drop in the ocean.”
Education’s target culture, where the emphasis is on pencil and paper subjects, increasingly pushes these opportunities outside the curriculum, she says.
“It is no surprise that the countries which were at the top of the UNICEF survey of childhood wellbeing were the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries, where children are outdoors much, much more than in the UK. Children here aren’t even walking to school.”
Only a handful of British schools have fully embraced the Danish model, the Secret Garden Outdoor Nursery in Fife being the first. Its founder, Cathy Bache, has been taking three- to five-year-olds out for six years, first as a childminder, then as a registered nursery. In that time she has never kept the children indoors due to the weather, even in the freezing temperatures of this winter. “We take the children out into woodland near Cupar, which has a mixed terrain, with different types of shelter. We chose the best location for the weather that is forecast that day. She adds: “There is a Norwegian saying, ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.’”
Bache, who has 35 children in her charge, believes the greatest benefit is that they are fitter than their peers. “Children have the most physical and emotional resilience imaginable and we have taken this away from them,” she says. “The Forest School children develop physically in a manner that children in a more cocooned life don’t, and have been fulfilled spiritually and emotionally.”
Pupils from her nursery don’t struggle when they attend the more structured regime of a primary classroom, because local primaries have adopted the Forest School model, she adds.
Today’s task is to build a fire. The children are organised by group leader Ali Horning, who asks them for suggestions on the best method of chopping wood and building a fire that will be safe for everyone. They start to chop branches into pegs and kindling.
Working in pairs, one holds the axe in place while the other brings a mallet down on top to split the wood. The pupils are more confident doing this than their teachers; as one pupil lurches towards the axe, a protective arm comes across from one of the accompanying adults.
But this element of risk is essential, according to Sue Palmer. “If you eradicate all risk from children, they won’t get anything out of the experience,” she explains. “Unless you do things for yourself, you won’t learn how to make your own risk assessments.”
She adds: “By talking about risk to children we are imposing an adult attitude; to a child it’s just exploration. They have to be able to make a judgement based on the knowledge of what they can do, and if they don’t use that exploratory gene at an early age, then they are not going to be able to assess risk.”
However, in a gesture towards our germ-free culture, Horning has brought some wet wipes.
Each child gets something different out of Forest School. Asked what he gets out of it Luke, 12, says one word, “freedom”. After a moment, he adds: “There is no excitement in the classroom but I’m learning how to be safe here and do things I’m interested in.”
Another 12-year-old, Craig, enjoys being outdoors. “Sometimes you see birds,” he says. “One time I saw a robin – something I’ve never seen before.”
Stefan, also 12, likes using the tools to chop wood. “I’ve never held an axe before,” he says. “I was pretty surprised Ali let me use it as not many children are allowed to.” Stefan finds that walking through the woods makes him feel calm. “There’s nothing to be scared of when there is someone there looking out for you.”
School trips in the outdoor classroom vital for children … to learn about real life!
The Independent Letters pages has flagged up the many distinct reasons for school trips – and education outside the classroom – being so vital in the education armery of any child, where ‘every child matters’.
The original article highlighted the difficulties – logistically and of the psyche – of running school trips. The resulting letter highlighted the very real quandary that schools, teachers, and headteachers face on a daily basis.
It highlighted, for example that: ’Whereas £300 million had been earmarked to improve school music over a three-year period, only £4.5 million had been spent on learning outside the classroom since 2005.’
Regarding the Letter: As the Headteacher Martin Priestley points out, refering to Richard Louv, in his excellent book Last Child in the Woods: ”there are vast benefits to be had from a more nature-friendly approach to education, since children develop their conceptual framework through experiencing the world in three dimensions.’
There is very real need to consider what children are missing out on, which cannot be replaced or supplemented in any other way, other than through a range of outoor experiences.
‘Instead of trying (and failing) to create a risk-free, sanitised, indoor environment for young people, we need to decide the sorts of risks we are willing for our children to encounter – and thereafter, the task is to manage it, not eliminate it.’… Attempts to keep children safe by entombing them indoors will backfire, because young people are hard-wired to seek out risk, and in so doing they are likely to turn to the internet, where they are in fact more at risk than in the real world.’
If every child really matters, then what of their connectedness to the environment?
Full versions from The Independent
School trips suffer due to lack of teacher
Children are becoming “entombed” in their homes and classrooms as a result of a demise in organised school trips, MPs were told today.
Thousands are missing out on visits to museums or the countryside because of a new clause in every teacher’s contract aimed at reducing the amount of time they cover for absent colleagues. The clause, inserted last September, says that teachers should only “rarely cover” for colleagues who are away from the classroom. It was agreed between ministers, local councils and teachers’ unions as part of a deal to reduce the pressure on teachers. However, former chief schools inspector Sir Mike Tomlinson, who is also chairman of the National Science Centre – which runs training courses for teachers and school visits, said: “I think there are some headteachers who are taking ‘rarely cover’ and converting it into ‘never cover’.
“There are some headteachers who say there will never be a teacher out of the classroom during term time.” Even in cases where the Government has promised to reimburse schools so they can pay for cover trips have been cancelled.
Tony Thomas, of the Council for Learning Outside the classroom – a body set up by the Government to promote the take-up of school trips, said: “The figures show a decline in the number of visits to parks and open spaces.”
Figures show that – in the time span of just one generation – the number of visits by children to parks and open spaces – had halved. “We’re now becoming entombed in our homes and buildings,” he added.
“Some headteachers are seeing ‘rarely cover’ as a cover for refusing to make a commitment to learning outside the classroom. The MPs, on the select committee, were told a government manifesto aimed at boosting school trips which recommended every pupil should go on at least one a year had failed to have any impact on take-up of outdoor learning opportunities. Other reasons cited for the decline include included safety fears and the risk of schools being sued if an accident occurred.
A survey by the Countryside Alliance revealed that 76 per cent of teachers were worried by the fear of litigation in the event of an accident. This is despite the fact that only half of the 364 claims made during the past decade had been successful – costing the average authority around £293 a year.
MPs were told that a lack of government cash to promote school trips was hampering efforts to improve the take-up. Whereas £300 million had been earmarked to improve school music over a three-year period, only £4.5 million had been spent on learning outside the classroom since 2005.
As a result, students in key subject areas such as science were turning up to university ill-equipped for their courses. ”The consequences are you’re not going forward with the practical skills you need and universities are reporting that students simply don’t have the practical skills they need to start courses,” said Sir Mike.
The MPs are expected to deliver a report on outside learning before the election. A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “There is absolutely no reason why schools should stop providing planned school trips or visits because of this provision as advance arrangements should already have been put in place.
“Rarely cover would only ever apply if the teacher taking the children to the event is then unforeseeably absent and alternative cover had to be provided.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/school-trips-suffer-due-to-lack-of-teacher-cover-1915397.html
Letters: School trips
Children need to go out and learn to live with risk
I was dismayed but not surprised by your article “School trips suffer due to lack of teacher cover” (3 March ). The difficulties of covering for teachers out on school trips should not deter schools from running them, nor should the current irrational approach to risk. Contrary to media coverage, the risks associated with school trips are in fact small. Too often unconsidered are the enriching benefits.
That is why I support the Countryside Alliance’s “Rural Manifesto”, which calls for outdoor learning to feature on the school curriculum. The American writer Richard Louv, in his excellent book Last Child in the Woods, describes the growing “nature-deficit disorder” among children. Too little exposure to nature, and too much to television, leads to attention difficulties. For each hour of TV watched per day by pre-schoolers, there is a 10 per cent increase in the likelihood they will develop concentration problems by the age of seven.
By contrast, as David Willetts, shadow minister for innovation, universities and skills, has pointed out, there are vast benefits to be had from a more nature-friendly approach to education, since children develop their conceptual framework through experiencing the world in three dimensions.
Attempts to keep children safe by entombing them indoors will backfire, because young people are hard-wired to seek out risk, and in so doing they are likely to turn to the internet, where they are in fact more at risk than in the real world. The digital generational divide – with children as digital natives and parents and teachers as digital immigrants – means that many adults are not technologically savvy enough to help children to understand online safety and manage online risks.
Both in and out of school, children need to be given the opportunity for adventure, both as fundamental to the quality of their childhood – for making friends, keeping healthy, inspiring the imagination – and also as fundamental to their ability to learn when they are at school. Instead of trying (and failing) to create a risk-free, sanitised, indoor environment for young people, we need to decide the sorts of risks we are willing for our children to encounter – and thereafter, the task is to manage it, not eliminate it.
Martin Priestley
Headmaster, Warminster School, Wiltshire
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-school-trips-1917820.html
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