1. NESTA is the UK’s innovation agency for social good https://www.nesta.org.uk/ and climate and the environment is – unsurprisingly enough – one of the main strands of their activity. Next Tuesday, 26th October, at 13:00 UK time sees the start of their series on Making the Switch to Cleaner, Greener Homes https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/sustainable-future-event-series/
Last year they held another event focussed on greener homes, recorded here https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/stories-change/ The summary of the event states baldly: “It’s a big task. According to the Energy Systems Catapult, the average household (in the UK) needs to bring its heating-related emissions down from roughly 2,745 kg of CO2 per year today to just 138 kg per year by 2050.” That’s a drop of 95% by my reckoning. Their website is well worth exploring.
2. FutureFest is also a NESTA initiative, but surprisingly difficult to find from the main NESTA website, so here it is https://futurefest.org/#login
You need to register but once you’ve done so, there’s a host of video material available to you, including Louis Theroux on Is the World Getting Weirder? and Elif Shafak on Did Optimism Ruin the World? And Can Pessimism Save It? Climate is also one of the main themes of Future Fest.
3. This one’s not climate as such: it’s about teacher agency. A sense of one’s own agency, though, is what a teacher needs in order to engage with climate issues. Language Teacher Agency by Jian Tao and Xuesong (Andy) Gao has been published online in the Cambridge Elements series by Cambridge University Press, and is available free for the first two weeks for reading and download, via the following link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/language-teacher-agency/4DE8552461A959E17B8A7A5BC63FEB09 PDF below for convenience.
4. Slightly heavy going, maybe, this piece on The future of vehicles from the Centre for Science and Policy at Cambridge University. Give it to your more advanced students and ask them to précis it! https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/Research-Policy-Engagement/spotlights-blogs/future-vehicles/
People do still do précis, don’t they?
5. And, finally and less heavy going, here’s what’s often claimed to be the most popular song in the world https://www.jazzonthetube.com/pete-seeger-and-guantanamera/ Be sure to watch the video!
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