by Betty Wong | 5 Jan 2023 | Climate change, Climate decoders, Economy, Educators' Catalog, Environment
Turn on the tap, and the world’s most valuable commodity pours out. Maybe it’s time to invest in water — to line our pockets and protect our planet. Clean water pours from a hose. Credit: Cassio Henrique. Getty Images. This article is the seventh in a...
Water is one of the most important commodities in the world. It is also tradable as companies seek to make money by purifying and distributing it. Some organizations that are pushing for climate change action are investing in water companies to pressure private industry to be better stewards of water. These investments in water stocks are proving to be financially profitable.
Exercise: The story identifies a list of companies that provide water or water infrastructure: IDEX Corp., Xylem Inc., Danaher Corp., Ecolab, Roper Industries, Pentair Plc, Ferguson Plc and American Water Works Co. Inc. Divide students into investment teams with $1 million each to invest. Have them first brainstorm ways water and systems for providing water could be improved in their area or elsewhere. Then have them look up the website of one or more of those companies to see if they can tell what the company does to improve water supply or quality. Would their $1 million invested in that company help towards the improvements they identified as needed?
by Marcy Burstiner | 13 Dec 2022 | Climate change, Contests, Environment, European School Brussels, News Decoder Updates
News Decoder has launched a series of projects, funded by the European Union, to help teachers integrate climate change into the classroom. Students at the Climate Academy designed and created a mural in the grounds of their school evoking the rights of young people...
by Aralynn Abare McMane | 8 Dec 2022 | Climate change, Contests, Educators' Catalog, Environment, European School Brussels
Winners of a worldwide competition will get cash prizes as well as coaching from News Decoder and publication on the News Decoder site. Announcing the Climate Champion Profiles storytelling competition Teenage journalists worldwide are invited to profile someone who...
News Decoder is a member of a consortium of organizations implementing a multifaceted project to engage youth with climate change issues and actions. In this article, News Decoder Adviser Aralynn Abare McMane invites high school students across the world to identify and interview someone in their community working to solve the climate crisis in a significant way, then write an article or produce a video or podcast about that person for submission to a worldwide contest.
Exercise: Find an individual in your community who is trying to fight climate change in a real way. Have students research that person by looking up relevant websites and reading any news articles that have been done or watching any videos that feature that person. Then invite the person to talk to your class and have students prepare questions they would need answered in order to write a profile of that person. Have each student write a profile and submit the best one to the The Writing’s on the Wall Climate Champions Storytelling Competition.
by Deborah Charles | 29 Nov 2022 | Climate change, Climate decoders, Decoders, Environment, World
Food systems contribute greatly to climate change. Cooling the planet might require shaking up our meal plans. Substitute meat brands at a supermarket in Westchester County, New York, 16 February 2021. (STRF/STAR MAX/IPx) This article is the fifth in a series of...
by Sue Landau | 22 Nov 2022 | Climate change, Climate decoders, Decoders, Environment
It’s not too late to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy, decarbonize industry and adapt land-use to trap carbon in soil and plants. A solar panel sits near a street in Lagos, Nigeria, 20 August 2022. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) This article is the fourth...
by Jeremy Lovell | 9 Nov 2022 | Climate change, Climate decoders, Decoders, Educators' Catalog, Environment
Climate change requires global, systemic action if we are to save Earth. But each of us can help bring pressure for the painful changes needed. Greta Thunberg at a climate strike outside the United Nations in New York, 30 August 2019 (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) This...
Can one person’s actions really help save our planet? The news on climate science is often bleak but Correspondent Jeremy Lovell tells us why we should each think of ourselves as one of a billion climate activists environmental advocate Greta Thunberg seeks to mobilize. And together we can push governments and corporations for changes that can save our planet.
Exercise: Have students come up with a short list of steps they think your national or regional government should and could take to fight climate change. Have each student write a letter to the president or your governor asking them to push for legislation that would accomplish this.
by Randall Mikkelsen | 2 Nov 2022 | Climate change, Environment, Europe
Big business is eager to show its environmental and social credentials. But how can you tell if a firm is genuine — or merely greenwashing? British cyclist Neah Evans sports a Shell plc logo on her jersey at a race near Paris, France, 16 October 2022. (AP...
by Malcolm Davidson | 25 Oct 2022 | Climate change, Climate decoders, Decoders, Environment
At next month’s climate summit in Egypt, poorer nations coping with disasters will press wealthier states for a fund to help them ride out catastrophes. Women carry belongings from their flooded home in the Qambar Shahdadkot district of Sindh Province of...
by Alister Doyle | 17 Oct 2022 | Climate change, Climate decoders, Decoders, Environment, Middle East, Politics, World
For years, governments have engaged in marathon annual talks to try to end global warming. But they often fall frustratingly short. Egypt will host COP27 in November at the Red Sea coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Rising sea levels caused by climate change are...
by Stuart Grudgings | 7 Oct 2022 | Americas, Climate change, Environment, Politics
The presidential election in Brazil means more than the future of the country. The Amazon and the fight against climate change could depend on it. The Itaquai River snakes through the upper Amazon basin. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros) As Brazilians cast their votes in a...
