by Sue Landau | 1 Nov 2021 | Educators' Catalog, Environment, Politics, World
Nations have not lived up to commitments made in Paris six years ago. But there has been progress in combating climate change. Let’s not lose hope. A protester participates in a demonstration calling for urgent measures to combat climate change, Brussels,...
While the UN’s Climate Change Conference COP26 left some constituents hoping for more action, correspondent Sue Landau offers a perspective on how far we’ve come in the fight against climate change. There have been major industrial developments since the Paris climate talks in 2015 that started to put real, clean alternatives to fossil fuels within our grasp. But they were not without their naysayers, who tend to forget that we are at the beginning of the story, not the end. Solar power is in its infancy but has the potential to be harnessed much more. Green hydrogen as a fuel and industrial feedstock is still mostly in the development stage. Carmakers are betting heavily on the future of electric vehicles. Change takes time.
Exercise: Ask students to compare and contrast alternative energy sources, noting costs and benefits for each.
by Jeremy Solomons | 29 Oct 2021 | Africa, Environment
Africa has contributed very little to global warming. But the continent is the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change — and already suffering. Children in Madagascar. The United Nations estimates that at least half a million children under the age of...
by Jeremy Lovell | 27 Oct 2021 | Environment, Politics, World
Like many international negotiations, UN climate talks eschew voting and require consensus of all nations for an accord — a curious form of democracy. A climate demonstrator outside parliament in London, 25 October 2021 (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) This story...
by Robert Hart | 25 Oct 2021 | Environment, World
Earth is headed towards unsustainably high temperatures. The jury is out whether world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow will be able to stave off disaster. Extinction Rebellion Red Rebels climate activists protest in The Hague, Netherlands, 11 October 2021. (Paulo Amorim /...
by Tira Shubart | 5 Oct 2021 | Science, Space, Technology, World
High-speed debris is piling up in space, threatening vital satellites. Nations are developing needed techniques to clean up space and prevent hazards. A tiny, floating object pierced a hole in Canadarm, the Canadian robotic arm on the International Space Station...
by Maggie Fox | 25 Aug 2021 | Educators' Catalog, Health and Wellness, Science, World
COVID-19 could have brought out the best in humanity. Instead, public health programs have fallen short, exposing us to a resurgence of diseases. A baby is vaccinated against malaria in Malawi. (WHO/Mark Nieuwenhof) COVID-19 has shut down vaccination programs around...
Headlines about COVID-19 understandably tend to focus on the current state of affairs — cases, hospitalizations, deaths, new variants, vaccines. It takes the kind of expertise that Maggie Fox has earned in years of writing about science and health to look beyond today to see what the pandemic means for tomorrow. Citing the latest research, Fox explores how public health services are failing to cope with myriad illnesses that don’t stop in their tracks just because there’s a pandemic. The outlook is not bright.
Exercise: Ask your students to speak to a local epidemiologist to learn how COVID-19 is affecting public health services nearby and the impact the pandemic is having on the fight against other illnesses.
by Christina MacCorkle and Lucy Maitland-Lewis | 18 Aug 2021 | Educators' Catalog, Environment, Politics, Student Posts, Thacher School, Youth Voices
The U.S. government owns the rights to any oil under our school. So, could frackers drill on campus? Turns out, the only certainty is the need to vote. Gymkhana Field at The Thacher School (Carin Yates/Thacher School) Since its founding in 1889, The Thacher School in...
Journalism is an adventure and publishing a process — lessons that Christina MacCorkle and Lucy Maitland-Lewis learned in spades in producing their article on a beloved field at their school in California. Gymkhana Field is where generations of Thacher School students have ridden horses, but it may also lie above valuable oil. Which is where the U.S. agency that manages federal lands enters the picture. Their story went through multiple drafts as they dug deeper and deeper into the web of issues. The bottom line is that the field’s future is uncertain — an ambiguous conclusion that could frustrate some writers. But the authors learned from the experience and their story educates us as well.
Exercise: Ask your students to research the history of their school grounds and to find out whether there is a chance that there could be changes to the school’s footprint, and if so, why.
by Alister Doyle | 10 Aug 2021 | Educators' Catalog, Environment, Technology, World
It’s taken more than a century, but experts now say humans are definitely to blame for the climate crisis. Will a UN report spur nations to take action? Emissions from a coal-fired power plant in Independence, Missouri, United States, 1 February 2021 (AP...
Alister Doyle puts his years of experience covering the environment to use in connecting the dots between the umpteenth report on the climate crisis and the umpteenth global meeting on what to do. Doyle provides a genuine service in showing us why the latest report by government experts and climate scientists has a bearing on the summit later this year in Glasgow to review the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Doyle’s report exemplifies News Decoder’s mission to explain complex global problems in a dispassionate, balanced and understandable way.
Exercise: Ask your students to choose an issue on the front page of a daily newspaper or on the nightly news, and to write an article explaining the background to the issue and why it’s important to the readers.
by Alexander Nicoll | 26 Jul 2021 | Economy, Europe, Government, Health and Wellness, Science, World
Our responses to COVID-19 have been driven by facts and perceptions of risk. As vaccinations increase, is it time for these perceptions to change? A family travels on a motorbike in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after the government ended a lockdown of the city, 6 May 2021....
by Enrique Shore | 28 Jun 2021 | Environment, Personal Reflections
Little did I know that leaving New York City during COVID-19 lockdown would bring me and my camera face-to-face with wild foxes. (All photos by Enrique Shore) I must admit that until very recently, I didn’t know anything about foxes. With few exceptions, people living...
