Environmental news this week.. and BOICOT PLASTIC WEEK!!

We propose that everyone joins the BOICOT PLASTIC WEEK!!  An initiative by the Zero Waste network in Barcelona to spend a whole week avoiding plastic packaging... it's a challenge!!! Are you up to it to help save our oceans?

Plastic straws, cotton buds and drink stirrers to be banned in England

Plastic straws , drink stirrers, and cotton buds with plastic stems will be illegal and to sell and use in England from next April, this has been confirmed by the government.

Big amounts of plastic straws , drink stirrers, and cotton buds, (particularly cotton buds), are flushed down toilets or throw in bins most of this end up in the sea  surveys show evidence that recently waterways across the UK have been ‘teeming with plastic’,and  putting wildlife at risk. 

READ MORE HERE 

Update from the Roof Garden

The fruit trees on the roof are growing taller!

Click to see more pictures!!

Fridays for Future in Barcelona this week...

Read the article from 6th May 2019 here 

There is a an action supporting Greta in Barcelona after school on Friday this week:

Vehicle pollution 'results in 4m child asthma cases a year'

Four million children develop asthma every year as a result of air pollution from cars and trucks, equivalent to 11,000 new cases a day, a landmark study has found.

Most of the new cases occur in places where pollution levels are already below the World Health

 Organization limit, suggesting toxic air is even more harmful than thought.

The damage to children’s health is not limited to China and India, where pollution levels are particularly high. In UK and US cities, the researchers blame traffic pollution for a quarter of all new childhood asthma cases.

Canada has the third highest rate of new traffic-related asthma cases among the 194 nations analysed, while Los Angeles and New York City are in the top 10 worst cities out of the 125 assessed. Children are especially vulnerable to toxic air and exposure is also known to leave them with stunted lungs.

The research, published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, is the first global assessment of the impact of traffic fumes on childhood asthma based on high-resolution pollution data.

READ MORE

Early years garden here at Oak House!

Problems caused by climate change...

CORAL REEF BLEACHING

Climate change causes water temperatures to get hotter, this can result in
coral bleaching. When water is too warm corals will extract the algae called
zooxanthellae living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white.
In 2005, the U.S. lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year. This
was because of a humongous bleaching event. The warm waters centered
around the northern Antilles near the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The
satellite data from the previous 20 years confirmed that thermal stress from
2005 it was greater than the previous 20 years combined.
In conclusion, the coral reefs are dying and we need to act now by making
sure our planet is more sustainable.

Thanks to Valentina for sending us this post!

Read more

Greta Thunberg nominated for Nobel Peace Prize!

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl who has inspired an international movement to fight climate change, has been nominated as a candidate to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

She was nominated by three Norwegian MPs.

If she were to win, she would be the youngest recipient since Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 when she received the prize.

"We have proposed Greta Thunberg because if we do nothing to halt climate change, it will be the cause of wars, conflict and refugees," Norwegian Socialist MP Freddy Andre Ovstegard told AFP news agency.

"Greta Thunberg has launched a mass movement which I see as a major contribution to peace," he added.

READ MORE HERE

NEWS!! - Les escoles de Barcelona es coordinen pel moviment Fridays4Future

The news we were talking about in Environmental Club this week was that Greta Thunberg has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize!! and that there is possibly the biggest ever climate change demonstration this Friday 15th March to ask governments to act now stop climate breakdown around the world.

Here is a post about what's happening in Barcelona from Escoles Sostenibles!

And today we made our own posters (out of recycled card of course!) with the messages that we would like to share from our school in support of this global action!

#climatestrike

Environmental News : Endangered Species

By now we are all familiar with America’s president, Donald Trump. We all know that he does not believe in climate change and does very little or nothing to improve this problem. But now he is also  taking out protections from endangered species in America. So here are two species that are endangered due to climate change and human garbage, which we should try to protect. 

The first is the Rusty Patched Bumblebee

This bumblebee has reduced in population 90% thanks to pesticides we put on the plants and habitat loss from destroying natural areas to make more houses or roads. This bumblebee, as any other, is crucial for the reproduction of plants since they are in charge of pollinating the plants. The American administration stopped a plan to protect this crucial animal but later on letting it go on after a legal fight concerning the administration and the people who wanted to do the plan.

Secondly we have the Leatherback Turtle 

A decade ago these turtles were not in danger, actually there had been a slight increase of their population over the Atlantic but know there are “huge declines” Dr Justin Perrault says which is the director of research in the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. The turtles having to go to Florida to lay their eggs, there reduction in population is due to sea level rises that are happening there which drown the turtle’s nests on the beach. Furthermore they are also being strangled, chocked or caught in discarded fishing nets and the pollution and climate changes are not helping with this problem. The administration is now considering to downgrade these turtles protective status from endangered to threatening.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/06/five-species-under-threat-in-the-age-of-trump

Thanks to Gabriela for preparing this excellent post!

Eco meeting 28th Feb

This week we had an Eco Meeting, completely organised and run by 1ºESO students. (Carlota, Carlota, India and Cristina). They talked about the problems around the world and they created a thing that is called Eco Representatives, there will be 1 or more per class. The Eco reps will take on more projects around the school, such as recycling, and looking after the gardens.