The polar bears...

Esta imagen se ha quedado grabada en nuestras retinas. La sobrecogedora muerte de un oso polar hambriento en un Ártico sin nieve, captada por un equipo de National Geographic, ha impactado a millones de personas.

“Nos quedamos allí llorando, filmando mientras las lágrimas se nos caían por las mejillas” relatan Paul Nicklen y Cristina Mittermeier, los fotoperiodistas que han sacado a la luz los últimos momentos del animal.

Desconocemos qué fue lo que provocó la agonía y desesperación de este ejemplar en concreto, pero lo que sí es cierto es que estas imágenes han puesto en evidencia la gravedad del problema al que nos enfrentamos: solo dos de las diecinueve poblaciones de osos polares están en crecimiento, y el impacto del cambio climático es la causa detrás del estado crítico de la población de osos en el Ártico.

Pero aún no es tarde para salvarlo. Con el apoyo de más de ocho millones y medio de firmas, hemos conseguido que la Unión Europea y otros nueve países firmen una moratoria de pesca industrial en aguas internacionales del Ártico, salvaguardando el pescado del que se alimentan los osos y protegiendo su hábitat del impacto de los barcos pesqueros.

¡Ayúdanos a salvar el Ártico!

DO YOU THINK USING THIS IMAGE, AND EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE IS ACCEPTABLE TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SIGN UP TO HELP PROTECT THE ARCTIC?

DO YOU THINK USING THIS IAGE, AND EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE IS ACCEPTABLE TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SIGN UP TO HELP PROTECT THE ARCTIC? DO YOU THINK USING THIS IAGE, AND EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE IS ACCEPTABLE TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SIGN UP TO HELP PROTECT THE ARCTIC?

One Planet Summit - two years on from signing the Paris Accords

It is exactly two years since the historic signing of a climate change deal by 196 countries in Paris. All countries agreed to limit their carbon emissions to relatively safe levels.

This week at the One Planet Summit €9 billion in funding has been allocated by the EU for climate action .This action will include funding cleaner energy, making cities more sustainable, and developing better agriculture techniques to create resilient, high-yield farms that provide enough food to keep people alive in the face of climate change.

The World Bank has also announced that it will no longer fund projects to take more gas and oil out of the ground. These non-renewable sources of energy produce large amounts of CO2.

Read more about the 9€ billion fund

Read more about the World Bank stopping support for fossil fuels,

Environmental News this week : Air Pollution

We read 2 articles from the UK this week, one was called "Dirty air is killing our children. Why does the government let this happen?" and the other one, published just the next day, suggests we should start worrying more about pollution than economic growth.

"My youngest daughter’s school has been trying to protect its children from the toxic cloud in which they work and play. The teachers know how much damage traffic pollution does to their lungs, hearts and brains. They know that it reduces their cognitive development, their ability to concentrate and their capacity for exercise."

Read more here


In this article a survey says there were 8,700 premature deaths this year by air pollution in London. The author says we should think about things that are more important than economic growth like air pollution.

Waste Reduction Workshop - 1º ESO

During enrichment on Thursday afternoon, in the environmental club, we had a no-waste workshop. The successful workshop explained about the consequences of wasting plastic and where it goes. It also taught us new ways of reusing packaging and making smart decisions when it comes to buying things with plastic. Aimee Von Vliet is a zero waste campaigner and was the person that transmitted all this information. She made us reflect on the amount of plastic we use during our lives and showed us that plastic is practically part of our lives. She demonstrated the differences between items with plastic and items with no plastic. The thing that surprised us the most was seeing how simple it actually is to use less plastic in our daily lives. We really enjoyed this workshop. 

Elena & Iciar, 1º ESO

We also learnt some more "R"s! Next time you are offered a free plastic item that you don't need (a straw or an unnecessary free gift) just refuse!!

- Refuse

- Reduce

- Reuse

- Recycle

- Rot

- Dispose

European Week of Waste Reduction: 18 - 26 November

The European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) 2017 will take place from 18 to 26 November, with awareness-creating actions about sustainable resource and waste management taking place all over Europe. In the spotlight of the EWWR is to raise awareness about how to reduce waste, how to reuse products and recycle materials.

Oak House School is participating in 2 ways...

1) We are sharing this week in the newsletter, and around the school our TOP 5 WAYS to reduce plastic (This is an initiative by the #NOPLASTIC campaign)

2) On Thursday the 23rd November we are inviting special guest Aimee Van Vliet to give a workshop on waste reduction, the idea behind her #zerowaste campaign and to get us thinking about why and how we can use resources more efficiently. Aimee is working in education for schools and communities and is an eco-entrepreneur.

Environmental News this week..

Delhi is completely smogged out! The air pollution is so bad that breathing is like smoking 50 cigarettes. This articles tells us more about the problem, but we are learning that air pollution is a massive problem on our planet.

This graph, shows how much air pollution affects us around the world:

#NOPLASTIC

This picture makes us very sad... are we going backwards??!!!

But some good news..

Here's a video that shows other biodegradable options instead of plastic!!

#NOPLASTIC

In environmental we are doing a campaign to reduce plastic use, we are called the #NOPLASTIC team and we would like it if you could help us. This subject has already been mentioned many times in our school, but sadly very few people listen or do anything to improve this. That is why we are trying to reduce plastic use ourselves and also persuade other people to do it to. That is how we got the idea of putting an article about this in the newsletter.

We think people should try to reuse or reduce the amount of plastic they consume since it is
extremely bad for nature, it takes a very long time to disintegrate. Experts have investigated this
subject and have observed that the amount of plastic has increased by a large quantity over recent
years.

Why should we reduce plastic?

One of the main reasons to reduce plastic is the fact that there is now about 5 plastic islands
in the world in the ocean. This is an extremely bad situation because there is more pollution
and more fish are dying. One of the plastic islands is situated in the north part of the Pacific Ocean,
and the Caribbean Sea is not as perfect as we thought is was, some zones are now full of rubbish
and you can hardly believe it is the same Caribbean you see in the photos on our previous blog post.

Another mayor issue is that plastic takes a very long time to disintegrate and with the
massive quantity of plastic we use per year we will have too much plastic on Earth . An
everyday grocery bag takes 10-20 years , a plastic bottle takes 450.

How to reduce plastic:

A really basic way of trying to reduce plastic is to not get the plastic bags that they offer in the
super market, one of these bags takes 10 years to disintegrate.

We are Gabriela Herrera, Abril Marlí, Julia Barragán, Lucia, Carlotta Erroz, and we say #NOPLASTIC !!!

Environmental news this week....

The world was shocked by photos showing seas of rubbish instead of the turquoise Caribbean sea we always imagine..

and we have seen a campaign here in Catalunya to encourage recycling which will stop more plastic getting into the oceans. Maybe you recognise this?

We are pleased to announce that this week we are launching our very own #noplastic campaign from a group of students in the Environmental Club... look out for the posters around school and see what you can do to reduce plastic waste!!  See more here

REDUCE

REUSE

RECYLCE

Environmental news this week...

Do you like insects?

Do you know what they do for us?

Well we found out in Environmental Club this week that they are absolutely crucial to life on this planet... and that they are disappearing far too quickly.

"Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say"

Read more here

One of the ideas we have for a practical activity this year (which won't solve the problem... but is a step in the right direction) is to build an insect hotel to encourage different and diverse insects to live in the school gardens.

Video of how to make an insect hotel!!

UN GRUP DE JOVES PROCEDENTS D’ILLES AFECTADES PEL CANVI CLIMÀTIC VISITA BARCELONA

El passat divendres 22 de setembre un centenar d’estudiants de centres educatius de Barcelona, entre ells, Oak House School es van reunir amb un grup de joves que viatja a bord del Peace Boat, el vaixell d’una ONG japonesa que treballa per promoure la pau, els drets humans, el desenvolupament just i sostenible i el respecte pel medi ambient.

Els alumnes han visitat el vaixell per escoltar en primera persona el testimoni d’aquests joves activistes. Es tracta d’un grup de nois i noies d’entre 19 i 26 anys procedents de Fiji, les Illes Marshal, Maldives, Seychells, Trinitat i Tobago i Belize. El grup forma part del primer “Programade Joves Ambaixadors per als Oceans i el Clima” organitzat per l’ONG japonesa. Tots són líders en les seves comunitats i tenen una àmplia experiència en al lluita contra el canvi climàtic i la degradació dels oceans a nivell local i internacional.

Durant la visita al vaixell, els nostres alumnes de Ciències de la Terra i Biologia de segon de Batxillerat han tingut l’oportunitat d’intercanviar experiències i coneixement amb els ambaixadors.

El Conseller del Departament de Territori i Sotenibilitat de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Josep Rull, i un representant de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona han tancat l’acte.

Environmental news this week..

An article that was published today showed images of large industrial farming and shared the findings of a report that :

The ongoing global appetite for meat is having a devastating impact on the environment driven by the production of crop-based feed for animals 

They found that the impact of the farming behind meat-based diets is responsible for a 60% loss in biodiversity because of the strain on the Earth's resources. 

This made us think about MEATLESS MONDAYS a campaign that was successfully implemented in our school a few years ago. Students do not eat meat farmed in this way in the school dining room on Mondays.. and we encourage everyone to keep their Mondays completely meat free by avoiding meat during the whole day! 

As a reaction to this article it's not a huge sacrifice is it?

Read the full article here

Environmental News this week!

A group or Portuguese children are taking action on CLimate Change after the destructive forest fires that happened earlier this summer. They claim that governments are not acting quickly enough to combat the lethal effects of climate change, and are putting together a case to sue 47 European governments. Right now they are crowdfunding to raise the money to make the case happen!

Read more here

And some sad news for people who care about plastic... Donald Trump has reversed a ban on plastic bottles in a National Park in the USA. The ban had stopped 2 million bottles from being used!

Read more here

Reducing plastic is one of the aims of the Environmental Committee this year at Oak House!

Dia mundial sin coches - Este viernes 22 de Septiembre!

Can we get through Friday without using a car to join in with a world-wide initiative to have "No Car Day"?

Maybe we can do our bit by at least using the car less that day.. or thinking about how we might design our lives better to use less petrol...

Read more about what's happening in Barcelona here, and share your ideas in the comment section!

What will we achieve this year?

Welcome back for 2017 - 18!

Just last week we heard the sad news that by 2050 it is predicted there will be more plastic in the Oceans than fish. This shocking news, plus the environmental disasters we have seen recently such as hurricanes in Africa and USA and flooding in India and USA, makes us think that here at Oak House we should be doing all we can to be a part of the solution to create a better environment here, to think about the effects of our actions on the wider environment, create a stronger community and continue to take part in campaigns at an international level.

Last year we saw that with a bit of effort we can reduce our energy use, our paper use... can we reduce our use of plastic? We also started the gardening project on the roof and we have the chance to to create more gardens there, and around the school. The school community was encouraged to think about their meat consumption (an industry which causes a lot of pollution... and we all know that eating less meat is healthier!) and there are many potential projects.. we just need you to get involved!!

Please get in touch with Miss Gurney a.gurney@oakhouseschool.com if you would like to take on or suggest a project for this year!

This is Miguel, Daniela, Bruno and Angel. This is the information for the No Waste Day:

We looked at the results for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and saw that on what we wasted on Wednesay was about 200-300 kW less than normally. Here are the numbers:

Monday: 1357kW

Tuesday: 1521kW

Wednesday: 1157kW

This a reduction in electricity use of 20%!!

After this we did an average between the numbers of Monday and Tuesday and used this to do an average on what we use every month in school. Then we did the same with the amount of energy we used on Wednesday. We concluded that on a normal month we waste 8576.9 kW more than in a month where we would have all no waste days. 

A month with all No Waste Days would waste: 35192.083kW

A normal month would waste: 43769.583kW

What next???

We are writing to you to inform about a recent project we have been working on as part of the Environmental Enrichment Group.

 As you might have seen or will see, around the school there are posters about 'No Waste Day', a day when we will all cooperate to consume less electricity in the school, and try not to waste anything at all for the whole day! The project is to find ways of consuming less energy and water in the school to help the environment. We asked the school office for data and saw that our school consumes a lot of electricity. We want to look at the amounts of what we consume and compare it to some days were we're all aware about consuming less.

We've decided that a great way of helping the environment and consuming is by doing this 'No Waste' campaign were we're all fully aware and try to use less amount of electricity. This way we can compare NO WASTE DAY with normal consuming days.

NO WASTE DAY is tomorrow, the 24th May!

Thank you very much for cooperating with us by talking about the day and remembering to consume only what you need!!

Miguel, Angel, Bruno and Daniella

We are ready to start planting!

The roof garden is all set up and we have the tools! Today it rained for most of the afternoon, but next week we hope to get some plants and seeds in the ground!!

Environmental News this week...

This article is about the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. One quarter of the reef, the world's largest living structure has died in the last two years. The article is in an online newspaper called The Day which is written for young people, very balanced. At the bottom of the page there are questions to make you think, and links to articles with more information about the story:

http://theday.co.uk/environment/emergency-the-great-barrier-reef-is-dying


Elon Musk  (the CEO of Tesla) is being encouraged to stop his support for the Trump administration. A millionaire called Doug Derwin has started a campaign "Elon dump Trump" because Musk whats to prevent climate change but Trumps`s policies include cutting funding for climate change research.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/19/elon-dump-trump-climate-change-doug-derwin

S'apropa la Science Fair

El próximo lunes 24 de abril los alumnos de Year 7 y Segundo de ESO expondrán los proyectos científicos en los que han estado trabajado este curso.

Invitamos a las familias de Oak House a participar de este evento y aprovechar la visita para hablar con nuestros jóvenes científicos.

La Science Fair tendrá lugar en la planta 0 del edificio de bachillerato, de 10 a 13:30.

News from Escoles Sostenibles!

Read about current projects across Barcelona!

Environmental News

World CO2 emissions stay constant - for the last 3 years emissions have not risen, this is good news, although we should be aiming to reduce emissions if possible. The mains reason for emissions remaining constant is that China's emissions have fallen


Acces to nature reduces depression - A review of over 200 academic studies has found that being around trees and green spaces is healthy and can lead to lower incidences of depression and obesity.

We're happy to find some good news this week!

Environmental News this week

A study has found that China's huge air pollution problems are caused by melting ice in the arctic. This is related to climate change. We are quite surprised to see that climate change could cause air pollution as well as other damaging effects like flood, droughts, people being displaced and disruption to natural ecosystems.

Read the article and see pictures of China's smog here

Litter pick on the Collserola!

Today the Environmental Club teamed up with some IB2 students to clear up rubbish from beside the road behind the school. The activity was organised by Pablo and Quique as a CAS project.

We collected about 13 bags of rubbish and even found part of an old motorbike! - we enjoyed the challenge and found the experience an interesting reflection.. we'd be happy to do it again sometime!

Loads of the rubbish we couldn't collect was building rubble, we didn't expect that bricks, concrete, roofing panels would be the rubbish we found - we wonder if there is a way to finish the job and clear that up too!

Here's a report from Quique:

At Oak House School they encourage all students to be responsible and careful for the environment, ensuring that we develop a social consciousness and that we look after the planet. As a result, some of IB 2 students became very concerned with the current situation of the natural area of Peu del Funicular, situated next to our school. For this reason, we decided to do something about it. We asked Mrs Gurney if her environmental enrichment class wanted to collaborate. 11 students from 1 and 2 eso offered to cooperate with us. When we got to the place, we divided into groups of two and gave out gloves to protect ourselves and plastic bags, which were used to collect all of the rubbish found at Peu del Funicular. The rubbish collected included all types of plastics, construction leftovers, clothes and even car and motorbike components. We are very happy with the final result of the project as we were able to make a difference by cleaning up the area. Apart from cleaning the area, we wanted to show the younger students of our school what the actual situation is, and make them think that if we want to improve the situation we need to work together in order to make a difference.

Environmental news this week

We found an article with top tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint and take steps towards sustainable living, the top three are fly less, eat less meat (especially beef), make sure you're only heating inside your house - and that by closing windows, and insulating your house properly you don't waste energy.

Here is the article with 15 ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

There is also a whole blog dedicated to share all the most recent information about climate change! It's a long read...

The Alaska fish is just one of several species that have had to change their behaviour because of climate change (see our earlier blog post about whales) read more about it here

What will be the big environment events in 2017?

Happy 2017 from the Environmental club!

This article is about the important issues this year

and next week we may well be hit by a cold wave of weather - as low as -3 in Barcelona!?!???!