Earth Hour Gathering in Bath - And There's More on the Way

This year's Earth Hour - organised by WWF - saw up to 70 environmentally aware people of all ages and many different backgrounds gather together on the green in front of the Royal Crescent to celebrate the event. Earth Hour, in which people are invited to switch off all electrical devices between 8.30 and 9.30pm, is an international campaign to raise awareness about energy usage. It began in 2007 in Sydney, Austrailia and has since become a worldwide hour of action.

The event saw people from all over the city congregate en masse with candles, acoustic guitars and blankets. The combination of a growing sense of environmental awareness, good weather, and the great job undertaken by the people who organised the event were key factors in its success. Even residents of the Royal Crescent came down to the event. At the end of the evening several people did a litter pick and everyone took home a bag of rubbish, to ensure that Earth Hour stuck to its environmental principles.

Due to the success, there are now plans to make "Earth Saturday" a regular event, on the last Saturday of every month, with the next event scheduled for 26th April. Organisers say that if the weather is looking bad, the event will be moved to the following Saturday.

So come on down, this could be the start of something big!

Earth Saturday - Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/EarthSaturdayBath
Earth Saturday - April Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1486206851599754

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Foster Watch #3 - Climate Change in the National Curriculum

FOSTER WATCH
is a new series of posts following Bath MP Foster, who is now Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Details of Don's voting record can be found at http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?id=uk.org.publicwhip/member/40062&showall=yes#divisions


Climate Change in the National Curriculum

Education Secretary Michael Gove wants to downgrade the issue of climate change in the National Curriculum http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/02/michael-gove-climate-change-curriculum

Of course, with the planet headed for disaster, more than ever we need to make sure our children our taught about climate change in school.

A concerned correspondent wrote to Don Foster and received this reply:

"Dear XXXX

Many thanks for getting in touch about climate change and the National Curriculum.

Liberal Democrats would not accept a National Curriculum that didn’t cover climate change.  This draft one does, in the Science Curriculum, which states that children should learn about “the production of carbon dioxide by human activity and the impact on climate”, before the age of 14.  Climate change will not be removed from the National Curriculum on our watch.

This is a draft National Curriculum, which has been out for consultation.  There is every opportunity to push for changes if people feel that climate change should be covered in other subjects besides science.

However, it is right to slim down the curriculum to be less prescriptive and to focus on the essentials, including climate change,  that children need to learn.

A slimmed down National Curriculum gives teachers more freedom to adapt their lessons to the individual children in their class – so it’s very likely teachers will choose to teach climate change in other subjects as well and there is nothing we would do to stop them doing this.  It is very hard to see how teachers could follow the Geography curriculum, for example, without talking about climate change.

I hope this offers you some reassurance."

Does this reassure that Don is doing all he can to include climate change in the National Curriculum? Foster Watch is not convinced, and does not find Don's answer satisfactory in the slightest.

Foster Watch
1. Badger Cull and Tuition Fees
2. Decarbonisation Targets and NHS Reforms 
3. Climate Change in the National Curriculum
4. Don's Revised Opinion on the Badger Cull

Disclaimer

Standing Stone's Blog and Foster Watch is an independent blog that is not affiliated with, nor endorses, any political party or general electoral candidate currently in existence. It maintains that all leadership and authority should be questioned and seeks to do just that.

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