Nature-based solutions in the fight against climate change | Thomas Crowther
Dr. Elin Kelsey
Many of our students and staff are feeling overwhelmed, demoralized and hopeless in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, social injustice and inequity, wildfires and a host of other critical issues. On Dr. Elin Kelsey’s website she shares how to bring a solutions orientation approach to teaching about these issues and an array of resources to support this practice.
If you have participated in any of Elin’s workshops this is a great place to start and re-connect with hope and optimism for our future.
Click HERE for Previous SD71 session recordings
Podcast
Ep:7Leading Research, and Hope: Elin Kelsey & Ellen Fields
The Solutions Story Tracker® is a curated database of rigorous reporting on responses to social problems. We collect and tag every story, providing you with the ability to find coverage of effective or promising ideas and approaches— by issue, location, journalist, and success factor (strategic insights that emerge as patterns).
A detailed kit of lessons to support Climate Action and engage students around the COP26-meeting. Included within this pack are all the resources you will need to introduce and reinforce the significance of climate change, COP26 and the role of schools in shaping the future, with customized age-appropriate resources provided for different age groups from 7-16.
Full kits available for:
- Ages 5-7
- Ages 7-9
- Ages 9-11
- Ages 11+
Existential Tool Kit- For the Climate Crises
With feelings of climate anxiety and eco-grief on the rise, educators across disciplines need resources to help students develop the emotional resilience to stay engaged in the work of climate justice. This toolkit helps educators and students navigate the long emergency ahead without becoming overwhelmed by despair. The resources in this project have been crowdsourced from an international community of scholars, educators, and climate justice leaders focused on addressing the emotional impact of climate disruption.
The Eco Justice site offers real life examples of ecological victories. Use as a resources for students to investigate what is already happening around the world to support Climate Action and a more sustainable future.
Brilliant Solutions To The World’s Problems
This BBC World Service podcast features brilliant solutions to the world’s problems and investigates whether they work.
The Worlds leading resource for Climate Solutions
Project Drawdown is a global research organization that identifies, reviews, and analyzes the most viable solutions to climate change, and shares these findings with the world.
Eco-Challenge – Project Drawdown
Consider how you can take a solutions based approach to Climate change utilizing this amazing resource.
A shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership.
Teaching the Goals for the First Time
Check out the 17 Goals- Mini Kits
Locally developed in SD71
Teacher resources that engage students in designing to support their community and our world.
*The Comox Valley School district now has a presenter portal for teachers to access. For more information please email Dawn.Anderson@sd71.bc.ca
Teacher Lesson Plans
Before you get started students will need to know what they are more passionate about/ what resonates with them.
Before you get started – What are you interested in? Enviro-Stack-Cards Slide-Deck-Finding-your-Interests
SDG-Grade-3-Lesson-Pollinator-Box
Running Your Own Inquiry: Unit and Lesson Resources
Big Picture
Moving through the Cycle of Design Thinking
Cycle-of-Design-Thinking
Gradual-Release SDG-Cards-Primary
This is a Manitoba based site that covers various topics sounding clime change. Click the image to go directly to the solutions focused page.
Topics covered include:
This ten-part series is the result of a partnership between the Smithsonian Institution’s Earth Optimism Initiative, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia and the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.
Atlas of the future would like to democratize the future: to raise the profiles of the people and projects working to create a better world. Everyone should be able to understand and engage in the topics that affect us all.
You can journey through the Atlas projects by topic or theme, country or city – or simply enjoy getting lost.
Climate, sustainability, and social justice are the most important stories on the … well, on the planet right now. The stakes are high. And it’s easy to despair when denial, delay, and doom dominate the headlines.
At Grist, they find reasons for hope and optimism every day — while also irritating and shaming those who stand in the way of progress. Our independent, nonprofit newsroom pursues in-depth stories on under-covered topics like clean energy, sustainable food, livable cities, environmental justice, and a better economy. We elevate solutions, expose inequity, and give our readers the context, knowledge, and tools to make a difference.
Don’t freak out. Figure it out!
Seeds of Good Anthropocene’s aims to help the global community develop inspirational visions and stories, with the potential to be key components of transformations to sustainability, helping to shape the very reality that they forecast. We do this by looking to the emergence of new thinking, innovative ways of living, and different means to connect people and nature that already exist.
The Washington Post- Climate Solutions
A collection of articles highlight some of our climate issues from a solutions based approach.
It is easy to feel hopeless when reading the news coverage of ocean conservation. This image gallery reveals some of the successful conservation stories.
Hey there Earthlings, welcome to our weekly newsletter on all things environmental, where we highlight trends and solutions that are moving us tow
Treepedia
As cities around the world race to implement green canopy strategies, we’ve developed a metric—the Green View Index—by which to evaluate and compare canopy cover. In collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities and the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers community, we will continue to grow this database to span cities all over the globe. Click the image to explore the green canopy tool.
The Climate Museum
Be a climate ambassador! The credit card-sized cards to fit in your wallet so that wherever you are, and whoever you are with, you feel confident to begin—and sustain—climate conversations. This is a tool to help break the climate silences that exist in all of our lives and to inspire further civic action support to address the climate crisis.
Master these conversational tools while addressing the Climate Crisis:
- it’s real
- experts agree
- it’s us
- it’s bad
- it’s not too late
When nature is eroding and ecosystems are coming under increasing stress, it can seem like the only reaction is despair: However, there are also inspiring conservation success stories from 2019
How To Talk To People About Sustainability & The Climate Emergency
Check out this website for some tips on how to spark up conversations around climate change without it turning into a heated and uncomfortable debate.
