Month: April 2020

By Jahnavi Bhatt

Today feels different

Isolated  in my home

I’m making connections

With old pals from school

And that one estranged friend

who showed up on my phone

 

Yesterday was different too

Immersed in my life

I missed making  connections

Between the straw swirling my drink

And that one turtle

Who washed up dead on the shore

Between my red silk shirt

And that one little boy

who never went to school

 

Tomorrow should be also be different

Intimidated by my experience

I’m realizing the connection

Between the misuse of free will

And members of that one species

Who fear for their survival

The purpose of this workshop is to build off of the Brookings report and to bring together stakeholders from the fields of ESD, GCED, GE, and HR education to begin laying out a shared vision, or roadmap, for the global education sector in climate action. The aim is that this workshop will serve as a launching pad for a series of working meetings over the course of 2020 for those who express interest at the workshop to continue being engaged. The working meetings will culminate in an edited volume focused on education and climate action.

Workshop organized by –

Radhika Iyengar, Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University

Christina Kwauk, Center for Universal Education, The Brookings Institution.

The workshop is for Virtual CIES- More details at http://cies2020.org

We will be broadcasting the event on our Youtube link- Power in Praxis –https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkZHqp2zW-VUbmcWFdaKQ-g

We will also be live on Facebook on our Eco-ambassador page: https://www.facebook.com/ecoambassador/

Agenda for the event-

April 29, 9am – 12pm

Opening:

9am – 9:10am

Radhika Iyengar to say a few notes to welcome the guests + housekeeping re: Google doc, the structure of the 3 hours, etc.

Please use this time to write your thoughts on a live document- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UA0sVDLq5SIp7WVSaCkKF89QtUn6cUTMVG494DCNILA/edit?usp=sharing

9:10-9:20 Jahnavi Bhatt to inspire us with a poem recitation

9:20-9:40am

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute presents his vision on integrating SDG 4.7 with climate change.

Part 1:

9:40 -9:50

Christina Kwauk presents the Brooking Institution Report specifically highlighting the 5 Roadblocks in Education. See full report here. https://www.brookings.edu/research/roadblocks-to-quality-education-in-a-time-of-climate-change/

Perspectives by…

Academicians 9:50-10:10am

On: Entry points to systems transformation needed for radical climate action by education systems

Nidhi Thakur, Professor Kean University, New Jersey

Bob Jickling, Professor Emeritus, Lakehead University

Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Professor, Rhodes University

Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, Deputy Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) , The Earth Institute

Policy and Advocacy 10:10-:1030am

On: Reorienting monitoring & accountability mechanisms and the incentive structures of our current education systems

Adriana Valenzuela, UNFCCC

Priyadarshani Joshi, Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, UNESCO

Frank Neopold, NOAA

Jess Cooke, Plan International

Non-profits and think tanks 10:30am-10:50am [radhika]

On: Role of Think Tanks and NGOs that integrate education and Climate: Successes, challenges.

Caroline Lewis, Founder and Senior Climate Advisor, CLEO Institute

Kartikeya Sarabhai, Centre for Environment Education, India

Ellen Chigwanda, Advocacy Advisor for Education, CARE USA

Anna Bertmar Khan, Deputy Director of Programs, Dubai Cares

Part 2:

10:50am – 11:00am (Christina Kwauk to present Part 2 of the Brookings Report).

Perspectives by…

School teacher’s perspective 11:00-11:15

On: What support do teachers require to take the leap toward radical, transformative teaching and learning for climate action?

William Bertolotti, Plainedge High School, New York.

Elisa Hartwig, The Green School Antigua

Abby Ruskey, Fellow in Complex Systems Management at UC-Merced.

Local organizations/Community organizing, US-domestic and international 11:15-11:35

On: Local action at the township level: Evidence of what has worked and what are some roadblocks to building community leaders/action at the grassroots.

Priya Patel, Chair Millburn School Green Team and also Member Millburn Environmental Commission.

Vanita Gangwal, Convener Millburn Climate Action Group

John Mugabo, Millennium Promise Staff in Rwanda.

Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson, Editor, Pacific Environment Weekly, Samoa.

Youth Perspective and their communications 11:35-11:50

On: What do students want to see happen in schools and communities and how best to communicate these actions/ideas.

Aalok Bhatt , Millburn High School, New Jersey

Vidya Bindal, Millburn Middle School, New Jersey

Srinivas Akula, community-based education coordinator, Telangana, India

Sahana Ghosh, Climate Reporter Mongabay India

Wrap up & next steps

11:50am – 11:55am

Program ends

11:55am – 12:00pm: Gopal Patel, Director Bhumi Project, reads out quotes from the Bhagavad Gita on sustainability

 

See full recording here-

 

https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/rec/play/6Jcud-Grrz43HtWXtQSDBfN7W9S-LaOs1igXqfZZxUq9AHFXZFugMrAVarQY5XasONH4OaG8h7FwKko4?startTime=1588165361000

Author: William Bertolotti, Science Teacher, Plainedge Highschool.

 

Hello everyone, my name is Will Bertolotti. It’s important to stress the fact that teachers do not teach facts; we teach people. We embrace the responsibility for fostering the intellectual, emotional, and social growth of human beings. I have been guiding high-school students for the past 12 years as a social science research and psychology teacher. I am fortunate to teach in a district where the community, teachers, and administration are united behind ensuring the success of our students. Furthermore, several years ago I volunteered with an educational not for profit that used student-oriented experiential learning centered on the UN SDGs and it led to a significant paradigm shift in my teaching philosophy. As a teacher, I am still learning — but I put some thought into the purpose of education and I am eager to share the mindset of a teacher to the students of the world.

 

We need you, the students, to know — that you embody our hope and collective investment for a future. That your efforts are cherished and your talents acknowledged as our community’s greatest resource. That your youthful frustrations and restlessness are the fuel for future change and innovation. You have a place at the communal table and in time you will control the fate of our planet. Some time ago, we as a society chose to forget that we all live on borrowed time — I am sorry that we pushed onto you the consequences of an unsustainable lifestyle. As your teachers we must prepare you right now and every day to survive and flourish in a world not of your own making. But your potential is latent and it is incredible.

 

And so, we forge them — our future civic science leaders — guiding them with our collective experience, supporting them so that failures are embraced as opportunities for learning and growth, empowering them with lessons in resilience, knowledge, and wisdom, and tempering them with the guiding spirit of integrity and compassion. Mentorships with academia, government, and industry become the route of transmission for action. Experiential learning becomes the sandbox for future policy. We teach them that sustainability is compassion toward the other people in a world of limited resources — and it is compassion towards your future self.

 

Why? It’s the perennial question my students always ask. Why? Well, it’s our fundamental purpose. Not only as teachers, but as parents, as members of a global community — we have the responsibility to ensure that the next generation is prepared. Our true calling must be to inspire the spirit that guides their efforts, to mentor and advocate, to challenge, and to let go — unshackle our youth from outmoded preconceptions of learning. We must open their eyes, that students don’t need our permission to question — that they themselves are the primary agents of their own growth. That learning can occur beyond the classroom, outside school hours, without adults. We need to teach them how to bridge differences and build connections — to challenge and advocate — to set the foundations for lasting change.

 

The world around us is our classroom, rich with experience, filled with challenges, and begging for solutions. We must ensure that our memory lives on in posterity as a generation of young leaders, ready to mend a broken world, to heal a wounded society, and to steer the course through an uncertain century.

 

Thank you very much for your time and for this opportunity to share.

 

Updated: May 1, 2020

The social distancing and quarantine from COVID19 did not stop Eco Ambassadors from celebrating Earth Day 2020 in their homes, kitchens, gardens and backyards.

On Friday, April 24th, few Eco Ambassadors got together for a casual Show & Tell to share what they did during Earth Day (April 22, 2020 and week of) to celebrate the environment, nature and our Earth.

Our youngest Eco Ambassador Arjun drew what a beautiful Earth looks like to him with some strategies to protect the Earth.

Eco Ambassador Ishaan and our Eco Ambassador program staff shared respective home gardening projects to plant flowers, tomatoes, fenugreek seeks and mustard seeds, as well as various observations made in the yard to examine various birds, animals and plant varieties.

Another Earth Day/Week project also included calculating carbon footprint then offsetting it by donating to organizations and businesses working on eco-friendly and renewable energy projects to reduce carbon footprint.

Here are some resources that were used for carbon footprint information:

https://www.myclimate.org/

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data

https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecological-footprint/

And to end, sharing a wonderful song Tara had shared with her sons to celebrate Earth Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNtE5FanPLE

HAPPY EARTH DAY/WEEK 2020 !

 

 

Updated: Apr 8, 2020

We had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Subhajoy Roy of The Telegraph (Kolkata), who has been with this eastern India’s largest circulated English daily for 10 years.

He covers stories on air quality issues; civic issues like waste management, water supply, health issues and road network as well as infrastructure (traffic planning and traffic management. He is currently covering COVID19 -related steps taken by the government and  state health department.

In the conversation, our Eco Ambassador participants asked about the nature of the job of a journalist – what skills and qualities are needed to be a journalist?

Along with sharing an advice he was once told– that EMPATHY is the most important quality of a journalist– he also shared with us a list of quotes, movies and books he found, that further reflects and illuminates a journalist’s job (see below!)

Thank you Subhajoy Roy!

FULL INTERVIEW can be found @ https://youtu.be/0-DXDD6EtJU

QUOTES: (Gabriel Garcia) Marquez used to say that the journalist should be like a mosquito, which is there to irritate those in power, buzzing instantly. -Director of Colombian news website La Silla Vacía

I have learnt a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen. -Ernest Hemingway

Headline in a 2016 piece by Columbia Journalism Review: “The voicelss have voice. A journalist’s job is to amplify this”.  Source: https://www.cjr.org/first_person/buttry_story.php

MOVIE LIST:

All the President’s Men (1976) #Won multiple Oscars, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.  #The issue: Investigations by two reporters of The Washington Post unearthed facts and stories that led President Nixon of the United States to resign. One of the most defining moments of investigative journalism in history.  # The Washington Post won Pulitzer prize for public service in journalism in 1973.  SPOTLIGHT (2015) #Won Oscar for best picture in 2015.  # The issue: how investigation by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight department unearthed sexual abuse of childern by the Church.  # The newspaper won Pulitzer prize for public  service in 2003 KILLING FIELDS (1984)  #The film won 3 Oscars and 8 BAFTAs.  #The issue: how journalists reported the killing of people by a tyrannical regime in Cambodia.  PEEPLI LIVE (2010) #It is an Indian film in Hindi language. Look for a version with English subtitles.  # It is a critique of modern day media and political leadership.  # The story is how things unfold after farmer suicides in an Indian village.  How media landas there and how it covers the story.  READING LIST

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN  #By Bob Woodword and Carl Bernstein, the two reporters whose work primarily led to president Nixon’s resignation. 1974 book, film in 1976.  GEORGE ORWELL’s essays for their prose. Read “Why I Write”. Orwell says “I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing”.  JOHN HERSHEY’s “Hiroshima” on what happens after the atom bomb fell in Japan.  GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ’s “The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor”. Marquez, who was a journalist, wrote 14 pieces for a newspaper. Only one sailor of the Columbian Navy ship survived. Marquez’s account revealed that the official version of a storm killing all but one sailors was false. The accounts were later published as the book.  Read on ROBERT FISK. A British journalist who interviewed Osama Bin Laden thrice. He has written on his experience of interviewing Laden.