STEM Ginger Education

02/02/2025

Sometimes a video makes you go 'Wow' :) This video did that for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9UbKlBc3W4

We are losing wetlands three times faster than forests.

Let's get to know wetlands near where we live and take care of them ... Happy !

If rainforests are the lungs of the planet, then wetlands are the lifeblood. They’re essential for all life. Their beautiful landscapes will take your breath...

03/12/2024

Get children designing and inventing to improve lives of differently-abled people. Here is some inspiration to get their ideas flowing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTOs_9vEV4c

Brother and sister Arnav and Mihika might only be 12 and eight, but they've already got the inventing bug! They've been inventing since they were five years ...

26/11/2024

"Working with nature, not against it"

Floods in Valencia (near where I live) and in Wales (where I am from) have got me thinking: we really need to listen to, and learn from, others around the globe that have experienced similar situations to help us manage and mitigate devastating consequences of these ever more frequent, once extreme, climate events.

https://www.eib.org/en/stories/nature-based-solutions-flood-greece






Mary Reynolds. Nature activist and reformed landscape designer

Guardian Environment

Powerful storms in the North of Greece this year are encouraging authorities in the region of Thessaly to look to nature-based solutions for flood mitigation.

26/11/2024

Happening this week: https://www.bnhc.org.uk/join-us-for-our-20th-anniversary-communicate-conference

I am really looking forward to connecting with other environmental communicators, over the latest issues in science communication, nature conservation, and how we can engage people with the natural world.

See you super soon!

Join us for our 20th anniversary Communicate conference! The Natural History Consortium - Communicate: New Connections for Nature.

17/11/2024

Nature-based solutions ... AKA learning from and 'listening to' nature. We need to embrace NbS to ensure sustainability of cohabitation of all species on planet Earth.

Here are 3 ways working with nature in Uganda 🇺🇬 helps improve resilience against water-related hazards 👇

🎍 Bamboo walls to hold back swollen rivers
🛡️Protecting wetlands to keep people safe
🌳Trees to stabilise hillsides & rejuvenate land

Connecting people with nature, and nature with solutions to our problems.

15/11/2024

'Cop 29: UN climate talks 'no longer fit for purpose' say experts
'https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2lknel1xpo

We don't need any more greenwashing and good intentions. I will never forget a friend of mine that lives in Peru saying back in 2021:
"One of the biggest failures of COP26 was the conclusion drawn: that the aim of human life has shifted from protecting the planet and its species to a modern vision of development, where consumption is increased and 'net zero' solutions are calculated. Instead of teaching us how to live in better symbiosis with the planet, we are being taught that we have to submit to development because there are no other alternatives".

Exactly - we need to live in better symbiosis with the planet 🙂

10/11/2024

As the fantastic course I have been following 'Science communication through poetry' draws to a close, I have been preparing my final submission:

The Child
Will temperatures rise again tomorrow?
Will clouds occupy Pacific skies?
The Trade Winds weakened, I heard,
And cold water fish swim deep.
Currents drive warmer tides,
West to east,
Waves slosh,
Nutrients rise,
Geoid disruption.
Atmospheric circulation.
Weather motion.
Do birds know?
Clocks tick,
And now it’s her turn, he says.
Reverse.

Poetry is a great way to bring complex science to non-specialist audiences :) I wonder what you think ...

28/10/2024

Let's follow in Harry Waters' footsteps, join in the challenge and pick up those cigarette butts. 100 a day.

Everything is connected, remember: cigarette butts slowly leak toxic chemicals into the soil and water, fish and wildlife consume them, they are the most abundant form of plastic pollution: https://www.earthday.org/tiny-but-deadly-cigarette-butts.../

If you do smoke, carry your own 'ashtray' (a jar?) around with you.

Cigarette butts are the most abundant form of plastic waste in the world, with about 4.5 trillion individual butts polluting our environment.

28/10/2024

Everyone and everything is connected.

When red dust from the Sahara desert falls in raindrops in Barcelona, it reminds me of this.

2024 has been an El Niño year, a natural weather pattern resulting from a weakening of the Trade winds, affecting water temperature, distribution of nutrients in the oceans, and so much more.

Language, once again, can teach us about the natural world, history, traditions. Why is it called 'El Niño, I wonder ...

El El Nino and La Nina are complex weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific.

25/10/2024

"Ko ahau te awa, ko te awa ko ahau — I am the river, the river is me”

"The mission to give more than you take is ingrained in Māori culture"

Words written by Brockbank: https://eos.org/features/water-wisdom-the-indigenous-scientists-walking-in-two-worlds

Water in all aquatic environments on the Earth is of great concern. A blind eye is so often turned to its health - we mindlessly pump sewage into it; agricultural run off spews into it; plastic, microfibres and microplastics accumulate in it ... What are we doing?

Should water be given rights? Obviously it should. Western cultures (scientists included) can learn so much from Indigenous Scientists.





World Health Organization

Meet the international researchers who draw on both academic training and cultural experience to help Indigenous communities protect water, restore ecosystems, and sustain traditional resources.

21/10/2024

What can we learn from other countries approach to environmental management?

Did you know ...?
* Bangladesh banned plastic back in 2002.
*Morocco has lifted all subsidies on diesel and gas, to encourage people to use cleaner sources of energy.
*Sweden has built 'eco-quarters' in its cities - old industrial sites turned into eco-friendly homes.

Learn more about what other nations are up to: https://escapingworlds.com/learn-more-about-countries-that-protect-the-environment/