Team Heron won the Local, Regional and National Rotary Young Environmentalist competition!!
The Winners of the local Intermediate Team and Junior Age Group competitions were presented with their trophies and certificates on 22 June by our President, David Ball (R) and Community & Youth Service Committee Chairman John Barrett (L) Source: Rotary, 2021
Results of Cambridge Local Competition
INTERMEDIATE AGE GROUP (11-14)
Winner – Team Entry
Nico Cordonier Gehring, Thomas Langford, Orlaith Traynor-Bucknall, Morgan Hayes (King’s College School) – The Heron Team – Cambridge Climate Change Action Project
STOP-PRESS – The Heron Team have gone on to win the final, National stage of the competition in their age group!
Check out this interview by Cambridge 105 Radio as (we) the Heron Team from Kings College School won the local and district rounds of this year’s Rotary Young Environmentalist competition.
We won the Local, Regional and National Rotary Young Environmentalist competition and we celebrated!!!
Heron Team – King’s College School Thomas, Nico, Orlaith & Morgan
This note invites you to save the date for a very special online now. The registration is already open; please just click here to register at no cost.
The International Roundtable on Education, hosted jointly by the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative, in partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO,the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), and experts from the University of Cambridge, McGill University, and the University of Nairobi, among others, convenes teachers, child and youth leaders, mentors and experts on intergenerational equity, children’s rights and sustainable development for an interactive dialogue to raise awareness and speak up for education, children’s rights and the global Sustainable Development Goals.
This special online event celebrates the global launch of ten beautifully illustrated new children’s books.
The event features VoFG CI Child Authors and Ambassadors from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, the Middle East, Oceania and the Pacific Islands.
Further, honoured invited chairs and speakers include: JudgeProf. Marcel Szabo*,former Ombudsperson for the Rights of Future Generations and Chair of Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative, Adv. Neshan Gunasekera, CISDL Lead Counsel, Prof. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger of the University of Cambridge and the University of Waterloo, Senior Director of the CISDL, all leaders in the VoFG CI International Commission; alongside keynote remarks from Ms. Roda Muse, Secretary-General of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, together with Ms. Isabelle LeVert-Chiasson, ASPnet Coordinator with Canadian Commission for UNESCO, Prof. David Boyd (UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment), and Isobel Abulhoul OBE(CEO and Trustee of the Emirates Literature Foundation & International Commission, VoFG),
The Voices of Future Generations new children’s books being celebrated with UNESCO, CISDL and partners on International Literacy Day 2021 include:
Journey for Tomorrow by Andrea Wilson (North America) on clean energy (Goal 7), responsible consumption and production (Goal 12), and life below water (Goal 14).
Stanley and EPIC by Jasper Chin Moody (Oceania) on sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11) and consumption and production (Goal 12).
Dream Catcher by Tien-Li Cheng (Asia) on responsible consumption and production (SDG12), climate change (SDG13) and life on land (Goal 15).
Finding the Language by Adelyn Newman-Ting (Global Indigenous Child Author) on quality education (Goal 4) and life on land (Goal 15).
The Girl Who Changed Everything by Freya Tikva (Europe) on sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11) and responsible consumption and production (SDG12).
The Challenge of a Generation by Christina-Angelina Kassongo (Africa) on quality education (Goal 4), sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), and peace and justice (16).
Saoud and Chess by Saoud Ahmad Al-Kaabi (Middle East) on inequality (Goal 10) and peace and justice (16).
My short story Script Climate Change Magic won the third place for the 2020LUNE SPARK Short Story World Contest and is part of the book Through Their Lenses.
Script Climate Change Magic‘s synopsis:
Story’s plays change reality, and reveal potential futures. As the terrible impacts of climate change advance across his land, the young boy in the wheelchair discovers he is capable of great transformations, harnessing his unique magic as a playwright to inspire youth movements who can change their world. Finally, by writing his own soul into the most important drama he has ever dreamt, Story tries to save his Troupe and the children they shelter from the storms.
“Yet another gem of a book.” ~Tim Ellen, Blogger Through Their Lenses is a collection of twenty-nine award-winning short stories by tweens. These stories encompass a wide range of genres, inviting readers to explore a wealth of important themes passionately crafted by these young writers: from a girl going on a quest to release a curse bestowed on her by a witch to a guy trying to escape after being stranded in a different time.
I’ll be chairing Free Online Eco-Seminar Mini-Series for Students – Register Now!
Together with the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative, the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council has been organising a mini-series of free 60 minute Online Eco-Seminars to raise awareness of key sustainability challenges and solutions, while schools have been forced online in many countries. Children, students, families and members of the public can register for free over Eventbrite and participate online over Zoom, 4:30-5:30pm (UK time) on 17 February and 24 February.
Eco-Seminar 1: Saving our Steams and Rivers through Sustainable Water Management – Wednesday, 17 February 2021
Focus: How can we better protect and sustainably manage our beautiful freshwater resources, preventing floods and depletion, and saving our streams and rivers?
Chairs:Nico Roman (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Co-Chair, Voices of Future Generations Child Ambassador, Kings College School Eco-Society Co-leader) and Paloma Bargh (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Deputy Chair and Eco-Activities Committee Co-Chair, Saint Johns College School Eco-Society Co-leader)
Speakers: Child author speaker: Rehema Kibugi (Gold Award Laureate, Voices of Future Generations (VoFG) Children’s Rights Initiative, Child Author for Africa) tbc Ecocouncil speaker: Junayd Islam (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council former Co-Chair, key organizer of student climate strikes and city council livestreamed Eco-Council meetings). Experts: Ian Halls (Leader, Cambridge Friends of the Earth) and Fabiana Piccoli Araújo Santos (LLM Candidate at the University of Cambridge and co-founder of Itacaré Water Caring Project Brazil)
Eco-Seminar 2: Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles through Preventing Plastic Waste – Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Focus: How can we better promote and practice more sustainable lifestyles at home and through our shopping habits, even during lockdown, preventing plastic waste and protecting our fragile rivers, oceans and ecology?
Chairs: Nico Roman(Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Co-Chair, Voices of Future Generations Child Ambassador, Kings College School Eco-Society Co-leader) and Ginny Denmead (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Co-Chair and St Bedes College School Eco-Society Co-leader)
Speakers: Child author speaker: Freya Tikva (Gold Award Laureate, Voices of Future Generations (VoFG) Children’s Rights Initiative Child Author for Europe, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Deputy Chair and Co-Chair of Eco-Activities Committee. Ecocouncil speaker: Luana Fernandes Seixas (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Communications Officer, Student Leader of Long Road Sixth Form Eco-Council, key organizer of student climate strikes and eco-seminars). Experts: Emma Thomas (Co-founder and Director, Full Circle Zero Waste Retail, Ecologist) and Ben Thomas (Environment Manager, Cambridge Waitrose Grocery Store) Over zoom, after a 15 mins for tech testing and interactions from 4:15pm to 4:30pm, student Eco-Councillors and UN Voices of Future Generations child authors / ambassadors, together with world-class experts, will provide a 20-minute introduction to a sustainability challenge, and discuss creative local and solutions. For a further 30 minutes, participants can ask questions and discuss potential solutions and ways to raise education and awareness interactively, followed by a 10-minute closing from the experts and youth speakers by 5:30pm.
My award-winning short story Street Art Nature Magic forms part of Just One More, Stories that you can’t put down.
Just One More is a collection of 29 award-winning short stories by middle-grade children like me. The best short stories from the 2019 Lune Spark Young Writers’ Short Story Contest. These stories encompass a wide range of genres, inviting readers to explore a wealth of important themes passionately crafted by these young writers.
These are Stories that you can’t put down! Get your copy here.
About Lune Spark: Lune Spark Books aims to encourage children to engage in creative writing. The publishing company works with parents and young writers to promote creative fiction writing and help identify talent. It runs annual short story competitions, conducts creative writing classes, and publishes short stories by young writers.
Please help us to make our planet a better place by putting an end to waste!
Press Release on Dec 18, 2020 – YouthStrike4Climate
Each year, consumers in the UK use an average of 227,000 miles of wrapping paper, with over 83km2 of this ending up in our bins. On top of this, two million turkeys, five million Christmas puddings, and 74 million mince pies are disposed of while still edible, causing almost 270,000 tons of food waste during this widely celebrated holiday. We cannot sustain this.
This year, we need to come together to tackle the huge amount of waste we produce at Christmas. Families can create new ways of being sustainable around the Christmas period. Because of the current global pandemic, we are unable to meet up in large groups, so we do not need to buy as much food and wrap as many presents as we usually do. And, if large households do not have guests staying, they do not need to heat rooms of the house that are left unused.
Source: Cambridge Independent
On Friday Dec 18, 2020, members of the Cambridge Schools Eco Council will be meet at iconic sites around Cambridge in socially distanced groups of six to sit-in with placards and signs. There were be no chants or speeches, only kids sitting down with placards to remind the world of the important climate crisis. We discouraged supporters from joining us as we wish everyone to be safe in these uncertain times. Instead, we would recommended striking from the safety of their own homes by sharing pictures with a Christmas message about climate change.
As this strange year draws to an end and we would like our community to know how proud we are of them. When faced with a pandemic we have done incredible things purely for the wellbeing of those around us. We have stayed in doors when we would have liked to have gone outside, managed to keep our hands clean and wear masks to do our bit in stopping the virus, and stayed in touch with our neighbours to make sure they’re OK. We have given money, time and energy so we can make it through together. We have treated this crisis like a crisis.
This is why it disheartens us that we are still failing to stand up to the climate crisis. While we welcome the UK government’s efforts, it is looking very unlikely that the Ten Point Plan will succeed in its aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The plan ignores the biodiversity crisis and relies too heavily on new technologies, which engineers and scientists warn are unlikely to save the planet. We know we can tackle a crisis, as we have so well demonstrated in past weeks, but only when communities and individuals come together and do their bit.
We strike to make our voices heard, to fight for the planet, and for the survival of humanity.
Nico's Natural World 