Share-Net Newsflash – December 2009
 
Greetings from Share-Net.

This year seems to have raced past and we are almost into 2010!! Our last Share-Net EE Newsflash for the year comes to you filled with lots of good wishes for a blessed and peaceful Christmas and New Year with family and friends.

2009 has been a year filled with so many environmental challenges and concerns, culminating (in 11 days time!!) in the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. From 7 December, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to determine how the world deals with climate change. At this critical conference, we call on our world leaders to secure a fair and effective new climate deal that will protect people, and protect the planet.

And so, as we head into a brand new year, 2010, the Year of Biodiversity, full of exciting new projects and challenges, let us all remember that by making small changes in our daily routines, we can all make a difference, and in the immortal words of Mahatma Gandhi ‘Let us be the change we want to see in the world’.

Vote Earth. Everyone is encouraged to Vote Earth in the lead up to the meeting in Copenhagen. Post your Vote on www.wwf.org.za   This way we can show world leaders that we are Voting for the Earth and that they should do what is best for the planet. 

2010 Environmental Calendar. Many people find the central page of the Year of Special Days booklet useful for planning activities and events around environmental days – we have attached the 2010 calendar for you (in both MSWord and MSExcel ) to use or pass on. See more details about the updated ‘Year of Special Days’ booklet in the ‘New Resources available from Share-Net' section that follows.

Eco-Schools News. Just under 1 000 schools signed up as Eco-Schools during 2009, the largest number to register so far. Hundreds of portfolios have been pouring into the Eco-Schools national and regional offices and co-ordinators are working day and night to get the assessing done! Awards will be made during January next year. Don’t forget to register for 2010! For more information on the Eco-Schools South Africa Programme, contact Bridget or Caroline on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Age of Stupid. The Age of Stupid is a 2008 drama-documentary-animation hybrid which stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, watching archive footage from 2008 and asking "Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?" The film's UK premiere was on 15 March 2009 in a solar-powered cinema tent in London's Leicester Square, linked by satellite to 62 cinemas around the UK. The premiere received a Guiness World Record for being the largest film premiere ever, based on number of screens. During the post show discussion, star of the film Pete Postlethwaite threatened to return his OBE if the government gave the go-ahead to the controversial Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent. President Mohammed Nasheed received a standing ovation for announcing that the Maldives would be the world's first carbon neutral country. The Age of Stupid was released in Australia and New Zealand on 19 August with simultaneous green carpet premieres in Auckland and Sydney, linked by satellite to cinemas in the two countries. The film was released internationally on 21 September and 22 September 2009 at the "Global Premiere". A green carpet cinema tent in downtown New York was linked by satellite to 442 cinemas across the USA and to more than 200 cinemas in 30+ other countries, as well as another 33 countries which hosted Indie screenings (with no satellite link).

Durban Botanic Gardens Trust and Spanner Films proudly present an Indie screening of The Age of Stupid at the Visitors Complex in Durban on 3 December 2009. For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Volvo Adventure Award. The winners of the Volvo Adventure, the world wide search undertaken with UNEP to find the most innovative, imaginative and practical projects devised by young people to solve environmental problems, has been announced. This year the first prize has gone to the HUNAB team from the Yucatan coast of Mexico for their imaginative solution to local water problems. Using only 900 litres of water, each young person has taken responsibility for a small aquaculture pond, providing a sustainable harvest and a nursery for repopulating the local waterways once they have been cleaned. This ingenious project has allowed the children to earn extra money to support their ongoing schooling and helped to spread the aquaculture ponds to other young people. If you are working with young people between 13 and 16 years old who are actively involved in devising and managing projects, then consider entering the 2010 Volvo Adventure Award. All you have to do is register and enter your project by visiting www.volvoadventure.org.

With very best wishes from all of us at Share-Net
Clare, Rhona, Jim, Ernest and Tsepang

New resources available from Share-Net (Prices include postage and packaging)

Year of Special Days 2010 (R16.50). The "Year of Special Days 2010" booklet is designed to help educators plan school assemblies and learning activities. Each page in the booklet provides just enough information to launch learners and educators on a quest to find out more about a specific environmental day. Possible activities for each Special Day include inviting a guest speaker to assembly, planning active learning in line with the curriculum, or whole class/school activities around a chosen theme. For planning the school calendar, the centre page is a 2010 calendar showing commemorative days. A single page is allocated to each Special Day and includes interesting background information on the day; a guiding question to stimulate further enquiry; contact details to obtain more information; references to Share-Net and other materials that can support learning; and useful website addresses.

Puzzling Climate Change: A start-up pack of pictures (R50). "Puzzling Climate Change: A start-up pack of pictures" is a materials development project, funded by ABB through WWF-SA, that aims to support learners in exploring some of the concepts and questions around climate change. The pack can be used as a picture building activity and can provide starter points for deliberation and debate around climate change. It can also be used as a prompt to enable children to express what they know, think and feel about climate change, and it can be used to introduce other climate change materials. The pack includes:

·sixteen A5 picture cards with “Questions”, “Educator’s Notes” and “Topics to debate” on the back of each card. The “Educator’s Notes” are designed to assist teachers to add more detail and to raise questions that lead to discussions;

• two identical sets of sixteen small picture cards;

• a CD with an electronic version of the picture cards (should facilitators/teachers wish to adapt or rework the cards and questions), together with information on how to design and develop environmental games);

• an A5 pocket guide from WWF on ‘The New Climate Deal’; and

• a two page letter on Earth Hour 2010.

Environmental Education Courses + Meetings for 2009 and 2010

WESSA Environmental Educators Courses 2010. As an accredited training provider, WESSA offers part-time and full-time Environmental Educators’ Courses which align with the NQF. For more details on these courses, please contact Ncami or Preven on 033-330 3931 extension 134 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

2010 Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) Conference. The dates and venue for the 28th EEASA Conference 2010 are 7-10 September at the Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia. For more information, visit the EEASA 2010 conference website www.eeasa2010.cbu.ac.zm . Conference enquiries This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Greenex 2010 Conference and Expo.12-13 May 2010. Africa is ready to fight global warming! Nasrec Expo Centre, Johannesburg.

3rd International Conference on Sustainable Education. 8-10 December 2009. Yachana, Ecuador. “Education That Pays For Itself”. Share and discover innovative models tackling key challenges in education across the developing world (how to provide high quality education without high fees, how to teach young people to succeed as entrepreneurs, how to empower future generations to break out of the poverty trap). The Conference will bring together some of the world’s leading experts in the field, along with educators, policymakers, business people, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and NGOs from around the world, in a hands-on forum for learning, networking, inspiration and action. For more information, visit the conference website: www.teachamantofish.org.uk/conference