School Environmental fight picked up by students

Environmental sustainability has gone from being a subject taught in the classroom to an integral priority for many schools.

Faced with the urgency of the climate crisis and the inspiration of their own students, determined to take care of the planet, many educational centres have taken direct action. This is the case of El Limonar International School, Villamartin which, together with El Limonar de Murcia, works under a protocol of responsible measures from the environmental point of view, with solar energy.

With the installation last year of 330 solar panels on the roofs of its facilities in San Miguel de Salinas and its Buenavista and Montevida (Murcia) campuses, they generate 150,000 kWh per year with pollution savings equivalent to planting nearly 2,000 trees.

No less than 37 tons of annual CO2 emissions have been avoided from the skies of the province with their transition to this clean energy, in a measure that has also allowed a significant reduction in their electricity bill and the energy self-sufficiency during many times of the day.

After a detailed study carried out internally among the entire school community by a specialised environmental consultancy, the words 'worried', 'sad', 'scared' and 'disappointed' were among those that most defined the state of mind of students, families and workers regarding climate change. This served as a starting point to establish an ambitious action plan, through the creation of an Ecological Leadership Team that includes the directors of Infant, Primary, Secondary and Baccalaureate, as well as six staff members, all of who have made a commitment to help students so that their contribution in this regard is positive.

World Environment Day volunteers collect plastics in Torrevieja bay

By Andrew Atkinson

Torrevieja played a part in World Environment Day - June 5 - with a group of volunteers collecting plastics in the Torrevieja bay, commemorating the date and raising awareness about the problem of plastics in seas, rivers and oceans.

The students have reviewed the current waste situation and have made recommendations on how to reduce waste and improve recycling.

For example, the students of the Infant and Primary Eco Team have proposed a ban on the use of glitter throughout the school, using paper on both sides and reducing the amount of plastic wrap, in addition to other measures such as using only reusable bottles, carrying lunches in lunch boxes or bags instead of wrappers, or placing a multitude of recycling containers in strategic places.

By mid-June, schools will have halved the total amount of waste.

Pedro Rodríguez, a coordinator at ELIS Murcia aid that “Each quarter 300 kilos of plastic caps are collected, which are donated to SEUR's "Caps for a new life" foundation so that they can be turned into money for research into childhood diseases”.

In addition, throughout the academic year the schools carry out visits to natural areas such as forests or surrounding beaches with the aim of collecting as much waste as possible, often collaborating with local charities.

Annually over 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide - with half designed for a single use. Less than 10% is recycled and it is estimated that approximately 20 million tons of plastic waste ends up every year in lakes, rivers and seas.

Iwonder how many people remember the time when the BBC was responsible, well as reliable as any rolling news channel can be.

In the eighties and nineties ‘Crimewatch’ was produced by the broadcasting service for half an hour, once a week, re-enacting violent crimes and offering clues to help in identifying the villains.

If they were to revive the programme for current events, they would need a lot longer than half an hour.

Nick Ross was the original lead, describing events in the images, the ‘news real shots’ or the acted scenes of vicious crime. The programme would finish with Ross saying. “Don’t have nightmares, violent crime and murder are very rare. Good night.”

How life has, and is continuing to change especially in the UK, daily events covered by the news now reveal how groups of youths are hell bent on ignoring civil values and have their own belief in the way they act out their lives, which in a civilised society should not be, and is not acceptable, demonstrating a lack of control or discipline in their upbringing.

The figures for knife crime are terrifying, The reports of arrests for last year are nearly three thousand children, many as young as ten who have been taken into custody for carrying knife blades, which range from swords to kitchen knives, with a resulting death toll of over three stabbings a day

There are 99 postcodes in the United Kingdom. One of them is the East London town of Romford, which, in my mind, is still in Essex. The town is rife for anti-social behaviour (ASB) with 9600 incidents recorded in 2022.

The town's answer in controlling these numbers announced in April this year was the Council in conjunction with the police banning hoodies and any form of face covering in the town centre.

The new rules are controversial, there has not been enough time to see if they work in reducing the crime level. The debate amongst the people argue that it would have been