Tag: inequality

Infographic showing key findings on environmental impact: 40% transport, 27% energy, 32% food, 72% scope 3 emissions, under 1% water/waste, over a blurred image of children outdoors.

Schools are not neutral: What school carbon data reveals about responsibility, modelling, and care

Posted on by Kit Marie Rackley (they/she)

Part 3 of the "This Isn't Activism: It's a Duty of Care" series discusses the findings of the Count Your Carbon 2026 report, which analyses carbon emissions from over 1,600 schools in England. It reveals that structural decisions, such as transportation and food sourcing, significantly contribute to school emissions, often beyond children’s control. I emphasise that framing climate responsibility on students is misleading and may lead to emotional burdens, and so there is a need for institutional honesty and alignment of actions with the realities of carbon impact to support safeguarding rather than shifting blame onto young people.

A bar chart shows that most children and young people in England agree that being in nature makes them happy, with 40% completely agreeing and 29% strongly agreeing.

Children already know this matters: What Natural England’s Survey tells us about wellbeing, inequality, and care

Posted on by Kit Marie Rackley (they/she)

Part 2 of the "This Isn't Activism: It's a Duty of Care" series on climate education. I look at the importance of understanding children's experiences and relationships with nature as revealed in the Children’s People and Nature Survey for England, highlighting that most children feel happy in nature, but access to it is uneven, influenced by factors like income and ethnicity. Safeguarding frameworks need to account for these inequalities, as children’s emotional connections to nature exist before climate-related concerns. Educators should approach these topics with care, awareness, and honesty rather than avoidance or panic.