The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a framework to secure a better and more sustainable future for life on earth. They are the direct descendants of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and seek to address the enormous global challenges we face in terms of poverty, climate and inequality.
Clean air is essential for healthy human life but much of the world’s population lives in places where they are exposed to poor air quality. Client Earth report that there were an estimated 6.5 million deaths associated with exposure to air pollution just in 2012. With a growing population, increasing mechanisation and urbanisation air pollution is set to worsen.
The relative wealth of Europe is not protecting it from air pollution, which continues to take a difficult toll on health, causing around 400,000 early deaths annually. Legal standard for clean air are not being met in many EU countries and according to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) 1 in 3 children is growing up in parts of the UK with hazardous levels of toxic air, an environmental issue affecting the most vulnerable in our society and those who are least likely to have caused it.
This workshop will be an opportunity to engage with the UN SDGs, to explore our role as science educators in their success and consider practical ways in which we might investigate clean air in our lessons and educate for the SDGs.
References:
Monbiot, G (2018). Dirty Air is Killing our Children. The Guardian. UNICEF. (2018). Every child's breath is under threat.
