The Week Junior Guide to the Environment
Dr Sai Pathmanathan
Bloomsbury Education

Environmental issues seem to be at the forefront of everyone’s agenda with global warming being the burning concern and conflicting views being held by the world’s politicians and scientists. With the prospect of the voting age for children in England being lowered to sixteen, the publication of this book aimed at KS2 readers by Dr Sai Pathmanathan, a science education consultant is a timely one. Herein children are told at the outset not to panic, rather they should look for ways that they as individuals can take action.

First though they need to know something of the science behind climate change, which is the subject of the first chapter. Nine further chapters follow covering the weather and natural disasters, pollution, biodiversity, the interconnectedness of the health of all living things, food and farming, leisure and entertainment, fast fashion, travel and finally money and power.

Yes, there is a fair amount of cutting edge science information, but what I like most are the practical suggestions that anybody can adopt. For instance we’re told that the majority of mobiles become fully charged within two hours so if you’re guilty, stop leaving yours to charge overnight: in the UK alone nearly £50 million is wasted each year by overnight charging.

How many emails have you got stored on your mobile that you’ll never read again? If we all deleted just ten emails that would save 55 million kilowatts of power – sufficient to power five thousand homes for a year.

Then what about fast fashion? It’s appalling to discover that three out of five fast fashion items end in landfill within just a year: try charity shops instead is the suggestion. In addition, buy clothes made from sustainable materials that you’ll get a lot of wear out of; buy from shops rather than ordering lots on line, keeping just one item and sending the rest back; and definitely avoid anything with glitter.

Greta Thunberg isn’t the only young activist you’ll meet herein. Among others is Marinel Samoa Ubaido who lived through Typhoon Haiyan, a campaigner for bans on single-use plastics and the reduction of carbon emissions; she has successfully taken the biggest polluters in the Philippines to court.

A smashing little book that should be on every family bookshelf and in every class collection: think of the difference a whole class or school taking action could make.