Paris climate agreement ‘may signal end of fossil fuel era’ | Environment Governments may have signalled an end to the fossil fuel era, with massive consequences for industry, global security, financial markets and public health, Al Gore and other business leaders have said. “This universal and ambitious agreement sends a clear signal to governments, businesses, and investors everywhere: the transformation of our global economy from one fuelled by dirty energy to one fuelled by sustainable economic growth is now firmly and inevitably under way,” the former senator said in a statement. “No agreement is perfect, and this one must be strengthened over time, but groups across every sector of society will now begin to reduce dangerous carbon pollution through the framework of this agreement,” said Gore. Gore was joined by Paul Polman, Unilever’s chief executive, who said investors would now have more confidence to address the risks of having fossil fuel assets on their books. “The consequences of this agreement go far beyond the actions of governments.
How the language you speak changes your view of the world | Science | News Bilinguals get all the perks. Better job prospects, a cognitive boost and even protection against dementia. Now new research shows that they can also view the world in different ways depending on the specific language they are operating in. The past 15 years have witnessed an overwhelming amount of research on the bilingual mind, with the majority of the evidence pointing to the tangible advantages of using more than one language. Just as regular exercise gives your body some biological benefits, mentally controlling two or more languages gives your brain cognitive benefits. Germans know where they’re going In research we recently published in Psychological Science, we studied German-English bilinguals and monolinguals to find out how different language patterns affected how they reacted in experiments. When you give a scene like that to a monolingual German speaker they will tend to describe the action but also the goal of the action. Switch languages, change perspective
Leaders Move to Convert Paris Climate Pledges Into Action Photo PARIS — Before the applause had even settled in the suburban convention center where the Paris Agreement was adopted by consensus on Saturday night, world leaders warned that momentum from the historic accord must not be allowed to dissipate. “Today, we celebrate,” said Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Union’s energy commissioner and top climate negotiator. “Tomorrow, we have to act.” With nearly every nation on Earth having now pledged to gradually reduce emissions of the heat-trapping gases that are warming the planet — a universal commitment that had eluded negotiators and activists since the Earth Summit meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 — much of the burden for maintaining the momentum shifts back to the countries to figure out, and carry out, the concrete steps needed to deliver on their vows. Continue reading the main story OPEN Graphic During negotiations, India insisted that it would not be able to make the transition without assistance. Continue reading the main story Gov.
“Learning to teach listening: students’ and teachers’ perceptions” summary of Chiara Bruzzano’s talk This is the second summary from the TESOL Italy 2016 talks that I saw. The first one was Henry Widdowson’s plenary ‘ELF and TESOL: a change of subject?’, and you can read it here. Chiara’s talk starts off with a short video. Two people are having breakfast and chatting away. A third one arrives and joins the chat. The language sounds vaguely familiar, but doesn’t seem to be making much sense. And this is exactly how English might sound to our students’ ears. Low English proficiency of students in ItalyEnglish is becoming more and more important in everyday lifeIt’s the Cinderella skillStudents’ perceptions need to be taken into account for curriculum developmentMost of the time listening is tested rather than taught in class The two most common theories which inform how we teach listening are bottom-up and top-down processing. The rest of the talk is informed by a research Chiara carried out. First, we should stop just testing listening, and focus on teaching it. DOs DON’Ts Like this:
An Insider’s Journal from the Paris Climate Talks — Natural Resources Defense Council An Insider’s Journal from the Paris Climate Talks What’s it like to help protect the world from climate chaos? Here’s my daily peek behind the scenes at #COP21. Friday, December 4:Real Places, Real People, Real Leadership for Change Few buildings anywhere speak to the promise of human achievement with greater eloquence than the grand Hotel de Ville, the city hall of Paris. In many ways, these are the heroes of the global fight against climate change. For these visionary leaders, climate action is no mere catchphrase; it’s a daily part of their political life. “Cities shelter more than half the inhabitants of the planet,” said the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. Hidalgo, along with former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, cohosted Friday’s Climate Summit for Local Leaders, convened in concert with the global climate talks in Paris. It’s vital work. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti is working to cut greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. Additional notes:
70-year-old Caitlín Bent is Ireland’s oldest mountain runner – and isn’t stopping anytime soon SHE MIGHT BE 70-years-old but Dubliner Caitlín Bent doesn’t look it and she certainly doesn’t act it. She’s the country’s best mountain runner for her age category and in her own humble way proclaims, “probably the only one too!” Most recently, she ran the Powerscourt Ridge, a pretty brutal 16 kilometre off-road race in the Wicklow Mountains that featured over 500 metres of elevation. Bent whipped around it in just three hours, winning the over 70’s category – simply because she was the only one in that age bracket. Only ten men over 50 years took part and three other women over the same age. Bent does it for the craic, loves a few pints of Guinness after and she has no intention of stopping any time soon. “It’s running over the the mountains and winding through the rivers and forests why I do it,” she explained. “There’s nothing like the freedom it gives you and that feeling you get afterwards, it’s getting away from everything. Bent admits she rarely sees her GP.
Scientists Warn Climate Change Will Trigger Rise In Terrifying Illness From Murakami to Oates, Why Does Running Appeal to Writers? From Homer’s The Iliad to A.E. Housman’s poem about an athlete dying young, there’s no shortage of literary depictions of running. “Move, as the limbs / of a runner do,” writes W.H. Auden. Freedom, consciousness, and wildness: Running offers writers escape with purpose. While on sabbatical in London in 1972, a homesick Oates began running “compulsively; not as a respite for the intensity of writing but as a function of writing.” Whether their reasoning is practical or spiritual, many writers run with ritualistic devotion. Why do writers so often love to run? Murakami’s sentiment reminds me of the LSD—long, slow distance—of my college track days. Oates enjoyed this mental freedom and “special solitude” while running during her youth. Writers, like runners, often like the idea of their pursuit more so than the difficult work. After my college running days ended, I chose sprints over distance, gained some pounds, and looked more like a fullback than a half-miler.
Breakthrough Energy Coalition The man who made America: Reason, religion and the brilliant mind of John Locke After his triumphant return to London, John Locke’s theory of the mind gradually spread, as did his views on the processes of thought, consciousness, delusion, and the capacity of reason to control man’s passions. Along with Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton, Locke became synonymous with the progressive advances of English culture. Throughout Western Europe, Locke’s thought moved quickly throughout literary and philosophical circles, where its political implications were not missed. A swarm of French refugees, often trained in Protestant seminaries to reject divine right and employ private conscience, embraced Locke’s model of consciousness with its justification of inner difference. The French Huguenot exile Pierre Coste became Locke’s interpreter and French translator, and through Coste’s efforts the Essay spread throughout the continent. Locke’s theories of the mind would become part of the curricula of universities, often finding a home among those who taught and studied logic.
FACT SHEET: Mission Innovation On Monday in Paris, President Obama, President Hollande, and other world leaders will launch Mission Innovation, a landmark commitment to dramatically accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation. Through the initiative, 20 countries representing 80 percent of global clean energy research and development (R&D) budgets are committing to double their respective R&D investments over five years. These additional resources will dramatically expand the new technologies that will define a future global power mix that is clean, affordable, and reliable. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an independent initiative launched simultaneously with Mission Innovation and spearheaded by Bill Gates, is a global group of private investors that will take the risks that allow the early stage energy companies that emerge from the research programs of Mission Innovation countries to come out of the lab and into the marketplace. As part of its contribution to Mission Innovation, the U.S.
untitled Dom steakova, piva i muškaraca u haljinama… Kad sam prvi put posjetio Bruxelles, trebala mi je schengenska viza za zemlje Beneluxa. Svojim je bojama blistala u putovnici i često sam joj se pogledom vraćao vrteći taj dragi putnički dokument u rukama. Petnaestak godina kasnije, nakon što je slovenski policajac bacio oko na naše putne isprave, putovali smo tom Europom samo primivši na znanje obavijesti o granicama među državama koje prolazimo. Bruxelles je, naravno, stanica koju se na tom putovanju ne zaobilazi. Kratka šetnja do središta grada godi vozačkim leđima, a prepoznavanje ulica i zgrada čini mi zadovoljstvo povratka. Turistima iz cijelog svijeta više se nigdje ne čudim, a ne čudim se ni ‘domaćima’ pristiglima iz istog tog svijeta, iako ne razumijem njihovo neprihvaćanje kulture koja je prihvatila njih. Benefite susjedstva u kojem smo smješteni ubirem u rano jutro… izlazim, po sistemu ‘eci, peci, pec…’ biram smjer u kojem ću krenuti tražiti kvartovsku pekaru.
11 terrifying facts about climate change in 2015 Global leaders are in Paris for the long-awaited United Nations conference on climate change. The event is one of the largest diplomatic conferences ever organised, and it brings together 150 leaders from around the world for what some are calling the 'last chance' for the environment. The main focus of the discussions is to figure out how warming can be restricted to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This is the somewhat arbitrary threshold for averting the worst impacts of climate change, agreed upon by many researchers and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Unfortunately, climate change is already here -- and it's only going to get worse. As a guide to some of the issues at stake, WIRED has compiled a selection of climate change facts that underpin the discussions. Temperatures are breaking records around the world The 21st century has seen the most temperature records broken in recorded history. There is no scientific debate about the reality of climate change