Haven't we got a role in climate change?

"You are destroying our future"

It seems it is always someone else, but is
everybody's responsibility.

Isn't it surrealistic that politicians have to be forced to take measures to save the world from destruction?  Isn’t it their own world?  Haven’t they got children or grandchildren who will live in the world 50 years from now?

All the governing forces – investors and shareholders control governments clearly – are obsessed with ever-growing markets and more profits at any cost.  Have they got a secret plan to save their descendants’ lives and their own when the planet becomes a place where life is impossible?

However, we cannot forget our individual role in all this process.  Will we use public transport instead of driving our own car to work?   Will we avoid buying things we will never use?  Are we willing to wear a sweater at home in winter and lower our heating by a couple of degrees?  Are we going to buy local products to avoid others that have to be brought from thousands or hundreds of kilometers?  

Our own individual actions, which make our daily way of life, are our unimportant contributions to improve the situation of our planet which, if thousands of millions of people also contribute, will become a very important and significant achievement that can make a difference.

On the contrary, if we go on with our lifestyle, marches and demonstrations are a meaningless pose which will lead nowhere.  Well, yes, it will lead to an unlivable world.

Arturo Neira

Environmental Threats and Challenges

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE DISCOVERY AND USE OF OIL 

When oil was discovered about a couple of centuries ago, the world depended on muscle power and animal work to cultivate the land and grow enough vegetables to feed the population.  Also, industrial production depended on animal work. 

When oil was found, humanity was able to invent oil-powered machines which could do as much work in one hour as 100 people in a whole day.  Then the world started to develop much faster than before, because construction, agricultural works and transport became much faster and efficient.  In addition, crops were much more abundant and did not fail, because pesticides and fertilizers, which come from petroleum too, helped to protect harvests from bugs and production increased. 

However, not everything was positive.  On the one hand, people have so much power to transform and degrade the land that we are harming our natural environment seriously.  Furthermore, the machines which use oil fuels send so much co2 into the atmosphere that plants cannot absorb it, and this is causing greenhouse effect and global warming, which are affecting the balance of the atmosphere, causing a climate change:  temperatures rise and there are droughts and floods. 

Besides, we consume so many products and produce so much waste that we are creating huge dumps that are polluting the soil and the waters; apart from exhausting the earth's natural resources. 

In conclusion, either we reduce consumption and look for new and cleaner sources of energy or it will become more and more difficult to live in our planet.  

Excellent subtitled video

The Way Ahead: Environmental challenges and problems

PDF Document on video

Pure sensibility

While we are freaking out because the government of our country and the government of Cataluña are behaving like robotic jihadists leading their people towards confrontation, violence and who knows what else might come in the future - the least will be economic and social suffering, again -, a 13-year-old girl speaks in front of a conference of world leaders and proves that she has more common sense, which is the kind quality which is supposed to belong to grown up, mature people, than all world leaders together.

In a world where the top goal for many people in the developed countries is becoming rich and have lots of things, as the best way to happiness, the girl tells us that if we destroy the world, our environment; no matter how much money or property we have, no matter how much suffering we cause with our greediness, no matter anything, there will be no future for anybody anymore.

There is a part of the speech I especially like, because it unveils the cinical pose of adults:  " You tell us to respect others, not to fight with each other, to clean up our mess...to share, not be greedy...so, why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?",


Video

Teaching Methods: Blackboard or Slides

Differences between  Blackboard and Maximalist slides. (comment on teaching course material)

There is a surprising difference between the percentage of students in favour of the blackboard in the first and second surveys.  The survey doesn’t seem to have been carried out on the same group of students- different number- and not the same subject or teacher.  While I was reading the advantages and disadvantages of each device, I was imagining my students, and the way I explain, and realizing that everything depends very much on the way the teacher displays the concepts on the blackboard or the slide; whether the rhythm is suitable for the students; whether practical use of the concepts is introduced gradually, after each concept or group of concepts, or after explaining the whole content of a unit, etc.  It also depends on the students’ attitude.

I usually introduce “bits of grammar”, which I call grammar squares- as I tell them to copy them in the notebook, surrounded by a square- when they have problems to understand or put into practice a concept.  We practise it immediately- normally I introduce it in the middle of a practice, when they have problems- and the result is that only a small percentage of them remember that it is in their notebook.

As for the philosophy "the teacher works, the student works":

-It seems too obvious that it is the only successful way:

-Why doesn’t it happen?  Nice question:  what are the students supposed to do to succeed in a particular subject?  If the answer is : “pass an exam”, we already have a problem.  The goal is the exam, the learning process is not important for them, so the lesson is not important, only the exam.  And when they miss a substantial part of the process, they are missing a substantial part of the learning.  Practice is basic; maybe it is the only effective way of learning, and we have students who have been mostly taught that exams are the only compulsory obstacle to be overcome, anything else seems to be redundant.

Arturo Neira.

Partner wannas (poem) Violence against Women 2015

PARTNER WANNAS

I wanna share my life

with someone who wants to share mine.

I wanna share my life

With someone who respects who I am,

I wanna share my life

With someone who shares my ambitions,

My longings and goals, my propositions.

I wanna share my life

With someone who wants to love and be loved;

Who wants to be helped and help,

To give when needed, and be given when in need.

Someone who wants my support and is able to offer theirs,

Any  other thing wouldn’t be nice or fair.

Controlling what I do doesn’t mean love,

but rather lack of confidence and mistrust,

a sense of possession which I will have not.

I will keep my friends, my fashion and my personality,

If somebody cannot accept this, they didn’t fall in love with me,

they imagined me different or intended to change my reality.

And if they do not accept me the way I am,

they will try to adapt me to their likings,

as if I were their property, instead of their companion.

And when a property does not meet your interests,

you must try hard to transform it into your fashion,

by beating the real me into the me you request.

And right here, if my me hasn't already been devastated,

I’d rather escape to safer circumstances

or I’m quite likely to end up in the grave.

Arturo Neira.

Seeds Of Peace / Peace poem

­­PEACE                                                                             Paz

If we must celebrate the Day of Peace,                       Se imos celebrar o día da paz

We first should define what peace is.                       Definindo tal palabra teremos que comezar.

‘Is peace the absence of wars, dad?’                     “¿É a paz a ausencia de guerras, papa?”

The innocent child to his father asks.                       O neno inocente pregunta ó seu pai.

‘You are not far from right’, says the man;             “non estás lonxe da verdade”, dí o home;

‘But many more things come to my mind.             “Pero moitas outras cousas me fas pensar.

Peace is, my darling, the absence of fights;            Paz é, meu neno, a ausencia de violencia;

But battles there are of many kinds,                       pero moitos otros tipos de batallas hai,

Which are not often named like that.                     Ás que non lles damos nome tal.

Or isn't it brutality that many children die                 ou non é brutalidade que moitos nenos morran

For war, disease or often  they starve,                    por guerras, enfermidade ou mesmo de fame,

While a few people in the world                               mentres unha pouca xente no mundo,

Feel only happy when they have vast amounts?       só sente felicidade acumulando fortunas grandes?                                                                                                                                                                                                              

And the more they have, more they want               e canto máis teñen, máis parecen necesitar

Because whatever the total, it’s never enough.       Pois nunca lles parece suficiente

                                                                             Por moito que cheguen a xuntar.

Or isn't it violence that the power we bestow        ¿E non é violencia que o poder que outorgamos                                                                                                                     

Our representatives in the polls                                os nosos representantes nas urnas

Comes against us in the form of a law,                     se vólva contra nos en forma de lei,

Which, instead of protecting us from the powerful,   que, en vez de nos protexer fronte ós Poderosos,

                                                                                           

Grants them absolute power upon us,                      concédelles a estes poder absoluto sobre nos;

Protecting their property and investments             protexendo as súas propiedades e inversións,

Even if the humble are left with none,                  ainda que os humildes se queden sen nada,

Paying with sheer treason the confidence            pagándonos con pura traición a confianza

On them laid by their employers and voters?’     que neles puxemos os votantes nas eleccións?”

Or isn't it injustice, a small thief for a piece of bread,   ¿Ou non é inxustiza que un pobre que roube pan,

                                                                                        

Going to prison for years long                                    vaia ó cárcere por longos anos

While authorities stealing from us millions,           mentres as autoridades que nos rouban millóns

Hardly ever pay their wrong?’                                    case nunca pagan pola súa infracción?”

‘So, father, are we at war?’                                       “Entón, meu pai ¿estamos en guerra ou non?

‘Not at war, my child,                                                   “Non en guerra, fillo, non,

But for many things we must peacefully fight.   Pero por moitas cousas temos que loitar.

Peace won’t be complete until we have                A paz non sera completa ata que teñamos

Justice, freedom and equality                                    xustiza, liberdade e igualdade

Which we must get                                                         que debemos conseguir

Through solidarity and respect                                   mediante a solidariedade e o respecto

Among all the members of a society                       entre todos os membros de cada sociedade

Among all the societies in the world.                       Entre todas as sociedades do mundo.

Arturo Neira (English Teacher)  Written last year for Day of Peace.