We were delighted to welcome our new charity Global Canopy to our classrooms by Zoom. Niki Mardas, the charity’s Executive Director, joined us to share his passion for rainforests worldwide; the sights and sounds of the rainforest, its mind-blowing biodiversity, and the critical role the Amazon plays in water cycles and global carbon cycles. He shared both beautiful and haunting pictures and he explained the threat of deforestation.
He thanked pupils for choosing to support Global Canopy as a school, which will enable the charity to continue its work empowering companies, financial institutions and governments to realise and tackle their impact on deforestation. “By you choosing us - that helps us to help the rainforest,” he said.
Mr Mardas highlighted Forest500, Global Canopy’s latest report on 500 most influential companies linked to deforestation. He reminded us that we all can help by making informed choices in the supermarket. You can explore the rankings here: https://forest500.org/rankings/companies - type a product into the search bar and find out how its parent company rates.
He encouraged the children to keep asking the supermarkets and businesses we are buying from: “What are you doing about deforestation?”
What did the children think of today’s assembly? Our Year 7s said assembly was “fascinating”. “It made me want to think about what I buy.” “It made me realise it’s now or never.” “It made me more aware of what we are doing to our planet.” Our Year 5s said: “It made us want to save the rainforest.” “It’s really sad that every six seconds an entire football pitch of trees gets cut down.”
Thank you to Global Canopy for inspiring us all to make a difference.
