Environmental education
Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) states that EE is vital in imparting an inherent respect for nature among society and in enhancing public environmental awareness.
In the subsequent Tbilisi Declaration, environment was interpreted in its 'totality—natural and built, technological and social (economic, political, cultural-historical, ethical, aesthetic)' (point 3).
The specific responsibilities associated with each career will depend in part on their physical location, taking into account what environmental issue is most prevalent in the area.
Several decades later, Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-born naturalist, echoed Rousseau's philosophy as he encouraged students to "Study nature, not books.
"[26] These two influential scholars helped lay the foundation for a concrete environmental education program, known as nature study, which took place in the late 19th and early 20th century.
[27] Conservation Education was a major scientific management and planning tool that helped solve social, economic, and environmental problems during this time period.
Environmental education was born of the realization that solving complex local and global problems cannot be accomplished by politicians and experts alone, but requires "the support and active participation of an informed public in their various roles as consumers, voters, employers, and business and community leaders.
In 2002, the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014 (UNDESD) was formed as a way to reconsider, excite, and change approaches to acting positively on global challenges.
[34] The Belgrade Charter was built upon the Stockholm Declaration and added goals, objectives, and guiding principles of environmental education programs.
Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato si', referred to a broadening of the goals of environmental education:Whereas in the beginning it was mainly centred on scientific information, consciousness-raising and the prevention of environmental risks, it tends now to include a critique of the “myths” of a modernity grounded in a utilitarian mindset (individualism, unlimited progress, competition, consumerism, the unregulated market).
EE policies assist schools and organizations in developing and improving environmental education programs that provide citizens with an in-depth understanding of the environment.
[36] Environmental education policies help reduce the relatively small burden of the initial start-up costs for green schools.
These policies specifically focus on bringing freshly prepared food, made from high-quality, locally grown ingredients into schools.
In secondary school, environmental curriculum can be a focused subject within the sciences or is a part of student interest groups or clubs.
Experiential lessons in the school yard, field trips to national parks, after-school green clubs, and school-wide sustainability projects help make the environment an easily accessible topic.
Effective programs promote a holistic approach and lead by example, using sustainable practices in the school to encourage students and parents to bring environmental education into their home.
[42] According to Stevenson, the recent critical and action orientation of environmental education creates a challenging task for schools.
[43][44] This contrasts with the traditional purpose of schools of conserving the existing social order by reproducing the norms and values that currently dominate environmental decision making.
In 2017, a study found that high school science textbooks and government resources on climate change from United States, EU, Canada and Australia did focus their recommendations for CO2 emission reductions on lower-impact actions instead of promoting the most effective emission-reduction strategies.
This trend may be viewed as a microcosm of how many environmental education programs seek to first engage participants through developing a sense of nature appreciation which then translates into actions that affect conservation and sustainability.
Programs range from New York to California, including Life Lab at University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as Cornell University in Environmentalism has also begun to make waves in the development of the global South, as the "First World" takes on the responsibility of helping developing countries to combat environmental issues produced and prolonged by conditions of poverty.
This goal has been a part of international agenda since the 1900s, with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) and the Earth Council Alliance (ECA) at the forefront of pursuing sustainable development in the south.
The 1977 Tbilisi intergovernmental conference played a key role in the development of outcome of the conference was the Tbilisi Declaration, a unanimous accord which "constitutes the framework, principles, and guidelines for environmental education at all levels—local, national, regional, and international—and for all age groups both inside and outside the formal school system" recommended as a criterion for implementing environmental education.
It has been instrumentally utilized in expanding the field towards the global South, wherein the discourse of "environmental education for sustainable development" recognizes a need to include human population dynamics in EE and emphasizes "aspects related to contemporary economic realities and by placing greater emphasis on concerns for planetary solidarity".
The role of environmental education in the South is centered around potential economic growth in development projects, as explicitly stated by the UNESCO, to apply environmental education for sustainable development through a "creative and effective use of human potential and all forms of capital to ensure rapid and more equitable economic growth, with minimal impact on the environment".
The MDGs included global efforts to end extreme poverty, work towards gender equality, access to education, and sustainable development to name a few.
A "universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity", SDGs became the new face of global priorities.
[53] One of the current trends within environmental education seeks to move from an approach of ideology and activism to one that allows students to make informed decisions and take action based on experience as well as data.
The overall objectives of REE pertain to giving a working knowledge and understanding of concepts, facts, principles and technologies for gathering the renewable sources of energy.
