GE 145: INTRODUCTION TO ENVIROMNENTAL EDUCATION.

 

Topic 1: Principles of Environmental Education

• Concepts and principles of environmental education
• History and philosophy of environmental education
• Approaches in environmental education
• Acquisition of environmental knowledge.

1:1Concepts and principles of environmental education

• General meaning of environmental education 
• Background of environmental education  

•   Environmental education.

• Is a process by which people develop awareness, concern and knowledge of the environment and learn to use this understanding to preserve, conserve and utilize the environment in a sustainable manner for the benefit of present and future generations.

• Background of environmental education
  Man has been inseparable part of the environment ever since; even the appearance of man on earth itself was an outcome of the environmental processes.
  
  Limited need of primitive man did not disturb the harmony of nature since the amount to damage the environment were insignificant.
  
  Later on the population growth and its various need plus advancement in technology accelerates environmental degradation.
  Some of the ways that caused this degradation can be summarized as follows;
  Farming, cutting down trees for timber firewood and overgrazing.
  • Man has deforestated vast areas without replacing the trees and grasses  with similar vegetation cover or maintaining the similar soil fertility of the area. 
  Excessive use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and weed killers.
  • Most of these are toxic, persistent in nature and are not selective as a result they  affect the natural cycles and find their way into food and water from soil.
  Industrial activities
  • The wastes from industries are released into atmosphere as gases, same are dumped on land or in water as either solid or liquid.
  • Raw materials for industries particularly the mineral mining in many areas have left the abandoned mining sides unsuitable for vegetation growth and has been turned into wastelands.
  Growth of urban settlements
  • The content of urban sewages are discharged into streams and rivers polluting the water.
  • Clearing the land for buildings and cutting down trees for buildings and furniture.
  • A lot of domestic wastes are dumped on land and water
  Various means of transport
  • Consume various sources of energy as coal, diesel, and petroleum in large quantity.
  • Emit different gases which pollute the environment example carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and lead.
  • Cutting down large number of trees for construction of roads and railways.
  • All these have lead to present day environmental crises. Environmental degradation if not checked in time will endanger the existence of human being itself.
  • There is need for environmental education so as to have citizens who concerned for saving the environment from more destruction.
  • When people became knowledgeable about their environment and associated problems will be aware of the solutions to those problems too.
  • Education has always played a crucial role in society because it provides necessary skills and helps in forming certain attitudes. The environmental education is there to fulfill this role.
  • Environment education should help in solving environmental problems in our normal lives. As we depend on environment to live, to get our daily needs and development we have in turn to take care of the environment for it to continue to sustain us.
  
  
  Take care of the environment for the environment to take care of you.
  
  
  CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION.
  Definition of Environmental Education (EE) according to UNESCO 
  Goals, specific objectives and principles of EE according to UNESCO. 
  1:2History and philosophy of environmental education 
  According to UNESCO Conference done in Tbilisi  Georgia;
  

  Environmental education is defined as a process aimed at developing the world population that is aware and concerned about the total environment and its associated problems and which have the knowledge, attitudes, motivations, commitments and skills to work individually and to work collectively towards solutions of current problems and preventing the new ones (UNESCO, Tbilisi Declaration, 1978).

  
  

  Goals of Environmental Education

  
  

  According to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) Tbilisi Declaration, there are 3 goals of Environmental Education.

  
  

  1. To foster clear awareness of, and concern about, social, political and economic interdependence at local, regional, national and international/global levels.

  
  

  2. To provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, commitment and skills needed to protect and improve the environment;

  
  

  3. To develop and reinforce new patterns of environmentally sensitive behavior among individuals, groups and society as a whole for a sustainable environment.

  Specific objectives of Environmental Education

  The above goals were better defined by 5 objectives which were outlined in UNESCO-UNEP(United Nations Environment Program) Environmental Education Newsletter Vol.1, No1 (January 1996). These objectives are to improve: awareness, knowledge, attitudes,  skill and participation. 

  
  

  1.Awareness - to help social groups and individuals acquire awareness and sensitivity towards: " the environment as a whole, and; " issues, questions and problems related to environment and development.

  
  

   2.Knowledge  to help individuals, groups and societies gain a variety of experience in, and acquire a basic understanding of what is required to create and maintain a sustainable environment.

  3.Attitudes - to help individuals, groups and societies acquire: " a set of values and feelings of concern for the environment, and " the motivation to actively participate in protection of the environment.

  
  

  4.Skills - help individuals, groups and societies acquire the skills for: " identifying, " anticipating, " preventing and " solving environmental problems. 

  5. Participation - to provide individuals, groups and societies with an opportunity and the motivation to be actively involved at all levels in creating a sustainable environment.
  
  HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION. 
•  The roots of environmental education can be traced back as early as the 18th century when Jean-Jacques Rousseau stressed the importance of an education that focuses on the environment in Emile: or, in Education  Several decades later, Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-born naturalist, echoed Rousseau’s philosophy as he encouraged students to “Study nature, not books.”   These two influential scholars helped to lay the foundation for a concrete environmental education program, known as Nature study,  in the late 19th century and early 20th century. 
• Later on a new type of environmental education, Conservation Education emerged, as a result of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl during the 1920s and 1930s. 
• • Great Depression = a period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment.
  • •      Dust Bowl = an area where vegetation has been lost and soil eroded, esp. as a consequence of drought or unsuitable farming practice.
  • •      The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands in the 1930s, particularly in 1934 and 1936. The phenomenon was caused by severe drought combined with farming methods that did not include crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops, soil terracing and wind-breaking trees to prevent wind erosion
  •  Conservation Educationdealt with the natural world in a drastically different way from Nature Study because it focused on rigorous scientific training rather than natural history. Conservation Education was a major scientific management and planning tool that helped solve social, economic, and environmental problems during this time period
  • The modern environmental education movement, which gained significant momentum in the late 1960s and early 1970s, stems from Nature Study and Conservation Education. How?
  
  

  HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

  • The modern environmental education movement stems from Nature Study and Conservation Education. (late 1960s and early 1970s).
  • In late 1960s and early 1970s   many events such as Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War – placed Americans at odds with one another and the U.S. government.
  • Many people began to fear the fallout (cloud of radioactive dust that is created by a nuclear explosion and settles back down to the ground) from bombs and other radiations, the chemical pesticides, and the significant amounts of air pollution and waste.
  •  The public’s concern for their health and the health of their natural environment led to a unifying phenomenon known as environmentalism.
  • The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) created three major declarations that have guided the course of environmental education.

  • Stockholm Declaration (Sweden) June 5–16, 1972 

  • Internationally, Environmental Education gained recognition in this UN conference. It was UN Conference on the Human Environment.   It declared environmental education must be used as a tool to address global environmental problems.
  • The document was made up of 7 proclamations and 26 principles "to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment."

  • The Belgrade Charter - October 13–22, 1975.

  •  It was the outcome of the International Workshop on Environmental Education held in Belgrade, Serbia.
  • Was built upon the Stockholm Declaration and adds goals, objectives, and guiding principles of environmental education programs

  • It defines an audience for environmental education, which includes the general public.

  The Tbilisi Declaration (Georgia/USSR)October 14–26, 1977

  •   Noted the important role of environmental education in the preservation and improvement of the world's environment, as well as in the sound and balanced development of the world's communities.
  • The Tbilisi Declaration updated and clarified The Stockholm Declaration and The Belgrade Charter by including new goals, objectives, characteristics, and guiding principles of environmental education.

  Other conferences are like

  •   1980- International Union for conservation of     nature and Wild Life Fund. Insisted on resources conservation and sustainable development.
  • 1987- by UNESCO & UNEP in Moscow. Insisted the importance of EE.

  • United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Rio de Janeiro(Brazil) 3-14 June 1992 (Informal name =The Earth Summit). This summit focused on three broad concepts:

  1. An "Earth Charter" covering a number of principles aiming at development and the protection of the environment. 
  2. "Agenda 21" was intended to be a global action plan for sustainable development in the 21 century.
  3.  Developing countries demanded a substantial increase in new funding from developed countries to contribute to sustainable development
  They reached on several conventions covering

  • Climate Change. It acknowledged on the threat of global warming.
  • Biological Diversity (Conservation of the world biodiversity)
  • Forest (Sustainable forest management)

  One implication of the Rio de Jane conference in EE is the recommendation that, environment and education should be incorporated as an essential part of learning. (Within both formal and informal sector)

  For geography teachers/ environmentalists

  •  EE should be a lifelong process that a person acquires from childhood till death.
  •  EE is not restricted to in-class lesson plans. There are numerous ways children can learn about the environment in which they live. From experiential lessons in the school yard and field trips to national parks, to after-school green clubs and school wide sustainability projects.
  • Can have the environmental week/day in your school
  • EE should be a part and parcel of any subject in the schools as to
  • be done from curriculum developers and policy makers. The environment is a topic which is readily and easily accessible.
  
  

  Environmentalism

  • Original/ history
  •  Meaning
  • Supporters
  •  Criticism

  
  

  History/origin of environmentalism

  • A concern for environmental protection has occurred in diverse forms, in different parts of the world, throughout history. Example origin of Environmentalism in Us. (in previous  lecture)
  • In late 1960s and early 1970s   many events  such as Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War placed Americans at odds with one another and the U.S. government.
  • Many people began to fear the fallout
  • from bombs and other radiations, the chemical pesticides , and the significant amounts of air pollution and waste.
  • The public’s concern for their health and the health of their natural environment led to a unifying phenomenon known as  environmentalism.

  MEANING OF ENVIRONMENTALISM

  • Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, Gipson (2003).
  • Environmentalism is a movement to control pollution (Merriam-website 2012-06-20).
  •  For this reason, concepts such as a land ethic, environmental ethics, biodiversity, and ecology are predominant.
  • Environmentalism is a social movement that seeks to influence the political process by lobbying/influencing, activism, and education in order to protect natural resources and ecosystems.

  SUPPORTERS OF ENVIRONMENTALISM

  Free market environmentalism

  • Is a theory that argues that the free market, property rights, and tort law provide the best tools to preserve the health and sustainability of the environment? It considers environment to be in its natural way as a property right of every one, as well as the expulsion of polluters and other aggressors through individual and class action.
  • For markets to work in the environmental field, as in any other,  each important resource must be clearly defined  easily defended against invasion , and divestible (transferable) by owners on terms agreeable to buyer and seller. Well-functioning markets, in short, require “3-D” property rights.
  • When the first two are present—clear definition and easy defense of one’s rights—no one is forced to accept pollution beyond the standard acceptable to the community.

  Evangelical environmentalism

  • It has focus of addressing climate action from a biblically grounded or theological perspective.
  • Argues that human-induced climate change will have severe consequences and impact the poor. 
  • God's mandate to Adam to care for the Garden of Eden.
  • It is therefore a moral obligation to work to mitigate climate impacts and support communities in adapting to change.

  Preservation and conservation (Conservation movement)

  • Is viewed as the setting aside of natural resources to prevent damage caused by contact with humans or by certain human activities, such as logging, mining, hunting, and fishing, often to replace them with new human activities such as tourism and recreation.
  •  Regulations and laws may be enacted for the preservation of natural resources.
  • As environmental concern grew, so did distrust of business institutions, which were seen to be the cause of environmental problems such as air and water pollution. Governments worldwide responded with new forms of comprehensive environmental legislation aimed at regulating and constraining environmentally damaging business activities.

  CRITICISM OF ENVIRONMENTALISM

  • Environmentalists typically believe that human interference with 'nature' should be restricted or minimized as a matter of urgency (for the sake of life, or the planet, or just for the benefit of the human species). Both environmental skeptics and anti-environmentalists do not believe that there is such a need. 
  • Environmental skepticism

  • Is the belief that claims by environmentalists, and the environmental scientists who support them, are false or exaggerated.

  •      Environmental skeptics have argued that the extent of harm coming from human activities is less certain than some scientists and scientific bodies claim (Environmentalists).

  •      One of the focus themes in the environmental skeptics movement is the idea that environmentalism is a growing threat to social and economic progress and the civil liberties.

  •      The popularity of the term was enhanced by Bjørn Lomborg's book The Skeptical Environmentalist (2004).( Statistician economist)

  •       He summarized his position, saying "Global warming is real - it is man-made and it is an important problem. But it is not the end of the world."

  •      They argue that it is too soon to be introducing complains in human economic (Industrial) activities on the basis of existing evidence, or that further discussion is needed regarding who should pay for such environmental initiatives.(Escapism)

  Anti-environmentalists/Green Backlash,

  •      On the other hand, accept many of the claims made by environmentalists while simultaneously accepting that change is inevitable (impossible to avoid or to prevent from happening) regardless of cause and speed.

  •      They do not deny the impact of humanity, but they dispute/disagree the argument that humanity can kill the planet, citing life's several billion year history as evidence that it is more resilient than many environmentalists realize.

  •      Anti-environmentalism has been a response to the rise of environmental consciousness and awareness first in the late 1960s and early 1970. It is a backlash against the success of environmentalists in raising public concern and pressuring governments to protect the environment.

  Discuss the concept of environmentalism (Talentious / Talented group) Comment on the statement that “Both views environmentalism and anti-environmentalism are wrong”

  APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTALISM

  There are two approaches/philosophical thoughts which Environmentalists illuminate to environmental improvement and means to achieve it. These are shallow and deep ecology

  Shallow ecology

  • This view is completely self / human centered view.
  • Shallow ecology wants to save the world, but only for us. Examples;
  • It wants us to preserve the rainforests so our children can enjoy them or because we need the oxygen from the trees. Save the ecosystems, but only if they are of value to us. Some day we might want or need them.
  • Shallow ecology participates in that myth which puts man as a king the world, somebody who needs to conquer and master the environment.
  • It looks on the outcomes of the environmental problems rather than the cause and find the solutions basing on these outcomes. Examples;

  1.   landfills are problems, so let’s recycle instead,
  2.   depending on oil is a problem so let’s drive electric cars instead.
  3. buy energy saving light bulbs, don't use plastic bags, plant trees, the list goes on.

  • None of these programs questions the fundamental beliefs of our culture and how our society is operating.
  • No environmentalist can prevent destruction if a culture believes the world belongs to him/her by right.
  • Shallow ecology consider human and nature are different and that human dominate the world around them.
  • It does not consider the interaction between living and non living world to let the earth as an ecosystem to function well.

  Deep ecology.

  • Deep Ecology is about changing minds. Every action is the result of a prior thought. Change a mind, you change the outcome.
  • It involves culture, human societies, individuals, and values, life styles to emphasize respect and cooperation with nature.
  • It looks to non-humans for advice on how to participate in an ecosystem without destroying it and seeks to implement that advice by the modification of culture.
  • Deep ecology argues that the natural world is made up of complex inter-relationships in which the existence of organisms is dependent on the existence of others within ecosystems.
  • Example:Animals depend on plants to get their food, plants depend on animals to make their food through the photosynthesis, and plants again depend on micro-organisms to get minerals / decomposition. Micro- organisms depend on plants and animals to get their food.
  • Human interference with or destruction of the natural world lead to a threat not only to humans but to all organisms constituting the natural order.
  • Deep ecology's core principle is the belief that the living environment as a whole should be respected and regarded as having certain legal rights to live and flourish.
  •  It describes itself as "deep" because it regards itself as looking more deeply into the actual reality of humanity's relationship with the natural world.
  • In contrast to the shallow ecology which is concerned with conservation of the environment only for exploitation by and for human purposes; deep ecology takes a more holistic view of the world human beings live in and seeks to understand the non human parts of the earth ecosystem. 

  Deep ecology is a part of green movement/environmentalism movement and it supports the Gaia hypothesis/theory (By James Lovelock 1960s) which states that;

  •  “The earth is like single super living organism in which living organisms interact with the non living organisms to form a self-regulating, complex system”
  • The system includes the near-surface rocks and atmosphere. In particular, it regulates the chemistry of the oceans, composition of the atmosphere and surface temperature comfortable for living organisms.
  • Temperature:there has been a 25% increase in heat from the sun since life began but surface temperature has remained approximately constant.
  •  Atmosphere:the present highly unstable mixture of reactive gases (79% nitrogen, 20.7% oxygen, 0.03% carbon dioxide with traces of methane and other gases) could not be maintained without constant replacement or removal by the biota
  • Ocean salinity:has been maintained at about 3.4% for billions of years. Cells cannot tolerate salt concentrations much above 5%. Salinity is at least partly controlled by evaporate beds/lagoons where marine life causes limestone deposits, later buried.

  CRITICISMS OF THE GAIA PRINCIPLE

  1. The notion of self regulating earth sounds as if it believes with a sense of purpose; would require foresight and planning.
  2. The theory does not recognize crucial intermediate positions like volcanic eruption which can lead to same landscapes to disappear and others to be formed.

  • However despite of the above criticism the Gaia principle has an important place in the history of the development of environmental awareness as it suggests that;

  •  The abiotic and biotic environment are made up of many complex interrelationships;

  • Many of these complex interrelationships are quite delicate and may be altered by human activity to a breaking point; and

  • The theory suggests that humans must learn to respect Gaia by reducing their intentional modification of the Earth's abiotic and biotic components.

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