Environmental Education

Friday June 10, 2011

After interviewing a pair of the American students here at IPEC, a number of us got into a conversation about environmentalism in America. It was so exhilarating to be around youth that, like me, not only see environmental issues as extremely pressing, but that also have the drive to DO something about it. We of course spoke of the ideal society that would incorporate ecovillage lifestyles into mainstream culture. We questioned when and if this would really happen and I posed the question of what would come first – if the people would change, or if the creation of laws would force the people to change. While most of the students I spoke with believed that environmentalism will only catch on in a grass roots, bottom-to-top, fashion, few of us believed that laws would play a large role. Although I do believe that the individuals must care about the issues themselves, I believe that enough restriction and enforcement can change any culture. The only problem is actually getting legislation passed, which takes years and years...

And again, like it always seems to, the conversation about environmentalism boils down to education and knowledge. If only people really knew the implications, the details, etc, THEN they would care and THEN they would do something about it… And so environmental education continues to be, in my opinion, one of the main solutions to our earth’s problems.

Brazil passed a law about three years ago requiring all youth to get some type of environmental education. Wow, yes yes, you go Brazil! But why hasn’t California, one of the most progressive states in America, done something similar? We need to require that all public elementary/middle/high schools provide some type of (in my opinion extensive) environmental education programme. How can I help make that happen?! And who wants to help me?!