Globalisation, Climate Change, and the Impact on our Environment
When I was at college my friends and I would often disappear to the local rivers to go swimming. We had our pick, could go anywhere. Fast-forward 20 years and the current students of Wairarapa College have less choice, and more to worry about if they choose to go for a swim. Wairarapa translated into English means 'glistening waters', yet just last week a scientist claimed that Lake Wairarapa will take 100 years to repair the environmental degradation that has already occurred (Wairarapa Times Age, 2017)
An OECD report (OECD, 2016) claims that temperature increases of just a few degrees would lead to water shortages for billions of people...and lead to the extinction of a large part of animal species. The report claims that even with increased environmental awareness, greenhouses gases continue to rise. The Paris Climate Agreement that the report mentions aimed to limit the worlds temperature increases, and was seen as a massive gain for the environment. Unfortunately, with Trump pulling the US out of the agreement are we headed towards those 'few degrees'? The big concern however must be the clash between public knowledge, and public action. While people choose to debate the validity of climate change, there are certainly many that believe it to be true, but this doesn't seem to correlate with large numbers of people choosing to act for the environment, or for elected representative bodies to act either?
All of the above has meaning for practice here at school. Building a habit is easier than un-doing one, so education plays a massive part in achieving better environmental outcomes. The actions we model to our students, our attitudes, beliefs and assumptions, the value we give or don't give to our environment all contribute to growing the next generation of people to deal with this trend/issue.
What Will You Do?
Western education certainly has a big part to play. Where does power come from, how did this food get to my plate, what fuelled my transport getting to school, what is being done locally to restore and enhance the environment we have affected...some question stubs that curriculum could be geared to answer. If nothing else, an awareness that the decisions we make daily have a big impact globally...how much of a consumer do you want to become? What did your decision affect?
We are currently a green-gold enviroschool, and take a number of actions to improve our school and local environments. We have a 2kwh solar array generating us a modest amount of electricity, worm farms, compost and recycling systems, but we could do more. The possibilities here are endless, but returning to the enviroschool beliefs that students should learn about, within and for the environment would be a positive start. Looking a sensible ways to build a green(er) culture within our students, and begin to build those green habits.
But will that be enough?
We also need to equip our learners with 21st C skills such as creativity and collaboration. Sadly it will be there generation having to deal with the mess we leave, and using current thinking won't generate the new possibilities that they will need.
References
Trends Shaping Education 2016 | OECD READ edition. (n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2017, from http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/trends-shaping-education-2016_trends_edu-2016-en#page32
Wairarapa Times Age (2017). 100 Years to Clean Up Our Lake. [online] Available at: http://times-age.co.nz/100-years-clean-lake/ [Accessed 2 Jul. 2017].
YouTube. (2017). An Inconvenient Truth 2 - An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power | official trailer (2017) Al Gore. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u9meHJFGNA [Accessed 2 Jul. 2017].
What a great blog - I too can remember ditching school and going to the river fro a swim. This aside, your blog is thought provoking and so very true - it is much easier to create good habits from the outset, rather than un-learning bad habits. We take our water for granted, we do not think about how easy it is to turn the tap on to brush our teeth, to get a drink of water or even wash our clothes. However, for the wider world population this is not the case - boiled water is a given, bottled water is not questioned - and water shortages are a reality. We should not be complacent and think these things are not of significance to us - they are and more importantly they are very real realities for the students we teach. The challenge for us is engage them with these very real world problems in our own local contexts, and what better place to start than with our own waterways. Thank you for your post!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this blog and reminiscing of the good old days where the rivers were not only clean but deep enough that we could swim. We have allowed this to happen by standing by and doing nothing to stop it. Change does not always come with a bang but subtlety from us being empathetic.
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand use to be known as being clean and green but that label is slowly but surely changing.
You are totally right we as educators need to make a stand and empower the next generation to care for our environment. The question could be is it to little to late but i would respond with we have to start somewhere. As you have already said that it is Sadly this generation that will have to clean up the mess we leave, and 21st century skills are going to be required.
You have raised a number of good points Gareth and I am inspired by the questions you pose to us. It is true, we need to think carefully about our actions now to maximise the help we can give to the environment to reduce the impact that these actions are having now. The quality of our river water is disheartening - where is that clean, green image we like to think we have here in Aotearoa?
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