Sustainability Education and Recent Debates on Climate Change

The Global Warming theory has become increasingly popular over the past few years. Citizens of the world are being encouraged to be more environmentally conscious by others including politicians, celebrities, and world organizations. The problem with the theory lies in the fact that it has become more and more controversial as it gains publicity and attention. The basic concept behind this theory is that the earth was made with a balance of “greenhouse gasses”. These gasses are naturally occurring within the atmosphere and they essentially make the planet habitable by keeping it warm.

Environmental sustainability is the ability to be able to continue a certain process or use a certain resource indefinitely (Mason). For example, if you’re using a certain resource and you know it’s going to run out one day, that resource is unsustainable. Sustainability is important because a lot of the practices that we do in modern society from agriculture, to energy source, and even development, are completely depleting our resources. This practices were also made to accommodate our fast pace lifestyle, everything is built and made to be fast and cheap, nothing is made to last anymore. Many people are realizing the importance of being sustainable and the world is slowly changing to sustainable practices like Renewable energy and sustainable agriculture, while also changing the fast and easy mind set to a more “reusable” one. Brevard College has boarded the sustainable train of the world by making several additions to the school like solar panels, alternative transportation options, a Fair trade and organic Coffee shop, and several environmental based clubs. Although they are heading in the right direction, many changes still need to be made in order to achieve a well-developed sustainable campus.

Nowadays, the whole world are paying attention on the controversy about climate change and global warming. Hot topics include whether global warming is occurring, warming level in modern times, causes, effects and what that action should be taken (Science Daily). On one hand, there is a strong consensus that human and industries take main responsibility for the rapid increase of global surface temperatures in recent decades, and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide is the major cause of global warming. Meanwhile, some people that come from organizations with

Coming into this class I believed sustainability needed to be taught as a mandatory way of life, relying on personal change in order to lessen our environmental footprint. Although my knowledge of sustainability has grown, this new information has only reaffirmed my initial beliefs of what sustainability is. Sustainability is a necessary practice that will only become more important as the population rises. With an increasing population, we face a growing strain on our natural resources. The major point that has changed since my first position paper, was my exclusion of the government and corporate role in the struggle for sustainability and global equality. Immoral corporate control of natural resources, such as water, is a vital factor

There has been much debate about the environmental sustainability since the 1970's-1980's after the Green Revolution took place to ban harmful chemicals used in pesticides. Recently in today's era what's constantly in the news is global warming and the decimation of species from human's neglectful actions towards nature, which brings up the idea if colleges should incorporate environmental sustainability into their curriculum to educate the student population about the effects of human impact onto the environment. Although people like Peter Woods and Rachelle Peterson argue that environmental sustainability inhibits the success of colleges as the education is costly and environmental sustainability is just an ideology, others such as David

From the beginning of my college career at NWACC, I knew I wanted to pursue a sustainability minor when I transferred to the University of Arkansas. At that time in my life, I did not really know what sustainability was or how it related to the workforce. I just knew it was a buzz word that would hopefully propel my resume to potential employers to the top of their list of candidates. My thoughts of sustainability were self-promoting, selfish, and a means to an end. Consequently, my focus was on economic gain with no regard for social or environmental impact. That line of thinking was exactly the opposite of what sustainability is and stands for.

When I was five years old I began school. In Kindergarden we learned basic things like letters, numbers, and how not to be fully engulfed in flames. For some reason, 2004 was the height of anti-fire education in Missouri and before I knew how to tie my shoes I knew that if I ever was ablaze, to cover my face, fall to my knees, and roll back and fourth. This is what my institution placed serious value upon and because I was a student of that institution I also placed serious value upon it. The same idea must be applied to a university's teaching of environmental sustainability. This is discussed in David Orr's "What is Education For?" Through choosing a curriculum a university chooses what it places value onto, by making the environment a priority it showcases to the future generations that environmental wellness is an important responsibility for them to take ownership.

In ENVS class we do not learn just about the environment, but also about our health as a society in ensuring that no people or areas of life suffer as a result of, and also about examining the longer-term effects of the human activities and asking questions about how it improved and to ensure the quality of life for this and future generations. Teaching students about sustainability have been very important. It develops the knowledge, values, and worldviews required to make certain that there's enough for everyone, forever. It's different to other learning areas as it focuses on protecting natural environments and creating an ecologically and socially just world through informed action. Sustainability curriculum in CU Denver develops the capabilities, skills, and knowledge for

The ethical perspectives of whether to teach children and students about environmental sustainability needs to be explored. Argument can be made that because of the environmental problems faced by the world today it is not fair to be placing the burden of repairing and managing this problem upon them. McFarlane and Ogazon state “challenges to sustainability education are both natural and socially-imposed because of our nature as individuals. On a collective or societal level, we are hampered by political economy and governmental policies and actions. On an individual level, we feel helpless when we think about the possibility of taking on problems at the global level” (2011,

Sustainability: A Reader for Writers. Ed. Carl G. Herndl. New York: Oxford UP, 2014. 155-158. Print. The author claims that the climate change can trigger various kinds of problems, biological, social, and economic sustainability. Although the climate change result is evident, there are still many industries choose to manufacture the severe fact. So, writers should provide specific information about climate change and communicate the idea in a readable way to make people accept the truth. The author make his comment on the attitude that people treat climate change, unlike other source that provide specific

While Sustainability and the world 's ecology are a well-known topic in most countries these days we are nonetheless a long way from achieving the measures of progress needed to gain a big difference to the universe. There are many factors that contribute to this lack of progress, such as low government funding or personal struggles with financial issues that prevent the use of more sustainable options and a generational gap of knowledge and education. These are some of the contributors to the limitations of education on this subject that will be looked at more in-depth further on. Benefits to ecological education now and into the future are that it aids to create critical thinking and empathy towards our surroundings. It gives thought to

Decades ago, the theory of global warming was considered a conspiracy theory, with the lack of scientific evidence and the acceptance from society. However, in recent years, the controversy has become further familiarized by both scientific experts and the general society. The overall controversy, when arguing about global warming, is whether or not humans have any contribution to the issue. Substantially humans have different point of views to this issue because there is no real one solution to all agree on. In the article “Global Warming,” Veerabhadran Ramanathan states that “the most important environmental issue facing the world today” in understanding the impacts to earth is understanding carbon dioxide (2). For instance, there is a viewpoint

In an ideal situation schools would adopt an education framework similar to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) framework discussed in the Nolet reading. The first tenet would involve developing a framework the is interdisciplinary and holistic, the entire curriculum would be based on sustainability it would not be embedded into another subject. Learners should be encouraged to participate in decision of how they learn giving them participatory decision making power. The curriculum would also be values-driven, the values of sustainability must be shared explicitly so they can be analyze and debated by students. Another critical tenet of the framework would involve fostering students critical thinking and problem solving skills. The curriculum developed should be implemented in a multi-method way that shy’s away from just passing knowledge onto students. The curriculum also need to be locally relevant address local issues, however not ignoring global issues either. This type of framework would require schools to develop a new curriculum to address these needs. For private schools or

Environmental Education today must be understood as education for sustainability. The flow information and knowledge caused by Environmental Education have the potential to build a new vision of the world capable of guiding actions towards sustainability.

This report is designed to investigate the rationale behind teaching Education for Sustainability (EfS) in early childhood education, through investigating the relevant issues and concept of sustainability in relation to the pedagogies and principles of early years education. The initial part of this report will focus on three issues of sustainability, all falling under the greater sustainability concept of waste management. The report will then go on to articulate the role and importance of EfS in early years principles and pedagogies. Finally, some teaching strategies for teaching EfS will be outlined.