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Mistaking
the woods for the trees
Somewhere we as a society have failed to
grasp that environment goes beyond pretty trees
and tigers. Does this failure not begin in school
itself? A failure of perception that, by the time
the child moves into college, is too firmly ingrained
in his/her mind? A willful, if unconscious, misreading
of what environment entails? Environmental (read
development) issues are not a matter best left to
either 'environmentalists' or the 'concerned rich'.
It's everybody's concern, for we all live in and
with it.
Environment Education is not extra
curricular!
EE has 'evolved' from being a 'fashionable
extra curricular' topic to one which is so vital
that unless the young don't understand it enough
to make informed choices, our future existence is
in question. Environment education should today
go beyond just trees and wildlife into issues like
inequity and poverty, development patterns, lifestyles,
and the governance system.
What? Another subject?
The teacher and the student are already overburdened.
It is thus critical to understand that environment
education is not another subject imposed on you.
It cannot be taught as a separate subject. It is
inherently inter-disciplinary and can easily be
incorporated into all subjects, be it chemistry,
biology, physics, history, geography, or even languages. |
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I
teach Civics. How can I be an environmental educator?
You need not specialise in environmental
science to be an environment educator. Environment
forms a vital part of each subject (yes, even civics!).
Unless we look at it from all points of view - biological,
physical, political, economical, technological,
ethical, historical, spiritual, chemical, social,
and so on, we cannot move to a sustainable future.
They already know the facts. What
more do I teach?
Information alone is not enough. The objective
of environment education is to move from awareness
to action, and this is not possible by facts alone.
The environment educator should involve the students
with multidisciplinary and dynamic deliverance of
these facts, accompanied by activities. Students
should be motivated into understanding and solving
real life problems by relating them to environment
and the particular subject through which it is being
discussed. G:NET would be just the right tool for
this.
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The 'green' century |
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The
writing on the wall says technology will be determined by
environment
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Few
people realise that the 21st century is going to be the century
of the environment. Technological change is going to be heavily
driven by the environmental imperative and human technologies
will be forced to mimic nature's cycles and gentleness.
Why do we say this? Let us look at the evolution of science
in the 20th century. At the start of the century, Einstein
and Bohr asked 'What is matter?' By the middle of the century,
scientists were asking: 'What is life?' and 'What is the universe?'
In the 1950s, Watson and Crick unravelled the structure of
the DNA, which finally led to the emergence of biotechnologies
today. By the end of the century, another critical question
was asked: 'What is the web of life?'
This last question was not asked out of scientific
curiosity but from human necessity. The vast range of technologies
that had emerged because of increased human understanding
of nature was beginning to have major impacts on nature itself.
By 1960, it was difficult to breathe in cities from Tokyo
to Los Angeles, and rivers like Rhine and the Thames turned
into stinking sewers.
Technological interventions into natural ecosystems led to
major environment surprises. For instance, CFCs, seen as wonder
substances in 1930s, was found to be life-threatening in the
1970s.
Not surprisingly, a number of emerging technologies are being
driven by
environmental imperatives. For example, in the last 20 years,
continuous changes took place in the internal combustion engine
because of environmental concerns.
Despite all the environmental efficiency being introduced,
as the number of cars grew, and health effects better understood,
the automobile industry was pushed into newer and newer directions.
Car-free cities, which again mean totally new transportaion
systems, are being thought of. Emergence of fuel cells has
been driven by the regulation set by the world's largest car
market, California, which has mandated companies to introduce
zero-emission vehicles.
It is clear that in this century, every new technology, even
those in biotechnology, will be forced to take the environmental
concern in account… the writing is on the wall. For us
to read. And act.
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Anil Agarwal, Chairperson, CSE
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