Education

Description:

Sustainable development is seeking to meet the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations.We have to learn our way out of current social and environmental problems and learn to live sustainably.

Sustainable development is a vision of development that encompasses populations, animal and plant species, ecosystems, natural resources and that integrates concerns such as the fight against poverty, gender equality, human rights, education for all, health, human security, intercultural dialogue, etc.

Education for sustainable development aims to help people to develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge to make informed decisions for the benefit of themselves and others, now and in the future, and to act upon these decisions.

Enablers:

1.Goverment/NGO

Goverment or organizations can help to guide and carry out the education of sustainability.

2.Media

Media can tell people the truth about our current situation and spread right vaules.

Inhibitors:

1.Technology.

Instead of people's learning how to live and how to protect our environment, advanced technology might be able to make us sustainable by itself.

Paradigms:

If Education of Sustainable Development is to be an effective tool for engaging people in negotiating a sustainable future, making decisions and acting on them, it must first address the way we think about sustainable development and about education in general. Essential to ESD are the following skills (Adapted from Tilbury, D. and Wortman, D (2004), Engaging People in Sustainability): Envisioning – being able to imagine a better future. The premise is that if we know where we want to go, we will be better able to work out how to get there. Critical thinking and reflection – learning to question our current belief systems and to recognize the assumptions underlying our knowledge, perspective and opinions. Critical thinking skills help people learn to examine economic, environmental, social and cultural structures in the context of sustainable development. Systemic thinking – acknowledging complexities and looking for links and synergies when trying to find solutions to problems. Building partnerships – promoting dialogue and negotiation, learning to work together. Participation in decision-making – empowering people.

These skills should be learnt and applied according to the cultural contexts of different groups and stakeholders.

Experts:

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD)

Timing:

Timeline of Sustainable Development/Education, a US perspective.

In the Early United States, resources are dispersed by the government as a commodity into private hands to create economy. Early 1800s Interest in nature and landscape grows in America.

1840s-1850s Emerson and Thoreau write of nature in new ways. Other relevant authors include George Perkins Marsh. "In wildnes is the preservation of the world," Thoreau.

1850s-1890s Parks movement, Yosemite, Yellowstone. "Sublime" areas should be maintained in their natural state, and preserved for the American People. First national park was Yellowstone.

1890-1920 Progressive conservation movement.

1891 Congress passes "General Revision Act," leads to national forest system. Pieces of land are closed to claim and settlement for conservation of natural resources: they would be managed for resource use.

1892 John Muire establishes Sierra Club, citizen conservation activism launched.

1905 Gifford Pinchot and Teddy Roosevelt establish Forest Service. Greatly increase forest service, to a total of 180,000,000 acres (730,000 km2).

1916 National Park Service Act creates the National Park Service. Two views exist in the US Government, preservation and utilitarian conservation.

1930 Great depression spurs "big government" conservation. Drought leads to dust bowl in areas such as Oklahoma and Texas, top soil literally blows away. Creation of Soil Conservation Service. A more powerful Fish and Wildlife Service and the private group National Wildlife Federation are response to period environmental catastrophe.

1940s-1960s Postwar economic boom. The United states ramped up its industrial capacity in World War II, huge pollution problems are a consequence. the modern consumer economy faces a new set of problems such as resource depletion and pollution-caused health problems. Conservation movement expands to environmentalism. 1962, Rachael Carson writes Silent Spring, calls for recognition of unintended negative consequences that outweigh the benefits of technology. Popular worldwide.

1960s-1970s Many laws are passed to protect the environment.

1972 United Nations convene first conference on "Human Environment" in Stockholm. There is recognition that the developing world needs sustainable development.

1969 Journal of Environmental Education Established

1970 National Environmental Education Act

1971 NAEE established.

1975 UNESCO and UNEP launch International Environmental Education programme, convene in Belgrade, produces the Belgrade Charter.

Discusses what should be the goal of environmental education.

1977 Tblisi Declaration.

1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, produces the Brundtland Report. Developing world must consider new schemes, developed world mustn't shake the foundation that its sustainability depends on.

1992 UN Conference, boycotted by United States

1996 PCSD publishes Education for Sustainability: An Agenda for Action.

1994-Present Reactionary politics stalls environmental and sustainability movement.

2002 World summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

Web Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_for_Sustainable_Development#Education_for_Sustainable_Development_.28ESD.29

http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=961