Environment
In Earth in the Balance, Vice President Al
Gore said "the rescue of the
environment the central organizing principle for
civilization." In the past
150 years, earth’s resources have been abused
and people do not know how to
deal with the effects of not treating the earth
right. In Educating for the
Environment: Higher Education’s Challenge of
the Next Century, David W. Orr
states that people now being educated must
learn how to take care of the planet:
keep the population stabilized, deal
with the diminishing ozone layer, protect
natural forests, and natural
resources, etc. They have to do this all at the
same time while they decrease
social, ethnic and racial conflicts. The young
must, understand the
differences between what is good for the earth and not.
They must make
wiser choices then the generations before. Educators should
reform the
schools to better teach the kids how to deal with the problems
with
environment. But educators still educate the young, like there is
nothing wrong
with the planet. People think that technology would help the
environmental
problems, it may, but the beginning of the problem starts in
the mind of the
person. It is how the person thinks and feels about the
earth. So people must be
taught in the mind so they would understand how to
take care of the environment.
It is ironic that all the colleges and
universities know about all these
environmental problems, and do anything
about it. Why don’t people with higher
education teach the young as soon as
possible? There are three primary reasons:
1) People think that the
smallest random fact about something means nothing, but
really, it is part of
a really big picture. So people must be educated on these
small facts about
the environment. 2) Professors are scared to speak out these
problems.
Professors talk amongst themselves about planetary problems and
don’t tell
students about it. 3) Colleges and Universities are not responding
with
"intensity ad ingenuity" because their leaders are not afraid to teach
the
young. What does it mean by Colleges and Universities to respond with"intensity
and ingenuity?" There are three parts: 1) All education is
environmental, it
is taught to people and people don’t even know it. We are
all part of a
natural system. The goal of education is not always knowledge, but
how you
get the knowledge. 2) We want to educate the young because we want them
to
make things that would fit in earth harmonious with other things. In order
to
do this, we have to teach them about large patterns. You have to build
with the
earth, and understand each and every aspect of earth for it to not
have any
conflicts with earth. This requires a liberal education. 3) You also
have to
rethink the traditional way of operating, buying, investing and
building. a.
Operating – Students will make better choices in their
everyday operations.
And understand the operations such as, how much
water is consumed? How much
paper is used? b. Buying – Colleges and
Universities buy thing without
thinking about their environmental impacts.
People must be taught on how to buy
things and make better choices to
eliminate environmental conflicts as much as
possible. c. Investment –
College and Universities invested $73.9 billion
dollars in 1993, without
thinking about the impacts it may cause. You have to
think if it will effect
the economy or not. d. Building – Must use stuff that
will not harm the
environment. Students must be taught the small details on
construction. To
save money and the earth’s resources. We are approaching the
year 2000 and
earth is getting worse. But we can change that if people are
educated on how
to stop the deterioration of resources. But Colleges and
Universities are
have done a very small amount to help educate the young. The
year 2000 is a
chance to change everybody, a chance to redesign buildings to
reduce cost,
help the environment, and help stabilize the economy.