Why NOW, More Than Ever , We Need Nature Education
Why Now, More Than Ever, We Need Nature
Earth’s Green Guardians
An Earth Education Programme that empowers youth to make a difference and protect the Planet as they mindfully reconnect with nature, restore habitat, and prepare for the green economy of the future.
2. Advancing the education of the public as to the benefits of using renewable energy by e
Reconnect Restore Prepare
“You and I and the snowdrops are part of the same system.”
Sir David Attenborough
Why do we need Earth’s Green Guardians?
Covid-19 and Climate Breakdown
COVID-19 is our wake-up call for the Climate Emergency. The Pandemic has opened our eyes to what catastrophe feel like. Pandemic diseases are largely driven by the destruction of nature. Hopefully, we have learned some lessons from the ongoing pandemic about what can be achieved when imaginative thinking is brought to bear.
As the Corona virus rages around the world, it is easy to be depressed. The past 12 months have been devastating for the planet and its inhabitants. The pandemic, along with wildfires, and flooding accelerated by manmade Climate breakdown have had a catastrophic impact. These events are related because they are naturally occurring phenomena that have forced humans to realise, we are nature too. We are interconnected in the web of life.
In lock-down, many have been forced to pause and reflect on their relationship with our planet and their purpose in life, to contemplate a “New Normal.” We were bathed in relative silence as cars stood still, planes stopped flying and people momentarily fell from the hamster wheel of counterproductive “progress.” We heard the birds sing more clearly, breathed in fresher air, and saw wild animals step out to celebrate their temporary new-found freedom. Pandemic reawakened the natural world.
Mental Health
The pandemic has taken a huge emotional toll on everyone, especially the young. School schedules have been disrupted. Quarantine and isolation have had negative psychological consequences, including depression and anxiety. Our youth feel powerless and many are experiencing eco-anxiety. According to a 2020 Princes Trust Report, one in four UK young people have felt ‘unable to cope’ in the pandemic. Young people are in danger of giving up on their futures and on themselves, with a quarter saying they feel unable to cope with life. The Prince’s Trust’s long-running annual survey of young people’s happiness and confidence returned the worst findings in its 12-year history.
Even before the pandemic youth were experiencing more mental health issues including isolation, anxiety and depression. Richard Louve, author of ‘No Child Left in the Woods’, believes that these symptoms are a part of “Nature Deficit Disorder” that results from a total separation from nature and biodiversity. EGG will encourage action and lifelong learning through the healing power of nature with integrated and interdisciplinary lessons based upon key ecological concepts such as adaptation, community, cycles, diversity and interrelationships.
Earth’s Green Guardians will empower our youth with a sense of purpose, create community, restore hope and the promise of a brighter future at a time when it is desperately needed. By providing our youth with opportunities to bond with the local environment they will become part of the story of place, they will develop an intimacy with the Earth. When we care about something we tend to look after it.
Taking quiet time to reflect on our natural surroundings can be positive for mental health and wellbeing. There is evidence that ‘forest therapy’ or ‘forest bathing’ (famously known as Shinrin Yoku in Japan) may lead to improved mental health. This involves spending active time in a forest observing our surroundings, using all of our senses. The practice of ‘mindfulness’ (a way of directing non-judgemental awareness towards our thoughts, feelings, environment and body) has been found to reduce feelings of stress, and increase feelings of self-compassion and empathy, and who doesn’t want to be a little kinder to themselves?
Steve Van Matre, founder and chairman of the Institute for Earth Education, says this:
The student should come to “feel” his/her environment. To draw it closer. To love it. To understand it- not just for its labels and fables and fears-but as an intrinsic part of him/herself.
The opening lines of ‘The Economics of Biodiversity’ report by Professor Sir Parthia Dasgupto (2021) says:
Our economies, livelihoods and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: nature. We are part of nature, not separate from it.
In reference to the above report, Sir David Attenborough said
If we continue this damage, whole ecosystems will collapse. That now is a real risk. The review at last puts biodiversity at the core of economics. It shows how we can help save the natural world at what may be the last minute, and in doing so, save ourselves.
In 2019 the UK became the first major economic power to officially declare a Climate Emergency and has set a goal of net zero carbon by 2050. The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, will take place in Scotland in November 2021. ‘Uniting the World to Tackle Climate Change’ is the theme.
Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, has said,
“This year (2021) is critical in determining whether we can stop and reverse the concerning trend of fast-declining biodiversity. I welcome the review, which makes clear that protecting and enhancing nature needs more than good intentions – it requires concerted, coordinated action.”
Also, in 2019, the 28 countries of the EU, the Pope and many national and local governments officially declared a ‘Climate Emergency.” Although it remains undefined, this designation at least shows a realisation that Climate Change is real, and we are part of the problem and solution.
Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England, now Special Envoy to the UN on Climate Change and Finance recently said (2021):
Climate change is an existential threat. We all recognize that, and there’s increasing urgency around it. But the converse is, if you are making investments, coming up with new technologies, changing the way you do business, all in service of reducing and eliminating that threat, you are creating value. And what we have seen increasingly, spurred initially by the Sustainable Development Goals, accelerated by Paris, and then by social movements and governments, is societies putting tremendous value on achieving net zero. Companies, and those who invest in them and lend to them, and who are part of the solution, will be rewarded. Those who are lagging behind and are still part of the problem will be punished.
In the United States Joe Biden has just been elected President and has proposed earmarking 2 trillion dollars for dramatic polices to decarbonise the economy, promote energy conservation, and build an innovative green infrastructure. President Biden has announced a racially diverse slate of environmental advisers to help his administration confront what he called, “The existential threat of our time, climate change.”
In 2020, 1 million Activists from the Youth Adaptation Network signed a call to action urging government interventions over the next decade “to prepare younger generations for the transition towards green and climate-resilient development”. They called for a greater focus on climate change in education around the world, and for educational resources to help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change to be provided online. They also called for more funding for projects that increase resilience to the impacts of climate breakdown.
Compared to the pandemic, Climate Change may be easier to comprehend. We have found a vaccine for the Coronavirus. Now it is time for a Green Vaccine to tackle the Climate Breakdown. Ed Miliband, Member of Parliament, put it this way,
There is a green element to almost every country’s post-pandemic recovery plan. In other words, we need the biggest peacetime mobilisation of labour, land and investment we have ever seen. From an economy that doesn’t work for the many, a green industrial Revolution can provide meaningful, decently paid work.
It was recently announced that the G7 meeting of world leaders will be taking place in Cornwall, UK this year, 2021. No doubt Climate Change will be high on the agenda. In Cornwall, there is a history of technological innovation as the first submarine telegraph cable came ashore here in 1870. There is talk of the region becoming a model for innovative green technology, including wind, solar, geo-thermal and tidal energy production. Earth’s Green Guardians will begin to train our youth for this promising pool of job opportunities. Cornwall has major fishing ports that are learning to incorporate more sustainable ways of harvesting the sea. It also has a strong traditional agricultural infrastructure that could be involved in more sustainable methods of farming. Cornwall has just been chosen by Government as one of only 5 places in the country to be a 'Nature Recovery Pilot(External link)'. The Cornwall Council has just published their Nature Recovery Plan:
This will lay out Cornwall's plan to grow nature and kickstart the recovery of wildlife. It provides a chance to shape a coherent approach for developing nature-based solutions. These can deliver a range of environmental, economic and social benefits.
EGG will be hatched in Cornwall. Our youth will need to be prepared with the requisite skills.
As important as technology will be in adapting to climate change, Earth’s Green Guardians will not be successful unless we change our behaviour. We need to change ourselves, not simply try and change the environment.
Teachable Moment
In my 30 years of teaching experience, I have witnessed how students find Earth Education joyful, stimulating, empowering and inspirational. Earth Education was the hub of my curricular wheel in my Primary classroom. Kids proved to be a ‘natural’ (pun intended) for Earth Education. I found that key ecological principles such as change, community, interrelationships, adaptation, cycles, diversity all cross over into our lives as good planetary citizens. Students can learn much by biomimicry, from the wisdom of all species. For example, observing a spider can teach science standards such as interconnections of all life, characteristics of organisms, and the life cycles of organisms. Students are motivated to read, write and research more about what they observe in nature.
I recall sharing the EGG project with the head of the science department at a local secondary school. He thought it was a good idea. Toward the end of our conversation he asked, “How Will this program help my students pass their exams?” That is a question I expect to hear a lot. It will take some persuading to help administers and educators comprehend that Nature Education done well will not only motivate students, but will address key standards in science, math, reading, writing and maths.
Any lessons that incorporate the senses are stored in the long-term memory. That is what Earth’s Green Guardians is all about. Earth Education in most schools was always considered a fringe subject. It was never taught consistently, with any scope or sequence, from year to year. You might find the occasional teacher who showed some enthusiasm for the Earth, but no follow up in later levels. Earth’s Green Guardians will have an age-appropriate scope and sequence that eventually reaches all grade levels.
2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth day, yet very few still take time to celebrate the Earth. It has become a matter of economic and societal survival that we do. I believe that Earth Education, done deliberately and thoughtfully, could integrate all key subjects, give students a sense of wonder and purpose, and prepare them for the inevitable nature-based job opportunities. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, recently (2021) said:
There is no single breakthrough that can solve all the Climate Breakdown issues. The Single most useful thing individuals can do is to educate themselves and better judge the impact of the various solutions, including investing in zero-carbon technologies and affordable and reliable clean energy.
Most recently, teenager Greta Thunberg’s peaceful protest of the Climate Emergency has motivated young people to stand up and hold school strikes, demanding a better future for our Planet. Students are motivated to learn. We are in one of the best teachable moments we have had for a long time. David Attenborough’s books and films have raised the level of Blue Planet consciousness for young and old. It is time to make Earth Day every day, as if our lives depended upon it. Students are primed to become Earth’s Green Guardians. The time is now to take non-violent action, to give our youth some hope. In 2018 The Extinction Rebellion began. Thousands of protesters took to the streets all over the world using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the climate Emergency. The movement may have been silenced by the Coronavirus but will undoubtedly re-emerge. EGG will encourage civic involvement.
As important as it is to learn to live more Lightly, Climate Change simply cannot be solved by changing our personal behavior. It will take collaboration between individuals, communities, businesses, politicians, and educators. It is time to explicitly teach climate change adaptation and mitigation skills. We need to educate to change systems and develop and deploy climate technologies that will enable economic prosperity without carbon pollution. A just form of climate conscious capitalism for social well-being that leaves no one behind. Only when we have an economy that considers the Ecosystem first can we truly thrive for the long term, physically, mentally and spiritually. That’s’s sustainability!
I conclude with another excerpt from ‘The Economics of Biodiversity’ report by Professor Sir Parthia Dasgupto (2021):
It would seem then that, ultimately, we each have to serve as judge and jury for our own actions. And that cannot happen unless we develop an affection for Nature and its processes. As that affection can flourish only if we each develop an appreciation of Nature’s workings, the Review ends with a plea that our education systems should introduce Nature studies from the earliest stages of our lives, and revisit them in the years we spend in secondary and tertiary education. The conclusion we should draw from this is unmistakable: if we care about our common future and the common future of our descendants, we should all in part be naturalists.
*Oy= Egg in Cornish
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