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What is Ecological Literacy?
We all know about the need for clean air and clean water. These needs were the subjects of massive government intervention programs beginning in the 1970s when rivers caught fire because of unregulated chemical, oil, and gas dumping, and we could not see the sun through clouds of smog from unfettered smokestack and exhaust emissions. Amazingly enough, Richard Nixon was one of our nation's environmental champions. As President, Nixon signed the Clean Water Act, extended the Clean Air Act, and created the Environmental Protection Agency in response to public outcry. Rachael Carson's connection between environmental degradation and public health in Silent Spring challenged the longstanding norm of governmental accommodation of industrial hegemony and brought the environmental movement to life.
Because of these efforts, our air is cleaner, our waters are cleaner, and our roads and highways are cleaner than they were three decades ago. But is that enough? It's not just about clean air, clean water, and clean land, but also:
* It's about knowing that rivers and streams need to be clear of non-native species so that the biota co-existing together for millennia can do their ecological jobs to produce a stable and nurturing environment for the things we do want from rivers and streams--edible food and drinkable water.
* It's about knowing that rivers and streams have to wander and meander as they have for millennia so they can provide the ecosystem services we need for flood protection and farmland enrichment.
* It's about knowing that without appropriate buffers from agriculture and urbanization, eroded soils from Iowa, Missouri, and Tennessee will be washed by rivers and streams to the Gulf of Mexico, where sediments and fertilizers have altered the Gulf's ecosystem services.
* It's about knowing that forests and tree canopies provide untold billions of dollars of pollution removal, erosion control, and habitat preservation.
* It's about knowing that forest ecosystems provide untold billions of dollars in healthcare treatments and preventions.
* It's about needing to know that ecosystems are complex and dynamic, performing critical life support functions, and humans are an integral component of and driver of ecosystems.
* It's about needing to know the power of iconic symbols to move people to action, such as the affect of DDT on the Bald Eagle's survival spurring passage of ecosystem-altering legislation and the dwindling habitat of polar bears that is an ecological challenge that equally must be met.
* It's about needing to know, as Lovins et al. (1999) stated, "Business strategies built around the radically more productive use of natural resources can solve many environmental problems at a profit."
If we know these things, we will be ecologically literate.
How Do We Become Ecologically Literate?
Ecological and environmental education is facing a national crisis as funding has become directed toward fulfilling the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), legislation that placed emphasis on gains in reading and math skills. States were put on notice to develop and enforce improvement standards--poorly performing and failing schools would receive reduced federal education funding. Federal funding for education received an increase of only approximately 5 percent from $42.2 billion in 2001 to $54.4 billion in 2007, while NCLB received a 40.4 percent increase from $17.4 billion to $24.4 billion and funding specifically for reading quadrupled from $286 million to $1.2 billion during the same period. The verdict is still out on whether this controversial multi-billion-dollar effort has worked.
One unintended consequence of NCLB has been that many schools have eliminated environmental education programs at a time when children are further removed from the outdoor world than ever before. Environmental education is the study of relationships and interactions between natural and human systems (Campaign for Environmental Literacy 2007). It is interdisciplinary and incorporates outdoor education, experiential education, and place-based education. When used as an integrating theme across the curriculum, environmental education has a measurable positive impact on student achievement in science, reading, math, and social studies and is an important tool for the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Additionally, students who participate in outdoor environmental education programs demonstrated reduced discipline problems and increased engagement and learning (American Institutes for Research 2005). In contrast to funding for NCLB, the National Environmental Education Act provided only $6.6 million to schools in 2006, an average of $132,000 per state.
Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, has documented the many adverse effects of the disconnect between children and nature--a term he calls "Nature Deficit Disorder." Louv and his colleagues have ignited a national movement to get children back outside (Krisberg 2007). This movement has gained momentum for one compelling reason: health professionals realized that because of their sedentary lifestyles and attendant obesity, this generation of children is becoming afflicted with classically adult diseases like diabetes and related illnesses. Participation in daily physical education decreased from 42 to 28 percent from 1991 to 2003, and up to 13 percent of schools have no outdoor recess scheduled at all (Cleaver 2008). The consequences to their longevity and the impact on the nation's skyrocketing medical costs cannot be ignored. From the time of the announcement of a national campaign to "Leave No Child Inside" in April 2006 through coverage on the front page of media outlets from the Washington Post and The Economist to CNN and MSNBC, parents, educators, healthcare specialists, and environmentalists have mounted a campaign to highlight the developmental necessity of outdoor experiences and passed federal legislation to see that children do not get stuck inside (Charles 2008).
While we are creating generations of children who don't have a connection with nature, we are also creating adult generations who will have no understanding of or motivation for conservation. Two terms have recently been applied particularly to this generation of children: biophobia (aversion to and even fear of nature and natural places) and videophilia (attracted to or even addicted to electronics). Another term, ecophobia, is used when children develop fear for the future of the planet because of ominous sounding phrases such as global warming, deforestation, and extinction (Sobel 1996). Children become disheartened and distance themselves from the natural world. The increasing prevalence of these syndromes does not bode well for the future of biological diversity, habitat preservation, and ecological sustainability efforts.
Environmental Legislation and Sustainability
We are in a potential "perfect storm" of sustainability (if you don't know what sustainability is, you might be ecological literacy-challenged). Not only are many federal legislation programs developing and encouraging "green" initiatives, but locally many businesses and organizations are considering opportunities to enhance sustainability issues.
* The Higher Education Sustainability Act which Congress passed July 30, 2008, creates a pioneering "University Sustainability Grants Program." It will offer competitive grants to institutions and associations of higher education to develop, implement, and evaluate sustainability curricula, practices, and academic programs. Senator Patty Murray explains, "Colleges are a natural breeding ground for the kind of innovation we need to move to new, environmentally-friendly energy sources. Students know that developing sustainable energy programs will affect their lives, their economic well-being, and the planet they are inheriting. These grants will help make energy resources last longer and have less of an impact on our environment." The Department of Education will administer this new $50 million grant program that will annually support between twenty-five and two hundred projects at higher education institutions and consortia/associations.
* The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act was approved by the House of Representatives in June 2008 and would provide phased-in funding over the next five years toward modernizing and renovating public schools and improving school facilities across the U.S. This bill would appropriate $6.4 billion beginning in 2009 and by 2013, 90 percent of the funding will have to be used for green schools.
* On September 18, 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the No Child Left Inside Act (H.R. 3036). "This initiative will give children opportunities outside the classroom to learn how to become our next environmental leaders," said U.S. Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD), author of the resolution. "Through the passage of this legislation, we've made real progress in ensuring that environmental education becomes a priority in our schools. A significant provision of the bill is the National Environmental Education Capacity Building Grants program (to be administered by the Department of Education, which allows Congress to fund outside the $14 million cap for the rest of the bill's programs).
Why is so much legislation focused on environmental education, providing money for "greening" elementary, secondary, and higher educational institutions and providing money to produce graduates who will become the green workforce of the future, and who will determine the sustainability principles governing civic, economic, and ethical decisions about the future? It's because legislators recognized the economic potential of an ecologically literate workforce--a workforce that will create and occupy durable and sustainable green jobs, a workforce that will build economic prosperity for the city, the county, the region, and the nation.
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