Recent global temperatures have broken historical records once again, making the need for sustainable solutions even more imperative. Year after year, governments and environmental organisations impose policies with questionable results.
Recent global temperatures have broken historical records once again, making the need for sustainable solutions even more imperative. Year after year, governments and environmental organisations impose policies with questionable results.
Perhaps by shifting the focus to educational programmes aimed at the youth, this ground-up process can really gain traction. In many cases, environmental campaigns seem to exclusively target corporations and inadvertently alienate certain socioeconomic demographics.
In many cases, the solutions touted by these organisations are simply mitigating the environmental concerns at hand. In addition, they often require a form of monetary investment which the cash-strapped corporations and working class simply can’t afford on a long-term basis.
In addition, this generates a sense of forced responsibility as well as a separation from the actualities of problems at hand.
For example, when companies are required to pay ‘green tax’, their carbon footprint becomes a monthly transfer of money, rather than a conscious change in mindset.
Sustainable steps will only be taken once the state of the environment becomes a daily consideration. It must feature alongside other contemporary societal concerns in need of eradication, such as child poverty or police brutality.
In light of the logistical shortcomings presented by many environmental movements, it is time to find a way of incorporating environmental awareness into our daily lives, from the bottom-up.
Only last week in Grahamstown, writing and editing students from the Rhodes University Journalism and Media Studies faculty visited local ICDP Trust centre in order to develop the children’s reading, writing and story-telling skills. The centre acts as a multi-pronged education hub.
Among its Early Child Development ventures, the centre runs the Lebone Literacy Programme. The only guide provided to the students and children was to produce a story about animals and our environment. The resulting work varied from tales of household pets to parable-style interactions between different wild species.
Nonetheless, the beneficial effect was immediately evident. The children were able to speak about their favourite animals and discuss the ecosystems they inhabited. Although this may seem an insignificant step alongside far-reaching, international environmental policies, linking environmental awareness to literacy is an immeasurable advancement.
Much like other societal concerns such as apartheid, feminism and classism, environmentalism must be incorporated into the schooling curriculum. By fostering a sense of critical thinking in early learning spaces, children can carry this throughout their schooling careers and – in turn – influence those surrounding them.
This is particularly significant in the context of the home. Last year, Cathy Gush started a Masters research programme looking into the influence parents and guardians have on their children’s learning, especially outside of the classroom. Although parental figures can offer guidance and promote a learning home environment, the educational process flows both ways.
When children are exposed to environmental concerns, in clear, accessible terms, parents and guardians benefit from this. All too often, the language and terms in which we discuss environmentalism is inaccessible and exclusionary. Dense, statistic-heavy articles do not cater to those most in need of the information.
Those equipped with the academic vocabulary necessary to decipher this information have most likely received formal education. In high school and university situations, environmental issues such as climate change form part of the curriculum as well as general discussion spaces.
It is yet another case of media and environmental organisations preaching to the choir. As new generations are unleashed on the world, so society evolves and societal issues feature more and more on media platforms.
Nonetheless, in light of the endeavours for transformation that have led to local and national student protests, the environment must not be forgotten. Perhaps with the Lebone Literacy Programme the process has begun.
