Environment and Sustainable Development

Perspectives and Issues

Manish K. Verma, Manish K. Verma

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000486391
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Économie
• Subtopic: Développement durable

This volume provides a comprehensive account of the linkages between environment and sustainable development in society from an interdisciplinary perspective. With its case studies from across the world, including countries such as India, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the United States, Croatia, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and Kenya, it explores critical environmental issues concerning energy justice, queer ecology, mountain cultures, incarceration, energy strategies, mining tourism, pollution control mechanisms, social impacts of oil and gas production, contract farming, gender mainstreaming, climate change, and droughts and adaptation strategies along with literacy, leisure, well-being, development, sexuality, sustainability and environmental education. The book examines several dimensions within global environment of the adverse impact of developmental activities, discusses sustainable development activities undertaken in contemporary times, and underscores the importance of a just, people-centric policy framework in promoting sustainable development.

Lucid and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of environmental studies, development studies, sustainable development, political studies, sociology, and political economy. It will also interest policymakers, development practitioners, NGOs and think tanks working on environment and sustainable development, climate issues and SDGs.

Part I

Perspectives on environment and sustainable development

1

Environmental education for sustainability

Environment literacy and action-oriented teaching

Siri Gamage

DOI: 10.4324/9781003093503-3

Interaction between humankind and the physical environment formed the bedrock of human society and its survival from the beginning of world history. People acquired knowledge about the environment and developed skills in facing up to various challenges. They also developed experiential knowledge and skills for tapping the resources that the physical environment provided for sustenance. In the centuries that followed, this capacity for exploiting the physical environment and its resources expanded.¹

In the era of globalisation and industrialisation, indigenous living and education systems are replaced by the neo-liberal concept of economic development. Associated with this is the notion that environmental education (EE) is valuable only if it is economically productive. As a consequence, knowledge and the principles for living sustainably have not been appreciated in current education (Gopinathan, 1980; Thaman, 1993). The destruction of environments in the name of progress or commercial gain, such as the clearing of forests, overfishing and waste emissions continue. The industry, agriculture, transport and energy sectors in many countries continue to release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere without effective and concerted controls, arguing that implementation of effective measures should not be at the expense of economic development, energy supply and employment. Such arguments do not address the issue of future human well-being.

Despite the fact that international summits have been held and key recommendations have been made, major issues concerning the environment continue. ‘On the whole, human beings are not managing this precious and productive planet very well. Many of the resources that sustain life and wealth are being overused and abused. The basic needs of all people are not being met. The costs of this mismanagement in economic loss, environmental impoverishment, and human suffering are enormous’ (Meadows, 1989: 1).

It is important to think of environmental education holistically, not reduced to information-based learning. A factual, critical and inquiry-based scientific perspective should be integrated with different philosophical viewpoints. Furthermore, all aspects of environmental and sustainability education should be explored, which include attitudes and values – not just facts and information teaching. The development of environmental literacy is important in developing environmental knowledge. Integrated, cross-curriculum and school-wide strategies and activities lead to student engagement and effective learning of environmental education.

In the first part of this chapter, broader contextual and philosophical issues regarding environment and the related challenges are discussed. In the latter part, environmental education (EE) and education for sustainability (EFS) are examined with a focus on action-oriented teaching in schools with relevance to local contexts. Conceptual framework and research questions, as well as policy implications in the field of education for sustainability, are briefly addressed in separate sections.

Development, consumption and environment

Many nations – developed and developing – undertake various initiatives for development of their physical and social environment with increased understandings and availability of new technologies, scientific findings and dissemination of knowledge through new forms. Bilateral and multilateral agencies also encourage countries to undertake various development initiatives to enhance the quality of life, access to education and health, better housing, water for irrigation, and better transportation. Among all these initiatives, the private sector expands into new areas for construction in order to maximize profits and opportunities for trade and business. Extraction industries, such as mining coal or iron ore, receive enhanced demand from countries, particularly in the developing countries, to feed their industries, infrastructure developments etc.

Multinational corporations from the economically developed parts of the world such as the EU, the United States, Canada and Australia move into economically less developed countries in search of economies of scale in their operations and set up production and manufacturing plants to exploit labour and tax concessions. World production and manufacturing are interlinked due to this trend.

With the expansion of modern consumption patterns promoted by multinational corporations, local populations that depended on locally produced food, local networks of social relations and local community for sustenance are moving away from their traditional consumption patterns and are becoming increasingly dependent on food produced elsewhere, in particular by multinational corporations with headquarters in Western European and North American capitals. Chinese, Indian, Japanese and other companies are also supplying markets elsewhere with such modern goods. One consequence of such consumer behavior, extraction and manufacturing activities and the expansion of multinational operations is the impact on the physical and social environment of both the developed and developing countries. Such impact has manifested in varied forms, e.g., global warming and climate change. The use of new technologies, such as in the area of trawler fishing, impact on the availability of fish stock in some parts of the world.

In the face of expanding built environment by humankind, there is a growing sense that we are contributing to the instability of the ecosystem that nurtures us. This is a powerful view held among community groups, media and social institutions. Yet powerful vested interests in society are against change in our attitudes, behavior, ways of doing things, new impositions by governments, e.g., doing away with coal-fired power stations and replacing them with alternative energy sources. Society needs to be willing to transform itself in order to find more harmonious, balanced ways of doing things. We need to forge new ways of wholeness, balance, decentralisation, preservation, mutual interdependence, cooperation, gentleness and soft energies.

Conceptual framework and research questions

There is growing concern about the environmental destruction taking place due to human activity and about the less than favourable responses of governments that are being heavily influenced by corporate interests and powerful lobby groups. Environmental discourses can either focus on finding solutions, on trying to reconcile environmental and economic interests, or on fighting economic and human growth by advocating that there is a limit to the quantity of natural resources available and the capacity of the ecosystem to support human activity (Dryzek, 2005: 15).

Today, current development models and practices and corresponding lifestyle choices have come under severe criticism from many quarters for their absence of sustainability, impact on the natural environment and quality of life, unevenness in benefits and access and internal and external migratory patterns. The so-called development activity in the sense of economic development is concentrated in certain places within and beyond countries. These places, for example urban spaces in both developed and developing countries, have become unliveable due to poor air quality, traffic jams, overpopulation and market-driven corporate policies and practices. Governments that used to look after the needs of people in areas such as utilities and services have forsaken their responsibility to the private sector. Vulnerable populations are facing enormous challenges of livelihood due to the expanding nature of private economic enterprises in both urban and rural areas. As McKeown and Hopkins (2005) discuss, human society impacts the natural environment and lessens the quality of life. Through debating the impact human activity has on the environment, it is possible to learn to gauge environmental health and take action to maintain or restore equilibrium (Roth, 1992: 4).

In this context, we need to have a closer look at what is happening, where we are we going, whose interests are being served by the dominant, free-market economic development paradigm and the privatization of government services. Simultaneously, we need to examine ways and means of sustainable development and the teaching styles in our classrooms.

Alongside theorisations that forge strong links to scientific literacy, there are textually oriented approaches. These approaches are not underpinned by nostalgic longing for a return to traditional views of literacy. Following the linguistic turn in the social sciences, many textual literacy approaches are inspired by the poststructuralist belief that language plays a constitutive role in the construction of the environment, environmental issues and identities. It is imperative to base environmental literacy on scientific facts and therefore maintain a strong relationship with scientific literacy (Salmon, 2000).

Thus, ‘A strong conception of environmental literacy will acknowledge and encourage multiple views of environment, and may prove the best vehicle for developing understanding of the complex historical relatedness of many environmental issues: examples might include issues relating to conservation in protected areas, where ecological, economic, social and aesthetic concerns all play their parts’ (Stables & Bishop, 2001: 95). Here the concept of critical literacy is also important. ‘Critical Ecological Literacy is the process of using reading and writing to create messages that question, confront, and reconfigure how environmental problems are constructed by one’s own overlapping racial, cultural, and economic power relations’ (Cermak, 2012).

As Dryzek (2005) points out, environmental issues generate a whole range of political and philosophical debates. He provides a series of examples that illustrate shifts in perspective. These changes in attitudes show that the world is generally becoming more sensitive to environmental issues. They also illustrate that people have different views and interpret facts in different ways. The debates concerning this topic have been referred to as ‘paradigm wars’.

An important philosophical approach is the treatment of environment as a social construct. The idea of the environment as a social construct has drawn the attention of philosophers and scientists for some time. It refers to the alteration of the material environment as a result of intentional or unintentional human activity. ‘If we view the environment as a social construct then we accept that certain aspects of it can be changed or transformed according to whichever social relations are in operation’ (Di Chiro, 1987: 24–25). There can be no pristine environment in any absolute sense, although some environments can be regarded as being more or less pristine than others depending upon the human impact.

The anthropocentrism/ecocentrism debate concerns whether the environment has intrinsic value and, if so, whether the intrinsic value should be privileged over, set on a par with, or subordinated to anthropocentric (instrumental) values. Thus the debate revolves around the prioritising of intrinsic versus anthropocentric value.

Proponents of sustainable development maintain that the environment has intrinsic value but concede that this value must be compromised at times to promote human flourishing. The search for nature’s rights should not blind our eyes to the rights of people who have nothing, of those who suffer, of those who have become dispensable.

This enables anthropocentric (instrumental) values to be prioritised under certain circumstances. The issue then becomes a matter of determining which anthropocentric values can legitimately be prioritised, determining the circumstances that warrant this prioritisation and determining who has the authority to decide such matters.

As shown previously, ecocentrism, which regards the environment as having intrinsic value, is seen as competing against a view that values the environment on the basis of its usefulness to humans, also called anthropocentrism. There is interplay between environment, society and economy and that individual awareness, understanding and willingness are not enough for a rounded understanding.

Viewing the world as an organism that needs its various systems to work together successfully in order to ensure its ongoing success and humans as dependent on these systems of the world is important. Regardless of all the different views and approaches, the goal should be the same, which is to provide a proper form of education to be able to teach our youth and communities about the importance, development and responsibilities they have towards the environment. Earth’s resources are likely to become lost to future generations if their exploitation for more economic growth in its undesirable and unsustainable forms continues. We have to use rational argument and social and environmental justice terminology to describe how humans have a responsibility as sentient beings not to cause harm to other species just to satiate their material drives.

These ideas and those in the next section provide us with a conceptual framework to examine the topic under consideration in an informed way.

Policy implications and the way forward through action-based environment literacy

While policies and programs are important to combat environmental issues confronting the contemporary world, education also needs to be a priority. We need to educate ourselves on this topic and actively discover innovative ways of educating others and encourage environmental activism from a young age. Without informed debate, discussion and collaboration among disperse groups, including students in our classrooms, society cannot move forward in terms of not only general understandings (without ideological blinkers) but also environmental action.

Students need to recognise how to function within the environment they are in and need to understand and put in practice what they can do individually to better the environment. ‘Today, reading the world and being critically-literate means understanding how large-scale trends like global climate change and environmental degradation are affecting different marginalized groups and then communicating this in a style that is relevant and meaningful to those most affected’ (Cermak, 2012: 197). It is helpful for us to go beyond traditional notions of literacy and adopt an action-based environment literacy, as the following section highlights.

Education has a crucial role in building a supportive platform for sustainability and also to create an empowered society that can influence policymakers to accelerate the development of a sustainable society. Nurturing a democratic imagination in students is important (Hayward, 2...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents Page
• List of figures Page
• List of tables Page
• List of contributors Page
• Preface Page
• Introduction
• Part I Perspectives on environment and sustainable development
• Part II Environmental issues
• Part III Sustainable development and the people
• Index