Green Education

Some articles went through the news media in the past couple of weeks which caught my attention, but were hardly front page news. Perhaps they should have been since, from a long term perspective, they relate to changes in our society that will be necessary in the coming decades. (Actually, they were necessary 20 or 30 years ago, but don’t get me started on that!)

These articles relate to education. The first was an announcement by Ontario’s Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne that the government would reinstate mandatory environmental education within the public school curriculum, actually embedding it within other courses, and the second was the announcement of a new Master’s level program from McMaster University’s Engineering Department on Energy Management.

Reference: Toronto Star Article from July 7 re Ontario Public School curriculum

Reference: McMaster University announces new Masters level program

With the twin crises of Peak Oil and Climate Change now bearing down on our society, not to mention the (very likely) economic recession / depression that will be caused by these and related economic issues, energy efficiency would seem to me to be our only palatable path going forward, and having all of our citizens aware of the link between our actions, environmental impact, and health will pay huge dividends in the long term.

Canada, being in the top five in the work for per capita energy use, has both a lot of room for improvement or a long way to go, depending on your point of view. Are you a glass is half full or half empty type of person?

Either way, it amounts to the same thing. We can’t solve these problems with the same thinking that created them, so educating young minds to think differently is the key to our long term success. These two initiatives are fantastic. Thumbs up to the McGuinty government on this one.

Our challenge remains then, how to educate the adults among us, since we really don’t have the luxury of time, waiting for a younger generation to solve the problems we created? How do we instill this awareness that problems and solutions are not isolated from the ecosystem in which they reside and on which they depend? How do we embed green thinking into everyday thinking?

For my part, I have this blog, and every conversation that I have day to day is a chance to talk to people and spread Green thinking around. This isn’t entirely altruistic. Talking about it all the time keeps me thinking about it all the time, so that I can examine my life and see what I can change. It’s a constant search, to look at the impact of what I do and see if I can avoid it, or change it.

What about you?