Environmental Education

FEATURED ARTICLS: Environmental Education:

Environmental Education and Awareness Training

Environmental education as a tool for awareness.

Its history can be briefly described by the following steps:

1968 – Founded as the Club of Rome brings together scientists, economists and senior government officials from several countries to analyze the world situation and make predictions and solutions for the future (in an ecological perspective, the global system). The studies and proposals of informal association, sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation, the first report of this organization was published in 1972 under the title: “The Limits of Growth.”

They pointed out some factors that could lead a global crisis ever seen:

- Exhaustion of Natural Resources, an energy crisis, population growth, food shortage, mass unemployment, environmental pollution (the industrialization of the modern world is rapidly destroying the environment with effect no return and above any estimate).

1972 – The United Nations Conference in Stockholm occurred under the theory of thought originating from the Club of Rome. Ecological politicized the issue and opened a new field in international relations: the eco diplomacy. When the United Nations (UN) was established in 1945, highlighted as priorities for peace, human rights and equitable development are not priority or concern in their first years of existence the environmental issue, much less the welfare status. Only from the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment in 1972, the ecological security has become the fourth priority of the United Nations.

1987 – The World Commission on Environment and Development (CMMAD), known as Brundland Commission, recommended the creation of a letter or a universal declaration on environmental protection and sustainable development.

“Answering the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to also meet their”. Our Common Future, Report of the Commission Brundland that inspired the Rio-92.

1992 – United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, also known as Rio-92 and ECO-92, twenty years after the Stockholm Conference also felt the impact of theories of the Club of Rome , mainly in the form of approaches and proposals made by developed countries.

However, in the interval between the two conferences, significant changes occurred in both societies and the ecological and environmental thinking. The Rio-92 was also the scene of the critical theories of the Club of Rome. Eco 92 started the process and reached an initial consensus on the Declaration of Principles of the Rio, “to continue the project of the Earth Charter.

This time, it was officially the Agenda 21, as a document of international problems of today, preparing the world for the challenges of the 21st century.

1995 – International Seminar on the Earth agreement, held in The Hague, Netherlands. There were defined the needs, the main elements and the way of drafting the Earth Charter.

1996 – Conference on Climate Change held in Kyoto in Japan and known as Rio +5 was held for five years after the Eco 92. The official document of the Conference was known as the Kyoto Protocol, was adopted on 11.12.97, seeking the involvement of a reduction of about 6% of emissions of greenhouse gases in industrialized countries until the period 2008 to 2012.

1997 – During the Rio was formed a Commission of the Earth agreement. At that time it was the first draft text of reference, the discussions today that beacon in the world. The Earth agreement and the Rio Declaration which seeks to establish international respect the interests of all and protect the integrity of the overall ecology and development. It is understood that environmental education is essential for the formation of the individual as citizen.

Provisions of article 2 of Law 9795/99 establishing the National Policy of Environmental Education (PNEA) should be present in articulated at all levels and modalities of the educational process in all sectors of society.

Thus it is legal instrument to the citizen is environmentally aware, it can be charged by society and political responsibility and obligation to its institutionalization. Should be worked as a transversal theme, according to the National Curricular Parameters and Guidelines, as the law prioritizes the projects of environmental education in the disciplines of basic education.

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND EDUCATION

The aspirations of a community or population should be considered in environmental planning which will be subject, as it seeks to solve the problems that alarmed by the diagnosis. These characteristics show that the knowledge of the environment by people who live and understand this area, generating data from the development of business activities and relationship with nature.

The community, for being there, has the power to transform and build new landscapes, new spaces, as well as their mental images, then revealing, perceptive plans more or less clear, according to their vital needs or limitations, as his social and cultural priorities .

As proposed Lerípio (1996): The perception inevitably influences human behavior, but to maintain a quality environment, the behavior must be directed to specific acts. Moreover, the specific acts must take precedence over other possible actions which reflect a different hierarchy of values. The personal habits reflect the priority of value of an individual and treated with consideration to the environment requires a focus on environmental values. Information and education of the public are essential, especially to develop the approach known as environmental ethics.

Lerípio (2001) proposing that complements the environment to influence the behavior group, to raise the participation of many individuals to the achievement of common targets, “A certain degree of consensus must be reached on the definition of environmental quality. The priorities within society must be established for the definition of targets. ”

According to Dias (1994), it is possible to raise the public by passing the three steps: a) raise awareness, b) create attitudes that influence actions and c) gain the cooperation in solving problems. For this, you must first diagnose the real state of public opinion and trends. Research on attitudes can provide an understanding of certain aspects, and interviews with leaders of the public can develop an understanding of dimensions of attitudes and motivations. The awakening of awareness is to inform the public about the importance of a phenomenon in their lives. Inform to educate. Active participation is gained when offering an opportunity to express interest in real issues, especially when the subject indicates that participation can actually influence a result (TUAN, 1980).

Lerípio (op. cit) notes that efficient decision-making on environmental issues requires understanding of how people perceive and evaluate the likelihood of uncertain events. If the human being that makes decisions, you should consider that their behavior is a function of their real-world images and in the extensive system information, which determines the interaction of value systems of individuals and their images of the real world.

The implementation of social mobilization incurs the risk that the mutual influence of psychological factors, economic and environmental activated in the attempt to control the nature and development of laws by government in the direction of policy making, thereby undermining the effectiveness of plans.

The UNCED-United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the best way of dealing with environmental issues is with the participation of all interested citizens. And environmental education shows itself in the long term – as the best way to create critical awareness in the community, from the analysis of the problems it experienced, and, from this, actually establish their participation in solving these problems.

Education is itself a reading of nature. At the same time, the relationship with nature requires a certain relationship between individuals in society. A debate on when, how, where and why the methodology in environmental education everything leads us to believe in its success.

Environmental education can go in this direction, because that will assess not only the action on the anthropocentric nature, but also the division of interests that permeate it. Establish an environmental awareness not walk in the narrow sense, but to understand, investigate, search, so intense, in the fields of formal and informal education, the best conditions for its practice of teaching.

A key of Environmental Education is to enable individuals to engage in confrontation and resolution of environmental issues that affect them most directly, with a central point where the understanding of the complex nature of the natural environment and the environment created by man, resulting the integration of biological aspects, physical, social, economic and cultural.

Understood as any process of re – learning environment, the objective is that individuals acquire knowledge, values, behavior and practical skills to participate responsibly and effectively to the prevention and solution of environmental problems, and quality management of the environment.

This is only viable allowing it access to correct information on specific problems that require them, leaving the clear economic interdependence, political and ecological, and range of decisions and behaviors.
Therefore, the Environmental Education should contribute to the development of a spirit of responsibility and solidarity (TUAN, 1980, p. 54).

Involves educating receive information, work it, interpret it and act in consequence of the interpretation that has been reached.

There is active involvement of individuals. – Desiring to achieve a specific problem and enable people, it is necessary to know how to do it, how to pass the information, as related to life, the activities of people, so they feel affected and therefore interested in the deepen the least knowledge about.

Activities, practical demonstrations, examples of daily living, are more efficient ways of reaching the target audience. Involving people in a business practice, the scope is even greater. Most projects, environmental education does not reach their objectives, or does not obtain satisfactory results because they are not directed to the practical problems of a particular community or region, or the way work is done is at odds with reality and interests of the target population. It is important to the development and implementation of an environmental education project, which will meet the target audience, with regard to:

a) socio-economic characteristics and educational (level of education),

b) Knowledge about the environmental issue and interpretation, verified through the study of environmental perception

c) Interests and values,

d) Information on the environmental issue and e) environmental characteristics of the region in which they live.

For the satisfactory development of projects of the proposed environmental education days, which is from the profile of the group where it is established, making a full diagnosis to characterization of the group, their needs and anxieties, their values and way of seeing the environment so that added to the makers, teachers, together with the environmental characteristics to be treated then starting a real opportunity for participation by all in a draft environmental education.

Author: Artur Victoria
http://arturvictoria.blogspot.com http://sites.google.com/site/arturvictoriasite/

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Economic Development and Environmental Awareness

Companies began to cooperate to minimize negative effects of pollution and require environmental responsibility. Agreements and international cooperative action have been able to police and prosecute offenders of reasonable standards of emissions.

It is possible to merge economic interests with environmental interests, but the economic thinking dominates and guides the majority of governments is that everything must submit to it and that the ecology is external to the economy. Humans are only part of the nature of business, so the economy should be seen as part of ecology.
Environmental issues should be considered one of the most important challenges that face the business world in this first decade of the millennium. Companies should take forward this issue of fundamental importance, acting promptly and a proactive stance instead of abandoning a reactive posture.
In environmental awareness is necessary to educate and implant the the concept of environment as a partner and not as a limit to economic activities.

Companies that do not understand this new relationship of forces which destiny is to disappear, because the more the citizen behave as a consumer of ideas and political attitudes, higher pressure occurs on the crucial issue. This awareness was the perception that it is necessary to increase the profit, but now with the vision of welfare, without harming the environment, educating the consumer in some way to improve the environmental situation.
For radical protectionist, especially in developing countries, the key to growth was to accelerate the increase of rents by adopting appropriate environmental policies.

It appears the search for quality and more focused now on the side of environmental liability company, the Environmental Quality. The environmental quality is the care requirements of physical, chemical, biological, social, economic and technological developments to ensure the environmental stability of relationships in the ecosystem in which the activities are part of the organization.

The total quality is the tool capable of taking care of the production process by reducing the raw material used to produce by a smaller amount of waste.

To evaluate the industry’s ability to respond to the waste problem and effectively contribute to improving the environment and environmental quality, all the measures and procedures are clearly defined and properly implemented to reduce and control the impacts brought by a business on the environment. The action should cover the Environmental to the effective removal of generated waste.

Environmental Quality is the requirements of a physical, chemical, biological, social, economic and technological development to ensure the environmental stability of relationships in the ecosystem in which the activities are part of the organization.

The search for an environmental success of the eco-efficiency, leads us back to a condition known to sustainability: the awareness.

Ethical principles are excellent ways for a human organization more sustainable, since it was global and locally charged and there was strong support for a global paradigm shift, there is also a political will and action, based on public opinion well informed.

It is understood that the process of globalization, the concept of citizenship has become a universal value and ecological ethics a matter of love, care, and involved in this vision of consolidating the engine are ethical individuals.

The more consumers are conscious and firms in their requirements for production and commercial companies, there will be fewer spaces for unethical positions in the corporate world. Businesses have the role to contribute to the social consensus, through a sustainable business practice, which means change of values and orientation in their system, seeing the preservation of the environment.

With an agreed legislation and weak enforcement still did have effects through a more significant progress to reduce pollution from the industry, while its liquid and solid wastes that pollute the water are added to the sewer urban and agricultural activities, the sectors have not yet expressed significantly since the initiative that the government crawl irrelevant in campaigns before the urgency that is happening.
The concern of companies with environmental issues, although limited and inadequate, is of fundamental importance, however, is far from ideal as far as the question does not arise as isolated, but necessarily connected with social and cultural issues.

Certification represents an environmental concern especially for the sectors that deal with matching up the measures provided for in existing legislation. However, for many enterprises the environmental certification is as a mechanism for marketing, adapting to new times and pressure from environmental activists. While this side of the certificates other forms of pollution of the environment remains intact.

The democratization of social action when it comes to performance of the economy is contradictory. On one side the closer the citizen is the sphere of decision making, greater opportunities for social control, on the other hand, we are following a process of growth of business monopolies and corporations that pull local decisions.

This is a paradox of democracy, environmental control, preservation of biodiversity, environmental education for businesses. The rationality of the system of short and long term means in the area and destruction of natural resources, revealing the bias of un – sustainability, since all of nature is to be understood as natural assets for purposes of private appropriation.

The insanity that affronts our natural wealth is unthinkable, the economic vision of nature, the concentration of income and the domain of scientific knowledge. For that we need more awareness that it is necessary to break with the lack of human sensitivity, lead to understanding and finding that human dignity is in all living conditions in society and the reason to turn over everything in consumables for obtaining profit .

Author: Artur Victoria
http://arturvictoria.blogspot.com http://sites.google.com/site/arturvictoriasite/
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Solar Education As Part of Environmental Education

The current state of our environment is of great concern to many people. Not only are people aware of the fact that the environment is in big trouble but many are ready to do something to help slow down the degradation of the planet and make positive changes so that we can live on a cleaner, more sustainable earth.

Education Is Knowledge For Positive Change

We can make a difference if we have the knowledge about what needs to happen in order to make a positive change. We often have the misconception that actions of many are needed in order to change the way the world operates. This is true but it happens with one person at a time. Personally, every individual is able to learn, change and teach for that positive change.

Solar Education Is A Good Start

As solar power become more commercially available, solar education is a good start for every individual. To begin with, we should learn about solar and what we can do to change our life and reduce our carbon footprint through solar power. We can then implement changes with our home electrical supply with solar power. Finally, we can take our experience to the community and pass on the information for a positive change.

Solar education includes the learning of sustainable development for the community. It covers areas such as the improvement of air quality, costs saving for home electricity in the long run as well as health improvement. Solar education also covers energy efficiency and conservation, such as turning the lights off and walking to work. These are energy related practices that will will help us learn about areas that need to be explored for positive change.

Make Positive Changes With Solar Education

Solar education should impart the individuals with essential knowledge about our environmental problems, the consequences and the solar implementation we can begin with to help make the difference. Changes at home can make a vast difference as we learn to save energy at home, furnish our home in a more environmentally friendly way and even gardening and landscaping more environmentally.

Ultimately when we bring our solar education to work and to our community, we learn about how solutions will come about. And, because knowledge is power, we will be able to move forward confidently about the future and the way we are paving for our children and grandchildren.

Author: Ben Tan. Ben provides consultancy to real and virtual estate owners. Eco-Renewable Resources is one of Ben’s interest, with special focus on Sustainable Energy.