Earth in the Balance, Vice President Al Gore said “the rescue of the
environment the central organizing principle for civilization.” In the past
150 years, earth’s resources have been abused and people do not know how to
deal with the effects of not treating the earth right. In Educating for the
Environment: Higher Education’s Challenge of the Next Century, David W. Orr
states that people now being educated must learn how to take care of the planet:
keep the population stabilized, deal with the diminishing ozone layer, protect
natural forests, and natural resources, etc. They have to do this all at the
same time while they decrease social, ethnic and racial conflicts. The young
must, understand the differences between what is good for the earth and not.
They must make wiser choices then the generations before. Educators should
reform the schools to better teach the kids how to deal with the problems with
environment. But educators still educate the young, like there is nothing wrong
with the planet. People think that technology would help the environmental
problems, it may, but the beginning of the problem starts in the mind of the
person. It is how the person thinks and feels about the earth. So people must be
taught in the mind so they would understand how to take care of the environment.
It is ironic that all the colleges and universities know about all these
environmental problems, and do anything about it. Why don’t people with higher
education teach the young as soon as possible? There are three primary reasons:
1) People think that the smallest random fact about something means nothing, but
really, it is part of a really big picture. So people must be educated on these
small facts about the environment. 2) Professors are scared to speak out these
problems. Professors talk amongst themselves about planetary problems and
don’t tell students about it. 3) Colleges and Universities are not responding
with “intensity ad ingenuity” because their leaders are not afraid to teach
the young. What does it mean by Colleges and Universities to respond with
“intensity and ingenuity?” There are three parts: 1) All education is
environmental, it is taught to people and people don’t even know it. We are
all part of a natural system. The goal of education is not always knowledge, but
how you get the knowledge. 2) We want to educate the young because we want them
to make things that would fit in earth harmonious with other things. In order to
do this, we have to teach them about large patterns. You have to build with the
earth, and understand each and every aspect of earth for it to not have any
conflicts with earth. This requires a liberal education. 3) You also have to
rethink the traditional way of operating, buying, investing and building. a.
Operating – Students will make better choices in their everyday operations.
And understand the operations such as, how much water is consumed? How much
paper is used? b. Buying – Colleges and Universities buy thing without
thinking about their environmental impacts. People must be taught on how to buy
things and make better choices to eliminate environmental conflicts as much as
possible. c. Investment – College and Universities invested $73.9 billion
dollars in 1993, without thinking about the impacts it may cause. You have to
think if it will effect the economy or not. d. Building – Must use stuff that
will not harm the environment. Students must be taught the small details on
construction. To save money and the earth’s resources. We are approaching the
year 2000 and earth is getting worse. But we can change that if people are
educated on how to stop the deterioration of resources. But Colleges and
Universities are have done a very small amount to help educate the young. The
year 2000 is a chance to change everybody, a chance to redesign buildings to
reduce cost, help the environment, and help stabilize the economy.