ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: THE TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

 In the present scenario, due to anthropogenic activities, environmental degradation is in an alarming rate and it results in various environmental issues such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, greenhouse effects and raise in sea water level and improper monsoon. Science and technology have brought immense benefits but we are paying a high ‘price' for it. There is a wrong myth that economic development is based only in industrialization. But in the international organizations such as World Bank and International Monetary Fund, environmental degradation is considered as the norm. Science and advanced technology can however only help the process of global sustainable environment in a limited way but they cannot deliver it. The success of the technology lies in its implementation part. In spite of conducting more conferences, seminars and world summits towards the protection of environment for the past two decades, the present world is environmentally less sustainable than in the previous days. However the relocation of the manufacturing facilities in this way cannot address the growing problem of anthropogenic pollution. It merely changes the jurisdiction of the pollution created from the ‘rich' to the ‘poor' world. Therefore in order to achieve the acceptable level of global environmental sustainability, the citizens must be empowered with essential knowledge and information especially in developing countries like India. Since educational institutions are the places where the contact of the society is more, it is possible to bring remarkable changes in the mindset of the public. To protect children living in polluted regions, environmental education represents a relevant means of prevention because this type of education encourages learner's awareness of their environment's ambient conditions, as well as their active participation in solving local problems. It is the need of the hour to propose environmental education with the essential elements of moral philosophy. Conventional educational methods are no longer adequate for the real needs of tomorrow. Future students of specialized areas must acquire knowledge and skills in their own field and keep pace with rapid advances in practically all branches of their own specialization as well as the other areas of specialization. The communication perspective opens the door to other kinds of tools that environmental educators can use in order to improve the educational practice. To this end a generic outline syllabus, including essential elements of moral philosophy has to be proposed for environmental education in schools and also undergraduate students in college level.