Lecture 1 Environmental Education PDF

Lecture 1 Environmental Education 1  Contents Introduction to Environmental Education Important meetings/conferences for Environmental Education Types of Environmental Education Goals, objectives and aims of environmental education Br...

Lecture 1 Environmental Education 1  Contents Introduction to Environmental Education Important meetings/conferences for Environmental Education Types of Environmental Education Goals, objectives and aims of environmental education Branches of Environmental Education Multidisciplinary Nature of Environmental Education Need for Public Awareness Green Advocacy, Green Marketing & Green Media Environmental Calendar 2  ENVIRONMENT The word Environment is derived from French word environner, means to encircle or surrounding. So we can say Our surroundings is the environment In other words, circumstances and conditions that surround an organism or group of organisms or the social or cultural conditions that affect an individual or community is called Environment. or The sum of physical, chemical, biological and social components that directly or indirectly influence the organisms is called environment. 3  As per the Environment Protection Act 1986 Environment Can also be defined as - Environment includes water, air and land and the inter- relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property. 4  Rapid Industrialization, development, population explosion have damaged the ecological balance. Higher class of people increase pollution level through their standard of living and the poor are destroying the environment in order to survive by cutting down forests and letting their livestock to overgraze the grasslands. It is not that people are not concerned about the environment and out of this realization the concept of Environmental Studies has emerged. 5  Environmental Studies is the scientific study of the environmental system and the status of its inherent or induced changes on organisms. It includes not only the study of physical and biological characters of the environment but also the social and cultural factors and the impact of man on the environment. The main purpose of environmental education is that, individuals and social groups should acquire awareness and knowledge, develop attitudes, skills and abilities and participate in solving real life environmental problems in order to improve the quality of life. 6  Important meetings/conferences for Environmental Education UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972) World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992) General Assembly Special Session on the Environment (1997) World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) UN Conference on Sustainable Development (2012) UN Sustainable Development Summit (2015) 7  The first United Nations conference on “Human Environment "was held at Stockholm (Sweden) in June 1972 and after the conference 5th June was declared as “World Environment Day”. International workshop on Environmental Education was held in Belgrade, Serbia in 1975. First Intergovernmental conference on Environmental Education was held in Tbilisi, Georgia (former USSR) in 1977. 8  In India, National seminar on higher environmental education was held in New Delhi in 1979 followed by a five day global forum on environmental education for sustainable development in 1993 at New Delhi. An International conference on Environmental Education was also held at New Delhi in December 1982, stressing the need for formal as well as informal environmental education right from childhood. 9  An United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held at Rio-de-Janerio (Brazil) in 1992 giving the stress on Environmental education and Agenda 21. it is also popularly known as Earth Summit. Kyoto Protocol came in 1992 by UNFCC (United Nations Framework on climate Change) for Global warming. Montreal Protocol came in 16 September 1987 for protection of Ozone layer depletion. In India Hon’ble Supreme Court mandated compulsory environmental education at every level in the year 2003. 10  TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION There are two types of environmental education – 1. Formal Environmental Education – It includes the environmental education provided in a systematic way from primary schooling level to higher university level. 2. Non formal environmental education – it includes the environmental education provided through Nukad natak, lecture by society leaders, awareness programs, rallies, advertisements by celebrities and competitions viz. debates, quiz, poster making etc. 11 Goals, Objectives and Aims of Environmental Education The main goal Environmental Education is to develop concern and awareness among world population about the total environment and its associated problems. Other goals of environmental education are: 1. To improve the quality of environment 2. To create awareness among the people on environmental problems and conservations 3. To create an atmosphere so that people can participate in decision-making and develop the capabilities to evaluate the developmental programs 12 The Objectives of Environmental Education are: 1.Awareness- to develop awareness and sensitivity towards the environment and related problems. 2. Knowledge- to gain a variety of experiences and acquire basic understanding of the environment and its associated problems. 3. Attitudes – to acquire a set of values and feeling of concern for the environment and the motivation for actively participating in environmental improvement and protection. 13 4. Skills – to acquire skills for identifying and solving environmental problems. 5. Participation - to provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be actively involved at all levels working towards the resolution of environmental problems. 14  Awareness Participation Knowledge Environmental Education Skills Attitudes 15  Aims of Environmental Education 1. To provide different groups of people as well as graduates in a variety of professional fields with the knowledge needed to develop a sense of responsibility towards the environment and the rational utilization of its riches. 2. To make use of these knowledge and skills to preserve, conserve and utilize the environment in a sustainable manner for the benefit of present and future generations. 16  Branches of Environmental Education 1. Environmental Science – It deals with the scientific study of Environment. 2. Environmental Engineering – It deals with the application of scientific study by technical means/ technical study of environmental processes. 3. Environmental Management – The study about policy formation and management of environment related issues. 17 Multidisciplinary Nature of Environmental Education 1. Environment belongs to all the living beings so it is important for all. Every person in the world is affected by environmental issues like global warming, depletion of ozone layer, dwindling forest, energy resources, loss of global biodiversity etc. 2. Environment study deals with the analysis of the processes in water, air, land, soil and organisms which leads to pollute or degrade environment. It helps us for establishing standard, for safe, clean and healthy natural ecosystem. 3. Environment deals with issues like safe and clean drinking water, hygienic living conditions and clean and fresh air, fertility of land, healthy food and development. 18  Life Sciences Physical Sciences Environmental Studies Engineering Mathematics and Computer Science Social Sciences 19  4. Environmental studies educate the students to appreciate the complexity of environmental issues and citizens and experts in many fields. By studying environmental science, students may develop an idea about the interdisciplinary and methodological knowledge in the environmental field which will enable them to facilitate the definition and solution of various environmental problems. 5. It is essentially a multidisciplinary approach and its components include Biology, Geology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, Sociology, Health Sciences, Anthropology, Economics, Statistics and Philosophy. 20  Multidisciplinary Nature of Environmental Science: Example: Air Pollution S. No. Environmental issue/topics Major subject/ Topic knowledge required 1. Nature and reaction of air pollutants Chemistry and Chemical engineering 2 Effects of air pollutants on human Zoology and botany and various branches of life science. beings, animal and plants Physics and Chemistry 3 Effect of air pollutants on materials Meteorology, Thermodynamics, Geography and Material Science 4 Effect of climate on air pollution Mathematical modeling, etc. 5 Air pollution control devices Physics, chemistry and various branches of Engineering 6 History of air pollution and air History pollution episodes 7 Economic impacts of air pollution Economics, Demography 8 Sociological impacts of air pollution Sociology 9 Alternative fuels Various branches of physical sciences 10 Conservation of resources and Various branches of physical and political sciences pollution control 11 Ozone hole and global warming Almost all fields under the sun have got something to contribute to the understanding and prevention of these phenomenon. 21  NEED FOR PUBLIC AWARENESS Earth’s natural resources are decreasing due to increase in human activities. Due to mismanaged practices quality of air, water and soil are depleting, which is causing health hazard to humans. Increasing problems like global warming, ozone depletion, desertification and climate change are the result of various human activities. Therefore top priority should be given to environmental awareness. 22  We often feel that managing all the resources are Government’s responsibility but if we go on endangering our environment, there is no way by which the Government can perform all these clean-up functions. For any disease, prevention is better than cure. In the same way, to prevent ill-effects on our environment we should change our own actions, which is economically more viable than cleaning up the environment once it is damaged. Individually we can play a major role in environment management and can reduce wasting natural resources. 23  This can only be made possible through mass public awareness. Printing and electronic media like newspapers, radio, television, can strongly influence public. If each of us feel strongly about the environment, the press and media will further add to our efforts. Politicians in a democracy always respond positively to a strong publicly supported movement. We are living on spaceship called earth with a limited supply of resources. Each of us is responsible for spreading this message to as many people as possible regarding conservation of natural resource is concerned. 24  Scope of Environment Natural resources: their conservation and management. Ecology and biodiversity. Environmental pollution and control. Social issues in relation to development and environment. Stabilization of human population and environment. In the recent years, the scope of environmental studies has expanded dramatically all over the world. Several career options have emerged in this field that are broadly categorized as: 25 ❑R&D in Environment: Environmental Analysis Ecosystem Analysis Community Studies Environmental Degradation Environmental Monitoring Impact Assessment and development Environmental Health & Safety 26 ❑Green Advocacy: ▪ Environmental laws and legislation is concerned for creating awareness in general public regarding environmental problems around them through formal and informal education. ▪ With increasing emphasis on implementing various acts and laws related to environment, need for environmental lawyers has emerged, who should be able to pled the cases related to water and air pollution, forest and wildlife etc. 27  Green Marketing Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in itself or produced in an environmentally friendly way, such as: Being manufactured in a sustainable fashion Not containing toxic materials or ozone-depleting substances Able to be recycled and/or is produced from recycled materials Being made from renewable materials (such as bamboo, etc.) Not making use of excessive packaging Being designed to be repairable and not "throwaway" 28  Ecomark: India launched ‘ECOMARK’ as a voluntary eco labelling scheme to encourage industry to adopt ecofriendly production methods and consumers to pursue sustainable consumption patterns. The central pollution control board defined the eco labelling criteria for the 14 products like soaps and detergents.  Cosmetics and aerosols propellants, food items and additives, paper, architectural paints. Powder coating, lubricating oils, packaging, wood substitutes, plastic and textiles. Batteries, electrical and electronic goods and recently for leather and fire extinguishers. Ecomark certification is done by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).  ISO 14001 ISO 14001 is an internationally agreed standard that sets out the requirements for an environmental management system. It helps organizations improve their environmental performance through more efficient use of resources and reduction of waste, gaining a competitive advantage and the trust of stakeholders. An environmental management system helps organizations identify, manage, monitor and control their environmental issues in a holistic manner. Like other ISO management systems, it uses a High-Level Structure. This means it can be integrated easily into any existing ISO management system. It also includes the need for continual improvement of an organization’s systems and approach to environmental concerns. 31  ISO 14001:2015 ISO 14001 has recently been revised, with key improvements such as: The increased prominence of environmental management within the organization’s strategic planning processes Greater input from leadership A stronger commitment to proactive initiatives that boost environmental performanceUsers of the standard have reported that ISO 14001:2015 helps: 32  Demonstrate compliance with current and future statutory and regulatory requirements Increase leadership involvement and engagement of employees Improve company reputation and the confidence of stakeholders through strategic communication 33 ❑Green Media: Environmental awareness can be spread amongst masses through mass media like television, radio, newspaper, magazines, advertisement etc. and also through social sites like facebook twitters etc. For which environmentally educated people are required. 34