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Educating for sustainability
If there is to be a serious attempt to address the threats to planet earth, this must include educating children about energy saving and recycling, as well as encouraging behaviour that helps to mitigate the problems derived from the deterioration of the planet.
In 2002, the idea expressed in the Declaration of the First Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) that human beings have the right to a healthy life in harmony with nature was reaffirmed. The heads of state and governments that participated in the World Summit on Sustainable Development that year in Johannesburg highlighted the fact that education forms the basis of sustainable development and they approved resolution 57/254. We are now in the ESD Decade (Education for Sustainable Development), which spans from 2005 until 2014.
"The United Nations Decade for education with a view to sustainable development aims to promote education as the foundation for a more sustainable society for humanity and to include sustainable development in the education system at all levels", states UNESCO. Similar appeals, if not quite so explicit, have been made from the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972.
Lasting structural change
An education in favour of sustainability is required to change understanding, habits and life prospects. It is the key to educating future citizens who are socially, economically and environmentally committed. However, the process is slow. It is also necessary to have a high level of involvement. Nevertheless, numerous institutions have already embarked upon specific educational initiatives. Joint responsibility will make lasting structural change possible.
The development of environmental, social and economic conditions that guarantee a sustainable existence is urgently needed. This task not only falls to the educational world but to society as a whole. It requires backing and commitment not only from governments but also from the private sector. It is important to get past this tendency, which has prevailed for decades, of defending short-term private interests and values.
Biocentrism versus anthropocentrism
The future depends largely on the life model of human beings. A structural change involves adopting attitudes that respect society as a whole and the environment in the widest sense. No isolated action is sufficiently effective.
A less anthropocentric education must work in favour of a better short, medium and long-term future for everyone. It basically promotes an education that considers biocentrism, which treats the human species as just another species in the ecosystem.
We can speak of sustained economic growth. There is a conviction that competition is compatible with development respecting environmental and social indicators. This requires an education that analyses environmental and development problems as a whole. The concept of hyperconsumption, which is linked to unsustainable economic growth, must also be dissociated from true development. At the Johannesburg Summit (2002) it was clear that 15% of inhabitants living in high-income countries are responsible for 56% of total world consumption.
The behaviour that sustainable education should encourage includes responsible consumption, governed by the three "Rs", reduce, reuse and recycle, and encouraging the sale of products obtained using procedures that respect the environment and people. It is also very important to encourage technological advances that favour sustainability.
The technological measures must comply with what are known as "evident principles for sustainable development": the rates for extracting or collecting resources must not exceed those for regeneration and those for waste emission must be lower than the absorption capacity of the ecosystems in which they are released.
If the sum total of individual actions adds up to a small per capita energy saving, by multiplying the individual saving by the number of people that can carry it out, this represents a large reduction in environmental pollution. It is important to increase this sum until an irreversible effect is achieved.
Due to the above, a systematic effort is required in order to incorporate education on sustainability as a basic objective in the education of human beings who will rule the planet in the future.
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