Learning Sustainability

As humans, are we on a sustainable path on this planet? 

 

The air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat and the green nature that sustains us, are all polluted and already unfit to sustain, not just us, but large numbers of other life forms. An incredible number of species of plants, animals, insects and birds have gone extinct in the last 50 years, signalling the collapse of the planet's web of life. There is no part of the planet that has not been inflicted with damage by humans. Something that appeared as invincible and stable as the climate, is now changing so unpredictably, and dangerously, that no expert can rule out the possibility of the most catastrophic events happening at any given time, not just catastrophic in scale, but also in terms of number of events and simultaneity. Climate change, till recently debated and refuted, is now recognized as reality by many people.So the answer to the above question is an emphatic NO. 

 

If this is not enough cause for concern, there is also the fact that a lot of people are still not even conscious of this alarming state of affairs. People have been sold the idea that the most important things in life are man made, such as a big concrete house, the latest technology, cars, air conditioned rooms furnished with synthetic materials and the latest appliances. People have also been sold the idea that the only greenery worth anything is well manicured lawns, or a few pots of plants. For man people, the view of the ideal world is scarily devoid of air, water, greenery, natural food and natural materials and resembles more an outpost on a desolate planet rather than the green and blue planet that we currently inhabit. This distorted view of reality used to be largely an urban phenomenon but is rapidly becoming the view of even rural folk. I cannot forget the Marvel movie Black Panther, where in the middle of pristine nature in the African continent, is what is perceived by the creators of the story, and an increasing number of people, as the ideal environment to aspire for - a so-called advanced city filled with glass, concrete and technology that sticks out like a cancer in the middle of the continent's magnificent natural surroundings. As more and more people have this synthetic, man made image of the world, and as the world moves to resemble this image, people think that this is the most natural thing. As we brainwash and hypnotize ourselves, what we don't realize is that much before we make this synthetic view of the world a reality, most of us, including a majority of the plants, birds and animals in the world today, will be long gone. For the few survivors, life will be extreme hell, painful beyond anything that they have imagined so far. I am not talking fiction here, but a reality towards which we are moving at such a rapid pace that even now it may be too late to change course. 

 
If trying to change course is an option that we want to pursue, then starting at the school level is most important, so that we can try and teach the younger generations to remember what we have been taught to forget. The sense of urgency needs to be so much greater for the coming generations, considering that the current generations are still complacent, reassured by the self-centered, irrational thinking that the planet will at least outlast their lifetimes. Remodeling education around sustainability is one of the key strategies in what could be our last chance. The school is the mini-world in which children learn how to interact with, and to live in, the much larger world. The lessons learnt in school are applied to the outside world as adults.

If possible, in every school in the world, we need to center the curriculum around sustainability. Not only must this topic be introduced, it needs to take center-stage, more than any other subject that is currently being taught i.e. the languages, science, mathematics, social sciences, etc. This is because without first learning how to live in a sustainable manner on our planet, or learning how to save and sustain a fast collapsing planet, having knowledge of any of the other subjects is futile. The current subjects may have had great significance, as standalone ways, to understand the world and to gain economic wealth in the past but that is no longer viable. How can we expect today's children to grow into responsible stewards of the planet when we are teaching them to make the same mistakes that we have made? The curriculum needs a complete overhaul from the lower grades to the higher grades. We can interweave the existing subjects i.e. languages, mathematics, sciences, arts, social sciences, etc keeping sustainability, rather than economic success, as the central objective. Our best minds across the world need to get together, create a curriculum for sustainability and how it can be taught, with increasing levels of complexity, to match the need for higher learning, as the student progresses to higher grades. To ground this curriculum in reality, it must be implementable at the school as a mini-world level. It must also be implementable by the students themselves, and not the school administrators or staff, as has been seen in a few cases where such initiatives have been known.

 

For developing a curriculum based on sustainability, there must first be a vision of what a sustainable school is and what a sustainable planet is. A major part of the activity at the school level by students should center around achieving and maintaining the vision of the sustainable school. I suspect that the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN themselves can be tailored to the school level to make the vision clear, effective and implementable. It is quite strange that we aspire to achieve these goals at the adult level as nations when there is almost no link between these and what is taught in schools to the future generations!

The sustainability vision of the school should definitely cover the key aspects of water, air, natural green cover, waste management, natural foods, energy, materials, transportation, etc.

• Water management should involve rain water harvesting, drinking water management, preventing water contamination from man made chemicals and toxins, as well as management of water for all other needs of the school through processes like conservation, recycling, etc.
• Air management should involve methods of measuring air quality, creating good quality air, rejuvenating it and maintaining it.
• Natural green cover management should involve the growing and management of sufficient green cover in schools so that various types of locally suited trees, shrubs, etc.  are grown. Growing of greenery that is useful for humans, as well as other animals and birds, should be pursued. Forest management and horticulture principles need to be practiced, as well as the study of the various types of life forms that cohabit the school environment. Sources of soil damage, such as chemical insecticides, pesticides, herbicides and disinfectants, and the alternatives for these, should be explored. In schools where space is limited, options such as terrace gardening, etc should be explored.
  
• Waste management should cover management of sewage, wet waste, dry waste, e-waste, etc and their recycling so as to ensure that the school has a zero waste system. Recycling of wet waste to generate compost for gardens and green cover, solid waste for useful materials, etc should be explored. Generation of waste itself should be minimized so that the school can have a zero carbon footprint.
  
• Natural food management should involve agriculture, gardening and horticulture to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc that can be useful for the school and its inhabitants. This can form a part of the natural sciences based education curriculum.
• Energy management  to meet of the energy needs of the school through sustainable means, such as renewable energy sources like solar, wind, etc, with minimum dependency on the fossil fuel based generation of electricity must be in place. This can form a part of the science based education curriculum.
• Materials management should challenge the students and staff of the school to use sustainable renewable materials for the school's material requirements including furniture, building materials, school equipment, etc. The management of this aspect can vitalize vocational training and craftsmanship.
• The use of sustainable modes of transport and conveyance such as walking, bicycles and mass transport must be explored and promoted.
• Natural ways to improve the physical and mental health of students through the use of lifestyle changes and diet interventions that promote both.
• Effective communication among all stakeholders is essential. As important as the above aspects, or even more important, is, as adults, confronting the truth that the planet is in dire straits needing urgent action from all. Once we have confronted this truth ourselves, we must speak about it to the children. Pushing the problem under the carpet and hoping that it will go away by itself is no longer working.
• Besides these, the goals of equity, zero poverty, policy making for sustainability, etc need to be included.
  

If people involved in, and dedicated to, the field of education worldwide - the experts, got together, they could create a much more beautiful, integrated and sustainable way to try and save the planet from destruction. I suspect that a lot of work has already been done in the above discussed areas but in various pockets. It may be just a question of putting it all together in a meaningful, and workable fashion and arriving at a consensus globally. Various school boards could then adopt this as a pilot and spread the learnings and best practices across the world.

As we put in place this model of education, and by in place, I mean in all schools, private, public, government or non-government, we can, in parallel, apply the same concepts to all our other mini-worlds that constitute the larger world i.e. our colleges, universities, institutions of higher learning, our workplaces, communities, etc. Just by going through the exercise of trying to implement sustainability in schools itself, we will see the necessary changes and adjustments for the better in our own adult lives. I do not think that we have enough time to wait for the framing and implementation of sustainability in schools, and then the application of what has been learnt in schools back into the world. We need to do many things in parallel if we are to even try and pull things back from the brink where we are currently standing, on the edge of the gaping mouth of large scale death for life on the planet. The reward is the green and blue planet, abundant in natural beauty, containing all the things important for the sustenance of all life for at least a little longer. There is no failure in attempting to make this happen. Even if we only succeed partially, that partial success will mean that a part of the natural system has healed and corrected itself, raising by that much more the chances of a recovery . There is only failure in not doing anything but continuing, like sleepwalkers, towards the rapid doom that the current trajectory entails.