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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION MUST FOR BETTER CITY
Ecological illiteracy is defiend as an inability to conginse the impacts of a deliberate / accidental man made or natural activity on life, property, resource, comfort and aesthetics. Ecological literacy amongest urban dwellers is the basic foundation for a sustainable Urban Solid Waste Management (USWM). Unfortunately, in urban places man gains freedom-but loses sense of direction. Community based USWM movement must provide much needed senses of direction through ecological literacy by incorporating effective EE programmes in all community based interventions.
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Environmental Education (EE) for a sustainable USWM is indispensible and is an important first activity for facilitating a community based decentralised environmental governance which is the central focus of all sustainable urban development plans.
CONCEPTS OF EE
Environmental Education (EE) is an education concept which considers the environment as a scientific and aesthetic resource to be used as in a life long educational process, thus making people knowledgeable and aware of environment and its problem as well as the their role in environmental conservation, preservation and management.
EE should be thought of as a process which takes place FOR and IN the environment. By FOR we mean that the objective of all education and of EE is particular, is to enable the individual to fulfill his/her potentialities and aspirations while acquiring a sense of responsibility and aspirations while acquiring a sense of responsbility and commitment with regard to the improvement of environmental quality for the benefit of all humanity.
It expresses the fact that all the resources of the environment itself must be used in the educational experience. It should not be forgetten that EE evolves around three central themes, each of which represents a partcular stage, namely: (1) Education in which it represents a mean (2) Education concerning the environment, and (3) Education of the individual as a person living in an environment of a given quality and who is partly responsible for the quality.
The primary responsibility of EE is to explain to every one the complex reality of the natural and built environment and to stimulate in individuals and societies and commitment to a form of environmental management which starts with observation of the effects and proceeds to act on the causes of environmental deterioration in order to ensure the harmonious development of the quality of life.
AIMS AND EE
The five aims of EE formulated by the historical Tbilsi Conference (UNEP, UNESCO, 1977) are awareness to help social groups and individuals acquire awareness of and sensitivity to the total environmental and its allied problems.
Knowledge: to help social groups and individuals gain a variety of experience in and acquire a basic understanding of the environment and its associated problems.
Attitudes: To help social groups and individuals acquire a set of values and feelings of concern for the environment, and the motivation for actively participating in environmental improvement and protection.
Skills: To help soical groups and individuals acquire the skills for indentifying and solving environmental problems.
Participations: To provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be actively involved at all levels in working towards resolution of environmental problems.
Further in the background of our unique cultural heritage and dehumanising conditions of people, social reponsibility and scientific temperament needs to be incorporated in all EE formats.
As ultimately, it is the life styles of people and the material and energy pathways that are decisive, these concepts must form the means of a sustainable EE.
GOAL OF EE
The ultimate goal of EE must lead to an universal environmental ethic. An ethic may be thoughts of as moral philosophy, an environmental ethic as moral human behaviour with respect to environment-natural and built. Further, to strengthen the most vital environmental ethic the scientific and religious philosophical perspectives to life which address to the dimensions of self and non-self needs to be effectively used for the real life situations in EE.
FUTURE CITY
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To large extent, the future city will be planned, financed, built and shaped by people with low incomes; garbage collectors or, scavengers, shoe makers, maids, low-paid workers and so on. These people provide the cheap labour and cheap goods and services on which much of the city’s economy depends unless severly constrained by the government repression, community organisation formed by low income groups will continue to be among the most important and active groups shaping the city. |
The scale and nature of their roles will be much influenced by official attitudes; and where official attitudes; and where official bodies support their work, they can take a central role in organising the designing and implementation of improvement to infrastructure and services and the quality of the urban environment.
FOR QUERIES/FEEDBACKS AND FURTHER DETAILS CONTACT :
Er.V.Jagannatha, Environmental Engineer/Trainer/Auditor(Mobile : 98450 13657), E-mail : jags_environs57@yahoo :: jags_environs@vsnl.com.
