To Know the World: A New Vision for Environmental Learning

By Natasha Seegert, Solutions Journal

Mitchell Thomashow’s most recent book, To Know the World: A New Vision for Environmental Learning, arrives when we need it most.

Becoming Part of the Solution: Art and Science as a Pathway to Eco-Citizenry

By Michele Guieu, MAHB

Students need to make a real connection between natural resources, the infrastructure we live in, the things we buy, the tools we use, and the energy it all demands. For that, we need to connect education to the Earth System for students to understand why it is so essential to change the way we live in a time of climate crisis.

Mind the Climate Literacy Gap

By Mark S. McCaffrey, Gina Ottoboni, Climateecos

Climate literacy, which should by now be universal, lags out of all proportion to the crisis — and yet it promises large returns for a relatively small investment. If every student was climate literate, we could begin to effect change on a large scale. If every person was truly climate literate, imagine the change we could make.

Towards a Climate Activism Curriculum

By Aaron Karp, The Ecologist

The better that one understands a problem, the greater the chance of solving it. So it is with climate change, a crisis demanding far-reaching social transformation. But just how far-reaching?  A broad curriculum that develops activists’ clarity and unity of vision could be an essential pillar to advance the climate movement’s preparation, ambition, and cohesiveness.

September’s Best Environmental Books: The Green New Deal, Vanishing Species and Effective Activism

By John R. Platt, The Revelator

With that in mind, this month sees the publication of an amazing array of books on a wide range of environmental issues, covering everything from climate change to burning rainforests to protecting our water.

Vertical Literacy: Reimagining the 21st-Century University

By Otto Scharmer, Medium

The classical university was based on the unity of research and teaching; the modern university has been based on the unity of research, teaching, and practical application. I believe that the current historical moment, with one civilization ending and dying, and another being born, invites us to reconceive the 21st-century university as a unity of research, teaching, and the praxis of transforming society and self.

Integrated Sustainable Community & Ecovillage Design Education

By Daniel Christian Wahl, Medium

Education for social and ecological literacy will be an important catalyst in the process of creating a culture of sustainability. The challenges of climate change, approaching peak oil, and non-renewable resource depletion are creating the need for an education that empowers citizens through knowledge and skills which enable them to actively participate in the design and creation of sustainable communities and bioregions.

Our Schools are Doing too Much to Save the Planet

By Katharine Burke, Regenerative Ecology as Pedagogy

We may be meeting our schools’ curriculum targets, but  in many cases we are still missing the larger aims of environmental awareness, our essential inter-connectedness and inter-being with the planet we live on, and thus many teachers, and their students,  are not acting out of deep ecological understanding or deep ecological commitment. 

Preschool in the Forest

By Cat Johnson, Future Perfect

Children at Cedarsong Nature School spend their first school years – rain, shine, and snow – in five acres of Washington State forest. For four hours a day, a group of preschool children and their teachers in Washington State head into a forest. Rain, snow, or shine, the children are free to run, play, climb, explore, sit quietly, or play musical instruments. The teachers are there to support children’s natural curiosities and exploration.

Fresh and Fly: Denver Rapper Teaches Kids to Be Gardeners Not Gangstas

By DJ Cavem, YES! magazine

I believe that whatever you consume, whether it’s food or music, you should do it consciously.

Worldwatch Institute Symposium – April 2013 Is Sustainability Still Possible?

By Trinica Sampson, Resilience.org

On Tuesday, April 16, the Worldwatch Institute held its seventeenth annual State of the World Symposium to launch its latest book, State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? As contributors to the book, Pat Murphy and Faith Morgan were invited to attend the event, where Pat spoke on one of several panels. The complex topic of sustainability was addressed along with the need to measure it in order to prepare for the currently unsustainable future toward which we are making quick strides. The symposium was held in Washington, but an online live stream of the panels was offered for those of us who could not make it to D.C.