The failure of environmental education (and how we can fix it)

255 Pages·2011·0.691 MB·English

by  Charles Saylan, Daniel T Blumstein

The Failure of
Environmental Education (And
How We Can Fix It)

The Failure of
Environmental Education
(And How We Can Fix It)
Charles Saylan and Daniel T. Blumstein
university of california press
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2011 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Saylan, Charles, 1953–.
The failure of environmental education (and how we
can fi x it) / Charles Saylan and Daniel T. Blumstein.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-26538-7 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN
978-0-520-26539-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Environmental education. I. Blumstein, Daniel
T. II. Title.
GE70.S29 2011
333.7071—dc22 2010040205
Manufactured in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% post
consumer waste, recycled, de-inked fi ber. FSC recycled
certifi ed and processed chlorine free. It is acid free,
Ecologo certifi ed, and manufactured by BioGas energy.
Charlie: For Maddalena, with love, and Burbank,
with tennis ball
Dan: To David and Janice, my partners in
exploration and discovery

contents
Preface ix
1. The Problem(s)
1
2. Foundations
21
3. What Went Wrong
38
4. Accountability and Institutional Mind-Set
57
5. The Needs of Environmentally Active Citizens
72
6. Between Awareness and Action
95
7. A Political Primer
116
8. Consumption, Conservation, and Change
135
9. An Evolving Metric
158
10. And How We Can Fix It
173
Appendix: Greening Schools for Alternative Education 199
Notes 203
Selected Bibliography 219
Acknowledgments 225
Index 229
preface
There are noticeably fewer places these days where one can
experience the immensity of nature, where one can feel alone
and far from the societal order that humanity seems driven to
impose on the random wilderness. It is harder to hear the wind
howl across some distant ridge, as trees are fewer now, felled
by ever-expanding and effi cient industry. Not long ago, within
the scope of the authors’ personal memories, one might have
ventured into the wilderness and found no trace of humans.
Today, however, humanity’s footprint is almost everywhere.
Out in the woods are anonymous fences that mask the grand
exfoliation of mining, hydroelectric plants, or oil pipelines. Gaz-
ing up from almost anywhere, one sees jet contrails fi lling the
sky with the graffi ti of human presence. Looking deeper into
the natural world reveals changes in animal behavior and ecol-
ogy caused by the long arm of anthropogenic eff ects, like the
presence of human toxins in the fat of top predators that live in
remote places where humans are never encountered. Even the
ix