Fostering an ecological consciousness
Aruna Sankaranarayanan
Our planet’s crying out. Each day, as we toxify the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, Earth’s cries are getting shriller and more strident. From heatwaves to floods to droughts to forest fires, practically every continent is feeling the impact of climate change. Yet, we carry on as usual, unmindful of the fact that our very survival as a species is facing a grave threat. The longer we blind ourselves to the impending disaster we’ve created for ourselves, the chances of us turning back the clock grow slimmer. That we continue to pollute without questioning the practices and policies that contributed to this dire state doesn’t speak very highly of our collective intelligence or the education we’ve received.
Our climate crisis
In The Great Derangement, Amitav Ghosh reminds us that the “climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination.” To a large extent, our desires, be it a fancy car, a luxury apartment, or a vacation to an exotic locale, are offshoots of our zeitgeist. And, it is these insatiable desires that are the “principal drivers of the carbon economy.” Our global economy is predicated on capitalist assumptions that prizes “markets and profits over people and the planet,” writes Naomi Klein in How to Change Everything. However, does it have to be this way? Shouldn’t education equip us to challenge unjust practices and protect our planet?
As Ken Robinson says in one of the most widely viewed TED talks of all times, our education system was designed to produce workers to man factories during the Industrial Age. Satish Kumar and Lorna Howarth aver in Regenerative Learning that this factory model is very limiting as it was conceived to make people job-ready rather than life-ready. Further, many of the jobs that were created have led to “multifaceted and catastrophic tipping points”, which now threaten our planet. Kumar and Howarth question why we continue to rely on a system of education that has been complicit in fomenting this ‘disaster.’ Education systems around the globe aren’t “equipping our young people” with the skills and knowledge to protect our planet and the “wellbeing of humanity.”

Cultivating an ecological consciousness
Kumar and Howarth argue that we need to rethink and reimagine the very premise of educational systems. Our current top-down model that puts a premium on test scores doesn’t do justice to either our planet or the people. In a series of essays in Regenerative Learning, various scholars and educationists emphasize the importance of reinventing our educational systems to cultivate an ecological consciousness, the sixth ‘C’ of this column.
Vandana Shiva avers that our current social and economic structures are based on “greed, consumerism, and the foolhardy illusion of limitless growth” even as our planet is hurting. She advocates that education has to first help us in “unlearning ways of thinking and acting” that are reductive and exploitative. Though the Earth is a deeply interlinked system, we treat it as inert and indoctrinate children with an anthropocentric view that prioritizes the so-called ‘needs’ of humans over and above everything else.
At its core, education should be about relationships, both between people and with Nature, argues Matt Carmichael in another essay in Regenerative Learning. In our present system, schooling takes place in a silo, instead of being embedded within a community. Carmichael believes that children should be “deeply involved in serving their communities,” and participate in activities like farming, cooking, and caring for others. Further, children need to spend time communing with Nature so that they understand the interlinkages between all forms of creation.
In another essay in the same book, Dheepa Maturi says we need to broaden our conception of home. Most adults identify ‘home’ with a concrete structure with four walls, defining a limited space. However, when children spend time in Nature, they tend to view the Earth as their home. In fact, formal education plays a role in squelching our “inborn understanding” and connectedness to the planet. It teaches us to draw boundaries between countries, states, communities, and finally homes.
Shiva adds that when we learn with and “through Nature,” we nurture our capacities for cooperation, compassion, and ecological consciousness. As a result, we cultivate a “Living Intelligence,” that values “interconnectedness, diversity and multiplicity.” Kumar also emphasizes that education should equip students to connect with the larger world, including the living, breathing ecosystems that sustain and enrich our planet. He calls for the “greening of education” while limiting our dependence on digital devices.
Kumar also advocates that we mimic Nature by creating a “cyclical economy”, where all goods are recyclable and do not produce waste. Our current consumptive use-and-throw economy is not in accordance with the Earth’s natural rhythms and we are already paying a price for that.
As Schumacher notes, though “the volume of education” has multiplied, it has not mitigated pollution or our collective destruction of the planet. On the contrary, mainstream education in most countries has been complicit in precipitating climate change. Stephen Sterling writes that there has to be a seismic shift in how we approach both education and our impact on the world. He recommends the “un-learning” of policies and practices that got us to this point and a “re-learning”, wherein we respect the interconnectedness and wellbeing of all life forms and the ecosystems they inhabit. Instead of pursuing an economic model that perpetuates both excess and inequality, we may cultivate habits and systems that respect “planetary limits.” Further, we also need to examine the impact of our actions, both individual and communal, on the planet and our collective wellbeing.
Thus, according to Fritjof Capra, education may foster “systems thinking,” where children are encouraged to perceive “relationships, patterns and context.” Rather than focus solely on individual parts of a complex system, systems thinking allows us to see connections, and appreciate how changes to one part can have cascading effects on another. Capra says that we need to learn and respect the “principles of organisation” that Nature has evolved over millennia, because sustainability ultimately is a “property of an ecosystem,” not of individuals or even species.

Actionable pointers for schools
So, what can schools do to promote an ecological consciousness? Children may be encouraged to spend time in Nature, observing the rhythms and patterns of the living world. Even in an urban context, students may be encouraged to care for plants, be it on a window sill, balcony, or terrace. If possible, have students cultivate and maintain a small garden within the school premises. Next, ecology may be a part of the curriculum right from the primary grades so children become aware of the diversity and importance of all life forms. Field trips and excursions may introduce children to different ecological niches so that children may see, smell, hear, and feel the pulse of different habitats and the creatures they support.
Students may also learn and practice sustainability in their everyday lives by trying to reduce their carbon footprints. This will also hopefully have a rub-off effect on their home lives as children begin to critique the consumptive patterns of their parents. If children are schooled to question the status markers that our societies prize from posh houses to fancy cars, they are more likely to inherit a planet with a viable future.
We may also have students do projects that help the local environment. Let them spruce up parks and reach out to the wider community to clean up beaches, rivers, and lakes. Inviting climate scientists and activists may spur students to take actions that have tangible consequences.
Students may liaise with climate warriors across continents to appreciate the fact that the climate crisis requires both local and global responses. Sharing best practices and learning how people in different ecologies are adapting and reducing their carbon footprints can help foster systems thinking in children. Connecting with children from different countries and socioeconomic groups will also help them grow more aware of the need for climate justice.
References
- Capra, F. (2022) Ecoliteracy and the dance of cooperation, Shiva, V. (2022). Cultivating living intelligence, In S. Kumar & L. Howarth (Eds) Regenerative Learning. Sutton: Global Resilience Publishing.
- Carmichael, M. (2022) To value a wasp, In S. Kumar & L. Howarth (Eds) Regenerative Learning. Sutton: Global Resilience Publishing.
- Ghosh, A. (2016) The Great Derangement. Gurugram: Penguin Books.
- Klein, N. (2021) How to Change Everything. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
- Kumar, S. & Howarth L. (2022) Education that is fit for the future, In S. Kumar & L. Howarth (Eds) Regenerative Learning. Sutton: Global Resilience Publishing.
- Kumar, S. (2022) The true meaning of education, In S. Kumar & L. Howarth (Eds) Regenerative Learning. Sutton: Global Resilience Publishing.
- Maturi, D. (2022). We are trees, In S. Kumar & L. Howarth (Eds) Regenerative Learning. Sutton: Global Resilience Publishing.
- Robinson, K. Do schools kill creativity? TED talk https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?subtitle=en
- Schumacher, E. F. (1997). ‘This I believe’ and other essays (essay first published in 1974). Dartington: Green Books.
- Shiva, V. (2022). Cultivating living intelligence, In S. Kumar & L. Howarth (Eds) Regenerative Learning. Sutton: Global Resilience Publishing.
Aruna Sankaranarayanan is the author of Zero Limits: Things Every 20-Something Should Know. She blogs at https://arunasankaranarayanan.com.