What is Environmental Education?

The topics chosen for this week’s classes definitely showed the range of what we, as environmental educators find important.  I’ve found it interesting how many people have an incredibly narrow view of what we do.   It is assumed that we are out in the woods helping kids identify trees and looking at all kinds of wild critters.  Often times environmental issues aren’t even on people’s radar for what we do.  Perhaps this is a reflection of our society and the issues that people are even aware of.  Ironically though, even those who have a more in depth experience with environmental educators still struggle with defining who we are and what we consider our domain.  This was especially true during our trip to Black Pine today and the comment made as to if our interests were being addressed. 

Why is it then that all of these issues are of interest to us? I believe the biggest reason that we include so much more in what we consider is the way we look at the world, or perhaps this can only apply to me personally.  I consider more things an issue I would be concerned with as an environmental educator because I think we are all operating in a huge system in which there are incredibly strong connections.  How we choose to bury the deceased has huge impacts on the natural world for some very obvious reasons and others that are not so easily connected.  The way we view the ownership of exotic “pets” has incredible implications for how we interact with all  of nature.  In much the same way that our view of the importance of bee says a lot about our culture. 

Our environment is not an isolated bit of forest or other habitats that we are working to save and protect, it is this planet that we all live on together.  Everything that is happening around us affects our environment in some way whether that be positively or negatively.  The beauty of it all is that we’re sparking these conversations, we’re learning new things, and by doing so, we’re changing the trajectory of what can be.