One challenge re: education which relates to global warming is that
many people who do not believe in evolution do not believe in fossil
fuels: God put coal there for our use about 5,000 years ago. This
feeds into the dominion view of creation ("Man" was given "dominion"
over the Earth, at least in SOME translations). That is, creation is
here for us to use as we will. Many other people of faith who accept
creation do however have a stewardship ethic are more amenable to
education re climate change; many of them are leaders in opposing
mountaintop removal, promoting renewables, etc. But people who favor
creationism or its variant intelligent design are a vary large
percentage of Americans and for many of them (like two of my brothers)
their beliefs color their attitudes towards global warming.
Margaret
PS It was not fun going through the Museum of the Earth with that
branch of the family; they were politely interested until they
couldn't stand it anymore, at which point I got the version their
church had given them.
On Aug 7, 2009, at 9:20 AM, Bethany Schroeder wrote:
Andy,
I agree with you on statements one and two below, namely the usual
subsidy of clunckers and solar panels. But whether we're talking
about the development of products or education, the problem will
necessarily involve scalability.
Education not only needs the inputs of qualified teachers and a
sensible curriculum, rare even with familiar topics, not to mention
new topics such as how to live with less, it needs the wise
attention of every kind of supporter, from parents and students to
legislators and wonks. There's also the issue of whether we can even
begin to standardize the curriculum, without which we may create
disequilibrium and the chaos of prejudiced approaches. Consider how
long it took to standardize medical and engineering education, just
to point to two examples. And then overcoming the psychological and
philosophical barriers related to why we've embarked on such a
project would be no mean feat. None of this is as simple as it looks
at first blush, the same problem no doubt that pertains to throwing
money at scaling up the production of stuff that, naturally, boils
your blood.
I agree we have to learn to live with less, lots less. I also
recognize the impediments and the pain people experience when they
finally reckon with the idea that they may not be able to have all
the resources they imagined to have been within their purview.
Having lived through most of it, I'm also aware of the history you
have alluded to below. The campaign to educate people about various
ecological issues has been focused on policy makers and the reading
public. It has been long and intense and, I would argue, largely
unsuccessful.
I stand by my original concern, which you never did respond to:
apathy, denial, and incredulity regarding the issues we explore on
this listserv abound in the larger community. Hell, we can't even
agree among ourselves about how do much of anything. I don't mean to
suggest we shouldn't try or that we shouldn't keep talking, but I
don't believe the educational approach is necessarily any better
than another. I have a certain sense of urgency about the matter, as
you well know.
Bethany
Andy Goodell wrote:
Bethany,
Give people higher mileage cars, and they won't feel so bad about
driving farther.
Give them solar panels (at no perceived cost to them), and what's
to say they won't just use more energy?
It's a feel good tactic that doesn't solve the problem that we
simply use too much energy. I don't know the history on this, but I
don't think the gov in the past 30 years has ever handed out
significant funding for education like this. I assume that $515M to
a state for energy education could go a very long way.
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_______________________________________________
For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please
visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for:
[email protected]
http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
Questions about the list? ask [email protected]
free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
