What is sustainability?
Sustainability means to sustain; to endure. The question is, what do we
want to sustain and how is this done?
Wiki says: “Achieving
sustainability will enable the earth to continue supporting human life as we
know it”. Now this is an interesting notion. Our planet, Earth, will
continue to exist with or without our presence. Earth has existed through
ice-ages, droughts, tornadoes, tsunamis and even radioactive waste. But human
beings can only exist under certain fragile circumstances. Animal species have
come and gone and new are still to be created. But human beings will not
survive if we do not take sustainability into consideration.
If we lack or ignore the important knowledge of sustainability, we will
destroy human life. With this downfall we will also destroy animals and much of
the earth’s beautiful and important resources. But the earth will still exist.
It might be a cold and dark place,( as in The Matrix) but it will exist. I therefore believe that
our focus should be on treating each other and our surroundings with care and
respect so we may survive and hand over a healthy environment to our next generation. So my question remains, how is this done? How do we
sustain ourselves and our surroundings? This is a very large and complex topic
to dig into.
“The Circles of sustainability“ shows the complexity of working towards
sustainability. Economy, ecology,
culture and politics all play a role in this topic. They are all intertwined.
The 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, which was held in Denmark, was an
example of how challenging it can be for countries to come to an agreement: “The Copenhagen Accord was drafted by the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa on 18 December, and judged a "meaningful
agreement" by the United States government. It
was "taken note of", but not "adopted", in a debate of all
the participating countries the next day, and it was not passed unanimously.
The document recognized that climate change is one of the greatest challenges”…
Teaching sustainability
in the Danish school system
Overall
sustainability means maintaining healthy ecosystems, healthy economies and
healthy social relations so that we may pass this on to the next generation.
But the concept of what is healthy and what is prioritized in this area defers
from country to country.
So let
us look at how sustainability is taught in the Danish school system.
I
have been researching on the internet and have come across a great deal of
school-projects
regarding sustainability. It is a subject that is prioritized and taught in
many interesting ways. The projects are primarily regarding the awareness of
our environment and how we best take care of it. I
found the following project, New Nordic Everyday Food” quite relevant because we all eat food to exist.
Two 8th
grades at Norby school had the exciting experience of learning about “New
Nordic Everyday Food”.The
workshop combined the subjects, home economics and science. The students learned
that buying local produce reduces the carbon footprint. They visited a local
supermarket and had an interesting talk with the grocer regarding buying food
that is past the last selling date well knowing that the food is completely
fine to eat. The students also learned about food waste, organic foods and how
to recycle.
The
idea behind the “New Nordic Everyday Food” is to make modern food of the
commodities that are particularly good during our Nordic latitudes. By doing
so, one is considerate to the individual's health and the planet's health.
“New
Nordic Everyday food” is based on seasonal commodities with a clear Nordic
identity and a single expression - but preferably with an element of renewal.
Link
to the article:
Hej Jane
SvarSletA very comprehensive text from you. A good example from school practice. You express the complexity of the topic and give an examle to follow when you all become teachers.