Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World. - book reviews

Whole Earth Review, Winter, 1992 by J. Baldwin

"We may infer from the mismanagement of the environment throughout the century that most [people] emerged from their association with ... various educational institutions as ecological illiterates, with little knowledge of how their subsequent actions would disrupt the earth." With these fightin' words, David Orr begins to build his case that education holds the greatest potential for nudging society towards the elusive goal of sustainability. He's no mere all-we-got-to-do-is dabbler; he's the founder of the famed Meadow Creek project and is currently directing the audacious attempt to make Oberlin College an example of sustainable applied ecology (Ecolog p. 123). The writing is necessarily erudite and academic but is nonetheless easily read and comprehended. Good thing it is, for his proposals are deeply, essentially fight I consider this to be the most important book I've reviewed in many years.

The discipline of economics has taught us little or nothing of the discipline imposed on us by physics and by natural systems. To the contrary, these are regarded as minor impediments to be overcome by substitution of materials and by the laws of supply and demand. But economics is, in turn, a part of a larger enterprise to dominate nature through science and technology.

Maintenance versus unlimited growth. The two systems also have different goals. Natural evolution at the ecosystem level leads toward increasing diversity, ecological complexity, stability, and balance. Left to itself, nature evolves in ways that tend to create systems that are stable over long periods of time within relatively narrow limits. As systems "mature," nutrient cycles become tighter, and more energy, goes into maintenance rather than into growth. Life at the planetary level, according to Lovelock, is an active agent in maintaining the climate and temperature conditions appropriate to more life. Gaia is a vast system including bacteria that controls levels of atmospheric gases. As conditions move away from those suitable for life, biological organisms act to restore the balance.

Modern societies, by contrast, seem to have adopted the purpose of growing to their maximum extent. Having eliminated most or all of their natural competitors, humans now face no limits other than those imposed by the planet or the perverse consequences of their own actions. Evolution has equipped humans with no instinct that tells us when enough is enough.

The eruption of environmental awareness across the planet has occurred without significant national political leadership anywhere. Leaders of the stature of Gandhi, Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, persons capable of defining, clarifying, and motivating people toward i sustainable future, have yet to appear at the national or international levels. But they are beginning to appear at state, local, and neighborhood levels nearly everywhere. In various ways, millions of people know that the earth is reaching its limits, that things are out of balance. Transformative leadership must first articulate what people feel in their bones, then translate this into a coherent agenda of reform and change within the context of familiar values of justice, fairness, peace, and democratic participation.

The study of institutional resource flows can lead to three results. The first is a set of policies governing food, energy, water, materials, architectural design, landscaping, and waste flows that meet standards for sustainability....

The study of campus resource flows and the development of campus policies would lead to a second and more important result: the reinvigoration of a curriculum around the issues of human survival, a plausible foundation for the liberal arts. This emphasis would become a permanent part of the curriculum through research projects, courses, seminars, and the establishment of interdisciplinary programs in resource management or environmental studies. By engaging the entire campus community in the study of resource flows, debate about the possible meanings of sustainability, the design of campus resource policies, and curriculum innovation, the process carries with it the potential to enliven the educational process. I can think of few disciplines throughout the humanities, social sciences, and sciences without an important contribution to this debate.

Third, the study and its implementation as policy and curriculum would be an act of real leadership.

Should we strive to teach values appropriate to sustainability, or should we present these as only one possible orientation to the world? is it possible to treat the work of Julian Simon and economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen as if they are equivalent? Is value-free education possible? Is it desirable? If neither, how can values be integrated into the learning process without jeopardizing objectivity and a fair treatment of facts, data, and logic?

As difficult as these issues may be, there are good precedents for the integration of objectivity with a strong value orientation. Medical education, for example, has a clear bias toward human health, not disease. The overriding concern of reputable international relations scholars such as Quincy Wright, Kenneth Boulding, Richard Falk, and Anatol Rapaport is the promotion of peace, not war. Likewise, economics is intended to expand our understanding of the conditions for prosperity. Except by pedants, knowledge has never been regarded as an end in itself, but rather as a means to human well-being. By the same logic, environmental studies ought to have a clear direction favoring harmony between human and natural systems while preserving objectivity in the handling of facts, data, and logic.