Applying a resilience systems framework to urban environmental education

A growing body of literature on community gardening, watershed restoration, and similar ‘civic ecology’ practices suggests avenues for integrating social and ecological outcomes in urban natural resources management. In this paper, we argue that an environmental education programme in which learning is situated in civic ecology practices also has the potential to address both community and environmental goals. Further, we suggest that civic ecology practices and related environmental education programmes may foster resilience in urban social‐ecological systems, through enhancing biological diversity and ecosystem services, and through incorporating diverse forms of knowledge and participatory processes in resource management. By proposing interrelationships among natural resources management, environmental education, and social‐ecological systems, we hope to open up discussion of a research agenda focusing on the role of environmental education in systems processes and resilience.     

A holistic systems approach to addressing sustainability issues in the agri-food sector

Abstract

There is a need to inculcate an appreciation of sustainability concepts, issues and objectives in the minds of the next generations of landowners. A lingering feeling persists that farming is still to be viewed as a way of life, despite on-going technological advances that would make farming more of a science. Such a feeling is reinforced by the view that agriculture is more than just food production; it also involves the efficient use of scarce resources, stewardship of the natural resource base, the environment, and the ecological balance of species, sustaining rural communities, and maintaining the aesthetic appeal of the countryside.

How then should we proceed to educate future landowners in all these matters? It is posited that one ought to begin by defining the term sustainability. Because sustainability is likely to be interpreted quite differently by members of distinct disciplines engaged in higher agricultural education, a definition of sustainability should be offered from the perspective of each of those disciplines. The reconciliation of these differences and methods of accomplishing this should be a necessary part of the education process.

It is further posited that a deeper and more accurate understanding of sustainability in an agri-food sector context is likely to be best obtained by the student through a careful integration of curriculum content, the learning environment, and an effective delivery mechanism. Curriculum content should conjoin temporal and spatial perspectives with an inter-disciplinary perspective. A systemic learning praxis is suggested as an appropriate learning environment, and an effective delivery mechanism could be based on a team-teaching approach. Composition of the team should ideally encompass all disciplines, from the bio-physical sciences to the socio-economic sciences, plus engineering and medicine. A case-study approach is advocated as one effective means of teaching an appreciation of and need for a balanced interpretation of sustainability. The case-study setting affords adequate opportunity for evaluating sustainability issues in specific economic, environmental, biological, sociological, and/or other disciplinary contextual circumstances.     

赣南客家乡土文化中生态智慧发掘利用及其现代价值研究

经济发展、城市建设和社会和谐都需要可持续性,可持续的理念也深入人心,这其中最为根本的是生态系统的可持续性,即生态可持续性。它与生态安全、生态系统服务等已经成为国家发展战略和国家安全的核心。党的十八大明确提出了“五位一体”的建设方略,将生态文明建设作为重要一环列入基本国策,重视程度史无前例。生态文明的建设关乎人民福祉和人类未来,而广泛存在于各地乡土文化中的民间生态智慧,则成为我们可供利用的文化资源。     

河流生态系统特征及流量变化的生态效应

对河流生态系统特征及流量变化的生态效应的认知,是进行河流有效管理的前提.根据河流水情及其相应的生态变化,文章提出了河流生态水文季节的概念;与生态水文季节相对应,界定了最小生态流量、适宜生态流量和汛期生态流量的内涵;在此基础上,以水文连接度、生境改变、物种变化以及生态系统功能等为参考指标,分析了流量变化的生态效应.为探索有效的河流生态系统修复途径和管理策略,维持河流系统的健康提供科学依据.     

Technological Risk,Scientific Advice and Public 'Education': Groping for an adequate language in the case of GM foods

Knowledge is central to both education and sustainability. This article examines a current example of rapid shifts in knowledge and perceptions in education and learning about sustainability in civil society. Through the lens of the public outcry and policy crisis over genetically modified foods in the UK, it points to some major recurring difficulties with policy models of 'public education' used in cases of technological risk. These reveal entrenched policy presumptions that the general public is ignorant about scientific matters and that this ignorance can simply be addressed by better communication. It notes the challenges to these models that have been presented in particular by a group of environmental social scientists in rethinking the politics of GM food in the context of sustainability. It proposes that the term 'ignorance' is one that needs to be applied to the task of risk assessment as much as to the public, and that more inclusive styles of decision making on risk issues are not only more democratic but also more scientifically robust. With innovation occurring at an ever increasing rate, the understanding and management of technological risk will continue to become more important. The knowledge, learning and education involved will be key survival skills if we are to implement sustainability.     

生态风险评估在环境管理中的应用

生态风险评估(Ecological Risk Assessment,ERA)是评价人类活动对生态系统中生物可能构成的危害效应.从生物体和种群、群落和生态系统、区域和景观不同水平综述了生态风险研究现状,在此基础上阐述了问题表述、风险分析、风险表征到风险交流与管理的生态风险评估管理框架,展望了生态风险评估在环境管理中应用前景.     

Searching for a crack to let environment light in: ecological biopolitics and education for sustainable development discourses

This article traces the shifts in environmental education discourses from the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, to the 2012 UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, and beyond through a biopolitical lens. Each of the earlier shifts is reflected in environmental, sustainability and science education policies and curricula—but what of the most recent shifts at Rio+20 and in UNESCO’s (2014) Roadmap for Implementing the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development? The article examines how the ecological version of politics emerged and then became integrated into technocentric biopolitics and how this shift affected the shaping of environmental, sustainability and science education policies and curricula. In particular, the article analyzes the shifting biopolitical interfaces that have occurred between “natural environment” and “society”—from a goal of preserving the natural foundations of life to a focus on exploiting these foundations, modifying and transforming the environment through scientific and technological means—and the manifestations of this in Australian curriculum documents.     

论全球气候变暖中的技术影响:临界过程及临界风险防控

全球气候变暖过程的技术影响可从三个层面考量:产品生命周期的排放叠加,技术群的集成环境影响,以及技术-经济体系环境影响的产业放大。气候变暖过程是气候风险由量变到质变的临界变化过程。临界过程是临界点和转换期的统一,临界点代表了人类活动的限度,转换期提供了生态风险防控的可能性。防控气候风险需要建立一种临界思维,这是一种关于危机、预警和主动防御的思维。为了防控气候变化的临界风险,从技术产品的供给侧考虑,有必要通过低碳化的技术创新完成生态化的技术迭代。从温室效应的社会建构考虑,每个地球人都承担维护地球生态系统安全运作的责任。     

Environmental Thought,the Language of Sustainability,and Digital Watches

The field of education, and derivatively environmental education, is filled with inherently difficult concepts, yet we have not, I believe, given sufficient attention to understanding these ideas that ground our work. For example, the term 'education for sustainability,' has gained rapid acceptance yet little critical attention has been given to the term. Before launching into a critique, I do acknowledge the importance of 'sustainability' and the usefulness of this concept in environmental thinking. Many ecological processes are not sustained-not kept going continuously. Species are going extinct at an alarming rate and whole ecosystems are at risk. So, it is important to talk about sustainability. However, I argue that this alone is not sufficient. In this article I examine limitations associated with the language of sustainability and their implications for environmental thinking. Using the idea of digital watches as a metaphor, I explore what sustainability is not. Contemporary examples from advertising, curriculum development, and 'wildlife management' will be used to illustrate the central theme.     

Postmodern Challenges and Modern Horizons: education ‘for being for the environment‘

This article argues that a ‘humanly‐constructive’ critical theory of environmental education called ‘a critical ecological ontology for educational inquiry’ provides a necessary complement to the ‘socially‐critical’ perspective. This humanly‐constructive curriculum theory focuses on our individual and collective ‘being‐in‐the‐world’. It invites learners, teachers and researchers to study how their ‘lived experience’ of socio‐environmentally problematic circumstances is shaped and stretched globally by various economic and technological imperatives. In so doing, ‘a critical ecological ontology’ highlights the personal politic required for a socio‐ecological praxis. Of particular relevance to the socio‐ecological politic ‘for being’ are interpretations of postmodern agency that emerge from three practical applications of ‘a critical ecological ontology’. This dialogue of theory and practice is necessary in the critical curriculum project of environmental education     

Knowledge management and the practice of knowledge sharing and learning at work: a case study

This article offers a critique of knowledge management. The critique is empirically based on the case study of a Danish software production company's (A‐Soft) knowledge management strategy of implementing an information technology (IT) tool known as ‘knowledge centre’ (KC). The article argues: (1) the discourses on knowledge and learning informing KC and everyday practice are incompatible. KC conceptualizes knowledge as a resource that can be stored and retrieved from databases, and learning as an individual acquisition. The company's existing practice of knowledge sharing and learning seems better conceived from a situated and embodied perspective, seeing knowledge as an enactment inseparable from action, and learning as social participation. (2) The management's preoccupation with implementing technological solutions for codifying, archiving, and creating global access to information is conflicting with the practitioners' focus on seeking context‐rich information through collegial networks. Moreover, it is suggested that cultivation of a culture where viable communities of practice and collegial networks can flourish may be more important than technological advancement. (3) The strategy of exercising knowledge management through control and ownership invokes a discourse that threatens to subjectify the employees as replaceable resources in a lifelong learning imperative.     

生态资产与区域可持续发展

加强对区域可持续发展水平的定量测度,对促进生态环境建设起着明显的推动作 用。为此,用“和度”与“合度”作为区域可持续发展水平的测度指标,测量了1992、1995、2000年 全国各省市区生态资产的总量及单位面积上的生态资产密度,并据此分析了各省市区国内生产 总值(GDP)变化与其生态资产间的关系。结果表明,广大东部地区生态资产拥有量与GDP相 比,呈明显的下降趋势,而广大西部地区生态资产量与GDP相比,呈现基本相当或略有增加的趋 势,广大中部地区介于东西部之间。因之,应提高我国东部地区生态资产的数量,以确保这一经 济快速发展地带的可持续性。继续加强广大西部地区的生态建设,实施东西部生态资产有偿使 用转让机制,以维护整个国家的生态安全与可持续发展。     

Engaging youth in public lands monitoring: opportunities for enhancing ecological literacy and environmental stewardship

Abstract

The US Forest Service has a long history of youth conservation education. We investigated U.S. Forest Service citizen science programs that involve secondary school students in field collection of monitoring data to understand (1) how the programs integrated science and environmental education and (2) whether these programs advance ecological literacy and environmental stewardship. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the program leads, teachers, and students. Program leads and students said programs produced reliable data and met monitoring and other U.S. Forest Service stewardship objectives. Although these programs varied in design and objectives, our findings suggest these programs were incorporating both science and environmental education, and there is some indication they are creating ecological literacy among participants. Students exhibited environmental stewardship to some degree as a result of all programs, but the extent of this is tied to programs’ objectives and design.     

生态补偿基本原则的法律构建

生态补偿是以保护自然生态系统服务功能,促进人与自然和谐为目的,运用财税、市场等手段,调节生态环境保护的相关利益方的经济利益,以公平分配环境保护责任和义务,实现生态环境保护的外部效益内部化的制度。     

Children’s Ecoliterature and the New Nature Study

This essay explores how nineteenth-century nature study principles inform a twenty-first century New Nature Study movement, and gives examples of a trend toward nature writing in recent picture books. The pedagogical principles of nineteenth-century nature study, ascendant at the turn of the twentieth century and implicit in interwar children’s literature, yielded to a model founded on Cold War competition rather than environmental stewardship. In mid-century narratives for children, technological progress prevailed. In the 1990s, the ideals of the first nature study movement reemerged in a call for meaningful conservation to sustain future generations. Like the original nature study, the New Nature Study arises from anxieties about industrial development, habitat loss and extinction, and hazards to childhood itself. The New Nature Study treats children as agents for change and citizens being denied their full human rights when their land, soil, water, and lives are bought and sold.     

湖北省湿地生态环境现状分析及对策

近年来,由于工农业发展与城市化进程的加快,湖北省湿地生态环境发生了巨大变化。表现在湿地面积的改变,湿地水状况及水质的变化、湿地生物多样性受到破坏等方面。分析了自然和人为因素对湿地退化的影响。有针对性地提出了湿地治理与恢复应采取的政策、生态建设措施。通过对湿地的科学利用、合理保护,可使退化湿地得到恢复,生态环境向良性发展。     

湿地生态安全评价模型比较研究

湿地生态环境质量是人们关注的热点问题。经湿地生态安全评价可对湿地生态系统完整性与可持续能力的识别与判断,并可对湿地生态系统安全素质进行定量描述。通过对几种评价模型及当中评价方法的优缺点对照比较,每种方法各有其自身特点。在湿地评价过程中选用与评价尺度相适合的评价模型,建立湿地生态安全预警机制,加强湿地环境管理与保护体系,实现湿地的可持续性发展,使湿地更好地为人类服务。     

Exploring just sustainability across the disciplines at one university

Abstract

We examined The University of Vermont’s new sustainability requirement for undergraduates through the lens of just sustainability. We found that sustainability courses are proposed in diverse disciplines. Regardless of discipline, most proposed courses address all three pillars of sustainability (social, ecological, and economic). Discussions of environmental justice are less widespread; only 17% of proposed courses in science, technology, and math departments addressed environmental justice. Our results provide examples for others interested in integrating sustainability across diverse disciplines and in emphasizing environmental justice. We also call attention to the fact that institutions of higher education may need explicit reminders or requirements to adequately include considerations of environmental justice in sustainability studies.     

Young People's Conceptions of Environment: A phenomenographic analysis

Environmental education in schools is an important strategy in achieving environmental improvement. However, it needs to be based on children's understandings of environment rather than on assumptions of what children know and believe. This paper reports on a research project where school children's answers to a question 'I think the term/word environment means ' were analysed using the qualitative research method of phenomenography. Six distinct conceptions were isolated, ranging from the least sophisticated--environment as a place--to the most inclusive and expansive--environment and people in a relationship of mutual sustainability. An important qualitative difference was found between conceptions that treat the environment as an object and relational conceptions. The implications of these findings for environmental education are discussed.     

Environmental Education across the Tertiary Curriculum: a process

There are many examples of environmental courses in tertiary institutions, but the integration of environmental education across the range of courses has generally not occurred. The article describes a project to introduce waste minimisation education into four disciplinary‐based courses. Since waste minimisation was introduced in the context of ecological sustainability, the project provides a model for the introduction of the broader concepts of environmental education. The project began with the assumption that adequate materials were already available if staff wanted to include waste minimisation, but what was needed was a process that would guide them in the revision of their course content, and would support them in making changes. Based on the experiences of the project, approaches for integrating waste minimisation, and more generally environmental education, across tertiary curricula are presented.