Thirty four years ago, on this day, October 31st, 1992,
Environmental Literacy: Education as if the Earth Mattered
By David W. Orr https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/environmental-literacy-education-as-if-the-earth-mattered/
Yet there are better reasons to rethink education that have to do with issues of human survival, which will dominate the world of the twenty-first century. The generation now being educated will have to do what we, the present generation, have been unable or unwilling to do: stabilize a world population that is growing at the rate of a quarter of a million each day; stabilize and then reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, which threaten to change the climate—perhaps disastrously; protect biological diversity, now declining at an estimated rate of one hundred to two hundred species per day; reverse the destruction of rainforests (both tropical and temperate), now being lost at the rate of one hundred and sixteen square miles or more each day; and conserve soils, now being eroded at the rate of sixty-five million tons per day. Those who follow us must learn how to use energy and materials with great efficiency. They must learn how to utilize solar energy in all its forms. They must rebuild the economy in order to eliminate waste and pollution. They must learn how to manage renewable resources for the long term. They must begin the great work of repairing, as much as possible, the damage done to the earth in the past two hundred years of industrialization. And they must do all of this while addressing worsening social and racial inequities. No generation has ever faced a more daunting agenda.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 356ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was is that whenever there is an intractable political issue that is going result in deadlock and bloodshed and so forth, you’ll always find some liberals slapping the word “literacy” after whatever it is, because information deficit model has held a role with their touching faith in humanity and the adequate ability, if not perfectibility, of man. And of course banging on about information deficit models, or within that scope allows you to avoid tricky questions about power and privilege. It also gives you a privileged position of being the lecturer, the hector who knows things that other people need to know.
The specific context was the UN climate treaty had been signed and would – at some point in the coming years – be ratified by enough nations to become lore. Sorry law.
What I think we can learn from is there’s always people like that willing to jump here. If the problem is lack of knowledge, necessarily, it gives them status, it gives them comfort, gives them money.What happened next. Your friendly neighbourhood liberals kept banging on about literacy as the first (and often foremost and final) action. And other people kept being somewhat less impressed.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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Also on this day:
October 31, 1994 – Four Corners reports on Greenhouse Mafia activity
October 31, 2004 – QE2 lobbied Blair on climate, reports Observer
October 31, 2006 – Stern Review “pure speculation” according to John Howard
October 31, 2018 – Extinction Rebellion makes its declaration of rebellion