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Empowering children and families to value, build and nurture ecologically sustainable communities is a major goal for early childhood education this decade.
As Professor Ian Lowe from the Australian Conservation Foundation says in his guest statement, ecological sustainability is everyone’s responsibility. Climate change and environmental problems are linked and will directly affect the lives young children now and in the future.
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What should we be doing about this? Lowe reminds us that energy underpins modern civilisation and ‘without usable energy our communities would literally grind to a halt.’ He gives a two-part solution that each of us can employ to make wiser use of our limited resources.
Firstly he says we need to increase our use of renewable energies, like solar or wind power. His second suggestion is to use energy more efficiently. Efficiency improvements and more thoughtful use of energy should be both a national and personal goal for every home and early childhood service.
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In the long term children must genuinely value the environment and this requires a holistic vision of education for sustainability, including a focus on ecological knowledge and understanding, environmental attitudes and behaviours, building a sense of place and forging connectedness within our communities. This deep ecological understanding needs to begin in early childhood. It is also vital that children build strong self-esteem, interpersonal relationships and positive attitudes toward learning and school.
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In the arena of health we need to focus on strengthening children’s attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about nutrition, especially the importance of fruit and vegetables in a balanced diet. Growing vegetables helps children gain an initial understanding of food requirements and nutritional systems. Linking food growth with consumption helps children to appreciate how our environment sustains life and raises broader environmental issues. These real world experiences assist children in building a strong sense of self, place in the community and personal pride.
Helping children to learn about the environment and to make wise food and energy choices are the first steps to ecologically sustainable early childhood centres, schools and communities. In order to do this just talking isn’t enough. Children need to see sustainability modelled in their homes and educational settings. This reinforces our environmental education messages and provides practical opportunities for children to experience sustainability.
While governments and policy makers have key roles in climate-change regulation, building and nurturing ecologically sustainable communities must begin with the education and care we provide. Early Childhood Australia’s recently updated Code of Ethics states that we must ‘Work with children to help them understand that they are global citizens with shared responsibilities to the environment and humanity.’
In this issue of Every Child we explore big-picture environmental and sustainability issues and provide some wonderful practical ideas.
We look at the sometimes controversial role of zoos in society. Geoff Underwood and Ben Luxton argue that modern zoos and aquariums play important roles in helping to enrich understandings of biodiversity, interdependence and conservation and they can empower people to take positive action for our environment.
Ros Cornish has written a heartening piece on building a childcare centre that incorporates sustainability while meeting the diverse requirements of children and staff. With so many centres conforming to the most minimal of regulations it’s great to see such a visionary model.
Our article on ‘green cleaning’ deals with the serious problem of making informed decisions about cleaning products. Director of Fresh Green Clean, Bridget Gardner provides great green cleaning tips and advice on selecting products that are both safe and effective.
We all need to work together to counter the impact and extent of climate change. We can’t just sit and wait for government policies on fossil fuel alternatives and energy demands. Regulatory uncertainty may be a fact of life but, as shown in this issue of Every Child, there are lots of things we can start doing right now. It’s time to make a change.
Alison Elliott
Editor
Every Child
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