Purpose: To highlight that, for higher education (HE) to fulfil its role and provide societies with the required knowledge and competencies that will enable a sustainable future, through research, education and campus operations, it needs to cooperate and promote interdisciplinarity within the sector and with society at large.…

Three decades have passed since approximately 1,700 scientists signed the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" highlighting severe environmental problems and trends affecting local and global communities. To reverse the situation, their 1992 Warning argued we need to change our behaviour. In 2017, a larger group issued a second…

This paper explores how ESD activities may be viewed on a continuum from "causal" approaches, seeking to cause change in others, to "enabling" orientations where efforts are made to enable people to implement the principles of ESD and respond to the environmental challenges they face from their own context. An enabling…

Amid the global economic crisis dominating policy makers' recent attention, the world faces many other equal if not greater long-term challenges that will require concerted and highly skilled policy efforts in coming years. Those interwoven challenges include the mitigation of climate change, the control of emerging diseases, the reduction of…

In the pseudo-documentary "The Age of Stupid" (Armstrong 2009), a historian from 2055 scans the remnants of civilization and asks why, in the early twenty-first century, people did not save themselves when they had the chance. The film serves as a motif for issues raised in this article. Why do people continue to believe that education plays an…

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…

Examines issues related to specialization in science in the context of the work of Alexander Von Humboldt, one of the first popular scientists in the 19th century and Charles Darwin's mentor. Chronicles the impacts of a science dominated by specialization and argues for increased emphasis on interdisciplinary environmental study. (LZ)

Despite the recognition by early champions of the environmental movement in the United States that humans and the diverse ecosystems in which they live are indivisible, many environmental education policies and programs have tended to uphold the categorical distinction between "nature" and "culture" (e.g., Sessions; Soule and Press). In the late…

As a writer and faculty member at Emory & Henry College (Virginia), Ed Bingham focused on land reform and the sustenance that came from the land. His concern for the damages caused by colonialism influenced the early days of Appalachian Studies. His work was interdisciplinary, with commitments to social justice, democracy, and racial equality.…

Many educators think of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) on a disciplinary level--what is Environmental Education's (EE) contribution to a more sustainable future? Briefly, we describe differences and similarities between EE and ESD. Next, we examine four levels of activity--disciplinary, whole school, educational system, and…

Disturbing global trends show that human activity continues to threaten our ability to meet current human needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability will become more inaccessible without a dramatic change in our current mindset and behavior. As the primary centers of teaching, research, and…

Social work is inadequately focused on an individual deficit view of social problems. Consideration of global social problems such as environmental degradation and poverty requires fundamental shifts in thinking about economics and our cultural history. Possibilities for social work intervention, based on transformational thinking about the…

Discusses problems in putting education and sustainability together. Considers themes of planetary health and interconnectedness as an argument for redesigning core curricula to teach students to cope with future problems and live in harmony with their surroundings. Describes problems with the current education system, social values, and industry…

Limited sunlight, low temperatures, and slow natural growth make the Arctic environment extremely vulnerable to pollution. Circumpolar nations formed the Arctic Council to cooperate in promoting sustainable development in the region. An integrated approach is required, encompassing social conditions, health, culture, education, and environmental…

This document contains 18 essays that developed out of a study in which 16 researchers from 10 countries in the Western and Arab worlds examined adult education and how an ecological approach to education focusing on cultural traditions and natural environments can be more useful than education in specialized institutions. The following papers are…