Seediscussions,stats,andauthorprofilesforthispublicationat:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254664309

EnvironmentalEducation:IsitreallyaPriorityinTeacherEducation?

ARTICLE·JANUARY2006

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RebeccaHMiles

LaTrobeUniversity

12PUBLICATIONS18CITATIONS

SEEPROFILE

AmyCutter-Mackenzie

SouthernCrossUniversity

44PUBLICATIONS165CITATIONS

SEEPROFILE

Availablefrom:RebeccaHMiles

Retrievedon:04February2016

Foreword Welcome to the 2006 Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) Conference e-book. This publication resulting from the Bunbury Conference Sharing Wisdom for the Future. Environmental Education in Action, provides a snapshot of the rich conversations and diverse ideas participants heard and offered. The conference was AAEE’s first national event in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and, on top of the quality of the event itself, it was innovative in ways that will have reverberations around the world with peer associations. Firstly, it established during the event an Elders Council comprising local Aboriginal elders, national and international environmental education elders and a conference convenor as reporter. This Council deliberated on key issues emerging from the conference discussions and provided a perspective on past, present and future actions. Secondly, it was conducted in parallel with a Millennium Kids Conference – an event for youth drawn from across Australia and other parts of the world. Participants and workshops were interwoven with the AAEE conference. The message of the success of these innovations is being disseminated through the large international contingent in attendance and via the more formal mechanisms established in our recently signed Memoranda of Understanding with three overseas environmental education (EE) associations. This latest national conference and this e-book represent the Association’s latest achievements. Behind these are strenuous efforts to look inwards and refresh its organisational structure and an enthusiasm for looking outwards and strengthening ties with the rest of the EE world. Sharing wisdom. Gaining wisdom. Real action at home. New actions abroad. AAEE is equipping itself well for the Decade and the longer term future. Grahame Collier Association President

Table of contents The authors appear in alphabetical order for the non-referred contributions. Forward by Grahame Collier, Association President. Contributor 1 Environmental Education In Courses of Study for the New Western Australian Certificate of Education.

A. Atkinson & E. Horne. …………………………………………………….. 1 Contributor 2 Youth Environment Council of South Australia. Jo Bishop, Rachel Cain, Mark Cawdron- White, Bianca Levi, Chris Mahoney & Pippa Williams. …………………………………………………………….

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Contributor 3 Marine Stewardship as Educational Praxis for Sustainability: A Case Study of ‘Adopt a Beach’.

J.K. Davis & L.J. Stocker. ……………………………………………………. 31 Contributor 4 Investigating Pedagogies that Promote Students’ Action Competence In Environmental Education.

C. Eames, B. Law & M. Barker. ……………………………………………… 39 Contributor 5 Living in a Post-Oil World. Molly Harriss Olson. …………………………………………………………. 50 Contributor 6 Waterkeepers Australia – For Formal and Constructive Fights. G. Hunt. ………………………………………………………………………. 62 Contributor 7 Sustainability Initiatives in a Major State Government Department. T. Kearney & C. Mackenzie. ………………………………………………….. 71 Contributor 8 Environmental Future (Wisdoms For Our Futures). Professor Sohail Inayatullah. ………………………………………………….. 79 Contributor 9 Greens Pathways to a Sustainable Energy Future. Hon Paul Llewellyn, MLC. …………………………………………………… 83 Contributor 10 The Importance of Permaculture in a Post-Oil Future. Dr Ross Mars. …………………………………………………………………. 85

Contributor 11 Creating Sustainable Futures: A Case Study of Landlearn Changing Minds, Innovating Outcomes.

N. McDonagh. ………………………………………………………………… 92 Contributor 12 Speak Out! - Speak Right! P. Murphy. …………………………………………………………………….. 108 Contributor 13 Global Communities for Sustainability (GCS): Sharing Concerns and Promoting Problem Solving Skills and ESD Values

P. Nambiar. ……………………………………………………………………. 115 Contributor 14 Avoiding ‘Traffic Jams’: Seeing Past The Complicated To Understand Complexity

E. Nieman. …………………………………………………………………….. 122 Contributor 14 Teaching & Place: A Mutual Relation. G. Noone. ……………………………………………………………………… 131 Contributor 15 Living Streams; Designing Partnership Projects for Schools and Communities.

Dr J. Pearson. ………………………………………………………………….. 139 Contributor 16 Biodiversity Education in Cambodia. Dr B. Pettitt. …………………………………………………………………… 142 Contributor 17 Frogs: Connecting Community with the Environment. J. Prefumo. …………………………………………………………………….. 140 Contributor 18 Knowledge and Understanding of an Environmental System using two Different Types of Computer-Based Models - A Pilot Study.

K. Thompson & P. Reimann. ………………………………………………….. 156 Contributor 19 Climbing Little Green Steps. M. Whelan. ……………………………………………………………………. 163 Contributor 20 Perceiving and Protecting Biodiversity. B. Zemits. ……………………………………………………………………… 188

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN COURSES OF STUDY FOR THE NEW WESTERN AUSTRALIAN CERTIFICATE OF EDUCATION

Alan Atkinson and Elaine Horne

This workshop examines the opportunities for environmental education in new courses of study to be introduced in 2007 and 2008 in Western Australian secondary schools. These courses are from the learning areas of Science and Society and Environment, and are among the courses offered as part of the new Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE). Courses to be discussed include Biology, Earth and Environmental Science, and Geography. Topics to be covered include links to environmental education themes; course structure and content; learning, teaching and assessment; and teaching and learning resources. Participants will be provided with sample teaching and learning materials such as unit outlines, evidence plans, schemes of assessment, student briefs for assessment tasks and assessment rubrics. Alan Atkinson is a teacher of Geography and Society and Environment who currently works as a Curriculum Officer with the Curriculum Council of Western Australia. He is involved in the development and implementation of the new Geography Course of Study. Elaine Horne is a teacher of Biology and Science who currently works as a Curriculum Officer with the Curriculum Council of Western Australia. She is involved in the development and implementation of the new Biology Sciences Course of Study.

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Environmental Education Environmental Education in the WACE Courses of in the WACE Courses of

StudyStudyWorkshop for AAEE Workshop for AAEE National ConferenceNational Conference

October 5 2006October 5 2006����������������������

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Purpose of SessionPurpose of Session

To provide participants with an understanding of the opportunities for environmental education in the courses of study for the new WACE.

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Course of Study DesignCourse of Study Design

Assessment guidelinesAssessment guidelines••Learning, Teaching & Learning, Teaching & Assessment principles Assessment principles from Curriculum from Curriculum FrameworkFramework(page (page 9)9)

Units Units ••Concepts and skills Concepts and skills expanded at increasing expanded at increasing complexity (pages 13complexity (pages 13--24)24)••One broad focusOne broad focus••Range of specific Range of specific relevant contextsrelevant contexts

Course standardsCourse standards••Scales of achievement Scales of achievement and indicators of and indicators of achievement (pages 10achievement (pages 10--12)12)

Assessment typesAssessment types••InvestigationInvestigation••Response (practical Response (practical skills/ field studies)skills/ field studies)••Response (applying Response (applying understandings)understandings)(pages 8)(pages 8)

Essential ContentEssential Content••Elaborations of key Elaborations of key concepts and skills concepts and skills (pages 4(pages 4--7)7)••Broad range of Broad range of contexts (pages 13contexts (pages 13--14, 14, 1515--16, 1716, 17--18, 1918, 19--20, 2120, 21--22, 2322, 23--24)24)

OutcomesOutcomes•• Aspects Aspects

(pages 3(pages 3--4)4)

Learning, Teaching and Learning, Teaching and AssessmentAssessment

Scope of the Scope of the CurriculumCurriculum

OutcomesOutcomes

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B Identifying resources and planning learning experiences

Teaching and learning using outcomesTeaching and learning using outcomes

A Evaluating student needs and outcomes

D Evaluating student learning and reflecting on the processes

C Addressing student needs and outcomes

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Links between Curriculum Framework Links between Curriculum Framework and Geography Course of Studyand Geography Course of Study

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Links between Curriculum Framework Links between Curriculum Framework and Science Courses of Studyand Science Courses of Study

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Geography Course of Study OutcomesGeography Course of Study OutcomesOutcome 1: Geographical InquiryStudents investigate the interactions that occur within natural and cultural environments in order to make informed decisions and communicate findings.

Outcome 2: Features of PlacesStudents understand that features of places are shaped by natural and social systems over time.

Outcome 3: People and PlacesStudents understand that the interdependence of people and places is shaped by the ways that people interact with their environments and the degree to which they adopt sustainable practices.

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Elaboration of outcomes using aspectsElaboration of outcomes using aspectsOutcome 1: Geographical inquiry

Students investigate interactions that occur within natural and cultural environments in order to make informed decisions and communicate findings.In achieving this outcome, students:

• plan ways to gather and organise geographical information;

• conduct investigations by using geographical inquiry methods;

• process and translate information gained from geographical investigations to form conclusions; and

• evaluate, apply and communicate findings of geographical investigations to suit a purpose or an audience.

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Elaboration of outcomesElaboration of outcomes

Outcome 2: Features of Places

Students understand that features of places are shaped by natural and social systems over time.

In achieving this outcome students:

• understand that places consist of natural and cultural landscape features;

• understand that the features of places are influenced by natural processes and human activities; and

• understand that natural and social systems form patterns of features on the Earth’s surface that change over time.

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Elaboration of outcomesElaboration of outcomes

Outcome 3: People and places

Students understand that the interdependence of people and places is shaped by the ways that people interact with their environments and the degree to which they adopt sustainable practices.In achieving this outcome, students:

• understand that there is an interdependent relationship between people and places;

• understand that people view and value their environments in different ways; and

• understand that the degree to which people adopt sustainable practices and solutions influences the nature of their impact ontheir environments.

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Essential content Essential content -- Content organisersContent organisers

• Geographical thinking, skills and processes

• Place and change

• Human influence on sustainability

(Geography)

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• location and spatial distribution• spatial association• spatial interaction

• social, political and economic factors that impact on decisions about sustainability

• conflicting values in people’s use of places• care of places

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ContextsContexts

Contexts are designed to engage students’interests by:

• Making learning meaningful

• Connecting students’ values, experiences and knowledge to new and challenging experiences

Each unit has a broad focus and a number of contexts.

Using contexts is a way of grounding concepts in real life situations.

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Broad focus and contextsBroad focus and contexts

e.g. conflict; globalisation issues; energy issues; e.g. conflict; globalisation issues; energy issues; Indigenous perspectives; human rights; health; world Indigenous perspectives; human rights; health; world climate change.climate change.

Regional and Regional and global challengesglobal challenges

3BGEO3BGEO

e.g. car free cities; mega cities; urban growth; planning e.g. car free cities; mega cities; urban growth; planning rural development and land use; ideal cities; tourismrural development and land use; ideal cities; tourism

Planning our cities Planning our cities and rural areasand rural areas

3AGEO3AGEO

e.g. food and hunger (globalisation; green revolution; e.g. food and hunger (globalisation; green revolution; resource management; population and development; resource management; population and development; sustainable agriculture)sustainable agriculture)..

Sustainable Sustainable developmentdevelopment

2BGEO2BGEO

e.g. floods; drought; bush fires; storms; cyclones; e.g. floods; drought; bush fires; storms; cyclones; tornadoes; earthquakes; tsunamis; volcanic eruptions; tornadoes; earthquakes; tsunamis; volcanic eruptions; water issues; atmospheric issues; soil issueswater issues; atmospheric issues; soil issues

Hazards and Hazards and impact impact minimisationminimisation

2AGEO2AGEO

e.g. work; leisure; tourism; motor vehicle use; conflict; the e.g. work; leisure; tourism; motor vehicle use; conflict; the search for resources (exploration and settlement); search for resources (exploration and settlement); shoppingshopping

Movement of Movement of people, materials people, materials and informationand information

1BGEO1BGEO

e.g. catchments; coasts; coral reefs; arid environments; e.g. catchments; coasts; coral reefs; arid environments; world biomes; wetlands; glacial environments; national world biomes; wetlands; glacial environments; national parksparks

Environments at Environments at riskrisk

1AGEO1AGEOContextsContextsBroad FocusBroad FocusUnitUnit

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Assessment types Assessment types -- GeographyGeography

Application of skills and understandings in analysing and Application of skills and understandings in analysing and responding to a series of stimuli or prompts e.g. building responding to a series of stimuli or prompts e.g. building of models, practical skills tests, and various forms of of models, practical skills tests, and various forms of written responses to questions under different conditionswritten responses to questions under different conditions. . Outcomes: 1, 2, 3Outcomes: 1, 2, 3

Applying Applying understandingsunderstandings(Response)(Response)

Extended project in which students apply the inquiry Extended project in which students apply the inquiry process and conceptual understandings to produce a plan process and conceptual understandings to produce a plan of action in response to a purpose and/or issue e.g. of action in response to a purpose and/or issue e.g. production/design briefs, process skills, field observations, production/design briefs, process skills, field observations, formal written reports, oral reports, and presentations formal written reports, oral reports, and presentations using information communication technologies.using information communication technologies.Outcomes: 1, 2, 3Outcomes: 1, 2, 3

Practical skills Practical skills and/or field and/or field studiesstudies(Response)(Response)

Research work in which students plan and conduct an Research work in which students plan and conduct an inquiry, process and translate information, and apply and inquiry, process and translate information, and apply and communicate findings e.g. research plans, process skills, communicate findings e.g. research plans, process skills, formal written reports, oral reports, and presentations formal written reports, oral reports, and presentations using information communication technologies.using information communication technologies.Outcomes: 1, 2, 3Outcomes: 1, 2, 3

Geographical Geographical inquiryinquiry(Investigation)(Investigation)

Supporting InformationSupporting InformationAssess. TypeAssess. Type

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Biol. COSBiol. COS

Outcome 4: Outcome 4: Biology in societyBiology in society

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Page 14

YOUTH ENVIRONMENT COUNCIL OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Jo Bishop, Rachel Cain, Mark Cawdron- White, Bianca Levi, Chris Mahoney & Pippa Williams

Youth voice and engagement in decision-making and the environment has taken off

everywhere. How can it be sustained and remain credible in the face of all the competing interests of young people? This is an enormous challenge in the context of

the many and sometimes conflicting values that are presented to today’s youth.

Page 15

This workshop was developed and delivered by Rachel Cain, Mark Cawdron-

White, Bianca Levi, Pippa Williams and Chris Mahoney of the Youth

Environment Council of South Australia. In their workshop they addressed key

issues of sustainability and credibility that they consider to be critical to the

successful engagement of young people in youth councils.

The following skit depicts a dysfunctional youth council:

SKIT ONE

B: I’ve just joined this council and I’m really worried what my friends

think. They’re starting to regard me as some tree – hugging hippee!

P: …I’m worried about the big wigs who work with us thinking we’re just a

bunch of unruly child delinquents and not taking our concerns seriously.

B: Well image is everything! How people see us will influence how they

support us. If they see us negatively, this will affect our chances of success in

what we’re doing. As I like to say… its 99% image, 1% skill!

R: You’re right image is important, especially to credibility, but skills play a

huge role too! Even though I’m now a mentor, when I was a council member I

can remember feeling like I didn’t have all the skills I needed to make my

voice heard and to get my project ideas off the ground.

P: Yeah I know what you’re talking about. All the time I feel like I don’t have

the skills I need, so I have to hand it over to the adults. That means we lose

ownership and they get all the credit.

B: Well you think that’s bad, the council I was in before didn’t even give us a

choice about handing over the work if we lacked the skills. The adults just did

everything for us.

P: But I guess at least with the adults doing it we wouldn’t have to worry about

securing resources, like funding, for the future of our project.

Page 16

R: Guys I’ve been around for a while and even if the adults are taking care of

matters like funding, there’s still more to keeping a project going, for example

the commitment and enthusiasm of members…

PAUSE!

Creditability and sustainability are integral parts to youth voice and

engagement in both decision-making and the environment.

PAUSE!

This involvement must be credible and sustained at all stages and levels.

End of skit

We are the Youth Environment Council of South Australia and my name is

Mark Cawdron-White I am the president of the Youth Environment Council.

Today we have with us Chris Mahoney, Pippa Williams, Bianca Levi and

Rachel Cain. All of these people are current members of the council.

The Youth Environment Council – known as the YEC- was established in

1997, by young people. This council is a joint venture for the Minister for

Environment and Heritage and the Minister for Education and Children’s

Services in South Australia. The YEC has two main objectives one is to

provide advice to the government on environmental perspectives of young

people and the other is to help young people in being active and caring for the

environment, but before I continue I would like to introduce Chris to talk more

about the YEC.

Good morning. My name is Chris Mahoney, and I am the vice-president of the

YEC. I have been a member for 3 years now.

The YEC has been in existence for the past 9 years. The general YEC council

meets once every term to discuss important matters, review the past year and

Page 17

hold guest speakers talking about topics relevant to the chosen theme of the

meeting. An executive group of members are elected into the positions of

President, Vice-President, Editor team, Secretary team, web team and

Promotions team. These members are leaders within the council, being role

models to others. A new executive is elected once per year. We meet on

arranged days to discuss any important matters.

As with other organisations, the YEC needs to promote itself to the outside

world, for recognition. A quarterly newsletter is distributed to other

organizations and schools, as well as members. These newsletters contain

important information, news on recent events and profiles on members. It is

the responsibility of the Editor team to produce and distribute these

newsletters.

The Internet is becoming an increasingly large source of information. The

YEC utilises this by creating our own website. We post information, relevant

links and news on the website. One of the objectives of the council this year is

to complete the renovations of the website. Although its not completed, the

changes to the website are coming along well. It’s the web teams job to run

the website.

I would like to invite Mark back to talk about the Ministerial side of the YEC.

Thanks Chris, we as a council also work with the Minister for Environment and

Heritage and the Minister of Education and Children’s Services on conveying

environmental perspectives of young people and identifying the barriers we

face as young people in the environmental field. This is normally

communicated through a meeting that our president runs at parliament house

in South Australia or in the Minister’s office. These meetings are set up for the

council’s, executive, because we are so large we can’t have everyone at

these meeting so the YEC have created a group of 15 members that are the

executive. These people are voted in every year by the other council

members. Each of the executive members take on a role with in the YEC.

Page 18

These meetings allow us to have a chance to discuss the issues that concern

us, and to try and help to create solutions for the barriers we discuss with the

Ministers. I remember my first meeting with the Ministers when I was 14 and

assistant promotions manager. I was excited but yet so nervous, and when it

came round to me to talk I just wanted to become invisible. Unfortunately I

wasn’t, but all in all it was a great experience to talk to these people and get

my voice heard, and to have the chance to meet and discuss all of these

issues with people of such high stature.

Now I am going to invite Pippa and Bianca to talk about our Youth 4

Environment Action Workshops.

Hi, I’m Pippa Williams, and I’ve been involved in the YEC since late

2004.

Early in the development of the YEC, a resource was developed by

council members called the YEC Community Plan. This is a booklet aimed as

a resource for youth leaders and their mentors to help them understand how

to run a project. However, council members were worried that this plan would

not end up being used, so the Youth for Environmental Action workshops

were born.

Youth for Environmental Action workshops, or Y4EAs, are 2-day

workshops, designed and run entirely by council members for other young

people to help foster the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to plan

and implement their own environmental projects. The first Y4EA was held in

Berri in September 2001.

Last year, a new challenge arose. Most of the original creators of the

Y4EAs had moved on, and newer members were taking their place. This

meant that those who were running the workshop did not have that deep

understanding of the workshop that they were presenting. They were reading

out speeches written by people that they might not have ever met, and so

Page 19

they had no ownership and less pride in the workshops. Rachel will discuss

the issue of ownership in more detail later on in our workshop.

To combat this, at the start of the year we had a big overhaul of Y4EA,

pulling it apart and starting again from the bare bones. This increased the

YEC’s pride, and everyone was once again talking from their own

experiences. We found that one of the most effective ways of getting our

messages across was talking, showing that we had already been through all

the steps that they would need to go through, and had worked through the

difficulties that they would face.

The workshop comprises a number of separate sessions, each looking

at a different aspect of their project. We start off with the ‘Big Picture’ session,

which aims to inspire participants by showing them how their project fits into

environmental action on a global scale. We then work on general skills such

as group work, as well as very specific skills such as writing grant

applications.

The bulk of the two days is divided into two main ideas, communication

and what we like to call ‘Growing a Project’. Growing a Project is about the

planning and organising needed to ensure the continued success of a project.

We use the analogy of a tree to illustrate that each of the steps to planning a

project are inter-connected and depend on each other. The roots of the tree

are group work, the trunk is identifying the resources needed, challenges,

benefits and people affected and planning, the leaves are the final action and

continued evaluation and monitoring.

The last and possibly most important step is evolution. The idea behind

this is that a project should not just be about erecting a rainwater tank, or

planting some trees, but about making this project have a positive affect on

the wider community. This might be in educating them, or encouraging others

to start similar projects, and supporting them in this. Evolution also involves

making sure that once you had put in the effort to establish a project; it will

inevitably need ongoing commitment to ensure long-term success. In the

Page 20

workshop we discuss the idea that when you can no longer personally

continue your project, handing ownership to others is a difficult but important

part of achieving a truly sustainable project. A big focus of these workshops

has been that once you have the knowledge, it shouldn’t stop there. You then

have the power to spread the skills and experiences that you have gained

with others. We hoped that our workshops would not only benefit participants,

but a wider circle of people in their schools and communities.

Now Bianca will talk about the communication sessions.

Hi I am Bianca Levai I am a fairly new member of the YEC. I joined the

council in late 2005. This year I was happy to have the opportunity to join the

Y4EA team and help run the communications workshop at the Renmark

Y4EA.

In this workshop we talked to the students about all the different ways that we

as humans communicate. We brainstormed ideas and made a huge list. We

then talked about how appropriate these ways of communicating would be to

certain people for example, we showed them a picture of Shane Warne and

asked them what would be the best way for him to contact someone who he

would like to sponsor him. The students decided that it would be

unprofessional for him to send a text message in this situation so they came

to the conclusion that a letter or a meeting would be more appropriate in this

situation. The main point of the communications segment was to get the

students to think about all the people that they needed to contact to get their

project going and how they would contact all those people. This included

thinking about things like:

• Council approval

• Funding

• Labour

• Locations

The students had some great project ideas and were great representatives for

their schools and community.

Page 21

Here’s Rachel to talk about the Youth Action for Sustainability Workshop.

In 2000 the YEC was invited to be involved at the international Local Agenda

21 ‘Sustaining Our Communities’ Conference held in Adelaide. This gave us

an opportunity to look at what we wanted to share to encourage adults to work

more effectively with young people, and so the Youth Action for Sustainability

(YafS) Workshop, it in short, was born. In developing the Workshop, we drew

from our experiences of running Youth 4 Environmental Action Workshops,

which Pippa and Bianca talked about. This came from our experience that

there was a real need for adults to understand the importance of assisting

young people to actually own and create their projects and the importance of

mentoring to achieve this.

This then led to the creation of the Youth Action Cycle, which hopefully you all

have copies of in your folders. The cycle expresses the main strategies we

have identified as being effective ways of working with young people and it

forms the basis of our Youth Action for Sustainability Workshop. The Youth

Action Cycle breaks down the involvement of young people into four main

areas, which are interest, participation, leadership and mentoring. It is

important to note, that as a cycle it is not linear. All the sections intertwine with

each other and the cycle is continuous. Because the elements of the cycle

feed into each other, it is a self – sustaining process.

�������������� �����

Figure 1 Youth Environment Council of SA’s Youth Action Cycle

(please include with the title above)

I will now go on to briefly explain the sections of the cycle, but I want to

emphasise that there is no one way of working better with young people and

that the cycle is simply a model developed by members of the YEC.

The first section is about engaging interest. This focuses on what makes

young people passionate. Within the YEC we engage all members where their

Page 22

interests lie. Within every project we undertake, YEC members take on

different roles that spark their interest.

This leads on to participation, which involves young people making active

contributions to the group process, including being involved in decision –

making. On the YEC we aim to create an environment where everyone feels

able to participate, no matter what position they hold, so that they feel valued

and a part of our team.

Next there is leadership. This involves supporting young people to take on

leadership roles and helping them to develop the skills necessary to lead. On

the YEC our members are supported to take on leadership roles, not on the

basis of age, but on whether they are interested in becoming leaders. This

means that our Executive does not only consist of the older council members

– something that is of great benefit to the YEC.

Leadership is closely related to the key process of mentoring, which is a

crucial part of every stage of the cycle. For members of the council, the YEC

is their project. The mentors of the council, like myself, aim to provide

members with support, encouragement, advice and friendship to develop their

ability to mentor other people with their projects. This ultimately makes the

cycle sustainable, because where young people go on to become mentors

another cycle can commence.

The following skit depicts a functional youth council:

Skit Two

B: There’s so many challenges that our Council has to face, how can we even

begin to meet them?

R: Well I’ve found it seems more achievable if we split them up into bite sized

pieces, for example, lots of our challenges are to do with how people see us –

our image!

Page 23

P: For sure, we have to work hard to keep on the good sides of the other

people who use the office space where we’re based. Our noise and laughter

when we arrive in the office for a meeting are sometimes misinterpreted as us

messing around. We have to be aware of this and careful of how we behave

around others. This is often a challenge for us.

R: We often present a challenge for adults too. As they come into being

involved with the Council, sometimes adults have had to work hard to see us

as more than just young people. It challenges them to recognise us as

meaningful contributors with a real stake in the future of our planet.

C: Don’t forget that part of being stakeholders means that we have to uphold

and maintain our strong values on the Council. This is our responsibility and

will in turn ensure that people continue to take us seriously.

P: I agree, but I’ve noticed that we also worry a lot about how the Council and

its projects will continue into the future.

B: Absolutely, we have to make the way we live sustainable, but we also have

to make our Council sustainable.

C: Our Council’s done pretty well with that over the years. And some of our

projects have been around for quite a while too, like the Y4EA Workshops.

We’ve had some difficulties in sustaining things like membership and member

commitment. Although we’re still working through these, we can use the

experience we’ve gained to address the same problems in other areas of the

Council’s operations.

Introduction

Credibility and sustainability are integral parts of youth voice and engagement

in both decision making and the environment. This involvement must be

credible and sustained at all stages and levels.

Page 24

In this section Pippa will discuss the importance of Credibility and

Sustainability, we’re then going to hear from Chris and Rachel about all the

challenges associated with credibility and sustainability and Mark is going to

talk about possible solutions to these challenges. Here’s Pippa.

Importance of Credibility and Sustainability

Before we look deeper into the specific challenges associated with

credibility and possible solutions to these, I would like us to have a clear

picture of what each of the aspects mean, and why they are important to

youth voice and action.

We think that credibility is being taken seriously and being trusted by

those we work with, whether this is the people that support us or the people

who we are trying to support; in our age group or those older and younger

than us. It means that what we have to say is believable, because people

know that we know what we are talking about, and deserve their time and

attention.

Credibility is important for gaining support, respect and recognition,

because no one can do it alone. It strengthens the messages that we are

trying to portray and strengthens the work that we do. This in turn opens up

many opportunities. A prime example of this type of opportunity for our council

was being asked to run this workshop. These opportunities give great skills

and experiences to young people and lifts group morale, improving group

dynamics.

For environment groups, credibility holds major importance in keeping

young people interested, engaged and involved. If young people feel as

though they are not being taken seriously, and their input is not valued, then it

is unlikely that they will remain being involved. This means that the group

can’t be sustained into the future.

Page 25

We see a group’s sustainability as making sure that our projects and

general operations can be ongoing at a satisfactory level indefinitely. For

example, a group may work really well, but only exist for a year, or it may still

exist after that time but meet so infrequently that no real outcomes can be

achieved. Sustainability is important to keep a group running and developing,

and for being able to plan and realise long term visions and goals. It also

means that smaller, short term achievements can be monitored and looked

after so that they continue thriving into the future.

Credibility is important. It is one of the few things that we cannot buy. You

have to work hard to earn the recognition of your peers, mentors and others. It

is not easy, but it is the only way we can gain credibility.

Being a youth has many advantages and disadvantages. One of the

disadvantages is that you are often viewed by your elders as being incapable

or undeserving of receiving their respect. They have a tendency of only

seeing older, more “experienced” people of being deserving of their

recognition. A common misconception made by adults is that older people are

more qualified for the recognition of others. To make it harder, there are often

many people competing for the recognition of others. You have to be infallible.

Once credibility is gained, it needs to be maintained. Why? Because it is

easily lost. If credibility is compromised for the sake of funding or personal

gain, the credibility you worked so hard to earn is lost. And, once lost,

credibility is hard to get back. People will be more cautious about trusting you

with their respect. A second chance is hard to earn.

Credibility is often taken for granted. We become so used to having it there

we forget to maintain it. It’s easy to forget about it. We need to be constantly

maintaining our credibility.

Now Rachel will be talking about the challenges associated with sustainability.

Page 26

Challenges Associated With Sustainability

We believe an enormous challenge to the sustainability of any endeavour is

ensuring that young people are able to develop the skills they need and that

they have genuine ownership. In terms of skills it is a challenge for us, as

young people, to actually gain the skills needed to make our voices heard or

to put our project ideas into action. I can only compare this dilemma with

applying for your first job. Can you remember what it was like? Often an

application requires experience, yet the only way to gain experience is by

doing the job.

Skills link closely with ownership. This is because skills are often needed

before a young person can take on the responsibility of owning something.

Furthermore, how can ownership of any endeavour involving young people be

transferred from one generation of members to the next? This is an enormous

challenge associated with sustainability because what works for one group of

young people, what gets them fired up and committed to something isn’t

necessarily going to do it for another group.

It is crucial that current members don’t feel like they are merely reproducing or

regurgitating someone else’s work. Instead they should have the opportunity

to really examine what they feel is important. This includes having a say about

the direction of the council, how it runs and what it aims to achieve.

On the YEC our Youth 4 Environmental Action Workshops, discussed earlier

by Pippa and Bianca, have faced this challenge. They were first developed in

2001 – that’s five years ago! And hence the council members who were part

of their initial creation have largely moved on leaving a new generation of

members to continue them. This has required not only assisting these young

people to develop the skills necessary to run the Workshops, but also

ensuring that they genuinely own the Workshops too!

In response to this requirement, our processes have had to remain flexible

enough to achieve the sustainability of the council and its projects. I’ll now

Page 27

hand it over to Mark to discuss what we believe are some of the solutions to

these challenges associated with credibility and sustainability.

The solutions to credibility and sustainability

Over the past 9 years of the YEC, we have found that there are solutions to

every problem/ challenge we have faced.

Credibility is twofold as first you have to gain it, and then you need to maintain

it and try not to take it for granted. The YEC has gained its credibility through

proving ourselves. What I mean by this is that the past and present YEC

members work hard to up hold the YEC value and ethics as much as

possible. This is done by “practising what we preach”. We also believe that

mentoring plays a big part in all that we do and luckily we have some brilliant

mentors who know when to help us and when to stand back and guide us,

because the only way young people believe they have credibility is when they

have a sense of ownership. The YEC has developed a set of guideline we

believe make effective mentoring. Can I get all of you to take out of your pack

the mentor checklist. See APPENDIX 1

The mentor check list was put in place, because we were hearing from young

people that mentors, without knowing it were taking control of their projects or

mentor did not know how to help. So let have a look at a few:

• To provide logistical support, this includes funding, networking and the

administration part of the project. This was put in place because we

found that some young people were having trouble with the

administrative side of the project and needed some adult help.

Credibility is not just about values, ethics, practising what we preach and

mentoring even though these take up a big part, there is also has a degree of

image. Image is just as important as values and ethics. As Pippa said earlier,

we share an office space so how our behaviour comes across also affects our

credibility. We also have to come in to meeting with an attitude that we are a

group dedicated towards the environment. As well as behaviour we also need

Page 28

to have a look at how we present ourselves. As you can see here today we

all have our YEC tops and jumpers on, and just taking that little bit of time to

look presentable is also important to credibility.

As well as credibility, there is also the challenge of keeping the council

sustainable and going for years to come. As I said earlier the YEC has been

around for the past 9 years and we have faced many challenges with keeping

the council running, but we believe that having a strong support network and

having that sense of ownership are the key factors in keeping the YEC

members active and caring for the YEC. This council also believes in

diversifying and continuing the process of growing the council. We do this

though our programs such as the Youth 4 Environmental Action, Youth Action

for Sustainability and but quite simply nurturing the interests of young people

keeping them involves and by offering them as many opportunities as

possible we believe that credibility and sustainability are key factor to the

success of young peoples project and groups.

Credibility and sustainability are integral parts to youth voice and engagement

in both decision-making and the environment

This involvement must be credible and sustained at all stages and levels

CONCLUSION

Thanks Mark

The last part of our session is going to be a panel so we’re going to break you

into groups to think about some questions that you would like to ask us about

sustainability and credibility.

Page 29

APPENDIX 1

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Page 30

MARINE STEWARDSHIP AS EDUCATIONAL PRAXIS FOR SUSTAINABILITY: A CASE STUDY OF ‘ADOPT A BEACH’.

J.K. Davis and L.J. Stocker

Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University We analyse the role of marine stewardship as educational praxis for sustainability. Environmental stewardship is the long-term care of the environment for the benefit of present and future generations of the community of life. Stewardship provides a creative alternative to the dominant paradigm of private ownership and consumption on one hand and apathy towards public good on the other hand. Marine stewardship has become a popular practice among coast-dwelling Australians, for many of whom the beach is a defining feature in their identity. The coast forms a legal and biophysical commons so its offers a portal into an ethical framework for caring for our shared environmental heritage and legacy. As educational praxis we suggest that stewardship models environmental citizenship in terms of both responsibility for place and accountability to future generations for our current actions. We examine the scope, scale and aims of ‘Adopt a Beach’ programs in their various forms from litter removal to coordinated monitoring and management. We present two detailed case studies. During our interactive workshop we will explore ways in which we can all meet these challenges.marine stewardship as educational praxis for sustainability: a case study of ‘adopt a beach’ John Davis is a postgraduate research student and casual tutor at Murdoch University. John has worked for lengthy periods in Bangladesh and Indonesia, and continues to be active consultaning on sustainable development of poor communities in Asia and Africa. In Australia he has had experience in the landcare and coastcare programs. His current PhD research examines ideas of stewardship of the coast and how stewardship of the Western Australian coast might be strengthened.

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COASTAL STEWARDSHIPCOASTAL STEWARDSHIPasas

Educational Praxis for SustainabilityEducational Praxis for Sustainability

John Davis, Dr Laura StockerJohn Davis, Dr Laura Stocker

Institute for Sustainability and Technology PolicyInstitute for Sustainability and Technology PolicyMurdoch UniversityMurdoch University

SustainabilitySustainability

The reThe re--ordering of the relationships between ordering of the relationships between humans and the nonhumans and the non--human in ways that human in ways that make possible ecological integrity and make possible ecological integrity and human human fulfilmentfulfilment

Bell, 2003Bell, 2003

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StewardshipStewardship

Handling with Handling with integrityintegrity the the resources of anotherresources of another

Environmental StewardshipEnvironmental Stewardship

Commonly used for:Commonly used for:engagement or consultation processengagement or consultation processsystem of government oversightsystem of government oversightvoluntary initiativesvoluntary initiatives

Here as:Here as:““What people do on a dayWhat people do on a day--toto--day personal day personal

level to benefit the environmentlevel to benefit the environment”” (Coyle, (Coyle, 2005)2005)

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Environmental StewardshipEnvironmental Stewardship

Trusteeship and responsibilityTrusteeship and responsibility–– for/to whom?for/to whom?

Constrains property rightsConstrains property rightsMotivates participation in public goodMotivates participation in public good

Coasts as commonsCoasts as commons

Evidenced/reflected inEvidenced/reflected inNingalooNingaloo coast experiencecoast experienceRegional beachesRegional beachesCoastal setbacksCoastal setbacksDynamic edgeDynamic edge-- sea, land, airsea, land, air

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Adopt a beachAdopt a beach

Beach cleanup activitiesBeach cleanup activities-- USAUSALitter surveys and monitoring Litter surveys and monitoring ––UKUKCleanup, survey and monitoringCleanup, survey and monitoring-- RSARSA

Adopt a beach in WAAdopt a beach in WA

Coastcare/CoastwestCoastcare/Coastwest funded Adoptfunded Adopt--aa--Beach Manual 2000Beach Manual 2000Coastal and Marine Monitoring Manual Coastal and Marine Monitoring Manual (CALM)(CALM)City of City of MandurahMandurah-- Coast Care CommitteeCoast Care Committee–– Sun Surf and Sand book, CLOSun Surf and Sand book, CLO

School teachers with special interestSchool teachers with special interest

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AdoptAdopt--aa--beachbeach

Students use the beach as an educational resource,undertake environmental monitoring report maintenance or environmental issues to Council.

REDCLIFFE, QLD

Civic engagement/Community participation/Stewardship (behaviour change)

Community and social capital broadens and deepens

Healthier social and natural communities

Attachment toplace (attitude)

Understanding of place (knowledge, experience)

Opportunities for school/community interplay

Skills to act(knowledge, practice)

Enhanced competence and self-efficacy

(Powers, 2004)

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AdoptAdopt--aa--CoastlineCoastline

City Council staff & resourcesCity Council staff & resourcesPrimary schoolsPrimary schools8 week program: 4 site visits 90mins8 week program: 4 site visits 90mins

ObservationsObservations

Pupils showPupils showPhysical skills Physical skills aquiredaquiredPsychoPsycho--social learningsocial learningExpression of careExpression of careAttachment to placeAttachment to placeTransferabilityTransferabilityReduced vandalismReduced vandalism

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Lessons so farLessons so far

AdoptAdopt--aa--beach can be limited in scope but beach can be limited in scope but effectiveeffectiveSupport for teachersSupport for teachers-- must be more than must be more than materialmaterialLocal government roleLocal government role

Issues to exploreIssues to explore

Risk management and placeRisk management and place--based educationbased educationIncreasing studentIncreasing student--community interplaycommunity interplayLonger term monitoring?Longer term monitoring?What do teachers really need?What do teachers really need?

Send your examples to Send your examples to jkdavis@murdoch.edu.aujkdavis@murdoch.edu.au

Page 38

INVESTIGATING PEDAGOGIES THAT PROMOTE STUDENTS’ ACTION COMPETENCE IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Chris Eames1, Barry Law2 and Miles Barker1

University of Waikato1, Christchurch College of Education2

This paper presents some research outcomes from five case studies in New Zealand schools that examined teaching and learning approaches to promote students’ action competence in environmental education (EE). The project created research partnerships between experienced researchers (mentors), school advisers in EE and teachers. Previous research had indicated an under-emphasis on education for the environment in New Zealand school-based EE, suggesting a lack of student action-taking. This research focussed on the concept of action competence in EE as a means of overcoming this deficit and providing a pathway towards a student’s education for a sustainable future. The research team developed a framework on the nature of action competence, which underpinned the research. The project paired a classroom teacher with a school adviser to research the implementation of an EE unit in the teacher’s classroom. Each teacher chose their own EE unit and co-planned with their adviser the pedagogies they might use to enhance action-taking. The school adviser documented the teaching and learning during the unit and its outcomes using classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires and analysis of student work. The teachers and advisers collaborated in the analysis of their case study and a cross case analysis was undertaken together by all five teacher/researcher pairs, under the guidance of the research mentors. The research provided evidence of successful and not so successful development of aspects of action competence. Factors such as the use of appropriate pedagogy, the teacher-student relationship, the manageability of action-taking and the age of the students emerged as themes. Chris Eames is a senior lecturer in environmental education in the Centre for Science and Technology Education Research at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. He teaches graduate level papers and supervises research students in environmental education. He was part of a research team that conducted a New Zealand-wide study on environmental education in schools in 2003, and led a national project on action competence in classrooms in 2005, which is the focus of the presentation.

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Investigating pedagogies that Investigating pedagogies that promote studentspromote students’’ action competence action competence

in environmental educationin environmental education

Chris EamesChris EamesUniversity of WaikatoUniversity of Waikato

Barry Law Barry Law Christchurch College of Christchurch College of

EducationEducation

Miles BarkerMiles BarkerUniversity of WaikatoUniversity of Waikato

Outline for this presentationOutline for this presentation

�� Background to projectBackground to project�� Research questionsResearch questions�� Research processResearch process�� Action competenceAction competence�� Pedagogies and strategies for EEPedagogies and strategies for EE�� Five case studiesFive case studies�� Key outcomesKey outcomes

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Project backgroundProject background

�� EE in NZ schools evaluation project EE in NZ schools evaluation project �� One finding was a lack of education One finding was a lack of education forfor

the environmentthe environment�� National National EfSEfS school advisersschool advisers�� Teaching and Learning Research Teaching and Learning Research

InitiativeInitiative–– partnershipspartnerships

Project background (Project background (concon’’tt))

�� Action competenceAction competence�� Teaching and learning (pedagogy and Teaching and learning (pedagogy and

strategies)strategies)�� Mentored adviser/teacher partnershipsMentored adviser/teacher partnerships�� Case study research around the teaching Case study research around the teaching

and learning in an EE unitand learning in an EE unit

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The Research QuestionsThe Research Questions

�� What pedagogical approaches are successful in What pedagogical approaches are successful in promoting student action competence in promoting student action competence in environmental education?environmental education?

�� What action competence skills did students What action competence skills did students possess before the unit?possess before the unit?

�� What pedagogical approaches did teachers select What pedagogical approaches did teachers select (before and during) and why? (before and during) and why?

�� What action competence skills did students What action competence skills did students demonstrate during and after experiencing the demonstrate during and after experiencing the teaching and learning process? teaching and learning process?

������������������������

�� Literature reviewLiterature review�� Planning meeting Planning meeting �� Case study and unit plan Case study and unit plan �� EE unit delivery by teacherEE unit delivery by teacher�� Research on unit by adviser and teacherResearch on unit by adviser and teacher�� Analysis and report writing by adviser Analysis and report writing by adviser

and teacherand teacher�� Analysis meetingAnalysis meeting�� Final report writingFinal report writing

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����� ������� ������� ������� ��

�� Jensen & Jensen & SchnackSchnack (1997) The action (1997) The action competence approach in environmental competence approach in environmental education. education. Environmental Education ResearchEnvironmental Education Research, , 3(2), 1633(2), 163--179179

�� Is the ability to act Is the ability to act –– with reference to the with reference to the environmentenvironment

Components of action competenceComponents of action competence

�� Knowledge and understanding for Knowledge and understanding for decisiondecision--makingmaking

�� Planning and taking actionPlanning and taking action�� Participation and commitmentParticipation and commitment�� Attitudes and values Attitudes and values –– own and othersown and others�� Critical thinking and reflectionCritical thinking and reflection

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Pedagogies and strategies for EEPedagogies and strategies for EE

�� Experiential learningExperiential learning�� Inquiry learningInquiry learning�� Cooperative learningCooperative learning�� Critical thinking and reflective practiceCritical thinking and reflective practice�� StudentStudent--centredcentred teaching teaching �� AffectiveAffective--aware teachingaware teaching�� Transformational learningTransformational learning

�� What do these pedagogies and strategies mean What do these pedagogies and strategies mean for classroom practice?for classroom practice?

����������������������������

�� Te Te WW��haphap�� SchoolSchool�� Green SchoolGreen School�� Coast CollegeCoast College�� City SchoolCity School�� Beach Head SchoolBeach Head School

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Te Te WW��haphap�� SchoolSchool

�� Context:Context:–– Mixed gender, low achieving, 11/12 year oldsMixed gender, low achieving, 11/12 year olds–– Ethnically diverseEthnically diverse–– Healthy water topicHealthy water topic

�� Key findings:Key findings:–– Teacher choice of pedagogy to suit student Teacher choice of pedagogy to suit student

needsneeds–– Student empowerment through choiceStudent empowerment through choice–– Improved boysImproved boys’’ performanceperformance

Green SchoolGreen School

�� Context:Context:–– Mixed gender, urban, 5/6 year oldsMixed gender, urban, 5/6 year olds–– Whole school involvement in EEWhole school involvement in EE–– School courtyard topicSchool courtyard topic

�� Key findings:Key findings:–– Teacher roleTeacher role--modellingmodelling importantimportant–– Less student choiceLess student choice–– AgeAge--dependence of action competence?dependence of action competence?

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������������������������

�� Context:Context:–– Mixed gender, secondary, 13/14 year oldsMixed gender, secondary, 13/14 year olds–– Integrated English/ Social studies classIntegrated English/ Social studies class–– Clean, green NZ image topicClean, green NZ image topic

�� Key findings:Key findings:–– Experiential, inquiry and cooperative learningExperiential, inquiry and cooperative learning–– Teacher as facilitator Teacher as facilitator –– risky but successfulrisky but successful–– Empowered and engaged studentsEmpowered and engaged students–– Improved boysImproved boys’’ performanceperformance

����������������������

�� Context:Context:–– Mixed gender, mixed age, 10Mixed gender, mixed age, 10--13 year olds13 year olds–– Urban, inquiry based schoolUrban, inquiry based school–– City themes topicCity themes topic

�� Key findings:Key findings:–– Teacher as facilitator Teacher as facilitator –– support needed for support needed for

actionaction–– Actions need planning to be achievableActions need planning to be achievable–– Continuity of learning is importantContinuity of learning is important

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Beach Head SchoolBeach Head School

�� Context:Context:–– Mixed gender, mixed age, 5Mixed gender, mixed age, 5--11 year olds11 year olds–– Sole charge rural schoolSole charge rural school–– Eco Bird house topic as part of long term planEco Bird house topic as part of long term plan

�� Key findings:Key findings:–– Experiential, inquiry and studentExperiential, inquiry and student--centredcentred usedused–– Student decisionStudent decision--making improvedmaking improved–– Continuity of learning is importantContinuity of learning is important–– Improved boysImproved boys’’ performanceperformance

Key outcomesKey outcomes

�� Role of the teacherRole of the teacher–– Pedagogy decisionPedagogy decision--making processmaking process–– Pedagogies chosenPedagogies chosen–– Teacher/student relationship changesTeacher/student relationship changes

�� Student approach to learningStudent approach to learning–– Emotional engagementEmotional engagement–– ParticipationParticipation–– CollaborationCollaboration

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Key outcomes (Key outcomes (concon’’tt))

�� Manageable and achievable actionManageable and achievable action--takingtaking�� School structuresSchool structures

–– Continuity of learning Continuity of learning –– School support for EESchool support for EE

�� Gender achievementGender achievement�� AgeAge--related achievementrelated achievement�� Development of language and meaningDevelopment of language and meaning

Development of action competence?Development of action competence?

�� A key issue was how to assess action A key issue was how to assess action competencecompetence

�� In terms of our identified components, In terms of our identified components, development was seen in knowledge and development was seen in knowledge and understanding for decisionunderstanding for decision--making, making, participation, emotional involvement and critical participation, emotional involvement and critical thinking and reflectionthinking and reflection

�� Less development was seen in planning and Less development was seen in planning and taking action in most schoolstaking action in most schools

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AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements

�� Our research team:Our research team:–– Chris Eames, Barry Law, Miles Barker Chris Eames, Barry Law, Miles Barker

(research mentors)(research mentors)–– Hilary Iles, Jock McKenzie, Pam Williams, Hilary Iles, Jock McKenzie, Pam Williams,

Faye WilsonFaye Wilson--Hill, Rosemarie Patterson Hill, Rosemarie Patterson (advisers/researchers)(advisers/researchers)

–– NgaireNgaire Rolleston, Cathy Carroll, Mel Rolleston, Cathy Carroll, Mel ChaytorChaytor, , Tracey Mills, Anne Wright Tracey Mills, Anne Wright (teacher/researchers)(teacher/researchers)

–– Students and staff of NZ schools involvedStudents and staff of NZ schools involved�� Teaching and Learning Research InitiativeTeaching and Learning Research Initiative

Comments/questions?Comments/questions?

For more information on this project, visit:For more information on this project, visit:http://http://www.tlri.org.nzwww.tlri.org.nz//

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LIVING IN A POST-OIL WORLD

Molly Harriss Olson Director, Eco Futures Pty Ltd

I want to challenge you to imagine living in a post oil world. To look back over the last 4.5 billion years, and forward to the next 1000 years of planet Earth. How will you, as educators, in rapidly climate changing, globally challenged world help kids to cope? What skills will they need? I want to challenge you to step out of your comfort zone, to contemplate the evolution of the planet that brought you here and grapple with the enormous challenges we will face to get to a “post oil world”. I want to challenge you to imagine what a sustainable civilization will look like in the year Three thousand and five (3005). Humanity in all its wonderful diversity, living on an ecologically rich, climate stable, healthy, peaceful planet Earth. How did we get there? How did we overcome the cataclysmic ecological, atmospheric, economic and social problems we struggle with today? Along the way I want to explore the evolution of our brains, The state of the planet and the state of our civilization. Thinking Badly; and the consequences. Thinking Well; and the opportunities. How can you help evolve a global culture of Sustainability? Eco-Futures is an Australian-based international policy firm working on building sustainable strategies with business, government and civic leaders. Molly Harriss Olson is the Convenor of the National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development, Chair of the Editorial Board of Ecos Magazine (CSIRO Publishers) and an internationally recognised leader on

sustainability.

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Living in a Post Oil World Speech to the AAEE 2006 Annual Meeting 3-6 October 2006 presented by Molly Harriss Olson Thank you - I have been asked to challenge you today to imagine living in a post oil world, to look back over the last 4.5 billion years and forward to the next 1000 years of planet Earth. How will you, as educators, in a rapidly climate changing, globally challenged world help kids to cope? What skills will be needed? I want to suggest that integration is the key to our success. Integration of our hearts and what we know about the Earth, and our rational brains. Integration of our values and our actions; integration of government incentives and regulation; integration of business with moral values of our communities. I want to challenge you to imagine what a sustainable civilization will look like in the year three thousand and five (3005). Humanity in all its wonderful diversity, living on an ecologically rich, climate stable, healthy, peaceful planet Earth. How did we get there? How did we overcome the cataclysmic ecological, atmospheric, economic and social problems we struggle with today? Along the way I want to explore wellbeing of the planet and of our civilization and some of the principles and opportunities that might help guide us to a sustainable future. As M Scott Peck has noted:

One of the major dilemmas we face both as individuals and as a society is simplistic thinking – or the failure to think at all. It isn’t just a problem, it is the problem … Thinking well is more urgent now – perhaps more urgent than anything else – because it is the means by which we consider, decide and act upon everything in our increasingly complex world … If we are to think well, we must be on guard against simplistic thinking in our approach to analyzing crucial issues and solving the problems of life.

M. Scott Peck. 1997. The Road Less Travelled (cited in The Natural Advantage of Nations, p.7).

As Bruno Bettleheim wrote:

We are in great haste to send and receive messages from outer space. But so hectic and often so tedious are our days that many of us have nothing important to communicate to those close to us.

Never before have so many had it so good; no longer do we tremble in fear and sickness or hunger, of hidden evils in the dark or the spell of witches. The burden of killing toil has been lifted from us, and machines, not the labour of our hands…provide us with nearly all we need, and much more that we don’t really need. We have inherited freedoms man has striven after for centuries.

Because of all this and much more we should be living in a dawn of great promise. But now that we are freer to enjoy life, we are deeply frustrated in our disappointment that the freedom and comfort, sought with such deep desire, do not give meaning and purpose to our lives. With so much at hand that generations have striven for, how bewildering that the meaning of life should evade us … we are restless in the midst of plenty.

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We are frightened by social forces that seem to suffocate us, and move in on us from all parts of an ever contracting world. [We] feel it is all too complicated, too difficult to hold on to … If meaning has gone out of [our] lives, then at least we wish not to be responsible for it, let society carry the burden of the failure and guilt.

Just how to achieve self-realisation, to preserve freedom and adapt society to both, seems increasingly harder to know. To manage such a feat, heart and reason can no longer be kept in their separate places. Work and art, family and society, can no longer develop in isolation. The daring heart must invade reason with its own living warmth, even if the symmetry of reason must give way to admit love and the pulsation of life.

(Preface) The Informed Heart Environmental education plays a vital role in the world to create informed hearts. I believe that you all have a critical role in three ways: � the first is in creating perspective and hope in our kids and communities; � the second is in helping develop personal autonomy in new generations of critical

thinkers; � and finally, in promoting actions in our schools and communities that affirm

sustainable values. Perspective is something we develop as we understand our context. It is the lens through which we gain the optimistic view that success is possible, because look where we have come from and here is the vision of where we are going. This is exactly what I try to do in cultivating business leadership with the National Business Leaders’ Forum on Sustainable Development. I bring the Al Gore’s of the world to them, the real business innovators and demonstrate that there is an opportunity for business leaders who have the vision. Lewis Carol once said:

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. Well you, as environmental educators have known longer than most where we need to go, and how to get there …

Alice in Wonderland

Modern humanity’s perspective is often limited to what happened yesterday and how will I cope tomorrow. The big context of earth, looking forward and looking back - can put our struggles into perspective. I like to start with evolution. Slide: big bang 1

Evolving in our World

John Seed and Joanna Macy in their ground breaking book titled Thinking Like a Mountain (1987) created one of the earliest modern methods of changing the way we look at the world and humanity’s place in it. The workshops, begun in the 1980s, by Seed and Macy entitled “Towards a council of all beings” included a meditation of “Evolutionary Remembering”. It begins:

Let us go back, way back before the birth of our planet Earth, back to the mystery of the universe coming into being. We go back to a time of primordial silence … of emptiness … before the beginning of time…the very ground of all being …

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From this state of immense potential, an unimaginably powerful explosion takes place…energy travelling at the speed of light hurtles in all directions, creating direction, creating the universe. It is so hot in these first moments that no matter can exist, only pure energy in the form of light … thus time and space are born. All that is now, every galaxy, star and planet, every particle existing comes into being at this great fiery birthing. Every particle which makes up you and me comes into being at this instant and has been circulating through countless forms ever since. (pg 45-46)

Thinking Like a Mountain, by J Seed and Joanna Macy Slide: big bang 2 Slide: big bang 3 David Brower, the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club and founder of Friends of the Earth, put us and our history as a species into perfect perspective by compressing all geologic time from the initial formation of the earth 4.5 billion years ago right up to now, into the six days of creation. Slide: creation clock This slide illustrates the point with a 24 hour evolutionary clock. Using that compressed time scale where one day equals 750,000,000 years the earth is formed from the solar nebula Sunday at midnight, the beginning of the first day. All day Monday is spent getting organized geologically. There is no life until Tuesday noon. Amazingly, life - beginning with that first prokaryote cell in the primordial oceans, lifts itself by its own bootstraps, and survives! It proliferates, into mind-bending diversity. Millions upon millions of species come during the week - millions go. What begins as a very hostile environment is changed for the next species, gradually sweetening the earth and preparing the way for those that preceded us, and us. About midnight on Wednesday, photosynthesis gets going into high gear. Early Thursday morning in the wee hours, the eukaryote cells appear. We are eukaryotes. Life begins then to flourish and evolve into more complex forms. By Saturday morning (the sixth day - the last day of creation) there’s finally enough oxygen for the amphibians to come onto the land and there’s been enough chlorophyll manufactured for the fossil fuels to begin to form. Around four o’clock Saturday afternoon, the giant reptiles begin to appear. They hang around for quite a long time as species go, until 9:55pm, nearly six hours, pretty long for a species – ours should be so lucky. About 20 minutes after they are gone, at 10:15 pm Saturday night, the primates appear (the Grand Canyon begins to take shape 16 minutes before midnight). Australopithecus, the first species on our branch from the main primate tree, shows up at 11:53 pm, seven minutes ago. Homo sapiens arrive at 11:59:54 pm – that is us! Arriving on the scene just six seconds ago! Let the party begin! But the party becomes a binge when, just a little over one second to go, 1.2 seconds in geologic time, we (ie. our forebears) throw off the habits of hunting and gathering to become farmers and begin to change and sacrifice the environment to suit, and feed, our appetites.

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One third of a second to midnight - Buddha; a quarter of a second to midnight - Jesus of Nazareth; one fortieth of a second ago, the industrial revolution ushers in the age of technology; an eightieth of a second ago, we discover oil (the party picks up steam); one two-hundredth of a second ago, we learn how to split the atom – the party gets very dangerous indeed. And now it’s midnight, the beginning of the seventh day. The Union of Concerned Scientists, numbering some two thousand (including more than one hundred Nobel laureates), say we have ‘one to a few’ decades to reverse course. In other words, the next two-hundredth of a second will be decisive; the time since we learned to split the atom, that short span of time projected not backward, but into the future, will decide our fate. Slide: dinosaur Further perspective can be developed by understanding our context in human history as problem solvers. This is not the first time humanity has had monumental transitions to negotiate. We can solve the present environmental crisis and we have all the tools we need to do it by using the many examples that now abound. These stories are important for paving the way to a positive tipping point of living and working sustainably. This is also where stories matter and give us hope. Peter Senge tells the story of the MIT study on innovation in Hewlett Packard. He said that after significant research into the company MIT was able to identify 28 specific women who were playing a critical role in innovation in the company. When they tried to find out why these women were so significant (indeed why they were all women) they could not find any correlation with education level or position in the company or advanced training. Indeed the only thing that all 28 women had in common was that they participated in a lunch time “QUILTING GROUP” Amazing! Peter went on to say that this is not really as surprising as it might seem. There is a common belief that innovation is a data function, when in fact it is really a social function. Pers. Communication 2005 Personal autonomy, which is such a critical capacity in a complex and rapidly changing world, is much harder I think. This is because so much of the success of the Industrial Revolution and mass culture, has meant that many of these skills have atrophied.

Industrial societies had to control our time, our skills and our labour to work. The benefits have been significant. Scientific and technological progress has relieved us of having to solve so many problems of survival. We no longer have to milk cows or grow food etc.

Source Bettelheim op sited (pg 74) Yet modern horizons present so many more choices than it used to - “I’ve been shopping for 30 years and I still don’t have a thing to wear!” Just buying a new mobile phone is enough to cause a nervous breakdown. We are told:

� what we should look like (skinny)

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� what we should eat (fast food) which is causing record levels of obesity, heart disease and diabetes

� what car to drive � what fabulous shampoo will make our lovers look like movie stars …

and on it goes. The important point according to Bettleheim, is that in order to better, rather than worsen man’s lot, social, scientific or technological progress requires more elaborate consciousness and an integration of personality. (pg 78) Again to quote Bruno Bettleheim :

The challenge of repeated choices as to which of many unsuitable jobs to select, which of several imperfect party platforms to support, which of many tempting but often not essential gadgets to buy, confronts the modern citizen with his own lack of decision. Rarely do these choices satisfy his deeper needs. Therefore, the psychic energy spent in reaching a decision is wasted and the person feels drained of energy without purpose.

A person who is not well integrated, who does not follow a consistent set of values, cannot correctly test a vast number of choices against his values and interests, and then, cannot cut the problem down to a manageable size. Such a person feels overpowered by any new need for decision…. On the other hand, to know definitely that I do not want this or that, and then to select that which is best or more appropriate, is a satisfying experience, leaving us with a feeling of accomplishment and wellbeing. (pg 80-81)

When such a state of personal disintegration characterizes the majority [as it does today] there are no further brakes on rapid social change; the faster changes come, the harder it gets to achieve the new integration needed to keep up.

(pg 78) Slide: Easter Island

Many of you know the cautionary tale about Easter Island from Professor Jared Diamond and his Pulitzer Prize winning book: Collapse – How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. Diamond rightly thinks that one of the reasons that the collapse of Easter Island so grabs people is that it looks like a metaphor for us today.

Easter Island, isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with nobody to turn to for help, nowhere to flee once Easter Island itself collapsed. In the same way today, one can look at Planet Earth in the middle of the galaxy and if we too get into trouble, there’s no way that we can flee, and no people to whom we can turn for help out there in the galaxy.

At the completion of his book Diamond wondered what the Islander who chopped down the last tree said as he did it. Did he say, ‘do we care more for trees than for our jobs?’ Or maybe he said, ‘what about my private property rights? Get big government off my back’ or even ‘You’re predicting environmental disaster but your environmental models are untested, we need more research before we can take action’. Or perhaps ‘Don’t worry, technology will solve all our problems’.

Change is difficult. Integration itself is a slow process. By the laws of psychic economy as Bruno Bettleheim has also noted:

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Once a type of behaviour is habitual [like over- killing seabirds and cutting down trees on Easter Island for example] new types of behaviour are built up only after a person is sure they are vastly superior to the old ones, or is it his only way of handling a new change. It takes time to achieve this feeling, and more time and effort to develop and perfect new types of behaviour. It takes still more time and hard work to make them a genuine part of personality. Only then are we ready to meet change autonomously.

Source (pg 82)

The less a man is able to solve inner conflicts, or those between his desires and what the environment demands, the more he relies on society for the answers to any new challenge it may offer.

And it makes little difference whether he gets his answers from the editorial writer, the advertisements or the psychiatrist. The more we accept “their” answers as our own, the less we can meet the next challenge independently and the more solutions must come from outside.

Source (pg 83)

Bruno believes that:

This might, in part, explain the anxiety and resentment many feel about nuclear power. Such a tremendous advance in science and technology should have given everyone a feeling of greater security and strength. It actually has increased our feeling of being helplessly at the mercy of powers beyond our comprehension, or at least beyond our control.

Such an advance should have given society immense satisfaction, but what it created was a vast new anxiety. With society wielding more power than ever, [with wars in our name that we don’t want, individuals must increasingly rely for our very survival on the wisdom of the “managers of society”

Source (pg 88)

It is certainly true to say that business has to date been a major part of the problem of unsustainability. As Noel Purcell of Westpac noted at the 2006 National Business Leaders’ Forum on Sustainable Development when he found this tongue and cheek explanation of the Enron story on the internet.

You have two cows.

You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank.

You then execute a debt-equity swap with an associated public offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax credit for five cows.

The milk rights for six cows are then transferred through an intermediary to a Cayman Island company, secretly owned by the majority share holder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.

The annual report then declares that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more, which of course triggers the multi-million dollar executive performance bonuses.

Noel Purcell also noted in his presentation that:

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Adam Smith, the father of capitalism questioned in 1776, whether it was possible to maximise profit and at the same time serve the public interest by contributing to human, social and environmental capital? In the Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759, Smith had underpinned his capitalism with the virtues of justice, fairness and honesty … virtues that many in the business world have apparently missed until recently.

Source NBLFSD 2006 website EcoFutures.com/business leaders

But Noel points out that the way forward involves corporations accepting accountability for the externalities of their business activities.

Some business leaders are already guided by a moral compass. According to Paul H Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson:

We’re going through a process of changing our minds at every single level. Today we regard as totally unacceptable many assumptions that were part of how your middle class moral person would have thought in the 1950’s. Then, violence and discrimination against Native Americans, African Americans, Asians and Hispanics were acceptable as … bad ethnic jokes were the norm … Today they are seen as widely unacceptable. So in a span of 40 to 50 years we have reinterpreted the world in fundamental ways …

Source: Cultural Creatives, by Ray and Anderson

So we need to reinterpret the world and redefine moral behaviour in business and in society to encompass sustainability.

Slide: brain

Robert Ornstein and Paul Ehrlich in their book New World New Mind look at the evolution of the brain and the fact that we humans evolved over the millennia with a relatively stable environment and survival requiring short-term reactions to immediate threats.

Human inventiveness has created problems because human judgement and humanity’s ability to deal with the consequences of its creations lags behind its ability to create.

Source New World New Mind, by Ehrlich and Ornstein (pg 9)

The failure of civilisation to comprehend long-term threats such as climate change or nuclear waste disposal or the very real possibility that we could make this planet uninhabitable is information that, for most of humanity is not even on the radar screen. Ehrlich and Ornstein point out that some scientists recognised our evolutionary mismatch decades ago.

In 1946 Albert Einstein sent a telegram to President Roosevelt saying “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe”.

Today, they point out that there are enough nuclear arsenals in the US and Russia alone to explode Hiroshima sized bombs every hour for more that 78 years! Yet the human thinking on the threat of these arsenals remains largely unchanged since 1945.

The fact that our perspectives, (or the lens of personal experience through which we see the world), are subject to change is of vital importance in overcoming the many impediments to humanity’s survival.

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Why do many of us get stuck in a worldview or paradigm that is a hindrance to our survival? How do we evolve perspective or preference? How do our brains measure change? In a rapidly changing world, our baseline or “understand a scope” is vital for signaling danger.

Slide: Leunig Understand a scope

According to ecologist Randy Olson of USC:

If we know the baseline for a degraded ecosystem, we can work to restore it. But if the baseline shifted before we really had a chance to chart it, which is true of most of the planet, then we can end up accepting a degraded state as normal -- or even as an improvement.

The number of salmon in the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River today is twice what it was in the 1930s. That sounds great -- if the 1930s are your baseline. But salmon in the Columbia River in the 1930s were only 10% of what they were in the 1800s. The 1930s numbers reflect a baseline that had already shifted.”

Source (Modified slightly from Olson, R. 2002 LA Times Shifting Baselines)

Among us environmentalists, a baseline is an important reference point for measuring the health of ecosystems. It provides information against which to evaluate change. It's how things used to be. In an ideal world, the baseline for any given habitat would be what was there before humans had much impact.

This is what most environmental groups are now struggling with. They are trying to decide: What do we want nature to look like in the future? And more important: What did nature look like in the past?

Without the basic ecological science, it's easy for each new generation to accept baselines that have shifted and make peace with empty kelp beds and dying coral reefs. Which is why it's so important to document how things are -- and how they used to be. He points out the same shifting is happening with our waistlines, as the normal baseline shifts to reflect the dramatic rise in obesity related health issues.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/la-op-olson17nov17,0,1681610.story November 17, 2002 ENVIRONMENT

Thinking well

Sustainability is an important framework for reinterpreting the world and the way we think. Never in humanity’s history has the need for a vision and set of principles to engage and change society at all levels been greater than right now. The Ten Commandments is a great example of a set of principles that are thousands of years old, and yet are still very meaningful to millions of people today.

The Quakers were really the first to begin a social change movement as we know it today according to Paul H Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson Cultural Creatives A Million People Are Changing the World. It was the early anti-slavery movement, the feminist rights movement and the Mennonites which were all significant issues that were re-framed by Quaker principles or testimonies as they call them - truth and integrity, equality and community, simplicity and peace.

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It was the Quaker notion of “bearing witness” that began the fundamental purpose of Greenpeace and forms a foundation to the important work that they continue today. There have been a few other visionary thinkers that have informed the thinking of the environmental movement. Who has not heard the quote by Chief Seattle in 1854, as the US Government was about to force his people to sell their land.

This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls Earth, befalls the sons of the Earth. Man does not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

Source: Chief Seattle’s speech, delivered in his native Duwamish to his tribal assembly in the Pacific Northwest 1854.

We are only just beginning to understand the profound truth in this statement which brings me to my third point, which is that action to be effective must be based on key principles. Action I know you have all been working out principles over these past few days. And I look forward to seeing soon the action plan you are developing.

So these three things:

� creating perspective and hope in our kids and communities;

� helping develop personal autonomy in new generations of critical thinkers; � and finally, in promoting actions in our schools and communities that affirm

sustainable values based on key principles.

This is what is necessary on every level of society and in every corner of the planet if we are going to become a sustainable civilisation and not just a blip on the evolutionary radar screen like the Easter Islanders.

According to Edward De Bono: Creativity (in terms of new ideas and new perceptions) is not a mystical gift but a learnable skill. The formal and deliberate processes of lateral thinking are all based on a consideration of the behaviour of information in a self-organising system, such as the nerve networks of the human brain …

Source: ???

3005

It is 3005 and we are all living on a peaceful, ecologically stable and biologically diverse earth. How did we do it? Perspective, personal autonomy, action based on principles and a convergence of social responsibility integrating the values and success of business with the wellbeing of people. We all saw Al Gore’s movie, and finally the truth of our predicament just could not be obfuscated any longer.

Bill and Melinda Gates, Jeffrey Sacks and Bono helped turn solving the poverty gap around by putting both vast resources and moral leadership forward and the problem was history in no time. This was not hard as it only required 0.1% of global GDP which was sitting idle in Bill’s foundation anyway.

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Many business leaders like Richard Branson jumped into help on such issues like climate change and biodiversity. I think we are going to see more and more of this kind of generosity because it really reflects what Bruno was saying about that fact that once our basic needs are met, less and less satisfaction is gained from more. But just imagine the heroic satisfaction of shifting huge problems like poverty!

Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank and the whole concept of micro-credit took off world wide and created real development throughout the underdeveloped world.

Yunus, who turned a $40 dollar personal loan to 42 poverty-stricken people in 1976 into a bank-based group with cumulative loans in 2005 of more than $4.5billion, lending $750 million a year, with 2.4 million borrowers and a growing business empire spanning telecommunications, textiles, cybernet services and agriculture…

source (Panorama Magazine)

Set the example and with his leadership, for which he was given the 2007 Nobel Prize, and with his success, commercial banks realised that moral capitalism was more profitable and that they could create real development faster and more profitably than their wildest dreams. So once poor nations were making rapid progress. The concept of economic “growth” was slowly and quietly replaced throughout the highest levels of business and society with the concept of sustainable development as defined by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 1991.

The real aim of development is to improve the quality of life. It is a process that enables human beings to realise their potential, build self confidence and lead lives of dignity and fulfilment. Economic growth is an important component of development, but it can not be a goal in itself…Although people differ in goals that they would set for development, some are virtually universal. These include a long and healthy life, education, access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living, political freedom, guaranteed human rights, and freedom from violence. Development is real only if it makes our lives better in these respects.

Source: IUCN 1991

The wellbeing manifesto, first published in the UK and later by the Australia Institute, became a huge movement with vast numbers of Australians choosing to live by these principles. Eventually, with Australia and Canada’s influence, even the USA got the vision.

Fairshare International, the group which is advocating all of us who can afford it to donate 1% of our incomes to the community groups of our choice, became commonplace, with 70 % of Australians participating.

Al Gore’s film An Inconvient Truth created a tidal wave of action to reverse climate change throughout the world.

Teachers throughout Australia who had been leading this charge for Sustainability were ever vigilant at supporting autonomous well integrated young adults who were not only up to the challenges but saw the vast opportunities in creating a new sustainable civilisation.

The good news is that we really are approaching a positive tipping point on understanding and enabling action on sustainability.

Slide: Social Diffusion

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Conclusion

The challenge of sustainability is the challenge of thinking well. We can create a sustainable world, even though our brains, perhaps, were not initially designed to confront that dilemma. But like walking on the moon, to do it, we first have to imagine that it is possible. Then we have to build the perspective and momentum and get people excited about making it happen. We have to cultivate new generations of autonomous creative thinkers and robust societies. We have to keep perfecting the principles and marshal the resources for action in every corner of civilization. We are capable of making the radical paradigm shift before the consequences of not acting create too much chaos to succeed. We have to keep telling the stories of An Inconvenient Truth, the Grameen Bank, Hewlett Packard and Bill Gates. We have to create more stories and keep telling them until even the most hardened sceptic sees that thinking and acting sustainability matters - to our survival, to our kids’ survival and to much of life on earth. The earth itself can evolve without us, and will again if we fail to think and then act sustainably. But I am more optimistic everyday that we can do this! So much is happening in so many quiet corners of the world. Like Poland before communism fell…I believe there is a quiet revolution, and a convergence afoot, and you are all lighting the path. But for us to succeed, we must as Bruno Bettleheim said:

No longer… be satisfied with life where the heart has its reasons, which reason cannot know. Our hearts must know the world of reason, and reason must be guided by an informed heart.

Slide: Donella Meadows

It seems to me a powerful message, worth repeating and repeating, that people want peace, simplicity, beauty, nature, respect, the ability to contribute and create. These things are much cheaper and easier to achieve than war, luxury, ugliness, waste, hate, oppression, and manipulation.

Some day, when everyone understands that nearly all of us truly want the same kind of world, it will take surprisingly little time or effort to have it.

Source Pers communication

Thank you.

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WATERKEEPERS AUSTRALIA – FOR FORMAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE FIGHTS

Greg Hunt

National Manager, Waterkeepers Australia Environmental activism requires us to take a stand, to get involved in alternative ways of living. This means that we will find ourselves in opposition – opposing vested interests, arguing for different ways of doing things and overcoming inertia and apathy. Waterkeepers Australia is an environment NGO established to support community groups that are involved in care and protection of waterways, freshwater and marine. Our waterkeeper members are often at the pointy end of environmental fights, as management agencies and extractors and users carry out activities that communities don’t want. Who is on the side of the environment in water allocations? How can we take up the good fight in a way that gives us the best chance of success and that will allow us afterwards to work with those with whom we have been fighting? After all, we all want to live in a healthy environment with healthy waterways. Waterkeepers Australia has a successful model for community activism for waterway protection. In this session, the Waterkeepers Australia model will be presented and its operations illustrated with case studies. How can you apply this model in your own community for your own waterway? Greg Hunt studied Biology at La Trobe University, taught Science and Environment for 15 years, before working for the Victorian Association for Environmental Education. He went to work in policy in environmental ed in Victoria’s Department of Education. He spent 6 years at Melbourne Zoo, first as Assistant Principal, then as Principal and was Manager of Education at Melbourne Museum for five years. Nearly three years ago, he joined Waterkeepers Australia, an organisation that gives nationwide support to community groups working to save their local waterways.

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Waterkeepers Australia – for formal and constructive fights Greg Hunt National Manager Waterkeepers Australia

Abstract Environmental activism requires us to take a stand, to get involved in alternative ways of living. This means that we will find ourselves in opposition – opposing vested interests, arguing for different ways of doing things and overcoming inertia and apathy. Nowhere is this currently of more importance than in the management of our water resources; our waterways, how we regard the water, that flows or not as the case may be, within them and the uses to which we put that water.

Introduction Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the planet and access to quality water is a critical foundation of our society, environment and economy.

Committee for the Economic Development of Australia Report - Water and the Australian Economy, March 2004 (1)

The health and future of Australia depends in very large part on the health of our waterways, and water is a precious and scarce resource in Australia. The availability of water and the quality of our waterways (rivers, bays, creeks and lakes) has a fundamental impact on the quality of life for Australian communities, now and in the future. The financial viability of our agriculture, fisheries and ecotourism industries, for example, depend upon water in sufficient quantity and quality. We need people everywhere to protect our water and waterways and be involved in planning for future water use. Waterkeepers Australia came into being to help communities protect their waterways and to promote debate about future water use. With the present great pressure on our country’s finite water resources, it seems to me to be evident that it is absolutely essential that the people of our local communities be actively and successfully involved in the safeguarding and restoration of Australia’s waterways. That requires knowledge and skill and a preparedness to engage in debate at personal, local or national levels. It also requires education, encouragement and support of the community members and groups who are prepared to take the lead and show the way by persuasion and example. It is Waterkeepers Australia's objective to help provide that education, encouragement and support.

Sir William Deane, AC KBE, Honorary Patron, Waterkeepers Australia (2) Waterkeepers Australia Waterkeepers Australia is an independent not-for-profit national network of local community-based Waterkeepers. It grew out of a need for an authoritative community voice to speak on behalf of local water bodies – rivers, creeks, lakes and bays. Waterkeepers Australia was initiated by The Myer Foundation, Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Victoria and is modelled on the Waterkeeper Alliance, a well-respected US organisation whose patron and senior attorney is Bobby Kennedy Jnr. The Waterkeeper Alliance comprises more than 165 Waterkeeper programs located throughout North America, in Latin America, Europe, India and now in Australia. The Waterkeeper movement, which began in l983, is one of the fastest growing grass-roots environmental movements in the world.

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Waterkeepers are the ‘front people’ for community groups across Australia who care for and protect their local waterways. What they do and how they work will reflect the needs of the waterway and the nature of the community group. The common thread is that, for our community-group members and the waterway on which they are active, there is a keeper, a person who serves as the public advocate for that body of water. Our waterkeeper members are often at the pointy end of environmental fights, as management agencies and extractors and users carry out activities that communities don’t want. Who is on the side of the environment in water allocations? How can we take up the good fight in a way that gives us the best chance of success and that will allow us afterwards to work with those with whom we have been fighting? After all, we all want to live in a healthy environment with healthy waterways. What does a Waterkeeper do? Waterkeepers can be, at different times and to a greater or lesser extent, an investigator, a scientist, a mediator, a lobbyist and a public relations agent. Think of a Waterkeeper's clients as all the users of the catchment for which the Waterkeeper advocates. A successful advocate has a diverse bag of tools, the knowledge and skills, that allows her or him as the Waterkeeper to get the job done. Waterkeepers are very active in their patch, running a community education program here, a revegetation activity there. They might advise on some recent research that they have seen, provide data to help resolve an argument, they might even call in support from the Environment Defender’s Office. Each waterway has its own unique set of challenges requiring its own unique strategy. Waterkeepers need community clout! A Waterkeeper must have an organisation behind him or her. Whether it is intended to structure a Waterkeeper program under the umbrella of an existing organisation or start a new organisation, there must be, behind the Waterkeeper, an incorporated not-for-profit non-government organisation. They need to be incorporated for the structures and processes that come with incorporation; they work within a constitution with agreed aims and objectives, they keep minutes of meetings to which members have access, they provide annual financial returns, they can apply for funding in their own right, etc. If they are not-for-profit, members can be motivated by the public and environmental benefit rather than private benefit and if they are non-government, they can be free to argue for the best result for the environment rather than fall in behind a particular political decision or feel that they have to go along with a management agency. (3) Who can be a waterkeeper? The Board of Directors of Waterkeepers Australia approves new Waterkeeper members. Community groups complete an Application for Membership which contains their responses to Waterkeepers Australia’s Quality Standards. This should show the compatibility with Waterkeeper purposes and goals, the likelihood of building a sustainable organisation and an overall evaluation that a program is beneficial for the place in which it is proposed. This is the first step of the risk assessment process whereby Waterkeepers Australia works with autonomous community groups on their own waterways on issues which they have determined important to them. When a group has applied to join, Waterkeepers Australia conducts its own due diligence – we work the networks, call on local knowledge, check the track-record with those who know. All waterkeepers gather in a national training and development conference each year – to share strategies and successes, to update knowledge and skills and to build and maintain the strong and resilient peer-to-peer network that is so important to enduring environmental activism. When a group join and becomes a waterkeeper, the benefits of being part of a serious, well-structured national network, that is itself part of a highly successful international network, can start to accrue.

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The Waterkeeper Family of Names The Waterkeeper program names, such as Riverkeeper, Lakekeeper, Baykeeper, Coastkeeper “Creekkeeper” and others, are synonymous with effective waterway care and protection. Waterkeepers Australia protects these names under trademark law. By protecting the names we can prevent their misuse so that anytime you see a Waterkeeper name, you will know that the user is part of Waterkeepers Australia, works within rigorous Quality Standards and has formal and constructive ways of working. Active networks Membership and active participation in Waterkeepers Australia are requirements of becoming, and remaining, a Waterkeeper. Waterkeepers Australia approves new Waterkeeper programs, licenses use of the Waterkeeper names, represents the individual Waterkeepers on issues of national interest, and serves as a meeting place for all the Waterkeepers to exchange information, strategy and know-how. When you take on one waterkeeper, you take on all waterkeepers. Services for Waterkeepers (4) We need our member groups to be well-organised, so we help with:

• Becoming incorporated • Applying for tax exemption • Arranging appropriate insurance • Conducting fund-raising, including submission-writing • Running successful meetings • Finding and managing volunteers • Recruiting the best committee members

We need our members to have the best available knowledge, so that their arguments can withstand the strongest scrutiny? Do they need assistance with:

• Determining the health of a river, lake or bay? • Environmental audits • Finding scientific and economic information • Research from expert organisations • Defining the issues, threats and the strategies. • Understanding water planning and environmental processes and laws • Community legal advice

Our members will be most effective when they are highly-skilled in advocacy. Can we help with training and development for:

• Analysing issues • Dealing with the media • Telling a story • Networking • Developing education programs • Resolving conflicts, negotiation and mediation

Member groups also receive their own URL to dedicated space on which they upload their own materials on the Waterkeepers Australia website (check www.waterkeepers.org.au/yarra or www.waterkeepers.org.au/snowy),

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Case studies - some fights Snowy Estuarykeeper The protection of the estuarine environment of the Snowy River is the focus of activities being conducted by Waterkeepers Australia member, the Snowy Estuarykeeper. SANTOS Australia currently manages a gas processing plant on the environmentally sensitive floodplain of the Snowy Estuary. The plant processes relatively clean natural gas from a small Bass Strait gas field. They separate the gas from the water, add an odorant, increase the pressure, and feed it into the nearby Melbourne-Sydney gas distribution network. The owners of the plant have a permit to double the size of the plant to process from a gas field that is contaminated with hydrogen sulphide. This must be removed before the gas enters the distribution network. This will necessitate a more complex treatment plant, with on-site storage of large amounts of sodium hydroxide. What was already an inappropriate site for a gas plant would become a totally unacceptable site under these circumstances. The consequences for the estuarine environment of plant failure are extremely concerning to the Snowy Estuarykeeper. Snowy River Gas Plant, with the Snowy flood plains and the coastal village of Marlo in the background Santos wished to allay community concerns with the development of a Flood Management Plan, to show that the estuarine environment would be protected even in 1:100 flood events. The Snowy Estuarykeeper sought expert advice on this – the health of the water-dependent ecosystem on which the village of Marlo and the tourism industry relies is not be trifled with. We found an academic with expertise in flood plain hydrology to prepared an expert analysis for the Snowy Estuarykeeper on issues of concern to raise with Santos. The local community wants Santos to expand their operations, but to do it away from the water, they need the jobs that come with the gas plant, but they also need the public benefit outcomes that result from the protection of their estuary. “ Further argument with Santos, bolstered by the best available knowledge of flood-plain hydrology, is vital “ according to Snowy Estuarykeeper, Rob Caune. “ Local

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communities need access to expert knowledge to participate in the decision making that affects their waterways”. Chicken Broiler Sheds and the Lang Lang Riverkeeper Dairy-farmers whose families had farmed the low-lying country around Westernport Bay for over 100 years were alarmed to hear of yet another group of chicken broiler sheds to be built just 60m from the Lang Lang River. The site was subject to a local government planning overlay as Land Subject to Inundation and locals had ample photographic evidence of the extent to which the site is flooded in times of high-rainfall in the catchments.

A chicken broiler shed – many inputs, many outputs The farmers conducted dairy farming businesses and had also been working hard to ensure the health of their local environment, and the revegetation that was occurring along the river had helped bring waterbirds, and even platypus, back. The run-off from these sheds would risk all of this, and their farm produce could also suffer contamination. Further, this was all planned in a Ramsar protected site for migratory birds, and the area is a biosphere reserve within the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere program. All of this notwithstanding, the developers went ahead with a proposal for six broiler sheds, each with 40,000 birds. Chicken broiler developments in Victoria are governed within the Victorian Code for Broiler Farms, September 2001. This contains the following advice: Broiler sheds and associated earthworks must not be located in areas designated as subject to inundation under any planning (sic) scheme, and must not adversely affect flood plain capacity or natural drainage lines. Best Practice Guidelines E1 G1, p 29 The local Council, which has planning responsibilities, simply refused, despite these guidelines, to make a decision on whether or not to grant a permit for the development to proceed. Consequently, the developer went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for a permit to proceed. The desk audit conducted by the relevant referral authority, Melbourne Water, was inadequate and neither would the EPA intervene. The farmer’s federation, which seemed to back the industrial food producers over their farmer members, were also unhelpful so the farmers formed the Gipps West Environ Landcare Inc., left the farmer’s federation and under the leadership of the Lang Lang Riverkeeper, joined Waterkeepers Australia.

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Together we set about a crash-course in chicken broiler operations, inputs, outputs, economics, what nutrient run-off can do to sensitive species and getting up to speed quickly on planning law. Lawyers from the Environment Defenders Office joined the fray with advice and representation before VCAT to fight the proposal. A veterinarian with many years of experience in the chicken broiler industry around Chesapeake Bay in the US was found who was prepared to give expert evidence before VCAT. The development was denied a permit to proceed. Waterkeepers Australia is strongly involved in activities designed to improve the involvement of the community sector in the forthcoming revision of the Chicken Broiler Industry Code of Practice. A discussion paper, developed as a result of forum hosted by Waterkeepers Australia and attended by communities involved in opposition to inappropriately-sited broiler sheds and by lawyers from the Environment Defenders Office is now in circulation among interested parties. Some of our community members have been called in to attend a briefing regarding the scope for the review of the Code so that the inadequacies can be removed and we won’t have to have these fights again. This is the strength of the waterkeeper model. To be well-structured and formally-organised, to be well-informed with the best available knowledge and research and to have all the skills of advocacy available is to have the best chance of winning the environmental fight. Of course we’d rather that we have the environment we want without a fight, and a fight is not an end in itself, but if we have to have a fight, let’s fight it properly and give ourselves the best chance of victory! References 1 Committee for the Economic Development of Australia Report - Water and the Australian

Economy, CEDA, March 2004

2 Unpublished speech, Sir William Deane speaking at the launch of Waterkeepers Australia , 24 November 2004

3 www.waterkeeper.org.au/news entry dated 12-5-2004 Members of Waterkeepers Australia must have community clout

4 Waterkeepers Australia helps communities look after their waterways (attached)

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Waterkeepers Australia helps communities look after their waterways Waterkeepers Australia helps community groups across Australia care for their local creeks, rivers, lakes and bays. Waterkeepers Australia connects communities around the country so they can share their skills and knowledge and take action to protect their local waterways. Waterkeepers Australia brings people together from the community, science and the law who share the view that future Australians have a right to inherit healthy creeks, rivers, lakes and bays. Waterkeepers Australia can provide a range of support services and programs, particularly in the following three areas: 1 Getting the infrastructure right

• Becoming incorporated • Applying for tax exemption • Arranging appropriate insurance • Conducting fund-raising, including submission-writing • Running successful meetings • Finding and managing volunteers • Board recruitment

2 What knowledge is needed for successful advocacy?

• What is a healthy river, lake or bay? • Environmental audits • Finding scientific and economic information • Research from expert organisations • Defining the issues, threats and the strategies. • Understanding water planning and environmental processes and laws • Community legal advice

3 Building skills for effective action

• Analysing issues • Dealing with the media • Telling a story • Networking • Developing education programs • Resolving conflicts, negotiation and mediation

Member groups also receive their own URL to dedicated space on which they upload their own materials on the Waterkeepers Australia website, and take part in the training and development programs that we conduct. Please call the national office 03 9347 3810 or 0427 194 927 for

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further information - or email on greghunt@waterkeepers.org.au The website www.waterkeepers.org.au has further information.

CONFIDENTIAL COMMENTS TO EDITOR (if any):

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SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES IN A MAJOR STATE GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT

Terry Kearney, Assistant Director General, Strategy and Performance, Department of

Education and the Arts, P O Box 15033, City East, Brisbane QLD 4002. Ph (07) 3237 0986 terry.kearney@qed.qld.gov.au

Cam Mackenzie, Principal Advisor, Environmental Sustainability, Education Queensland,

P O Box 15033, City East, Brisbane QLD 4002. ph (07) 3237 0405 cam.mackenzie@qed.qld.gov.au

Imagine ….. a corporation that has 1,350 public contact points; 50,000 employees; 493,000 customers; 1,000,000 shareholders; turnover of $5.2 B per year, one could ask the question “Can a corporation like this focus on being sustainable?” This is corporation is Education Queensland (EQ). EQ has a very long history of significant achievements in environmental education for sustainability in both the curriculum area; through the production of the P -12 Environmental Education Curriculum Guide for Schools, the implementation of quality curriculum and through the support services of a comprehensive network of 25 Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres across the very diverse and decentralised state of Queensland. However we cannot rest on our laurels. With sustainability being a significant global, national and state issue, the Queensland Government, through the Smart State Strategies has a whole of government priority for ‘Protecting the environment for a sustainable future’. EQ has taken this as a challenge and is currently addressing the sustainability issue as a system wide priority. The following projects are currently being addressed to assist in the progressing the EQ towards a more sustainable future.

• Ministerial Advisory Committee on Educational Renewal (MACER) working group on Education for Sustainability

• Collaborative ESD (Environmentally Sustainable Development) Research and Implementation Team (CERIT)

• Queensland Environmentally Sustainable Schools Initiative (QESSI) • Representative roll on the international Environment and Schools Initiative (ENSI) • Bunya to Bay Student participation program that is a regionally significant student

participation program focused on the middle phase of learning. All these initiatives are centred on the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development as tangible examples of outcomes focussed processes on the pathway towards a more suitable future that will benefit student, schools and the broader community. Terry Kearney, Assistant Director General, Strategy and Performance, Department of Education and the Arts, P O Box 15033, City East, Brisbane QLD 4002. Ph (07) 3237 0986 terry.kearney@qed.qld.gov.au Cam Mackenzie has been teaching environmental education for over 25 years both in the formal and non-formal sector. From1982 to 1987 Cam was the President of the Townsville Town Common Natural History Association, in 1987 he was elected President of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Qld - Townsville Branch. From 1988-2002 Cam was a member of the State Council of the Wildlife Preservation Society - Qld. In 1992 he was elected the inaugural President, Queensland Gould League for Environmental Education and in 1995-97 was elected National Director, Australian Council of Gould Leagues. From 1998 to 1999 Cam was the Vice President, of the Queensland State Wide Network of Environmental Education Centres. From 2000 to 2002 he was the National Treasurer - Australian Association for Environmental Education. From 2001 to 2004 he was the Chairperson of the Mountains to Mangroves Corridor Committee. and is currently the president of the North West Brisbane Branch of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland.

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Sustainability Initiatives in Education Queensland Abstract Imagine ….. a corporation that has 1,350 public contact points; 50,000 employees; 493,000 customers; 1,000,000 shareholders; turnover of $5.2 billion per year, one could ask the question “Can a corporation like this focus on being sustainable?” This corporation is Education Queensland (EQ). EQ has a very long history of significant achievements in environmental education for sustainability in both the curriculum area; through the production of the P -12 Environmental Education Curriculum Guide for Schools, the implementation of quality curriculum and through the support services of a comprehensive network of 25 Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres across the very diverse and decentralised state of Queensland. However we cannot rest on our laurels. With sustainability being a significant global, national and state issue, the Queensland Government, through the Smart State Strategies has a whole of government priority for ‘Protecting the environment for a sustainable future’. EQ has taken this as a challenge and is currently addressing the sustainability issue as a system wide priority. The following projects are currently being addressed to assist in progressing EQ towards a more sustainable future.

• Significant EEfS Stakeholders and the EEfS Agenda since 1986 • National Curriculum Development • Queensland Government priorities • Education Queensland Policy and Curriculum • National Environmental Education Network (NEEN) • Queensland Environmentally Sustainable Schools Initiative (QESSI) • Representative roll on the international Environment and Schools Initiative (ENSI) • Education Queensland’s Charter for Sustainability (draft 2002) • Collaborative ESD (Environmentally Sustainable Development) Research and

Implementation Team (CERIT) • Coordination of the international Earth Dialogues Student Forum • Bunya to Bay Eco Adventure that is a regionally significant student participation

program focused on the middle phase of learning. • Ministerial Advisory Committee on Educational Renewal (MACER) working group

on Education for Sustainability All these initiatives are centred on the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development 2005 -2014 as tangible examples of outcomes focussed processes on the pathway towards a more suitable future that will benefit student, schools and the broader community.

Background This paper outlines briefly the historical development of Environmental Sustainability (ES) within EQ, through strategic asset management and curriculum initiatives. Environmental Education for Sustainability (EEfS) within Education Queensland was initially established through the Agricultural Project Club Branch in the early 1970s which had two main focus areas; a) Agricultural Project Clubs (produced a Newsletter called KEEN – Kids Environmental Education Newsletter b) Establishment of the network of Environmental Education Centres across Queensland. At the same time the Physical Education Branch was also instrumental in the establishment of the network of outdoor education centres. Now they

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function as an alliance of Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres (O&EEC - www.education.qld.gov.au/schools/environment/outdoor )

Significant EEfS agenda since 1986

Since 1986, world organisations such as World Conservation Union (IUCN – www.iucn.org), United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO - www.unesco.org), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP - www.unep.org) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD/CERI - www.oecd.org) have been strongly influenced in their EE actions by the outcomes of Chapter 36 (Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training) of Agenda 21, which focuses on reorienting education towards sustainable development1. Agenda 21 along with other environmentally related global agreements has clearly influenced policy decisions on environment and environmental education for sustainability through national, state to local levels. An analysis of EQ’s EEfS activities since 1986 shows this influence (e.g. issues relating to sustainability, greenhouse, climate change, biodiversity, waste management, marine environment.) The 10-year review of progress since Rio in 1992 was held in Johannesburg in August/September 2002 (UN’s World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)). The launch of the United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014 has also given EQ a focus for all its initiatives in EEfS.

National Curriculum Development Although SOSE was identified as the ‘Home’ KLA, EEfS was seen as essentially across all KLAs with particular influence in Science, Technology, Arts and HPE.

EQ supports the National Environmental Education Statement for Australian Schools – Educating for a Sustainable Future

Queensland Government priorities The Queensland government through the Smart State Initiatives has a whole of government priority that focuses on ‘protecting the environment for a sustainable future’ which is part of the Smart State Initiative.

Education Queensland Policy and Curriculum Environmental Education for Sustainability in EQ State Schools is guided by two documents; Policy statement 20: Environmental Education in Queensland State Schools (1988) and the P – 12 Environmental Education Curriculum Guide (1993)

Both documents define EEfS as integrated across-curricular and focussing on incorporating the principles sustainability within the learning and teaching programs (curriculum) and learning and teaching environment (operations) of schools.

1 Agenda 21 was adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992. Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment.

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Significant elements of EEfS are found in the (QSA - www.qsa.qld.edu.au/) Science and SOSE syllabuses and support documents, as well as the New Basics Project.

Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres (O&EECs) play the lead role in implementing EEfS policy and in role modelling EE policy (regarding learning and teaching programs and learning and teaching environments) for schools. The O&EEC Principals’ Alliance (OEECPA) was established as an advocate for EEfS through their centre programs. The expertise level from the 73 principals and teachers in O&EECs enables them to respond to trends as well as develop innovative EEfS approaches. There is currently a research project that is investigating the delivery of the O&EEC programs and their contribution to learning for sustainability. The project brief and updates are available at this website. http://www.talm.uq.edu.au/learning-for-sustainability/ Central Office of EQ has appointed a principal advisor for environmental sustainability to coordinate all the actions in the area of environmental sustainability across the whole department.

National Environmental Education Network (NEEN) NEEN (www.deh.gov.au/education/nap/neen/index.html) is a key initiative of Environmental Education for a Sustainable Future a National Action Plan for EE in Australia (www.deh.gov.au/education/). Cam Mackenzie is the representation for EQ.

The network comprises representatives from Commonwealth, State and Territory environment and education agencies. The most important initiative of NEEN so far is the establishment of the Sustainable Schools program, which is being trailed in NSW (www.curriculumsupport.nsw.edu.au/enviroed/index.cfm?u=2&i=13) and Victorian (www.gould.edu.au ) schools. (see section below on Queensland Environmentally Sustainable Schools Initiative) Queensland Environmentally Sustainable Schools Initiative (QESSI) www.education.qld.gov.au/schools/environment/outdoor/qessi.html The defining feature of the QESSI concept is the integration of existing and fragmented approaches to sustainability education into a holistic program with measurable environmental, social, financial and curriculum outcomes. QESSI aims to implement improvements in a school’s management of resources generically grouped around energy, waste, water and biodiversity and integrates this approach into the existing curriculum and daily running of the school. The incorporation and involvement of the school’s local community is a critical element of the program. Through QESSI, the broader school and local community are involved in action based learning for sustainability, while teachers have much needed access to professional development in education for sustainability. QESSI does not seek to replace other environmental education initiatives in schools; rather it provides a structure in which existing Commonwealth and State/Territory approaches such as Energy Smart Schools, WasteWise, Waterwatch, Waterwise, Landcare and other activities related to sustainability may be more effectively utilised. QESSI aims to achieve measurable sustainability outcomes in the social, economic, environmental and educational dimensions.

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Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI) Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI - www.ensi.org ) is a decentralised international governmental network that focuses on education for sustainability in schools. Since its inception in 1986, ENSI has brought together school initiatives, educators and other stakeholders in countries primarily across the OECD area (Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America) to promote and understand activities promoting sustainable development in schools and their communities.

ENSI project that Australia has been significantly involved in over the past few years include, Learnscapes and Quality Criteria for Eco Schools.

The Australian representatives for the Environment and Schools Initiative project are Mr Cam Mackenzie, (schools representative) from the EQ and Associate Professor Danellia Tilbury, Macquarie University dtilbury@gse.mq.edu.au (pedagogy and research).

Education Queensland’s Charter for Sustainability (draft 2002) On the evidence of this study, the task of defining a sustainable approach for Education Queensland (EQ) requires a cultural shift for the department including recognition that a ‘whole of business’ view is required. This Strategic Plan should be seen as the first step in the journey to sustainability and has been used to:

� Identify the key issues

� Explore the options

� Suggest initial courses of action

Sustainability is a term that has myriad connotations. Simply understanding that it refers to a ‘way of doing business’ across ‘all of the business’ is a necessary first step. Given the understanding that has developed in the conduct of this study it is highly probable, and recommended that further investigation and consideration needs to be undertaken. There is a need to develop benchmarks that will measure the effectiveness of the proposed systemic approach. Given that this approach needs to be across the whole of business, rather than simply focusing on traditional educational outcomes the first requirement is a comprehension of the scale and scope of a sustainable approach. Clearly, the objective should be to implement a whole of business approach that is sustainable and will deliver both effectiveness (appropriate service) and efficiency (costs improvement) over time, together with strong integration to social (education) and environmental factors. Put simply, a sustainable business approach will involve EQ embracing many of the issues and processes that are currently considered fringe to the core activity. It is not disputed that quality educational outcomes are the key objectives for the department however; this narrow focus has and will continue to deliver unsustainable, ineffective and inefficient outcomes, which detract from the key objective – delivering quality education. Further, the notion of sustainability inherently suggests a longer-term view than is traditional, complimenting and adding to the QSE - 2010 strategy to provide a whole of business view.

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In a very conservative estimate, EQ spends between 8-10% of the state’s budget, excluding wages. This not only sees EQ well placed as a lead agency within the State of Queensland but it could be argued, with an obligation to adopt the sustainability concepts. The opportunity this offers to EQ is a timely, planned and accountable approach to:

� Encourage effective budget development, appropriate monitoring and review systems, and critical reporting requirements;

� Deliver best practice resource management services across the ‘whole of business’;

� Contribute to and integrate with EQ’s corporate direction and organisational strategies;

� Encourage a partnership approach to further the effective operation of the Department.

� Significantly, contribute to shaping the culture and operation of EQ through ownership, commitment, vision, direction, support and leadership.

It is strongly contended that sustainability is a worldwide evolution rather than a global trend. EQ is well placed to lead developments in this area. Once it was recognised that the higher level issues were the enablers to developing a sustainable approach, Seven Key Challenges were identified.

• Education Queensland’s Charter for Sustainability • Building Schools • Asset Management • Utility Management • Managing Contracts • Partnerships for Success • The Educational Component

Collaborative Ecological Sustainable Development (ESD) Research and Implementation Team (CERIT) CERIT was established to identify potential strategic and operational ecologically sustainable development (ESD) issues. These issues may positively or adversely affect the economics, and physical environment in which the Departmental assets exist, and the ability to provide and maintain assets which support the delivery of State education in Queensland. CERIT’s strategic direction has been informed from the research documentation through the draft EQ Charter for Sustainability (see overview below)

The purpose of these Terms of Reference is to outline the framework that will be used to:

� Comply with key ESD principles and objectives, including the enhancement of environmental, social, cultural and economic outcomes for the educational community

� Identify relevant ESD issues which will either positively or adversely affect the physical assets of Education Queensland (EQ) including Central Office, District, housing and school facilities;

� Identify and analyse a range of ESD strategies suitable to address the key principles above, including (but not restricted to) improved site planning and conservation, more sustainable construction, efficient energy and water use and the establishment of high quality indoor environments.

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� Specify a process for identifying, registering, analysing, prioritising and treating ESD elements within and surrounding Departmental assets including governing policies, procedures and processes.

The product outputs to date from CERIT include:

• Water Efficiency intranet website for EQ Schools • ESD Guidelines for School Grounds – technical requirements • ESD Landscaping Management booklet for School grounds – planning process for

school communities • Draft ESD Requirements for School Facilities – technical requirements • Draft ESD School Facility Improvement management booklet – planning process for

school communities.

Earth Dialogues Brisbane 2006 http://education.qld.gov.au/earthdialogues/ The 2006 Brisbane Earth Dialogues was hosted through the Brisbane Festival and there was a special focus on the involvement of youth across Queensland. The education program called Investigator Challenge HQ included the following elements;

• On-line learning course for teachers and students – over 8,000 registrations • Earth Dialogues Champions who were available to blog with students • Youth Ambassador speaking competition. The winner spoke on stag with the

Queensland premier and Mikhail Gorbachev • Regional Workshops – 80 schools in 10 regions and over 1,000 students participated • 40 Regional delegates attended the weekend session of the Earth Dialogues • Queensland Student Blueprint for environmental sustainability was develop by

Queensland Youth and presented to the Premier and Mikhail Gorbachev • 500 students from across Queensland participated in the Education Day with key note

speakers, student workshops and open questions to the Minister for Education. Significant outcomes that were announced on the education day were the establishment of a Youth Environment Council and the integration of the Earth Charter into the Queensland curriculum. Bunya to Bay Eco Adventure http://www.riverfestival.com.au/bunya-to-the-bay/ Bunya to the Bay Eco Adventure was a partnership project between Riverfestival and 11 of the 25 Education Queensland’s Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres. 26 school students from 13 state and non-state schools are following the Brisbane River for 300 kms over 15 days from its source in the3 Bunya Mountains to its mouth at Moreton Bay. They were asked the critical question, “What is the future of our water resource?” Bunya to the Bay aimed to bring together education, science and the arts through adventure and environmental and cultural awareness. Students participated as scientists, artist, historians, photographers and journalists as they document their river as it is today and consider its possible futures. Accompanying them at various stages will be a broad range of industry mentors. The Eco-Adventures were featured for 10 minutes on channel nine broadcast just before the Riverfire event. There was an on-line learning course that enabled over 4,000 students from

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schools across Queensland to participate virtually with the eco-adventures as well as engage with education resources about catchment issues. At the end of their journey the students were inducted as the inaugural River Ambassadors and they will be presenting a report to the Queensland parliament on there response to the question; “What is the future of our Brisbane River?” Ministerial Advisory Committee on Educational Renewal (MACER) Report on Educating for Sustainable Futures –Schooling for the Smart State. The MACER working group on Education for Sustainability delivered a paper to the Minister for education and the Arts that investigated the contemporary approaches to EEfS. The working group investigated the key education for sustainability issues and challenges for the education sector. They also scanned how these issues are being addressed on other education systems, both nationally and internationally and the risks of not taking action. Recommendations have been develop that highlight the ways in which these issues and challenges could be taken up within the Department of Education, Training and the Arts. At the time of written this paper, the MACER Report and recommendations has not be made public.

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ENVIRONMENTAL FUTURE (WISDOMS FOR OUR FUTURES)

Professor Sohail Inayatullah Political Scientist And Professor

Tamkang University, Taipei (Graduate Institute Of Futures Studies) www.metafuture.org

Inayatullah will present basic concepts and questions in futures thinking, including the following: Have you purchased a used future? Which is your disowned future? What are the alternative futures? How can we link the external dimension of the future to the inner maps we use to give the future meaning? He will also present methods (the futures triangle, scenarios and critically unpacking the future so as to create alternatives). These will be used to develop next steps for environmental education. Dr Sohail Inayatullah, a political scientist, is Professor at the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies, Tamkang University, Taipei; Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore; and Research Associate, Center for Social Change Research, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. In 1999, he held the UNESCO Chair at the Centre for European Studies, University of Trier, Germany. Inayatullah is co-editor of the Journal of Futures Studies and associate editor of New Renaissance. He has written more than 300 journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries and popular magazine essays, and his work has appeared in over 40 different journals. His articles have been translated into a variety of languages, including Catalan, Spanish, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Italian, Russian, and Mandarin. Inayatullah has also written and co-edited fifteen books. His books since 1997 include: Macrohistory and Macrohistorians; Futures Studies (CD-ROM); Situating Sarkar; Transcending Boundaries; The University in Transformation; The Views of Futurists (CD-ROM); Transforming Communication; Understanding Sarkar; Youth Futures; Islam, Postmodernism and Other Futures, The Causal Layered Analysis Reader, and Questioning the future. Forthcoming in 2006 is Neohumanist educational futures: liberating the pedagogical intellect.

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A POST HOWARD-COSTELLO1 SCENARIO Australia 2026 Sohail Inayatullah, Professor, Graduate Institute of Futures Studies, Tamkang University; adjunct Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast. www.metafuture.org Drawing inspiration from the recent Australian educators for environmental education2 conference, this essay paints a different possible scenario for the future of Australia. It has been almost twelve years since the Howard-Costello run was dramatically defeated. Australians, while enjoying economic rise, tired of the resultant social and environmental divide that had set in. The Liberal party had been great at economic growth within the industrial compliance paradigm but the digital era demanded far more flexibility and creativity than growing up in the 1950s could give leaders. Since the new leadership – a coalition of new labour, Green and recently created political parties – there have been dramatic changes. Some have been visible changes, one can see while walking around in cities, others have been systemic changes, but the major shift has been one of worldview – from the politics of fear and exclusion to the ethics of inclusion and a version of sustainability. As well, the story Australians told about themselves had changed – it was not about "children overboard" or "interest rate hikes" but about the confident but ethical aussie, certainly punching above one's weight but not boasting about it, indeed, working with other cultures to meet the global challenges. Of course, the obvious happened. Australia signed Kyoto, the Prime Minister apologized to Indigenous communities, A republic was created. And: the Australian president was aboriginal, providing as with Nelson Mandela in South Africa, moral leadership and direction. The rise of cultural creatives - a mere 5% of the population a generation ago but now almost 30% has been the driver of change. Their values of ecology, spirituality, gender partnership, future generations orientation and globalism (freedom of movement of culture, ideas, labour and capital but protection of local communities) have had dramatic impacts throughout the world. They were central in the dramatic rise of a culture of engaged caring.3 But there were many other changes. The first time home buyers grant was increased, however, part of receiving the funds was a stipulation that the house purchased used green technologies – rain water tanks, solar energy, to begin with.4 This was not so

1 I am thankful for comments and additions by. Sue Lennox <slennox@ozgreen.org.au> of Oz Green Australia and many others. 2 3-6 October 2006, Bunbury, Australia. http://www.promaco.com.au/conference/2006/a2e2/index.htm 3 http://www.wellbeingmanifesto.net/ was instrumental in this change 4 I am thankful for Greg Hunt of Waterkeepers Australia for this idea. www.waterkeepers.org.au

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difficult as state level building associations throughout Australia had already agreed to lift their standards ensuring that all houses were designed with cradle to grave principals. Universities received dramatic improvements in their budgets. However, they were not exempt from structural change – they too had to dismantle the worst of the industrial era ie steep hierarchy with the professor above, lecturer below and way below staff and students. Universities were regeared to meet the challenges of aging, sustainability, and the dramatic revolution in nano-genetic-and digital technologies. Internationally, the image of the arrogant Aussie, the deputy Sheriff had disappeared. Australia was now regarded as a unique mix of British, Asian, indigenous and Asian cultures – multiculturalism has become stronger but it too has been challenged. Culture is not used as an excuse for gender or nature discrimination. Australian's many cultural traditions are fine with this as they have been given their dignity – with strength negotiation is possible. Muslim communities have continued to play a vital role, as with all migrant communities, but as Australian has become more gentle, so have they – the syngerstic Sufi dimension taking its rightful place among the many other strands of Islam. But while grand debates of culture continue to take place throughout the world, the small things are what really matters. For example, day care centres are fully funded – indeed, salaries of day care workers have jumped up. Schools too have changed – they are fully digital, far more flexible toward the unique talents of individual learners – the one fits all model has been thrown out. Children co-mange schools, design curriculum with adults – peer to peer mediation is used to resolve conflicts. Education truly is for sustainability. Latest research from Brain science – the many ways we learn – and from meditation (enhancing our capacity to learn and think) have been integrated into schools. Cities too have changed – from being faceless suburbs, they healthy cities movement has ensured that community-work hubs, walk and bike ways have become the norm. There are real travel choices – cars, light rail, bus, bikes. Buses as well are far less public – they smell better, come on time and are linked to other transport modes. The demand for local food production has seen the return of the backyard veggie patch and urban community gardens. Around the gardens people have rebuilt their local neighborhood, with a resultant dramatic decline in urban crime. Better travel choices has dramatically helped reduce the obesity crisis, as has a change in diet. The rise of the vegetarian movement: savings on water, savings on energy, savings on health and longer life has played an important part in reshaping Australian values and behavior as well. As with tobacco consumption, meat consumption continues to decline. Organic food production continues to soar in Australia. The health sector has been reconfigured to be multi-door – doctors works with other allied health professionals to not just treat patients but advise them and to empower them. "Take charge of your health, or she won't be right" is the catch cry. With australians living longer – active aging, grey power have been important movements in ensuring that the latter years of life are happy and productive ones.

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Australia did not become the nuclear super power as Howard had hoped, instead massive funding for green energy has made Australia a hotbed of creativity – every Asian city is learning from Australia's systemic changes and their green technologies. As with the Kennedy's image of a "man on the moon", the new leadership imagination of clean, green, transcultural communities has sparked a wave of innovative technologies. Businesses are doing well, especially those that are triple bottom lined based. As well, along with businesses, cooperatives have boomed as legal changes have allowed them to grow and become a dominant feature of the organizational landscape.5 The Howard-Costello years, while somewhat of a dark era socially, are seen as what can happen when leadership pretends to have no ideology, when it does; leads from fear instead of possibility; and, focuses on the short term instead of the long term. Of course, many remember that era with fondness – there was less ambiguity, less debate – but generally Howard was seen as a great manager but not as a leader who enabled citizens to be better than themselves. There are endless problems today as well – sealevel rise is still likely to change the coastal areas, challenges of peacekeeping throughout the world, new health crisis as individuals adapt to a postindustrial world and new infectious diseases are rampant because of global warming … but humility and dignity have ensured that innovation and creativity are here to stay. But perhaps not! It is now 2026 and Prime Minister Howard remains on top. He has managed to coopt new ideas while not watering down his core conservative ideology. His exercise regime, anti-aging genetic breakthroughs and new brain drugs help him keep up abreast of all issues. Costello is still waiting for him to resign and the rest of us are wondering how things could have been so so different. Which future do you wish for?

5 Colin Russo adds these words: The other Costello, Tim has announced today that the forecast temperature rise of .5 to 2 degrees is becoming a reality and will create more refugees than Australians are able to comprehend and accept at this time. The rise in Malaria and other diseases is the real threat. As Australia is the world's highest producer of waste per person (we each produce 8 times more than for each Chinese person) Australians are morally in debt to the situation. Australia would have to embrace more than one million new refugees from its regional neighborhood if the trend continues. On another angle, new thermal energy sources were identified and geo-sequestration pollution measures helped to quell the nation's pollution problems. Innovative water solutions include Tasmania's new billion dollar a year water shipping industry. Water which previously flowed into the ocean is now being sold by the shipping container load to Victorians. "Colin Russo" <communityconsultant@hotmail.com>

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GREENS PATHWAYS TO A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FUTURE

Hon Paul Llewellyn, MLC The Greens have a vision of a sustainable energy future for Western Australia. Inspired by this vision, the office of Southwest Greens MLC Paul Llewellyn has breathed life into the concept and developed groundbreaking renewable energy target legislation. The legislation sets out to achieve 20% Renewable energy generation by 2020, improving electricity service delivery, bringing the State’s electrical system into the 21st century and boosting clean safe economic development. Paul Llewellyn will outline his Private Members Bill, The Electricity Industry (Western Australian Renewable Energy Targets) Amendment Bill 2005, known as WARET 20/20. WARET 20/20 is an easily regulated mechanism designed to increase the uptake of renewable energy by requiring electricity retailers on the South West Interconnected System to source 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. It is an important practical step towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our electrical systems by increasing the use of clean, safe, reliable and secure power generation technologies, including wind, solar and biomass. WARET 20/20 can be implemented now using current technology and will spearhead the development of a vibrant renewable energy sector. It leads the way in planning and design for renewable energy development and provides a model that can be replicated elsewhere. The Bill was introduced to Parliament’s Upper House at the end of last year with strong support from the renewable energy industry. WARET 20/20 is about building relationships with the community of decision-makers and power-brokers and the debate is just beginning. Hon Paul Llewellyn, MLC - For over 25 years Paul has been well known in the region for bringing a fresh energy to key issues such as native forest conservation, plantation industry development, and sensible regional planning. Paul has been a wind energy consultant, wood worker, builder, solar designer and environmental planning and management consultant. He brings his extensive experience in regional planning, environmental science and economics to the role of Greens Member of Parliament. Paul’s strategic focus is on achievable outcomes that deliver practical improvement in people’s lives through ecologically and economically sustainable development. Paul leads by pro-active example claiming we can invent our own future.

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Page 84

The Importance of Permaculture in a Post-Oil Future

Dr Ross Mars Modern agriculture has been described as the use of land to convert petroleum into food. We use oil and petrol or diesel to operate almost every type of farm machinery. Without petroleum the world as we know it would irreversibly change. During the last few years geologists and other scientists have conceded that the world’s supply of crude oil is on the decline. The USA reached its peak production and extraction in the early 1970’s and the rest of the world is experiencing its ‘peak oil’ production about now – certainly within the next five years. Australia reached peak oil in 2000. This means that our oil and gas supplies are fast dwindling, and within our lifetime, the age of fossil fuels will be over. We live in an age where climate change, enhanced greenhouse and large-scale earth changes all threaten our existence. While all of these changes are serious threats, global energy peak will surpass all others as the driving force towards true sustainability. Permaculture is the design and development of sustainable agricultural systems. Permaculturalists have long advocated for the increase use of renewable energy sources and an increase in food production at a local level. While some would argue that permaculture has only made an impact at a grass roots level, its importance in the years that follow our current energy decline cannot be under-estimated. The survival of many humans will depend on the availability and production of food, and developing and using other sources of energy. In fact, Permaculture may well be a mechanism for the transition to a modified society, a society which relies more on individuals obtaining their own supply of food and resources. Permaculture has much to offer. Using particular design principles and unique ideology, permaculture will enable people to grow organic food without the use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers, build and live in energy-efficient homes, use appropriate technology and energy systems, and develop ways to reduce and recycle waste. While sustainable production of food and other resources remains the prime objective of permaculture strategies, permaculture has also been effective at pioneering what has come to be called "sustainable consumption". History will reveal our response to the environmental issues which confront us today, and our foresight to seek better solutions for food and energy security, for it was Aldous Huxley who said “facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored”. History will also attest that Permaculture ethics, principles and practices are extremely relevant as we descend into a low-energy future.

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The Importance of Permaculture in a Post-Oil Future Dr Ross Mars

Abstract Modern agriculture has been described as using land to convert petroleum into food. We use oil and petrol or diesel to operate almost every type of farm machinery. Without petroleum the world as we know it would irreversibly change.

During the last few years geologists and other scientists have conceded that the world’s supply of crude oil is on the decline. The USA reached its peak production and extraction in the early 1970’s and the rest of the world is experiencing its ‘peak oil’ production about now – certainly within the next five years. Australia reached peak oil in 2000. This means that our oil and gas supplies are fast dwindling, and within our lifetime, the age of fossil fuels will be over.

We live in an age where climate change, enhanced greenhouse and large-scale earth changes all threaten our existence. While all of these changes are serious threats, global energy peak will surpass all others as the driving force towards true sustainability.

Permaculture is the design and development of sustainable agricultural systems. Permaculturalists have long advocated for the increase use of renewable energy sources and an increase in food production at a local level. While some would argue that permaculture has only made an impact at a grass roots level, its importance in the years that follow our current energy decline cannot be under-estimated. The survival of many humans will depend on the availability and production of food, and developing and using other sources of energy. In fact, Permaculture may well be a mechanism for the transition to a modified society, a society which relies more on individuals obtaining their own supply of food and resources.

Permaculture has much to offer. Using particular design principles and unique ideology, permaculture will enable people to grow organic food without the use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers, build and live in energy-efficient homes, use appropriate technology and energy systems, and develop ways to reduce and recycle waste. While sustainable production of food and other resources remains the prime objective of permaculture strategies, permaculture has also been effective at pioneering what has come to be called "sustainable consumption".

History will reveal our response to the environmental issues which confront us today and our foresight to seek better solutions for food and energy security, for it was Aldous Huxley who said “facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored”. History will also attest that Permaculture ethics, principles and practices are extremely relevant as we descend into a low-energy future.

What do we mean by ‘peak oil’, and a ‘post-oil future’? Oil, like other fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, was largely formed in the Earth's geological past, meaning that it is a finite resource subject to depletion. The production and subsequent use of oil started in the 1860’s, and the use of oil and its many products has dramatically changed society over the last 200 years. Our modern times are known as the age of oil.

The Hubbert peak theory, also known as peak oil, is a theory concerning the long-term rate of fossil fuel extraction and depletion. It predicts that future world oil production will soon reach a peak, if it hasn’t done so already, and then rapidly decline.

So, peak oil refers to the notion that at some point in the near future we will reach a peak in the rate at which we can pump oil out of the ground. Regardless of the size of the world’s remaining oil reserves, limits exist to the speed with which we can actually extract the liquid from the rock. Once we hit that peak, daily production rates will decline gradually over time.

When oil and gas production peaks, total global energy availability will start its terminal decline and so will the global economy. Dr Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, an Iranian oil consultant, recently said “We are consuming, world-wide, 30 billion barrels of oil every year. It is an enormous amount. But what is the industry finding? It is finding something between four and six only”. (Note: One barrel contains 42 gallons or 159 L of oil.)

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As oil and gas slowly run out, all the things which depend on fossil fuels will suffer. We will inherit a post-oil future, a future not solely dependent of fossil fuels as our main energy source.

What is Permaculture?

Out of desperation for healthy food and a deep commitment for the earth arose permaculture. It comes from the words ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’ or simply ‘culture’.

Permaculture deals with our existence on this planet and it encompasses many different aspects of this. Firstly, permaculture is about producing edible landscapes, mirroring the natural ecosystems in their diversity and production. Permaculture is primarily a design system. Permaculture designs endeavour to integrate all components of the ecosystem in a holistic approach to sustainable living and practice. Many people think of food gardens and self-sufficiency when they think about permaculture, but permaculture is really about sustainable living. What you learn in the garden is closely linked with natural cycles, and it also provides the opportunity to take responsibility for growing your own healthy food. Furthermore, we mustn’t forget that many plants in our permaculture systems may not be directly useful to us, but may be essential in the life cycle of insects, birds and other animals.

Many people associate permaculture with gardening, and organic growing. And while this is true to some extent, permaculture is much more. Gardening, however, is one simple way in which people can take some responsibility for their own existence and begin to care for the Earth. Helping yourself and others to build gardens in your own backyard, in an effort to drastically reduce the need to buy produce from someone else, is one of the most environmentally-responsible things you can do to help reduce our consumption of resources and to heal the planet. Permaculture is also different from both organic gardening and forest gardening in that both of these are techniques of garden construction and composition. Permaculture is more than this. It is a design strategy. Permaculture is the harmonious integration of design with ecology. We design for long-term sustainability, and this is why a design is a harmonious integration of landscape, plants, animals and humans, as well as the placement of components or elements in recognisable patterns.

Permaculture concepts provide the framework to design systems. This framework permits many different forms of knowledge to be interwoven - all relative to one another. It is not a set of techniques per se, but rather how a number of techniques are employed to build a system in which energy is harvested, directed and allowed to flow, bearing in mind that it is always cheaper to conserve energy than to produce it.

Although permaculture is a conceptual framework for sustainable development that has its roots in ecological science and systems thinking, its grassroots spread within many different cultures and contexts show its potential to contribute to the evolution of a popular culture of sustainability, through adoption of very practical and empowering solutions.

What seems to be the problem? The historical global peak in production of high quality fossil fuels due this decade will cause shock waves through the world economy and re-shape politics and societies. Our policy-makers seem very ill-prepared and the consequences are enormous. The environmental, economic, social and political consequences will be severe. While these changes will be seen as a threat, global energy peak has the potential to quickly eclipse climate change as the driving force behind the sustainability imperative. What is of concern is the apathy of politicians and government to publicly recognise that society will eventually collapse. The media are conspicuously absent in their discussion.

Both current and predicted future demand for oil far outweighs any foreseeable production. Production at the moment is declining about 3% each year, and it is predicted that by about 2010 we will have a negative supply. As oil declines it becomes increasingly harder and expensive to extract.

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As production goes down, costs go up. In 1999, oil was $10 a barrel, in 2000 this rose to $25, by 2004 it was $45 and in 2006 about $75.

Oil is vital to our transportation, agricultural, and industrial energy needs. The days of cheap oil are numbered. Energy scarcity will bring major global recession, food shortages, fighting over resources, and (literally) millions of human deaths. For example, Australia's crude oil production is in a long-term declining trend. While we seem to have good reserves of natural gas and coal, we only produce 60 to 65 per cent of the oil we consume - it used to be 80 to 90 per cent. We also have to import the heavier crudes from the Middle East and Asia which enable us to make lubricating oils and bitumen. Australia’s own crude is ‘light’ and is mainly used for petrol and other fuels. Furthermore, the continuing decline in domestic production comes as increasing global demand and geopolitical tensions push up energy prices. Australia will run out of oil first, then gas and finally coal. We have only 0.3% of the world’s oil reserves.

Currently, fossil fuels provide more than 90% of the world’s energy. Oil has the highest energy concentration and is the most valuable in transport (95% of all transportation fuel). About 10 calories of fossil fuels are used for every calorie of food produced – about one-third each for production, processing, and distribution and cooking. As Albert Bartlett said "Modern Agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food." In essence, the end of cheap energy = the end of cheap food.

Fossil fuels have essentially replaced all animal and human work endeavour. What has made oil so attractive to us is the very high energy return compared to the small energy invested. Other fuels usually have a lower energy return compared to that invested (a lower energy/profit ratio). So, we are almost totally dependent on oil. It could be argued that we don’t have an energy problem, but a liquid fuels problem. And some people hold the view that why bother cutting back on oil when we know full well that we intend to use very last drop? It all comes back to the issue of sustainability.

Globally, the size of the human footprint is a very serious problem. Only humans produce waste, only humans can alter their environment to any great extent, and only humans cause detrimental effects to our soil, water and air. For example, we don’t seem to be doing much about global warming. We’re not even worrying enough about it. For each of us, the main issue is the coupling of real climate change with a decline in cheap energy, and our dependence on oil highlights our vulnerability.

In the same breath, it is irresponsible to talk about sustainability if we do nothing about population growth and our current consumption of energy and resources. Every hour the world population increases by 10,000 people, and this unabated population growth is essentially the primary cause of all environmental problems we have today.

It was Martin Luther King who said ‘what is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the problem, but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and the education of the billions who are its victims”.

How can permaculture help? While reference to a toolkit of strategies, techniques and examples is the way most people will relate to and make use of permaculture, these are generally specific to the type of systems involved, the cultural and ecological context, and the range of skills and experience of those involved. Permaculture principles can provide guidance in choosing and developing useful solutions, as well as recognising traditional sources of wisdom and common sense.

Permaculture design principles can never be a substitute for first-hand, practical experience and technical knowledge. However, they may provide a framework for continuous generation and evaluation of the site and situation-specific solutions necessary to move beyond the concept of sustainable development to a reunion of culture and nature.

Historically, permaculture has applied ethical and design principles while focusing on land and nature stewardship. Those principles are now being applied to other domains dealing with physical and energetic resources, as well as human organisation and structures.

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While sustainable "production" (of food and other resources) remains the prime objective of permaculture strategies, it can be argued that permaculture has been more effective at pioneering what has come to be called "sustainable consumption". Rather than weak strategies to encourage green consumer purchasing, permaculture addresses the issues by integrating the production/consumption cycle around active individuals within a household and a local community.

Permaculture draws together the diverse ideas, skills and ways of living which need to be rediscovered and developed in order to empower us to provide for our needs, while increasing the natural capital for future generations.

I don’t believe permaculture should be seen as a way in which people can become self-sufficient. The emphasis should be on people becoming self-reliant, with positive interaction and co-operation between all members within the community.

Thus, permaculture is a design system for sustainable living and land use. It will provide people with skills and will drive creative adaptation. Permaculture will provide working models of how to live more simply, more effectively and more sensibly. Here are a few ways in which permaculture will contribute to a post-oil future:

1. Teach people how to grow food, without the use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers. Fertilisers are made from natural gas while oil is used to make pesticides. Artificial fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides have only been in favour for the last 50 years. Over the last thirty years organic farming has demonstrated that it has the ability to offer a more ecological and sustainable approach to agriculture while still being economically competitive. Organic methods aim to maintain and increase the long-term fertility of soils, feed the soil and not the plant, and maintain the genetic diversity in plants and animals.

Every aspect of the process by which we feed ourselves must be redesigned. We need to create food forests and embrace food security as a priority, showing people how to process and store our food products and preserve our surplus.

Everyone should grow their own healthy food. It was only a generation or two ago that almost everyone in Australia did. That art has been almost lost by the current generation, who live in a world of fast food, fast lives and total dependence.

However, things are changing. People are starting to realise more about the food they are eating – much of it heavily dosed with chemicals of some type, and some of it lifeless and sterile. In an effort to increase sales, large supermarket stores are insisting that their growers and suppliers provide the best looking food – and it seems at any cost, as quality and taste of the food is low on the list of priorities.

Our own production of food is the most sustainable way of agriculture. This is especially true for perishables such as fresh fruit and vegetables. Everyone can develop gardens and grow their food organically.

2. Promote the use of appropriate building technology which has less embodied energy. e.g. rammed earth, mudbrick, recycled timber and strawbale.

Processed materials such as aluminium windows, steel framing, linoleum and brass fittings have much higher embodied energy (energy used in the creation and processing of materials) than local building materials such as stone, strawbale and rammed earth.

3. Advocate the harnessing of renewable energy, such as wind, solar and running water. Even though some of the renewable systems cannot match the energy production from oil, the depletion of fossil fuels within a few generations will see a gradual return of system design principles observable in nature and pre-industrial societies, and which are dependent on renewable energy and resources. We might see a return of water wheels, windmills and simple hydraulic rams for pumping water.

4. Demonstrate ways to capture rainwater and stormwater to make people more self-reliant, rather than them relying on the provision of utilities. A typical 200 m2 roof can capture about

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150,000L a year. Not all of this will be able to be harvested and stored, but a reasonable volume can be. Stormwater can be directed into garden beds rather than to street verges where it often enters the municipal drainage system.

5. Design houses and buildings to be energy-efficient (passive solar), which would reduce energy consumption for lighting, and heating and cooling. While it is a requirement that houses should have some aspects of energy efficiency, much more can be done. This may include simple things like facing the house in the best direction to capture winter sunlight, integrating garden structures such as pergolas and trees to ameliorate harsh climatic conditions, and positioning windows to allow cross-ventilation during summer.

6. Recycle greywater and wastewater onto gardens. We should aim to produce no waste. Greywater from the laundry and bathroom can be used for garden irrigation. A four bedroom home could expect to produce about 450 L of greywater a day, so over 100,000 L a year can be diverted from sewer and recycled onto gardens and trees.

7. Promote the use of wood as a renewable energy source. Grow woodlots for the sustainable harvesting of timber. Properly managed woodlots which can be coppiced or harvested could enable householders to have energy for heating and cooking.

8. Retrofitting existing houses by attaching hothouse and shadehouse structures to buildings, shifting windows to reduce, or let in more, light, sensible landscaping to enhance the cooling of the house. Placing insulation in the roof space or walls is a simple strategy to reduce energy loss from the house.

9. Become actively involved in setting up and further developing LETS systems. LETS - Local Energy Transfer System or Local Employment Trading System – enables the exchange of goods and services without the use of federal currency (real money). Our aim should be to avoid debt as best we can and to invest in the local bioregional economy.

10. Design and develop under-utilised land, which could be become productive cultivated ecologies. We will see, in our lifetime, a transition to a more labour-intensive, organic, localised agriculture. Town and city planners need to dedicate some land in urban areas for future food production. It will become important to establish community food security. Many more city farms and community-supported agricultural schemes will develop and become increasingly relevant over the next few years.

11. Teach people how to live a less energy-intensive lifestyle. Power down, and encourage conservation, so that conservation becomes the custom. Everyone can reduce consumption, and this could be as simple as turning off lights when not in use, replacing 100 W globes with 60 W globes (or use energy efficient lamps rather than incandescent globes), use gas for cooking rather than electric hotplates and ovens, and purchasing more efficient appliances.

12. Model sustainable lifestyles – reduce car dependence, engage in car pooling, use bicycles and public transport (and advocate more rail and light rail services), raise community awareness, share our resources. Permaculture is an empowering framework which will enable self-reliant households to develop. It promotes the relocalisation of all aspects of our lives.

13. Build community – develop social structures within the local community for problem-solving, resolving conflicts and peaceful co-operation. Permaculture can offer guidelines for new social structure and organisation and it is the best way to re-design the way we think and live.

We live in a change culture and for our continuing future existence we will have to adapt to continual change. But we need to acknowledge deep change, not a superficial effort to reduce consumption and to ‘do our bit’ for the environment.

14. Greater housing developments along the lines of ecovillages or communal living, where participants are close to work, farms, services and schools, will not only be desirable but will become essential. We should try to work closer to home or work from home, support local enterprises and industries, and develop a sense of belonging and community with our neighbours.

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Whatever we choose to do, no matter how seemingly insignificant, we need to find infinite small solutions to the problems that will confront us on a daily basis. The forthcoming energy decent will also challenge us to find local solutions, and any adoption of permaculture design strategies and other ecologically-based methods will require an economic transformation of societies.

Learning about Permaculture practices and principles will allow us to work with the natural energy flows rather than relying on fossil fuels. Natural systems still rely on the sun, so if we are to continue to live in a post-oil world we will have to learn how to do the same.

Conclusions Food production in today's world is critically dependent on oil (for pesticides, herbicides, agrichemicals, and agricultural, irrigation and distribution fuels) and natural gas (for artificial fertilisers) and clean water from ever scarcer and shrinking lakes and rivers and ever shrinking underground aquifers and water supplies.

For over 28 years, permaculture has provided a coherent design framework for a broad range of empowering strategies for living and livelihood with less and less energy. While the understanding and adoption of these strategies has been slow in an era of expanding energy, the emerging energy descent era will make many radical permaculture solutions natural and obvious.

The world is changing and we must change the way we see the world. We are moving towards an energy descent future. We need to plan for this descent, and to begin to build a low energy future. We must transform the ways in which we use energy, and create a low-energy infrastructure for a post peak oil world.

We need to look at what is essential for our existence (food, shelter, warmth and water) and rebuild our communities in such a way as to be able to supply these. We may need to relearn the skills that sustained our ancestors: crafts, local medicines, the great art of growing food. Can sustainable farming methods, such as those promoted through permaculture, feed the world? Maybe, maybe not, but can unsustainable farming feed the world for long? We know that it can’t.

Permaculture certainly has a crucial role to play if we truly desire to move towards a sustainable future.

Websites to visit www.peakoil.net

www.peakoil.com

www.aspo-australia.org.au

www.museletter.com

www.cfpermaculture.com

www.holmgren.com.au

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CREATING SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: A CASE STUDY OF LANDLEARN CHANGING MINDS,

INNOVATING OUTCOMES

Natalie McDonagh McDonagh 2D 3D 4D Design

This case study shows how LandLearn (an education program housed in the Department of Primary Industries, Victoria) very successfully used an art-based methodology of inquiry to generate significant outcomes in two areas. The first, in changing the team’s ways of seeing and understanding sustainability, and secondly, in creating innovative thinking tools and professional development experiences for environmental education teachers. Using the documentation and data generated over the year-long project, this case study clearly demonstrates the benefits and applications of art-based methods in both increasing our abilities to effectively engage with issues as abstract, complex and ‘slippery’ as sustainability, and in producing original, tangible, practical tools for learning and teaching. There is also an associated workshop offering an opportunity to experience for yourself some of the creating sustainable futures thinking tools. Natalie McDonagh conducts an experimental practice that is a fusion of art and design dedicated to expanding the ways we think about and understand the world and our actions in it (and on it). This form of applied creative practice is the topic of her current PhD research. Since January 2003, Natalie has been working with Victoria’s Department of Primary Industries applying her original art-based methodology of inquiry to effectively enhancing organisational capability. In early 2005 she began a close collaboration with DPI’s LandLearn team to apply the methodology to their work providing professional development experiences and curriculum material to environmental education teachers.

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http://landlearn.netc.net.au www.mcdonaghdesign.com 1

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable Futures

AN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

LandLearn is an educationprogram housed within theDepartment of PrimaryIndustries (Victoria).

Over the past decade we havebeen very successfully providinglearning and developmentworkshops for teachers andstudents, and curriculummaterials related to food andfibre agriculture.

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http://landlearn.netc.net.au www.mcdonaghdesign.com 2

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

Environmental Educationfor Sustainability…

is a vision of educationthat seeks to empower people

of all ages to assumeresponsibility for creating

a sustainable future.

UNESCODecade of Sustainability Education

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

But how?How can we empower people

of all ages to assumeresponsibility for creating

a sustainable future.How can we each cultivate

the qualities ofmind and heart we need

to do this?

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LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

The basic unit of thought is the symboland the basic entities with whichhumans operate in a meaningful

context are symbol systems.An artistic medium provides the mind

with the means for coming to gripswith ideas and emotions of greatsignificance, ones that cannot be

articulated and mastered throughordinary conversational language.

HOWARD GARDNERART, MIND & BRAIN:

A Cognitive Approach to Creativity

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

Visual arts processes are criticallyimportant kinds of humanexchange that have the capacityto change the way we think abouthow we come to know whatwe do, and the forms in whichinformation, experience, andunderstanding can be createdand communicated.

GRAEME SULLIVAN

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LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

Creating Sustainable Futuresencompasses:

OBLIQUE inspirations® - atangible tool for creativethinking

and

A Professional Developmentprogram in 3 parts

This is a system of potent, creative inquiry thatgoes far beyond notions of sustainability limitedto the environment. It takes a far broader, holisticview of sustainability, exploring what it is to youin your life - in relation to yourself, to others andto the world.

And how you practise it in your life.

It utilizes a unique methodology of art-basedthinking that engages your creativity as a powerfulagent to expand your ways of seeing and knowingsustainability. This form of ‘thinking through thehands’ enables often profound insights into theworkings of mind and heart that, once gained,cannot be lost so changes generated in thinkingand behaviour are permanent.

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations® Kit: 48 cards, Book of Inquiry, Book for Thoughts

OBLIQUE inspirations®

The intention is to inspireinquiry into how your mindand heart see, understand and‘do’ sustainability - sustainabilityin relationship to yourself,in relationship to others andin relationship to the world.

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LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

The beautiful spaceA place in timeI found myselftheremomentarily I wanderedabsorbing, enjoyingbeingJENNY PETTENON

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

Our minds workto continually label andabsorb what we see andfit it neatly into our ownpattern.

That done, we turn away.

JEANETTE WINTERSON

How do you look at the world?How do you see the world?

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LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

Water

70% of the Earth’s surfaceis water. Of that97% is salt water.Of all the water on Earth only0.3% is usable by humans

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

How conscious is your step?

WOODBLOCK, NEPAL

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Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

It seems that when we acceptourselves as integral parts ofnature, we can more easilyidentify with naturalphenomena and learn fromthem what we need to knowabout order and disorder, thelaws of nature, the nature ofnature, and the nature ofhuman nature.

JONAS SALK

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

“There’s no use trying,”said Alice, ”one can’t believeimpossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t hadmuch practice,” said the Queen.

“When I was your age I alwaysdid it for half an hour a day.Why, sometimes I’ve believedas many as six impossible thingsbefore breakfast.”

LEWIS CARROL

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OBLIQUE inspirations®

Be the change you wishto see in the world

GANDHI

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Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

It is only with the heart thatone sees clearly, for what isessential is invisible to the eye.

ANTOINE ST EXUPERY © Tandberg

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Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

Where are you going?

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

OBLIQUE inspirations®

What stops you?do what you canwhere you are

with what you haveTheodore Roosevelt

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Creating Sustainable Futures

Professional DevelopmentA program in 3 parts

Part I OBLIQUE inspirations®

Part 2 Wish Flag

Part 3 Collective Artwork

In order to arrive there,To arrive where you are, to get from whereyou are not,

You must go by a way wherein thereis no ecstasy.

In order to arrive at what you do not knowYou must go by a way which is the wayof ignorance.

In order to possess what you do not possessYou must go by the way of dispossession.

In order to arrive at what you are notYou must go through the way in whichyou are not.

T.S.ELIOT

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

Part 1 OBLIQUE inspirations®

The creative inquiry begins byusing the OBLIQUE inspirationsKit to activate a diverse rangeof mental modes. You areintroduced to ‘thinkingthrough the hands’ - anart-based method of surfacingvaluable tacit wisdom andgaining fresh insights thatenable lasting change inthinking and doing.

Seeing, Thinking Hands

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“I enjoyed this approach. It allowedthoughts to flow, made it easy tothink and feel more deeply aboutthe question of sustainability, thefuture. I found myself drawing onso many aspects of my experience,my life. I loved working with thecards - they were thoughtprovoking. I’d love to do moreof this thinking.”

“I was expecting a traditionalapproach to creating a sustainableworld (such as recycling, greenshopping bags etc) but this wasmuch more valuable andmeaningful.”PARTICIPANTS’ COMMENTS

Personal experience of sustainability emerges in embodied form

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

`

The mature brain learns moreby finding new connectionsbetween what it already knowsthan by the earnest acquisitionof new information, and to dothat, you need reverie just asmuch as you need reason.

If it is to be as smart as it canbe, the brain must rememberhow to let itself paint withwater-colours on wet paper,and let ideas bleed into eachother, as well as learn howto draw neat diagrams witha sharp pen.GUY CLAXTON

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Part 2 Wish Flag

Your creative inquirycontinues to furtherexplore and discoverthrough the act of makinga Sustainability Wish Flag -evidence of your inquiryembodied in visual, tactileform enabling further,richer layers ofunderstanding.

Thinking, Seeing Hands

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

“I can see that the ideas wouldwork as a focus point to get thestudents really thinking. It wouldbe valuable to use the WishFlags, for example, to launcha whole school celebration andcommitment to sustainability.We are rewriting our curriculum(in line with the new VictorianEssential Learning Standards)so the ideas are very relevant.”TEACHER

Wish Flags for Sustainability emerge

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Part 3 Collective Artwork

The journey of inquiryculminates in creativecollaboration on a largescale artwork; revealingcollective wisdom andenabling the group toconstruct new knowledge.

Creative Collaboration

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

“I was looking at the web. I thought thatat that point there, where all the threadsseem to cross, I could tie them alltogether with the pink ribbon. As I tried,realized it wasn’t possible. But I kepttrying, thinking I could make them.Suddenly, I saw that is exactly what I amalways trying to do in my work. I alwaysthink I have to make all the threadsfrom everything we do, tie together andI never can. And I just keep trying tomake them and get so frustrated thendespondent because I can’t. But I seenow that’s not how it is. Our work is onlyone thread and there are lots of othersall working with the same threadssomewhere else, even some time elseand it is all connected. I don’t have tomake it all tie together at my one place,at my point, it is already connected.”

JENNY PETTENON, LANDLEARNLandLearn 2005, Group Artwork, Sustainability, Mixed media

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“By using this methodology the processallowed what we felt. It was aninspirational and positive activity thattended not to get bogged down in thedetails and the negativity that canoften be associated with sustainabilitydiscussions. Perhaps the greatestcontrast between this process andmore traditional approaches is that wewere able to feel our ideas andmessages about sustainability. Itprovided space for the team to explorealternative ideas in a supportive andnon-threatening environment. It alsohighlighted the value of usingnon-traditional thinking processesto address such a complex issue.A personal benefit for me is greaterfreedom in the way I think about otherproblems or issues now.”

KATHRYN GOYEN, LANDLEARN Group Artwork, Sustainability, Detail

LandLearn®

Creating Sustainable FuturesAN INNOVATION IN TEACHINGand LEARNING SUSTAINABILITY

This symbol references the gesture of two handscupping around each other; signifying care, cradling,protection of something delicate. It is this spirit ofcare that underpins Creating Sustainable Futures.

Our intention here is neither to insist nor instructyou on caring, rather it is an invitation to exploreand discover something of the nature of care as youexperience and practise it. Care in relationship toyour self, to others and to the world. And from thatplace of deeper personal insight, perhaps make moreconscious, informed choices of thought and deedthat cultivate sustainable ways of being and doing.

We believe it is through greater awakening of carewithin us as individuals that, as societies, we cancreate those flexible, far-seeing physical and socialsystems that will sustain humanity and the worldin which we live.

“A sustainable society isone that can persist overgenerations, one that is far-seeing enough, flexible enough,and wise enough not toundermine either its physicalor social systems of support.”D.H.MEADOWS

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Education for SustainableDevelopment implies a shift…to the

recognition that we are all learners aswell as teachers. Environmentally

sustainable development musthappen in villages and cities, schools

and universities, corporate offices andassembly lines, and in the offices of

ministers and civil servants.

AHMEDABAD DECLARATION 2005EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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SPEAK OUT! - SPEAK RIGHT!

Peter Murphy Preston Environment Group

Nothing irks me more when browsing the letters column in our daily’s only to find contributing conservationists using the language speak of the logging industry and their government acolytes. In other words the ‘dumbing down’ of the English language associated with the logging of native forest by subduing an unsuspecting community by stealth - appears to be succeeding. For instance take the word ‘harvesting’ (a favorite of the logging industry). Harvesting according to the Collins English Dictionary is described as: “the gathering of ripened crops being the product of cultivated plants.” Now in recent times, even hard core forest activists have dropped their guard, and now use the harvesting word frequently – when of course the correct term ‘logging’, according to the Collins English Dictionary is described as: “the work of felling, trimming, and transporting timber.” Other sanitized words describing the continued plunder of native forest (also adopted by some conservationists and green politicians) are ‘residue’ ‘thinning’ ‘regen forest’ and ‘forestry restoration’. Whatever happened to the term ‘forest ecosystem’? But the biggest ‘dumb down’ in recent times would have to be forest speak which oozes throughout the WA Forest Management Plan 2004-2013 (FMP). Here are a couple of beauties:

• Shelterwood system: When regeneration is sufficiently established most of the remaining trees are then removed (logged) to allow regeneration to develop.

• Gap creation: A discrete opening (clearfelling) in the overstory canopy. • Pushing, or push down treatment: Involves the pushing down (poisoning and bulldozing) of banksia

and sheoak that are impeding regeneration establishment. Not much of an improvement on the 1987 and 2002 Forest Management Plan when forest speak was akin to a Monty Python script with these couple of rippers:

• Compatible uses: Uses that do not conflict with the priority use. • Conditional uses: Uses that conflict to an extent with the priority use, and are only permitted so long as

there is no significant harm to the priority use. By the way who can remember the ridiculous Orwellian oxymoron ‘Forest Protection Society’? However one logging speak term that has been warmly embraced (without a murmur) by WA peak forest conservation groups is ‘Forest Habitat Zones’. Now back in the 1987 FMP the then term was MPA’s, or Management Priority Areas, then in the 1994 FMP it became known as TEAS, or Temporary Exclusion Areas. TEAS were strips of native forest unlogged between logged forest coupes, but were later logged when the surrounding forest become ‘FAT’ enough to resemble TEAS - got it! Forward to 2004 and yet we have another definition for forest strips left unlogged between coupes – Forest Habitat Zones (FHZ). Now the ironic thing is that the architects of the FMP 2004 – 2013 are up front and comfortable with the FHZ definition:

• Forest Habitat Zones are strips of forest temporarily put aside from logging until they can be eventually logged as regenerating forest are able to replace the purpose of Fauna Habitat Zones (pg 97 FMP).

Of course the major concern is - why are WA’s peak forest conservation groups tripping over each other to endorse, embrace and assist the logging industry to implement forest strips that will eventually be logged anyway? Perhaps an article aired on the ABC 7/10/03 may shed some light on this forest speak phenomena. The article went on to explain how a joint venture between Forestry Tasmania, Melbourne University, and the Bureau of Rural Sciences will identify what the community thinks are acceptable ways to log native forest. In other words, what the propaganda project sets out to do is measure peoples emotional responses to different ways of logging. As the logging industry cash up to flex their corporate muscle in stifling public opinion by issuing writs to those who speak out – the same strategies are being applied in corporate boardrooms in making sure we also speak wrong. Thanks to Jill Redwood for inspiration in writing this article. Note: Preston Environment Group is campaigning to stop logging in Arcadia forest in the South West of Western Australia. For more info go to www.savearcadiaforest.tk Peter Murphy - Born a conservationist. Spent past 25 years trying to create more public awareness on the death of the WA jarrah forest by a thousand cuts from: logging, mining, dieback, feral animals, weed invasion, climate change and government bureaucrats. Currently: Convenor of the Preston Environment Group who are spearheading a campaign to save a small colony of rare mainland quokka who face extinction from logging in the Arcadia jarrah forest near Bunbury. Greatest achievement: Instrumental in creating the Wellington National Park between Bunbury and Collie. Current ambition: To increase the Wellington National Park to 20,000 hectares by the inclusion of Arcadia forest. Long term ambition: To see a more ecologically sustainable timber industry by sourcing all of our timber needs from plantations.

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Peter Murphy Convenor - Preston Environment Group National Environmental Education Conference Speech Presentation: Speak out! – Speak right! Oct 4/06 Welcome to all: I would like to express my sincere thanks to Bunbury campus of Edith Cowan University, and especially conference convenors, Dr Sandra Wooltorton, and Jennifer Pearson for presenting this opportunity for a community conservation group in having a voice here today. Much welcome to those delegates from outside the community – and especially those from overseas - who endured the tyranny of distance, including those familiar jet lag symptoms, such as - who am I, where am I, how did I get here, and who are you? Introduction: Being a local, and working at the coalface of conservation for over 25 years, has given me not only the opportunity to be involved in the struggle, for a more sustainable environment for future generations, but it has also allowed me to observe and document the ever evolving ‘dumb down speak syndrome’, now vigorously pursued by governments and bureaucrats in conjunction with the corporate sector, in stifling public opinion, and debate. My fellow educators - it is our moral obligation and responsibility, to take stock of this insidious phenomena, by heeding the wise words of George Orwell, and I quote: “If liberty means anything, it means the right to say things that people don’t want to hear.” But what governments, their bureaucrats, and the corporate sector ‘don’t want us to hear’ was recently exposed in the 2006 Western Australian, draft State of the Environment Report. The ‘phone book’ size document mentions; global warming, clean water, and loss of biodiversity as the top 3 ranking priorities, when dealing with environmental issues. And this we all agree…

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Yet local extractive industries that threaten those environmental priorities, such as logging of native forest, and mining for minerals and coal, were all conveniently relegated to the back pages of the 340 page document, and didn’t even merit a sustainability priority ranking. But of major concern – was there was no mention at all, of the intensive mining for bauxite, and logging for charcoal in the jarrah forest ecosystem, including their immediate and downstream effects on global warming, water quality, and especially biodiversity loss. Perhaps politicians, bureaucrats, and their corporate mates, should heed the wise words of Martin Luther King, and I quote “Our lives begin to end, the day we become silent about the things that matter.” Problem is folks; ‘dumb down speak’ appears to be succeeding, as was demonstrated to me recently – when wearing my educator’s hat – I asked my students “what government agency is responsible for protecting the environment?” And to my shock horror - a student responded by uttering the name of a multinational mining company, whose reputation for unsustainable environmental practices is the cause of much discontent amongst our local community. Of course my students immature response, was influenced by major extractive industries, saturating the local community, including some educational institutions with PR chequebook sponsorship, especially for tiny rehabilitation environmental projects, in return for promotional propaganda and ‘dumb down speak’. As my conservation hat takes me mostly into the contentious native forest debate - nothing irks me more, when browsing the letters column in our daily’s, only to find contributing conservationists, including some Green politicians, also using the ‘dumb down speak’ of extractive industries. For example take the word ‘harvesting’ (a favorite of the native logging industry). In recent times, even some hard core forest activists have dropped their anti-corporate guard, by now using the ‘harvesting’ word frequently – when of course “logging”- the correct term, is described by the Collins English Dictionary as: “the work of felling, trimming, and transporting of timber”.

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When of course the word ‘harvesting’, in the same dictionary, is described as: “the gathering of ripened crops - being the product of cultivated plants.” How on earth, can you harvest something that you have never cultivated? Other sanitized words describing the continued logging of native forest also adopted by some conservationist’s and Green politicians are: residue, thinning, regeneration forest, and forestry restoration. For god’s sake, whatever happened to the words “forest ecosystem?” Other oxymorons that you may be presented with over the next few days are; ‘Fire for Life’, and ‘Fire – The force of life’. Recent ‘dumb down speak’ on a major scale, would have to be found throughout the pages of the current Western Australian Forest Management Plan. This document was formulated using the benchmark of sustainable forest management principles, including strict biodiversity and heritage guidelines mentioned in the international ‘Montreal Process’ agreement of 1995, of which Australia is a signatory. Of course by the time our logging bureaucrats had finished with the document, the international benchmark had been bastardized and manipulated into a third world corporate coup d’etat. Just to whet your appetites - let me quote you, a couple of ‘dumb down’ sentences, found throughout the pages of the Forest Management Plan. Gap creation: A discrete opening in the overstory canopy. In other words ‘clearfelling’! Shelterwood system: When regeneration is sufficiently established, most of the remaining trees are then removed to allow regeneration to develop. In other words, ‘the creation of a single monoculture - consisting of one marketable eucalyptus species’. Pushing, or push down treatment: This involves the pushing down of banksia and sheoak that are impeding regeneration establishment.

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In other words –‘the poisoning first by herbicides, and then the bulldozing of ancient casuarinas and banksia trees, that don’t have any market value’. Not really much of an improvement on the previous Forest Management Plan, when ‘dumb down speak’ was evolving, and more at home in a Monty Python script. Here are a couple of sentences from that document that may put a smile on your face. Compatible use: Uses that do not conflict with the priority use. And this little beauty: Conditional uses: Uses that conflict to an extent with the priority use, and are only permitted so long as there is no significant harm to the priority use. Sounds like serious jet lag to me folks. Incidentally, the current logging plan does not expire until the year 2013, and in reference to the effects of logging native forest on global warming, the 150-page document allows just one-page for comment, with this following ‘dumb down’ summary: The possibility of future climate change, has been incorporated into sustained yield calculations for timber, but is not considered to necessitate changes in management in the 10-year term of the plan. As George Bernard Shaw would say: “He knows nothing, and he thinks he knows everything, that points clearly to a political career.” Concerns: Of course of major concern is: why aren’t educators questioning ‘dumb down speak’ now emerging by stealth into our communities and education system.

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Perhaps an article aired on the ABC in 2003 may shed some light on this phenomenon. The article went on to explain how a joint venture between Forestry Tasmania, Melbourne University, and the Bureau of Rural Sciences will identify, what the community thinks are acceptable ways to log native forest.

In other words folks – what the propaganda project sets out to do - is measure peoples emotions and responses to different ways of logging native forest. But what I find most alarming - is a reputable educational institution is complicit in the ‘dumb down speak’ plot! Oscar Wilde once said - “The problem in being talked about, is not being talked about.” Which leads me to the orchestrated attempts by government of allowing no discussion, no talk, or speak, as recently demonstrated by the censoring of a CALM scientist on the ABC Stateline program, in relation to mainland quokka facing extinction due to forest habitat loss. Incidentally folks, this issue can be further explored and discussed in more detail during the ‘Wildflower Tour’ tomorrow. Summary: As the logging industry cashes up to flex it’s corporate muscle by helping shape government policy with huge political donations, including stifling public debate by issuing writs to those who ‘speak out’ - as is now the case in Tasmania. Similar strategies are being played out in corporate and government boardrooms around Australia in making sure we also ‘speak wrong’. Columnist and social commentator Phillip Adams, I believe summed it all up beautifully when he wrote: “Approach every political proclamation, every prognostication of a TV “expert” and, yes, every newspaper column with skepticism. Otherwise, what’s left of the truth will be blown away on the 21st century’s electric winds, replaced with the clichés, the slogans, the platitudes, the nonsense that so many of us are willing, even desperate, to embrace. Read more wildly, see more clearly, think more deeply. Challenge authorities on every issue, but more importantly, challenge yourself. Go well, Speak out! – Speak right!

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Speak out! – Speak right! Bibliography: Forest Management Plan 1987- 2002. Forest Management Plan 2003 - 2014. The Potoroo Review, Summer 2004. The Australian, Weekend Magazine 2005. Western Australian draft State of the Environment Report 2006. ABC TV, Stateline, Aug 2006. Montreal Process 1995 For more information: Contact Peter Murphy, Ph -08 97 321270

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GLOBAL COMMUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY (GCS): SHARING CONCERNS AND PROMOTING PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

AND ESD VALUES

Prithi Nambiar, MA, MDE ,Executive Director, Centre for Environment Education-Australia Inc.

Building on the Sustainable Schools Program, CEE Australia and AAEE are jointly working on an innovative program that seeks to develop processes that support action for sustainability. While at the moment there are many different activities at the school level that are focused on environmental conservation, waste recycling and energy economy, its now time to take these activities to the next level. We need to introduce the concept of global citizenship to schools and communities and focus on the universal relevance of sustainability concerns. The DESD hopes to enable a shift in values that favours sustainability but unless education provides exposure to realities in different socio-economic contexts in the real world, this shift in perceptions and values is unlikely to happen. The GCS project seeks to enable learning processes by providing such exposure to schools and community groups in both first world and developing country contexts. Prithi Nambiar currently works as Executive Director of Centre for Environment Education-Australia, a not for profit organization engaged in environment and sustainability education. Prithi set up CEE Australia in Sydney in 2001 with support from CEE India. CEE-Australia develops innovative educational programs with a conservation and sustainability focus and with a view to enabling the sharing of experiences between India and Australia as well as among countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Prithi has developed and managed programs in the area of environment and sustainable development for CEE India since 1993. Her special area of interest is media and she has developed, scripted and edited several films including two films commissioned by UNESCO on DESD. Prithi has also written extensively on conservation and development issues. She is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

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GLOBAL COMMUNITIESGLOBAL COMMUNITIESforfor

SUSTAINABILITYSUSTAINABILITY

CEE Australia CEE Australia

Project PartnersProject PartnersAustraliaAustralia�� Centre for Environment Education (CEE) Australia Inc. (Project Centre for Environment Education (CEE) Australia Inc. (Project

Executive)Executive)�� AAEEAAEE�� Department of the Environment and HeritageDepartment of the Environment and Heritage�� Department of Education, Science and TrainingDepartment of Education, Science and Training�� FBE FBE OutThereOutThere, University of New South Wales, University of New South WalesIndiaIndia�� Centre for Environment Education IndiaCentre for Environment Education India�� Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of

IndiaIndia�� Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India

(proposed)(proposed)

CEECentre for Environment Education

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Project GoalsProject GoalsThis project will seek to exchange key stakeholders This project will seek to exchange key stakeholders

from schools, youth groups and NGOs in order from schools, youth groups and NGOs in order to:to:

�� Facilitate learning sustainability education Facilitate learning sustainability education initiatives across countries and cultures initiatives across countries and cultures

�� Build models of exchange and sharingBuild models of exchange and sharing�� Build on initiatives developed in countries with Build on initiatives developed in countries with

different cultures and to share these, and learn different cultures and to share these, and learn from each other, in order that both countries will from each other, in order that both countries will benefit in managing sustainable issues. benefit in managing sustainable issues.

Project DescriptionProject Description�� Select 20 High Schools (year Select 20 High Schools (year

8/9) from New South Wales, 8/9) from New South Wales, AustraliaAustralia

�� Select 20 High Schools (year 7Select 20 High Schools (year 7--9) from Ahmedabad, India9) from Ahmedabad, India

�� Launch GCS project with Launch GCS project with workshop for teachers and workshop for teachers and students on process and students on process and methodologymethodology

�� Schools set up SDI (Sustainable Schools set up SDI (Sustainable Development Initiative) with Development Initiative) with community stakeholderscommunity stakeholders

�� Identify and address a Identify and address a community issue relevant to the community issue relevant to the school and its communityschool and its community

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StepsSteps

�� Form a representative committeeForm a representative committee�� Collect baseline dataCollect baseline data�� Form a planForm a plan�� Implement the planImplement the plan�� Monitor and evaluate the plan and actions Monitor and evaluate the plan and actions

undertakenundertaken�� Communicate outcomesCommunicate outcomes�� Report outcomesReport outcomes

Key ObjectivesKey Objectives�� Learning skills in mapping social and Learning skills in mapping social and

cultural perceptions along with cultural perceptions along with environmental and economic realitiesenvironmental and economic realities

�� Creating opportunities for team building for Creating opportunities for team building for community development in the immediate community development in the immediate vicinity vicinity

�� Enabling communication and sharing of Enabling communication and sharing of experience locally and globallyexperience locally and globally

�� Strengthening problem solving abilitiesStrengthening problem solving abilities

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IllustrationIllustration

�� A school in Australia identifies water use A school in Australia identifies water use as being unsustainableas being unsustainable

�� A school in India identifies water as being A school in India identifies water as being a sustainability concerna sustainability concern

�� In an Australian context sustainability of In an Australian context sustainability of water use is an issue of awareness and water use is an issue of awareness and perception perception

�� In an Indian context water may be an In an Indian context water may be an availability and quality issueavailability and quality issue

SocioSocio--economic dimensionseconomic dimensions�� Water and its availability linked to Water and its availability linked to

access in Indiaaccess in India�� Water availability assured in AustraliaWater availability assured in Australia�� Payment for waterPayment for water�� Water Quality and Safety issuesWater Quality and Safety issues�� Social context affecting water access, Social context affecting water access,

use and management in India use and management in India ––gender, sociogender, socio--economically weaker economically weaker communities etc. communities etc.

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Cultural dimensionsCultural dimensions

�� Spirituality, Cultural traditions in both Spirituality, Cultural traditions in both countries, Value attached to watercountries, Value attached to water

�� Examining perceptions and their role in Examining perceptions and their role in sustainable use of watersustainable use of water

Environmental dimensionsEnvironmental dimensions

�� Water availabilityWater availability�� Sustainable UseSustainable Use�� PollutionPollution�� Impact of unsustainable use locally and Impact of unsustainable use locally and

globallyglobally

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OutcomesOutcomes�� Guided Process for practical Guided Process for practical

sustainability educationsustainability education�� Resources for teachersResources for teachers�� Leadership and partnership for Leadership and partnership for

community developmentcommunity development�� Long term connections and Long term connections and

relationships between young people in relationships between young people in two different culturestwo different cultures

�� Global citizenshipGlobal citizenship

Relevance of GCSRelevance of GCS�� UN Decade of Education for Sustainable UN Decade of Education for Sustainable

DevelopmentDevelopment�� Educating for a Sustainable FutureEducating for a Sustainable Future�� (A national environmental education (A national environmental education

statement for Australian schools)statement for Australian schools)�� National Environment Policy 2006National Environment Policy 2006(Government of India)(Government of India)

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BE WORRIED

Dr Neil Preston1, Ed Nieman2 Fremantle Hospital1, Main Roads WA2

“Be worried. Be VERY worried.” April 3, 2006: TIME magazine is telling us that the Earth is melting. Climate change is a big problem. Now! This paper is not about climate change, it is about why we can't change our behaviour. It is about the difficulty of understanding new concepts. It is about why, in general, we are slow learners. It is about the psychology behind paradigm change. It is about a better Ecopsychology. There is now a ‘technology of behaviour’. Modern technologies now allow cognitive scientist to understanding how our brains/minds actually work. Three major findings have emerged:

1. the mind is inherently embodied: the concepts used in our thinking come from our inherent bodily make-up and experience as we mature from babyhood to adulthood

2. thought is mostly unconscious: this is because the brain learns from ‘experience’

3. abstract concepts are largely metaphorical: most learning is implicit Much can be understood from the above. Since the Enlightenment, we have been told that it is irrational to go against your self-interest. Modern economic theory and foreign policy are set up on this assumption. This myth has been challenged by cognitive scientists such as Daniel Kahneman. Dr. Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, even though he was a psychologist. As the weather crashes, we are forced to look at new ways of behaviour. We need to understand what is holding us back mentally from changing our behaviour. Ed Nieman currently works as the Project Officer – Sustainability on the New Perth Bunbury Highway project, Major Projects Directorate, Main Roads Western Australia, in Perth. His area of interest is the actualizing of sustainability principles and ethics into the work environment. He is involved in developing strategies, processes and initiatives to actualize sustainability that align with Main Roads WA values and areas of strategic focus.

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AVOIDING ‘TRAFFIC JAMS’: SEEING PAST THE COMPLICATED TO UNDERSTAND COMPLEXITY

By Ed Nieman

This paper will briefly discuss the importance of ‘context over content’ as the brain learns to better predict the future in a complex world. The underlying theme of self-organization in complex systems (context) as opposed to that which is merely complicated (content) runs through the paper. The information provided is intended to assist a clearer understanding of: what is going on in the areas of ‘experiential learning’, or ‘active learning’, or ‘inquiry-based learning’; and why these teaching strategies, at least in a model proposed by D. R. Chialvo and P. Bak (Chialvo & Bak, 1999), can outperform other strategies for behaviour change emerging from the current paradigm of positive reinforcement. "BE WORRIED. BE VERY WORRIED." (TIME magazine, 2006) This was the headline for the April 3, 2006 edition of TIME magazine for its ‘Special Report: Global Warming’. Only time will tell if humanity is able to perceive that what is happening to the Earth’s climate is a threat to life on the planet, and whether we do anything about this crisis, and even if we can effect any useful change, a possibility seen by many to be problematic. I admit I'm worried! Because those in power are not making the decisions that are best for life on Earth. Perhaps the world is just too complex, an idea which is at the heart of this paper. Winston Churchill stated the problem as follows in a House of Commons speech delivered on 12 April 1935 (quoted in Langworth, 2001):

‘When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. ‘There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind (sic). Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.’

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If Churchill were alive today, what would he have to say about global warming? Probably that it was yet another example of the generalisation he was making! However, as usual, Churchill was writing from something of a superior position. No doubt he meant that ‘people other than Churchill’ were ‘unteachable’! Educators recognise that the proposition that people are ‘unteachable’ is ridiculous! Not surprisingly, humans find challenging (probably new) ideas difficult to ‘accept’. After having said that, I’ll continue to use Churchill’s term here for convenience, and as an intentional element of amplification. About some situations and concepts it seems that we obviously just ‘don't get it’, that we are almost unteachable. I think that it is because we don't understand complexity itself, or and the part that it plays in our lives and in our minds, that we find it so hard to comprehend the world and how nature and society work. I believe that some concepts can assist us to understand complexity, and our sometimes unhelpful response to it. By the end of this paper I hope I shall have provided you with at least one new concept to use; that complex systems like the brain and the weather self-organized as part of their normal functioning. The eminent psychologist, BF Skinner (famous for, amongst other things, operant conditioning and the rat in the Skinner box), foresaw what was coming when in 1971 in his book Beyond Freedom & Dignity he wrote: ‘What we need is a technology of behaviour.’ (Skinner, 1971, p. 5). That ‘technology of behaviour’ is here, and helping us understand several areas, including: Ecopsychology; how to more effectively assist learning; and our own behaviour. As an example of content I’ll discuss a metaphor we can use to understand complexity, that of traffic jams. This is the metaphor and the story of how it came to be (Beaty, 1998): Once when Bill Beaty, an electrical engineer in Seattle, Washington, was driving into the city on the main highway he tried an experiment because traffic was moving so slowly. He decided to ‘drive smoothly’ before getting caught up in the traffic waves and traffic jams. Rather than repeatedly rushing ahead with everyone else, only to come to a halt, Beaty decided to try to move at the average speed of the traffic. He let a huge gap open up ahead of him, and timed things just right so he arrived at the next traffic jam just as it was breaking up.

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Beaty kept this up for about half an hour. When he looked in his rear-view mirror he saw that all the cars behind him were spaced at an almost uniform distribution. His changed driving behaviour was able to affect many, many drivers behind him. From his experiment with traffic Beatty learnt the following: 1. Merely one driver, who stops competing and instead adopts some more

constructive driving behaviour, can remove some of the frustrating traffic patterns on a highway.

2. ‘Normal’ competitive behaviour creates traffic jams. 3. People who push ahead as fast as possible might unwittingly participate

in amplifying the very conditions that they hate so much. 4. The last, and perhaps most important thing that Bill observed, was that it

is necessary to acquire a huge empty space long before you get stuck in the traffic jam. If one is inside the jam it is ‘too late’ to do anything about it.

That’s the metaphor. That’s the story. What can we learn? Traffic is a complex system, like a sandpile or the climate. It is not linear and displays the characteristic of self-organization. We can learn a lot from this example because of the ideas suggested by one of the many people who have studied complexity, the late physicist, Per Bak. In his book How Nature Works (Bak, 1997, p. 195) he writes:

‘Traffic jams may emerge for no reason whatsoever! They are ‘phantom’ traffic jams. A small velocity reduction from 5 to 4 of a single car is enough to initiate huge jams. We have met the situation before: for earthquakes, for biological evolution, for river formation and for stock market crashes. A cataclysmic triggering event (like a traffic accident) is not needed. Our natural intuition that large events come from large shocks has been violated. It does not make sense to look for specific reasons for the jams.’

Bak argues that traffic self-organizes to a critical state, such that one driver’s changed behaviour can affect the entire system. This is clear in how the changed behaviour of Bill Beaty was able to eliminate traffic jams for a while, at least for cars behind him.

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Bak, the discoverer of ‘self-organized criticality’, points out that self-organized complex systems are everywhere in nature. Our brains are actually complex systems and Bak has modelled how our brains could work. The paper in which the model is described, ‘Learning from Mistakes’, was written in conjunction with the cognitive scientist, D R Chialvo, with encouragement and advice from professor Rodolfo Llinas. In their consideration of human behaviour we begin to discover why we are so ‘unteachable’ or, at least, ‘resistant to new learning’. Chialvo and Bak’s model of the brain was ‘… the first concrete model in which depressing synaptic efficacy leads to learning’ (Chialvo & Bak, 1999, p. 1146). What this means is that if you want to assist someone’s learning, use the context already in their brain–or create new context, create a new experience. It is no good just ‘piling up’ the content from the outside, creating a ‘traffic jam’ in the brain, hoping that learning will occur. At this point I shall refer to Rodolfo Llinas’s book (Llinas, 2001) I of the Vortex for a better idea of how the brain works. The following statements from the book occur at the pages indicated, and are grouped for reasons explained below: General operation of the brain Second generation cognitive science is telling us that if no ‘framework’ exists within the brain, then incoming information from the senses will have no place to ‘resonate’. Also, the ultimate function of the brain is to predict:

p. 8 ‘We can look to the world of neurology for support of the concept that the brain operates as a closed system, a system in which the role of sensory input appears to be weighted more toward the specification of ongoing cognitive states than toward the supply of information–context over content.’ p. 13 ‘Because the brain operates for the most part as a closed system, it must be regarded as a reality emulator rather than a simple translator.’ p. 21 ‘The capacity to predict the outcome of future events critical to successful movement is, most likely, the ultimate and most common of all global brain functions.’

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Prediction in the brain Current knowledge shows that faculty psychology terms such as ‘ego’ are no longer relevant. Actually knowing how the brain functions has allowed a reframing of our understanding of the brain/mind:

p. 23 ‘What is the repository of predictive function? I believe the answer lies in what we call the self: self is the centralization of prediction.’ p. 24 ‘Prediction is crucial to brain function not only for the successful execution goal-oriented, active movement, but also as a basic functional operation in order to conserve time and energy.’ p. 24 ‘Once a pattern of neural activity acquires internal significance (sensory content gains internal context), the brain generates a strategy of what to do next - another pattern of neural activity.’

The origin and nature of ‘thinking’ The five quotes below represent what I think is perhaps the most important finding of second generation cognitive science. It is the embodied mind, the ‘internalization of movement’, that provides the primary ‘metaphors’ for our behaviours and learning. The ‘metaphors’ are the ‘patterns’ for our thought:

p. 35 ‘I shall state again what I've said from the outset: that which we call thinking is the evolutionary internalization of movement.’ p. 50 "The brain's control of organized movement gave birth to the generation and nature of the mind." p. 58 ‘What I must stress here is that the brain's understanding of anything, whether factual or abstract, arises from our manipulations of the external world, by our moving within the world and thus from our sensory-derived experience of it.’

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p. 62 ‘The issue is that thinking ultimately represents movement, not just of body parts or objects in the external world, but of perceptions and complex ideas as well.’ p. 94 "The nature of the brain and what it does makes the nervous system a very different type of entity from the rest of the universe. It is, as stated repeatedly, a reality emulator. Suggesting that the system is closed, and so very different, means that it must be another way of expressing “everything”. In other words, brain activity is a metaphor for everything else. Comforting or disturbing, the fact is that we are basically dreaming machines that construct virtual models of the real world.’

As a ‘concrete example’ of what the above discussion ‘means’ I shall turn now to the concept of ‘Fixed Action Patterns’ (Llinas, 2001, p. 133). Fixed Action Patterns make up much of our behaviour, once the behaviour has been acquired or learned. Fixed Action Patterns (or FAPs) are good friends of the self. FAP’s save time for the self which is the seat of prediction, as indicated in the material quoted above. Have you ever ended up in the pantry, at the door of the refrigerator, or in another room of your home and forgotten why you were there? That phenomenon is FAPs in action. We frequently do things without ‘thinking’. Language is a FAP (Llinas, 2001, p. 151). Do you ever find yourself telling the same story, using the same phrases? These are FAP’s. Just press ‘the button’ and out comes the phrase. It is like walking; you don’t have to think about it very much and extra thinking only happens when necessary, such as when you stumble. Are FAPs set in concrete? It seems they are–just about. They are said to be pretty much ‘embedded’ into our brains. Is that why humans are ‘unteachable’? Perhaps, sort of. If you want to assist a learner to change a FAP it has to be activated. And that activation might take place through group discussions, community engagement, a catastrophic event, or perhaps through the influence of an effective teacher. But there are no guarantees a change will take place. A FAP may need to be activated again and again at the same time as unfamiliar concepts are being presented before any behavioural change occurs in response to the new concepts. That is, before new concepts find a place to ‘fit’, and start driving new behaviour. This relationship–between FAP activation and occurrence of new behaviour–is a

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complex one. No one knows when and what will make ‘the penny drop’–the exact contingencies that lead to behaviour change. To conclude this paper I shall briefly describe an example related to complexity and change in human behaviour. It is about how Main Roads Western Australia is dealing with the complexities of the New Perth Bunbury Highway Project. The main way this is being handled is by using a flexible framework within a business management model called Alliance Contracting. Alliance Contracting is relationship-focused; its operation is based on trust and co-operation and aims to avoid the adversarial problems of conflict and disputation that are inherent in a non-alliance business model. The framework of Alliance Contracting allows flexibility for self-organization to occur with more ‘degrees of freedom’ than normally found in traditional contracting. In relation to the traffic metaphor, Alliance Contracting aims to avoid the ‘traffic jams’ caused by disputation. The Alliance is a single unit which includes the Client (Main Roads) and the Contractor (The Southern Gateway Consortium) and it works to assist its personnel attain high quality project outcomes. The structure of Alliance Contracting provides for strategies designed so that the FAPs of conflict, confrontation, and destructive types of competition are, as far as possible, avoided. This paper has just scratched the surface of a more ‘metaphorical’ way of looking at the world. We really do need to start seeing the world with ‘new eyes’ and being less literal in our approach to it. We need to see the world like nature works, through complexity, and not just create complicated situations that are unworkable in the long-term and don't ‘fit’. We need a ‘fit’ that is sustainable.

In summary, I have introduced what I think are important ways of ‘seeing the world’ and the complexity of its structures and behaviours, and the idea that humans find complexity difficult to deal with precisely because our brains are built in such a way that we find ‘new learning’ difficult. Further, I have suggested that those of us in the behaviour change game therefore need to assist our clients, colleagues and students in their ‘seeing the world in new ways’. To close this paper, I hope that it will help you to enjoy exploring new ways of seeing the world by understanding how your mind works. And, certainly, that you will enjoy avoiding the real and imagined ‘traffic jams’ that present themselves each day. In doing so, I think we are all more likely to work out

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how we can act to constructively alter the behaviour of complex systems–and complex people such as our clients, colleagues and students–so that ‘traffic-jammed’ systems and people are freed up on the road to more productive behaviours.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Main Roads Western Australia who made it possible for me to write this paper and to participate in this conference. Responsibility for the content of this article is, however, entirely mine.

References

Bak, P. 1997, How Nature Works, Oxford University Press, Oxford Beaty, W. 1998, Traffic “Experiments” and a Cure for Waves & Jams (online), Available World Wide Wed: http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/trafexp.html(Accessed 15 October 2006) Chialvo, D. R. & Bak P. 1999, ‘Learning From Mistakes’, Neuroscience, Vol. 90 No. 4, pp. 1137-1148 Langworth, Richard M. 2001 ‘ ‘Our Qualities and Deeds Must Burn and Glow’ Churchill's Wisdom Calls to us Across the Years’, Finest Hour Journals (online), Available World Wide Web: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=280(Accessed 15 October 2006)

Llinas, R. R. 2001, I of the Vortex, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts Skinner, B.F. 1971, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Jonathan Cape, London TIME writers 2006. ‘Special Report Global Warming’, TIME magazine, 3 April, cover headlines.

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TEACHING & PLACE: A MUTUAL RELATION

Genevieve Noone Centre for Research on Education in Context

School of Education, University of New England We are in relation with the environment. As teachers, an understanding of our own relationship with the environment enables us to better engage pupils in understanding their relationships with the environment. People interact and engage with both the human and non-human in place; with both the built and natural environments. Relationships with the environment are mutual. These relationships influence how we interact with and affect other people and the environment and vice versa. Our understanding of the environment, and of place in general, derives from our experiences in many different environments. Teachers in particular, are a very mobile profession, and may teach in many different places over the course of their career. This presentation will look at data collected in a study of first year teachers. The teachers were asked to reflect on the built and natural environments in the places which they were appointed to. The reflections involved the collection of objects, sketches and oral discussions about their environments. And while the direction given for their reflections asked the teachers to focus on their personal experiences, often they included significant others in their stories about their environment suggesting that an individual’s experience of the environment is entwined with the experiences of others. A better understanding of how teachers develop relations with the environment will enable them to better understand these relations in reference to (i) their movement from place to place, and (ii) the engagement of pupils in exploring their relationships with the environment. Genevieve Noone is currently a full-time PhD candidate in the Centre for Research on Education in Context, at the University of New England (Armidale, Australia). Her current research explores the relations between place and becoming-teacher, and is centred on the study of five graduate (first year) teachers appointed to rural schools in northern New South Wales. She is interested in the application of alternative methodologies in sociological research and has been using and developing arts-based methods for data collection, analysis and the presentation of research. Her research interests centre around the relationships between teachers, pupils and their environments.

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performing environmental education

A teacher’s capacity to become aware of his/her own mutual relation with place is influenced by both individual and collective relations with place; by his/her receptivity to the human and non-human, to the animate and the inanimate as well as the institutional and social practices of place.

Environmental education needs to attend to both the individual and collective mutual relations with place of both the teacher and the pupils.

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LIVING STREAMS; DESIGNING PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS FOR SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES

Dr Jennifer Pearson

Edith Cowan University, Science Education and Technology & Enterprise Education, Western Australia.

This is a case study of a school group who presented a successful proposal to local government outlining the rehabilitation of a cement drain system in a park to a living stream. The school worked with the local landcare group to investigate the issues of rehabilitation and visited pristine local sites to learn from community members about rehabilitation processes. The proposals enabled the school and local community to embark on a 5 year plan with considerable support from the local council for site works. Partnerships can achieve significant outcomes for students, community members and connectedness to local government initiatives to engage in rehabilitation projects. Jennifer Pearson’s teaching has spanned primary, secondary and tertiary education positions. She has also worked with Landcare groups to support schools as they engage in Environmental Education projects. Supporting groups to be proactive about caring for communities is at the heart of her work. Jennifer is involved in the Science Teachers Association as the journal editor and is the Convenor of AAEE Chapter in WA. Her research perspectives cover both Science and Technology & Enterprise Education in Early Childhood and Primary communities as they engage in EE.

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Living Streams; Designing Partnership Projects for Schools and Communities

Dr. Jennifer Pearson, Edith Cowan University

YULE BROOK COLLEGE PEAC, GOSNELLS CITY COUNCIL & ARMADALE GOSNELLS LANDCARE GROUP

The major focus of the Armadale Gosnells Landcare Group (AGLG) was to engage the community and schools about the issues related to the Canning Rivers system. The Canning River originates in the Catchment that AGLG worked in partnership with the Gosnells and Armadale City Councils. The river had been identified as a major contributor of polluted water to the Swan River System through weed infestation and high nutrient loads. The extensive damming of the river, the management practices of clearing debris from the river and creation of drains to direct water had created problems for the river to self regulate. Yule Brook College operates a PEAC group which is an academic extension class for primary children. The teacher wanted to develop a new program based on water and asked the AGLG group for assistance. She wanted to concentrate on a local issue and Parakeelya Park provided an ideal site to investigate. As a management strategy, in previous years, the Parks & Facilities Department of the Gosnells City Council had decided that a concrete drain was the best way to manage the ephemeral water course. The PEAC group were to be given the brief of returning this concrete drain to a living stream. Parakeelya Park provides public open space in a housing estate and the Yule Brook is controlled by large pipes and concrete drain system as part of the Tonkin Highway. The drain at Parakeelya Park was one of the many arterial streams that entered the Canning River system. Connecting the school to the park provided the perfect opportunity for the PEAC group to investigate how to rehabilitate a concrete drain system back to a living stream that was not only aesthetically pleasing but also to re-establish the nutrient stripping system provided by diverse river vegetation. A course of action was worked out for the group that would give them access to a range of experts within our community about how this could be done. Over a ten week period the children would investigate, devise a plan and present this to the Mayor, who was the client. The evaluation of the success of the project would be judged by the Gosnells City Councils endorsement of the plan. The Technology Process This process has four phases that guided the work the children carried out. Investigation began with an examination of the park assisted by Ribbons of Blue expert, Honi Aldophson, who talked to the children about the reasons for the drain being built and helped them explore the water quality through a Macroinvertebrate snapshot. This meant examining what animals existing in the water collected from the drain. The resulting observations indicated that the quality of the water was degraded. So that a comparison could be provided the children were shown the pristine water source for the river with the help of a Friends of Ellis Brook and our Ribbons of Blue expert. A repeat of the Macroinvertebrate snapshot was carried out with the children identifying a broader range of animals, including frogs and small fish from the waters edge. The visit to Ellis Brook Reserve enabled the children to talk with a community member about the revegetation work being carried out at the disused quarry sites close to the river. Heather was able to share with them the techniques of revegetation work including weed control, planting endemic species, mulching and maintenance routines. The enthusiasm was infectious, the information sound and the task before the children clearly laid out that to ensure the health of a river system you need to have shade to keep the water cool, leaf litter to encourage Macroinvertebrate. Also you need to provide suitable logs and rocks to slow the flow of the water at some points for breeding of aquatic animals. It could be done but it would take time and lots of hard work.

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Evaluation can be seen in these pictures, 3 years on from the project presentation by the children. Many hours of community planting and Gosnells Parks & Garden work have resulted in substantial ongoing results.

Devising meant coming up with some ideas for the plan so the children worked in smaller groups to develop ideas about types of vegetation required, the methods of revegetation, how to stop pollution entering the system and what to do about supporting the birds as well. All these ideas raised questions that needed another range of experts to help the children understand. This new line of investigations is an example of the power of the technology process that demonstrates that the process is not linear but can and must in some circumstances criss-cross as indicated on the model above.

Investigation now included a visit from Amy Krupa from the Phosphorous Action Group to talk about and demonstrate what pollutes waterways and how this can be managed. A local carpenter who had a passion for birds was asked to speak about building bird boxes to shelter birds that don’t have mature tree with hollows to shelter within. So that the selection of plant species was appropriate the group were workshopped about this by the AGLG river restoration officer. With this new information the children returned to the devising phase to refine their ideas.

Evaluation came when the students presented their findings to the Mayor, Environment Officer, Coordinator of AGLG, Parks and Gardens Officer, Planning Infrastructure Officer, parents and those who had provided expert assistance along the way. The Mayor made the Council Chambers available for the presentation day which provided a suitable backdrop to the presentation. The children conducted themselves very well reflecting the degree to which they understood all aspects of the project. After responding to questions posed by the Mayor she was able to tell the children that their project would be implemented but that it would happen over a 5 year timeframe as the cement drain could not be removed immediately. The $100,000 project was a real endorsement for the children and their belief that they can make a difference. .

Producing now involved the making of a model that clearly showed what the park could look like if the changes were implemented. It reflected the need for pathways for people to walk and ride around the park. There was the inclusion of a bridge over the drain to provide some aesthetics and sculptural elements as was the recommendation that the playground be upgraded. The children worked in teams to consolidate the list of requirements for plants suitable to the area, suggested methods to use for weed free environment through the use of curbing to keep the lawn out of the revegetation area and inclusion of mulch to protect the new plants during the hot summer months. There was also an attempt to indicate the cost that would be involved in the removal of the cement drain, plants, materials for riffles, paths and the bridge.

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BIODIVERSITY EDUCATION IN CAMBODIA

Dr Brad Pettitt ISTP, Murdoch University

In biological terms, Cambodia is one of the richest countries in the world. It contains a remarkable diversity of wild animals, plants and habitats, including, for example, more than 1,000 species of fish and approximately 11 million hectares of forest cover. In recognition of the national and global importance of this biodiversity, 25% of Cambodia is currently under protection: one of the highest levels anywhere in the world. As Cambodia moves towards greater development and prosperity, however, there needs to be a clearer understanding of how to manage and use this natural heritage wisely. Natural resources are the mainstay of Cambodia’s economy: more than 80% of Cambodians depend directly on natural resources for subsistence and income. With pressures on biodiversity and the environment increasing, there is a risk of Cambodia losing much of this natural wealth to the detriment of present and future generations. In 2006 Darwin Initiative and Fauna & Flora International launched a Masters of Biodiversity Conservation in response to the clear need for more qualified and experienced Khmer nationals to guide Cambodia towards sustainable resource use and development and uphold the nation’s international commitments to conserving its biodiversity. In January 2006 I went to Phnom Penh to teach part of this Masters course. This paper will discuss why such a Masters course was needed and will examine the challenges of teaching biodiversity conservation and natural resource management in a cross-cultural setting. It will critically reflect on the techniques used in teaching the course and will highlight some key lessons learnt.

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Biodiversity Education in Cambodia

Biodiversity Education in Cambodia

Dr Brad PettittInstitute for Sustainability and Technology Policy

Murdoch UniversityB.Pettitt@murdoch.edu.au

Dr Brad PettittInstitute for Sustainability and Technology Policy

Murdoch UniversityB.Pettitt@murdoch.edu.au

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In biological terms, Cambodia is one of the richest countries in the world. It contains a remarkable diversity of wild animals, plants and habitats, including, for example, more

than 1,000 species of fish and approximately 11 million hectares of forest cover. In recognition of the national and global

importance of this biodiversity, 25% of Cambodia is currently under protection: one of

the highest levels anywhere in the world.

In biological terms, Cambodia is one of the richest countries in the world. It contains a remarkable diversity of wild animals, plants and habitats, including, for example, more

than 1,000 species of fish and approximately 11 million hectares of forest cover. In recognition of the national and global

importance of this biodiversity, 25% of Cambodia is currently under protection: one of

the highest levels anywhere in the world.

Page 144

As Cambodia moves towards greater development and prosperity, however, there needs to be a clearer

understanding of how to manage and use this natural heritage wisely. Natural resources are the mainstay of Cambodia’s economy: more than 80% of Cambodians depend directly on natural resources for subsistence and income. With pressures on biodiversity and the environment increasing, there is a risk of Cambodia

losing much of this natural wealth to the detriment of present and future generations.

As Cambodia moves towards greater development and prosperity, however, there needs to be a clearer

understanding of how to manage and use this natural heritage wisely. Natural resources are the mainstay of Cambodia’s economy: more than 80% of Cambodians depend directly on natural resources for subsistence and income. With pressures on biodiversity and the environment increasing, there is a risk of Cambodia

losing much of this natural wealth to the detriment of present and future generations.

Page 145

In 2006 Darwin Initiative and Fauna & Flora International in collaboration with the Royal University of Phnom Penh launched a Masters of Biodiversity Conservation in response to the clear need for more qualified and experienced Khmer nationals to guide Cambodia towards sustainable resource use and development and uphold the nation’s international commitments to conserving its biodiversity.A core unit within this Masters degree was on Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). This unit was taught in Cambodia in January and February 2006.

In 2006 Darwin Initiative and Fauna & Flora International in collaboration with the Royal University of Phnom Penh launched a Masters of Biodiversity Conservation in response to the clear need for more qualified and experienced Khmer nationals to guide Cambodia towards sustainable resource use and development and uphold the nation’s international commitments to conserving its biodiversity.A core unit within this Masters degree was on Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). This unit was taught in Cambodia in January and February 2006.

Page 146

What is Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM)?

What is Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM)?

Links Environmental Protection and Community Development “A diversity of co-management approaches that strive to empower local communities to actively participate in the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources”.

Links Environmental Protection and Community Development “A diversity of co-management approaches that strive to empower local communities to actively participate in the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources”.

Page 147

How was the course taught?How was the course taught?First: classroom lectures, tutorials and workshops on key environmental and sustainable development challenges for Cambodia with a specific focus on ecosystem health, biodiversity, participation and gender.

First: classroom lectures, tutorials and workshops on key environmental and sustainable development challenges for Cambodia with a specific focus on ecosystem health, biodiversity, participation and gender.

Page 148

How was the course taught?How was the course taught?

Second: Practical Field based experience in CBNRM that included the students visiting co-managed forests and fisheries in rural CambodiaThis was linked with their independent research projects to be submitted later in the semester.

Second: Practical Field based experience in CBNRM that included the students visiting co-managed forests and fisheries in rural CambodiaThis was linked with their independent research projects to be submitted later in the semester.

Page 149

How was the course taught?How was the course taught?Third: Training in Participatory Research that included working with villagers and facilitators to understand links between livelihoods and resourcesThis included Community Mapping and Participatory Land Use Planning

Third: Training in Participatory Research that included working with villagers and facilitators to understand links between livelihoods and resourcesThis included Community Mapping and Participatory Land Use Planning

Page 150

Challenges for Environmental Education in Cambodia

Challenges for Environmental Education in Cambodia

In the early stages:Poor capacity for critical thinking amongst the students as a result of a rote learning culture even at university level.A lack of ownership and an expectation that foreigners can solve development and environment problems in Cambodia.Challenges in cross-cultural communication and some language difficulties.

In the early stages:Poor capacity for critical thinking amongst the students as a result of a rote learning culture even at university level.A lack of ownership and an expectation that foreigners can solve development and environment problems in Cambodia.Challenges in cross-cultural communication and some language difficulties.

Page 151

SuccessesSuccesses

Enhanced capacity for Khmer national to protect natural assets and to directly involved in managing key project including forest and wildlife protection, increased agricultural production, ecotourism and fisheries managementA stronger understanding of the importance of community participation in natural resource management and the need to build on and respect local traditionsNB. Due to the success of this course, it will be repeated in coming years with the intention that some of the best current students will become future lecturers in the course.

Enhanced capacity for Khmer national to protect natural assets and to directly involved in managing key project including forest and wildlife protection, increased agricultural production, ecotourism and fisheries managementA stronger understanding of the importance of community participation in natural resource management and the need to build on and respect local traditionsNB. Due to the success of this course, it will be repeated in coming years with the intention that some of the best current students will become future lecturers in the course.Page 152

Page 153

Page 154

Page 155

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM USING TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF COMPUTER-BASED

MODELS - A PILOT STUDY

Kate Thompson1, Peter Reimann2 CoCo Research Centre, University of Sydney1, CoCo Research Centre, University of Sydney2

One of the aims of environmental education is to teach environmental knowledge and provide students with the skills to understand other environmental problems. We build on theories of mental models in order to account for the problems that students face when learning about environmental systems. These theories relate to the role that knowledge and understanding play in such problems. Misconceptions in science are common, and studies have found that students demonstrate a lack of understanding about important environmental issues. In addition, environmental systems are usually complex systems, which are generally poorly understood. Complex systems are often described using the strategies of multiple representations, system dynamics modelling or agent-based modelling. All of these strategies have been studied, but the results are not conclusive. The purpose of this study is to examine a range of instructional strategies aimed at enabling understanding of a complex socio-environmental system (a socio-environmental system is one that incorporates society's use of, or human impact on, the environment). It aims to examine strategies leading to the acquisition of knowledge and understanding in the areas of the nature and function of ecosystems, how they are related, and the impact of people on environments. This paper reports on the results of our pilot study carried out in August 2006 with Year 10 school students. We then discuss future directions for this work. Kate Thompson currently works as a Postgraduate Fellow at CoCo Research Centre in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, where she is also enrolled as a full time PhD student. Kate’s background as an environmental scientist has informed her work as a researcher in environmental education. Her PhD is compares school students’ understanding of an environmental system after they have been shown different types of computer-based models. Her interests include the use of technology in environmental education, including different types of computer-based models, mobile devices, and the internet.

Page 156

1

Knowledge and understanding of an environmental system using two different types of computer-based models – a pilot studyKate Thompson & Peter Reimann

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� Aims of environmental education:• Communication of scientific knowledge to

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environment

System Dynamics as a Mindtool for Environmental Education

Page 157

April 16, 2004

�

Understanding complex systems

� Technology as a mindtool for environmental education

� Environmental systems are complex systems

� Strategy for understanding complex environmental systems

System Dynamics as a Mindtool for Environmental Education

April 16, 2004

�

The PhD Project

� Which environmental system?• Visitor impact in a National Park

� Research Questions:• What type of computer simulation model?• Where does the environmental education

take place?• With whom does the environmental

education happen?

System Dynamics as a Mindtool for Environmental Education

Page 158

April 16, 2004

�

The Pilot Study• Research Question: What type of computer

simulation model will help students understand a complex environmental system? What are the differences?

• Experimental Design:• 3 groups

1 control group (text description)2 treatment groups

Text description and a system dynamics modelText description and an agent-based model

April 16, 2004

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The Pilot Study• Sample

• Sydney-based Independent school• Year 10 Science class, with 16 students• 6 students returned the permission slips

• Procedure and Instruments• Demonstration of the System Dynamics Model and

the Agent Based Model

Page 159

April 16, 2004

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Page 161

April 16, 2004

Discussion and Conclusion

� Changes made as a result of the study• Decrease the runtime of the models• Changes to questions regarding understanding

� Description of the user groups� How can this relate to environmental education?

• Address Rickinson’s (2001) call for more research into the processes involved in environmental education

• Informed decision making

System Dynamics as a Mindtool for Environmental Education

Page 162

CLIMBING LITTLE GREEN STEPS

Maree Whelan Gosford City Council and Danielle Hargreaves, Wyong Shire Council

Climbing Little Green Steps symbolises the journey involved when providing a sustainability program to preschools and early childhood centres. During 2004, Gosford and Wyong Shire Councils located on the New South Wales Central Coast developed such a program using funding provided by the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation. It was evident that resources were unavailable in the areas of early childhood and sustainability on the Central Coast. The aims of the program were to:

• Target the 3-5 year age group ensuring a foundation for future school based programs • Introduce sustainability and environmental education to early childhood on the

Central Coast • Develop a relationship and partnerships with early childhood centres and staff • Build capacity with professional development for centre staff and parents

The program was multi faceted in method and provided local centres with resources to support early childhood centre staff, capacity building opportunities for centre staff and facilitated networks by distributing information to centres. There has been increasing interest from stakeholders in Little Green Steps. Research and evaluation of the program will provide groups such as environmental educators, key stakeholders and early childhood centres with valuable findings. Research findings will be used to develop other tools such as a Training Manuals and Case Studies for these groups. This workshop will report on evaluation findings and the importance of councils providing environmental education support in this area.

Page 163

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Contents • Background to Little Green Steps

Program

• Climbing Little Green Steps – the Evaluation

• Show and Tell

• Workshopping the How To Manual

Page 164

Background• Wyong Council and Gosford Council

partnership

• Grant funded by the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation as part of the “It’s a living thing” program

Objectives • Develop curriculum resource kits

• Implement program into a number of centres

• Provide professional development opportunities to centre staff

Page 165

Program Details• The Program commenced August 2004

• The Program was launched at University of Newcastle – Central Coast Campus with 30 centres present

The Program consisted of:

• Facilitated professional development workshops delivered by Lady Gowrie Child Centre, Sydney

• Developed resource kits on topics such as waste, water and biodiversity

• The facilitation of a preschools environment education network including a monthly newsletter

Page 166

Lady Gowrie Workshops• Responsible recycling

• Efficient use of natural resources

• Environmentally friendly cleaning agents

• Outdoor environments

• Service policy, management planning

• Ethical and moral dilemmas

Waste • Assist centres to implement a recycling system

• Provide information about recycling organics such as composting and worm farms, act as a mentor to those centres wishing to implement composting and or worm farms and supplied compost bins to 30 centres

Page 167

Waste cont’ed

• Develop activities suitable for children aged 3-5 that are promote waste minimisation and link to home corner

Water • Assisting centres who are interested in installing

water tanks to acquire rebates from relevant councils

• Develop water saving stickers for taps in all areas of childcare centres

• Develop a water conservation activity suitable for children aged 3-5

Page 168

Water cont’ed

• Develop a water saving Fact Sheet to compliment activities happening at the preschool

• Provided displays and staff support in centres targeting the parents and extended family

Biodiversity • Provide plants and local plant knowledge to

centres

• Develop outdoor activities that assist children in identifying the unique qualities of their local area

Page 169

Biodiversity cont’ed• Provide information about

habitats and food sources for native species

• Develop a Fact Sheet for families that promotes biodiversity and other issues such as responsible pet ownership

Networks and Support• Developed a newsletter to communicate

valuable information on a range of environmental issues. This is sent to centres bi-monthly

• Developed a relationship with the state based network, ECEEN. Working under Early Childhood Aust. ECEEN is designed to encourage environmental education in the very young

Page 170

������������������������

• Grant funding received from the N.S.W. Department of Environment and Conservation. As part of the Showcase Partnerships Program

• Began in May 2006

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An Evaluation of the Little Green Steps Program:

• One on one interviews• Workshopping of interview results• Final report• How to Manual for organisations

• Case Studies

Page 171

Evaluation Methods

Engagement of two consultants to:

• Develop an interview method and final report

• Perform one-on-one interviews• Two groups – stakeholders and

alternate group

“2 versions of the interview method were developed in order to report on key stakeholders and alternate groups (centres that had not participated in the program)”

Page 172

Overview Of Results

• Stakeholders comments on the resource kits included:– that they were age appropriate, – had variety, – were durable and – were easy to use

• Stakeholders had no negative comments on kits

Overview Of Results

• The newsletters were very popular

• Stakeholders noted they would like in-service opportunities with staff from other centres

• Stakeholders would like training and workshops to keep staff motivated

Page 173

Resource Kits Results

The Resource Kits were used in centres for:

• Formal teaching• Prompts for day to day use• Educate parents• Educate staff

Resource Kits Used in Centres

50.0%

55.0%

60.0%

65.0%

70.0%

75.0%

80.0%

85.0%

90.0%

Waste Biodiversity WaterPer

cen

tag

e o

f Cen

tres

Usi

ng

Kits

Centres

Page 174

Resource Kits cont’ed

• In addition to the Water Kit, 50% of stakeholders had water displays

• Centres would like to see additional resources including finger puppets, songs, poems on CD and a storybook

Professional Development

83% of centres undertook some sort of training. Training included:

• Induction to resource kits

• Lady Gowrie Professional Development Workshops

• Living with less chemicals workshop

Page 175

How Valuable was the Professional Development Training?

02468

1012

VeryValuable

Valuable Neutral Not VeryValuable

Not at allValuable

Answers from 15 Centres Trained

Nu

mb

er o

f C

entr

es

Value of Professional Development Training

When asked how best training should be delivered, stakeholders recommended:

• Professional development sessions held on weeknights not weekends

• In service sessions

• Hands on workshops

Page 176

Do you Read the Newsletters?

02468

10121416

Yes, all theTime

Yes,Sometimes

No

Nu

mbe

r of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Is the Newsletter Read by Others?

02468

1012141618

Stakeholders Alternate Centres

Num

ber o

f Cen

tres

YesNo

Page 177

Previous research found that, of the 14 centres who responded to the final

survey all had read at least 1 issue of the newsletter and 98 other staff had

read at least one newsletter

Improvements for Newsletter• List calendar days well in advance

• Sharing what ideas are working in other centres – case studies

• Information that can be extracted from our Little Green Steps newsletter and copied for parent newsletters, even fact sheets and activity sheets that can be attached

• More ideas for water-saving

Page 178

Indicators of Sustainability As a result of centres being involved in

LGS Program – the following have been implemented:

• More awareness of environmental issues amongst staff

• Environmental issues being implemented in teaching programs and all activities

Indicators of Sustainability cont’ed

• Composting

• Recycling

• Water saving devices and tanks installed

Page 179

Indicators of Sustainability cont’ed

“Of the centres who have been exposed to the Little Green Steps program, 77.8% had conducted

research looking for ideas on sustainability, compared to 14.3% of

the alternate group who had not experienced the program”.

Researching Environmental Websites for Ideas to use in Centre

02468

10121416

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Page 180

Implementation of Water-Saving Ideas/Devices

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Linking with Early Childhood or Environmental Networks

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Page 181

Introduction of Green Cleaning Methods

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Yes No Considering

Num

bero

f C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Involvement in Sustainability Days (Av. of 4 Events)

0123456789

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Page 182

Does the Centre have a Wormfarm or Compost Bin?

02468

10121416

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

The Creation of Unique Environmetnally Inspired Activities or Campaigns

02468

10121416

Yes No Considering

Nu

mb

er o

f C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Page 183

Submission of Entries in the SPROuts Awards

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

The Submission of Grant Applications

0123456789

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Page 184

The Purchase of Resources/Texts metioned in Newsletters

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

The Introduction of a New Waste Management System or EMP

02468

101214

Yes No Considering

Num

ber

of C

entr

es

StakeholdersAlternate Centres

Page 185

Centres Recommendations • Visits to centres by Council staff to speak to

staff and children

• Assistance with setting up gardens

• Information which can be given to parents

• Facilitate sharing of ideas between centres

Opportunities • More compliance with Accreditation Process

for Childcare Centres

• More resource for formal teaching

• Expansion into Playgroups and Family Daycare

• Focus on centres considering making changes and non participating / new centres

Page 186

Outcomes • High level of centre commitment to the project

• Resource kits are used regularly

• Training was highly valued and centres would like opportunities for more

• Readership of the newsletter is significantly high

• Environmental actions in centres indicate high levels of commitment to sustainability

Thank you

Questions??

Page 187

PERCEIVING AND PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY

Birut Zemits

Charles Darwin University Australia’s multicultural population has brought perceptions of place and understanding of ecosystems from other natural and urban environments. Often these perceptions are influenced by media representations or hearsay rather than education or direct experience. This is particularly true for the Top End of the Northern Territory which is associated with ‘tropical exotic’ images in the minds of many who come here to work and study. How various groups and individuals perceive natural environments that surround them is analysed within this paper, based on research undertaken with Charles Darwin University’s Higher Education students and migrants studying English language. The research raises questions about how perceptions can influence an individual’s will to support actions that protect biodiversity in a region that they do not have a long-term connection with. Birut Zemits is a lecturer in migrant education, Applied Linguistics and Ethnographic Film at Charles Darwin University. She is also completing a PhD in film through the Fine Arts faculty at CDU. Part of this project entails exploring perceptions of biodiversity across cultures. An active AAEE member and delegate for the NT, Birut is helping to organise the next conference in Darwin in 2008.

Page 188

Perceiving and Perceiving and Protecting BiodiversityProtecting Biodiversity

Birut Zemits Birut Zemits --PhD studentPhD studentLecturer in Migrant English, Ethnographic Film and SociolinguistLecturer in Migrant English, Ethnographic Film and Sociolinguisticsics

at Charles Darwin Universityat Charles Darwin University

AAEE National ConferenceAAEE National Conference--BunburyBunbury

OrientationOrientation.Hands, hearts, minds.Hands, hearts, minds--How can we involve these How can we involve these

three in various ways.three in various ways.

Local, globalLocal, global-- Part of the AAEE catchcry Think locally, act globally is a Part of the AAEE catchcry Think locally, act globally is a strong message but who can it reach?strong message but who can it reach?

HHowow can we extend discourse on can we extend discourse on biodiversity within and across ethnic biodiversity within and across ethnic and ecological borders? and ecological borders?

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Defining Defining Strange and FamiliarStrange and FamiliarDepends where you come from?Depends where you come from?

CDU student perceptionsCDU student perceptionsMangrove namingMangrove naming

Name given. No. using this termName given. No. using this termMangrove/ mangroves Mangrove/ mangroves 102102Swamp Swamp 1515River/Creek River/Creek 1212Unknown (?) Unknown (?) 1010Tropical/ rainforest Tropical/ rainforest 88Wetlands Wetlands 55Water Water 55Jungle/forest Jungle/forest 55LarrakiaLarrakia land/Indigenous home 2land/Indigenous home 2Other responses were off topicOther responses were off topic

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Savanna/ Tropical Woodland Savanna/ Tropical Woodland NamingNaming

Name given Name given No. of Students using this termNo. of Students using this termBush/ bushlandBush/ bushland 9292ForestForest 1414Unknown (?)Unknown (?) 77WoodlandWoodland 77Savanna/tropical Woodland 6Savanna/tropical Woodland 6Dry/seasonDry/season 55Rainforest/ jungleRainforest/ jungle 55Burnt landBurnt land 44OutbackOutback 33ScrubScrub 33Indigenous/ Aboriginal landIndigenous/ Aboriginal land 22Other individual responsesOther individual responses

Preparedness to conserve environment according to Gender, Age and Ethnic Identity

0 20 40 60 80 100

Female

Male

Indigenous

Other than Aust'n

Anglo/Australian

18-27

28+

Varia

bles

of A

ge, g

ende

r an

d et

hnic

ity

Number of Students

UnsureNOYES

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Preparedness to conserve environment

0 20 40 60 80

Over 5 years

Under 5 years

Small City

Rural

Suburb

Large City

Tim

e in

the

North

and

Pla

ce

whe

re m

ost t

ime

spen

t

Number of Students

Unsurenoyes

Areas Identified for Conservation

NT places38%

General ecosystem

name24%

Other areas in Australia

17%

Overseas17%

Unsure4%

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Reasons to Conserve

Heritage13%

Aesthetic23%

Ecosystem30%

Anti-development

8%

Spiritual7%

Recreational5%

Memories14%

Questions remainingQuestions remaining

How can we increase How can we increase

Concern for biodiversity in nonConcern for biodiversity in non--iconic iconic ecosystems?ecosystems?

Action in environmental education to Action in environmental education to involve mobile populations?involve mobile populations?

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