Blog #5

Aldo Leopold said, "[Educating people on living sustainably means] going from a conqueror of the land community to plain member and citizen of it." To me, that's the whole concept of green living. You're not the owner of the natural world, you're part of it and one with it. As was said in class, it's a symbiotic relationship that so many of us take for granted. From the readings, a green learning community consists of educating the public about the environment, not letting the actions start at the top of society. Both Orr and Caspary put an emphasis on environmental education, which I one hundred percent agree with. Without education, people are left in the dark about the state of the environment, especially for the habitats that are so far away, such as rainforests. Even the lack of knowledge the public has for the slaughtering and treatment of animals astonishes me. The methods by which most slaughterhouses kill their livestock is so unclean and the waste ends up in our oceans, effecting and killing marine species. I don't think majority of society has the slightest clue about what goes on further than local boundaries and without awareness there will be no change. To educate and show the people the truth, passions and activism will emerge within people, thus leading to the support of a green learning community and environmental changes that we need.

You would know a green learning community if you saw a group of people living in a place full of healthy, thriving plants and animals. Adults would be teaching children about the Earth and its natural gifts to us. There would be no litter or waste going into rivers and our oceans. The urbanization and industrialization would no longer exist. Just as people use the earth's resources, they would give back by planting more of what they used. People would be raising livestock to live with them not chained up in factories to be used at our disposal.