I appreciate young Benjamin Austin’s contribution to the Wall Street Journal from Friday, March 3, 2017 … about a need for an education in economics, in the more conventional sense, in high schools ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/economics-shouldnt-be-an-elective-1488498856 ). However, the gigantic hole in human societies which is threatening much of life on Eaarth in the anthropocene, including Homo sapiens, is ecological illiteracy. We desperately need (positively ethical applied) ecological economics across curricula & campuses of all human organizational entities.
Some questions related to ecological economics and sustainable community, which need to be worked on and begun to be answered for students from pre-school until death, are:
The Why? for regeneration & conservation of resilient/SUSTAINABLE community?
o Are there LIMITS concerning the natural resource base of the Earth, material flow, energetics, & homeostasis, and population growth & quality life?
o Is there disparity on Eaarth? Should we practice an ethic of reciprocity /the golden rule???? PEACE???? Love????
o Is “Nature” (somewhat as it “was”) important? (Are we biophiliacs??)
The What? for regeneration & conservation of resilient/SUSTAINABLE community? Do we not need to:
o Realize (positively ethical applied community) ecology* across campuses & curricula of all human organizational entities?
o Be humble, frugal, and simple, small, & slow, and abide by the Precautionary Principle, realize sufficiency more than efficiency, practice sustainable livelihoods with a light ecological footprint, and leave much of “Nature” alone?
o Utilize and develop appropriate agroecology?
o Open borders; share knowledge, means toward sustainable livelihoods, Land and resources; work hard to get rid of nuclear arms, other armaments and guns? Share toward equity/equality and respect for all life forms, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, age groups, mental & physical-challenged, … .
The How? for regeneration & conservation of resilient/SUSTAINABLE community?
o “Lay it all out on the table” and dialogue through science & art/ brainstorm /tell our stories through prose, poetry, song, music, & other arts /communicate /cogitate /ruminate /communicate. Root out even more of personal, social, cultural, political, ecological history; deal with psychological, physiological, philosophical challenges … and continue communicating.
o Set goals, policy, action plans; take action; monitor, analyze, evaluate, assess; replan; … .
o Keep on a-muddling through toward regeneration & conservation of resilient/SUSTAINABLE community
…………………………………………………………
*In order to wisely, prudently, critically think & act … from birth until actually becoming an Elder, all need to be continually developing a knowledge of principles & processes in natural systems, i.e.,learning about :
holism /connectivity, watersheds, biome characteristics & dynamics, weather & climate, evapo-transpiration, degree-day/phenology modeling (& other modeling), levels of organization, the energy pyramid, “as energy is transformed/used it tends toward uselessness”, trophic levels, food webs, producers & consumers, grazers, browsers, carnivores, decomposers, hydrological cycles, biogeochemical cycles, homeostasis, population /ecological community /& ecosystem dynamics, pecking orders, keystone species, limiting factors, carrying capacity, micro-/macro-evolution, small vs. big, r- & K-strategists, species interactions, allelopathy, importance of biodiversity, ecological succession, climax communities, fire ecology, soil /water /biotic community /human ecology, energetics, net primary productivity, metabolism, poikilotherms & homeotherms, least-cost/end use analysis, pollution, desertification, eutrophication, biomagnification, appropriate scale, appropriate technology, marine /aquatic/ terrestrial ecology, agroecology, “planned, controlled multispecies rotational grazing”, steady-state ecological economics, How do we live well in a place?, … .
As Aldo Leopold & David Orr said (somewhat paraphrased): all education is ecological education, and “If education does not teach us these things [of ecological mechanisms], then what is education for?”
7S’s / VV->^^
pbm
