Friday, October 22, 2010

Is the youth ready for education on sustainable development?

Another interesting post, today written by the media-communication student Shraddha Ganwani. Lucky for you, she joined our blogging-team and will stay at CEE until the conference.


Sustainable development- Most of you must have come across this phrase in Middle school, but none of us actually ponder over it or contribute in the process of attaining it. We hear about deliberations taking place in summits and meets, we know how important is the climate protocol, and what can be the consequences like, still we are not that affected because ultimately our life moves on.
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come. In order to help achieving the goal of sustainable development, we have to learn our way out of current social and environmental problems and learn to live sustainably; therefore the concept of ESD came into existence. Education for sustainable development aims to help people to develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge to make informed decisions for the benefit of themselves and others, now and in the future, and to act upon these decisions.
But how effective ESD will be, is completely dependent on our approach, perceptions, willingness to contribute towards the environment and conscionable community, and resolution to be the change that we want to see. We being the new age youth are smart, savvy and are ready to push our boundaries to attain our personal goals isn’t it our duty to offer a helping hand towards improvement of standard of living, and survival of the mankind. Today we the youth in the new era, can make the utilization of all renewable and non-renewable resources, we live in the world where with the help of development of technology communication has become rapid and human effort required to accomplish a task has reduced tremendously, but what is the use of this technology and training that we have imbibed if we can’t save the earth and its resources.
 Is it going to help, if we remain blinded towards the hurdles faced by the environmentalists just because it doesn’t affect our day-to-day routine? Is it going to help if we act as spectators when the trees are being cut, or if we cover our face with masks when come across pollution? Is it going to help to have deliberations on what should be the percentage of carbon emission by industries rather than executing it? Isn’t global warming a result of our skewed approach towards environment? We need a solution…and we can be the solution. It’s time that we identify that there is an alarming need for the youth to participate in such drives for protecting the environment and conserving natural resources? Is the youth ready to procure education on sustainable development and incorporate it in the activities undertaken for achieving the goal?

1 comment:

  1. Yes the youth today realises his repsonbilities...and is ready to work for individual, societal development...the questions are unanswered, and we need to carry out actions for our negligence.

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