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One million species are at risk of extinction. The long, alarming list goes on. If we continue to live the way we do today, we will need the resources of three earths by 2050 and plant and animal diversity will be gone.
Reconciling humanity and the living requires education around the world. Only one in five countries makes reference to biodiversity in its school curricula - and barely one in two countries talked about the ocean or to climate change. Basically, the need for all children to learn about nature and spend their time in nature is an imperative long overdue. That’s why, at the Berlin Conference last May, more than 80 governments pledged to put environmental education at the heart of school curricula around the world by 2025. However, like most pledges, they remain mostly pledges. That’s why, Endangered Species International (ESI) pushes nature education and the love for living creatures since its inception. Now, it is urgent to bring our kids back to nature as part of their main education. We need transformative education to pave the way.
Nature inspires, refreshes, and nurtures us. When experiences with nature are embedded in the school curriculum and daily routine, children benefit physically, emotionally, and intellectually as they have new experiences, exercise their bodies, and enjoy the feeling of freedom that comes from being connected to the natural world. This also helps them to become good stewards of the earth’s resources and nature lovers.
ESI fosters ground actions to get children to bond with and love the earth before asking them to save it. We must invest in education for sustainable development and ensure that it is embedded in learning systems globally.
Whether it manifests itself in the heartbreaking of mega-fire, the lack of fishes, in the degradation of natural land, or in the disturbing silence that settles in the countryside and forests, the collapse of biodiversity and our killing of life of earth must prompt us to change course without further delay. We must mobilize ourselves alongside the youth. There is still time, but not for much longer.
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