Know The World

 Summary

Why environmental education is important in understanding the challenges associated with climate justice, racism, inequality, democracy, and human prosperity.

How can we respond to the current emergency of our planet? In Knowing the Earth, Mitchell Thomashow proposes to revitalize, rediscover, and rethink the way we think about our existence on Earth. First, we must recognize that the major challenges of our time — migration, race, inequality, climate justice, and democracy — are intertwined with the biosphere. Ordinary environmental education has accomplished much, but it has not been able to stem the tide of global warming. Thomashow, former president of a college dedicated to sustainability, instead describes environmental learning, a term that implies that our relationship with the biosphere should be at the forefront and focused on all aspects of our daily lives. In this enlightening book, he gives reasons, accounts, and ways to do just that.

Combining memory, theory, psychology, pedagogy, and storytelling, Thomashow discusses how the fast-paced Anthropocene movement of change without continuing to separate the mind from the biosphere; why we should understand migration both naturally and culturally; how to achieve constructive communication in both social and environmental forums; and why we should adopt the concept of cosmopolitan bioregionalism that integrates locally and globally. Throughout it, Thomashow invites students to participate as academic assessors, encouraging them to better understand why and why natural learning is so important to human prosperity.