Teaching earth smarts: Equipping the next generation with the capacity to adapt

Abstract

What if we could equip the next generation with the capacity to adapt to a changing world? Isn’t it our responsibility to give them the ability to face local and global environmental challenges and improve, or at least maintain, the quality of life that many of us presently enjoy? Communities will need the ability to quickly and effectively adapt, or risk diminished lives or even collapse. This chapter will suggest that education should be about giving our kids “earth smarts,” a kind of street smarts writ large. Earth smarts is an educational construct, a tool that can help policymakers, educators, and researchers. Synthesized from a wide range of research and thought on environmental literacy and related concepts, it highlights our considerable capacity to meet challenges and will be a useful tool for anyone who believes that education can play a crucial role in preparing individuals and communities to creatively and justly adapt to environmental challenges. Freely available in a variety of formats, earth smarts was designed to be open, flexible, and practical – policymakers, researchers, and educators from around the world are encouraged to shape it to their own cultural and environmental contexts.