Diminishing footprints: exploring the local and global challenges to place-based environmental education

Abstract

An efficacious response to the ecological crisis requires a thorough examination of our material entitlements and a willingness to reduce our ecological impact by diminishing current levels of consumption. Drawing on the example of air pollution in China, I present a case for the reduction of consumption and impact as a worthy outcome of place-based environmental education. I consider the challenges that place-based educators face in initiating a reduction in collective impact among its constituents, which stem from theoretical assumptions about the link between the local and the global, and the influence of non-local socio-economic forces. Because the current planetary situation complicates the task of the place-based educator, and one’s investment in place may be assailed by trans-national forces, I forward ecological virtue ethics as a complementary form of environmental education, which in conjunction with place-based education, can serve to promote a reduction in consumption and impact among local communities.

Keywords:

• Environmental education
• place-based education
• local
• global
• virtue ethics
• ecological footprint

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank all the reviewers who provided valuable comments and suggestions, which helped to strengthen this paper in its formative stages.

Notes

1. For the purposes of the paper, I shall use Greenwood, the author’s chosen name, in the main body of the paper. The author’s previous name (Gruenewald) will appear in reference to works he published prior to the name-change.

2. The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection utilizes an Air Quality Index (AQI) in the range from 0 to 300+. An AQI reading below 100 is considered safe. Any reading above 300 is considered severely polluted.

3. The development of community gardens, community-supported agriculture and farmer’s markets point to the growing popularity of the local food movement (Smith and Mackinnon 2007; ‘Slow Food International 2016’), that showcases a place-based response to industrial agriculture. However, despite these positive developments, the local food movement remains a small segment within the larger food landscape. Producers and activists must remain steadfast in their commitment to local food security and sustainability even when such efforts do not result in changes to the dominant food systems in their respective places.