By Victoria W. Thoresen

Many schools include environmental education in their curricula, but this is often done by merely sharing factual information about the critical state of parts of the physical environment, leading to feelings of anxiety and vulnerability. Such an approach tends to focus primarily on specific problems and to a much lesser extent on developing the positive attitudes and behaviour needed to solve existing problems. Increased anxiety for the future is often the result. In some cases, students even acquire a paralyzing sense of futility about being able to influence the changes that are taking place.