Page 121 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

98 K. Love et al.

It can be argued that environmental education has always been in a precarious
position within the greater scheme of education. From the early 1970s with the
advent of Earth Day and environmental nightmares that occurred over subsequent
decades, environmental education has been around, but always it seems, at the
periphery. People who seemingly have no direct connection with a region of the
Earth disregard the importance of it, because they do not see it or understand any
connections of their relationship with nature. Now consider again, mountain top
removal for coal mining. In recent years, this practice has gained national exposure
because of the extreme destruction of the practice. In short, small mountain tops are
literally removed down to the seam of coal and the “overburden rock,” which covers
the coal, is pushed into an adjoining valley. One could argue that this practice does
not resonate with people, because they feel it does not impact them directly. Simply
put, people say things like, “what does the mountain do for me?” I need the coal to
make electricity, or something similar. These kinds of mindsets provide an excel-
lent rationale for the strengthening of environmental and science education at every
level, including the teacher education level. It is well-known that many jobs are
linked to mining. Educators prepare students to enter these jobs and many other
jobs which have destructive impacts on the Earth, without thinking more fully
about the ramifications and responsibility to the story. This story should be told
through environmental and other forms of education.
While a mountain may indeed do nothing for any one person, its destruction
causes unintended consequences over the longer-term. For Clarion County in
Pennsylvania, decades of strip mining have left thousands of miles of streams
devoid of aquatic life and a resident population of students who will grow up seeing
(literally) dead streams near their homes. This neglect resulted from over 100 years
of coal mining with very little thought about the cultural assumptions being
perpetuated in schools or the consequences after coal was extracted for energy
consumption. A healthy 100 or 200 m soil and rock profile, taking millions of years
to develop, is violently altered in just a few months to the point where chemical
reactions in the iron-rich rock cause a process known as acid mine drainage (AMD).
No one ever knows if or when it occurs, but for the most part it continues to destroy
streams, some with a pH of <3. This pH is far too acidic to support most kinds of
native animal life, with a few exceptions. So, the initial impact is habitat destruc-
tion, and the longer-term maintenance (government management) of AMD involves
the use of caustic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide to raise stream pH levels to
support animal and plant life.
Despite that, the contradiction between those who are much concerned with
issues of mining and drilling and those who are not, mining practices are currently
continuing. There seems to be enough environmental awareness at the national level
that most people would muster behind the protection of some un(fore)seen places
while other un(fore)seen places seem to be on the table for destruction (because of
the lack of thought associated with neglected or future places not mentioned in the
textbook or classroom). Positive intervention is occurring with the debate of drilling
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or “ANWR” on the north slope of Alaska.
While almost no one will ever travel to this distant location, and this place does not