Page 122 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

7 Engaging the Environment 99

abstractly “do anything for them directly,” there is enough cry from advocates of
this place to force US and Alaskan legislators to debate and converse about the
issue. This debate demonstrates the positive implications of environmental educa-
tion when linked with what children learn in schools and about distant places over
the last 40 plus years, while also considering the thinking Kurt notes.
When environmental education comes into play, we wonder about its impact on
meaningful learning. Fourth and fifth graders attending Earth Camp in Kentucky
last summer were asked: “Where does your energy come from?” They had no idea.
Not a single student was able to articulate that the energy near their homes comes
from the coal mined within a very short distance of where they live. These students
were shown Google maps of the region and they were shocked to learn that the
energy used when they watch television or use a computer, comes from the coal
obtained and the destruction of mountains near their city. How is this information
not known to them at all, let alone in a meaningful way (Phillipson Mower, 2009,
personal communication)?
Considering the information that youth can access is important for school. It is
well-known that The Lorax (Dr. Seuss 1971) was banned in schools in the Pacific
Northwest because children of loggers came home saying: “Why does daddy hate
the Earth?” Of course, the parents of these children do not hate the Earth, but with-
out an understanding of the relationships between people and the Earth conveyed
with resources such as The Lorax, simplistic views emerge and books are banned.
Could it simply be that where big business establishes a foothold, nearby communi-
ties are kept in the dark about issues that may directly or indirectly have an eco-
nomic impact on them?
It may always be an uphill battle to maintain a healthy environment education
curriculum when healthy economies are concurrently at stake. However, students
need scientific and environmental knowledge, understandings, and the skill sets to
make informed voting decisions and ask a potential employer about associated risks
with a job. People who only want to earn a living and raise a family may in fact do
so at their own peril without even realizing it. This idea is what occurs when stu-
dents do not think about their assumptions and how their assumptions frame their
behaviors toward the Earth. Air pollution deaths in Donora, Pennsylvania, are one
particular example. For decades, people worked a hard life in the steel mills of the
Pittsburgh area. They went to work each day and earned a very difficult living. Over
time, air pollution increased to such a degree that it caused the first known deaths
in the USA due to the quality of air. Donora, Pennsylvania saw a temperature inver-
sion settle over the smog-filled valley 1 week in October 1948. During this time,
day became night, and people did not know the friends they passed on the street.
Twenty people died quickly of asphyxiation, and 30 more died within days. More
than half of the 14,000 residents became ill as a consequence of the regional air
pollution. This event started a chain of clean air reactions and advocacy that
eventually led to the first clean air legislation in the 1950s and further regulations
that put a “checks and balances” on local Pittsburgh businesses. The bottom line to
my message here is that, while there has been a vast improvement of corporate
stewardship and responsibility for the environment other corporations place much