Environmental Education and the North‐South Dialogue

The major difference between developing countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia and countries of industrial North is that they are staggeringly poor and we are wildly rich, at least in an economic sense. Their environmental problems are result of their poverty. Ours are result of our wealth. They do not have enough nutritious food, adequate health services, enough clothing and shelter, good water or education or jobs. simply trying to survive, as Brian Johnson at International Institute for Environment and Development puts it, the poorest are busy at work destroying their own fragile and threatened life-support systems 1. They are over-exploiting their soils, over-grazing their grasslands, decimating their forests, while bowing to economic pressures of Northern conglomerates who exploit their natural resources. In scramble traditional social structures are cracking and cultural identities are undergoing severe strain. The poorer countries spend their conscious environmental energy trying to create wealth. In striking contrast we overproduce and overconsume. We spend most of our conscious environmental energy on ethics and technology of how to handle physical and social waste of our affluence. We are so rich in fact that we are even beginning to ask, 'How much is enough?' The first question that arises from this great economic disparity between North and South is, why should North be concerned about environment of poor people in far-away lands? This is a political-economic question, perhaps even a moral one. The second question is, what is direction of environmental education in developing countries? This is an educational question that helps us to re-examine our own environmental education concerns in light of global perspectives. The third question relates to first two, what is link between North-South dialogue and environmental education?