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CEC MEMBER NEWS6 May 2009 | Issue 26 |

CEC CHAIR’S CORNER

An invitation to nominate CEC National Activators

Dear IUCN members, IUCN Regional and National Committees, IUCN Regional andNational Directors and CEC members,

As you know, the Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) is one of sixIUCN Commissions and is made up of a network of specialists in environmentalcommunication, education and learning from governments, governmental institutions,NGOs, academic institutions and from the private sector. CEC seeks to make IUCN andour community more effective at reaching goals through leading edge learning, changeand knowledge management processes.

In order to have more impact at the national and regional level, CEC is cr eating a newelement in our global governance structure: CEC National Activators.

By means of this letter, we would like to request your participation in the process ofnominating a CEC National Activator in your country. We are accepting nominationsfrom 1 May to 15 June 2009. Your assistance in identifying dynamic and effectivecandidates contributes to a stronger Commission. We are particularly interested inidentifying candidates from IUCN member organizations who are, or are willing tobecome, active CEC members.

Description of CEC National Activators

As national focal points, CEC National Activators will work closely with the CEC RegionalVice-Chairs. As volunteer members of CEC, they will lead, innovate and collaborate inthe three broadly defined areas in our mandate: 1) Facilitating the co -creation ofsustainable solutions; 2) Creating strategic communication platforms; 3 ) Leveraging newlearning for professional development. National Activators will contribute to CECcommitments to delivering results to the IUCN 2009 -2012 programme of work. They alsowill promote longstanding CEC commitments to advancing the internationa l Conventionsthrough Communication, Education, Participation and Awareness (CEPA); developing theWorld Conservation Learning Network (WCLN); and supporting the United NationsDecade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD).

CEC National Activators will be selected by the CEC Steering Committee for a period oftwo years 2009-2010 and renewable for another two years 2011 -2012, providing activeparticipation. Terms of Reference for this position are provided for your information.

Who can you recommend?

Please send your candidate(s) name and e -mail address to the CEC Membership LiaisonOfficer, Cecilia Nizzola-Tabja, at cec@iucn.org. Cecilia will send all nominations to the

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CEC Steering Committee for decisions to be taken by end of June 2009. If your candidateis not already a CEC member, kindly provide job title and a few sentences onqualifications.

As CEC Chair, I invite you to renew and reinvigorate a commitment to our global network,working together today to transform tomorrow. I look forward to receiving yournominations before 15 June. To read this letter and attachments in French and Spanishsee the links below.

With warm wishes,Keith Wheeler, ChairIUCN Commission on Education and Communication

Terms of Reference for CEC National Activators >>http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=277

CEC Mandate >>http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=276

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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Top ↑

May 2009 CEC Newsletter: Editor's Note

Starting in May, CEC news items will appear on the main IUCN website along with allother Commissions and Programmes. This will gain much broader exposure for CECthroughout the organization. See the CEC page on the IUCN website >>http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/cec/

Kindly update your files with our simplif ied Submission Form. Use this form to submitnews about events, resources, courses and other annou ncements of interest to the CECcommunity.

Download the new Submission Form:

English >> http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=268

Spanish >> http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=269

French >> http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=275

I look forward to receiving your news at cecnews@iucn.orgSincerely, Susancecnews@iucn.org

MESSAGE FROM THE FOCAL POINT Top ↑

Facilitators Demonstration Day: Bringing Together Conservationists withProfessionals in Communication and Group Facilitation

CEC Focal Point Gillian Martin Mehers recently organized a "Facilitation Demonstrationand Learning Day" with the IUCN Learning and Leadership Unit. When do you get achance to watch and participate in the work of 10 different facilitators in one day?

Facilitators Demonstration Day

When engaging a facilitator to contribute to a critical process you're developing, you wantto have one of the following: 1) A very strong recommendation from someone youcompletely trust, or 2) To have participated in/witnessed/ appreciated that facilitator's workpersonally.

How could IUCN colleagues quickly meet a number of facilitators and see how differntlythe all may work? We decided to organize a Facilitation Demonstration and Learning Dayin our office.

This is a full day session, featuring 8 local facilitators, each of whom have 45 minutes toshow us their personalised approach, tools and style. There are no wrong answers here;within a rubrique of 5 broad categories, we have asked them to facilitate a group of us(20+) through a short process, so we can get to know them better as potential facilitators.To help guide the day, we gave the facilitators 5 categories from which to choose:strategic planning and review, multi -stakeholder dialogue, partnership building, levera gingnetworks, and team development. This will help them get to know us better - we pickedprocesses that are common for our organization, the substance and texture of which ouraudience will provide, giving good insight to our visiting facilitators into t he kinds of issuesand challenges we deal with every day in our organization (and that they would be dealingwith when working with us).

The audience is us - we are the market, the demand, that is smart future buyers of goodfacilitation expertise. We inv ited our colleagues to participate so that they can see these

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facilitators work themselves. And they can then also recommend them to other absentcolleagues, or at least help them triangulate opinions.

We had a great response to our invitation within the facilitation "supply" in the Genevaarea. So much that we had to choose, and then were able to invite the others and a fewguests to participate as observers. In this case, each of the 8 facilitators gets to decidehow they would like the observers to part icipate - actively or silently. We will make a"fourth wall" behind which a gallery of observers can sit, or they can break through it andactively participate, if the facilitator has an approach that works with a larger group ofdiverse people and so chooses.

We will also be making a list of local talent, so that facilitators who could not attend canstill be featured as potential providers of this service in the future. We have already hadrequests for that list.

We did not have a budget for this and di dn't want to ask people to pay to participate, butwe did not want that to stop us. So we are running this event at nearly zero cost, well, ourunit is sponsoring coffee breaks for the group. We are using one of our institution's onsitemeeting rooms, will use our self-service cafeteria for lunch, and both our colleagues andour facilitators are donating their time to this joint learning day.

We'll learn more about them, they'll learn more about us, and hopefully this day will heraldsome interesting collaboration in the future from matches between the local supply anddemand that might not have otherwise occurred.

Notes on a successful day

When do you get the opportunity to watch and participate in the work of 10 differentfacilitators in one day? We did yesterday by hosting a Facilitators' Demonstration andLearning Day.

We had professional facilitators coming from the Geneva area, neighbouring France, andeven the UK. We also had a number of facilitators and trainers participate as observers.These practitioners joined 18 of our colleagues in this learning day.

Because it is unusual to get to see so many facilitators in a row, I couldn't help notingdown a number of good and interesting practices that I observed, and wanted to put themon the blog for sharing and future reference (not in any particular order, and obviouslyfrom my personal perspective):

Labelling: Get stickers or address labels with your name/company on them, and put themon your markers, cables and materials. Then they don't get conf used with those providedin the venue. And if other people help you clear up, they'll be able to tell what's what.

Branding: Two groups had printed large post -it notes that they used for brainstormingcards etc. with their company names on the bottom.

Signage: One team had a flipchart sized sign printed with their organization's name/logowhich they put up in the room.

Colour: I definitely noticed when teams used colour - things like markers (more than thestandard red/green/blue/black), cards, ppts, and believe it or not, even what they wore. Iwas surprised how bright colours on people's clothing positively affected my disposition tothe task.

Job Aids: There seems to be a line between job aids that are too hand -done and "cottagy"and too slick and somehow "industrial". I think a combination works well, perhaps handwritten flip charts, and printed hand outs? Or something in between. Printed thingsseemed to tidy up tasks.

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Table Settings: Home magazines put a lot of effort into giving people ideas of h ow to laytables for special dinners. When this happens in a workshop setting, people notice andappreciate it (like an open box of new markers, post -its in the middle, a creativity toy, etc.nicely laid out in the middle of the table for the group). I onc e heard about a Disneycreativity meeting set up, with a placemat for each person, drink, playdough, pens, etc.

Economizing Supplies: I appreciate it when people use a whole flipchart for notes as theyspeak, and not write one or two big words and then t urn over the page. Maybe it is myenvironmental background. Actually, that drives me crazy.

Handwriting: I think that facilitators either do, or should, take courses in handwriting. Itmakes a huge difference when you see great handwriting on a flipchart. People can alsopractice writing legibly fast - there could be a competition on this at a FacilitatorsConvention. Of course this also goes for participants. One Facilitator yesterday said heused the "Heineken Rule" when asking participants to write on c ards. If he couldn't read it,they had to buy him a beer.

Letting People Read: If you use cards, I like it when facilitators ask people to write largeenough on cards so that people can read them on their own from a distance. It saves time.

The Power of Nice: I think I am very sensitive to what I perceive as "nice" behaviour fromthe facilitator, that is genuinely caring for the participants, wanting to be helpful, guidingand supporting. I personally respond very well when I see that.

Innovation: It is great to see people innovating on current practice, a little surprisedynamic, way to organize a group, new rules for a familiar game, etc. That keeps it fresh.

Working Towards Congruence: It was interesting to see people demonsrate facilitationand then in a short debriefing bring out the methodology and rationale. I realised that it isvery hard to talk about Facilitation. I guess this could also be called "Actions SpeakLouder Than Words", a principle that can be applied to nearly anything.

This was a full 8 hour day of on-your-feet activity, and at the same time presented greatopportunity for observation. People came away with a great overview of approaches,styles and techniques and some excellent local contacts. Thanks to the generous spirit ofexchange and learning, we had an incredibly rich experience with our FacilitatorsDemonstration and Learning Day.

REPORTS Top↑

CEC regional Vice-Chair Oceania attends Bonn UNESCO World Conference on ESD

Professor Konai Thaman, CEC Regional Vice -Chair Oceania, recently attended theUNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development. The event washeld in Bonn, Germany from 31 March to 2 April 2009.

Holder of the UNESCO Chair in teacher education & culture and a member of theInternational Advisory Group for the Conference, Konai was one of four workshop Clusterrappoteurs for the Conference, and a member of the drafting committee.

She also presented a Side Event on behalf of UNESCO Bangkok Office for Asia & thePacific, entitled ´`The Canoe is the People``, about traditional Pacific navigation, under thetheme, `Synergies between intangible cultural heritage a nd ESD`. The power pointpresentation is available from Konai for those who are interested. Further information,together with CD & teaching resources may be obtained from the UNESCO RegionalOffice in Bangkok, Thailand.

Konai is Professor of Pacific Education at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. Inher note to CEC, she writes: "Education for Sustainable Development is important for

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IUCN and CEC in particular. In Oceania, ESD is a priority for all of the small island nationswhose very existence & livelihoods depend on wise use of resources that are sourcedfrom their vulnerable environment. Climate change is major worry as sea level rise hasbecome a major threat to life in many Pacific Island Countries."

The Draft Bonn Declaration may be viewed on the UNESCO website. "It contains usefulaction information for all member states and should be of interest to IUCN members aswell."

UNESCO World Conference on ESD website >>http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/

Roundtable on Environment and Security: Report of CEC -supported event at IUCNCongress

Environment and Security: Challenges for Change

Summaries of presentations at the roundtable workshop on environment and securit y arenow available online, in the final report of the October 6, 2008 event at the IUCN WorldConservation Congress in Barcelona. Wouter Veening, the workshop's moderator andChair of the Institute for Environmental Security (IES) in the Netherlands descr ibes thenext steps in the following memo:

The most important and urgent follow-up concerns the consensus at the roundtable thatfrom the military and security sector around the world a strong signal should be sent to theupcoming climate negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol this December inCopenhagen. The signal should point to the need of a successful outcome of thesenegotiations, because otherwise climate -induced water and land scarcity, flooded islandsand coastal zones, expansion of (i nfectious) diseases will lead directly or indirectly toviolent conflicts and humanitarian disasters in which the armed forces have to act andthen, one may say, it is too late.

Everything has to be done to prevent this from happening and to come, through diplomaticmeans, to international, interregional and intercommunal cooperation on the mitigation ofclimate change and the adaptation to its inevitable impacts.

Funding proposals to prepare the documentary background of this signal and to get theendorsement of prominent representatives of the military and security communities fromall parts of the world have been submitted to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs andcontinued consultations with NATO and the CNA Corporation, so prominently active at th eRoundtable, are taking place. Preparatory meetings will be held in the week of 16 Marchin Washington DC.

IES is exploring – with a number of institutions around the globe – the possibilities forfollow-up on the recommendations of the roundtable.

Download report (pdf) >>http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=267

Go to the Challenges for Change website for the report and video >>http://www.envirosecurity.org/challengesforchange

Report on Core Themes for Education, Awareness, and Communication in WCPACaribbean Programme

Protected Areas Management in the Caribbean: Core T hemes for Education, Awareness,and Communication Programmes

The Caribbean Programme of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA

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Caribbean) prepared its Regional Action Plan for the Caribbean in 2007 as an initial stepin the implementation of the WCPA Strategic Plan. One of the Targets in the Action Plan(Appendix 1) is “to identify core themes for education, awareness, and communicationprogrammes relevant to protected areas in the Caribbean” (World Commission onProtected Areas, 2007). The challeng es to protected areas management, and the actionsrequired to address those challenges are articulated by the Durban Action Plan (2004).Those challenges are felt more acutely in the Wider Caribbean Region, where economiesand physical space are small and fragile, but yet must support the full range ofdevelopment agendas. This report therefore supports two outcomes of the Durban ActionPlan (Appendix 2): (a) Protected areas should make a full contribution to sustainabledevelopment; and (b) Better communic ation and education is necessary to fully articulatethe role and benefits of protected areas.

This report was prepared as an output of the WCPA Regional Action Plan for theCaribbean 2007-2010 and was sponsored by The Trust For Sustainable Livelihoods(SUSTRUST) and WCPA Caribbean.

Go to report (pdf) >>http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=272

ENSI Conference on ESD held March 2009

Dr. Willy Sleurs, Adviseur, Ministerie van Onderwijs en Vorming, Brussel , sends news ofthis event in Leuven, Belgium, with a link to the forthcoming report.

Creating learning environments for the future. Research and practice share knowledge.

Since its inception in 1986, ENSI has brought together school initiatives, educators andstakeholders in countries primarily across OECD area to promote environmentalunderstanding, proactive approaches to teaching and learning, and citizenship educationthrough research and the exchange of experiences internationally.

The outcomes of three European projects -SEED, CSCT and SUPPORT - together withformer ENSI publications form the backbone of the upcoming conference in Leuven,Belgium. ENSI invites the participants to refl ect on and to share ideas and knowledgeabout the following questions:

How to improve the quality of education for sustainable development (ESD)?How to measure the quality of ESD?What criteria should be used to measure quality of ESD?Which learning environments might improve ESD?

Check this website for the Conference Report, to be pu blished by the end of June >>http://www.ensi.org/

ONLINE COMMUNITY Top ↑

Join the Alliance for Intergenerational Partnership for Sustainability (IPS)

CEC members are encouraged to join the Facebook group and to visit the Wikispace ofthe Intergenerational Partnership for Sustainability. From Dominic Stucker, CEC Sp ecialAdvisor on IPS, the following invitation:

Dear CEC and WCPA friends ,

A number of organizations, including the IUCN, Earth Charter, IISD, and youth networkshave been working on the Campaign for Inter generational Partnership for Sustainability forover a year now. We have had a number of successes, including a Buddy Experimentmatching young people with members of the IUCN's Commission on Education and

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Communication, the adoption of a Resolution on IP S by the IUCN, and the appointment ofyoung people to leadership positions within the IUCN.

I am glad to share that we have updated and restructured our IPS Wikispace. Click hereto explore and read: http://intergenerationalpartnership.wikispaces.com/Overview

Also, our IPS Facebook Group is ready for action. Please join and invite your friends tojoin - consider pasting this message as your "status:"

...encourages you to join the group Intergenerational Partnership forSustainability: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=51760962833

(If you do not use Facebook, you can also join the Allia nce through the first link, above.)

Thanks and peace,Dominic Stucker, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC)Special Advisor on IPS, Steering CommitteeSkype: dominicstuckerFacebook, WiserEarth, Change, LinkedIn, TakingItGlobal

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Website launched by The Prince of Wales to Build Conservation Community O nlineThis example of information technology plus conservation messages comes from CEPAblogger Frits Hesselink, CEC Steering Committee member.

Internet Magic http://www.rainforests.org

If you make the message accessible to people, use the Internet to build an onlinecommunity, you can get people to take collective bottom up action. The Prince of Walescreated his own global web viral campaign to protect the rainforests and combat climatechange. The rainforestsos.org website has been designed and built by Blue State Digital,the internet consultancy company behind Mr Obama’s web campaign. An array ofcelebrities have appeared alongside Prince C harles and an animated frog in a film tohighlight the dangers of deforestation. One of the things visitors of the website can do iscreate their own frog message with a photo or video clip and include in the celebritiesvideo to send it to their networks.

Blogging for the Southern Line Islands ExpeditionCEC Steering Committee member John Francis invites ocean enthusiasts to follow aNational Geographic expedition via up -to-date blog entries by Enric Sala, as in this entryfrom April 18 (see photo at left): All of the islands we’ve visited on this expedition havegorgeous corals and lots of fish... However, one of the most striking characteristics ofMillennium Atoll is the abundance of Napoleon wrasse fish, Cheilinus undulatus .

Fellow ocean enthusiasts,

National Geographic Fellow Enric Sala has just begun a six week expedition through thesouthern Line Islands in the Pacific Ocean as the next step in his effort to study and heraldpristine marine ecosystems. If you are interested in following the expedition through up todate blogs, or know others who might be, please sign up at the site below and pass thisemail along.

http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/page/s/joinus

John Francis, Ph.D.Vice PresidentResearch, Conservation, and ExplorationNational Geographic Society1145 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20036

Come for a walk on the wild side with Wild Talk

Wild Talk is a monthly podcast/radio download product, produced jointly by IUCN andWWF International. A summary of this month's c ontent from Sarah Horsley, IUCN GlobalCommunications. Come for a walk on the wild side with Wild Talk

This Month’s Edition

• Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? The Wolf has featured as the bad character infairytales for generations, but what is this e lusive creature really like? Actor SkandarKeynes, who starred in the Chronicles of Narnia, went to track down the Grey Wolf (Canislupus) in Switzerland's Jura Mountains, with wolf expert Jean -Marc Landry and DeputyHead of IUCN's Species Programme, Jean -Christophe Vié. Visit: http://www.iucn.org/news_events/news/wild_talk/?2776/Whos -afraid-of-the-big-bad-wolf

• What makes you happy? Does buying endless products that you don't really needactually make you happy? Do we only crave objects because of clev er marketing? WildTalk speaks to writer Alistair McIntosh about what it will take to make the world's economy

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truly green and how ordinary people will have to change their values to make the dreamcome true. Visit: http://www.iucn.org/news_events/news/wil d_talk/?2789/What-makes-you-happy

• Water, water everywhere: This month more than 25,000 people will converge on Istanbulin Turkey to discuss the world's water issues. Big business, developers, conservationistsand governments will gather in an attempt to place water high on the international agenda.Mark Smith, Head of IUCN's Water Programme, talks to Wild Talk about whether this willhappen and explains the importance of water in the climate change debate. Visit:http://www.iucn.org/news_events/news/wi ld_talk/?2692/Water-water-everywhere

• Geneva Motor Show goes green: Wild Talk paid a visit to the Geneva Motor Show thismonth to see just how committed car companies are to the green movement. With moreand more electric cars on display, it's clear tha t every brand wants to get in on the act.Wild Talk speaks to technical experts who talk us through some of the cars on offer,customers who are keen to buy them, and a new company which is planning to set up agrid for charging electric cars using only re newable energy sources. Visit:http://www.iucn.org/news_events/news/wild_talk/?2800/Geneva -Motor-Show-goes-green

About Wild Talk

Wild Talk is a monthly podcast/radio download product, produced jointly by IUCN andWWF International. Through joining force s we offer environmental news and featuresdrawing upon the joint expertise of thousands of scientists and conservationists fromaround the world.

Please feel free to use this audio in whole or in part for your programming with referenceto the relevant IUCN or WWF experts quoted. We would be grateful if you could inform usof any airtime these interviews and packages get through your station or network.

The Product: Four interviews/packages per month (average duration 3 to 6 minutes),uploaded on (or as close to) the start of the third week of any month.

Download at: http://www.iucn.org/wildtalk

For more information please contact:Sarah Horsley, IUCN Global CommunicationsTel: +41 22 999 0127;Email: sarah.horsley@iucn.org

New Service on Connect2earth Links Young People to Conservation Experts

On 6 April, IUCN launched a new service on connect2earth.org, the green onlinecommunity where young people can upload photos, videos and comments aboutenvironmental issues. The site now links young people directly with some of the world’stop experts to talk about pressing issues such as climate change, renewable energy andthe species extinction crisis.

► watch connect2earth presentation videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j -KEktaM_OU&feature=channel

► watch Nadine’s interview on energy issueshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=channel_page&hl=en-GB&v=n5CFmMt6wzg&gl=FR

► read web storyhttp://www.iucn.org/?2972/connect2earth -now-links-young-people-directly-with-worlds-top-experts-to-debate-green-issues

New competition to win a trip to the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen

Every 6 months, a jury of green experts selects a Grand Prize winner from the top 10

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contributors to the site. At the end of the first 6 -month period, the Grand Prize winnerelected will win the chance to attend the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen inDecember 2009 as part of an official IUCN or WWF delegation. The next Grand Prizewinner elected at the end of the second period will win a trip to a WWF or IUCNenvironmental project.

And at the end of each topic featured (every 2 months approximately), one Topic Prizewinner selected by the topic expert among the 10 most popular members for this topic, w illreceive a clever and environmentally -friendly mobile phone solar charger. How can youparticipate?

►take 1 minute to sign up (click on register at the top of the webpage)

►comment on the energy issues Nadine raises in the text and/or video (click on ‘join thediscussion’ button in the middle of the page). Your contribution will encourage other usersto post interesting and clever comments!

►encourage young people you know to participate

About connect2earth

With the support of Nokia, IUCN and WWF launched www.connect2earth.org in 2008 asan online community for young people to have their say on the environment by uploadingvideos, pictures and comments. The website drew three million visits from 190 countries inits first year. One lucky winner traveled to the IUCN World Conservation Congress inBarcelona in October 2008 to speak directly to world en vironmental leaders after hersubmission was chosen among the 3,500 videos, photos and stories posted on thewebsite.

"Connect2earth is a great way for young people to engage with environmentalists, butalso for us to learn from young people. They are the future of our planet and they need avoice in the global debate – in both the corridors of power and on the ground.”Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General

Submitted by Gaëlle Cuillerot, Marketing Officer - Global Communications Unit , CorporateCommunications, IUCN

Subscribe to the monthly e-newsletter Conservation Made Clear >>http://ase.emv3.com/I?a=A9X7CkMvW07XsJdXu,cLpQ3hdA

BOOKS AND ARTICLES Top ↑

“Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World ” by CEC Member

The book was chosen one of the 50 Best Environmental Books and Media by Vanity Fairmagazine. Al Gore says "The power of Gary Braasch's personal witness to the climatecrisis makes this essential reading for every citizen." See also the children's book.

Two Books on Climate Change

CEC member Gary Braasch has found an expanding audience for his bo oks on climatechange. Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World (University ofCalifornia Press) was named one of the "50 Best Environmental Books" by Vanity Fairmagazine, and will be issued in an updated paperback edition in April 2009 . The book,revised as of the U.S. elections and covering climate science and solutions, is endorsedby Al Gore, Paul Hawken and Rajendra Pachauri. See >> http://www.earthunderfire.com

A book for school kids and teachers, How We Know What We Know About Our ChangingClimate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming , by Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch(Dawn Publications) was named best middle grade science book of 2009 by the AAAS

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"Science Books and Films" and Science magazine. The book, which engagingly teachesbasic science and climate research findings as well as classroom and community activitiesfor children, has also won top awards from the John Burroughs Association, the NationalScience Teachers Association, and the School Library Journal.http://www.howweknowclimatechange.com

Since 2002, Gary has produced the website http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org

For more information contact: gary@braaschphotography.com

“Young people, education, and sustainable development ”: CEC member is chapterauthor in this new book

CEC Member Dominic Stucker was lead author for a chapter in the new book Youngpeole, education, and sustainable development: Exploring principles, perspectives, andpraxis. It was edited by Peter Blaze Corcoran and Philip M. Osano.

Young people have an enormous stake in the present and future state of Earth. Almosthalf of the human population is under the age of 25. If young people’s resources ofenergy, time, and knowledge are misdirected towards violence, terrorism, socially -isolatingtechnologies, and unsustainable consumption, civilization risks destabilization. Yet, thereis a powerful opportunity for society if young people can participate positively in all aspectsof sustainable development. In order to do so, young people need education, politicalsupport, resources, skills, and hope. This volume offers a global perspective on educationinitiatives by and for young people that promote a transition to sustainability. It includes 38essays co-authored by 68 contributors from 25 nations, representing a diversity ofgeography, gender, and generation.

"The development of youth leadership has been a central concern of myprofessional work. Young people have a lot to offer to sustainable developmentand should participate in planning for our planet’s future. This rich collection oftheoretical and practical approaches captures the growing response of youngpeople to this challenge. I am particularly pleased with the attenti on paid to therole of often-underrepresented regions of the world, to the role of women, and tothe Earth Charter in the creating a peaceful and sustainable future."-- Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of IUCN (International Union forConversation of Nature), and former Rector of the University for Peace.

"This book is a rich, global tapestry depicting the inter -linkages among youth, educationand sustainable development. What is particularly interesting is that it shows howeducation, at all levels, can be a powerful engine for promoting sustainability. This work isan important contribution to the United Nations Decade of Education for SustainableDevelopment." -- Goolam Mohamedbhai, Secretary-General, Association of AfricanUniversities, and Past President, International Association of Universities.

"This important and skillfully-prepared book comes at a critical time.... A greatstrength of this volume is that it blends together theoretical and practical insightsregarding education for sustainable development by and for young people. It iswritten from diverse cultural perspectives from all world regions. Readers, frommany fields, especially young people and their teachers, will find it timely andrelevant. I hope that it will inspire the young er generation to get involved inseeking solutions to the challenges we face." -- James Gustave Speth, FormerAdministrator of the United Nations Development Programme, and Dean Emeritusof the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale Universit y.

"It is my hope that you are inspired, as I have been, by Young People, Education, andSustainable Development: Exploring Principles, Perspectives, and Praxis, for the stories inthis volume are full of the possibilities that emerge when we honor and su pport youngpeople." -- Ruud Lubbers, Former Prime Minister of The Netherlands, and past United

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Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

2009 – 416 pages – hardback – ISBN: 978-90-8686-093-7 – € 55 – US$ 82For table of contents see: www.WageningenAcademic.com/youngpeople

For more information contact: Dominic Stucker, CEC Special Advisor IntergenerationalPartnerships -- dstucker@sustainer.org

Book on Climate Change by CEC Member: “El Clima Cambió. ¿Hacia dóndevamos?”

Se presentó en la Feria del Libro de Buenos Aires (2009), un libro sobre el cambioclimático dirigido a los niños y jóvenes. La obra recorre múltiples aspectos de u n temaque amenaza el presente y futuro de la humanidad. Su autor es Hernán Sorhuet.Estimados colegas de la CEC:

Los buenos momentos son para compartir.

Acabo de imprimir mi nuevo libro sobre cambio climático, como siempre dirigido a niños yjóvenes.

Su título es “El Clima cambió. ¿Hacia dónde vamos?”

La novedad mayor es que el miércoles 6 de mayo, presentaré el libro nada menos que enla 35° Feria del Libro de Buenos Aires. Será a las 14.30 horas, en la sala DomingoFaustino Sarmiento de la Feria.

Me acompañarán en la mesa de presentación, dos colegas amigos: Sergio Elguezabal,conductor de TN-Ecología, y Valeria Román, periodista científica del diario Clarín deBuenos Aires.

Será un momento increíble, por la importancia que siempre tiene lanzar u n nuevo libro,con el agregado de que lo haré en un marco tan prestigioso e importante en el mundo dellibro como es la Feria de Buenos Aires.

Para los colegas de Argentina, desde luego están todos invitados,

Hernán Sorhuet

“El Clima Cambió. ¿Hacia dónd e vamos?”

El Cambio Climático, un tema muy interesante para los niños

El libro (160 páginas) pretende incluir esta temática en el diálogo del hogar, y en eltrabajo del aula, pero con un énfasis y un enfoque distinto al tradicional. Vincula elconocimiento y la acción para que el niño descubra la estrecha interconexión entre elsaber y el hacer. Mediante el manejo de información actualizada y propuestas reflexivas,pretende promover cambios de conducta en la comunidad adulta hacia la conservación yla responsabilidad, a través de los niños. Sus pilares son la comunicación y elaprendizaje.

For more information contact: Hernán Sorhuet - hazparne@adinet.com.uy

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Interesting Read: Why Isn't the Brain Green?Jon Gertner, a contributing writer to the Ne w York Times, explains why "climate change"ranked last among American priorities for 2009 in a poll by Pew Research Center. Sharedwith CEC by Keith Wheeler.

The New York Times - April 19, 2009The Green IssueWhy Isn’t the Brain Green?By JON GERTNER

Two days after Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States, the PewResearch Center released a poll ranking the issues that Americans said were the mostimportant priorities for this year. At the top of the list were several concerns — jobs andthe economy — related to the current recession. Farther down, well after terrorism, deficitreduction and energy (and even something the pollsters characterized as “moral decline”)was climate change. It was priority No. 20. That was last place.

A little more than a week after the poll was published, I took a seat in a wood -paneledroom at Columbia University, where a few dozen academics had assembled for a two -dayconference on the environment. In many respects, the Pew rankings were a suitablebackdrop for the get-together, a meeting of researchers affiliated with something calledCRED, or the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions. A branch of behavioralresearch situated at the intersection of psychology and economics, decision sciencefocuses on the mental proces¬ses that shape our choices, behaviors and attitudes. Thefield’s origins grew mostly out of the work, beginning in the 1970s, of Daniel Kahnemanand Amos Tversky, two psychologists whose experiments have demonstrated that peoplecan behave unexpectedly when confronted with simple choices. We have many automaticbiases — we’re more averse to losses than we are interested in gains, for instance — andwe make repeated errors in judgment based on our tendency to use shorthand rules tosolve problems. We can also be extremely susceptible to how questions are posed. Wouldyou undergo surgery if it had a 20 percent mortality rate? What if it had an 80 percentsurvival rate? It’s the same procedure, of course, but in various experiments, resp onsesfrom patients can differ markedly.

Over the past few decades a great deal of research has addressed how we makedecisions in financial settings or when confronted with choices having to do with healthcare and consumer products. A few years ago, a C olumbia psychology professor namedDavid H. Krantz teamed up with Elke Weber — who holds a chair at Columbia’s businessschool as well as an appointment in the school’s psychology department — to assemblean interdisciplinary group of economists, psycholog ists and anthropologists from aroundthe world who would examine decision -making related to environmental issues. Aided bya $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation, CRED has the primary objectiveof studying how perceptions of risk and uncer tainty shape our responses to climatechange and other weather phenomena like hurricanes and droughts. The goal, in otherwords, isn’t so much to explore theories about how people relate to nature, which hasbeen a longtime pursuit of some environmental ps ychologists and even academics like theHarvard biologist E. O. Wilson. Rather, it is to finance laboratory and field experiments inNorth America, South America, Europe and Africa and then place the findings within anenvironmental context.

It isn’t immediately obvious why such studies are necessary or even valuable. Indeed, inthe United States scientific community, where nearly all dollars for climate investigationare directed toward physical or biological projects, the notion that vital environmentalsolutions will be attained through social -science research — instead of improved climatemodels or innovative technologies — is an aggressively insurgent view. You might ask thedecision scientists, as I eventually did, if they aren’t overcomplicating matt ers. Doesn’t alow-carbon world really just mean phasing out coal and other fossil fuels in favor of clean -energy technologies, domestic regulations and international treaties? None of themdisagreed. Some smiled patiently. But all of them wondered if I ha d underestimated thecountless group and individual decisions that must precede any widespread support for

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such technologies or policies. “Let’s start with the fact that climate change isanthropogenic,” Weber told me one morning in her Columbia office. “M ore or less, peoplehave agreed on that. That means it’s caused by human behavior. That’s not to say thatengineering solutions aren’t important. But if it’s caused by human behavior, then thesolution probably also lies in changing human behavior.”

Among other things, CRED’s researchers consider global warming a singular opportunityto study how we react to long-term trade-offs, in the form of sacrifices we might make nowin exchange for uncertain climate benefits far off in the future. And the research a lso hasthe potential to improve environmental messages, policies and technologies so that theyare more in tune with the quirky workings of our minds. As I settled in that first morning atthe Columbia conference, Weber was giving a primer on how people t end to reachdecisions. Cognitive psychologists now broadly accept that we have different systems forprocessing risks. One system works analytically, often involving a careful consideration ofcosts and benefits. The other experiences risk as a feeling: a primitive and urgent reactionto danger, usually based on a personal experience, that can prove invaluable when (forexample) we wake at night to the smell of smoke.

There are some unfortunate implications here. In analytical mode, we are not alwaysadept at long-term thinking; experiments have shown a frequent dislike for delayedbenefits, so we undervalue promised future outcomes. (Given a choice, we usually take$10 now as opposed to, say, $20 two years from now.) Environmentally speaking, thismeans we are far less likely to make lifestyle changes in order to ensure a safer futureclimate. Letting emotions determine how we assess risk presents its own problems.Almost certainly, we underestimate the danger of rising sea levels or epic droughts orother events that we’ve never experienced and seem far away in time and place. Worse,Weber’s research seems to help establish that we have a “finite pool of worry,” whichmeans we’re unable to maintain our fear of climate change when a different problem — aplunging stock market, a personal emergency — comes along. We simply move one fearinto the worry bin and one fear out. And even if we could remain persistently concernedabout a warmer world? Weber described what she calls a “single -action bias.” Promptedby a distressing emotional signal, we buy a more efficient furnace or insulate our attic orvote for a green candidate — a single action that effectively diminishes global warming asa motivating factor. And that leaves us where we started.

Debates over why climate change isn’t higher on Americans’ list of priorities tend to centeron the same culprits: the doubt -sowing remarks of climate-change skeptics, the poorcommunications skills of good scientists, the political system’s inability to address long -term challenges without a thunderous precipitating event, the tendency of sciencejournalism to focus more on what is unknown (will oceans rise by two feet or by five?) thanwhat is known and is durably frightening (the oceans are rising). By the time Weber w asmidway into her presentation, though, it occurred to me that some of these factors mightnot matter as much as I had thought. I began to wonder if we are just built to fail.

Columbia’s behavioral labs are located underground and consist of a windowless suite ofbright, sparsely furnished rooms with whitewashed cinder -block walls and gray industrialcarpet. Each lab has a common area with a small rectangular table; adjacent to thecommon area are several tiny offices equipped with Dell computers. Dependi ng on theexperiment, test subjects, who are usually paid around $15 to participate and who areculled largely from Columbia’s student body, can work on tests collaboratively at the tableor individually in the private offices.

Each lab room is also equipped with a hidden camera and microphone. One afternoon inFebruary, I sat in a small viewing room and watched, on a closed -circuit televisionmonitor, a CRED experiment being conducted down the hall by Juliana Smith, a graduatestudent at Columbia. Three subjects were dealing with several quandaries. The firstinvolved reaching a consensus on how to apply $5 billion worth of federal funds to wind -energy technologies. Should they spend it all on conventional wind turbines? Should theyinvest some (or all) of the money on an as-yet-unproven technology that would employmagnetic levitation to create a huge, long -lasting, superefficient wind-powered generator?After the group came to a consensus in each of the test segments, its members were

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asked to go into the offices and figure out their own individual decisions.

When I first heard about these particular experiments at CRED, I assumed they weremeant to provide insight into our opinions about wind power. It turned out the researchershad little curiosity about what we think of wind power. Because CRED’s primary goal is tounderstand decision-making in situations of uncertainty, the wind -turbine question —should we spend money on building turbines now with a proven technology or should wefinance technologies that might be more efficient someday? — was intriguing not for itscontent but for the way it revealed how our minds work. The familiar variables were allthere: uncertainty, time, potential gains, potential losses.

For the researchers, it was crucial to understand precisely how group dynamics shapeddecisions during the experiment. In Weber’s view, many important environmental choices(building codes, for instance, or vehicle purchases) are made by groups — households,companies, community boards and the like. And various experiments at CRED haveestablished the ease of getting random individuals to cooperate; in one test, simply givingsome subjects a colored sticker, a blue star, say, and telling them they were on the “blue -star team” increased group par ticipation from 35 percent to 50 percent. (Just seating themtogether at a table increased participation rates to 75 percent.) “So cooperation is a goalthat can be activated,” Weber told me one morning. Her point was that climate change canbe easily viewed as a very large “commons dilemma” — a version, that is, of the textbooksituation in which sheepherders have little incentive to act alone to preserve the grassycommons and as a result suffer collectively from overgrazing. The best way to avoid suchfailure is by collaborating more, not less. “We enjoy congregating; we need to know weare part of groups,” Weber said. “It gives us inherent pleasure to do this. And when we arereminded of the fact that we’re part of communities, then the community becomes sort ofthe decision-making unit. That’s how we make huge sacrifices, like in World War II.”

A few days before visiting Columbia’s behavioral labs, I watched a test run of the sameexperiments at a large conference table at CRED’s nearby offices in Scher merhorn Hall.Student subjects, two men and one woman, debated the two windmill scenarios. “Weshould put more money in project A,” one said. Another countered, “But science growsexponentially, so I think we should put more in B.” An impassioned discussio n about windturbines went round and round.

I sat between Weber and Michel Handgraaf, a member of CRED and a professor ofpsychol¬ogy at the University of Amsterdam. Handgraaf, who had already started runninga similar experiment in Amsterdam, leaned over and whispered to me: “You’ll noticethey’re saying, ‘This has so-and-so effect over so many years’ — that’s analytical. Butthen often they’re saying, ‘But I feel this way’ — that’s emotional.” In short, whatHandgraaf and Weber were hearing wasn’t a conv ersation about the best wind turbine buta tussle between the subjects’ analytical and emotional methods of risk assessment.These experiments would be run with 50 different groups in New York, Handgraaf told me,and the conversations would be recorded and scored for data. The data were in thewords. They were in how individuals parsed uncertainty and future trade -offs; they were inthe phrases they used as they navigated between thinking and feeling; they were in theway the subjects followed a winding pat h to a consensual decision, soothing worries orexplaining technical information to one another or appealing to the group’s morecourageous instincts.

Embedded deep within the experimental structure was another inquiry, too. The subjectsin half of the 50 test groups would first make their decisions individually and then as agroup; the other half would make group decisions first and individual ones second. Weberand Handgraaf were fairly confident, based on previous work, that the two approacheswould produce different results. In Amsterdam, Handgraaf told me, he had already seenthat when subjects made decisions as a group first, their conversations were marked farmore often by subtle markers of inclusion like “us” and “we.” Weber, for her part, had seenother evidence that groups can be more patient than individuals when considering delayedbenefits. “One reason this is interesting is that it’s general practice in any meeting toprepare individually,” Handgraaf said. Or, to put the matter another way: Wh at if theinformation for decisions, especially environmental ones, is first considered in a group

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setting before members take it up individually, rather than the other way around? InWeber’s view, this step could conceivably change the decisions made by a corporateboard, for example, or a group of homeowners called together for a meeting by a publicutility. Weber’s experiments have also looked at how the ordering of choices can createstark differences: considering distant benefits before immediate costs can lead to adifferent decision than if you consider — as is common — the costs first. Here, then, is akind of blueprint for achieving collective decisions that are in the world’s best interests, butI asked Weber if that wouldn’t that skew the natural decision-making process.

“We tend to always wonder,” she replied: “What’s that person’s true preference? What dothey really want? I think that’s the wrong question, because we want it all.” People havemultiple goals. If group involvement or the ordering of choices changes the process ofmaking a particular decision, and in turn the result — whether because it tweaked ournotions of risk or because it helped elevate social goals above individual goals and led tobetter choices for the global commons — that isn’t necessarily a distortion of our truepreference. There is no such thing as true preference.

At the moment, about 98 percent of the federal financing for climate -change researchgoes to the physical and natural sciences, with the remainder apportio ned to the socialsciences. In science-policy-speak, that leftover percentage is typically referred to as“human dimensions” research, an omnibus description for studies on how individuals andgroups interact with the environment. Paul Stern, a psychologis t who heads theCommittee on Human Dimensions of Global Change at the National Research Council inWashington and whose work includes looking at how people consume energy in thehome, told me that human-dimensions work usually falls into one of three categ ories: thehuman activities that cause environmental change, the impacts of environmental changeon people and society and the human responses to those consequences. Much ofCRED’s research is about the human responses to the experiences (or anticipatedexperiences) of climate change. What makes CRED’s work especially relevant, though, isthat various human attitudes and responses — How can there be global warming whenwe had a frigid January? What’s in it for me if I change the way I live? — can make theclimate problem worse by leaving it unacknowledged or unaddressed. Apathetic andhostile responses to climate change, in other words, produce a feedback loop andreinforce the process of global warming.

Lab experiments in the social sciences, like the ones I witnessed at Columbia, aresometimes criticized for their counterfeit drama. After all, how often do we actually get todisburse $5 billion from the Department of Energy on windmills? Also, is the real worldmade up entirely of Columbia University stude nts? These factors don’t necessarily affectthe knowledge that researchers can gain about human decisi on-making processes; labexperiments on investment decisions, for instance, have long been shown to offer usefulinsights into our real-world investment choices. Nonetheless, fieldwork has a value thatcan’t always be reproduced in a lab. The lab experiment designed by Weber andHandgraaf actually took a cue from research done by another CRED member, BenOrlove, an anthropologist at the University of Califo rnia, Davis, who studied farmers insouthern Uganda. In 2005 and 2006, Orlove observed how the behavior of the region’spoor farmers could be influenced by whether they listened to crucial rainy -season radiobroadcasts in groups or as individuals. Farmers in “community groups,” as Orlovedescribed them to me, engaged in discussions that led to a consensus, and farmers madebetter use of the forecast. “They might alter their planting date,” he said, “or use a moredrought-resistant variety of seed.” Those in the community groups also seemed moresatisfied with the steps they took to increase their yields.

In 2005, Anthony Leiserowitz, a CRED member who directs the Yale Project on ClimateChange, began a multiyear field project when he drove to Anchorage in a camper with hiswife and 2-year-old son. “I had worked on some national studies about Americanperceptions of climate change,” he told me, “and one of the clear findings was — and stillis — that most Americans think about climate change as a distant prob lem. Distant intime, and distant in space.” In Alaska, however, there was already evidence of meltingpermafrost, insect-driven tree mortality and diminished sea ice. Leiserowitz saw a naturalopportunity. The possibility that society won’t act decisively on global warming until we

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experience a shattering re¬ali¬zation — a Pearl Harbor moment, as the climate bloggerand former Department of Energy official Joe Romm recently put it — aligns with ourtendency to respond quickly to the stimulus of experience and emotion, but slowly to a riskthat we process analytically and that may be rife with uncertainties. Leiserowitz simplywondered if Alaskans, now living in a state of easily perceived climate changes, couldilluminate how — and by how much — direct experience could change attitudes.

Traveling the state, Leiserowitz interviewed scientists, journalists, environmental leaders,politicians and — in the remote northwestern city of Kotzebue — indigenous tribal leaders.He also commissioned a survey. His data showed that the majority of Alaskans hadindeed detected a change in climate and attributed it to man -made causes; they also saidthey believed warming would have significant impacts on Alaska and the world. ButLeiserowitz found deep perceptual gaps betwe en urban Alaskans, whose experience ofclimate change was limited, and rural residents. (People living in Kotzebue, for instance,were experiencing a threat to their culture from the erosion of sea ice, which limited theirice fishing.) In sum, Alaskans were no more worried than the American public as a wholeabout climate change. And they were no more inclined than typical Americans to see it asa serious threat to themselves or to their communities. About half of them, in fact,considered climate change a long-term problem that required more study before acting.

Among other things, the results suggested that experience of climate change is a relativething: something happening to another part of your state, or to a different cultural group,doesn’t necessarily warrant a change in your own response. It likewise hinted at thecomplexity of instilling feelings of climate -related urgency in Americans. If you don’t thinkor feel there’s a risk, why change your behavior? In response, researchers like Leiserowitzhave investigated messages that could captivate all different kinds of audiences.Reaching a predominantly evangelical or conservative audience, Leiserowitz told me,could perhaps be achieved by honing a message of “moral Christian values,” an appealpossibly based on the divine instruction in Genesis 2:15 to tend and till the garden.

Over the past few years, it has become fashionable to describe this kind of focusedcommunication as having the proper frame. In our haste to mix jargon into everydayconversation, frames have sometimes been confused with nudges, a term made popularin a recent book, “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness,”written by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein when they were academics at the Universityof Chicago. (Sunstein later moved to Harvard Law School and has since been nominatedas the head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.) Frames andnudges are not precisely the same; frames are just one way to nudge people by usingsophisticated messages, mined from decision -science research, that resonate withparticular audiences or that take advantage of our cognitive biases (like informing us thatan urgent operation has an 80 percent survival rate). Nudges, more broadly, structurechoices so that our natural cognitive shortcomings don’t make us err. Ideally, nudgesdirect us, gently, toward actions that are in our long -term interest, like an automatedretirement savings plan that circumvents our typical inertia. Thaler and Sunstein expl ain intheir book that nudges can take advantage of technology like home meters, which havebeen shown to reduce electricity usage by making constant feedback available. Theseappeal to our desire for short -term satisfaction and being rewarded for improvem ent. Or anudge might be as simple as a sensor installed in our home by a utility that automaticallyturns off all unnecessary power once we leave for the day — a technology, in effect, thatdoesn’t even require us to use our brains. “I think the potential there is huge,” Thaler toldme recently, when I asked him about environmental nudges. “And I think we can use awhole bag of tricks.”

Leiserowitz and Weber spend a fair amount of time talking to scientists and policy makersabout how to translate their insights into possible frames and nudges. In Weber’s view,CRED was established because the traditional model of using decision research — inwhich physical scientists doing a study might seek the input of psychologists at the end tohelp them frame their f indings — seemed both backward and ineffective. “By then it’s toolate,” Weber said, “because you haven’t explored all the initial options that would havebeen more beneficial.” In other words, Weber says he believes decision science isn’t onlyabout structuring choices or finding the right frame to get a better outcome; it’s about

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identifying useful information that can be used for innovative products, policies andscientific studies. At the National Research Council, Paul Stern offered the example of aclimatologist who had been discussing climate change with cherry farmers in severalMichigan counties. The farmers didn’t care about future temperatures as much as the dateof the last spring frost. “No one has been interested in trying to predict the date o f the lastspring frost,” Stern told me, but maybe they should be. “They’ve been trying to predictaverage temperature and heat waves.” Weber likewise envisioned a similar application intechnology or government policy. “Whatever you design as the most cos t-effective ortechnologically feasible solution might not be palatable to the end users or mightencounter political oppositions,” she said. Behavioral research could have helped you seesuch hurdles ahead of time. “You could have designed a way to implem ent it better. Oryou could have thought about another solution.”

Over the winter, the Obama administration began working on regulations for carbon -dioxide emissions, arguably the most important climate -related policy ever undertaken.While many economists favor the simplicity of a carbon tax, it seemed every person ofinfluence in the United States government agreed that a cap -and-trade policy — in whichcarbon emissions are capped and firms can buy and sell credits — was preferable.Perhaps this was understandable: the poisonous associations of the word “tax” appear todoom it as a pol¬icy. And yet this assumption can obscure what actually happens in theminds of Americans on this issue. Not long ago, David Hardisty, a student of Weber’s, ledan experiment in which a 2 percent fee added to an airline ticket was described to varioussubjects as either a carbon “tax” or a carbon “offset.” The subjects were told the fee wouldfinance alternative-energy and carbon-reduction technologies. Hardisty predicted hewould get different results from Democrats and Republicans, and that was indeed thecase. Democrats were willing to pay a fee for an offset or a tax; Republicans were willingto pay for an offset but not a tax. Clearly, the tax frame affected the outcome — very muchso for Republicans.

A more interesting part of the experiment came next. Hardisty asked his subjects to writedown their thoughts, in order, as they decided whether to pay the tax or the offset. Whyshould this matter? We’ve long understood tha t many of us find the word “tax” repellent,but we don’t know precisely how it repels us. For the past few years, Weber and herhusband, Eric Johnson, a professor at Columbia’s business school, have been looking athow we construct our preferences when mak ing a choice; they theorize that we “query”ourselves, mustering evidence pro and con from memory as we clear a path to a decision.The order of the thoughts matters — early thoughts seem to sway our opinion, biasingsubsequent thoughts to support the earl y position. For Republicans in the experiment whoconsidered a carbon tax, their early thoughts were strongly negative (“I will be old anddead by the time this world has an energy crisis”) and thus led to conclusions that wereoverwhelmingly negative, too. That’s why they rejected the tax. Yet for the same group,the word “offset” actually changed the way subjects proc¬essed their choice. In theirthinking, they considered the positive aspects of the offset first — the financing of cleanen¬ergy — and found the overall evidence positive and acceptable. Indeed, in a follow -upstudy by Hardisty, merely asking people to list their thoughts about the fee in one order oranother (pros first or cons first) affected their preference, regardless of whether they wer eDemocrats or Republicans.

So in terms of policy, it may not be the actual tax mechanism that some people object to;it’s the way a “trivial semantic difference,” as Hardisty put it, can lead a group to musterpowerful negative associations before they h ave a chance to consider any benefits.Baruch Fischhoff, a professor at Carnegie Mellon and a kind of elder statesman amongdecision scientists, told me he’s fairly convinced a carbon tax could be made superior tocap and trade in terms of human palatabili ty. “I think there’s an attractive version of thecarbon tax if somebody thought about its design,” Fischhoff told me, adding that it’s afundamental principle of decision research that if you’re going to get people to pay a cost,it’s better to do it in a simple manner (like a tax) than a complex one (like in cap andtrade). Fischoff sketched out for me a possible research endeavor — the careful design ofa tax instrument and the sophisticated collection of behavioral responses to it — that hethought would be necessary for a tax proposal to gather support. “But I don’t think thepoliticians are that informed about the realm of the possible,” he added. “Opinion polls are

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not all that one needs.”

One objection to potential nudges, whether on carbon taxes or household energy use, isthat they can seem insidious. “They empower government to maneuver people in itspreferred directions,” Thaler and Sunstein note in their book, “and at the same timeprovide officials with excellent tools by which to accomplish th at task.” Thaler andSunstein conclude that a crucial principle is to always preserve choice as an option(nudging people with a home energy meter, for instance, is fine as long as they can optout of using it). Weber and David Krantz, two of the co -directors of CRED, have given thematter a good deal of thought, too. “People need some guidance over what the right thingto do is,” Krantz told me. But he said that he was doubtful that you could actually deceivepeople with decision science into acting in way s that they don’t believe are right.“Remember when New York tried to enforce its jaywalking laws?” he asked. “You can’tenforce stuff that people don’t believe should be done.”

When I raised the issue of possible ethical dilemmas with Weber, she countere d byclaiming that government constantly tries to instill behaviors that are considered to be insociety’s best interest. “There’s no way around it,” she told me. “We’re always trying topush some agenda.” Take the decision to allow certain kinds of mortga ges and securitiesto be sold that are now considered disastrous. In doing so, according to Weber, “we wereprivileging certain people, and certain institutions. And for a long time we were pushing theidea that everyone should own a house.” As for the que stion of manipulation, Webercontended that there is no neutral, “value -free way” of presenting people with information.“I think you have to take it as a given that whatever we do, whether it’s what we currentlydo or what we plan to do,” she said, “has s ome value judgment built into it.” The crucialquestion, at least to her, is whether (and when) we want to use the tools of decisionscience to try and steer people toward better choices. If our preferences aren’t fixed theway we think they are — if, as Weber has argued, they’re sometimes merely constructedon the spot in response to a choice we face — why not try new methods (ordering options,choosing strategic words, creating group effects and so forth) to elicit preferences alignedwith our long-term interest? That has to be better, in Weber’s opinion, than having peopleblunder unconsciously into an environmental catastrophe.

In fact, any potential climate disasters, at least to a behaviorist like Weber, would likelysignal the start of an intriguing but ultimately dismal chain of events. A few years agoWeber wrote a paper for the journal Climatic Change that detailed the psychologicalreasons that global warming doesn’t yet scare us; in it, she concluded that the difficultiesof getting humans to act are inherently self-correcting. “Increasing personal evidence ofglobal warming and its potentially devastating consequences can be counted on to be anextremely effective teacher and motivator,” she wrote, pointing to how emotional andexperiential feelings of risk are superb drivers of action. “Unfortunately, such lessons mayarrive too late for corrective action.”

Jon Gertner, a contributing writer, often writes about business and the environment.

Opinion - Carlos Micilio: Los problemas ambien tales, ¿son de aptitud...o de actitud?CEC member Carlos Micilio is featured in the Opinion section of the Diario HispanoArgentinio: Los problemas ambientales, ¿son de aptitud...o de actitud?

Opinion - Carlos MicilioLos problemas ambientales, ¿son de aptitud...o de actitud?

Go to story online >>http://www.diariocritico.com/argentina/2009/Febrero/opinion/micilio/131418/micilio.html

Este encabezado, por la transversalidad del mismo, bien puede adecuarse a todaconducta social en donde no se entiende cómo se puede seguir desaprovechando tiempo

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en enmendar consecuencias, y no buscar estrategias que transformen las causas. Comocorolario observemos la desprotección que padece el medio ambiente con una constanteagresión por parte del hombre por no haber medido las consecuencias al detenerse enellas, y no haber atacado y modificado férreamente las causas que llevaron a estepresente.

Si bien no es el principal problema a resolver en la agenda del 2009, la consigna es estaratentos a las alteraciones del cambio climático tratando de adecuar (entre otras) medidasque impulsen en acondicionar las matrices energéticas para promover de manera masmancomunada a las energías alternativas, resolver la problemática del agua, y la inciertaremediación de los residuos.

Estos paradigmas, ocurren no debido a un capricho de la naturaleza, sino todo locontrario, esto le concierne directamente a la actitud (por falta de aptitud) de numerosaspersonas que desde diversos espacios (en gestiones políticas, empresariales ycomunitarias) hacen esta pandemia que se debería resolver en el corto plazo.Tratare de abordar todos y cada uno de estos temas.

Un poco de revisionismo...¿histórico..?

En tiempos de consumismo exacerbado, ensamblado a la reciente crisis económica queafecta a todos los países, debemos ser prudentes y observar las medidas que se tomen.No sé si éste sea el momento de empezar a maximizar los es fuerzos en pos de buscarremediaciones apropiadas y sostenibles en el tiempo, ya que, el momento se presentaríapropicio para” reducir los costos en todo sentido”. Esta premisa bien podría servir paraposponer medidas que afecten aún más las condiciones ac tuales, porque son costosfinancieros que la situación actual justificaría tomar para reducir los mismos (o seguirjustificándolos). Espero que no, pero no debería sorprendernos.

Al margen de lo expresado, el cambio de estas conductas (ocasionadas en un c ontexto100x100 económico), daría toda la certeza que una vez resueltas, se volvería a la viejacostumbre: “no cuidar el ambiente”.

En el caso de los residuos, si bien, la mayor parte de la basura producida en el mundo(estimada en mas de 2 billones de to neladas anuales) se entierra o se incinera, laspredicciones para las próximas décadas no son muy alentadoras, ya que muchos paísestuvieron que reformular y fortalecer sus estrategias, direccionando sus esfuerzos en laminimización de los residuos en su o rigen, la reutilización y el reciclaje.

Se estima que para el 2025, los países desarrollados quintuplicaran los niveles degeneración de residuos, sustentado esto, por la explosión demográfica que se espera enmuchas ciudades del mundo, en las que, se pod ría triplicar la cantidad de habitantes y,sin planificación previa, redundaría en problemas sanitarios, habitacionales, laborales yobviamente, el incremento de los residuos y qué hacer con ellos.

Siempre leemos que los indicadores revelan que una ciudad genera X cantidad detoneladas por día...es tan así? Estos indicadores no muestran “toda la realidad” porque sedebería cuantificar y cualificar a todos los basureros a cielo abierto que hay declarados(sumados a los no denunciados) y esto, sumado a lo de clarado en los rellenos sanitarios,seguramente nos darían cifras más que preocupantes, reales y certeras.¿Cómo reducirla..?

Los sistemas de reducción siguen siendo todo en tema de debate, el cual es complejoponerse de acuerdo porque quienes lo sostienen, tienen distintas visiones de un mismotema. Los rellenos sanitarios, la incineración y el reciclado, son algunas de las másutilizadas en mayor o menor medida.

Algunas sociedades sostienen que los rellenos sanitarios no son los adecu ados para eldestino final de los residuos. Esto se debería en parte a que una ineficienteimpermeabilización generaría serias dificultades en las napas por parte de los líquidoslixiviados de la basura (que son cien veces más contaminantes que los líquido s

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cloacales). No obstante, la misma sociedad, sigue sin darle mayor importancia a lapeligrosidad que representa los basureros a cielo abierto, a sabiendas que estos sonportadores de enfermedades tales como infecciones respiratorias, intestinales, dengue,otitis, conjuntivitis, neumonías, bronconeumonías, gripe e intoxicación, sin considerar elpeligro que representa la ingesta por parte de animales y el destino final de alguno deellos.

Debemos dejar en claro que si las sociedades no se las concientizan con los temasurbanos con programas sólidos y capaces de ser sostenibles en el tiempo, el deterioroserá perpetuo y progresivo. Por otro lado, la concientización no es otra cosa que la tomade conocimientos inherente a un tema específico (en este caso el a mbiental o los peligrosde la contaminación de las que todos somos parte) y la implicancia que tiene nuestroproceder con nuestra actitud al saber que de nosotros dependen parte de las soluciones:que no es otra cosa que lo que se aprendió y no se practica o que deberíamos aprenderen nuestros hogares ya que forma parte de la educación.

En cuanto a la incineración, es un sistema debatido permanentemente y utilizada enmuchos países. En el caso de los europeos, éstos se ven exhortados por la falta degrandes extensiones de terreno para la construcción de los rellenos. La incineraciónpermite reducir en un 90 % de los residuos haciendo de éste sistema, el más eficiente, elmás combatido y el más costoso. Convengamos que no es una solución para cualquierpaís si consideramos que la instalación de una planta incineradora de alta tecnología,tiene un costo que fluctúa entre los 50 a 70 millones de dólares (llevemos esta cifra a lacantidad de plantas incineradoras que se necesitarían en cada país por los residuo s quegenera).

El reciclador informal (cartonero, recuperador urbano, o como se lo denomine) también esa mi entender, un problema a resolver. Las condiciones actuales de la economía mundial(en el corto y mediano plazo) hacen suponer que, victimas de la desocupación,numerosas personas quedaran sin trabajo, tomando esta actividad como alternativa por lacaída de su fuente de ingresos. Por otro lado, el precio del reciclado, como industria,aumentaría cuando haya menos recicladores informales y segurament e mejorará cuandoéstos obtengan una mejor situación laboral o una reinserción a la misma y puedanrecuperar una mejor calidad de vida.

Los recicladores informales se los divide en dos fracciones: los que los llevó estaactividad por situaciones ajenas a su voluntad (pérdida del empleo) y por los que lo hanhecho siempre con otros calificativos. Parte de la salida, es insertar a las personas debaja calificación laboral paralelamente de capacitarlos en tareas u oficios, y a la otraparte, reinsertarlos a través de cursos y talleres, considerando que antes tenían otraactividad u oficio.

¿Qué hacen los países al respecto...?Dentro de todo este panorama de incertidumbres, muchos países se preparan para lagran contienda. Por citar a algunos, vemos cómo Méx ico estima que para el 2010, lageneración per cápita de residuos sólidos en el distrito federal, será de 1,7 Kg diarios porpersona, lo que significará un aumento de 26%. En EE.UU. con la separación domiciliariaha logrado reducir los residuos que se enti erra en más de un 50 %. Chile a su vez, obtuvopréstamos para mejorar su sistema de gestión de residuos, que involucra paralelamenteel cierre de numerosos vertederos. Uruguay tiene en su planificación nuevasconstrucciones de relleno sanitario como destin o final. Brasil varía entre los sistemas dereciclado, los rellenos sanitarios y Curitiba, donde se la considera una de las ciudadesmás limpias del planeta por la concientización alcanzada. Argentina a su vez, trata deresolver el padecimiento de los basu reros a cielo abierto, los rellenos colapsados y la faltade una política de estado que normalice los procedimientos a seguir más allá de lasgestiones.

En el otro lado del continente, según consta en datos de la Unión Europea, cada personagenera anualmente 520 Kg. de residuo, y las estimaciones apuntan a los 680 Kg. lo quesupone un crecimiento de casi el 50 % en 25 años.

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En el caso de España, los objetivos se encuentran muy propicios, ya que según los datosdel Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, en el 2005 se reciclo más de un 40 el vidrio, el papel ycartón, los metales, y el 21 % los plásticos. La Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona a suvez, ha desarrollado numerosos e interesantes proyectos sobre Ecodiseño, haciendo unaporte a la disminución del impacto a mbiental en el transporte y los envases y a lareducción del consumo de recursos naturales.

Francia por su parte, produce anualmente más de 28 millones de toneladas de basuradoméstica. En las casi trescientas incineradoras dispersas a lo largo del terri torio francés,se queman 30 000 toneladas diarias de residuo domiciliario. En las mayores plantasincineradoras, el potencial energético se recupera en forma de calor y de electricidad. Laseparación de la basura doméstica en los hogares se ha convertido e n una prioridad,siendo el objetivo es producir menos desperdicios y reciclar y dar valor a los restantes.

En Portugal, en su fase experimental, utiliza un nuevo sistema de recogida de residuosbasado en conocer -mediante la colocación de sensores - la cantidad exacta de residuosque se depositan en los contenedores. Con la colocación de éstos en el interior de loscontenedores, permitirá conocer la cantidad de residuos que deposita la comunidad yrealizar la recogida en función de la cantidad real de resid uos generados. La iniciativa fueimplantada en la ciudad de Oporto, donde los cerca de 250.000 habitantes generananualmente más de 150.000 toneladas de residuos urbanos e industriales de los cuales18.000 toneladas se recogen selectivamente.

En Italia, aprobaron un decreto que establece penas de cárcel para quienes tiren residuosde dimensiones desproporcionadas (heladeras, lavarropas) en Campania (región del surde la península, que se encuentra en estado de emergencia por acumulación de basura).Esta medida, llega después de los problemas provocados en ciudades como Nápoles porla acumulación de residuos en la vía pública y el arrojo de lavadoras o armarios endescampados cercanos a las carreteras.

La implicancia de algunas ONG es importante en la orien tación que se les da a los paísesaún desarrollados. Destaco los esfuerzos de la I.S.W.A. (International Solid WasteAssociation) que constantemente asiste y promueve sistemas de remediación sustentablede los residuos, en búsqueda de soluciones y criterio s profesionales que atiendan laproblemática en forma integral.

Entre otras cosas...

No debemos pararnos solamente en el peligro que representa los residuos en lacontaminación ambiental. Veamos otros ejemplos. A menudo bebemos un vaso de aguasin reparar apenas en el valor de este recurso, si observamos como paradoja, que elvalor del agua de mesa proveniente de Sudamérica, en Europa, no está muy por debajode los precios de una botella de vino en los restaurantes, dándonos una premisa de lasituación actual.

Según estimaciones recientes de la Organización de Naciones Unidas, en el planeta hay1.300 millones de personas que carecen de un acceso adecuado al agua potable, y 2.500no disfrutan de un sistema de saneamiento apropiado. Bajo estas batallas loc alessubyace una crisis mundial del agua, cada vez más aguda, siendo, sin lugar a dudas, lainspiración de las futuras guerras a venir.

En menos de un cuarto de siglo, se calcula que dos tercios de la población mundial notendrán acceso adecuado a los sum inistros de agua dulce. Es más, el mundo se dividecada vez más entre las regiones “ricas” y “pobres” en lo que se refiere a recursos deagua. Al mismo tiempo, los recursos de agua dulce latinoamericanos sufren tambiénproblemas de contaminación constantes .

En toda la región, las cuencas de ríos y lagos, se convierten a menudo en reservorios debasura, desagües de minas o depósitos de residuos agrícolas e industriales. Comocorolario, la mayor parte de las aguas residuales se vierte directamente en los rí os, lagoso canales sin tratamiento de ningún tipo.

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Observemos que el caso del desarrollo de la minería, que es una actividad de corto plazo(se termina cuando se agota el yacimiento), pero el daño sobre una fuente de aguapotable –y mucho más aún si están los glaciares de por medio- puede ser irreversible sino se toman las precauciones necesarias.

En ciertas regiones de Latinoamérica, se han librado batallas por el agua, como porejemplo en Argentina, donde presenta serios problemas en varios cursos d e agua,seriamente contaminados, En Uruguay, una coalición de asociaciones promueve unreferéndum nacional con el fin de lograr una enmienda constitucional que garantice elagua como derecho humano y bien público. En Perú, los ciudadanos de las zonas máspobres han emprendido una férrea lucha contra los precios del agua.

En Chile, los grupos ecologistas han protestado enérgicamente contra la venta de lossistemas fluviales (durante el régimen de Pinochet, el 80% de los ríos se vendió al sectorprivado con el fin de facilitar la utilización del agua para la producción de energía y elconsumo agrícola). Brasil por su lado, tiene más agua que ningún otro país, pues disponede la quinta parte de los recursos de agua del planeta.

En Guatemala, los campesinos, trabajadores y ecologistas locales protestan contra laconstrucción de 5 represas en el río Usumacinta, (entre otras cosas, además de lageneración hidroeléctrica se utilizará para aportar irrigación a los cultivos agrícolasproceso que ya ha dañado la mayor parte del sistema ribereño). En México, la poblaciónindígena del estado de Chiapas, se prepara para emprender una batalla contra unamultinacional de las gaseosas que intenta asegurarse el control de las reservas de aguamás importantes del país.

Si nos trasladamos a algunos países de Europa, observaremos como Francia (encomparación con sus países vecinos) tiene el privilegio de poseer abundantes reservasde agua, aunque éstas, desigualmente repartidas en todo el territorio, no dejan de sermuy protegidas (en contrariedad a los ensayos nucleares que realizó implicando grandesriesgos para la fauna, la salud y el medio ambiente). Italia por otro lado, es muy pobre enrecursos naturales motivo por el cual la lleva a tratar de optimizar los mismos (gene rapoco más de un cuarto de la energía que consume).

No debemos dejar de lado los encomiables esfuerzos que vienen haciendo organismosinternacionales como la CEC (Comisión de Educación y de Comunicación) en suPrograma de educación y comunicación ambient al de la UICN (Unión Mundial para laNaturaleza) que, a través de su participación y lucha en contra del proteccionismoambiental, logrando avances y ayudando a conservar la integridad y diversidad de lanaturaleza en pos del resguardo de los recursos natu rales.

Y nosotros…¿qué?Debemos darnos cuenta de que, una vez satisfechas las necesidades básicas, eldesarrollo humano se refiere primordialmente a ser más, no a tener más.

La información provista por la Evaluación de los Ecosistemas del Milenio explic a que elpredominio humano ha inducido la mayor pérdida irreversible de la biodiversidad de laTierra en los últimos 50 años. Este proceso ha estado marcado por un incrementoimportante de beneficios financieros para grupos minoritarios y, aunque por una p arte,esto ha significado avances en ciertos ámbitos de la actividad humana (tecnológicos,médicos, entre otros), por otra, tuvo como derivaciones una continua degradaciónambiental.

En las actitudes del ser humano y sus hábitos, está la solución. No obst ante, interpretoque hay dos cuestiones a resolver, una la correcto y otra la posible. Si lo posible fueracorrecto estaríamos en una situación ideal y de coyuntura aceptable. Desde estaperspectiva, entre las amenazas directas para la conservación de la b iodiversidad,tenemos estándares de consumo insostenibles, fallas en los mercados y distorsiones enlas políticas que no prevén y consideran las consecuencias ambientales.

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CONCLUSIÓN

El esfuerzo es de todos y cada uno de los que estamos participando de e sta historia quese escribe en el día a día. Con nuestro ejemplo y accionar se empieza a construir elcambio.

De qué manera..? Con el respeto al prójimo, con el ahorro de energía eléctrica ennuestras viviendas, con el control de utilización del agua, con el uso mesurado del gasdomiciliario, con la modificación de nuestra conducta urbana (si en nuestros hogares notiramos la basura en el piso...por qué arrojarla a la vía pública?).

Es una cuestión de principios, de hacerse cargo de nuestros actos y de la sconsecuencias, mucho mas allá del ejemplo que veamos en nuestro hogar, en la calle, enquienes nos representan o en quienes la implantan a favor de beneficios económicos.

Si bien, debemos dejar en claro que nadie puede ser considerado el hacedor de tod as lasformulas para la mejor solución a la problemática del medio ambiente, por que de ser así,por qué no se resuelve? se hubiera hecho. Bastaría con juntar a los mejores promediosacadémicos o los políticos más probos, y observaríamos que el problema to davía estaríasin resolver.

La responsabilidad le compete a todos: nosotros, en formar una sociedad que contribuyaen poner los cimientos, en los gobiernos, para que éstos establezcan en sus plataformasedificar a partir de los benéficos de la humanidad y su entorno (donde no todos son loseconómicos o electorales), las industrias, para que morigeren sus políticas de marketingpor encima de lo que producen para consumo (que no nos consuma).

Señoras y señores, implantemos masivamente que los actos inescru pulosos de personasque contaminan conscientemente, y que como consecuencia, hay personas queenferman o mueren por este tipo de conductas, éstas, están tipificadas como delito porparte de quienes contaminan, y de quienes con aptitud dudosa, permiten que eso ocurra,siendo éste un problema de actitud, sin lugar a dudas.

Carlos MicilioArgentinaDirector de la Consultora Urbano Ambiental Carlos Micilio & Asociados.

For more information contact: Carlos Micilio -- consultoracarlosmicilio@gmail.com

"El Ecosistema Colegio" por Pedro Eizaguirre y Llanos García (Teatro Intrépido)CEC member Pedro Eizaguirre Massé of Teatro Intrépido writes about “El EcosistemaColegio”.

EL ECOSISTEMA COLEGIOPor Pedro Eizaguirre y Llanos García (Teatro Intrépido)

La realidad es una elaboración cultural. En nuestra cultura occidental tenemos una visióndualista de la realidad, que nos induce a percibir, entre otras cosas, razón y emoción,mente y cuerpo como realidades separadas, y en esta línea de percepción, ser hum ano ymedio ambiente como realidades separadas.

Opinamos que esta visión dualista es errónea, y limita la percepción de “la realidadcompleja” en la que nos desarrollamos como individuos, como colectividades y comoespecie.

Pensamos que esta limitación a la hora de percibir “la realidad compleja”, dificulta nuestrodesarrollo personal y colectivo.

Creemos que la naturaleza no es algo exterior a nosotros. Creemos que la naturaleza,

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con todos los seres, las cosas y los procesos que la conforman y la define n, es algo de loque formamos parte.

También creemos que los educadores ambientales del siglo XXI debemos serconscientes del concepto integral del medio ambiente como realidad física -cultural-económica-social-etc., que debemos saber entender esta defini ción global e integrarla ennuestros mecanismos de interpretación de la realidad medioambiental, y que debemossaber ser capaces de comunicar eficazmente este concepto del medio ambiente comoconjunto de circunstancias físicas, culturales, económicas, soci ales, etc., que rodean a laspersonas.

Sabemos que esta no es la visión de la realidad medioambiental que se percibe y semuestra en y desde nuestro sistema educativo. En nuestros centros educativos la visióndualista de la realidad es la norma. Y este h echo condiciona, entre otras cuestiones, lapercepción del medio ambiente que desarrollan los maestros y los alumnos de nuestrosistema educativo.

En nuestras experiencias de trabajo en los centros educativos de nuestro país, hemospercibido esto en numerosas ocasiones y de múltiples maneras. Un caso especialmenterepresentativo de esta realidad, se produjo en un colegio en el que habíamosdesarrollado nuestra conferencia dramatizada “Los dodos y el medio ambiente”,conferencia diseñada con el objetivo de explicar los conceptos de ecosistema y de medioambiente, conforme a la definición que de ellos se hace por parte de la Real Academia dela Lengua Española, es decir:

Ecosistema. Comunidad de los seres vivos cuyos procesos vitales se relacionan entre si yse desarrollan en función de los factores físicos de un mismo ambiente.

Medio ambiente. Conjunto de circunstancias físicas que rodean a los seres vivos. Porextensión, conjunto de circunstancias físicas, culturales, económicas, sociales, etc., querodean a las personas.

Al despedirnos del tutor responsable de la actividad en el centro (tutor de una clase delTercer Ciclo de Educación Primaria), éste hizo un comentario al respecto de lasdificultades que tenía para trabajar sobre el medio ambiente, y más en concreto sobre losecosistemas, dado que el colegio en cuestión estaba ubicado en una ciudad. Aldesarrollar el tema, quedó clara su percepción del medio ambiente y de los ecosistemascomo conceptos asociados a una naturaleza más o menos asilvestrada, que situaba“lejos” y de la que, por supuesto, no se sentía parte.

Este caso concreto, y nuestra convicción de que los educadores ambientales del sigloXXI debemos ser capaces de comunicar eficazmente el concepto integral del medioambiente, nos impulsó a desarrollar una propuesta de trabajo para los maestros, comoactividad posterior al desarrollo de nuestra conferencia dramatizada “Los dodos y elmedio ambiente”, basada en la percepción del colegio como un ecosistema; “ELECOSISTEMA COLEGIO”.

¿Cuál es la comunidad de seres vivos del ecosistema colegio?En “el ecosistema colegio” pueden vivir mamíferos como los seres humanos (alumnos,maestros, auxiliares, personal de mantenimiento y servicios…), gatos, perros, ratones,ratas, murciélagos…; aves como los gorriones, palomas, urracas, mirlos…; reptiles comolas lagartijas y las salamanquesas; insectos como las moscas, mosquitos, algunosescarabajos, saltamontes, piojos…, arácnidos…, otros artrópodos como las cochinillas dela humedad…, gasterópodos como lo s caracoles y las babosas, vegetales como losárboles, arbustos, hierbas..., musgos, líquenes…, virus como el de la gripe…, bacterias…

¿Por medio de qué procesos vitales se relacionan entre si los miembros de estacomunidad de seres vivos?Algunos de los procesos vitales que se dan en “el ecosistema colegio” son: Estudios,trabajos varios, organización de la clase (elecciones, delegados, normas, etc.), juegos,relaciones emocionales, enfermedades, muerte (de plantas y animales…), comer y beber,

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excretar, procesos hormonales…

¿Qué factores físicos intervienen en el desarrollo de esta comunidad de seres vivos?Entre los factores físicos que intervienen en el desarrollo del “ecosistema colegio”,tenemos que considerar: las edificaciones del centro, los materi ales con los que estáconstruido, el mobiliario, los sistemas de calefacción, los sistemas de iluminación, lossistemas de entrada de agua potable y de salida de aguas residuales, los espacios derecreo al aire libre, el entorno en el que está ubicado, el clima, el paisaje…

¿Qué circunstancias culturales condicionan el medio ambiente del que forma parte elecosistema colegio?El hecho de que “el ecosistema colegio” esté en una ciudad (cultura urbana) o en unpueblo (cultura rural), por ejemplo, condiciona rá entre otras cosas la cantidad y la calidadde la biodiversidad de la comunidad de los seres vivos de dicho ecosistema…

¿Qué circunstancias económicas condicionan el medio ambiente del entorno próximo engeneral y al ecosistema colegio en particular?Los sistemas de producción y consumo de materias primas y de energía, por ejemplo,característicos de la economía de mercado, condicionan “el ecosistema colegio” demúltiples maneras a través del consumo de electricidad (¿cómo se produce la electricidadque consume el colegio?,¿como llega a las bombillas?), el consumo de agua (¿de dondeviene el agua que consume el colegio?,¿cómo llega a los grifos?), el consumo de papel(¿de donde viene el papel que consume el colegio?,¿cómo llega hasta las aulas?) elconsumo de…, y la producción de, por ejemplo, residuos orgánicos e inorgánicos(¿dónde van a parar los residuos que produce el colegio?,¿cómo llegan hasta allí?)…

¿Qué circunstancias sociales condicionan este medio ambiente y este ecosistema?Dependiendo de que “el ecosistema colegio” esté en una zona más o menos desarrolladadesde el punto de vista de la sociedad industrial, por ejemplo, el ecosistema se verácondicionado por los efectos de ese desarrollo, en relación, entre otras cosas, con lamayor o menor disponibilidad de recursos económicos, o con la mayor o menor presenciade población emigrante…, y también en relación, por ejemplo, con un mayor o menordeterioro del medio ambiente como consecuencia de la contaminación industrial…

También tenemos que tener en cuenta que “el ecosistema colegio” no está aislado, sinoque está inmerso en un medio ambiente que incluye la comunidad escolar en su totalidad,que a su vez está inmersa en el municipio, en la provincia, en la comunidad autónoma, enel estado español, en la comunidad europea, en el mundo globalizado…, y siempre estáinteractuando con el entorno.

Para más información sobre nuestra conferencia dramatizada “Los dodos y el medioambiente”, entrar en http://teatroambiente.blogspot.com y pinchar en la etiq uetaCONFERENCIAS DRAMATIZADAS.

For more information contact: peiza -masse@hotmail.com

Newsletter from Nepal's Wildlife Watch Group

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings from Wildlife Watch Group and I hope you all are doing well. With this letter Ihave attached our March issue of Wildlife Times, our monthly publication on wildlifeissues. In this issue we have focused on politics and wildlife conservation.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Regards,

Mangal

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Mangal Man ShakyaChairmanWildlife Watch Grouphttp://www.citesnepal.org/

Download the newsletter >>http://www.citesnepal.org/files/wtimes/wildlife_times_mar.pdf

Two Journals on Environmental Education and Com munication

Routledge, academic publisher of over 180 Education journals, publishes several journalsrelated to the work of CEC. A note promoting these subscription publications was sent toCEC by Lannette Clifford, Senior Marketing Executive - Education Journals, Routledge,Taylor & Francis Group. Free sample copies are available on request. If you would like topromote or recommend publications of interest to fellow CEC members, kindly submitdetails to cecnews@iucn.org.

Lannette writes: "I believe this journal is of great interest to your members, and would liketo encourage them to submit their own research to the Journal and to sign up to free 'tableof contents alerting'."

Environmental Education Research

Environmental Education Research, edited by Alan Reid, University of Bath, UK, is aninternational refereed journal which publishes papers and reports on all aspects ofenvironmental education. The purpose of the journal is to help advance understanding ofenvironmental and sustainability educati on through a focus on papers reporting researchand development activities. The journal also carries more diverse papers including, forexample, conference reviews, retrospective analyses of activities in a particular field,critical commentaries on policy issues and comparative aspects of an environmentaleducation issue. The criteria for acceptance of papers are that they are analytical andcritical; that the ideas being discussed are transferable to other educational systems andcultures; and that they are accessible to an international audience.

Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture

Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture will publish high -quality,peer-reviewed scholarship that examines theories, practices, and processes ofcommunication as they relate to the environment around the world. As such, the journalwill serve as a nexus, a place of global connection and conversation, among scholarsworking in and across a variety of disciplines who explore how hum ans communicateabout and within both natural and cultural environments. The journal will also seek topromote interaction between academic scholars and those who practice environmentalcommunication, including community members, industry professionals, go vernmentofficials, and others, through a number of special features, including a regularly publishedsection devoted to practice.

The journal is grounded in two theoretical and practical commitments: 1) symbolic andnatural systems are mutually constitut ed, and 2) effective engagement with environmentalissues requires reflection on communication practices and processes.

Lanette CliffordSenior Marketing Executive - Education JournalsRoutledge, Taylor & Francis Group4 Park Square, Abingdon, OX14 4RN, U KDirect tel: +44 (0)207 017 6305Fax: +44 (0)207 017 6714

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SURVEYS Top ↑

Comment on Bonn Declaration issued by UNESCO World Conference on ESD

What do you think about ESD? Tell CEC! Participants at the UNESCO World Conferenceon Education for Sustainable Development, coming from over 150 countries, adopted theBonn Declaration on 2 April 2009.

All CEC members are invited to write a brief, half-page commentary about ESD and CEC.

– What is your reaction to the Bonn Declaration?– How do you see ESD in CEC over the next four years?– Can you position your ideas in relation to our new mandate?

CEC will collect all submissions and share them with the CEC Steering Committee, fordiscussion at the meeting in mid-May. Kindly send your note BEFORE 1 MAY to the CECMembership Liaison Officer, Cecilia Nizzola -Tabja, at CTN@hq.iucn.org

Participants at the UNESCO World Conference on Education for SustainableDevelopment held in Bonn, Germany, 31 March to 2 April 2009 issued a statement andcall for action.

Click here to download "Bonn Declaration" pdf >>http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=274

View the "Bonn Declaration" online at the UNESCO website >>http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/fileadmin/download/ESD2009_BonnDeclaration080409.pdf

The call for action section is reprinted below:

15. The progress of ESD remains unevenly distributed and requires different approachesin different contexts. In the coming years, there is a clear need for both developed anddeveloping countries, civil society and international organisations to make significantefforts to:

At policy level in member states

a) Promote ESD’s contribution to all of education and to achieving qu ality education, withparticular regard to fostering the linkages between ESD and EFA within a coherent andsystemic approach. Foster the goals of the ESD agenda in international fora and at thenational level.

b) Increase public awareness and understandi ng about sustainable development andESD, by mainstreaming and expanding the learning and insights gained in the first fiveyears of the UN DESD into public awareness policies and programmes and various formsof informal learning. This should include promo ting the role and contribution of the mediafor fostering public awareness and understanding of sustainability issues. It should alsoinclude capacity-building of media professionals.

c) Mobilize adequate resources and funding in favour of ESD, in particu lar throughintegrating ESD into national development policy and budgetary frameworks, into UNcommon country programming processes and other country -level policy frameworks (suchas sector-wide approaches), as well as into EFA and MDG initiatives. Promote andinclude ESD in the priorities of foundations and donors.

d) Re-orient education and training systems to address sustainability concerns throughcoherent policies at national and local levels. Develop and implement ESD policiesthrough co-ordinated inter-sectoral/inter-ministerial approaches that also involve businessand the corporate sector, civil society, local communities and the scientific community.

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e) Develop and strengthen existing international, regional and national enablingmechanisms and cooperation for ESD that respect cultural diversity. Establish regionaland country-level committees, networks and communities of practice for ESD thatstrengthen local-national, and national-global links, and that enhance North -South-Southand South-South co-operation.

At practice level

f) Support the incorporation of sustainable development issues using an integrated andsystemic approach in formal education as well as in non -formal and informal education atall levels, in particular through the developm ent of effective pedagogical approaches,teacher education, teaching practice, curricula, learning materials, and educationleadership development, and also by recognizing the significant contribution of non -formaleducation and informal learning as well a s vocational and work-place learning.Sustainable development is a cross -cutting theme with relevance to all disciplines andsectors.

g) Reorient curriculum and teacher education programmes to integrate ESD into both pre -service and in-service programmes. Support teacher education institutions, teachers andprofessors to network, develop, and research sound pedagogical practice. Specificallysupport teachers to develop ESD strategies that can work with large class sizes, and toevaluate ESD learning processes.

h) Promote evidence-informed policy dialogue on ESD, drawing upon relevant research,monitoring and evaluation strategies, and the sharing and recognition of good practices.Develop national ESD indicators that inform the effective implementation and review ofESD outcomes and processes.

i) Develop and extend ESD partnerships to integrate ESD into training, vocationaleducation and workplace learning by involving civil society, public and private sectors,NGOs, and development partners. ESD should be come an integral part of the training ofleaders in business, industry, trade union, non -profit and voluntary organizations, and thepublic services. Re-orient TVET programmes to include ESD.

j) Involve youth in the design and implementation of ESD. Engag e the commitment,solidarity and potential of youth and their organisations and networks in enhancing ESD.Foster young people’s ownership of ESD questions and issues.

k) Enhance the major contribution and key role of civil society in stimulating debate a ndpublic participation, and initiating ESD actions. Explore ways to further thisinvolvement and commitment.

l) Value and give due recognition to the important contribution of traditional, indigenousand local knowledge systems for ESD and value differe nt culturalcontributions in promoting ESD.

m) ESD should actively promote gender equality, as well as create conditions andstrategies that enable women to share knowledge and experience of bringing about socialchange and human well-being.

n) Develop knowledge through ESD networking. Identify and support schools, universitiesand other higher education and research institutions, education centres and educationnetworks that could serve as centres of expertise and innovation that develop and shareknowledge, and create resources for ESD. Explore the potential of specific geographicaland bioregional sites which can serve as spatially defined ‘laboratories’ for ESD.

o) Encourage and enhance scientific excellence, research and new knowledgedevelopment for ESD through the involvement of higher education institutions andresearch networks in ESD. Mobilise the core functions of universities: teaching, researchand community engagement to strengthen global and local knowledge of ESD, and utilise

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the UNESCO ESD Chairs and UNESCO programme networks in this process. Establishinstitutional and organisational structures that facilitate flexibility, student participation, andmulti-disciplinary programmes and develop model projects that can respond to thecomplexity and urgency of ESD. Reward structures should be developed andimplemented to support ESD initiatives and research in higher education.

p) Develop institutional mechanisms during the UN Decade of Education for SustainableDevelopment and other ongoing Dec ades, such as the UN Decade for Action ‘Water forLife’ that will ensure that ESD continues to be implemented beyond those Decades.

q) Engage the expertise available within the UN system to strengthen ESD in keysustainable development conventions; for ex ample, those focusing on biodiversity, climatechange, desertification and intangible cultural heritage.

r) Intensify efforts in education and training systems to address critical and urgentsustainability challenges such as climate change, water and food security by developingspecific action plans and/or programmes within the UN DESD umbrella and partnershipframework.

Please send your "ESD and CEC" submission before 1 May 2009 by e -mail to CECMembership Liaison Officer, Cecilia Nizzola -Tabja, at CTN@hq.iucn.org

Thank you!

For more information contact: cec@iucn.org/More information on this story >>http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/en/home.html

Survey Takes Stock of Mid-Decade Progress in UNDESD

CEC member Dieter Gross coordinated a recent survey about the United Nations Decadeof Education for Sustainable Development. “We recommend that ESD and administrationprofessionals read it, as it presents some challenges that need to be overcome, half waythrough the Decade for ESD,” he writes.

This survey was incorporated in the German -Japanese Cooperation on Developing ESDCurricula. A total of 108 international experts plus 21 Japanese experts responded to thequestionnaire "Barriers and Deficits with Implementing ESD”. The results of this surveywere presented at the ESD Conference in Bonn, Germany, and are available online in a14-page report >>http://www.desd.sustain-future.org/int_jap_compilation_survey%20results_dg.pdf

The invitation to participate in the online survey was forwarded by CEC member WendyGoldstein in a November 2008 CEC newsletter item >>http://cec.wcln.org/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=1&pid=644

Participate in a Survey by Advancing Conservation in a Social Context

You are invited to complete an online survey about ecosystem services, conservation andthe United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. This is a survey on the relationshipbetween conservation and development goals .

Go to survey >> http://acscsurvey.asu.edu/

The Advancing Conservation in a Social Context project is asking for your help in ourresearch into the relationship between conservation and development goals. As part ofour research, we are conducting a series of surveys tha t examine the relationship

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between conservation and development goals.

We are looking for participants who are professionally involved in conservation and/ordevelopment, including but not limited to students, practitioners, and professors. Pleasefeel free to pass on this link (http://acscsurvey.asu.edu) to anyone else you think would beinterested.

The link in this email (http://acscsurvey.asu.edu/) will direct you to a web page that hostsour three surveys. Please read the brief description of each one , and decide which youwould like to take. If you choose, you can take more than one, or all three. The survey willbe open until April 1st after which point it will be closed.

Each survey will take approximately 10 -15 minutes. Your responses will be kep tcompletely private and we will not retain any personal identifying data. Should you desire,you can stop taking the survey at any point.

The surveys investigate the following issues:

Ecosystem services• What is the relationship between biodiversit y conservation and ecosystem services?• How does biodiversity conservation affect other things you might care about?• How do you think biodiversity conservation affects other ecosystem services? Areother ecosystem services enhanced by biodiversity conservation, or not?

Development Goals• What is the relationship between biodiversity conservation and development goals.• There is a lot of debate about how conservation and development goals areconnected. Do they help, hinder, or not affect e ach other?

Conservation and Development• How are the benefits of conservation and development distributed, do trade -offs exist,and if so what are the trade-offs?• Who are the beneficiaries of conservation and development activities. Do all peoplebenefit? Only some? What are the trade -offs between conservation and development?• This survey focuses on the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, which aregoals for human development, like universal education. Biodiversity conservation, or themaintenance of the number of species in an area, is one Millenium Development Goal.

Thank you in advance for considering to participate in our study.

Best wishes,David MeekResearch AssistantAdvancing Conservation in a Social Context

Who We Are:This survey is part of a broader research project on Advancing Conservation in a SocialContext, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

For more information contact: David Meek acsc.tradeoff.survey@gmail.com

COURSES Top ↑

Seminar by UPEACE: Educating for the 21st Century (July 2009, Costa Rica)

The world is changing at an extremely rapid pace, affec ting the essence of how we learn,interact, and work. It is more imperative than ever before to build capacity in our studentsto contemplate and pursue engaged citizenship, both locally and globally. As educators,can we create learning experiences to equ ip our students for a future that is constantly

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changing? This week-long course is designed for educators working in formal and informalsettings, within institutions and in grassroots community contexts. During the course, wewill explore a variety of pedagogical approaches and real -life examples that take intoaccount the challenges and opportunities facing education and society in the 21st century.The course will demonstrate the need for the integration of intercultural skills and peaceeducation into current curriculum.

Course Dates: Offered from July 13 - 18, 2009. Application deadline is May 22.

Course Format: The course is designed to be practical and hands -on, with space forsharing and reflection. The mornings will be typically spent on the cam pus of theUniversity for Peace, complemented by afternoon fieldtrips. The course will travel to themost scenic cloudforest region of Monteverde for the last couple of days of the course. Fora more detailed itinerary, please see 'Itinerary week'.

Course Cost: $1,950. This tuition fee includes all course materials, field visits,accomodation at a charming bed and breakfast, 2 nights hotel in Monteverde (doubleoccupancy) and several meals. Not included: Air travel to Costa Rica, airport pick -up anddrop off, and personal items. All participants will be awarded a certificate from UPEACEupon completion of the course.

Course Facilitators: CEC member Mohit Mukherjee is the Director of the UPEACECentre for Executive Education and a faculty member at UPEACE where he teaches avariety of courses, including 'Sustainable Development Education' and 'Foundation inPeace and Conflict Studies'. Prior to this position, he led the Education Programme of theEarth Charter Initiative, an international nonprofit organiz ation. He has a Bachelor'sdegree from Stanford University and his Master's from the Harvard Graduate School ofEducation.

Jason Laker is currently the Associate Vice -Principal & Dean of Student Affairs and anAppointee to the Faculty in Women’s Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario,Canada. Dr. Laker has previously worked at four universities in the United States (SaintJohn’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota; Universities of Delaware and Arizona; andFort Lewis College in Durango, Colo rado). Dr. Laker holds a B.S. in OrganizationalCommunication from Central Michigan University, an M.A. in Community Counseling fromAdams State College (Alamosa, CO), and a Ph.D. with a major in Higher EducationAdministration and Organization and a minor in Student Affairs from the Center for theStudy of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. Dr. Laker has taught in severaldisciplines and has presented at numerous professional conference sessions on gender,community leadership, and related topi cs and has a significant publication record in theseareas.

If interested, please fill out our short 'Online application form' or contact the CentreDirector, Mohit Mukherjee at mohit@upeace.org with any questions you may have. If youexperience e-mail problems, re-send to: upeacemohit@gmail.com.

Director, UPEACE Centre for Executive EducationResident FacultyUnited Nations mandated University for PeaceP.O. Box 138-6100San José, Costa RicaTel: 506-2205-9021; fax: 506-2249-1929

Note: To join the mailing list, please see: www.centre.upeace.org

Course: English Language for Environmentalists: Communication and LanguageSkills

Training for conservation professionals will focus on English -language skills in a May 2009workshop offered by Losehill Training in the UK. From CEC member Peter Townsend.

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English Language for Environmentalists: Communication and Language SkillsA Specialised International English Language Course for Environmental Professionals

Sunday 17 – Friday 22 May 2009Losehill Hall, Peak District National Park, UK

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?English is the common language for countryside and environmental managementthroughout the world, yet the specialist vocabulary required to communicate with others inthe field is not widely taught. A good command of English can therefore be a great assetto anyone working in the field.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?These renowned courses are designed for people working in conservation, environmentaleducation, landscape management or tourism, who want to improve their existing Englishlanguage skills. The courses will be conducted in English, so previous knowledge of theEnglish language is essential.

WHAT WILL YOU GAIN?Opportunities to practice English in a vari ety of technical situations;A wider knowledge of the specialist vocabulary associated with landscape management,nature conservation and environmental interpretation;Individual vocabulary and grammar tuition from experienced language teachers;Appreciation of the importance of effective communication in environmental management;Opportunities to share experiences with colleagues from around the world.

ENDORSEMENTThese courses have been developed by Losehill Hall in partnership with the AlfredToepfer Akademie für Naturschutz, are endorsed by the EUROPARC Federation and itsGermany and UK sections.

COURSE DETAILSParticipants will use various communication techniques to develop language skills andvocabulary in a different subject area each day. The general format of each day willinclude vocabulary workshops, site visits and activities, group discussion and feedbackplus individual language tuition.

Sunday: Arrive and register. Welcome to Losehill Hall and introductions.Monday: Presentations. Using a site visit to a National Park owned and managed estate tofocus on language and presentation skills.Tuesday: Environmental Interpretation. Practice note taking and listening skills. Explorethe language of sensory perception and communication.Wednesday: Managing Moorland. Exploring the management and research into thisinternationally important habitat.Thursday: Protected Areas, Nature Conservation and Biodiversity. Including a visit to aNational Nature Reserve.Friday: Final presentations - the last chance to practice new language skills. Conclusionsand farewells. Depart.

COURSE FEE: £650 if you book before end of March 2009, £780 after this date (Feeincludes tuition, course materials, transport to site visits and all meals andaccommodation.)

COURSE DIRECTOR: Mark Sixsmith, Environmental English Tutor

TRAVEL: Participants will need to make their own arrangements for travel to the UK,although a courtesy bus will be provided between Manchester Airport and Losehill Hall.More details will be sent prior to the course.

Losehill Hall, one of Europe’s leading countryside and environmental training centres, is

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situated just outside the village of Castleton, in the Peak District National Park.

For more details about our current programme of courses co ntact:Sue Field, Losehill Hall, Peak District National Park Centre, Castleton, Hope Valley,Derbyshire, S33 8WB, UK. Tel: ++ 44 1433 620373Website: http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/training.htm

For more information contact: training.losehill@peakdistrict. gov.uk

Course: "Thinking in Systems" Offered Online Starting April 17

CEC member Dominic Stucker announces an online course. Sustainability Institute andisee systems inc. are co-hosting a 4-part web seminar based on Thinking in Systems byDonella Meadows. CEC members were notified earlier by e -mail.

Thinking in Systems: Practical Lessons for Building Sustainable Organizations &Communities

Fridays beginning April 17, 200911:00 - 12:10 PM EDTPresented by: Chris Soderquist, Pontifex Consulting & Diana Wright, SustainabilityInstitute

Learn skills to build sustainable organizations and communities. Inspired by the bookThinking in Systems - A Primer by Donella Meadows this four -session web seminar seriesis designed to help you develop practical skills for applying Systems Thinking to your ownorganizations, communities and even your personal life.

Using compelling examples from today's headline news, instructors Chris Soderquist andDiana Wright will demonstrate how Systems Thinking and iThink/S TELLA can be used tobetter understand the interconnections of complex dynamic systems like the economy,environment, and social systems.

Web seminars will focus on specific topics according to the following schedule:Session 1: Introduction to Systems: B asic principles, April 17, 2009Session 2: The Systems Zoo: Simple Examples of common systems, April 24, 2009Session 3: System Behavior: Surprises, traps, and opportunities, May 1, 2009Session 4: Leverage Points: Places to intervene in a system, May 8, 2 009

Space is limited so register today.

For more information visit http://www.iseesystems.com/Thinking

Email: support@iseesystems.com

Phone (+1) 603-448-4990Toll-Free in USA 800-987-6758FAX 603-448-4992support@iseesystems.com

Training course: Good Practice Stakeholder Participation... with a focus on theenvironment

From CEC member Diana Pound of dialogue matters. Explore the benefits and challengesof involving stakeholders in decisions about the natural environment. June 29 to 2 July.

Dates: Arrive evening of the 29th June, finish at 4.00pm on the 2nd July 2009

For more information please see below and to book please complete an application form

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at http://www.dialoguematters.co.uk/docs/applicationform.doc and send totraining@dialoguematters.co.uk

The course is held over 3 days and will help participants:• Explore the benefits and challenges of involving stakeholders in decisions about thenatural environment• Understand the principles and concepts of stakeholder participation• Learn practical facilitation skills and how to design a participation processFeedback on our training: '10 out of 10', 'the best training course I have ever been on!','you packed in a huge amount and it was great fun too!' ' I liked the blend of theory, skillsand practice'.

We keep numbers attending each course to just 15 because that is a good size forlearning and means people can get to know each other and work well in groups during thecourse. Restricting numbers does mean our courses book up fast - so if you want a placelet us know as soon as possible.

ABOUT US

So far we have trained over 200 environmental professionals and academics. Our trainingis rooted in our experience of designing and facilitating environmental dialogue including:a national workshop in Wales about how to achieve their target for SSSIs, an AONB Plan,European Marine site plans, regional and borough BAP strategies, outdoor learning onNNR, InterReg Ecological Network Mapping, helping the Chief and Senior Scientists fromDefra and EA work out how they work more effectively together, and helping senior stafffrom 7 Middle East countries agree action under the Jeddah Convention (for theConservation of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden)

dialogue mattersecological and environmental stakeholder dialoguedesigning <> facilitating <> trainingwww.dialoguematters.co.uk+44 (0) 1233 813875For more information contact: training@dialoguematters.co.uk

Expanding the GREEN Olympiad to Young People Beyond India

CEC Member Pranab Patar would like to expand GREEN Olympiad, an annual examcompetition carried out by The Energy and Resources Institute (TER I) in India.

Today's society is waking up to the call of environmentalists urging citizens to take a moreproactive approach for protection of nature and natural resources. Civilizations areintricately linked to the availability and quality of the life s upport systems, and history hasseen periodic washouts in the absence of controlled and accountable lifestyles. For asustainable and healthy way of living people need to be aware about the pros and cons ofeach of their actions on the environment. This aw areness in turn needs to be createdamongst all levels of the society, to see a meaningful change in our surroundings.

GREEN Olympiad, an annual international environmental examination conducted byTERI, is one such step towards making youths informed ab out the challenges mankind isfacing and also informing them their role in saving the mother Earth.

TERI would like to take this opportunity seek your help in popularizing this initiative andreach out to a larger number of audience.

We hope to have a long term association with your organization. Thanking you inanticipation.

With kind regards

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Sincerely,

Pranab J PatarAssociate FellowEnvironment Education & Awareness AreaThe Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)New Delhi, India

For more information contact: Pranab Patar pranab.patar@gmail.com

AWARDS Top ↑

Rolex Awards: Accepting Nominations for Young Laureates

Do you know a young person aged 18 to 30 with a project or idea that is enterprising,original, feasible and promises positive impact for humanity or the natural world? CECChair Keith Wheeler has been invited by Daphne de Laleu of Rolex to nominatecandidates for the Rolex Awards: Young Laureates Programme >>

Keith welcomes suggestions for candidates from CEC members. If you would like tonominate a young person, kindly respond promp tly with the information specified below.Send your completed form to Keith Wheeler, CEC Chair, c/o Cecilia Nizzola -Tabja, CECMembership Liaison Officer, IUCN, 28 rue Mauverney, CH -1196 Gland, Switzerland.

Email: CTN@hq.iucn.org

In 2010 the program wil l give five outstanding young men and women, who have originalideas and determination, the opportunity to implement a project through financial supportand recognition.

CEC is part of a select international nomination process, whereby Rolex invitesdistinguished individuals or organisations to suggest up to three exceptional individualsaged 18 to 29, from whom Rolex will then request applications (in English) forundertakings envisaged for the future or completed in part by 2010.

An independent Jury wil l then judge the originality, feasibility and potential impact of theproject idea, which must be concrete, as well as demonstrate its educational value, and —above all — reflect the person’s spirit of enterprise.

You may nominate deserving young people in any area of the Rolex Awards: science andhealth, applied technology, exploration, the environment and cultural preservation. You donot need to know the nominee personally or have direct knowledge of his or her work, andyou may use your networks to identify promising individuals and ideas.

Rolex would like to receive nominations as soon as possible.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Applications are judged on the following criteria:• The spirit of enterprise of the applicant;• The originality of the idea;• The feasibility of the project;• Its potential impact.

Spirit of EnterpriseIndividuals with a spirit of enterprise share a few key qualities, namely:• Having an idea that extends beyond oneself and one’s natural boundaries;• Going “against the tide” in one way or another;• Having a capacity to take risks.A person with a spirit of enterprise views obstacles as challenges or

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opportunities and often enjoys finding ways to solve them.

OriginalityThe ideas of the candidate must be out of the ordinary in som e way, either in terms of theobjectives or in terms of the manner to reach them or both. Originality can be consideredwithin a regional or national context so that the idea may not be completely new, but it hasnever been done in a particular place.

FeasibilityThe feasibility of a project is its potential to happen given the circumstances, the capacityof the candidate, the resources available, and what can be imagined as the realisticchances of success.

Potential ImpactThe potential impact of an idea or project is its estimated benefit to humankind in generaland/or the world at large, including the natural world. Any significant contribution to theworld’s body of knowledge in the respective categories – science and health, exploration,environment, applied technology, and cultural preservation – is also a measure ofpotential impact.

SUGGESTED CANDIDATE FORM

Please provide, as far as possible, the following information about the person you arenominating. Rolex staff will then contact the person to see if he or she is interested intaking part.

Candidate’s Family name:First name:Gender: Male FemaleNationality:Age:Home address:Professional address:Home telephone number:Office telephone number:Private e-mail address:Office e-mail address:

Do you know this candidate personally, and if not, how did you hear of him/her?Do you know his or her project idea? Can you describe it briefly?Why are you nominating this person?

More information on this story >>http://rolexawards.com/en/about -the-awards/programme-news-young-rolex-awards.jsp

COMING EVENTS Top ↑

CEPA Workshop and CEC Members Gathering Planned for 5th WorldEnvironmental Education Congress

The 5th World Environmental Education Congress will take place from 10 to 14 May 2009,at Montréal’s Palais des Congrès.

CEPA Workshop

The CEPA workshop is on 12 May at 8:30. It is called "Facilitating the Process towardspositive change: Communication, Education and Public Awareness." The workshop is aversion of that which Frits Hesselink and Marta Andelman facilitated in Barc elona.

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CEC Members Meeting

An informal gathering of CEC members attending the congress is being organized bySuzana Padua, CEC Regional Vice -Chair South America. Please contact Suzana fordetails about this chance to meet in Montreal. Email: suzana@ipe.org.br

"At a time when perspectives are of gloom and uncertainty, WEEC will certainly be anenergizing experience. It is a gathering of people who understand people and who areable to envision ways to increase knowledge, and to shift values and behaviors in thesearch for a more sustainable and balanced planet." Suzana says.

"Environmental educators from all over the globe, many of whom are from the IUCNCommission on Education and Communicati on (CEC), will be exchanging experiencesand sowing seeds for thought that may inspire actions to help make this a better world."

From the WEEC website:

The 5th World Environmental Education Congress is designed to involve attendeesdirectly in the process of environmental education by tackling real world issues in concertwith players from around the globe. In this manner we will move to prepare the nextgeneration of environmental citizens, in view of developing a population capable ofmaking informed decisions regarding their personal well -being and that of all peoples onthis, the planet Earth, our common home.

May 2009: World Environmental Education Congress

The 5th World Environmental Education Congress will take place from May 10 to 1 4,2009, at Montréal’s Palais des Congrès. CEC members planning to attend are invited tocontact the Commission to plan an informal gathering.

World Environmental Education Congress

The 5th World Environmental Education Congress will take place from May 10 to 14,2009, at Montréal’s Palais des Congrès.

Would you like to meet other CEC members at WEEC? If you are planning to attend thisevent, please contact Cecilia to begin the process of organizing a CEC gathering.mailto:ctn@iucn.org

Congress Program

The 5th World Environmental Education Congress is designed to involve attendeesdirectly in the process of environmental education by tackling real world issues in concertwith players from around the globe. In this manner we will move to prepare the ne xtgeneration of environmental citizens, in view of developing a population capable ofmaking informed decisions regarding their personal well -being and that of all peoples onthis, the planet Earth, our common home.

The program of the 5th World Congress will include invited speakers and guests ofworldwide renown. A broad range of topics relevant to Environmental Education will bebroached, each under their respective thematic niches, covering connected issues ofhealth, economy, society, schools and uni versities, heritage, ethics, identity andindigenous practices.

International socio-scientific experts will be gathering to present their ideas and to discusswith others, through presentations in the form of workshops, oral presentations, roundtables and posters. By means of a political forum, a discussion among different politiciansand decision-makers will shed light on the contributions and action plans of their sectors.

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Additionally, a unique forum for NGOs and NPOs will allow delegates to come to k nownon-governmental and non-profit organizations active in environmental education, fromCanada and beyond. Finally, a series of symposia animated by invited panelists willaddress specific themes and issues of interest to all.

A variety of parallel activities, special events and educational tours as well as an exhibitionfair will also be part of this extensive program, offering all delegates the chance to interactwith others working in this essential field.

Congress Program web page >> http://www.5weec.uqam.ca/EN/programme.asp

The registration form is now available >> http://www.5weec.uqam.ca/EN/inscription_introduction.aspFebruary 15, 2009 – Deadline for advanced registration feesMarch 15, 2009 – Deadline for cancellation of registration with ful l refund lessadministrative fees

About The Green Wave and May 22 The International Day for Biological Diversity

Green Wave activities will happen on 22 May because it’s a special day for all life onEarth. Every year, people all around the wo rld celebrate biodiversity on what’s called the“International Day for Biological Diversity” or IDB for short. The main purpose of the day isto raise awareness and understanding of biodiversity issues.

About the Green Wave

The Green Wave is a global b iodiversity campaign to educate children and youth aboutbiodiversity. It leads up to the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010. Each year, TheGreen Wave will contribute to worldwide celebrations of the International Day forBiological Diversity (IDB). It also supports other national, international and global treeplanting initiatives such as the UNEP-led Billion Tree Campaign.

In participating schools, students plant a locally important tree species in or near theirschoolyard. Ideally, the tree species would also be locally indigenous. Where possible, thetree should be planted on 22 May – IDB. In some countries, it may be too hot, too cold,too rainy, too dry or too something else to plant on 22 May. If such conditions apply inyour country, you should plant in another month but still hold a special ceremony on 22May.

On 22 May, students around the world will count down to 10:00 local time, when they willwater their tree in their respective schoolyards, thereby creating a figurative “green wave ”starting in the far east and traveling west around the world.

Throughout the day, students can upload photos and text summaries on The Green Wavewebsite to share their tree-planting story with other children and youth from around theworld. The interactive map will be launched at 20:10 local time, thereby creating a second“green wave”.

Key MessagesThe Green Wave is a multi -year campaign to raise awareness about biodiversity ingeneral, and the 2010 biodiversity target in particular, that contribute s to the Conventionon Biological Diversity (CBD) programme of work on Communication, Education andPublic Awareness.

The key messages of the campaign are threefold:

Children and youth around the world want a healthy, biodiverse future.Children and youth around the world will unite and take action for biodiversity.Children and youth are working towards the 2010 biodiversity target of reducing

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biodiversity loss.International Day for Biolological Diversity - 2009

In 2009, the theme for the Internat ional Day for Biological Diversity will be invasive alienspecies. These invasive alien species are not martians left by Unidentified Flying Objects(UFOs), but biological species (such as plants, animals, fungi and bacteria) who spreadoutside their natural past or present distribution range and threaten biodiversity in thesenew areas.

Experts consider invasive alien species to be one of the main causes of biodiversity lossaround the world. Not only can they wreak environmental havoc, but also ruin cul turaltraditions and cost our economies hundreds of billions of dollars every year. So for thesake of our environments, cultures and economies, it’s really important to spread theworld about invasive alien species and to promote native species.

To link your school’s Green Wave tree planting activities with the 2009 IDB theme, you’llwant to plant a tree that is native to your area. By promoting a native species withhistorical roots in your community and country, you can contribute to a solution to theproblem of invasive alien species.

To discover which tree species are native in your area, contact your local or nationalbotanical gardens and herbaria or visit their websites. Even better, invite a specialist toyour class to talk about native species and invasive alien species.

About The Green Wave

http://greenwave.cbd.int/en/about -greenwave

http://greenwave.cbd.int/fr/a-propos-vague-verte

http://greenwave.cbd.int/es/sobre -ola-verde

Call for Proposals: International Healthy Parks Healthy Pe ople Congress

A ‘Call for Proposals’ is now active for the International Healthy Parks Healthy PeopleCongress 2010. If you work in urban planning, community development, physical andmental health, tourism, education, recreation, ecology and park manage ment (urban andprotected area) then this is the conference for you. Come and explore how naturesignificantly contributes to our wellbeing and broader societal benefits. Shared with CECby Wendy Goldstein, CEC Deputy Director. Click here to find out more about submitting aproposal >>http://www.healthyparkshealthypeoplecongress.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemi d=121#abs

Dear CEC Members:

The Call for Proposals for the first International Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress isNOW OPEN and will remain open until June 22nd 2009.

With the increasing recognition of the value of nature to human health and well beingworldwide, Parks Victoria will host the inaugural International Healthy Parks HealthyPeople Congress at the new Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Australia from11-16 April 2010.

This will be a unique opportunity to bring together deleg ates from all relevant sectors (i.e.planning, community development, physical and mental health, tourism, climate change,education, recreation, ecology and park management) to explore how we can take betteradvantage of the way nature significantly contr ibutes to our wellbeing and broader societalbenefits.

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We are seeking proposals under the following themes: Healthy Communities, HealthyParks, Healthy Participation, Healthy People and subthemes.

Are you proud of what benefits have occurred through yo ur collaborative work??

We need your contribution - come along and share your research, showcase yourinnovative programs and join the discussion on how to make cooperation better!!!

In addition to the partners displayed on the website, the support of th e World HealthOrganisation, United Nations World Tourism Organisation, US Federal Centers forDisease Control & Prevention and the Australian Federal Government Department ofHealth & Ageing is being sought.

For information on submitting a proposal or to find out more about the Congress go to:www.healthyparkshealthypeoplecongress.org

Krista ByrneASN Events Pty LtdHealthy Parks Healthy People Congress Secretariat

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International Conference: E-Learning Africa

The 4th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training will beheld May 2009 in Dakar, Senegal. Shared with CEC by Lizzie Crudgington, IUCN LLU.

4th International Conference on ICT for Develop ment, Education and TrainingDakar, Senegal, May 27-29, 2009

Meeting the networking needs of the pan -African eLearning and distance educationsector, the annual eLearning Africa conference is the key networking venue forpractitioners and professionals from Africa and all over the world,

eLA is the largest gathering of eLearning and distance education professionals in Africa,enabling participants to develop multinational and cross -industry contacts andpartnerships, as well as to enhance their knowledge, expertise and abilities.

At eLearning Africa 2008, over 1500 eLearning users, newcomers, providers and expertsgathered during the three conference days at the Accra International Conference Centrein Accra, Ghana. Eighty percent of the participants cam e from African countries. Theconference programme featured the work of 315 Speakers and Chairpersons from 54countries, addressing all forms of technology -enhanced learning and including a rich mixof themes, topics and a variety of session formats.

Delegates are high-level policy and decision makers and practitioners from education,business and government - the three key areas driving eLearning adoption andinnovation.

The conference is held in English and French. It includes plenary sessions with wo rld-class experts, smaller presentation and special focus sessions, practical demonstrationsand debates on specific topics, as well as various informal networking opportunitieswhere practitioners share their experiences, ideas, new information and perspe ctives.

eLearning Africa 2009 will feature:

nearly 300 speakers from approximately 50 countries4 plenary sessions10 parallel conference strands with 60 sessions20 best practice demonstrations19 pre-conference events

See the website http://www.elearning-africa.com/

Previous CEC Newsletters Top ↑

Previous CEC newsletters are available from the CEC Home Page >>http://cec.wcln.org/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=11&pid=27

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FRENCH AN D SPANISH

Invitación para nombrar Animadores Nacionales de la CEC

Estimados miembros de UICN, Comités Regionales y Nacionales de UICN, Oficinas Regionales y Nacionales de la UICN ymiembros de la CEC:

Asunto: Invitación para nombrar Animadores Nacio nales de la CEC

La Comisión de Educación y Comunicación (CEC) es una de las seis Comisiones de la Unión Internacional por laConservación de la Naturaleza (UICN) y está compuesta por una red de especialistas en comunicación, educación yaprendizaje ambiental de gobiernos, instituciones gubernamentales, ONG, instituciones académicas y del sector privado. LaCEC busca hacer que UICN y nuestra comunidad sean más efectivas en el alcance de sus metas, liderando los procesos deuna gestión de punta del aprendiza je, el cambio y el conocimiento.

Para tener un mayor impacto a nivel nacional y regional, la CEC está creando un nuevo elemento en nuestra estructura degobierno global: Animadores Nacionales de la CEC.

Por medio de la presente carta, me gustaría solic itarle su participación en el proceso de nombramiento de un AnimadorNacional de la CEC para su país. Vamos a aceptar nominaciones hasta el 15 de junio de 2009. Su asistencia para identificara candidatos dinámicos y eficaces contribuye a tener una Comisió n más sólida. Estamos interesados particularmente enidentificar a candidatos de organizaciones miembro de UICN, que a su vez sean miembros activos de la CEC o que esténdispuestos a serlo.

Descripción de los Animadores Nacionales de la CEC

Como puntos focales nacionales, los Animadores Nacionales de la CEC trabajarán estrechamente con los Vice PresidentesRegionales de la CEC. Como miembros voluntarios de la CEC, liderarán, innovarán y colaborarán en tres áreas definidas demanera amplia en nuestro mandato: 1) Facilitación de la co-creación de soluciones sostenibles; 2) Creación de plataformaspara la comunicación estratégica; 3) Influenciar el nuevo aprendizaje para el desarrollo profesional. Los ActivadoresNacionales contribuirán a los compromisos de la CEC para alcanzar los resultados del programa de trabajo de UICN 2009 -2012. También promoverán los compromisos de la CEC con la implementación de las convenciones internacionales a travésde Comunicación, Educación, Participación y Conciencia Pública ( CEPA); el desarrollo de la Red Mundial de Aprendizajesobre la Conservación (WCLN); y apoyo al Decenio de la Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible de las Naciones Unidas(UNDESD).

Los Animadores Nacionales de la CEC serán elegidos por el Comité Directo r de la CEC por un período de dos años 2009 -2010, que puede ser renovado por otros 2 años 2011 -2012, si brindan participación activa. Para su información, losTérminos de Referencia para esta posición están disponibles en >>

¿A quién puede recomendar?

Por favor, envíe los nombres de su(s) candidato(s) y dirección(es) de correo electrónico al Responsable de Enlace deMembresía de la CEC, Cecilia Nizzola -Tabja, a cec@iucn.org. Cecilia enviará todas las nominaciones al Comité Director dela CEC para que se tomen las decisiones a fines de junio de 2009. Si su candidato todavía no es un miembro de la CEC,tenga la amabilidad de brindar información sobre su cargo actual y algunos párrafos sobre sus calificaciones.

Como Presidente de la CEC, le invito a renov ar y reforzar su compromiso con nuestra red global, trabajando juntos hoy paratransformar el mañana. Espero recibir sus nominaciones antes del 15 de junio.

Con afectuosos saludos,Keith WheelerPresidenteComisión de Educación y Comunicación de UICN

TOR Animador Nacional >> http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=284

Mandato CEC >> http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=285

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Invitation à faire des propositions pour la nomination d’un animateur/une animatricenational(e) de la CEC

Chers membres de l’UICN, des Comités régionaux et nationaux UIC N, directeurs régionaux et nationaux UICN et membresde la CEC,

Objet : Invitation à faire des propositions pour la nomination d’un animateur/une animatrice national(e) de la CEC

La Commission de l’éducation et de la communication est l’une des six Commi ssion de l’UICN et constitue un réseau despécialistes de la communication et de l’éducation travaillant pour des gouvernements, des organisations gouvernementales,des ONG, des universités ou le secteur privé. La CEC cherche à rendre l’UICN et l’ensemble de notre communauté plusefficace dans la poursuite de ses objectifs grâce à un apprentissage de haut niveau, au changement et à des procédures degestion des connaissances

Afin de renforcer son impact au niveau national et régional, la CEC met en place un nouvel élément dans sa structure degouvernance : des animateurs/animatrice nationaux/ales.

Par cette lettre, nous venons solliciter votre participation à ce processus de désignation d’un/une animateur/trice national(e)dans votre pays. Nous accepterons les propositions jusqu’au 15 juin 2009. Votre participation à la sélection de candidatsdynamiques et efficaces contribuera au renforcement de la Commission. Nous sommes particulièrement intéressés àdécouvrir des candidats appartenant à des organisation s membres de l’UICN qui sont des membres actifs de la CEC, ousouhaiteraient le devenir.

Description du rôle des animateurs/trices nationaux/ales de la CECPoints de contact au niveau national, les animateurs/trices nationaux/ales de la CEC travailleront en étroite collaborationavec le vice-président régional . En tant que membres bénévoles de la CEC, ils/elles guideront, innoveront et collaborerontdans les trois grands domaines définis dans notre mandat

1) Favoriser l’élaboration en commun de soluti ons durables ; 2) Créer des plates -formes de communication stratégique ; 3)Promouvoir de nouveaux apprentissages de développement professionnel. Ils/elles participeront aux efforts faits par la CECen vue d’atteindre les résultats attendus dans le cadre d u programme de travail de l’UICN pour 2009 -2012. Ils/elles devrontégalement promouvoir les engagements antérieurs de la CEC de soutien aux conventions internationales grâce à lacommunication, l’éducation, la participation et la sensibilisation du public (CEPA), en faveur du Réseau mondiald’apprentissage pour la conservation, et à la Décennie des Nations Unies de l’éducation en vue du développement durable(EDD).

Les animateurs/trices nationaux/ales seront désigné(e)s par le Comité directeur de la CEC po ur une période de deux ans,2009-2010, renouvelable pour deux autres années, 2011 -2012, en fonction de leur action. Pour votre information, voustrouverez ici le cahier des charges de cette nouvelle fonction.

Comment faire vos propositions ?Vous voudrez bien envoyer les noms et courriels de candidats potentiels à Cecilia Nizzola -Tabja, chargée des relations avecles membres de la CEC, à cec@iucn.org. Cecilia transmettra les propositions au Comité directeur de la CEC qui prendra sesdécisions à la fin du mois de juin. Si votre candidat n’est pas encore membre de la CEC, veuillez préciser sa position etfournir quelques indications sur ses qualifications.

En tant que Président de la CEC, je vous encourage à renouveler et régénérer votre engagement à l’éga rd de notre réseaumondial. Travailler ensemble aujourd’hui permettra de façonner demain. J’attends avec impatience, et avant le 15 juin, vospropositions.

Bien cordialement,Keith WheelerPrésidentCommission de l’éducation et de la communication de l’U ICN

TOR Animateur National >> http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=286

CEC Mandat >> http://cec.wcln.org/modules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=281