What we need to learn to save the planet ?

This essay is a result of decades of reflection and action on ecology and its relationship with education. The author describes this experience starting from his participation in the Eco-92 conference, in which he took part in the elaboration of the Earth Charter and the Treaty on Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility. The author is currently a member of United Nation’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Reference Group. In this text, he presents and questions the theme education for sustainable development and starts by discussing about the polissemy of the concept “sustainable development” and its relationship with solidary economy, with the globalization context, sustainable lifestyle and the construction of a planetary civilization. He also presents ecopedagogy as the most appropriate pedagogy for the Decade’s process of educating for another possible world. He emphasizes the Decade as a good opportunity for environmental education to give more attention to economic dimensions and to the theme development itself. He also sees it as a good opportunity for educational systems to renew their principles and policies based on the concept sustainability. Finally, he presents the main challenges faced by education for sustainable development by asking what do we really need to learn in order to save the planet. I would like to state a few words in order to present myself and my organization. I am a member of Paulo Freire Institute (PFI), a Non-Governmental Organization, located in São Paulo, Brazil, working in the field of education, ecology, and communication, understanding that education is not separable from culture, economics and politics. It is a great honor to be a member of the United Nations' Reference Group of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. As a member of PFI, during the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, I took part in the Global Forum, in which I worked in the elaboration of the Earth Charter's first draft and also on the “Treaty on Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibilities”. Since then, I have been following the construction of the initiative of the Earth Charter, coordinated by the Earth Council. Paulo Freire Institute has already organized two international meetings under the theme “An educational approach to the Earth Charter”, one in São Paulo (1999) and another one in Porto (Portugal), in 2000. I became acquainted with education for sustainable development through the Earth Charter. I believe there is a strong link between the Earth Charter Initiative and the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Mikhail Gorbachev, president of Green Cross International, sees the Earth Charter as sustainable development's “third pillar”. The first pillar is the UN's Foundation Charter; the second one is the Human Rights Declaration. He asserts that the Earth Charter has to be “universally ( *) Moacir Gadotti, doctor in Educational Sciences by the University of Geneva, is professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of São Paulo and Director of Paulo Freire Institute, and author of many widely-read and translated books, among others: Invitation to Read Paulo Freire (1988), History of Pedagogical Ideas (1993), Pedagogy of Praxis (1994), Pedagogy of the Earth (2001), The Masters of Rousseau (2004), and To Educate for Another Possible World (2007), where he develops an educational proposal, oriented by the paradigm of the sustainability. Translated by Marcia Macedo (PFI).