Climate Crisis, Need a New Education Model?

 

The climate crisis and environmental damage are making the earth miserable. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that in 2023 the earth's temperature will rise by 1.5°C compared to the era before the industrial revolution. The causes are the uncontrolled accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions, the use of dirty energy, exploitation of forests and seas, and the lifestyle of people in various regions of the world, especially in developed countries. In the long term, these various activities will have very broad negative impacts.

Among the impacts of the climate crisis is the increase in hydrometeorological disasters on earth. Hydrometeorological disasters not only have implications for the environment, but also for the stability of people's lives. Even in the future, the climate crisis could trigger conflicts over natural resources. In this way, the social and environmental crises will be interrelated.

Among other things, the community groups most vulnerable to being affected by the climate crisis are the young generation who have historically contributed the least to the destruction of the earth, especially those living in southern countries, such as Indonesia. The UN has estimated that by 2050 there will be 200 million climate refugees.

Talking about roles, religious communities should be able to contribute to saving the earth. Currently, the world's Muslim population reaches 25.74% of the 8.045 billion people. The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center (RISSC) in a report entitled The Muslim 500: The World's 500 Most Influential Muslims 2024 places Indonesia as the number one country with the largest Muslim population in the world, amounting to 240.62 million people in 2023.

Thus, socio-culturally, Muslim communities will become many victims of the climate crisis, even climate refugees in very large numbers. At this point, it is very important for Muslim communities to anticipate or mitigate in order to save the younger generation from the climate crisis. This mitigation effort will make a real contribution to overcoming serious world problems today.

The root of the problem:

Paradigmatically, anthropocentrism is the root problem of the climate crisis. Anthropocentrism views humans as the center of the universe. Furthermore, this understanding believes that only humans have value, while nature and everything in it are merely tools for satisfying the interests and needs of human life.

The anthropocentrism perspective causes individuals or groups of people to commit violence against humans and the environment under the pretext of short-term gain. However, it causes greater long-term impacts on social damage to society and the environment.

The anthropocentrism perspective leads humans to enter the Anthropocene phase. The Anthropocene phase is characterized by changes in the composition of the atmosphere which causes holes in the Earth's ozone layer. The main marker of the Anthropocene was the industrial revolution in Europe, in which nature was interpreted as inferior to humans. In the author's opinion, the hole in the ozone layer is due to natural destruction since the industrial revolution.

Furthermore, anthropocentrism today colors formal education, especially in Indonesia. The proof is that educational institutions are preparing more students to become workers for industry, at the same time there is no support for efforts to save and restore the environment damaged by human activities.

Evidence of anthropocentrism can also be seen from the educational curriculum which does not place the environment as a priority on a par with humans.

The Indonesian education system, for example, does not include efforts to save and restore the environment as an important part. This is proven by Law Number 20/2003 concerning the National Education System, Chapter 2 (Functions, Foundations and Objectives) and Chapter 3 (Principles of Education), which do not contain elements regarding environmental restoration and protection.

Currently, efforts to save the environment in education are only a complement to learning. Efforts to educate humans should be equivalent to efforts to save the environment today for the future. The reason is that today's students need a suitable earth to live in in the future.

Offer a solution:

Placing education as a way to solve the climate crisis is a necessity. The reason is, education is a way designed to instill something into humans in the long term. This understanding conveys that there are three important elements that make up education, namely: the educational process, the content or values ​​instilled in education, and the recipients or students who are humans.

We cannot imagine what kind of human model will be born and what the fate of planet Earth will be from an educational process that has so far instilled anthropocentrism as its main value. In this context, there needs to be an effort to fundamentally criticize the current educational paradigm because it seems very anti-ecological, even anti-humanity itself.

Ecopedagogy can be understood as critical and transformative education through deepened and expanded reflection to end environmental social injustice, violence and domination of nature. Ecopedagogy is rooted in two important roots, namely,   pedagogy constructed by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian-born thinker, and deep ecology formulated by Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher.

Further reviews regarding ecopedagogy were articulated by many scholars, one of whom, Greg W Mesiazek, Director of the Paulo Freire Institute at the University of California Los Angeles, United States.

In general, ecopedagogy offers a number of approaches as follows, first , teaching about the social and environmental scope, especially regarding texts relating to environmental issues for students. So that they are able to reveal the latest environmental issues related to people's social life. This point is related to instilling values ​​regarding the sustainable reciprocal relationship between humans and nature.

Second , encouraging students to be close to the natural surroundings and society outside the classroom and emphasizing closeness to the living environment which directs students to be aware of their relationship with the living environment .

Third , teaching by adapting class assignments, writing exercises, group work, direct experience from the field for reflection and transforming knowledge into social action in realizing ecological justice and multi-species sustainability .

The concept of ecopedagogy which is rooted in pedagogy and deep ecology is very appropriate to current social and ecological challenges or problems. Among the important principles of deep ecology for current environmental problems include solutions through education.

How can the principles of ecopedagogy be realized in educational institutions? By borrowing three ecopedagogical approaches, we can see whether an educational institution's curriculum contains ecopedagogy or not? Are students encouraged to be close to society and the environment, and does the method encourage students to reflect and transform knowledge into social action in realizing ecological justice and multispecies sustainability? If all three are implemented, then the educational institution is implementing the principles of ecopedagogy.