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More than 800 scientists, educators, and policymakers participated in NCSE's 3rd National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment, Education for a Sustainable and Secure Future, on January 30-31, 2003. National Academy of Sciences President Bruce Alberts said that the conference addressed two of the most important issues of the Academy - sustainability science and science education.
Conference participants worked in 21 topical breakout sessions to develop recommendations for environmental and sustainability education for the United States and the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2015). NCSE will publish a report of the conference recommendations, which cover topics such as sustainability education for K-12 and undergraduates, community education, green campuses and planetary health.
Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute, said that "military strength and homeland security are not enough to make the world secure." In his keynote address, Environment, Rights, and Security, Lash said, "I want to make the case for fighting poverty, protecting the environment, and in particular protecting people's rights as the path to human security, and the foundation, in the long term, for global security." The conference recommendations highlight the importance of sustainability education for global security.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Rita Colwell, who presented the John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture on Science and the Environment, called for "a fresh and vigorous commitment to environmental education." Dr. Colwell brought attention to NSF's recently-released 10-year agenda for environmental research and education, Complex Environmental Systems: Synthesis for Earth, Life and Society in the 21st Century. Conference attendees recommended that environmental education curricula be developed, including content, materials, and tools such as case studies and identification of best practices. They noted that baseline information is largely absent in all aspects of sustainability education and practice.
Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Flooring Systems, gave a plenary lecture that encouraged those who shape curricular and academic research to "prepare tomorrow's business leaders to lead responsibly" and "green [their] campus operations and buildings." In the draft recommendations, conference attendees argued that institutions, including schools, businesses, government agencies and other organizations, should become leaders in "practicing what we teach" by adopting sustainable practices and creating sustainable facilities; for example, adopting solar power in schools.
PBS NewsHour host Ray Suarez moderated a diverse panel that addressed the impact of public communication. He discussed the difficulty that citizens face in evaluating competing claims by scientists about the environmental and health impacts of such issues as example, incinerating medical waste in their community. Conference participants recommended infusing education for sustainability across the educational enterprise for life-long learning.
Former Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day in 1970, received the NCSE Lifetime Achievement Award. He spoke optimistically about students' increasing knowledge and understanding of environmental issues. Referring to the talks he has given every Earth Day for the past three decades, he said that "grade-schoolers are asking more sophisticated questions [about the environment] than college seniors were in the 1970s."
To learn more about the conference or order videos of plenary discussions and key lectures, visit the conference website at http://www.NCSEonline.org/NCSEconference. NCSE will continue to maintain and update the conference website as a meeting point for online discussions and a source of links to lecture transcripts, the Chafee Memorial Lecture webcast, draft recommendations, and educational resources related to education for a sustainable and secure future.
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