This week, a friend from the Philippines and I were privileged to meet one of the most formidable South Korean environmental activists. Mr. K. Ja Sang is unapologetically conservative, an environment fanatic and a green energy enthusiast, at least from the first impression. Some of his understanding about the contemporary lifestyle and its impact on environment are appreciably genuine attracting to a keen mind. After an hour’s lecture in his office my brains traveled back to my childhood days.

You see, my interest for environmental affairs did not begin with the Copenhagen 2009 neither did it come from the controversies that the Kyoto Protocol brought. My grandfather, a farmer, made me believe that environment, particularly trees and water, was to be respected, utilized sustainably and protected by all means. While to date I can identify with most of the waving trees in his compound, I learnt much from him than I did in my entire schooling.

As I pondered about Mr. Ja Sang’s thoughts about the promise of a cleaner environment, job creation and a safer earth through adoption of green renewable energy, I wondered why governments across the world are so slow to hear from green revolution protagonists. Picture this… the most fundamental political wars today involve energy sources, principally oil and gas. From Russia to Sudan, Iraq to Nigeria, governments, rebles or communities are clashing over these natural resources resulting thousands of deaths over the years. This particularly reminds us of the Darfur conflict and the ongoing referendum leading to the separation of Sudan. Some historians have tied world wars to the quest for energy sources. Needless to mention the negative climatic impact as consequences of using fossil fuel. Read more about effects of fossil fuels.

I pondered some more on the promises of renewable energy from educational point of view. As an educational philosopher, I believe that education is informative, formative and hence transformative. But education is not neutral; it is in fact the beliefs of its deliverers. This leads to the questions: who are our teachers, whose ideas are they passing on and from what understanding of reality (or worldviews) do they come from? It further leaves a challenge for a genuine critique on our educative processes; be it from school, mass media, pulpit, theaters, name it.

If the mandate of humanity is to conserve the environment as many religious group say, or let’s put it from a Christian perspective for instance … man (and woman) are tasked with the dressing of the creation meaning that they are to form cultures and be stewards of the creation in a manner glorifying to the Creator. Personally I wonder loudly why this hasn’t been entrenched elementally in educational system even within religions that believe stewardship to be human’s mandate. Of course, there are known historical and idealistic reasons for the failure including Platonic Dualism of secular verses sacred or has man’s greed, as Mahatma Gandhi also wondered, supersede his concern for the coming generation?

Well, perhaps it is time for environmentalists, educationists, journalists, politicians, students and everybody else to find out why contemporary renewable energy policies succeed or fail, who should be the stakeholders in the energy and environmental sectors, why and how to secure thriving renewable energy application contexts and why everyone should be involved.

Meanwhile, I suppose that education system that largely leaves out environmental understanding from its curricula is bound to produce exploiters rather than stewards. If this is not a warning, it’s a prediction!