Intercambio No.5

PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

INTRODUCTION

This edition of the Intercambio magazine focuses one of the most relevant issues in the contribution that education must provide to solve social problems. The environmental crisis, treated this way for not being a natural phenomenon but a result of a particular moment in human society that is living a systematic and multilateral crisis, places us in front of risks that were unimaginable in past centuries, which include threats to the existence of the human species itself.
It´s important to understand the characteristics and origins of this crisis in order to act over it. This is why, not only is it required that educative institutions deliver information, but also to debate social, community, family and personal changes that are needed to intervene positively in the situation. This remembering we all have something to do but that responsibilities of the environmental crisis are differentiated and there are those who must respond for their high negative impact, as in the case of industries, especially ones related to energy.
On this stage, what is often debated is the concept of development. ¿Which is the path to resolve the problems of humanity while preserving natural wealth for the future generations? ¿Can Economy and Ecology go hand in hand? ¿What to do in front of a system which considers environmental damage a secondary externality to production? These and many more are relevant questions. They can and must be answered at a global scale, as well as local. They confront practices as well as public policies.

Year 5, No.5, December 2013