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One of the most important yet challenging subjects that educators have to teach right now is environmental damage. It is hugely important to educate those that will be influencing and impacting the world soon about the importance and urgency of reducing environmental impact, but how can you best go about doing this? There is a lot of doom and gloom in media coverage, and it can be hard to get people to change their lifestyle and habits, but there are a few tips that will hopefully help you to get through and to inspire younger generations to lead a greener lifestyle and make a positive impact.
Teach The Science
First, you need to teach science as it is hard to encourage people to make drastic changes in their life without them having a clear understanding of why they are doing it. You need to teach them what is causing environmental damage, why it is happening, and what steps can be taken with the science to back all of this information up.
Show Evidence But Provide Hope
For a long time, many have seen global warming and environmental damage as something that will not occur in their lifetime and, therefore, something difficult to grasp and easy to ignore. Obviously, this is not a responsible mindset to adopt. Still, it is also not true - footage of habitats being destroyed, forest fires, and ice caps melting have shocked the world in the last few years. It is important to show evidence of damage that is happening right now (it is even thought that this could lead to another major pandemic). While it is important to show evidence, and this will shock, you also need to inspire hope and show the many great strides that have been made in recent times.
Show Real Life Changes They Can Make
You also need to show your students the kind of changes that they can make in their life to make a difference. This could include having solar panels installed by a specialist like Custom Solar and Leisure when they own their own home to generate their own electricity from the sun’s energy (this will also help them lower their household costs). Future generations should be looking to large changes like this as a way to greatly reduce their impact.
Show Content From Inspirational Figures
You can do a lot as an educator, but it is also worth looking to those that your students might look up to that are doing a lot to raise awareness about environmental impact. Greta Thunberg is an obvious example of someone that students are likely to admire along with David Attenborough, who has some fantastic documentaries on environmental damage. Leonardo DiCaprio is another major figure using his platform to make a positive difference, and his 2016 documentary Before the Flood is one that is worth showing to your students.
Teaching the younger generations about environmental damage is an enormous responsibility, and you will want to do all that you can to encourage these groups to be passionate, forward-thinking, and ready to take action when it comes to environmental issues.