A Deeper Shade of Green

Abstract

The body of literature on adult learning and education for and about the environment has grown over the decades since 1970, the year of the first Earth Day. However, more than 40 years later, the question must be posed: Are we really making the momentous progress that is essential for an eco-sustainable future? Getting Green(er): Adult Education and Green Progress? At least a partial answer may lie in an announcement on January 10, 2012, by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, that the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic timepiece whose sweep toward midnight signals global environmental disaster, is moving closer to the bewitching hour; it is now 11:55 p.m. (Doomsday Clock, 2012). Significant causes of the Doomsday scenario, not mentioned in this announcement, are economic, that is, global nations' fiscal reforms, expenditure cuts, deregulation including elimination of rules that hinder the market, neoliberal market freedoms, and loan restructuring and debit owed to the Global North. These are often a result of fiscal policies in the major industrial countries. If environmental adult education and the greening of global economies are some of the solutions, critically examining the role of economics and critiquing the current state of economic discourse must be part of adult educators' agendas. Solutions to pressing environmental issues require an informed and active citizenry and a strong civil society that can help shape government, market, and personal environmental behaviors. Finger and Asun (2000) point out the current ecological crises are due to turbo-capitalism, predatory financing, and corporate cannibalism that are widening the gap between the few haves and the rising number of have nots. Unless adult education in the Green Jobs Movement recognizes and confronts this, it will offer little aid in redressing environmental problems or in lifting national economies. Doing so will require adult education to become not just green but Deep Green--reflecting Deep Ecology principles. The deep movement centers on concentrated questioning, critical analysis, and exploring fundamental root causes of problems (Foundation for Deep Ecology, 2012). It interrogates basic economic, technological, and ideological structures. Adult education for a Deep Green Jobs Movement must be built on more than reform in these three areas--rather, it must fundamentally transform them! Not Just Green--But Deep Green The Green Jobs Movement is premised on the notion that conservation and environmental enhancement can occur simultaneously with economic development. It is about creating jobs through energy efficiency and investments in behaviors that improve the environment while concurrently generating revenue. It is built on a number of national and international policies and some industry standards. The National Council for Workforce Education and the Academy for Educational Development's report, Going Green (Feldbaum & States, n.d.), demonstrates the role of workforce education in building a green labor force. The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Green Economy (n.d.) initiative works at the global level. It is premised on the notion that a green economy is one that improves human well-being and social equity, while reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. These and other initiatives naively look to build a green economy where public and private investments are the engines that drive jobs and wealth while reducing the carbon footprint, diminishing pollution, and protecting ecosystems. Although these are admirable, the question is whether they will be linked to actions and the willingness necessary to accomplish them. Behind these are the hope that there will be adequate public and private expenditures, innovative and thoughtful policies, and protective regulations. It is a mystery how these will happen when greed-inspired capitalism drives the economy, we are in the worst global recession since the Great Depression, the grade level of congressional discourse is that of a sophomore in high school, and state and federal regulators are beholden to industry. …