Water, mythology and environmental education

Abstract

Water, under the climatic conditions of the Earth, is found in three natural states, as a solid, as a liquid and as a gas. Since the quantities of water on the Earth's surface are constant, at least for the last few million years, then the entire historic evolution of human society, and especially since the appearance of Homo sapiens, is directly depended on the climatic changes and their consequences on the natural state of water. It has been calculated that the available water in nature will not be enough to cover the human needs, when the Earth population doubles. Water, in the future, will formulate a “new world order”. Lots of characters of Greek Mythology are related to water. People had created their Gods in order to help them with their fears, their necessities, trying to explain the inexplicable for them natural phenomena. The use of Mythology in the environmental education could help the student to better understand that (i) the environment does not remain static; (ii) the environmental changes have led “ Homo sapiens” to create myths in order to understand and to explain the phenomena that provoked them; (iii) the balance of the Earth ecosystem is easy to disturb; (iv) the human intervention causes unexpected consequences; (v) the knowledge of the environmental changes of the past leads to environmental realization, resulting in a more rational usage of natural resources.