am a director and publicity chairman. We have a membership of over 100 families within the Township and have participated in numerous educational programs not only in our own Township but in neighboring communities as well. We have been instrumental in starting other Citizen's groups as well as the formation of new Conservation Commissions in other communities. It is one of the only service organizations which works around-the-clock with volunteers from all walks of life with all kinds of talents from young and old. The Somerset County Park Commission is in the process of building an Environmental Education Center in Lord Sterling Park, Bernards Township. Once this is established it will assist in the formulation of curriculum and the training of thousands of people in environmental education. This Center will not just be a nature center, but will show how Man is dependent on all of this surroundings and how he must take care of these surroundings so that he will be able to continue to survive. A bill has just been introduced in the New Jersey Assembly, Bill No. 1092 by Assemblywoman Margetts, Assemblymen Ewing, Kean, Pfaltz, McDonough, Kiehn, Fay and Florio, "An Act providing for the promotion, establishment, and operation of local school district environmental education programs, the establishment and operation of a network of Regional Environmental Education Facilities and Centers for the purpose of providing environmental education programs for public and private school students and teachers, for the establishment and operation of a network of Environmental Education Curriculum Research and Development Centers, and making an appropriation." With participation on a local level as well as state and federal, it might be possible to turn the tide. Education has proved itself many times over. It was through increased knowledge that Man has developed from the cave to the abundance of life we enjoy today. We have proved many times over that the more education an individual has the better place he can make for himself in society. It would seem to me that environmental education interwoven with all other subjects would reap limitless rewards. It would bring a better understanding of not only Man's relationship with the natural environment but with his brother Man on which he is also dependent. He will begin to comprehend better that ghetto's bring decay which ultimately spread; that what is needed is an understanding of the delicacy of balance in nature, such as our relationship with the micro-organisms in the soil and how pesticides are destroying our chances of any relationship at all. The "luxury of polluting" must be eliminated from our society. Archeologists have shown that the demise of many great cities was caused by water pollution or the loss of water supply altogether. Scientists of today are constantly warning of the possible problems which might arise from "bad" water. Education of our masses is the only solution. We must begin NOW! I strongly endorse the passage of the Environmental Quality Education Act of 1970. STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY PAUL A. FISCHER, DIRECTOR OF FEDERAL Programs, KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT, BOX 539, KENAI, ALASKA A PLEA FOR PASSAGE OF H.R. 14753 There is no need to elaborate on the importance and relevancy of H.R. 14753 and H.R. 15934 which will be recorded in time as one of the most significant pieces of legislation since the establishing of our country. Several months ago (prior to the introduction of H.R. 14753) the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District developed an Environmental Quality Education Program working with the total community including: Kenai Peninsula Community College of the University of Alaska, Community Action Committee, United States Department of the Interior-Fish and Wildlife Service, State of Alaska-Department of Natural Resources, State of Alaska-Department of Fish and Game, United States Department of Agriculture-Soil Conservation Service, and the United States Department of the Interior-Bureau of Land Management. This program has also received support from local citizens, industry, city governments, various conservation societies, and outdoor clubs. We titled this program "A Year Round Laboratory Approach to Environmental Education." This program was submitted to the Alaska State Department of Education to be funded under Title III, E.S.E.A. We have just finalized our budget negotiations. It will be funded and is scheduled to be initiated on June 1, 1970. General Objectives of this program are: 1. To develop an integrated curriculum (environmental education with all academic disciplines) K-12-Adult. 2. To provide inservice training programs on environmental quality and ecology. 3. To develop Environmental Instructional Materials dealing with the environment and ecology. Specific objectives of this program are: 1. To develop an awareness on the part of each individual of how his environment is affected by natural processes. 2. To develop an awareness on the part of how of each individua man can control his environment. 3. To develop in each individual a recognition that he and all mankind as well benefits through "wise use" of a particular segment of his environment. 4. To develop in each individual positive attitudes in his relationships with, and treatment of his environment. 5. To develop in each individual his own environmental code of ethics. A team consisting of a university representative, a resource person from the United States Forest Service (also a school board member), and myself representing the local school district set out to evaluate several Environmental Education programs in various states primarily in order to: 1. determine their effectiveness in educating the public 2. determine the weak features and mistakes as well as the strong points 3. determine the feasibility of establishing National Environmental Studies Centers which would be of extreme value to teachers from all areas of the United States 4. open a line of communications which would hopefully lead to the establishing of an Environmental Quality Education Information and Materials Clearinghouse 5. determine the similarities and differences between the evaluated programs 6. determine the funding level compared with the objectives of the program. I would like to share with you the conclusions of our evaluation especially since they are related to the operation of H.R. 14753 and H.R. 15934. 1. There must be acceptance of a community responsibility and the development of public understanding of the nature of the environmental problems we face. 2. Environmental Quality Education Programs must begin at the grass root level-elementary and secondary. 3. To be effective, Environmental Quality Education Programs must have total community cooperation-Local, State, Federal. 4. Environmental Quality Education Program must insure active participation of individuals and organizations and not merely a "sign off" as is the case of many E.S.E.A. programs. 5. There must be sufficient funding to do the job-not token money. 6. Some Environmental Quality Education Pilot Programs should be funded directly from the U.S.O.E. for a period of several years. 7. At least two pilot National Environmental Quality Education Studies Centers charged with preservice and inservice teacher training should be established-one located in an urban environment and one located in a rural environment. 8. There should be established in each state a clearinghouse for an Environmental Quality Education Information and Instructional Materials Cleaninghouse. 9. There should be established a National Clearinghouse for Environmental Quality Education Information and Instructional Materials. 10. Environmental Quality Education programs must place emphasis on an integrated curriculum rather than the development of an ecology course. Environmental Education is reading, writing, arithmetic, art, social studies, science, math, music, conservation, outdoor education, ecology, social science, vocational education, dropout prevention, special education, etc., etc. 11. Environmental Quality Education programs must allow for innovation. 12. Environmental Quality Education curriculum must be relevant to the ages and interests of the students. A high level of ecological sophistication should not be shought at the expense of educating citizens about environmental quality and ecological balance. 13. The United States Commissioner of Education should consider appointments to the Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality Education, established with the passage of this bill, to include persons "tuned in" with elementary and secondary education such as elementary and secondary teachers and administrators. We in elementary and secondary education do want a piece of the action-we want to be involved! 14. The Environmental Quality Education Act must become law! There are some obvious dangers with the passage of this proposed bill: 1. There may not be enough funds to do the job. a. If funds are given directly to the states it may be spread too thin by the State Departments of Education resulting in every school doing something and no, if any, school doing an in-depth program. b. The appropriations must be realistic and not token money. 2. It may lead to adding on teaching units with only the up-to-date label of environmental and ecological education. 3. It may lead to false hopes. Environmental ills won't be cured over night. It will take time. 4. Environmental Quality Education may end up as "research" programs without application. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District believes that we can only maintain a habitable environment if our citizens realize what is at stake. When students through education see the land as a community to which we all belong, they will learn to value, love, and respect it. There is no other way for land, water, and air to survive the impact of civilization and our mechanized culture. We in Alaska, along with the rest of the United States, are trying to undo much of the damage already done the environment. We in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District through "A Year Round Laboratory Approach to Environmental Education" are attempting also to do the opposite-teach and demonstrate how to protect the environment before the damage is done through a wise use of our environment. Public concern for Quality Environment is growing in leaps and bounds. Within a period of three weeks 20% of our school district's teachers have applied for admittance into our summer teacher inservice Environmental Education Program. Over 50% of the districts in the State of Alaska have requested participation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has also indicated a desire to participate. Educators from the States of California, Florida, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Maine, Illinois, Oregon, and Maryland have indicated that the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District's Program can be successfully adapted to any state regardless of geographic location. Because of such public concern nationwide, the Federal government must come to the aid of local educational agencies such as the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District whose current ADĂ expenditures of $1200/student is already over twice the national average ADA expenditures. Our district has an ecological advantage envied by each of the environmental education programs visited by our team discussed earlier. Through cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture, United States Department of the Interior, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, we have the natural ecological facilities of marine, fresh water, forest, and mountain all within walking distances of an Environmental Quality Education Studies Center. Resource persons from all of these agencies are available to the program. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District would like to share our program with teachers from throughout the United States as well as Alaska but present Title III, E.S.E.A. funding makes it impossible. We urge the passage of this hill; and through this act we are confident we can share our program with educators from throughout the nation, who along with Alaskans own the federal lands which are available to the "Year Round Laboratory Approach to Environmental Education" located within the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Americans have the right to a clean environment, which can only come to be, through the overcoming of our ignorance. THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN OUR ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS (By J. D. Hare, M.D., Associate Professor of Microbiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, N. Y.) The rate at which mankind is busily destroying the world's environment is not offset by a comparable increase in man's awareness, interest, or alarm in this crisis. Many governments and the U.N. have begun to heed the warning signals. However, the factor which impedes progress is the lack of concern on the part of each and every human who must by his own labor provide the staggering monies required to reverse the tide of destruction. Therefore, the problem can be reduced to one involving ways in which to motivate the mass of humanity to take immediate steps designed to preserve the Earth's environment. Two approaches are possible. One is by decree, but this requires a level of totalitarianism impossible to achieve and to be avoided at all costs. The second is thru a crash program of education in Environmental Science. The goals of this educational program are two-fold. In the first place, control of environmental destruction cannot be attained unless control of human population expansion is instituted immediately. Thus, a world-wide educational effort must be mounted to establish new attitudes, goals, and priorities related to human reproduction. The second goal of this program is to provide the world with individuals trained at all levels of environmental science. This should include research scientists, college and high school teachers and technicians of various types to staff the facilities made available on a regional and world wide basis. Mankind must be oriented to the concept that the Earth's resources are not infinite, that the existence of Man on Earth is dependent on the environment and that Man is an integral part of the Earth's ecosystem. This orientation should begin during elementary educational experience throughout the world. Fragmentary, piecemeal attempts are not adequate. The experience gained from observing the interest and enthusiasm shown by a group of high school students from the "Inner city" of Rochester, N. Y. working on problems of the recognition, prevention and control of lead poisoning has convinced me that a solution to our dilemma is possible. The establishment of educational programs properly oriented and with their "relevance" to the hard facts of "life" clearly spelled out by competent persons provides the one feasible method of reaching the bulk of mankind within the next generation with solutions to the most pressing and challenging problem faced by modern man. The failure to initiate a massive educational effort aimed at the control of both population and environmental destruction at this time may well spell the decline of this Planet as the home base of Homo sapiens. IDAHO ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL, Hon. ORVAL HANSEN, DEAR MR. HANSEN: The Idaho Environmental Council supports the "Environmental Quality Education Act", H.R. 14753, and commends Idaho Congressman Orval Hansen for co-sponsoring this important legislation, which would "authorize the United States Commissioner of Education to establish educational programs to encourage understanding of policies and support of activities designed to enhance environmental quality and maintain ecological balance." Certainly, ecological ignorance is at the root of many of our country's environmental problems. We pollute, waste resources, and destroy open space unnecessarily, not so much because of calculated selfishness, but primarily because we do not realize the implications of our individual actions. We have a long tradition of exploitation with little regard as to consequences; of "conquering nature", somer how with the mistaken assumption that our species is not a part of that naturebut is immune to the laws of nature. These attitudes must be changed soon, o, the environmental crisis will grow even more acute. The emphasis must be shifted from development to protection. Regarding H.R. 14753, the Idaho Environmental Council makes the following comments: 1. Hopefully, adequate funds will be allocated to make this act mean more than the usual political rhetoric about environment; say on the order of 0.1% of, or even 1.0% of our total military budget. 2. These funds should be used strictly for educational institutions and for non-profit environmental and educational organizations and agencies which have no vested economic interest in exploitation of material resources. We feel also that government agencies oriented toward development should not receive grants, but those oriented toward protection should. Respective examples are the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service. 3. We would hope that many educational, non-profit, conservation organizations such as ours will qualify for grants. The Idaho Environmental Council believes that we can use to good advantage for the environment of Idaho $60,000 to $80,000 per year, and we look forward to supplying, at the appropriate time, a detailed application for, say, a 5 year period. As a nation, we need to develop a better land ethic. One of America's greatest ecologists, Aldo Leopold, once said that we must learn to look on land not as a commodity, but as a community to which we all belong. The Environmental Quality Education Act could help us to develop that land ethic. Sincerely, GERALD A. JAYNE, President, IEC. TESTIMONY PRESENTED BY AD HOC COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AT IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY, POCATELLO, IDAHO THE IMPORTANCE OF A MULTIDISCIPLINE APPROVAL IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Studies pertaining to the environment of mankind are complex, for they involve not only the interactions of the biological and physical environments, but the sociological, economic and political aspects as well. Therefore, in the training of students, hopefully to contribute to the solution of environmental problems, there is a need for not only the specialists in the various disciplines, but students trained with a far more general background than is possible within the limits of present curricula. It can be very well established, biologically, that the greatest threat to the future of mankind lies in the alarming growth in numbers of people. Although it is important to control pollution and destruction of the environment, any gains made in this area would soon be lost if the population is allowed to increase unchecked. Thus the study of population biology is indispensable. Other related fields that should be studied in conjunction with population studies and which pertain to the total environment, are: 1. Studies of the interactions between plants and animals with the aquatic, soil and air environments, as well as the interactions of animals to animals, animals to plants, and plants to plants need to be continued. Any future planning done without this kind of knowledge would be done without a solid foundation. 2. Environmental geology is often critical in the building of any structure. It is important in building reservoirs and protecting our ground water resources and in exploration to find and to intelligently use our natural resources. 3. Chemistry and physics are essential, not only in geology but in all other scientific studies of the environment. 4. Archaeology and Paleontology are essential in understanding the present environment by revealing the histories of past environments. Such studies pertaining to extinctions of human cultures and animals contribute to this understanding, especially since excavations are, in effect, “natural laboratories". 5. The rapid dwindling of our natural resources all over the world points to the necessity of not only working out means of "recycling" available resources such as steel, aluminum, etc., but with our ever-growing population, plans for a future economy which will probably be curtailed, are vital. 6. Studies of sociological and political problems involving the implementation of plans and programs relating to reduction in population growth and environmental improvement are not merely a necessity but a matter of survival for our species. It seems at least desirable, therefore, that highly intelligent students be educated very broadly and should have the intellectual capacity which would permit a synthesis or the tieing together of the information learned from the various disciplines listed above, since many future political and social decisions will inescapably be based on a broad spectrum of integrated knowledge. (Testimony by John A. White Curator in Vertebrate Paleontology Professor of Biology.) AWARENESS AND COLLECTIVE ACTION On Earth Day, April 22, 1970, thousands of Americans spoke out on a complex of problems threatening the existence of life everywhere on earth. They pointed to a large body of substantiated facts and drew fully warranted conclusions: The World's resources, and modern industrial production and consumption is using up these resources at an ever accelerating rate and poisoning the very water and air that supports all living matter in the process. Millions heard or read about |