The North American Association for Environmental Education [ NAAEE ] has a brilliant programme that recognises young people who are making a significant contribution to environmental education and the world. You can learn more about it here.
This is how Joseph Sarvary, Class of 2018, begins his recent reflection on the impact of the awards program, his career trajectory, and how his personal journey has shaped how he thinks about environmental education. Joseph hopes his insights and experiences will help young environmental educators emerging into or navigating the field.
“It’s been 5 years since I was selected as a 30-under-30 ‘Changemaker for the Planet’ by the NAAEE. I was 28 years old, and in my cohort was by far the eldest. It was an amazing experience to meet with the other changemakers and exchange ideas. They were young, passionate, and talented. It was an honor to stand next to them, and their accomplishments served as an inspiration for what I could do next. Little did I know what path the next 5 years of my life would take.
Since leaving the award ceremony, I have moved from Paraguay to France to London. I have left Para La Tierra, the organization that I had been working with, and Voces de la Naturaleza, the education program that had earned me the honor of the award. And, most importantly, I have become a father.
As I reflect on these series of changes, I must admit that at certain points of shifting away from my previous life, I felt I was betraying the award that NAAEE had given me – that I was turning my back on the project that others had felt made me an inspiring young leader. Now that I’m a bit less young, I feel certain that the decisions that I took were correct – not a betrayal of the award, but a pathway for me to realize more of my potential as a ‘Changemaker.’ …”
And Joseph ends like this:
“The realm, therefore, of the environmental educator should continue to go beyond the purely ‘educational’. To capture the benefits we must adopt a broad approach – one that embraces that time outside is as personal as it is public. Being in nature connects us with our history, with our place, and with each other. In nature, when we pause and look inward, we see ourselves more clearly. In nature, when we pause and look outward, we see each other more clearly.
The world is changing. Environmentalism has gone from the margins to the very core of our social, political, and economic systems. The world is waking up to what is required to combat climate change. Carbon accounting will eventually be as mainstream as financial accounting. By my daughter’s 20th birthday, I hope that we will be approaching a truly net-zero economy.
But with all the momentum focused on addressing climate change through ‘adaptation and mitigation,’ I fear we will lose the forest for the trees. Nature is more than a handy carbon sink. We mustn’t ever forget what amazing things we can learn when we spend time among trees.”