Richard Kahn’s “Towards
Ecopedagogy: Weaving a Broad-based Pedagogy of Liberation for Animals, Nature,
and the Oppressed People of the Earth” showed his strong opinions about environmental
education and its impact on society. “95%
of all American adults support having environmental education programs in
schools;” however, “45 million Americans think the ocean is a fresh source of
water.” Obviously, the ocean is not a
fresh source of water considering it encompasses 97% of Earth. Anyone going through any form of education
should know that 97% of the Earth is not fresh water. Furthermore, anyone who has visited the beach
and been in an ocean has probably tasted the saltiness of the water. The salt water of the ocean is not
fresh. Another staggering statistics is
that “125 million Americans think that aerosol spray cans still contain stratospheric
ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) despite the fact that they were banned
from use in 1978.” In high school
students still tried to complain about hairspray and other products in aerosol
containers because they were depleting the ozone layer when in reality they
were having no effect on it.
Kahn’s
article also brought to light the detrimental effects of today’s commercial fishing
to the fish populations as well as other marine creatures. A recent report showed that “approximately
90% of the major fish species in the world’s oceans have disappeared.” Commercial fishing companies are using
smaller nets that encompass the adult and
younger fish. Since the nets are taking
the baby fish there is not a healthy population left behind to repopulate the
area. Due to the overfishing researchers
suggest that commercial fishing will be dead by 2048. The populations of fish will continue to deplete
since humans are fishing more than ever and taking away the younger
generations. Whales, dolphins, and porpoises
are also caught in these fishing nets.
Roughly 1000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises die daily by being drowned
in the fishing nets.
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