ECOLITERACY

ECO
LITERACY
MARIEL B. CUNTAPAY
Ecological Literacy
(Eco literacy) is the ability to

understand the natural systems and the
processes that maintain the healthy
functioning of living systems and sustain
life on earth.
We humans should
understand ourselves as
part of the web of life.
Ecological literacy includes the
insight and knowledge needed in order
for man to create and uphold
sustainable societies. Ecologically
literate is being able to apply this
understanding to the design and
organization of our human
communities and the creation of a
regenerative culture.
• A sustainable community has a certain level of
self-reliance with regard to meeting its need
for energy, food, water, shelter, healthcare and
education at the local community level.
For this self reliant systems to work and be resilient,

they have to designed as nested systems within a
local, regional, national and global context .
Ecoduct provides a safe crossing path for wildlife amidst the
danger of highways.
To create a regenerative culture,
we must design processes in
interconnected, closed-loop cycles.
These includes cycle of primary
production of biological resources and
patterns of use that allow for equal or
higher amounts to be harvested in a
sustainable way in subsequent years.
Cycles of learning and adaptation in response to
changes in the environment; cycles that
maintain basic ecosystems functions like clean
water, clan air, regrowing energy and material
resources; and cycle that separate all products
into either an industrial metabolism of organic
All life in an
ecosystem is
interconnected
through networks of
relationship defining
life sustaining process.
In the design of human systems we have to
monitor our use of locally available
renewable resources in real time to avoid
depleting the regional capacity for
regeneration. If we over-use a local
resource, we have to reduce consumption
and replace the resource with an
alternative, or respond by ensuring that
the annual sustainable harvest increases by
raising the bioproductivity of this resource.
Five ways to
develop Eco
literacy
Develop empathy for all forms of life.
• At a basic level, all organisms- including

humans-need food, water, space, and
conditions that support dynamic equilibrium
to survive. By recognizing the common needs
we share with all organisms, we can begin to
shift our perspective from a view of humans
as separate and superior to a more authentic
view of humans as members of the natural
world.
Teachers can help develop empathy for
other forms of life is by studying
indigenous cultures. From early Australian
Aboriginal culture to the Gwich’in First
Nation in the Arctic Circle, traditional
societies have viewed themselves as
intimately connected to plants, animals,
the land, and the cycles of life. This
worldview of interdependence guides daily
living and has helped these societies
survive, frequently in delicate ecosystems,
for thousands of years.
Embrace sustainability as a
community practice
• By learning about the wondrous ways that
plants, animals, and other living things are
interdependent, students are inspired to
consider the role of interconnectedness within
their communities and see the value in
strengthening those relationships by thinking
and acting cooperatively.
Make the invisible visible
Historically—and for some cultures still in
existence today—the path between decision
and its consequences was short and visible. If a
homesteading family cleared their land of trees,
for example, they might soon experience
flooding, soil erosion, a lack of shade, and a
huge decrease in biodiversity.
Anticipate unintended consequences
• Many of the environmental crises that we face
today are the unintended consequences of
human behaviour. For example, we have
experienced many unintended but grave
consequences of developing technologic
ability to access, produce, and use fossil fuels.
• These new technological capacities have been
largely viewed as progress for our society.
Only recently has the public become aware of
the downsides of our dependency on fossil
fuels, such as pollution, suburban sprawl,
international conflicts and climate change.
Understand how nature sustain life.
• Eco literate people recognize that nature has
sustained life for eons: as a result, they have
turned to nature as their teacher and learned
several crucial tenets. Three of those tenets
are particularly imperative to eco literate
living.
Finally, Eco literate people collectively practice a
way of life that fulfils the needs of the present
generation while simultaneously supporting
nature’s inherent ability to sustain life into the
future. They have learned from nature that
members of a healthy ecosystem do not abuse
the resources they need in order to survive.
If we surrendered to earth’s
intelligence we could rise
rooted, like trees. — Rainer Maria
Rilke, The Book of Hours
Learned from nature to take only what
they need and to adjust their behaviour in times
of boom or bust. This requires that students
learn to take a long view when making decisions
about how to live.
In the coming decades, the
survival of humanity will depend
on our ecological literacy – our
ability to understand the basic
principles of ecology and to live
accordingly.
-Fritjof Capra,
This generation will require leaders and citizens
who can think ecologically, understand the
interconnectedness of human and natural
systems, and have the will, ability, and courage
to act
— Michael K. Stone
References
https;//freshvista.com
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/fi
ve_ways_to_develop_ecoliteracy
https://medium.com/age-of-
awareness/ecoliteracy-learning-from-living-
systems-e162df608981
THANK YOU!

ECOLITERACY

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ECO

(Eco literacy) is the ability to

For this self reliant systems to work and be resilient,

• At a basic level, all organisms- including

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