Your love will save the earth

Will education, knowledge and information save Earth from destruction? The answer is: 'No.' It is a matter of no small consequence that the only people who have lived sustainably on the planet for any length of time could not read, and do not make a fetish of reading," says David Orr, professor, author and a campaigner for green architecture. Clearly, as it stands, many of those destroying the planet are very educated people. Is there something wrong with our education system then? According to Orr, "Our education system has little place for connection, deep questions, silence, meditation, and contact with the consequences of ideas."

Education will not save us - but education of a certain kind might just save the world. Therefore, the goal of education is not mastery of subject matter, but of oneself.

Lesson number one, according to Orr, is: Do not dominate nature. To drive home this point, Orr helped create a 20,000-acre greenbelt at Oberlin University in Ohio, near Cleveland. Here he promotes sustainable agriculture. "The Oberlin Project launched in 2009 as a joint initiative with the City of Oberlin includes five very practical objectives as a part of a unified system. We want to build an example of a sustainable economy powered by renewable energy in the heart of the US, and move an entire city to becoming 'carbon positive," summarises Orr.

With the Oberlin Project, Orr endeavours to change minds. "I want students to grow in a state of mindfulness. I want them to see patterns and want them to have the courage to be compassionate." He borrows from the philosophy of the river of life; we have responsibility towards our ancestors from the past and our future generations to come. Orr says, "This idea is ancient and is part of every organised religion. We have obligations to the generations past as well as to our grandchildren and theirs…we live in a seamless relation of obligation and opportunity that is both a constraint on what we do and what we would want to do. But let's not forget that we are all interconnected in this web of life."

According to Orr, lesson number two is: Even with enough technology and knowledge, we will never be capable of managing Earth. "Managing the planet has a nice ring to it. It appeals to our fascination with digital readouts, computers, buttons and dials. But the complexity of Earth and its life systems can never be safely managed," elaborates Orr.

He says that it is a common myth that educational certificates offer people upward mobility and success. "On the contrary, people become unfit for anything except in displaying an elaborate and completely artificial charade," he opines.

Our planet doesn't need successful people, but it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in places, they call home. "It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our culture has defined it," says Orr, indicating that we need new paradigms to judge what we consider successful.