“The natural environment we treat with such unnecessary ignorance and recklessness was our cradle and nursery, our school, and remains our one and only home.”
-Edward O. Wilson (2002)

I feel touched every time I read Ed Wilson’s quote. I do think about it and it is difficult not to care about the Earth and not to see it as much more than just a planet. What is home for you? For me it is a place and a space where I belong to, I care, I look after and can’t live without. It is where I found peace, understanding and love. I’ve been asking myself how can I share my passion with my peers and how can I engage more and more people in this crazy love for life in the Earth.

Now, after four amazing and interesting weeks in Hamburg, I see environmental education as seeds of hope and consciousness with the potential to empower humanity to help each other to build a better world. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) environmental education is the process of giving people the skills, perspectives, knowledge and values to live and work in a sustainable manner. The definition is sometimes difficult to understand and apply but I take it as the Earth’s call for help and action… an invitation to integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of our lives.

Environmental education should reach everybody, but for me, children are the ones who can get the most of it. Environmental education can easily show them that it is possible to live in harmony with nature. On one side, children should be aware of the current environmental crisis but they need to be empowered to work for another reality. The intention is not to blame on anybody or depress young generations, but to give them hope and inspiration. Children can be empowered to change their attitude, and can become part of the solution. By giving children and youth the space and time for dialogue, reflexion and action, they can choose and build the HOME they want to live in…