Sustainability

The “Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority” (ACARA) is a national independent organization that ensures Australian children receive a world class education. ACARA has identified three important Cross Curriculum Priorities that must be incorporated into subjects. The sustainability priority looks at the “ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life and meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations” (ACARA 2013). Geography is inseparable from sustainability because it  involves the concepts of “place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and change."(ACARA. 2015.)

Global warming is currently the biggest threat to the planet and human kind’s survival (WWF 2015). Through increased co2 emissions and pollutants in the earth’s atmosphere the planet is heating up. In the long term global warming’s effects include “sea level rise, droughts, floods, storms and heat waves.” (WWF 2015) The short term health effects of a polluted planet are already taking place, the map below was created by the World Health Organization in 2004 and shows the number of deaths attributed to air pollution in that year. The Earth’s finite resources are being used up at an unsustainable rate. Clean water and air are components that are essential for life yet they are being treated as disposable while fossil fuels continue to be burnt at an unsustainable rate.

It’s vital that students are taught sustainability as a priority because without a healthy earth, life on this planet would cease to exist. Future and currant generations need to find more sustainable ways to live in harmony with the earth. 

Reference List

ACARA. 2013. “Cross-curriculum priorities” Accessed 29th of May 2015. http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross_curriculum_priorities.html

ACARA. 2015. “Concepts for developing geographical understanding”. Accessed 29^th of May 2015. http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/geography/concepts-for-developing-geographical-understanding

Global Footprint Network. 2014. “Earth Overshoot Day”. Accessed 29^th of May 2015. http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/earth_overshoot_day/

ProCon.  2015. “Is Human Activity Primarily Responsible for Global Climate Change?”. Accessed 29^th of May 2015. http://climatechange.procon.org/

WWF. 2015. “One of the biggest threats to humanity & nature”. Accessed 29^th of May 2015.http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/aboutcc/

WHO. 2015.“The urban environment”. Accessed 29^th of May 2015. http://www.who.int/heli/risks/urban/urbanenv/en/

Union of Concerned Scientists. 2011.“Global Warming Causes”. Accessed 29^th of May 2015. http://www.climatehotmap.org/about/global-warming-causes.html