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Building Sustainability: The Role of K-12 Education

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Abstract

Sustainability – the capacity to indefinitely meet human needs while preserving the environment – is more than just a noble idea. It is quite possibly the central imperative of our time, the Gordian Knot1 of the 21st century. The impacts of climate change – the political tensions that emanate from competition for energy and other natural resources, as well as the collision course that looms on the horizon pitting established nations against developing countries – have roots in the sustainability riddle. The “riddle” – how to redirect human behavior toward a critical level of sustainable activities – is the domain of this publication. The various authors offer a broad array of promising practices, drawing on a wealth of international acumen.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As an historical aside, it is of interest to note that, according to Greek lore, when Alexander the Great cut the famous knot in Gordium (in present day Turkey), he freed Zeus’s oxcart, the mythical vehicle that symbolized sky and lightening (radiance and electricity).

  2. 2.

    The concept of “green record” has evolved from a generalization used by environmentalists in assessing various associations (political, social, and economic) to an industry standard in marketing. Today, marketing and public relations firms (e.g., AMP Agency) calibrate public sentiment for their clients and advise on how they may best affect their Green Record.

  3. 3.

    A small, single-school 20 kW system was built north of San Francisco some months earlier.

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Correspondence to Bill Radulovich .

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© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Radulovich, B. (2010). Building Sustainability: The Role of K-12 Education. In: Clark, W. (eds) Sustainable Communities. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0219-1_8

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