Environmental Education, Activism and the Arts

Most environmental damage is caused by governments and corporations (Martin, 1988). However, the global environmental crisis is so enormous that averting it relies not just on governmental or corporate action, but requires the engagement of all of society (Wilson, 1999). At the same time, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme claims that environmentalism's worthy but dull image is not working and that its often-negative message is not reaching the hearts of people (Peatling, 2003). This paper argues that the arts provide a means both to enliven environmental education through a variety of creative media, and to engage large sections of the populace.