How do we teach?
We wish to make new environmentalists confident in themselves
As young environmentalists who are still new to environmentalism, almost all members of the Earth Academy team have experienced doubt in their own identity as an environmentalist. Environmentalists nowadays are faced with many expectations from the society, and many people who love this planet and hope to help Earth have wondered like we did: Am I a worthy environmentalist? Did I make enough contributions? Do I qualify as an environmentalist? The Earth Academy team hopes that every lover of the planet can have confidence in themselves and their identity as an environmentalist. We believe that there are different ways to help the planet and different ways to be an environmentalist. Thus, we have created the "Connect" section in which we documented conversations with environmentalists across the world. We want to show our readers that as long as they love the planet, they are a worthy environmentalist.
We wish to narrate the beauty of nature and help people envision the wonderful Earth
According to the Broken Window Theory: If we make the original, undamaged nature reappear in front of our audiences, more people will be encouraged to live in a sustainable style in hope of maintaining the delicate beauty of the environment. On the other hand, if we describe nature as a system already damaged by humans that is near-collapse, it gives the cue that the natural landscape is one frequently associated with—and one that indulges—human destruction. This eliminates the incentive within people to keep nature unharmed and persuades people that damaging the nature is an ordinary act which doesn’t deserve attention or criticism.
1
We wish to shed light upon the magical fields of research which hold the potential to restore Earth’s beauty
We shouldn’t persuade our audiences to look up fields such as renewable energy, sustainable city planning, an policy-making by threatening them about the significance of these fields in protecting the vulnerable nature today. People would likely feel that their autonomy is threatened and develop Antagonistic Psychology—deliberately avoiding opportunities to learn about related topics—to protect their autonomy. In contrast, if we directly appeal audiences with the “magic” of these subjects—how their creations are able to reverse human impacts and make nature’s beauty reappear—we would be persuading them to learn more about environmental studies without threatening their autonomy.
2
We wish to help people regain their confidence in humanity's efforts to address climate change
A lot of information sources on climate change today tend to emphasize the irreversibility of the climate crisis and the devastating effects it can cast on the planet. While these sources convey valuable and truthful information, they also tend to cause apocalypse fatigue in their audiences: when people avoid discussing, or even refuse to belief a topic that induces fear in them (for more explanation on this topic, please go to this article we have written). Indeed, it is necessary to make people realize the urgency of the climate crisis, but causing apocalypse fatigue among people will only reduce the societal support environmental movements could gain and slow efforts to address climate change. Other than emphasizing the severity of climate change, regarding every ordinary person as being guilty for climate change can also cause apocalypse fatigue among audiences. In this case, people will avoid discussing the topic of climate change, as mentioning the topic would make them feel ashamed and thus mentally uncomfortable. Therefore, in everyone of our courses or comicstrips, we try to inform our audiences of three things we sincerley believe in: climate change is not a distant subject, yet our audiences are not guilty for climate change, and that humanity still have high hopes of addressing climate change.
3
4