We should not protect the environment merely because we need it; we should protect it because we belong to it.
We frequently hear people speak about protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, safeguarding biodiversity, and promoting environmental justice. Governments develop environmental policies, scientists study ecological changes, organizations campaign for conservation, and communities advocate for cleaner air and water. These efforts are essential. However, there is a fundamental question we should ask ourselves: Why do we continue to speak about the environment as though it is something separate from us?
When we say that we must protect the environment, our language sometimes creates the impression that human beings are standing outside nature, observing it, managing it, and deciding how much protection it deserves. We behave as though the environment is something around us rather than something of which we are an inseparable part.
Perhaps it is time to change that way of thinking.
We should not protect the environment merely because we need it; we should protect it because we belong to it.
This is more than a change in language. It represents a fundamental shift in how we understand our relationship with the natural world. The air we breathe, the water flowing through our bodies, the food we consume, and the soil that supports agricultural production are all parts of interconnected ecological systems. Human existence is not independent of these systems. Our economies, societies, cultures, and everyday activities are deeply embedded in them.
This understanding is closely associated with ecological economics, which challenges the conventional view of the economy as an independent system. Ecological economists recognize that economic activities take place within the larger ecological system and that the economy cannot expand indefinitely without considering the environmental limits of the planet. Herman Daly (1992), one of the leading contributors to ecological economics, emphasized the importance of recognizing the scale of economic activity in relation to the finite natural systems that sustain it.
When a river becomes polluted, the problem is not simply that a natural resource has been damaged. River pollution affects the health of communities, agricultural production, food security, economic opportunities, and the well-being of future generations. When forests disappear, we lose more than trees. We affect biodiversity, water systems, soil stability, climate regulation, and the livelihoods of people who depend on those ecosystems.
In this sense, environmental degradation is not an external problem that humanity occasionally encounters. It is a disruption of the very systems to which humanity belongs.
The way we think about the environment matters
Environmental protection is frequently approached through regulations, conservation programs, economic incentives, technological improvements, and public awareness campaigns. These approaches are necessary, but they cannot independently create a society that genuinely values its relationship with nature.
Consider the difference between teaching a child not to throw plastic into a river and helping that child understand that the river is part of the living system that sustains the child’s own existence.
The first approach teaches a rule. The second develops an understanding of interconnectedness, belonging, and responsibility.
A child who learns to avoid littering may follow that instruction when someone is watching. But a child who develops a genuine connection with the natural world may understand why keeping a river clean matters, even when nobody is watching.
This distinction deserves greater attention in environmental education. We should move beyond teaching children simply to recognize environmental problems. We should help them develop an understanding of their place within the natural world.
Environmental thinking should not begin when a student reaches high school, studies environmental science, or learns about climate change. It should begin much earlier, through everyday experiences, family interactions, school activities, and relationships with the surroundings in which children grow up.
Why childhood is the right place to begin
Childhood is an important period for developing values, attitudes, habits, and ways of understanding the world. The experiences children have during these years can influence how they perceive their responsibilities as adults.
Research provides encouraging evidence for this approach. Ardoin and Bowers (2020), in a systematic review of 66 studies on early childhood environmental education, found that nature-rich learning experiences can support children’s cognitive, emotional, and environmental development. Their findings highlight the importance of play-based learning and opportunities for young children to interact directly with nature.
Similarly, van de Wetering et al. (2022) conducted a meta-analysis of 169 studies involving 176,007 children and adolescents across 43 countries. They found that environmental education significantly improved environmental knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behavior. These findings demonstrate that education can play an important role in shaping how younger generations understand and respond to environmental challenges.
These findings suggest that environmental education should not be treated as an additional subject that schools occasionally introduce. It should become part of how children experience and understand everyday life.
From environmental lessons to environmental belonging
Imagine a young child growing up in a village surrounded by paddy fields, streams, home gardens, trees, and agricultural landscapes. Instead of learning about the environment only through textbook illustrations, the child could experience how these systems work together.
The child could learn why soil matters for growing food, how rainfall supports agriculture, why insects and birds are important, how trees contribute to the local environment, and why clean water is essential for households and farming communities.
Similarly, a child growing up in an urban environment does not need to visit a national park to develop environmental awareness. A small home garden, a neighborhood tree, a schoolyard, a nearby stream, or even observing birds and insects can provide opportunities to understand the natural world.
For countries such as Sri Lanka, this approach offers particularly meaningful opportunities. The country’s agricultural landscapes, village tanks, paddy cultivation systems, forests, rivers, coastal ecosystems, and rich biodiversity provide living classrooms for environmental learning.
Children can learn about the importance of traditional tank-based irrigation systems, not simply as historical infrastructure, but as interconnected systems supporting agriculture, water availability, biodiversity, and rural livelihoods. They can explore why mangroves matter to coastal communities, why soil conservation matters to farmers, and why protecting watersheds is important for both rural and urban populations.
These lessons connect environmental understanding with local culture, agriculture, livelihoods, and economic well-being.
Most importantly, they help children recognize that environmental systems are not distant subjects in textbooks. They are part of the places where their families live, work, produce food, and build their futures.
What should schools and families do differently?
Developing this mindset does not necessarily require expensive educational programs, sophisticated laboratories, or additional textbooks. It requires a different approach to learning.
First, environmental understanding should be introduced from the early years of childhood. Children should have opportunities to interact with plants, soil, water, animals, and their surrounding landscapes. Gardening, planting trees, observing insects, and exploring local ecosystems can help develop curiosity and appreciation.
Second, schools should integrate environmental thinking across subjects. Mathematics can explore household water consumption and waste generation. Science can explain ecosystems and biodiversity. Geography can examine watersheds and land use. Economics can introduce the relationship between natural resources, production, livelihoods, and human well-being. Literature and the arts can encourage children to express their relationships with nature.
Third, parents and families should become active participants. Children learn not only from formal instruction but also from observing everyday behavior. Families can discuss food waste, water conservation, responsible consumption, gardening, and the importance of maintaining clean surroundings.
Fourth, environmental education should emphasize participation rather than memorization. Students should have opportunities to identify local environmental challenges, discuss possible solutions, and participate in practical activities. A school garden, a tree-monitoring project, a local water-quality observation activity, or a community clean-up can help transform knowledge into experience.
Finally, access to nature-based learning should not be limited to children from privileged households or particular geographical areas. Every child, whether growing up in a rural village, a coastal community, or a densely populated city, deserves opportunities to develop a meaningful relationship with the natural world.
UNESCO (2024), through its Greening Curriculum Guidance, similarly emphasizes age-appropriate, action-oriented, and locally relevant environmental and climate education. It encourages educational systems to connect environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability rather than treating them as isolated subjects.
Environmental justice begins with recognizing interconnectedness
This way of thinking also has important implications for environmental justice.
Environmental problems do not affect every community equally. Some communities experience greater exposure to pollution, environmental hazards, water insecurity, and climate-related risks. Others have fewer resources to respond to environmental damage.
When children understand that people and ecosystems are interconnected, they can begin to recognize that environmental responsibility also involves fairness, shared well-being, and respect for communities whose livelihoods depend directly on natural systems.
Environmental justice should therefore not be presented only as a discussion about who receives environmental benefits and who bears environmental costs. It should also help children understand that the well-being of one community cannot be entirely separated from the ecological conditions and social circumstances of others.
This is an important foundation for developing responsible citizens who appreciate both environmental sustainability and social responsibility.
Raising a generation that understands it belongs to nature
Ultimately, the objective of environmental education should be much broader than producing children who know how to recycle, conserve water, or plant trees. Those actions matter, but they should emerge from a deeper understanding of our relationship with the natural world.
We need a generation that understands why a forest matters even if its members never visit it, why a river deserves protection even if they do not live beside it, and why biodiversity matters even when its value cannot be measured in immediate economic returns.
We need children who recognize that environmental responsibility is not simply an obligation imposed by governments, schools, or parents. It is a responsibility that arises from belonging to a shared living system.
This understanding can influence how future generations approach agriculture, business, consumption, urban development, public policy, and economic growth. It can encourage people to evaluate decisions not only by their immediate financial benefits but also by their implications for ecological systems and human well-being over time.
Perhaps the greatest contribution we can make to environmental sustainability is not simply leaving behind cleaner rivers, healthier forests, and more productive soils. It is raising generations who understand why these systems matter and recognize themselves as part of them.
We must stop teaching children to look at nature as something that exists outside their lives and begin helping them recognize their place within it.
We do not stand outside the environment waiting to protect it. We are part of the environment. Its well-being is connected to ours, and our responsibility begins with recognizing that relationship.
We should not protect the environment merely because we need it.
We should protect it because we belong to it. And that understanding should begin in childhood.
Sources
Ardoin, N. M., & Bowers, A. W. (2020). Early childhood environmental education: A systematic review of the research literature. Educational Research Review, 31, Article 100353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100353
Daly, H. E. (1992). Allocation, distribution, and scale: Towards an economics that is efficient, just, and sustainable. Ecological Economics, 6(3), 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/0921-8009(92)90024-M
UNESCO. (2024). Greening curriculum guidance: Teaching and learning for climate action. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/greening-curriculum-guidance-teaching-and-learning-climate-action
van de Wetering, J., Leijten, P., Spitzer, J., & Thomaes, S. (2022). Does environmental education benefit environmental outcomes in children and adolescents? A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, Article 101782. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101782
