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Perspectives on education for sustainability in chemistry teaching
Summary
This review examines perspectives on integrating education for sustainability into chemistry teaching, addressing how unsustainable lifestyles drive climate change, water pollution, and resource depletion. The paper discusses how chemistry educators can align curricula with sustainable development principles to prepare students to meet future societal needs.
The media landscape and the public debate are full of reports about the threats caused by unsustainable lifestyles by large parts of the global society today. Climate is changing, water is polluted more and more, natural resources are progressively exploited, inequalities are increasing. It is under constant debate whether and how far humans can continue affecting our planet until these developments lead to irreversible changes in the environment and human life. Regardless of exactly how these changes come to place and what they cause in the end, the political answer is the demand for more sustainability. Sustainable development asks for a way of life that does not permanently damage our planet, so that future generations can still live on earth and meet their needs without being too restricted by both today's contamination of the environment and consumption of resources. It is clearly suggested that this task applies to all school subjects, including chemistry. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of selected concepts in the context of sustainability and refers them to education in general, and chemistry teaching in particular.
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