ABSTRACT

Neo-liberalism presents decisions as being rationally based on profit and loss; those actions that are profitable will be pursued. Damage to public goods, such as natural resources or the environment, is not considered, and damage to those goods is treated as a “necessary evil” that is an accidental output of market processes. In contrast with this, ecopedagogy is an alternative to traditional models of environmental education, and it deals with environmental devastation in its context, looking at social causes and effects (Kahn, 2010). Ecopedagogy develops critical understanding of connections between environmental degradation and social injustices to determine the political purpose of environmental devastation. This progressive pedagogy teaches a deeper understanding of socioenvironmental problems by comparing and contrasting the politics of local and global reasons for acts of environmental devastation. All environmentally destructive actions occur for somebody's benefit, but who benefits and who or what is negatively affected are often hidden.