Projecting The Planet Into The Future

摘要

"Do jeans grow on trees?" The question is ludicrous, but that is the point, to fire the children's imagination and make them think about their clothes: what they are made of, where they come from and where they end up... From there, the children are encouraged to think up stories inspired by the process that produced their sports shoes or their jacket. The idea for this kind of role-playing is included in an educational pack distributed by the German Commission for UNESCO to almost 300 schools that belong to the Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet), ranging from pre-school to secondary establishments. The aim is to raise awareness among young people about sustainable development, starting by taking a look at their daily lives. The approach is original because sustainable development has failed to find a place in most school curricula. Yet since sustainable development first emerged in 1987, the idea has made headway, as demonstrated by the current popularity of fair trade, organic food and ethical investments. Even more significantly, the 2004 Nobel Prize was awarded to the militant Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathi "for her contribution to sustainable development".