Por: Joaquim Carlos Lourenço

Environmental education is an essential tool to make the population aware of the importance of preserving the environment and adopting sustainable consumption practices on a daily basis.

In this awareness-raising process, the environmental educator has a fundamental role, because he or she is responsible for transmitting information and stimulating reflection on environmental issues. His main objective is to awaken ecological awareness in people, encouraging a change in behavior and a commitment to actions that aim to preserve the environment.

In this perspective, in this book, we discuss several concepts related to environmental education, such as sustainable development and food production practices, solid waste management, fauna and flora preservation, clean energy sources, the negative environmental impacts of intensive natural resource exploitation, and climate change, among others.

We also address the importance of raising awareness about the environment in schools through environmental education projects that stimulate the active participation of students. In addition, we highlight the relevance of environmental educators' knowledge about ecological concepts for an effective and grounded performance.

Environmental education is a fundamental tool for building a more sustainable world, and the environmental educator is a key player in this process. Through practical actions and awareness, we can build a more balanced and harmonious future with the environment.

The contents of this book will help you, as an environmental educator, to better develop your public awareness work. Note, however, that the author's intention was not to completely exhaust the theoretical foundations that underlie environmental education, but only to offer a framework of well-structured concepts and ideas for the environmental educator, beginner or not, to use as guidance in his process of disseminating ecological awareness.

The available literature that addresses this issue, in particular, is still incipient, not to mention the erroneous or simplistic way of dealing with the content, which is usually discussed disciplinarily, while environmental education has a systemic bias, i.e., multidisciplinary. Moreover, many educators in the country do not have a specific training in environmental education, so working on this topic in the classroom is a challenge.

Realizing this gap, I wrote this book, thinking exclusively of helping you. Environmental education is a multidisciplinary activity, so professionals from any area of knowledge can be an environmental educator.