Editorial: The Challenge of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Wales

Editor's Note This editorial from Jane Davidson, Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning in the Welsh Assembly Government, is developed from the keynote address 1] to the conference ‘Education for Sustainable Development: The Challenge for Higher, Further and Adult Education’ (University of Wales Swansea, 17 March 2003) 2]. Sustainable development has to be a focus for us all and a challenge we must confront and win. Sustainability is a powerful concept, but achieving it is not a simple task. Our challenge here in Wales, and that of the world, is to modify our social and economic institutions and living patterns so that the way in which we go about meeting the needs of the present does not compromise our ability to meet our own future needs and those of our younger generation. The history of human beings is one of change—sometimes the slow change of evolution, sometimes the dramatic change of revolution. Twenty years ago the first Earth Day increased our appreciation of the value of the natural world, an evolutionary consideration to improve our guardianship of the Earth's resources. Today we ask ourselves if this evolutionary improvement is enough. We cannot really afford to change slowly; perhaps the significance of sustainability demands revolution in our management of, and indeed our relationship to, our planet Earth. We still face the same problems that were encountered in that first Earth Day, plus more. Acid rain is changing the chemistry of lakes and the soil, stressing and killing forests worldwide. Much of the earth faces shortages of water, or fuel, or both. The overall problem is not only bigger than we thought, it is a different sort of problem.