We could learn lots from teachgreenpsych

Thanks to Anelibrary I’ve been looking at this really nice set of resources www.teachgreenpsych.com. Described as “Teaching Psychology for Sustainability: A Manual of Resources“, the creators state that their purpose in creating this site…

is to provide a resource to help instructors begin integrating psychology and environmental issues in their courses.

The site has a section on instructor resources – including some very borrowable statements… (remarkably similar to Cortese’s visionary engineering statement)

The primary cause of all “environmental problems” is human behavior. These problems are not really problems of the environment, but are the result of a mismatch between the ways in which human beings fulfill their needs and wants and the natural processes that maintain ecological integrity. As experts on human behavior, psychologists have the potential to serve a crucial role in halting our ecologically-destructive trajectory and promoting a sustainable future. One way that psychologists can contribute to a sustainable future is by teaching tomorrow’s conservation scientists, policy-makers, and grassroots activists about the fundamental connections between human behavior and the environmental crisis, and between the discipline of psychology and remedies for the crisis; however, the discipline of psychology is currently absent from most undergraduate programs focused on conservation and sustainability. Likewise, environmental issues are not salient in most undergraduate psychology programs.

In the resources section topics topics are listed (eg: The intellectual roots of ecopsychology) and briefly introduced in a way that suggests these ideas could add value to existing material rather than replace it. I struggle a bit with the structure here, the resources are organised by delivery mode rather than topic. I would rather see a topic with all of its resources (Lecture/Discussion Topics; Class Activities;Multimedia Resources; Suggested Readings for Students;References Cited in this Section).

The list of contributors is seriously impressive but also, unfortunately, seriously passive.  I don’t know why this great resource isn’t in a wiki so it can continue to grow.