Getting Educated about Drought
Oct 16, 2012
When life gives you lemons, you’re supposed to make lemonade. So when Mother Nature handed the U.S. the worst drought in a generation, GreenLeaders DC (GLDC) created a learning opportunity—literally. The group has developed an online course about risk and sustainability for its GLDC Teacher website, which provides free content targeted for teachers and others interested in learning more about sustainability issues.
"We thought that agriculture and the insurance industry were great illustrations on how natural events can pose substantial risks because agriculture is so directly affected by national processes, and how businesses and societies are producing innovative policies and frameworks to manage that risk," says GLDC managing director Loren Hurst.
GLDC serves schools and businesses throughout the country by providing these types of resources, Hurst says. While the unit will be particularly useful for introductory corporate training programs and college courses centered around sustainability, he says, risk and sustainability are "community-wide" challenges that affect everyone.
"Clearly, I think farmers understand sustainability risk more than most people," he says. "This unit presents sustainability in a risk-management context. We think the information presented is very important for just about everyone because uncertain weather events can have such big impacts."
Hurst hopes to compile seven total units for the GLDC Teacher content library. Next up are units about workforce development and ecosystem services. For more information about GLDC, visit http://greenleadersdc.com/.
