Neoliberal Environmental Issues

In recent history humanity has begun to fundamentally alter the functionality of the planet [1, 2]. The global capitalist market and its dominant neoliberal paradigm have driven a multitude of environmental issues [3, 4, 5]. Global climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, waste accumulation, and a loss of valuable ecosystem services are at the forefront of today’s environmental issues [1, 2, 6, 7]. Regardless of whether these issues are anthropogenic or natural, action will be required to maintain the world’s habitability [8]. Perhaps the most efficacious approach to these issues is to shift from the paradigm enhancing them. Thesis: Education reform at the primary level will allow for the sculpting of a paradigm with which the coming generations approach the world, and that paradigm must be one that values nature over economic growth.

Supporting argument 1: The problem is in the economic paradigm

Advocates of neoliberal policies proclaim that the efficiency of the market allows it to be the best allocator of prosperity [4]. However, a neoliberal market rewards behaviors that result in environmental degradation [4]. “The dominant economic paradigm rewards more instead of better consumption and private versus

Additionally, EECE incorporates social ecology, which suggests that social stratification is the primary cause of anthropogenic effects on the world’s ecosystems [9]. Eco-early childhood education incorporates many activities, such as running, walking, and gardening, to further the children’s self-exploration and appreciation of nature and community [9]. Most importantly, is that EECE emphasizes adapting the curriculum to ecology, rather than simply including ecology as a subject [9]. In a short amount of time, an entire generation of South Koreans will have been taught in this