PBS filmmaker speaks at enviromental conference
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John Grabowska |
March 12, 2010 ·
Educators attending an environmental education conference in Harpers Ferry this weekend will hear about how important their jobs are from PBS filmmaker John Grabowska.
He is one of the featured speakers at this weekend’s annual
conference sponsored by the West Virginia Environmental Education Association.
Grabowska has produced natural history films for PBS
about areas like Wrangell St. Elias
National Park in Alaska and the Colorado plateau in New Mexico.
He grew up on the
plains of South Dakota enjoying nature and eventually found a career filming in
nature.
Grabowska believes environmental education is important
because it is linked to the fate of the world.
“And that sounds like hyperbole but in the last 20 years as
we have become aware of the potential effects and the effects that are
happening right now due to anthropogenic climate change, kids and science
education in general and environmental education in particular is so
desperately needed,” Grabowska said.
Grabowska said environmental educators have an important job
teaching children the beneficial aspects of the natural world.
“They are going to be the future leaders, the future
politicians, the future journalists, the future teachers and they are going to
have these experiences intellectually as well as emotionally so that they can
be wise voters and citizens in the future,” Grabowska said.
Grabowska said children don’t spend as much time outside
enjoying nature the way he did as a kid and that makes it especially important
for them to have access to environmental education.
We’ll hear more from Grabowska Saturday at 6 a.m. and Sunday
at 6 p.m. on Inside Appalachia.