Publications
To Know the World:
A New Vision for Environmental Learning
How can we respond to the current planetary ecological emergency? In To Know the World, Mitchell Thomashow proposes that we revitalize, revisit, and reinvigorate how we think about our residency on Earth. First, we must understand that the major challenges of our time—migration, race, inequity, climate justice, and democracy—connect to the biosphere. Traditional environmental education has accomplished much, but it has not been able to stem the inexorable decline of global ecosystems. Learn more about the book and buy it on Amazon.
Bringing the Biosphere Home: Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change
This book shows how to make global environmental problems more tangible, so that they become an integral part of everyday awareness. At its core is a simple assumption: that the best way to learn to perceive the biosphere is to pay close attention to our immediate surroundings. Through local natural history observations, imagination and memory, and spiritual contemplation, we develop a place-based environmental view that can be expanded to encompass the biosphere.
Ecological Identity: Becoming a Reflective Environmentalist
Mitchell Thomashow, a preeminent educator, shows how environmental studies can be taught from different perspective, one that is deeply informed by personal reflection. Through theoretical discussion as well as hands-on participatory learning approaches, Thomashow provides concerned citizens, teachers, and students with the tools needed to become reflective environmentalists.
The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus
A college campus offers an ideal setting for exploring and practicing sustainability. Colleges and universities offer our best hope for raising awareness about the climate crisis and the dire threat it poses to the planet. They provide opportunities for both research and implementation; they have the capacity to engage students, staff, and faculty in collaborative enterprises that inspire campus transformation; they take the idea of legacy seriously. But most college and university administrations need guidance on the path to sustainability. Learn more about the book and buy it on Amazon.
Pacific Northwest Changemakers
In “Pacific Northwest Changemakers,” Thomashow takes us from Central Washington to Montana, from Coastal Alaska to Portland. We learn how the Walla Walla Community Council generates community solutions to improve education and increase food security. And we meet women promoting food sovereignty and teaching tribal youth about traditional Crow culture. Learn more and download the free pdf.
Living Earth Community (An Anthology)
To facilitate the cultivation of ecological imagination and promote environmental awareness, Mitchell Thomashow’s concluding chapter presents proposes five qualities of environmental learning (observation, information, interpretation, expression, and manifestation). Those educational qualities are pathways for integrated ways of knowing and being in the living Earth community. Download a free pdf of Mitchell’s chapter here and watch him discuss the future of environmental learning here.