Dr.Tarek Kapiel: The Relationship between Environmental Education, Raising Public Awareness, and Achieving Sustainable Development in Egypt

It was clear that the current development strategies are not sustainable and harm the environment, and that the main factor affecting the environment is man.

Raising children’s awareness is the main way to educate the public. Given that education and training are key to raising public awareness, they are also keys to achieving sustainability.

The latest research shows that raising public awareness through basic education is the key to developing and achieving sustainability.

For example, research has shown that education can improve agricultural productivity, enhance the status of women, reduce population growth rates, enhance environmental protection, and generally raise the standard of living.

The contents of sustainable development are wide-ranging, including poverty reduction, human rights, international understandings, and monitoring of the Earth’s environment.

According to the previous contents, the environment is one of the most important issues of sustainable development.

Thus, environmental education is one of the main issues related to achieving sustainable development.

Therefore, the introduction of environmental education in primary and secondary education can raise environmental awareness; hence, it contributes to improving environmental behavior, environmental conditions, and achieving sustainability.

However, Egypt is struggling against many environmental issues, especially those related to human interactions with the environment and natural resources. Given that there is an essential relationship between environmental protection and development, it has become necessary to educate the public environmentally.

The Power of Social Media

Recently, social media has become one of the most important platforms for connecting people from everywhere in the world, as a tool of communication and interaction, and it was created to build and maintain relationships regardless of geographical or time restrictions.

However, social media has increased its function mainly through its impact on socialization and the competition of traditional socialization agencies in carrying out their role.

As a result of their use and employment in various fields, increasing communication, mobilization, differentiation, and spatial expansion, has far-reaching consequences on socialization processes, such as confusion of social interactions, role shifts, and much more.

We do not lose sight of the fact that experiences of socialization also influence the way people use social media platforms and treat them as a sociocultural activity.

The expansion of information and communication technology led to the creation of new communication scenarios in which social media platforms, spread to enter people’s daily lives as a means of interaction, and grab the attention of individuals, old and young, and its use as a social platform has become a common and indispensable phenomenon for relationships and communication with friends and the external world, resulting in significant changes in social interactions and practices.

The new generations that were born after the year 2000 and are immersed in digital media have become called Generation Z, while the generations born between 1980-2000 and distinguished by using new technologies and familiarity with them were called Generation Y or Millennium Generation.

There were different opinions of media professionals and activists on social media about the role of local and international media and what presented on digital platforms in dealing with climate and environmental issues, and ways to reduce the effects of climate change.

On the other hand, others emphasized that the issues that shed light on climate pollution issues, and the importance of social behavior in preserving the environment, through media platforms and social networking sites, do not serve the international trend in confronting the effects of climate change on the future of human life.

Social media platforms are “a collection of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of the web, and allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content, and allow and facilitate interpersonal interactions and self-presentation.

Consequently, it is logical to say that social media platforms represent a new and influential revolutionary trend, which should be of interest to socialization agencies in the world of change, as it allows interaction, relationship formation, knowledge sharing, and content editing and thus influences socialization.