Environmental Education Based on Life Cycle Thinking Required for Advanced Technology Society

Abstract

For creating a sustainable society, it is important to focus on the development of a sense of ethics in addition to the development of technologies and the formulation of regulations. Modern advanced technology society is built on complicated technology systems that are the “black box,” which causes the lack of awareness of links between daily consumption activities and global environmental problems. In order to recover the “missing link” in a cognitive sense, it is crucial to make consumers realize that consumption activities are parts of a system that is extensive in both time and space dimensions. Life cycle thinking is expected to be effective to recover the “missing link.” Based on such an idea, the author’s group has developed and implemented an environmental education program that highlights global warming.