January 2008 — News
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Corwin--Educators Offer Hope in These 'Dark Days' for the Environment
Emmy award-winner Jeff Corwin, best known as the lively, energetic host of Animal Planet's The Jeff Corwin Experience and the Discovery Kids series Jeff Corwin Unleashed, delivered Wednesday's opening keynote address at the opening session of FETC 2008 at the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, FL.
Corwin, who studied to be a teacher at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts, addressed the audience with his signature, easy-going style, sharing the joke, "... I know you guys just do it for the money."
After the laughter subsided, Corwin dug in to the major theme of his talk: environmental stewardship and the role of education. "I can't think of a time in the history of our species," he said, "that the role of the educator has been just so critically important."
"You've been bestowed with this awesome responsibility," Corwin said. "This incredible challenge to get people to be excited about their world--the world they live in--but ultimately, to be stewards; to build a bridge; a bridge that takes information, takes ignorance, and turns that into enlightenment."
Corwin, a biologist and anthropologist, shared his experience as a 6-year-old child, playing in his grandfather's yard, when he was bitten by a Garter snake he found sitting on a pile of wood. "It was at that moment," he said, "at about 6 years old, that I became a naturalist." It was during a similar experience at age 8 when, while observing the same Garter snake, a neighbor, assuming he was in trouble, killed the reptile, that Corwin says he became a conservationist. "That's when I realized the value and the power of sharing information."
According to Corwin, education and building awareness is paramount to the effective conservation of our natural environments. Pointing to his recent concern with the state of our natural resources, Corwin spoke of what he calls a "perfect storm." Citing the issues of habitat loss, environmental degradation, climate change and a fast growing human population, he explained that it all comes together to create one of the greatest measures of extinction we as a species have ever experienced. Corwin shared that his role, and the role of the Discovery Channel, is to ensure that the tools and resources are available for the educator so the message of conservation can be effectively passed on to the next generation.
"We are at a critical stage," Corwin said, "when it comes to the conservation of our natural resources." And educators, according to Corwin, know the challenges we face.
He spoke of the role of society to pass on to our children a world that is environmentally richer and more bio-diverse than the one we have inherited; a world where a parent can take his or her child to a pond to watch frogs or out in the county to see unique species of birds. "Unfortunately," he said, "we are failing to do that."
