Environmental Extension: Promoting Ecological Citizenship (Viewpoint Essay‪)‬

Abstract While acknowledging the importance of the discussion around ecological citizenship with regard to institutions, policies and social norms, in this paper I propose to focus on the individual, considering the capacities that need to be in place to promote pro-active environmental citizens. As an agronomist, concerned with the transformations of the environment through diverse farming processes, I am debating with the question of why people act the way they do toward the environment. From this perspective, the discussion of environmental ethics becomes pivotal. In this paper, I discuss ethics from an environmental pragmatism standpoint. This approach allows me to focus on the human relationship with non-human nature--important when considering farming--instead of focusing solely on an ideal state of nature. Environmental pragmatism acknowledges our unity with nature, pluralism, and the freedom necessary to structure responsible action. The paper's reflection on ethics encompasses reflexivity regarding our relationship with the environment, as well as care and responsibility for it. These are aspects that arise only in the presence of both a critical consciousness regarding our behaviour and an awareness of our humanness--our essence of being human--not as superior beings, but as beings capable of making conscious choices and learning. Therefore I propose that, along with the development of environmental laws, we emphasize the promotion of environmental ethics, through learning processes involving reflection upon our role in the environment. Considering some experiences in rural areas with farmers, I bring forth some suggestions that include not only the promotion of a formal knowledge of one's environment, but as well a continuous reflection on the concrete actions taken in that environment and their potential impacts, establishing the basis for what I propose to call "environmental extension."