Case Study 2: WiseWater Wellness: In a Disconnected World—Water Connects

In a world dominated by capitalist expansion, the gaps between contemporary society and environmental education are becoming wider. While young people learn about the environment and climate change within formal education, the current school curriculum fundamentally lacks an ecocentric approach. To achieve a sustainable future, it is crystal clear that human behaviours, values, and attitudes need to change. Ecocentric education is an important tool in reshaping the unsustainable worldviews that have taken this planet to tipping point. As two youth and community workers and passionate water activists we have worked with young people and communities in various water projects throughout Ireland. Our work revealed that people have a thirst for dialogue and education that is relational and which inspires purposeful action in these critical times. Furthermore, with the reality of the multitude of environmental crises, we experienced many people suffering from eco anxiety, despondency, and a high prevalence of nature deficiency. We knew we had a responsibility to restore hope, and so we developed the WiseWater Wellness (WWW) educational programme. This is a uniquely designed ecocentric wellness education programme that supports reconnecting young people to themselves, their communities and the living world. WiseWater has many tributaries of ecosocial work all flowing from a source of connection, awareness, and appreciation of our interrelationship with the environment.