OUR FAILURE IN PLANETARY EDUCATION: DO WE HAVE TIME?

New Year, new life? It seems so. Everyone is celebrating the turn of the year, and I firmly believe that in 2026 we will see significant progress, especially regarding issues of Health and Education. This post speaks specifically about Education. There is no longer room for divisions between countries when it comes to an Educational model that is not Planetary. The UN, as the body responsible for Assemblies, must discuss an Educational model that encompasses the entire situation of the Planet, transcending cultural barriers, since by doing so we will avoid many crises in the future.

Planetary Education is a pedagogical proposal aimed at forming citizens who are aware of the interdependence between Human Beings and Nature, thereby promoting values of sustainability, sociability, and collective responsibility on Earth. The origin of this approach is inspired by the ecopedagogy of Francisco Gutiérrez and Cruz Prado, who advocate learning in the sense of “things from everyday life.”

The central goal of Planetary Education is to build a citizenship that embraces the entire planet in a consolidated way; that is, a construction of consciousness of belonging to the planet as a whole, and not merely to a nation or community. This philosophical line is based on: (a) the inseparability between human beings and nature; (b) education oriented toward sustainability and the ethics of care; and (c) the formation of individuals capable of acting locally with global impact.

The main authors and ideas to be cited are Moacir Gadotti, Leonardo Boff, Fritjof Capra, and Gutiérrez & Prado. There are records defending sustainable development together with ecological awareness, dependent on Education. Furthermore, emphasizing spirituality and planetary ethics as the foundation of society is one of the pillars of sustainable coexistence. With this, it becomes possible to introduce a systemic vision of life, showing that everything is interconnected.

There are major challenges in this regard: institutional resistance, lack of public policies, and cultural change. However, we are at a stage where it is no longer possible to go backwards, and we must, indeed we need to, analyze the best ways to implement this philosophical line in the Education sector across the entire Planet.

Inserting transversal themes of sustainability into all disciplines; promoting community projects that connect schools with their territories; encouraging practices of conscious consumption and circular economy; and valuing cultural diversity as part of the concept of planetary citizenship are pathways toward deeper implementation, giving relevance to the recognition of the problem and leading to future solutions. Otherwise, in the future we will face severe social crises—crises arising from confrontations among people who speak different languages and, in their attempts to understand one another, end up waging wars and spreading misery, provoking hunger and the death of many innocents.

That said, good news that can further improve the situation follows: 80% of national curricula worldwide, according to UNESCO, already include some component of environmental education or sustainability. This is a number that must increase significantly. On the other hand, in Brazil, for example, only about 40% of schools implement consistent practical projects—a strictly low number that must be taken seriously as soon as possible. Regarding health, SciELO points out that more than 70% of chronic non-communicable diseases are linked to environmental factors and unsustainable lifestyles.

Moreover, some global indicators presented in UN reports show that more than one billion young people—those between 15 and 24 years old—need to be prepared to face challenges such as climate change and inequality. In 2024, it was noted that about 65% of Latin American universities already had extension programs focused on sustainability—a number still very low, given the complexity of the problem, since planetary citizenship cannot wait any longer. We must act!

Interpreting the numbers, it is possible to understand that Planetary Education is not yet measured directly, as the data come from related areas. The advances can be considered significant, but gaps remain: many schools still treat the subject peripherally, something that is no longer acceptable today. Therefore, we face many challenges ahead, among which we can cite: the lack of specific indicators to measure Planetary Education; resistance from traditional educational systems in integrating planetary values; and the urgent need for teacher training focused on interdisciplinary practices.

Until we overcome these challenges, we will remain at the mercy of unprecedented crises in the future, which will worsen the already problematic situation we live in today and, without a doubt, draw our attention to an issue that, if we remain inert, will become irreversible in just a matter of days.