All-Russian action EcoTalk took place at Polytechnic University

On October 2, the first EcoTalk campaign took place in Russia. It was the final event of the Week of Environmental Education and Awareness held in the RF with the support of the UN Environment Program, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the RF Federation Council and the State Duma. This event, timed to coincide with the World Animal Day, was attended by students of the Graduate School of Media Communications and Public Relations of the Humanitarian Institute and representatives of the student environmental association ReGreen of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. They demonstrated knowledge about the peculiarities of the environmental way of life, environmental protection, specially protected natural areas, and the history of the environmental protection in Russia.

The first botanical garden in Russia - the “Apothecaries Garden:” in Moscow brought together in the online mode over 60 major regional sites. The questions of the environmental dictation were read out by the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia Dmitry KOBYLKIN; the UN Goodwill Ambassador, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs Vyacheslav FETISOV; TV presenter, Soviet and Russian zoologist, professor of Moscow State University Nikolai DROZDOV and other “examiners.” The EcoTolk participants had different ages and social status varying from schoolchildren, students and bloggers to government and educational institutions’ officials. The organizers set a goal to unite the residents of the country around the topic of environmental protection, improve the ecological culture of the RF population.

“Such actions are extremely important, they allow assessing the level of students’ knowledge about the environment, help understand how well they are informed about its current problems,” said one of the participants of the event, a 1st year student of the GSOMSO Elizaveta SMIRNOVA. “The questions were different, covering both history and biology.”

“The results of the cut-off on awareness of the environmental agenda will make it possible to understand how much the environment suffers from ignorance of people,” says Alena KhON, a 4th year student at the Humanities Institute, head of ReGreen. “Such actions show how much our secondary and higher education, and, in general, our society should invest in environmental education.”

The organizers of the environmental campaign at SPbPU, namely the Department of International Education, the UNESCO Chair “Quality Management in Education for Sustainable Development”, the Higher School of Media Communications and Public Relations of the Humanitarian Institute, are at one with the initiators and organizers of the all-Russian level in the need to conduct annual large-scale environmental testing throughout the country. Today is the time to pay close attention to the need for conscious production and consumption; it’s time to help nature.

Prepared by the Higher School of Media Communications and Public Relations of the HI