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Articles by Zenobia Barlow

Zenobia Barlow is the executive director and cofounder of the Center for Ecoliteracy and coeditor of Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World. Barlow has led the Center's grant-making, educational, and publishing initiatives, including Rethinking School Lunch, since its inception. She serves on the board of directors of the David Brower Center and is a fellow of the Post Carbon Institute.

Featured Article

Teri Blanton. (Photo by iLoveMountains.org.)

In the new book Ecoliterate, authors Daniel Goleman, Lisa Bennett, and Zenobia Barlow argue that integrating emotional, social, and ecological intelligence leads to more effective environmental education and more effective activism. Here’s an excerpt from the book about one inspiring activist.

Teri Blanton. (Photo by iLoveMountains.org.)

Teri Blanton grew up on a dirt road in Harlan County, Ky. The daughter of one coal miner and sister of another who died in a mining accident, Blanton left briefly to marry, and then returned at 25 as a single mother of two. She bought a few acres of land behind her parents’ house and settled into a mobile home with her children and two big dogs. For years, she didn’t think twice about coal — until her kids, who waited for the school bus on the same road traveled by coal trucks, started complaining.

“You know, my son would say, ‘Our shoes get dirty before we get to school,’” Blanton recalls. “And, one morning, he told me, ‘Somebody has to drive us across this part of the road every day, because the coal muck is there.’ I went down there, and I’d seen it,” she ... Read more

All Articles

  • Seven lessons from nature on how to make change

    Look closely — what can you learn?Photo: Steve WallThe Center for Ecoliteracy has worked for more than 15 years to make schools greener. During the course of our work, collaborating with thousands of educators and change agents, we’ve learned invaluable lessons about how to tackle the challenge of changing often-entrenched systems. We’re pleased to share […]