*6.3. Befriending the Environment*

"The students are certainly very aware of climate change—at the same time, these are very abstract, because we don't really experience them in Denmark. I mention this, when we are out on our arranged moss and mushroom excursions. We attempt to make the students engage in nature. What you have knowledge about, you care more about. What you care about, you are interested to know more about. You may be able to teach the students to care for biodiversity by teaching them that there exists more than one bird, but many species, by learning their different names, learning that you can find them in our [local] nature and be absorbed in them—or in plants and flowers—and that the life that goes on is of interest. Learning that the way moss grows and reproduces and lives is extremely interesting, although alien to us. To arouse their curiosity in nature by naming all things. To raise questions. To philosophize about them while we walk: does it actually bring a greater understanding of nature and make our relation to nature different, when we are able to say: 'Hey! That was a cormorant', instead of 'I think there was a bird' What it means, when it is named. I think it plays a rather big role. The crisis of biodiversity ... my excitement for such action is related to the Christian idea that it is your duty to save the world. When you ge<sup>t</sup> so preoccupied with a bird, well, then love is obliged. When you love something, you cannot help but do acts of good."
