this anxiety is created by what I label the Green Monster. Green Monsters are assembled from hybrid conceptions of ecological ‘nature-value’ and the economics of ‘natural-capital’. Translations of both terms are constantly re-negotiated, but one thing is for certain – nature(s)- value(s) are held as inadequate to communicate pro-environmental learning in an ever-more ecologically moral market place. One way of thinking about how people make good moral decisions is the Orders of Worth theory. In describing orders of worth, we accept that everyone inhabits their own social world built from eight common worlds formed fromMarket, Industrial, Civic, Domestic, Inspirational, Fame, Project, and – more recently – Green moral viewpoints. A collective commonsense emerges as we build compromise between these worlds. The existential discomfort people feel when ‘forced’ to compromise their Green morality against other values conjures up the Green Monster, creating Eco-Anxiety. HUMAN VS NATURE Behind the façade of media debate, there lies a deeper philosophical critique of the Green Order that revolves around the concept of the Anthropocene. For some, this concept is redolent of post-Enlightenment attitudes and their associated colonial overtones of domination. It is no wonder then that the benefits of OL, providing learning experiences by bringing humans and nature together, are being tested against new social worlds. OL trades in knowledge products that resist being measured simply as valuefor-money. These so-called ‘peculiar goods’ often appear when markets experience uncertainty. Uncertainty alters what is commonly understood as valuable, and so affects the way new or novel products are picked up. So, ‘peculiar’ versions of common-sense can actually shape new markets. By harnessing natural capital, OL expertly creates nature-value. Yet, a recent analysis, using the psychological measure ‘nature-connectedness’ has called into question the durability of nature-value in UK society. To put it gently, new empirical evidence attunes us to the psychological overflows of irreversible climate change, and forces us to question the efficacy of some established forms of educational common sense. TAMING THE MONSTER Frustratingly, Green Monsters are very hard to tame in the wild, perhaps because our existing ways of measuring nature-value come from the human view, rather than the earth view. Human-centred and modernist traditions of science, politics and society seem hard-wired, but should we be talking to the Earth about its preferred leadership style? True ecologics bring both eco-centric and human-centric viewpoints together. Knowledge affects society; society affects knowledge. Therefore, designing new ways of teaching the relevance of ecological sustainability could affect the way we think generally about the metabolism of the earthsystem. Thus, new ways of knowing about ecology are educationally manifested into ongoing generations as they act eco-logically. This cumulatively leads to better eco-logical decisions in wider social networks. Until we appreciate real ecological value – not just monetary value – we remain entangled in uneven and unsustainable global economic growth. This inevitably leads to further negative cycles of climate change. In 2021, the UK Treasury Dept. sponsored the Dasgupta Review. It claimed a critical re-evaluation of the worth of ‘natural capital’, but Dasgupta remained uncritical of the ideology of unending sustainable economic growth, arguing that the complex concept of natural capital demands an approach similar to portfolio management by the concerned individual. This normalising of human-centred economics led to fierce criticism. Holding nature to be a depreciating asset for human consumption confuses well-being in an economic sense, with well-being ecologically. Although the social and economic accounts of OL are measured inside society and economics, natural valuelogics are measured outside of nature. The domination of economic ideology over climate science suggests faith enters by the door, and science leaves by the window. When we think of well-being, whose or what’s is it? Our thinking has deeply enfolded versions of so-called common sense, continuously amplified by our actions. So how do we get better at taming these Green Monsters in the wild through OL? Perhaps we should challenge existing norms in the creation of new nature value-logics. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 49 Matt Healey is a PhD researcher in the department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, and a member of the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation. He has worked in Outdoor Learning since the early 1990s, with his work focused largely on promoting social and environmental equity through innovations in the performance of High-Quality Outdoor Learning strategies. The article Green Monsters: Taming Outdoor Learning in the Wild by Matt Healey appeared in the Summer 2022 edition of Horizons. m.healey1@lancaster.ac.uk
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