Saving the Environment: Environmental Lessons in Colin Thiele’s February Dragon Burhanuddin Arafah English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia Herawaty Abbas English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia Nurul Hikmah English Language Studies, Postgraduate Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia Abstract—This article explores the relationship between humans and nature in February Dragon and elaborates on the environmental lessons conveyed in Colin Thiele's February Dragon. This article utilizes the concept of ecocriticism by Glotfelty. Ecocriticism explains human-nature interconnectedness. The portrayal of human-nature relation reveals several values of environmental education that readers, both children, and adults, could learn. Three environmental lessons such as respect, responsibility, and empathy towards other living beings were found in the story. Based on the elaborations, the characters in the novel show their respect, responsibility, and empathy towards other species by protecting the animal and the environment from bushfire’s dangers. Index Terms—human and nature, February Dragon, environmental lessons, ecocriticism I. INTRODUCTION People's intense activities have considerably changed the natural environment due to their intimate relationship to science and technology which can mainly be felt and seen in the era of the industrial revolution (Arafah, B. & Hasyim, M., 2019). For instance, mobile cellphone now can be regarded as a basic need after a meal (Arafah, B. & Kaharuddin, 2019). Despite the widely known fact that technology has offered a great deal of a more advanced lifestyle in several sectors (Arafah, B., 2021; Butarbutar et al., 2021; Farid et al., 2021), the dynamic change in technology has dramatically led to changes in the context of environmental constraints and opportunity (Suleman, D., 2021). It is widely recognized that the strong connection between people and technology (as the product of science development) has caused careless lifestyle that potentially accelerates the rise of environmental issues in this modern world e.g. air pollution, the climate crisis, deforestation, biodiversity loss, plastic pollution and many more (Kaharuddin, Ahmad, D, Mardiana, Rusni, 2020). In Indonesia, deforestation and land clearing donate around 47.7 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions (Murti, 2019). As reported in climate.nasa.gov in March 2020, there are about 413 carbon dioxide components per million that are at their highest level in 650,000 years. Global temperature and sea level are influenced directly by this phenomenon. According to NASA, since the last nineteen centuries, our global temperature has increased by about 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The global average sea level has risen by almost 178 mm over the past hundred years. What we learn from the facts is that the environmental condition affects the life of society because all societies are an integral part of their environment (Hasjim, M., Arafah, B., Kaharuddin, Verlin, S, & Genisa, R. A. A., 2020). In a nutshell, changes in the environment affect people and their society. When the environment is in danger, people are also in danger. On the other hand, as the environment is safe, people and their societies are safe as well (Arafah, B., Thayyib, M., Kaharuddin, & Sahib, H., 2020). In response to the environmental issues, a strong need is urgently required to encourage people's awareness of the environment. A technique concerning the education of the natural environment can be employed to meet this need (Andi, K., & Arafah, B., 2017). The technique is essential since it shows a way of carrying out the task by implementing a scientific procedure (Ismail, Sunibi, A. H., Halidin, A., & Amzah., Nanning., Kaharuddin., 2020). The technique is aimed at giving knowledge or perception of the environment situation, which is eventually able to affect their skills and actions to preserve and protect the natural environment in their daily lives (Erdoğan, M., Coşkun, E., & Uşak, M., 2011, Arafah, B., & Kaharuddin, 2019). Hence, there must be a decisive action to educate people regarding their environments as an integral part of their societies. This decisive action is also well-known as environmental education. Environmental education should not be simply provided as a subject in scientific disciplines (Tilbury, D., 1995). The works of art, literature, and other disciplines of humanities should also take apart to encourage individuals' ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 12, No. 6, pp. 935-941, November 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1206.09 © 2021 ACADEMY PUBLICATION