In April, the premier issue of Ecopsychology was launched online. Doherty, editor-in-chief, believes this online journal will offer psychological solutions through the use of ecological psychotherapy.  “Ecopsychology will raise provocative questions about consciousness, identity, health, and ethical living,” he said. “The role of the journal is to foreground these questions and create a space for dialog.”

Ecopsychology places psychology and mental health disciplines in an ecological context and recognizes the links between human health, culture, and the health of the planet. With its groundbreaking and diverse collaboration of psychotherapists, social science researchers and contributors from other environmental-related fields, Ecopsychology is the only peer-reviewed journal of its kind.

Doherty developed the ecopsychology studies program at Lewis & Clark and runs his own private practice.

Read an interview in The Oregonian featuring Doherty discussing ecopsychology.

US News (Washington, D.C.) The Future of Climate Change: How to Teach Children to Conserve

Lewis & Clark students have collected data for the Franklin lab every August since 2006 as part of the Environmental Service Project. Alum and 2006 Break Away trip leader Brian Erickson ‘06 said, “We returned to plots that were established 30-plus years previously and remeasured every five to 10 years to provide an ongoing image of forest dynamics over time. The students collected high-quality data, worked extremely hard, learned a lot, and had a good time in the process.”

New York Times (New York, NY) Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths

Seattle Times (Seattle, Wash.) Regional warming hurting NW forests, study says

BBC News (London, UK) Climate shift ‘killing US trees’

The National Teach-In takes place on February 5 and includes more than 700 colleges, universities, and faith and civic organizations around the country who will discuss the goal of cutting current carbon levels by 40 percent by 2020. This teach-in will include lectures, faculty and student symposia, theater performances, and active engagement with political leaders and their environmental policies.

Watch this video of Eban Goodstein and colleagues discussing the importance of youth involvement in the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions:

Inside Higher Ed (Portland, Ore.) Education or Advocacy? Engaging a Hotter World

The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) National “global warming teach-in” returns to Oregon

Law professor Dan Rohlf, director of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (PEAC), challenges the Forest Service’s role in the $800 million project. Administrative changes put into effect by the Bush Administration have eased the approval process for pipeline projects, he said.

“When FERC shows up at the door and says we want to put the pipeline here, the Forest Service…says, ‘OK, how do we have to amend our plans to get this done.’ They don’t take as hard a look as they used to,” Rohlf said.

The Oregonian: Forest Service plans to clear legal path for pipeline in Mount Hood forest

Smith has received a $19,380 grant from the Gray Family Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation to train teachers in the West Linn School District on environmental issues. The Environmental Education Program seeks to encourage a strong local land ethic, sustainable communities, and stewardship of the natural environment by citizens throughout Oregon. The Fund is committed long term to institutionalizing a series of age-appropriate experiences that build a sense of place and responsibility towards Oregon and the region.

The Sustainability Education Initiative is a program of professional development coursework and activities for K-12 teachers in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. During three courses offered in 2009, Smith will prepare 50-60 teachers to incorporate sustainability issues into their classrooms and help them implement school or community projects that will enhance local natural and social environments. Participants will be eligible for small seed grants to fund start-up projects. The grant aims to increase the number of teachers implementing sustainability projects in schools, and increase student and educator awareness of local natural systems, ecologies, and social needs.

Proctor and a research team have been talking with Oregonians and surveying the general population about their experiences with nature and pursuit of perfecting the co-existence between humans and the environment.

“‘You find that people working for a utopian future have tremendous fear about things turning out differently,’” Proctor explains in the column. ‘Utopias are often framed against a dystopian nightmare,’ he adds, producing a kind of all-or-nothing fixation on perfection and its perfect opposite.”

Proctor’s project was also the focus of a recent article in The Oregonian, detailing the survey and citing some of its initial results.

USA Today  ‘The End’ as a weapon

The Oregonian Shaping dreams—and nightmares—about natural world

The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) Colleges in Oregon get high grades for green

Though less than one-half of the institutions met the September milestone for submitting reports on their greenhouse-gas emissions, Dautremont-Smith is confident that the data gathered from public reports will provide this environmental cause with a sufficient stepping stone: “Our sense of it is this is a long-term commitment, multi-decade for most schools, so we’re not going to fret about being behind a little on this particular deadline.”

See the progress Lewis & Clark is making toward its ACUPCC goals and learn about the institution’s greenhouse-gas report online.

Inside Higher Ed (Washington, D.C.) In Quest for Carbon Neutrality, Late out of the Gate

On July 5, Eban Goodstein, project director of Focus the Nation, will participate in the Rothbury Festival Think Tank project, Finding Energy Independence, an issues-based event that runs in conjunction with the famous music festival. While Goodstein is at the festival he will also pick up an “e-achievement” award from etown, an NPR radio program featuring music and people making a difference in the world.

Goodstein, project director of Focus the Nation, and Chungin Chung, communications director of Focus the Nation, won the e-chievement award from etown.org, an award that highlights individuals who strive to make a difference within their communities and beyond. In July, Goodstein will be honored in July on etown’s live national radio show from the Rothbury Festival, where he will participate in a think tank on global warming solutions.

Conscious Choice (San Fransisco, Calif.) Green is the new frazzled

The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) New I-5 bridge? You decide

On January 11, LaPlante gave a presentation at a Creative Learning Exchange conference on air quality and climate change, in which she shared a panel with Tom Wood of Stoel Rives and Tom Lindley of Perkins Coie.