Topic: Environmental Studies

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Professor Proctor’s ‘ecopocalypse’ research featured in USA Today column

 Jim Proctor, professor and chair of environmental studies, is featured in a USA Today column on environmentalist Americans’ fear of ecological collapse and the problems with end-times fixations. Religion and public life columnist Tom Krattenmaker questions the effectiveness of this dystopia concept and other fear-based strategies designed to motivate people to behave in a certain manner.

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

15 December 2008

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Jim Proctor stresses that “going green” is not enough

Jim Proctor, professor and director of environmental studies, is concerned that most colleges do not address sustainability in its fullest definition. Although many colleges focus on ecology, they have failed to address social and economic issues in regards to “going green.” According the the United Nation’s Brundtland Commission report from 1983, true sustainability is composed of all three aspects, not just ecology. “I’m actually at a point where I’m confused where we ought to go — we at Lewis & Clark and we in the larger education community. If it’s just about green campuses, that’s not at all what sustainability was envisioned to be,” Proctor said. He points out that without the social and economic legs, true sustainability cannot be achieved.

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

5 November 2008

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Alum Julian Dautremont-Smith discusses colleges’ progress toward carbon-neutrality goal

As the associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Julian Dautremont-Smith ‘03, promotes sustainability in all aspects of the higher education sector including governance, operations,  curriculum, and professional development. He recently offered his perspective on the progress colleges are making toward meeting goals outlined in the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, (ACUPCC) a project designed to make the higher education sector carbon neutral.

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

8 October 2008

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Environmental studies major journeys beyond college

Environmental Studies major Meagan Nuss is the focus of a feature on the graduating senior’s journey toward “something bigger.” Read more here.

The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) Education as peripatetic trip: From physics to a cave to art

10 May 2008

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