I did an interview on Ecological Handprints with Alan Briskin for the Huffington Post. It serves as a focal piece to present the idea of a collective wisdom. As a teaser, below you'll find the introduction and then the link to the interview.
-=-=-=-=-=-=- Decades ago, Woody Allen remarked that the human race faced a choice between sudden mass extinction on the one hand or a slow, painful decline into warfare and the degradation of nature. He hoped the human race would have the wisdom to choose. Are you laughing yet? There may be a third choice. Human well-being and nature's well-being are inextricably linked. Both the soul and the soil must be nurtured for life to have meaning, generativity, and significance. Yet too often we live with notions of scarcity, that there is not enough or that competing priorities necessitate painful sacrifices. Dr. Rocky Rohwedder is a professor of environmental science and currently chair of environmental studies at Sonoma State University. In the past few years, he has traveled around the world looking for alternatives to the kinds of fatalistic choices Allen foretold. For Rocky, this is no laughing matter, but neither is it all about doom and gloom. To find out what I said, here's the link to the full article and my answers to his thought-provoking questions. Had the great pleasure again of teaching for Semester at Sea during the Summer of 2014. This time I taught a Global LENS class entitled "Sustainable Communities.". Students taking the course received credit from the Department of Architecture at the University of Virgina. Each city had a wealth of examples and the itinerary consistently reinforced key messages from the class. I also served as the Faculty Laison and headed the selection committe for our Shipboard TEDx. I was great to work with Lara Stein, TEDx founder, and a wonderful crew of students and staff.
Lately I've been helping an amazing project called the Lexicon of Sustainability. By illuminating the positive, solution oriented vocabulary of sustainable agriculture, energy and water, the Lexicon of Sustainability educates, engages and activates people to pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and where their responsibility begins for creating a healthier, safer food system in America. Check out this beautiful, short video that introduces this creative and hope-filled endeavor.
You might also enjoy their award-winning PBS short film series. |