Sweeping environmental trends

[Michael Higdon]

So we couldn't be more timely with the launch of this site and the new Environmental Action Team (E-Team go!). From some of my academic sources, I've noticed three major trends in relation to the environment on campus(es).

1)The environment is an interdisciplinary topic - this may be a "duh" but as one of the new members of the E-Team said, the environment often appears as a special topic for sandle-wearing, beard toting hippies who don't clean themselves often if ever. Yet, we see environmental issues in many schools throughout the university: journalism, art, english, engineering, political science and the usual scientific suspects to name a few. Scott Slovic says in order for someone to understand the environment they must understand many other academic disciplines to see how the environmental weaves in and out of our daily lives. Knowing environment from a policy standpoint is just as important as knowing how to write about it in the news and do something about it as a scientist.

As Jen Huntleysmith said, don't we need the environment to breath?

But the environment is more than breathing, says Scott Slovic, literature and environment professor. The environment is about the way people behave and more than anything it is about why we treat each other and the planet in certain ways.

2) Environment is worldwide, just like one of the university's mission statements. Everyone I've talked to so far has either mentioned explicitly or implicity the need to put the environmental initiatives at UNR on the "worldwide" stage. Slovic says UNR used to host many international conferences and hopes to bring more people to the campus to research and learn. President Milton Glick, John Sagebiel and Jen Huntleysmith agree that our campus represents some of the leading environmental causes in the U.S., especially because we live in the Great Basin next door to Lake Tahoe (perfectland).

3) Communication is absolutely necessary between environmentalists and everyone else. Scott Slovic told me he wishes there was a club on campus who worked together with other students, groups and adminstrators to accomplish wider goals other than working exclusively within each other. I belive E-Team and the Academy for the Environment have potential to do that. Sagebiel and Huntleysmith both agree that in order to be successful, administrators, clubs, organizations, departments, academics and students must all work together and communicate plans and move forward as one.

[Samy\]

If you see an environmental issue on campus, write about it! The SEEDS essay contest is on, and the deadline is April 11th, 2008. Win $250 in cash. See the "clubs" tag, and look under seeds for the full contest rules.

[David Ryfe]

Hi Mike. I feel like what is missing from your 3 points is any sense of why environmentalism is important to UNR as a place--as a culture, as a community. What does environmentalism "mean" to UNR? The trends you identify raise the issue of why there is all this activity around environmental themes. I would hazard to guess that a good part of the reason is that UNR has an identity and culture that is conducive to such themes. Without making this connect, the meaning of environmentalism for UNR may get lost in your story, and the reader will be left with a list of activities and trends. Does this make sense?