Where did our hope go? « Up@dawn

Where did our hope go? « Up@dawn: "The death of the author of Ecotopia was reported yesterday. Ernest Callenbach’s 1975 novel looked forward to 1999 and a secessionist state in the Pacific Northwest devoted to environmental integrity and lighter living, a new nation that poses a nagging challenge to the underlying national philosophy of America: ever-continuing progress, the fruits of industrialization for all, a rising Gross National Product..."

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Delight Springs: Paul Hawken's Long Now

Delight Springs: Paul Hawken's Long Now: "Long-term environmentalism from the author of Blessed Unrest."



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Van Jones rebuilding the dream

Delight Springs: Shift happens: ""We can't afford, the planet can't afford, for poor people not to have solar panels!" Van Jones"



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Links to "Dawn" & "Delight"

Search results for "environment" and "environmental ethics and native wisdom" at my personal blogs Up@dawn and Delight Springs (DS environment, DS environmental ethics and native wisdom, DS environmental ethics, DS native wisdom).

Environmental Ethics at MTSU

Note: Environmental Ethics in Fall 2012 at MTSU will be listed in the catalog as PHIL 4800, Readings in Philosophy: Environmental Ethics. Now that the curriculum committee has formally approved the course, however, in subsequent offerings in the future it will be listed as PHIL 3340. -JPO

PHILOSOPHY            PHIL                   3340                     Environmental Ethics                     3.0

A.      Course description and objectives

1. Description. This course examines the relation of humans to the rest of nature,            clarifying the relevant ethical issues and exploring from various perspectives their application to present and future ecological concerns. The “environment” includes not only physical nature, climate, and the food chain (etc.) but our various cultural habitats as well. The course is thus concerned in the broadest sense with all the conditions and prospects of life for our species and others, in sustainable relation to the universe.

            More specifically, the course considers questions of water and air quality, erosion,          pollution, climate change, the disposal of waste and the toxic byproducts of   industrialism, and other human impacts on wildlife.  

            The question of sustainability is itself in need of critical reflection and clarification,         addressed in the course by the questions of whether it should be our aim to sustain life in ways that minimize the human presence and “footprint” with respect to the rest of  nature, and whether there can be a fixed and ahistorical definition of what sustainability  means.

2. Objectives. The course compares many approaches to this urgent human preoccupation,  in order to articulate the extent of our mutual and collective obligations to one another and to other species and our obligations  to the ecosystem at large (including our descendants) in sustaining the conditions of life.  Other objectives include providing insight into the ongoing debate over the human “footprint” and whether it has been deleterious to the planet and its non-human inhabitants, and into the specific changes of lifestyle, consumer behavior, etc. that may be ethically required of us in order to preserve life on earth in the near and long-term future. Thus,

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to meet these objectives:

1.    Articulate the extent of humans’ mutual and collective obligations to one another and to other species.
2.    Identify humans’ obligations to the ecosystem at large (including our descendants) in sustaining the conditions of life.
3.    Participate in the ongoing debate over the human “footprint” and determine whether it has been deleterious to the planet and its non-human inhabitants.
4.    Identify the specific changes of lifestyle, consumer behavior, etc. that may be ethically required of us in order to preserve life on earth in the near and long-term future.
5.    Identify and use critical resources and tools they can apply as responsible biotic citizens.

Outline of Course Topics

•    The meaning of “nature” and “environment” (meets objectives 1 and 3)
•    Sustainability and the human impact (meets objectives 2 and 4)
•    Coping with climate change (meets objective 4 and 5)
•    Water, air, and land conservation (meets objective 5)
•    Industrial pollution, waste, and the consumer ethos (meets objectives 2 and 4 )
•    Human cultures as a part of nature (meets objectives 2 and 3 )
•    Food choices and the environment (meets objective 4)
•    Native and indigenous perspectives (meets objectives 1 and 3)

B.      Course Justification

1.      The new environmental ethics course will integrate and broaden important themes previously addressed in a scattered variety of courses, including most recently (Spring'11) one which focused on the native environmental wisdom of indigenous peoples. Like them, it will be popular with an impressively diverse, cross-disciplinary  array of students. The topic, controversial for some and of vital importance for all, is timely and of universal concern.

2.      It is arguable that the environmental challenges of our time constitute the greatest perceptible threat to the survival of our civilization. The future of life hangs in the balance of the ethical choices we must make, bearing directly on how we should and must  discharge our lives on Earth responsibly. In this light, the course is justified by its role in  preparing students to make those choices.

3. The course complements our history of philosophy sequence and the perennial concern  of philosophers with the the central question of ethics and, some would say, of life itself: how shall we live? It complements many other university courses including those in environmental studies and the life sciences.

4. The overall efforts of the philosophy department, the College of Liberal Arts, and the   university to educate faculty and students about the pressing environmental issues of our time and engage them effectively will be well served by the course. One example: “MTSU’s Environmental Health & Safety Office is working on a joint effort with the Center for Environmental Education’s Waterworks program to educate faculty, staff and students about the stormwater program on campus.  Waterworks is also working with the City of Murfreesboro to educate the residents and employees of the City of Murfreesboro. “ The environmental ethics course addresses several topics  targeted by this university initiative.

The course will also complement the “Environment and Human Society” and “Environment, Science, and Technology” minors, whose directors have indicated their  enthusiastic approval of the course.

5. Not applicable

C.      Course Integrity

1.      There are no prerequisites.

2.      The course will typically be taught be Dr. Phil Oliver in the Department of Philosophy, but can be taught by any of the full-time, tenured members of the department’s faculty. It is anticipated that the course typically will enroll 25-30 students.

3.      No special facilities are required.

4.      Current library holdings are adequate.

5.      No professional certification is available for this course.

6.      This course emerges from the general and ongoing discussion of central themes in our discipline. No specialized or outside consultants have been involved in its explicit formulation, though of course the background “conversation” of contemporary philosophical debate has informed its broad outlines.

D.     Course Costs

1.      There are no additional course costs.

2.      The course will be part of standard budgeting.

E.      Comments

The question of the environment is arguably the preeminent challenge of the 21^st century.  The environmental ethics course seems especially suited to this time.

Part II – Course Outline

Department   Course Prefix  Number          Title of Course                                    Credit

PHILOSOPHY        PHIL             3340              Environmental Ethics                        3.0

A.     Course description and objectives

1. Description. This course examines the relation of humans to the rest of nature, clarifying the relevant ethical issues and exploring from various perspectives their application to present and future ecological concerns. The “environment” includes not only physical nature, climate, and the food chain (etc.) but our various cultural habitats as well. The course is thus concerned in the broadest sense with all the conditions and prospects of life for our species and others, in sustainable relation to the universe.

More specifically, the course considers questions of water and air quality, erosion, pollution, climate change, the disposal of waste and the toxic byproducts of industrialism, and other human impacts on wildlife. 

The question of sustainability is itself in need of critical reflection and clarification, addressed in the course by the questions of whether it should be our aim to sustain life in ways that minimize the human presence and “footprint” with respect to the rest of nature, and whether there can be a fixed and ahistorical definition of what sustainability means.

2. Objectives. The course compares many approaches to this urgent human preoccupation,  in order to articulate the extent of our mutual and collective obligations to one another and to other species and our obligations  to the ecosystem at large (including our descendants) in sustaining the conditions of life.  Other objectives include providing insight into the ongoing debate over the human “footprint” and whether it has been deleterious to the planet and its non-human inhabitants, and into the specific changes of lifestyle, consumer behavior, etc. that may be ethically required of us in order to preserve life on earth in the near and long-term future.

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to meet these objectives:

1.    Articulate the extent of humans’ mutual and collective obligations to one another and to other species.
2.    Identify humans’ obligations to the ecosystem at large (including our descendants) in sustaining the conditions of life.
3.    Participate in the ongoing debate over the human “footprint” and determine whether it has been deleterious to the planet and its non-human inhabitants.
4.    Identify the specific changes of lifestyle, consumer behavior, etc. that may be ethically required of us in order to preserve life on earth in the near and long-term future.
5.    Identify and use critical resources and tools they can apply as responsible biotic citizens.

Outline of Course Topics

•    The meaning of “nature” and “environment” (meets objectives 1 and 3)
•    Sustainability and the human impact (meets objectives 2 and 4)
•    Coping with climate change (meets objective 4 and 5)
•    Water, air, and land conservation (meets objective 5)
•    Industrial pollution, waste, and the consumer ethos (meets objectives 2 and 4 )
•    Human cultures as a part of nature (meets objectives 2 and 3 )
•    Food choices and the environment (meets objective 4)
•    Native and indigenous perspectives (meets objectives 1 and 3)

B.      Activities Required of Students

·        Assigned readings to be completed prior to each class session

·        Participation in class: daily journal entries, discussion, questions posed by each student to class on designated dates

·        Exams (objective format)

·        Class presentations

·        Critical essays

C.      Evaluation Procedures

Grades assigned may be graded based on

·        degree and quality of student participation in daily classroom discussions

·        quality and clarity of formal presentations and essays

·        exams

Graded exams , essays, and presentations may account for a percentage (to be determined) of each student’s final grade evaluation. Participation in class and group discussion, ungraded contributions to the course blogsite,  shared daily questions and comments pertaining to assigned materials, etc., may account for a percentage to be determined. The suggested grading scale is A (90%+), B (80-89%), C (70-79%), D (60-69%), and F (59% and below).

D.     References and Texts (representative candidate texts & extended bibliography)

Typically the course will use  several primary textual sources, drawn from online material in the public domain, and from published books  such as the :

Garvey, James. The Ethics of Climate Change: Right and Wrong in a Warming World. New York:                 Continuum, 2008.

Hawken, Paul.  Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice,                  and Beauty to the World. New York: Penguin,l 2008.

Kolbert, Elizabeth. Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. New  York:         Bloomsbury USA, 2006.

Lovelock, James. The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity.  New York: Basic               Books, 2007.

McKibben, Bill. The End of Nature. New York: Random House, 2006.

Pollan, Michael. The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World. New York: Random House, 2002.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. New York: Penguin, 2007

Singer,  Peter, and Jim Mason. The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. New York:       Rodale, 2007.

Schmidtz, David, ed. Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works, 2d ed. New York:                 Oxford University Press, 2011.

Wilson, E.O. The Future of Life. New York: Vintage, 2003.

E.      Not applicable

G. Catalog Description (must be on a separate page)

This course examines the relation of humans to the rest of nature, clarifying the relevant ethical issues and exploring from various perspectives their application to present and future ecological concerns.

Wendell E. Berry Lecture | National Endowment for the Humanities

"...land abuse cannot brighten the human prospect. There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people. When one is abused, the other suffers. The penalties may come quickly to a farmer who destroys perennial cover on a sloping field. They will come sooner or later to a land-destroying civilization such as ours...


I am nominating economy for an equal standing among the arts and humanities. I mean, not economics, but economy, the making of the human household upon the earth: the arts of adapting kindly the many human households to the earth’s many ecosystems and human neighborhoods. This is the economy that the most public and influential economists never talk about, the economy that is the primary vocation and responsibility of every one of us."

Wendell E. Berry Lecture | National Endowment for the Humanities:

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Re-greening America « Up@dawn

The Greening of America was

the hippy-trippy manifesto that launched a thousand protest demonstrations on behalf of Mother Earth over forty years ago, and raised the consciousness of a fraction of a generation for at least a short while. Reich, looking back recently, explained its improbable impact this way:

It gave people a great leap of hope, made people feel good. This was a world that could get better, a whole lot better.

Still can, right?

Re-greening America « Up@dawn:

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Collide-a-scape » Blog Archive » Collide-a-scape >> The Green Modernist Vision

Collide-a-scape » Blog Archive » Collide-a-scape >> The Green Modernist Vision: "There is a battle underway for the soul of environmentalism. It is a battle between traditionalists and modernists. Who prevails is likely to be determined by whose vision for the future is chosen by a new generation of environmentalists."

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Natural Resources and the Environment - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

Natural Resources and the Environment - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com: "By 2050 or so, the human population is expected to reach nine billion, essentially adding two Chinas to the number of people alive today. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where, scientists say, humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. In Dot Earth, which recently moved from the news side of The Times to the Opinion section, Andrew C. Revkin examines efforts to balance human affairs with the planet’s limits. Conceived in part with support from a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Dot Earth tracks relevant developments from suburbia to Siberia. The blog is an interactive exploration of trends and ideas with readers and experts."

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Delight Springs: Simple decency & unrelenting reason

The perennial existential questions persist, says E.O. Wilson inThe Social Conquest of Earth: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?

Delight Springs: Simple decency & unrelenting reason:



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“Social Conquest of Earth” « Up@dawn

Listened yesterday to the podcast of E.O. Wilson’s recent SALT (“Long term thinking”) talk about his new book, which I’ve started reading...


“Social Conquest of Earth” « Up@dawn:

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Going mobile

This is a test of the mobile Blogger app...


"...preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." Carl Sagan

Earth Days

A terrific documentary on the origins of the modern environmental movement, beginning with the first Earth Day. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Earth Days Trailer - YouTube: See it all here: video.pbs.org/video/1463378089­/

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Stewart Brand on E.O. Wilson's "Social Conquest of Earth"

» Edward O. Wilson Seminar Media - Blog of the Long Now: "Wilson’s alternative he calls “multi-level selection,” where individual selection and group selection proceed together (with kin selection a continuing bit player). In our eusocial species, that mix of traits makes us “permanently unstable, permanently conflicted” between selfish impulses and cooperative impulses. We negotiate these conflicts endlessly within ourselves and with each other. Wilson sees inherent adaptive value in that constant negotiation. Our vibrant cultural life may be driven in part by it."

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Blog of the Long Now

Stewart ("Whole Earth") Brand's Long Now Foundation, dedicated to promoting long-term thinking ("long" means at least 10K years).

Blog of the Long Now:

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The anatomy of denial: Why truth doesn’t always win | Grist

The anatomy of denial: Why truth doesn’t always win | Grist: "We seek facts that confirm what we already believe, and reject the ones that contradict our world view. People deploy skepticism asymmetrically, says social ecologist Peter Ditto of the University of California, Irvine.  “They have stricter criteria to accept something they don’t want to believe.”

For this reason, bombarding deniers with more evidence is a losing strategy. It doesn’t matter how many facts you throw at them, or how correct your facts are — if those facts threaten someone’s self-identity or their world view, they will find a way to dismiss them."



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Wendell Berry, American Hero - NYTimes.com

He makes it clear that he doesn’t think anything is going to happen quickly, except perhaps the possible catastrophe that lurks in the minds of everyone who believes the earth to be overstressed. “You can describe the predicament that we’re in as an emergency,” he says, “and your trial is to learn to be patient in an emergency.”
Change, he says, is going to come from “people at the bottom” doing things differently. “[N]o great feat is going to happen to change all this; you’re going to have to humble yourself to be willing to do it one little bit at a time. You can’t make people do this. What you have to do is notice that they’re already doing it.”

Wendell Berry, American Hero - NYTimes.com:

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James Lovelock urges world to pay attention to James Lovelock | Grist

All the recent science points in roughly the same direction: Climate change is hitting harder and faster than expected. Ice is melting and sea levels are rising faster than projections. We are currently on a trajectory for what were previously considered worst-case scenarios.MIT, the Met Office’s Hadley Center, and the International Energy Agency all warn of warming this century of 5 degrees C or greater; we know that higher than 4 degrees C is almost certain to be catastrophic. Maybe not “billions of people die and survivors rut like animals at the poles” catastrophic, but catastrophic enough to make further delay insane and immoral.

James Lovelock made a great show of going overboard. Now he’s made a great show of backpedaling. Both have generated a great deal of media coverage at the expense of obscuring the facts and discrediting serious climate science. Can we change the channel now?

James Lovelock urges world to pay attention to James Lovelock | Grist:

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Sex, Oil, and Videotape | Mother Jones

Sex, Oil, and Videotape | Mother Jones:

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Climate denier campaigns have zero impact on belief in global warming | Grist

Climate denier campaigns have zero impact on belief in global warming | Grist:

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For Earth Day, Pledges for the Planet - Environment - GOOD

For Earth Day, Pledges for the Planet - Environment - GOOD:

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Earth Day: Consumers Care Less About the Environment Than They Use To, Say Polls | Moneyland | TIME.com

Earth Day: Consumers Care Less About the Environment Than They Use To, Say Polls | Moneyland | TIME.com:

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Earth Day « Up@dawn

Earth Day « Up@dawn:

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Our environmental ethics course in the Fall at MTSU will wonder what’s happened to the passion that fired the organizers of the first Earth Day, and whether it can be rekindled. Or could we care less? Will it take a grand improbable goal as big as a moonshot to get us all focused again on the vulnerable state of our lovely homeworld? Neil Tyson:

April 22, 2012 #EarthDay. Founded 1970. The year after we walked on Moon, looked back home, & discovered Earth for first time

Richard Alley’s “Operator’s Manual” is online here, and there’s a companion book as well.