Phil Brick, director of
Whitman College
Semester in the West.
How do you talk about human living environments and their interaction with the "wilderness" in your semester? -- Kristen Wilson, Oaxaca, Mexico
A major focus of Semester in the West is to acquaint students with people who work with nature every day. Most of our students come from urban backgrounds, so I think it is important to learn from farmers, foresters, Native Americans, and others who have a wealth of experience living and working in place. After these encounters, I hope students come to see nature differently. Nature isn't just something that is pristine and "out there," (wilderness). Rather, we can better conceptualize nature on a wider continuum of landscapes that are inhabited, uninhabited, and perhaps, reinhabited in Gary Snyder's sense of the word. I encourage you to check out a new book by Dan Dagget, Gardeners of Eden: Rediscovering Our Importance to Nature.
Semester in the West requires a lot of travel and your website says this is accomplished in Chevy Suburban SUVs, which are highly inefficient gas-guzzlers. How do you and your students address this issue? -- Name not provided
When planning the program, I thought about this quite a bit. I ended up choosing the Suburbans because they offer the best combination of safety, efficiency (calculated in terms of mpg/person with eight passengers), and flexibility. As to the issue of gas consumption, we discuss the following question: On Earth Day 1970, the focus of environmental rhetoric and concern was on production -- the pollution and destruction of our common environment by industrial producers. After Earth Day 1990, the focus of much environmental rhetoric (and self-flagellation in the movement) has shifted to consumption. Why?
As a developing environmental educator with very progressive, "left" leanings, I always struggle with finding and presenting the "other side's" perspective on environmental issues. There is very seldom a black-and-white correct answer or perspective, but withholding value judgments is difficult for me. How do you allow your students to encounter multiple sides of these issues while not having them (or you) quickly vilify and shoot down the non-environmentalist views? -- Robby Schreiber, St. Paul, Minn.
Quite frankly, this hasn't really been a problem. If we are not open-minded, there is little point in having conversations with others. We should not be afraid to ask each other difficult questions. No matter what the circumstances, I insist that our conversations be conducted in a spirit of genuine curiosity and respect.
How do you see the future water shortages playing out? And please, don't throw in the global-warming trump card. -- Jared Webb, Rocky Mount, Va.
Water in the West tends to flow uphill toward money, climate change or not.
Do you recruit students for Semester in the West who are environmentally inept, to educate them, or do you travel with students who are planning to have careers involving the environment? What is your main goal for these students (e.g., to recycle more, to become one with nature, or to gain more respect for the earth)? -- Morgan Poncelet, Fremont, Calif.
Some of the students on Semester in the West will go on to environmental careers. Others, I hope, will be different kinds of environmental citizens as a result of participating in the program. My environmental pedagogy is a bit postmodern: I want students to literally disassemble key assumptions they have about the environment and how one can think and act on behalf of it. Then it is time to pick up the pieces. What gets picked up, and what remains on the ground, is up to each student. Some students leave the program with new ideas and new commitments. Others don't move far beyond their original ideas. In both cases, I think, we have more reflective environmental citizens.
Do you think more density in our urban areas will result in more or less active enjoyment of our wilderness areas? And, assuming there is more opportunity for open-space uses, will this encourage users to be active stewards? -- Maryann Kirkby, Bainbridge Island, Wash.
Check out Lowell Monke's essay, Charlotte's Webpage, recently published in Orion. More and more children are growing up with little or no contact with nature. Instead, the world is brought to them through their computer screens. So I think we can expect fewer and fewer people to be visiting natural areas. For those who do visit, I see little reason to worry that future generations will be any less inspired by nature than we have been.
How exactly does a motorcycle "violate the very essence of ecological identities"? -- Jon Current, Hillsboro, Ore.
Most of this can probably be traced to a dislike for motorcycle culture in the United States, which is all about machismo, noise, power, and speed. And with Harley riders, you can add a hyper-marketed mix of nostalgia and nationalism.
It's not like this everywhere. In Asia, everyone gets to ride on the scooter in one way or another: grandmothers, kids, dogs, chickens, you name it. They've got the right idea. Ride on!
In terms of place, what role does "the West" play in the experience offered in your program? -- Name not provided
What makes the West distinct from other regions of the country is the prevalence of public lands. Much of our focus on the program is exploring what these lands mean, and how they might inspire us to act on their behalf in a wide variety of ways, from politics to literature.
Why are environmental groups silent on the issues of overpopulation and consumption? -- Rena Petrescu, Freedom, Calif.
I don't think the environmental community has been silent on issues of consumption. In fact, we have been obsessed with such issues. From sustainable building and architecture to the slow-food movement, you will find green activists chipping away at the big machine.
What impact, if any, do your studies have on red states such as Montana? -- Jerry Broadbent, Bucoda, Wash.
Semester in the West might easily be called "Semester in the Red States." Since most of my students come from blue states, I suppose the program is not unlike study abroad programs that emphasize cross-cultural communication. What we learn, of course, is that there is a lot of interesting political and cultural terrain that is obscured by the red-blue dichotomy.
You mentioned that environmentalism shouldn't be partisan, and I agree. What do you think needs to be done to make environmental protection nonpartisan, so we don't lose ground every time a Democrat loses an election? -- Lisa Mayo, Germantown, Md.
For big-picture thinking, the Apollo Alliance is an example of how environmental issues might be restructured to encompass new constituencies and to redirect the focus of public and private investment. Closer to home, I think collaborative restoration projects are great opportunities to build trust and to build new political coalitions. Such projects (streams, grasslands, forests) help put the environmental community on more favorable strategic ground: instead of being the ones always trying to stop something bad from happening, we can participate, often with traditional adversaries, in making something good happen on the ground.
Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard has one of the worst environmental records in the U.S. Senate. What would be the most effective way to replace him when he comes up for reelection in 2008? -- Jesse Kumin, Boulder, Colo.
There is a new website in Colorado that aims to bring progressively minded activists together. Check out Progress Now Action and get hooked up.
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