ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

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• ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• conservation, sustainable development,
  environmental health, animal welfare and species
  preservation . . . And all their economic,
  political, and even spiritual implications . . .
  Do not belong to any one department!
• Arguably, great cultures rise and fall as their
  relationship with their environments waxes and
  wanes, is more or less harmonious.

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• Great Universities provide world-class
• Education
• Research
• Outreach
• AND have a responsibility to deploy their
  resources to address major social issues for the
  common good

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INTERDISCIPLINARITY

• Creates an ideal environment for . . .
• . . . the expression of unprecedented or
  novel perceptions, thoughts, or actions . . .
• Exposes disciplinarians to new ways of
  seeing, ways of thinking, ways of acting that
  can be applied to real problems, and thereby . .
  .
• builds bridges between previously unrelated
  domains of knowledge
• It is virtually a formula for creativity

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University Studies Projects
Attitudes about our relationship to nature
profoundly affect public policy . . . And are
forged in part by spontaneous behavioral
responses and in part by our cultural environment
and development.
In this regard, historians of art, culture,
religion, ecologists, sociologists and economists
have much to learn from each other.
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est
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• The University of Tennessee, Knoxville has
  designated Spring semester of 2005, the
  ENVIRONMENTAL SEMESTER.
• From January through May the University will
  celebrate the teaching, research, and outreach
  activities of the University in which concern
  with the environment, conservation, or
  sustainable development is a central or
  significant component.

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• Campus-wide events featuring lectures,
  presentations, shows, and performances by
  distinguished visiting scholars, artists, and
  performers will provide our 27,000 graduate and
  undergraduate students and the community many
  opportunities to experience and learn about the
  diverse ways in which we affect and are affected
  by our relationship to the environment.

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Campus-Wide Lectures

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• Michael Klare and David Hill
• Jonathan Weiner
• E.O. Wilson
• Holmes Rolston III
• Lisa Newton
• Sy Montgomery
• Bruce Coull

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Almost 200 courses in over 40 departments
In addition to the usual suspects, there are
innovative courses in

• University Studies
• Interior design
• Journalism
• Philosophy
• Planning
• Political Science

• Anthropology
• Economics
• English
• History
• Sociology
• University Honors

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Campus-Wide Exhibits

• Agnes Denes Projects for Public Spaces
• Gregg Schlanger Holston River Diaries
• Lost Worlds Discovering Past Environments
• Solar and Wind Power Demonstration Project
• University Center Concourse Gallery Nature Photo
  shows Senator Baker and PhotoContest winners

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Campus-Wide Performances

• Paul Winter Consort

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Campus-Wide Conferences

• SE Regional Student Clean Energy Conference
• Howard Baker Center Clean Air Conference

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Campus-Wide Lecture Series

• Architecture Mondays at 530
• Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Thursdays at
  330
• Documentaries in the Library series
• Dedicated environmental topics in many other
  seminar programs identified in the website
  calendar

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Centripetals

• February Joe Clark Ecology of Black Bears in
  the Okefenokee Swamp
• March Tom Galligan Toxic Torts
• April Scott Frey The Globalization of
  Hazardous Wastes

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Celebrations

• Make Orange Green Dorm Competition
• Earth Day
• Earth Fest

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Key Sponsors

• Office of the Chancellor
• College of Arts and Sciences
• College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural
  Resources
• College of Architecture and Design
• College of Business Administration
• Student Central Program Council
• Howard Baker Center for Public Policy
• Energy, Environment and Resources Center

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DEEP ECOLOGY
BEHIND APPEARANCES
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Sir Francis Bacon

• Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est. For knowledge
  itself is power. Meditations Sacrae
• Naturam non vinces nisi parendo You will not
  master conquer nature unless you obey it. Novum
  Organum, 1620

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Decisions, decisions

• Responsible citizenship requires broad
  understanding education of the heart as well as
  the mind.
• "The personal participation of the knower in the
  knowledge he believes himself to possess takes
  place within a flow of passion. (Polanyi
  1958300).

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Perceptions of Nature
How the sciences, arts, and humanities inform
perceptions of nature and guide public policy
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The Biologists Bias

• Meeting NEEDS is the basic business of life.
  When real (or perceived) needs are not met,
  stress is created.
• Organisms have ancient and powerful mechanisms
  for relieving stress more recent evolutionary
  innovations include education the university!
• Needs exist in a hierarch of urgency. When the
  most urgent need is met, all the organisms
  energy is focused on the next need.
• The university can give us tools and (hopefully)
  the judgment to use them wisely.

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The Hierarchy of NEEDS

• Physiology (food, drink, exercise, homeostasis)
• Safety (security, order, protection)
• Belonging ( sociability, acceptance, love)
• Esteem (status, prestige, acknowledgment)
• Self-Actualization (personal fulfillment)
• --Abraham Maslow

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NEEDS

• Biological fitness is an expression of
  self-actualization and it is the same for as for
  a sea-slug
• Be all you can be . . .
• (US Army recruiting slogan)

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NEEDS

• "The aim of life is self-development. To realize
  one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us
  is here for. . . . (Oscar Wilde)

The aim of the University is a true enlargement
of mind which is the power of viewing many things
at once. . (John Henry Newman, 1873)
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Educating the heart as well as the mind

• "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the
  rational mind is a faithful servant. We have
  created a society that honors the servant and has
  forgotten the gift." --Einstein