Engineering the Planet

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Engineering the Planet

• What Compels us to do so?

2
Science, Technology, Humanity

• We are special (different than other animals) ?
  Bible
• We are uniquely positioned at the center of the
  Universe ? Aristotle
• The Universe is ordered, logical and rational ?
  Plato (Science without uncertainty)
• With the application of Reason, humankind is
  unbounded ? Descartes
• The Newtonian world shows us the machine and it
  is precise ? Gods technology plan

3
Outcomes

• Collectively, humankind treats nature as a
  consumable.
• Implicit belief that the world is infinite
• Unchecked consumption rates ? Industrial output
  of the world increases by a factor of 40 from
  1900 to 2000.

4
Can humanity be deprogrammed?

• Transformation of environmental ethics
• Explicit recognition of partnership with nature
  so that behavior changes
• Whats the mechanism to change a world view?

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GOD
Connectivity Of Atoms
HUMANS
HUMANS
NATURE
Super Nova
ROCKS
TREES
TREES
ROCKS
Everything Is Connected to
Everything
Disconnected States
6
William Cronons Controversial Essay (1996)

• The Trouble with Wilderness
• Cronon ? Wilderness is everywhere it constantly
  surrounds you we are part of it
• Environmental view of Wilderness ? a place to
  protect and a place to visit.
• Can Outdoor Education Programs transform the
  participants view of wilderness?

7
National Outdoor Leadership School

• Leave no Trace Behind ethic
• Does the environment end at wilderness boundary
  for students, or do they carry home a new
  environmental ethic of living lightly?
• Note a NOLS course is usually 3-4 weeks in the
  wilderness

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Goal of the Study

• To examine the obstacles impeding the transfer
  of minimum impact ideology from outdoor
  backcountry experience to the daily lives.
• 1) How do students apply their knowledge and
  understanding of living lightly in the wilderness
  to their lives at home?
• 2) What aspects of their outdoor education
  experience best facilitate this transfer?

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Methodology

• Series of structured interviews with
  self-selected participants
• Assess attitudes and concepts towards the
  environment, nature, environmentally responsible
  behaviors, activism.
• 1 Pre and several post interviews immediately
  after, 1 month after, 6 months after, years after,

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General Results

• Levels of environmental awareness and
  appreciation were raised considerably and
  maintained well after the experience.
• Elevated level of passion toward protecting the
  environment
• Increased knowledge and attention of
  environmental issues
• Nature feels more intimate
• Wilderness remains the distant place to visit

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Conclusion 1

• It would appear the NOLS experience has been
  successful in increasing overall awareness of
  ones interaction with nature, the necessity of
  reducing ones individual consumption footprint,
  and the recognition, at least on the intellectual
  level, that the man is not separate from nature.

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But Conclusion 2

• The integration of the wilderness into the fabric
  of the individual participant did not occur.
  Wilderness remains the place that you go to
  visit, to better ground yourself in simplicity
  and perspective.
• There seems to be no significant transformation
  of the environmental ethic within the individual
  at the level of moving away from an aware
  relationship with nature towards a reverent
  partnership with nature, which Cronon asserts is
  The Trouble With Wilderness.