Center participates in Earth Charter meetings at Peace Palace
The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education at Florida Gulf Coast University participated in a conference celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Earth Charter at the International Peace Palace in the city of The Hague, The Netherlands. With the theme of “Dialogue, Collaboration and Action for a Sustainable Future,” the June 29 event was ten years to the day since the launch of the Earth Charter in 2000. The document is a people’s statement of ethical principles for sustainability drafted through a global collaborative process. Its proponents include President Mikhail Gorbachev and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, both of whom are associated with the Center at FGCU. Participants in The Netherlands meetings reflected on the international initiative’s first decade and charted a course for its future.
Over 200 invitees attended the event, including Earth Charter Commissioners, Affiliates, members of the Earth Charter International Council, youth leaders, and other partners. Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende actively participated. The event was convened by former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers. 850 interested people who were not able to travel to The Hague followed the discussions on-line. You can access pictures from the event here.
The event also featured several new books focusing on the Earth Charter. Center Director Peter Blaze Corcoran shared his recent publication, Young People, Education, and Sustainable Development: Exploring Principles, Perspectives, and Praxis (2009) at an authors’ reception. Dutch officials from the national program, “Learning for Sustainable Development,” helped fund the publication and attended its European debut.
Corcoran said, “This international meeting provided an important opportunity to look at FGCU’s work in the global context. FGCU is an active Affiliate of the Earth Charter Initiative (ECI) and contributes through the Center’s Earth Charter Scholarship Project.” The Earth Charter Scholarship Project is housed at FGCU and is directed by Richard Clugston, who also attended the Netherlands meeting. The university signed a formal Affiliate Agreement with ECI in February 2009.
FGCU Professor Continues Work with African Nobel Laureate
FGCU Professor Peter Blaze Corcoran recently traveled to Africa to meet with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai. He was invited to help chart a course for the newly-created Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi. At a three-day strategic planning workshop beginning on May 20, 2010, Corcoran and other participants worked to draft a strategic plan with a vision, mission, and guiding principles for the organization. In the spirit of Maathai’s work as leader of the Green Belt Movement, for which she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the young Institute aims to catalyze "social, economic, and cultural development" across Africa.
The Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies shares many of the same goals and objectives of the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education at FGCU, which Corcoran directs. Corcoran’s insight into how to establish and maintain such an institution was particularly helpful in developing a strategic plan. "We have some perspective to share based on our six years of experience at the Center," he said, but added, "We also have much to learn from the challenges and successes of environmental education in Africa."
Corcoran and Maathai have collaborated in the past on other projects, including efforts to elevate the Earth Charter within the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development initiative. Maathai also contributed a Preface for Corcoran’s most recent book, Young People, Education, and Sustainable Development: Exploring Principles, Perspectives, and Praxis (2009). The Center has extended an invitation to Maathai to give a Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture and hopes she will agree to come to Sanibel Island for the event.
Corcoran began his journey at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, where he was invited by Deputy Vice Chancellor Sizwe Mabizela (pictured right) to attend a Southern Africa Development Corporation conference. While at the event, Corcoran consulted with the Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit at Rhodes, which focuses on teaching, research, and community engagement in South Africa. He also lectured at two botanical gardens in Johannesburg and Pretoria on the Earth Charter, an international declaration of ethical principles for sustainable development. In addition, Corcoran’s work in Africa includes advising the United Nations Environment Program’s "Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities" partnership.
"While we are privileged to make a modest contribution globally, we also celebrate our work in the local community of Southwest Florida," said Corcoran. The theme of the Center’s 2010 Annual Fundraising Celebration was "Bloom Where You’re Planted: Focus on the Local." The organization’s local work includes hosting public lectures on campus and within the community, uplifting FGCU’s mission of environmental sustainability in campus operations, and assisting faculty who wish to integrate the concept of sustainability into their teaching. The Center recently met a $10,000 fundraising challenge issued by Peter and Mallory Haffenreffer, who host the annual event at their home on Sanibel Island.
Center Meets Haffenreffer Challenge
The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education has met its annual “Haffenreffer Challenge.” Thanks to donations received from its many supporters on Sanibel Island, as well as generous gifts from the Thomas Berry Foundation and the American Teilhard Association, the Center was able to surpass the goal of $10,000 set by philanthropists Peter and Mallory Haffenreffer.
Center Director Peter Blaze Corcoran commented, “We were especially pleased with the increased number of gifts from Sanibel and Captiva Islands this year, as we recognize the difficult choices that givers must make in these times of great need in the local community.” He went on to say, “We were also thrilled to receive two major gifts from prestigious philosophical societies whose work inspires us at the Center. These gifts allowed us to more than double our fundraising goal.”
The Thomas Berry Foundation is a private foundation whose mission is to “to carry out the Great Work of Thomas [Berry] in enhancing the flourishing of the Earth community.” The Foundation seeks to achieve its goals through four major initiatives: enhancing American environmental theologian and cultural historian Thomas Berry’s legacy, creating a new field of study with implications for policy, promoting a moral force for environmental action, and fostering knowledge of the universe story.
The American Teilhard Association is guided by the writings of French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The Association seeks to bring “an encompassing perspective to the task of shaping the well-being of the entire earth community, at a time when so many crises threaten it.” You can learn more about these organizations at the following websites: http://www.thomasberry.org/ and http://www.teilharddechardin.org/.
The Center thanks all those who made donations, as well as those who helped make the Sixth Annual Fundraising Celebration a success. The March 18, 2010 event took place at the Haffenreffer’s beachside home on Sanibel Island. Entitled, “Bloom Where You're Planted: Focus on the Local,” the event celebrated the role of the Center at FGCU and in the local community, its work with young people, and the wisdom of elders. The event featured organic food prepared with ingredients grown by local organic gardeners. The Center relies on support from the Southwest Florida community to continue its “work toward realizing the dream of a sustainable and peaceful future for Earth through scholarship, education, and action.”
A detailed measure of the Center’s progress is exhibited in the Center’s recently published Five Year Report, Works Toward Realizing the Dream (pictured). To request a copy of the report, contact the FGCU Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education at (239) 590-7166 or e-mail: cese@fgcu.edu.
Writers Speak to Keep Florida's Coasts "Unspoiled"
As we continue to witness the impact of the BP oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico, the Center would like to announce the upcoming publication of Unspoiled, a literary project aimed at preserving Florida's coasts. The publication was co-edited by Center Senior Scholar A. James Wohlpart, and will be published in Summer 2010. You can order the book at its website at http://www.unspoiledbook.com/, from which we share the following description:
"We Floridians love our coasts. We love our fishing. We love to swim and surf and eat seafood and build sand castles. Florida’s beaches are pure white stretches of bliss that feed our souls, a natural gift as important as the Rocky Mountains or the Grand Canyon.
Now, as we face the Gulf of Mexico's worst ever environmental disaster, the British Petroleum oil spill off Louisiana, we must ask: How could it possibly be worth it to risk the health of Florida’s number-one economic engine – its coasts – at the hands of the careless and unaccountable oil industry?
In this volume, 38 writers, scientists and students share their abiding love of Florida’s Gulf of Mexico coast and its sea life. Unspoiled reminds us that now is the time to shift from the oil dependent, industrial economy that is devastating our planet and driving climate change. It is time to transform our culture into a way of living in balance with the greater web of all beings, a culture based on truly sustainable lifestyles and clean, renewable energy sources."
Edited by:
Susan Cerulean, Janisse Ray,
and A. James Wohlpart
Illustrations by:
David Moynahan
"A lively assemblage of strong arguments for the environmental preservation of Florida’s wonderful wild coasts."
– Peter Matthiessen, National Book Award-winning American novelist
"A lyrical volume to remind Floridians that our coastline is not just our greatest natural asset. It's our greatest asset, period. Unspoiled also evokes another state treasure: our writers. Florida's literary luminescence shines from these pages."
– Cynthia Barnett, Senior Writer at Florida Trend magazine, and author of Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.
"The potential benefits to Florida of offshore drilling are modest; the risks incalculable. Thirty eight writers have drawn a line in the sand and joined a growing chorus of voices across the state in support of the best of what Florida represents, now and in the future."
– John Moran, nature photographer and author of Journal of Light: The Visual Diary of a Florida Nature Photographer
Publication of this book was made possible in part by a subvention from the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education at Florida Gulf Coast University.
BP Oil Spill Threatens Florida Coasts
(Birds flock around an oil containment boom near the fragile coast of Louisiana. Photograph: Sean Gardner/Reuters)
Many in Florida are concerned that the BP oil spill will impact the environment and economy of our state. As the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education reflects on the tragic consequences of the BP oil spill, we are reminded of the sixth ethical principle of the Earth Charter, as well as its supporting principles:
6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach.
a. Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.
b. Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm.
c. Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance, and global consequences of human activities.
d. Prevent pollution of any part of the environment and allow no build-up of radioactive, toxic, or other hazardous substances.
e. Avoid military activities damaging to the environment.
Principle 6 is often called the “precautionary principle,” because it asks us to take measures in advance to prevent ecological harm. The Gulf oil spill reminds us that technological development carries great, but preventable, risks. In an early response to the disaster, BP CEO Tony Hayward told National Public Radio that “the failure of the blowout preventer… is an unprecedented accident. It is the ultimate safety system on any rig and there is no precedent for them failing.” In reality, we not only know the basic truth that all mechanical devices are prone to failure - we've also seen the environmental and social consequences that occur when innovation goes awry. Ecological and social catastrophes such as the Chernobyl disaster, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the ongoing global recession generated by insolvent American banks are historical lessons we might look to when evaluating our actions. In short, the BP oil spill is anything but "unprecedented." The Earth Charter also warns us against the dangerous allure of technological hubris, and asks us to "place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm." Unfortunately, this burden of proof wasn't placed on BP, and now the burden of ecological harm rests heavily on the people, animals, and natural systems who are suffering as a result of the spill.
Indeed, according to Larry Schweiger, President of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), “Though two decades have passed since the Exxon Valdez spill occurred in Alaska, the oil industry and the various governmental enforcement agencies don’t seem to have learned much. With a huge volume of oil flowing in the Gulf of Mexico unabated, we clearly have an epic catastrophe unfolding. The greatest coastal wetland system in America is at the height of spring wildlife nesting season. It now faces what may be the largest oil spill in the nation’s history. It is hard to imagine a more dire situation.”
As you reflect on this unfolding ecological calamity, we encourage you to visit NWF’s newly-launched website for “How You Can Help Wildlife Impacted by the Louisiana Oil Spill.” The Coastal Watershed Institute at FGCU has also created a webpage that they will continue to update as more information becomes available: Oil Spill Information.
You may also be interested in "The True Cost of Oil," an essay written by Sanibel resident, author, and Center supporter Charles Sobczak. "The True Cost of Oil," explores the IXTOC 1 oil spill, a thirty-one-year-old disaster that dumped nearly 140 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
We've lost a great spirit and a great friend...
It is with deep sadness that we report the loss of a great friend of Mother Earth and of the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education. On April 17, 2010, Oannes Arthur Pritzker passed to the spirit world in his sleep last weekend at his Naples home under the slash pines. Oannes was a long-time friend of the Center and a member of our Board of Advisors.
Oannes was a forest ecologist, a spiritual ecologist, and a radio journalist. He advised Florida Gulf Coast University since its founding. He also advised us on the University Colloquium. He generously counseled the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education from our earliest planning charrettes through his attendance at our board meeting last month. He was director of Yat Kitischee Native Center, an intertribal, cultural, environmental, social justice, and news media organization. He served on the Board of Advisors of Radio for Peace International, and was host and producer of the award winning global community radio program “Honoring Mother Earth – Indigenous Voices.” For many years he was involved in the national environmental justice movement. He was a proud member of the American Indian Movement and often expressed satisfaction at the size of his FBI file.
To the best of our knowledge, he was the last of the Penobscot tribe, from what is now called Maine, who was raised in the traditional way. He was lifted up at his birth by his six aunties. He spoke Penobscot and was knowledgeable in the life ways of the Penobscot tribe. He grew up in material poverty and spiritual richness on Indian Island in the Penobscot River.
We were blessed to have him in Florida at Florida Gulf Coast University and at the Center. Among his many contributions to the Center was his suggestion that we establish a distinguished lecture series. Oannes also encouraged us to consider the contribution of a wide array of cultural knowledges to the discourse of sustainability. We will remember his decades of activism, bringing indigenous wisdom to environmental education, and keeping alive Penobscot knowledge and traditional wisdom.
Oannes came from an oral tradition. Only on a few occasions could we convince him to write down his ideas. We share two recent excerpts from his writings. “The Message of the Firefly” can be read at this link. The other is the introduction to his chapter in Young People, Education, and Sustainable Development, in which he explores the indigenous Earth ethic “Oositgamoo.” It is below.
“Oositgamoo: An Indigenous Perspective on Youth Activism”
Oositgamoo is an Algonquin Native American term that refers to protecting Mother Earth, our biosphere, and the well-being of all life. Implicit in the word Oositgamoo is serious, thoughtful concern and personal action for creating a better world. This Earth ethic is being embraced by young people, students, and youth activists everywhere. Those of us who are engaged in education for sustainable development must better appreciate and support the global youth movement of activists who are fighting for what I term peace and planetary justice. Internationally, young people are involved in a range of direct actions for cultural, social, economic, environmental, and sustainability issues. Many refer to this as the youth anti-globalization movement. Some call these young radicals. Whatever term is used to label these young people, we must respect, encourage, and learn from youth who are working for a just and sustainable future.
Oositgamoo is an Earth ethic that is taught by native elders to indigenous youth. One central tenet of this pedagogy is the principle of 
seven future generations. This principle refers to how one is taught to consider ways in which one's thoughts and actions affect future generations of all life on the planet. This is why native pedagogy instills values and principles that encourage and support our younger generations to actively care for their community and natural environment. Teaching young people in indigenous societies takes place both formally and informally. Storytelling and young people observing daily tribal life are two examples of informal learning.
Center Director Peter Blaze Corcoran reflects, “I treasured his wisdom, his humility, and his commitment to youth. We had been friends for over thirty years – since our days of working on the Maine Indian Education Project at the University of Maine. We were both involved in the original Earth Day, forty years ago today. He discussed this just last week with students in my environmental education class. I remember many things that he has taught me – as some of you will, I’m sure.”
We have received an outpouring of tributes to Oannes. We invite you to send us your reflections on Oannes's life and activism. Email them to us at cese@fgcu.edu, and we will post them on this tribute page to Oannes Arthur Pritzker.
The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education is a Type Two Research Institute of Florida Gulf Coast University. The Center is comprised of faculty, students and administrators from all Colleges.
The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education works toward realizing the dream of a sustainable and peaceful future for Earth through scholarship, education, and action. The Center advances understanding and achievement of the goals of environmental and sustainability education through innovative educational research methods, emergent eco-pedagogies, and educational philosophy and practice based on ethics of care and sustainability. The Center seeks to elevate the environmental mission of Florida Gulf Coast University and serve the university community, the local community of the Western Everglades and Barrier Islands, and the wider community of scholars.
Women’s
