Participants from five continents representing 14 nations gathered in Stevens Point, Wisconsin for the 4th International Conference on Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU 2006). In this exciting forum, we shared successes and challenges together to sustain life and livelihoods in our home lands in perpetuity. “Transforming ideas into action—building sustainable communities beyond university campuses” was the conference theme to foster transformative linkages between campuses and communities.
The EMSU 2006 venue in Wisconsin showcased a progressive place with a rich heritage of conservation legacies that today is woven deeply into the fabric of life and citizens here. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, the father of Earth Day, once said if you take away a nation’s forests, soils, lakes, rivers, wildlife, and scenic beauty…what you have left is a waste land. He explained that the wealth of a nation, any nation, is its natural resources. He was a champion of the environment. John Muir, a Scotsman who immigrated to America, spent his formative years in Wisconsin before going to California where he founded the Sierra Club and advised President Theodore Roosevelt on the value of wilderness. President Roosevelt championed the formation of the U.S National Park system and other formative conservation efforts. Aldo Leopold, a native son of Wisconsin and father of modern ecology, called for a “land ethic” to restore and maintain the health of the land. Some EMSU 2006 participants visited ‘The Shack” where Leopold and his family enjoyed formulating and practicing his land ethic in Sand County, Wisconsin.
Our two excellent keynote speakers, Jared Diamond and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., are passionate international spokesmen on sustainability. Diamond shared lessons from past and present societies depicting their decisions to succeed or fail, persist or collapse. He explained that those societies that ravaged their environment collapsed, and those that were wise stewards of the land persisted. His analysis provided important lessons from historical and present societies that present options for us to choose pathways to success (or failure). Kennedy talked about pathways to the future that offer hope and cherished values shared by all. He asserted that big government subsidies often allow big corporate polluters to pass on environmental costs to the public. He stated that he is a free martketeer advocating elimination of subsidies to force corporations to compete on a level and fair playing field and to be accountable for pollution. Moreover, Kennedy explained that through special interest contributions to political campaigns and subsequent political appointments opposed to environmental safeguards, the nation’s environmental laws protecting public natural resource assets and citizens’ health are currently being ravaged.
In the latter part of the 19th century when American Indians were being forced onto reservations, Lakota Chief Black Elk had a vision in which the six powers of Father Sky, Mother Earth, North (white), South (yellow), East (red) and West (black) asked him if he would help defeat the “blue man” of greed, deception, corruption and destruction representing dominant society. He said yes and his bow turned into a spear that killed the blue man. He taught that American Indians must help dominant society learn nature’s way, otherwise both white man and American Indians would perish together. We have much to learn quickly from indigenous people.
All of us, in every community in every nation, share the same basic needs and values for clean water, ample food and shelter, meaningful work, spirituality and peace, and a better life for our children and grandchildren. We differ in our cultural approaches to common problems, and by sharing creative ideas and solutions with each other, we can apply new knowledge back home in our local communities. Millennium Development Goals, the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, the University Leaders for a Sustainable Future’s Talloires Declaration, and many other actions are efforts in sharing solutions for a sustainable future. The EMSU 2006 conference focused on local action connecting campuses with communities.
Delegates made new friends here, celebrated our common cause to build a sustainable future, participated actively in stimulating technical sessions, fabulous cultural and musical entertainment, sparkling keynote presentations, and exciting field trips. On the last day of the conference, the new film, An Inconvenient Truth, featuring Al Gore on global warming, opened in Stevens Point. Delegates had opportunity to view the film and to enjoy Riverfront Rendezvous, the midsummer community celebration of our nation’s independence and freedom. This underscored the juxtaposition of current environmental threats that undermine democracy and security in America and worldwide.
Together as positive agents of change to act on sustainability, we developed an EMSU 2006 Declaration to take the next steps in our home communities around the world. This statement will be posted on our GEM website in the near future. A healthy environment provides for healthy people who build healthy societies. Please join us in this local-to-global enterprise to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the capability to meet the needs of future generations.
Thanks to readers for your passion and personal actions to advance sustainability in local communities everywhere. Through our collective efforts and those of millions of others, a grassroots momentum is growing worldwide. Awareness and action are on the move…one stream segment, one farm field, one factory, one village at a time. Let’s choose a pathway of societal success and security. Welcome to a Sustainable Future.
Onward,
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