TED BERNARD "Hope and Hard Times: Communities, Collaboration and Sustainability" April 20th at 6pm
More than a dozen years ago, Ted Bernard traveled to nine communities
across the United States to meet residents who were working
collaboratively to solve natural resource conflicts. While there may
have been different perspectives as to process, their common goal was to
achieve higher levels of sustainability as vibrant communities. He
visited places as diverse as tiny one-mile-square Monhegan Island in
Maine and cities as large as Chicago and Chattanooga and, with Jora
Young, wrote about his findings in "The Ecology of Hope" (1997).
Now
Bernard has caught up with these communities again, to discover their
progress and see what a difference their collaborative conservation has
made in fifteen years. "Hope and Hard Times" chronicles that journey;
the successes, the speed bumps, and the remarkable tenacity and
persistence of the partnerships and initiatives driving change during
exceedingly hard times. Overall, community-based sustainability
initiatives have proved resilient, despite the downward-spiraling of the
global economy and the looming problems of global climate change. Their
quest points to the need for new perceptions of nature and of
humankind, more guidance from nature, and less consumption and
materialism. They offer advice on how to live on pieces of land without
spoiling them.
These narratives offer hopeful roadmaps for other
communities who are working toward a sustainable future, and will appeal
to community activists, natural resource professionals, educators, and
environmentalists.
Ted Bernard is a professor of environmental
studies at Ohio University, and co-author of "The Ecology of Hope." He
lives in the Shade River watershed in southern Ohio.
- Street:
- 509 E. 4th Ave
- City:
- Olympia ,
- Province:
- Washington
- Postal Code:
- 98501
- Country:
- United States
