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Ecology Emerges Discussions and reflections on the history of Bay Area ecological activism, based on oral histories documenting the past 50 years.
Click HERE for a pdf of the 11x17 poster designed by Mona Caron Events hosted by Jon Christensen, Executive Director Ecology Emerges is an oral history gathering project to explore the past 50 years of ecological activism in the Bay Area and the role that individual and institutional memories play in the development, policy proposals, and interrelationships that together make up the existing networks of ecological politics. We document the living ecological activist movement, in their own words, but also in a larger context of urban growth and globalization. One of our favorite questions to ask within Shaping San Francisco is “Why does San Francisco, and the larger Bay Area, look THIS way, and not some other way?” This question seems especially relevant against the current context of living “green” and a widely promoted attention to the environment around us. New efforts to rediscover local resources and to manage them in an ecologically sound way require a deeper understanding of what once was, how it was altered, and how what’s left of the original richness and biological diversity might be harmonious with a revitalized and relocalized economic life. Through oral history gathering and scholarly investigation of organizational histories, juxtaposed to the evolution of public policy and private investment, Ecology Emerges gives us new insight into a long-term evolution of human society based here in our backyard of the Bay Area. We give close attention to the edges: where urban and rural meet, where water and land meet, where conflicting human purposes meet.
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Four public discussions based on twenty-three 1-2 hour oral histories conducted from September 2009 to February 2010 with the following people: John Knox, Exec. Dir. Earth Island Institute; Sylvia McLaughlin, founder, Save the Bay; Peter Berg, Planet Drum; Judy Goldhaft, Planet Drum; Sam Schuchat, Exec. Dir., California Coastal Conservancy; Ruth Gravanis, Treasure Island restorationist, many other hats; Monica Moore, co-founder, Pesticide Action Network; Jason Mark, editor Earth Island Journal, farmer at Alemany Farm; Larry Orman, ex-Greenbelt Alliance, now GreenInfo Network; Juliet Ellis, Exec. Dir. Urban Habitat; Kristen Schwind, Exec. Dir., Bay Localize; Saul Bloom, ARC/Ecology; Antonio Alcala, Alemany Farm and food activist/filmmaker; Julia May, Communities for a Better Environment; Miya Yoshitani, Asia-Pacific Environmental Network; Bill Evers, founder Planning and Conservation League, Committee to Save Lake Tahoe, former director Bay Conservation & Development Commission, Board member of Greenbelt Alliance for 25 years; Harold Gilliam, former environmental writer, SF Chronicle, many books; Karen Pickett, Berkeley Ecology Ctr, Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, Earth First!; Doris Sloan, UC Berkeley geology professor; Carol Schemmerling, Urban Creeks Council; Jerry Mander, International Forum on Globalization; Tom Turner, former editor Not Man Apart, Friends of the Earth, Earthjustice staffer; Alvin Duskin, former anti-highrise organizer, anti-nuclear activist, wind power entrepreneur Eventually all the interviews will be online and open to the public. Additionally we hope to continue interviewing more long-time activists and pioneers of ecological activism. If you can help underwrite this, please contact us! |
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4. Economies of Nature
Can there be "sustainability" within a growth-based, capitalist economy? Do "ecosystem services" and "natural capitalism" lead away from our current path, or do they only reinforce it? How does the Utopian imagination affect the narrow push for Green Survivalism? listen to discussion:
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3. Nature in Cities
Considering urbanization as a global crisis/an opportunity. Understanding the restorative, regenerative, and imaginative possibilities of a new integration of urban and rural through local agriculture, human-powered transport (e.g. walking, biking), etc. listen to discussion:
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2. Bay Area as Incubator
Examining the Bay Area as a demonstration area and incubator of experiments that shaped the national and international ecological movements. What is the relationship of San Francisco to its region? The region to the state, to the continent, to the oceans, and to the planet? listen to the discussion: |
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1. Evolution of Eco-Activism Exploring the evolution of nature and ecological activism, how we thought about it 40 years ago vs. how we think about it now. Following the compelling shift from conservation to environmentalism to environmental/social justice over the last half-century. (Regrettably our audio recording of the evening failed;eventually we will have a video online)
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Berkeley Daily Gazette, March 1, 1971
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| online archive at Foundsf.org |
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