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Event
Richard White lecture "How Past Policies Have Shaped Emerging Issues"
Americans are notoriously a people who live in the present and the future. The past, particularly when it is unpleasant, is something we want to put behind us. Increasingly, however, our gravest environmental problems are legacies of our past. Global warming, ozone holes, the depletion of fisheries, the pollution of waters, soil exhaustion, declining bio-diversity other environmental problems are not recent phenomena. They are the product of historical processes of considerable duration: in some cases a half century, in other cases a century, and in still other cases even longer histories of human activities. Their pasts seem pertinent to their futures.
What is equally true and even more disquieting is that many of the grave problems of our future arose not during a period of environmental neglect but, at least in the United States, during a century of rising environmental concern and regulation. In many ways, the United States, a country with a long record of environmental legislation and management, has been one of the greatest contributors to current global environmental problems. More has been involved than a lack of research or will. In some cases solutions have become the problems. Ignoring this legacy will be disastrous for any serious attempt to deal with our current and emerging environmental problems.
Richard White is widely regarded as one of the nation's leading scholars in three related fields: the American West, Native American history, and environmental history. Professor White came to Stanford in 1998 and is the author of five books, including The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires and Republic in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815, which was named a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize. Among other honors, he is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship.
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LocationKaul Auditorium - Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.
Portland, OR
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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