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Please pass this email along to academic or NGO folks across the US with an interest in environmental politics and policy.

This fall, the election will be on the mind of everyone in the US. How can we engage our students to think critically about politics and the environment, in a non-partisan fashion consistent with our work as educators?

A key answer is to provide historical perspective.  The period from 1970-1992 saw major US national legislation on topics ranging from clean water to climate change. Since 1994, the country has passed no significant environmental laws, and the dialog on the environment has become extremely partisan. To advance this kind of conversation, the Bard Center for Environmental Policy is coordinating the Politics & Environment Education Project, featuring non-partisan talks on on the shift in US environmental dialog from bi-partisan consensus to partisan gridlock. What were the causes of the divide, and what are the prospects for the future?

The speakers network is made up of academic and NGO experts from across the country who have agreed to lead a non-partisan discussion on this issue free of charge. You can apply to become a speaker here. We have just launched the application process. Current speakers signed on to participate include myself, Hunter Lovins, Bob Musil, Debra Rowe and David Blockstein, Our goal is to recruit dozens of speakers form across the country this summer, to deliver talks this fall at hundreds of schools. To be accepted, speakers must have expertise in environmental politics or policy, and a record of instruction or public speaking in the field.

The network will operate on the "Al Gore model" in that Bard CEP will provide a template powerpoint by mid June which speakers may adopt and modify. The CEP will also hold regular speaker orientation webinars and dial-in sessions beginning in late August to provide a discussion forum and other resources for speakers.  We will also be sponsoring a webinar series in the fall on the general topic of Politics & the Environment. 

Please contact me at ebangood@bard.edu if you are interested in learning more about the project, or sign-up here to be a speaker. If you are worried about the state of the political dialog in America, this is the chance to engage as educators and help students in our regions understand how we have come to this point, and how we might move forward from here. 

Thanks for your help-

Eban

Dr. David Blockstein

Senior Scientist, National Council for Science and the Environment

Dr. Dallas Burtraw

Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future

Eban Goodstein
Director, Bard MBA in Sustainability & Director, Bard Center for Environmental Policy

Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000 845.758.7067 (t) / 845.758.7636 (f)              
www.bard.edu/cep  & www.bard.edu/mba

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