[SustainableTompkins] Local Environmental History and Ecological Citizenship

[GayNicholson at aol.com]

Sustainability  Presentation/Class 
Wednesday, December 6  -  7:00-9:00  p.m. 
The History Center 
401 East State  Street, Ithaca, NY 

Local Environmental  History and Ecological Citizenship: 
Continuing the  Exploration 

with Professor Michael  Smith and The Students of U.S. Environmental  
History, Ithaca College 
In  our quest to create a more sustainable community, we often invoke our 
obligation  to future generations.  But Time’s  arrow runs in both directions, 
and we have deep roots in the landscapes of the  past.  As we face the impacts 
of  global warming, the end of cheap oil, and the shifting markets of 
globalization,  are there important lessons from the past that might guide us in 
building a  sustainable community?  Please join  us as Sustainable Tompkins and The 
History Center invite you for an evening  exploring our local environmental 
history and how we might learn from the past  to protect our future. 
Professor Michael Smith, an environmental historian at Ithaca College, 
believes that he has two principal charges as a  scholar, teacher, and citizen.  The 
first is to put nature back into human  history.  As Ted Steinberg writes in 
the preface to Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American  History, "for most 
Americans, history unfolds against a stable environmental  backdrop.  Nature is 
taken for granted and passed over in the rush to  discuss what really mattered 
..."  Michael sees his second charge as  contributing to the development of 
what he calls "ecological citizenship."   Ecological citizenship expands our 
sense of rights and responsibilities to  include non-human nature.  The foremost 
responsibility is creating a  sustainable society, one that does not exceed 
the capacity of the Earth to  support its activities as ours does by several 
orders of magnitude. The study of  history-especially environmental history-must 
play a crucial role in developing  ecological citizenship. 

It was with these two imperatives in mind that The  History Center and the 
students in the U.S. Environmental History course at Ithaca College have been 
working together to research and interpret the  environmental history of 
Tompkins County.  "Thinking globally and acting locally" can be as  rewarding for 
historians as it is for activists.  Using the collection of  the Center for 
primary source material, a third group of students have been  working in teams on 
topics ranging from the history of the Ithaca Farmer’s  Market to the 19th 
century ice industry in Tompkins County to the industrial development of Six Mile 
Creek.   The students will be providing a new framework for understanding the 
area's  past, one that Sustainable Tompkins is co-supporting as part of a 
community  conversation about sustainability.  The students will be sharing their  
research with the public, the first step in what we envision as an 
ever-growing  local environmental history. 

*****Come  early at 6:30  p.m. to view the Museum’s exhibits and enjoy  
refreshments***** 


----------------------------------------------------
Gay  Nicholson, Ph.D. 

607-533-7312 (home office)
607-279-6618  (cell)

1 Maple Avenue
Lansing, NY  14882
gaynicholson at aol.com

Sustainable Tompkins 
Program  Coordinator 
w_ww.sustainabletompkins.org_ (http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/) 

Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities
Regional  Coordinator
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County
615 Willow  Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850
agn1 at cornell.edu