Most teenagers today learn about environmental challenges through social media, often alone. Academics who study adolescent engagement around environmental issues have noticed an emerging trend: students struggle to picture a future they desire, and the picture they can summon is often apocalyptic. Layered on top of this constant digital barrage of information is the cognitive dissonance of the gap between how we live day to day and what we know about the human impact on our planet.
Sarah Ray, Environmental Studies Department chair at Cal Poly Humboldt and author of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, discusses in this podcast produced by The Atlantic, the existential questions she hears from her own students about the future they are inheriting. Ray argues that the most reliable way to engage with these challenges is through group effort. Individual action, while important, is not as effective as working alongside others. She suggests that our work alternate between activities that are solution-focused and often solitary – for example, taking shorter showers, using less plastic, and making calls to representatives – and those that build community and redirect our attention toward what we love. This could mean a hike up Ragged Mountain with a friend, sharing a meal, or holding a community book club discussion. Focusing on what we love makes the rest of the work sustainable.
It is in this context that Proctor paused twice this spring to celebrate Earth Day. While the rest of the country marked Earth Day on April 22, we set aside two mornings of our own, April 11 and this past Saturday, May 2, to step out of the academic schedule and into the Proctor Woodlands, a textiles classroom, the Andover town baseball field, and the trails along Ragged Mountain. Faculty members designed nearly forty workshops organized around four pillars: service and stewardship, education, wellness, and advocacy.
Mark Tremblay and Drew Donaldson took a group of students to prepare the town baseball field for the season and held a clinic for Andover Youth Baseball, while Annie MacKenzie and John Bouton walked the Route 4/11 connector to clear two miles of litter accumulated since fall. A group learned about wastewater treatment during a “Clean Water Act tour” with Sarah McIntyre and Megan Hardie, while other students headed to McNamara Dairy with Morgan Salathe and Alicia Barry to understand where the milk in the dining hall comes from. Jill Jones-Grotnes and Kate Austin worked with students to craft wallets and other useful items from reclaimed plastic bags and wrappers. In the theater, Kate Jones and Amy Hubbard led a stage reading of Miranda Rose Hall's play To Tell a Story About the Earth.
Environmental crises feel intractable when examined at a global or national scale. Psychologists have a name for this – pseudo-inefficacy, the sense that the negative feeling of being unable to solve the whole problem outweighs the positive feeling of working on a small part of it. Earth Day at Proctor is, in part, a structural answer to that feeling. When we work together in small groups and break tasks into small enough pieces, we feel as though we can make a difference.
Bill McKibben, who has spoken at Proctor in years past, is often asked what one thing an individual should do about climate. He answers that the single most important thing one person can do is “be a little less of an individual and join together with others in movements large enough to make change.” The four pillars at Proctor's Earth Day address the same question.
A huge thank you to Environmental Coordinator Alan McIntyre, Lindsay Brown '01, and Melanie Maness for organizing the two mornings, and to the dozens of faculty, staff, and community partners who facilitated these groups!
Learn More about Proctor's Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Efforts!
- Environmental Stewardship