Writer and activist to speak on environmental integrity without forcing college ?students to change their ?lifestyles unwillingly
By Rosemary Peters
On Monday, Oct. 20, environmental activist Rick Bass will be giving a talk in the Chapel of Christ the Teacher concerning the environmental integrity of the earth.
According to Bass, his talk will not be another lecture in which he tries to scare his audience members into changing their lifestyles.
"There is so much loss of environmental integrity in the world, and certainly in this country, that another lecture about the sky literally falling, or the water being poisoned is going to a significant risk as being background white-noise," Bass said. "For a university audience, I am not that interested on pounding my fist and ?giving statistics about sustainability," Bass said.
Instead, Bass will be telling stories about his work as an environmental activist. He wants to converse with the audience and tell them stories in order to keep them engaged in his message.
Bass has been an environmental activist for 21 years, ever since he moved to the Yaak Valley in Montana. It was this move to Yaak Valley that inspired Bass to become an activist and fight against the degradation of the earth.
Previous to being an environmental activist, Bass was a petroleum geologist, spending much of his time looking for subsurface formations filled with oil and gas.
As an environmental activist, he works on water and forest and preservation boards and councils in Yaak Valley. These boards have two goals: the first is to protect the Yaak Valley, while the second is to promote a sustainable local economy based on natural resources.
"The importance of rarity comes up in a lot of my work," Bass said. "Yaak Valley needs to be protected otherwise it is unacceptable."
Protecting Yaak Valley is not Bass' only concern. He also writes books about the environment to inform individuals. ?He writes both fiction and non-fictions books.
Bass has even written four essays for the UP's Portland Magazine. One of the recent essays was about fire season in the Northwest.
Much of Bass' work has appeared in "The Best American Short Stories" and many other anthologies.
He has also been awarded several recognitions for his writing such as the Pushcart Prizes, PEN awards, the O. Henry Award for fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year award.
According to Bass, his personal favorite book is "Where the Sea Used to Be." In this book, he wrote about an oil and gas geologist in Montana and about completing ?land values and how they shape individuals. It took him 14 years to write.
One of Bass' desired goals through his ?speeches and his books is to ?inspire everyone to cut ?down on their carbon footprint.
In order to cut down on this carbon footprint, Bass believes individuals need to be committed to changing the culture.
Bass wants issues, such as global warming and species extinction, to be an element in every piece of ?legislation and policy imaginable.
"That's how it is in the real world and that's how it needs to be in our policies," Bass said.
He believes it is also essential that the issue of the environment be elevated higher on the list of everyone's priorities.
"We are not going to get out of this mess with one single person. It is going to take a change in consciousness and awareness of the immensity of our footprint," Bass said.
"We need to retrain our minds," Bass said.
