Ecofriendly Activism

Ecofriendly Activism provides students with the wherewithal to calculate and decrease their individual carbon footprints and develop a nuanced understanding of the climate debate.

I developed this course in response to student enthusiasm for the content of Ecotourism & Sustainable Development in Costa Rica, an experiential course I instruct.

Drs. Augusto Macalalag, Prash Naidu, Lauren Howard, and Manny Curotto oversaw the development of the course and worked with me to refine my ideas.

The following experiences and sources were used in the development of the course:

January 2010 San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Worked with Bring It Promotions, LLC to assist in the construction and promotion of “Casa Llanta” (Tire House), an off-grid sustainable Earthship located in a subsistence farming community 5km outside of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Assisted with solar panel cooker demonstrations for women of the community. Developed two websites for the owners of Casa Llanta featuring/promoting the property, the Earthship Pitaya Festival, and El Carrizal, the surrounding community.

October 2016 - Present Montgomery County

Freelance correspondent for Montgomery News Media Group. Interview elected local leaders, social justice advocates/leaders, Environmental Advisory Council members, Ready for 100* campaign leaders and activists. Analyze and chronicle environmental initiatives as requested, including Montgomery County’s Ready for 100 meetings, achievements, municipal commitments (e.g. wastewater management, stormwater mitigation, recycling, transitioning of vehicular fleets from fossil fuel-powered to electric-powered). Attend municipal meetings, special events. Interviewees include Bill Sabey, Montgomery County’s Ready for 100 campaign organizer; Jodie Van Horn, Sierra Club, founder and director of the Ready for 100 campaign; renewable energy associates; Montgomery County Planning Commission representatives.

*Ready for 100 is a Sierra Club-instantiated national campaign which encourages and assists municipalities in transitioning from fossil fuel dependency to renewable energy sources.

March 2019 Temple University

Attended Temple University’s “Integrating STEM in Everyday Life” Workshop. Attended three sustainability lectures; interfaced with STEM educators; brainstormed classroom teaching techniques as they related to sustainability education.

January 2019 -Present Arcadia University

Instruct Preview: Ecotourism and Sustainable Development in Costa Rica. Course includes analyses of ecotourism, past and current environmental problems and corresponding solutions, economic, social, and environmental impacts of sustainable initiatives.

February 2019 - March 2020 Abington Township

Worked with Abington Township Environmental Advisory Council leaders to develop a mutually beneficial partnership. Named an Honorary Member.

COURSE-SPECIFIC RESEARCH

Books:

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring

Hawken, Paul. Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

Ferguson, Cody. This is Our Land: Grassroots Environmentalism in the Late Twentieth Century

Bullard, Robert D. Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots

Schreuder, Yda. The Corporate Greenhouse: Climate Change Policy in a Globalizing World

Gallagher, Nora & Myers, Lisa. Tools for Grassroots Activists: Best Practices for Success in the Environmental Movement

Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Lomborg, Bjorn. Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming

Pooley, Eric. The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth

Bevington, Douglas. The Rebirth of Environmentalism: Grassroots Activism from the Spotted Owl to the Polar Bear

Nordhaus, William. The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World

William Mosely, David Lanegran, & Kavita Pandit. The Introductory Reader in Human Geography: Contemporary Debates and Classic Writings

Kolbert, Elizabeth. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change

MacEachern, Diane. Save Our Planet: 750 Everyday Ways You Can Help Clean Up the Earth

de Blij, Harm. The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization’s Rough Landscape

Powers, William. Dispatches from the Sweet Life: One Family, Five Acres, and a Community’s Quest to Reinvent the World

Loewen, James. Lies My History Teacher Told Me (pp. 281-300)

Meyer, Stephen. Rationally Right: An Explanation of the Conservative Paradigm

Domhoff, G. William. Who Rules America?: Power, Politics, & Social Change

Chang, Ha-Joon. 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism

Stiglitz, Joseph. Globalization and Its Discontents

Carey, Alex. Taking the Risk out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty

Bryson, Bill. The Best American Travel Writing 2000

Robert Hall & Marc Lieberman. Macroeconomics: Principles & Applications

Menzel, Peter. Material World: A Global Family Portrait

Zinn, Howard. The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy

Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States

Wiist, William. The Bottom Line or Public Health: Tactics Corporations Use to Influence Health and Health Policy, and What We Can Do to Counter Them

Singer, Peter. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress

Articles:

The Transition Movement, Esther Alloun and Samuel Alexander

Transition Towns: An Evolutionary Perspective, Don Hall

Fashion Forward, Claire Marie Porter (Grid Magazine)

True Blue: United Blue Saves Our Waterways, Jenny Willden (Sensi Philadelphia Magazine)

The Climate Justice Movement, Richard Widick

Climate Justice: A New Social Movement for Atmospheric Rights, Jethro Pettit

How Gender Stereotypes Affect Pro-Environment Behavior, Tom Jacobs

How We Care for the Environment May Have Social Consequences, Science Daily

Fossil Fuel: Divestment, 350.org

Rockefellers to sell oil assets as part of $50B global warming fight, CBC News

At last, divestment is hitting the fossil fuel industry where it hurts, Bill McKibben

The American environmental movement: surviving through diversity, Stacy Silveira

21^st century American environmental ideologies: a re-evalution, John Hultgren

The only reason you want to go to heaven is that you have been driven out of your mind, Alice Walker

Beyond green consumerism: uncovering the motivations of green citizenship, Meaghan Guckian et al.

The elusive green consumer, Katherine White et al.

What is social ecology? Murray Bookchin

Four stages of social movements, Jonathan Christiansen

The umweltmulti arrives: Greenpeace and grassroots environmentalism in West Germany, Frank Zelko

Claiming the grounds for reform: agrarian and environmental movements in Indonesia, Nancy Peluso et al.

America’s radioactive secret, Justin Nobel

The rise of the environmental justice campaign, Dorceta Taylor

I am not afraid to be radical, Leanne Batasamosake Simpson

The ecology of feminism, Ynestra King

When environmentalism meets xenophobia, Gaby Del Valle

Western science and traditional knowledge, Fulvio Mazzocchi

Science, traditional knowledge and sustainable development, Thomas Rosswall

How the environmental movement has changed, Emma Foehringer Merchant

Environmentalism was once a social-justice movement, Jedediah Britton-Purdy

History’s largest mining operation is about the begin, Wil Hylton

The pesticide industry’s playbook for poisoning the earth, Lee Fang

Are multi-family LEED-certified buildings biased? Erin Hopkins

Constructing and mobilizing the consumer, David Evans et al.

Non-governmental organizations, UNESCO

Is LEED tough enough for the climate change era? Brian Barth

LEED-certified buildings are often less energy-efficient than uncertified ones, Capital Flows

EU Parliament bans single-use plastic in overwhelming vote

The real saboteurs, Andrew Wasley

The evolution of environmental movements, Karin Otsuka

History of the environmental movement, Britannica

What is Extinction Rebellion and what does it want? BBC News

The politics of community: togetherness, transition, and post-politics, Gerald Aiken

Can a new group of young environmentalists reinvigorate greens’ grassroots spirit? Earth Island Journal

Environmental radicalism: the extremes and the earth, Mark Engler

Blogging and environmental advocacy, Melissa Merry

Occupy the Sierra Club, Michael Brune

Dakota Access Pipeline activists face 110 years in prison, Alleen Brown

The Keystone Test, The Nation

The Coalfield Uprising, Jeff Biggers

Why we strike again, Greta Thunberg

The 3.5% rule: how a small minority can change the world, David Robson

Greta is right: study shows individual lifestyle change boosts systemic climate action, Jeff McMahon

U.S. public views on climate and energy, Cary Funk

What is sustainable living? Conserve Energy Future

In this Italian city you get rewarded with beer and ice cream for not driving your car, Johnny Wood

The 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions, Matthew Taylor

The capitalist way to make Americans stop eating meat, Derek Thompson

Plant-based meat not good for your health, John Mackey

Are plant-based burgers good for you? Lisa Drayer

Lobbying group takes out full-page ads to prove Beyond Meat’s veggie burger is unhealth—but it’s not, Bryan Clark

A scrappy solution to the fashion industry’s giant waste problem, Justine Calma

Companies that embrace sustainable investing see their sales—and stocks—rise, Leslie Norton

How fossil fuel money made climate change denial the word of God, Brendan O’Connor

The left needs to change the way it thinks about protest, Dan Jervis-Bardy

Consumption, wastefulness and simplicity in ultra-orthodox communities, Tanhum Yoreh

Broadcasting green: grassroots environmentalism on Muslim women’s radio, Daniel DeHanas

Judaism beyond slogans, Jeffrey Salkin

Dig beneath the world’s far-right governments—you’ll find fossil fuels, Basav Sen

The climate crisis and the failure of economics, Jared Bernstein

Cap and trade is supposed to solve climate change, but oil and gas company emissions are up, Lisa Song

The political history of cap and trade, Richard Conniff

Corporations will never solve climate change, Naomi Schendler

So you think we’re reducing fossil fuel use? Think again, James Conca

Can business save the world from climate change? Bianca Nogrady

The reason fossil fuel companies are finally reckoning with climate change, Justin Worlland

Summits, strikes and climate change, Elizabeth Kolbert

How the world’s dirtiest industries have learned to pollute our politics, George Monbiot

Report details how ExxonMobil and fossil fuel firms sowed seeds of doubt, LA Times

Meet the money behind the climate denial movement, Colin Schultz

How the fossil fuel industry got the media to think climate change was debatable, Amy Westervelt

Exxon knew about climate change almost 40 years ago, Shannon Hall

A critical look at the “Moral Case for Fossil Fuels”, Jody Freeman

Fossil Fuels: the dirty facts, Melissa Denchak

Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in scientific literature, John Cook et al.

Challenges from state-federal interactions in US climate change policy, Lawrence Goulder and Robert Stavins

Governors kick off 2019 with bold calls for climate action in these 5 states, Mark Hand

Five surprising facts about energy poverty, Marianne Levell

How climate change affects people living in poverty, Mercy Sheridan

Billions face food, water shortages over next 30 years, Stephen Leahy

New study pinpoints the places most at risk on a warming planet, Miyo McGinn

It’s not just Australia: Indonesia is facing its own climate disaster, Rachel Ramirez

How poor countries are being hit the hardest, Alex Gray

The refugees the world barely pays attention to, Tim McDonnell

Trump’s EPA concludes environmental racism is real, Vann Newkirk

The environmental justice movement is rooted in black history, 350.org

Black women are leading the way in environmental justice, Samantha Willis

Black bodies, green spaces, Tiya Miles

Why #blacklivesmatter should transform the climate debate, Naomi Klein

Only justice can stop a curse, Margaret Bailey

Green lap, brown embrace, blue body: The ecospirituality of Alice Walker

Out of Africa and into an ice age, Carto et al.

How to write about a vanishing world, Elizabeth Kolbert

Climate change and the new era of extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert

Climate change, global warming, and global inequity in developed and developing countries, A S Wijaya

Developing countries need urgent support adapt to climate change, IMF

How climate change unfairly burdens poorer countries, Justin Worland

Climate change will hit poor countries hardest, John Vidal

Climate change is driving debt for developing countries, UNFCCC

Climate change and the global economy: regional effects, Keith Wade

Climate Change, Center for Global Development

How rising sea levels erase culture, Nick Galvin

Strategies for sustainability: citizens and responsible environmental behavior, Stewart Barr

Communicating climate knowledge, Hildegaard Diemberger et al.

The arctic cryosphere in the 21^st century, Roger Barry

Rethinking global environmental governance to deal with climate change: the multiple logics of global collective action, Daniel Etsy

Climate change and the victim slot: from oil to innocence, David Hughes

Recognitions and responsibilities, Ben Orlove et al.

Adaptive transitions: the long-term perspective on humans in changing coastal settings, Craig Colten

The postulate of human ecology, Ernst-Nikolaus Satvanyi

Our Globally Changing Climate, Climate Science Special Report

Physical Drivers of Climate Change, Climate Science Special Report

Detection and Attribution of Climate Change, Climate Science Special Report

The Human Role in Future Climate, Climate Science Special Report

Alternative proteins, Charles Godrey

Here’s how much plastic trash is littering the earth, Laura Parker

The U.N. climate negotiations are over, and they were a disaster, Rebecca Leber

U.S. military could collapse in 20 years due to climate change, Nafeez Ahmed

The world’s most polluted cities, NY Times

U.S. sees largest reduction of protected lands in history under Trump, Peter Wade

Supreme Court will consider letting groundwater pollution escape regulation, Ledyard King and Richard Wolf

In 45 years, we have killed 60% of Earth’s wildlife, Andrea Pinto

Rising seas will era more cities by 2050, new research shows, Denise Lu and Christopher Flavelle

Microplastics discovered in extreme concentrations I the North Atlantic, Arwa Damon and Brice Laine

The paradox of global warming and colder winters, Milicent Cranor

At what point should you start really freaking out about climate change? Bill McKibben

World’s largest prize honoring grassroots environmentalists, Jenny Park

The Anthropocene Review: its significance, implications and the rationale for a new transdisciplinary journal, Frank Oldfield et al.

Can climate affect earthquakes? Alan Buis

We broke down what climate change will do, region by region, Grist Staff

Evidence for man-made global warming hits ‘gold standard’: scientists, Alister Doyle

Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emission, EPA

New frontiers in sucking: why is the Trump campaign selling plastic straws? Amanda Marcotte

Don’t count on capitalism to defeat climate change, Ted Morgan

IMF says global subsidies to fossil fuels amount to $1.9 trillion a year, David Roberts

Six climate investing myths debunked, Morgan Stanley

Major automakers strike climate deal with California, Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis

Evaluating the performance of past climate model projections, Hausfather Zeke et al.

Wolf reintroduction changes ecosystem in Yellowstone, Brodie Farquhar

Why eating less meat is the best thing you can do for the planet in 2019, Oliver Milman

EU beats U.S., adopts its own green new deal, Dave Keating

How (and why) to stay optimistic when it feels like the environment is falling apart, Dominic McAfee et al.

Why gene editing is the next food revolution, Eric Niler

The tiny Swiss company that thinks it can help stop climate change, Jon Gertner

130 banks worth $47 trillion adopt new UN-backed climate policies to shift their loan books away from fossil fuels, Matthew Green

The Global Climate Context, NRDC

The species the world lost this decade, Brian Resnick

Fourth National Climate Assessment: Chapter 1

International Climate Impacts, US EPA

Why you don’t need fossil fuel to fight poverty, National Geographic

China and India lead the way in greening, NASA

Ocean cleanup device successfully collects plastic for first time, Daniel Boffey