National Council for Science and the Environment Senior Scientist David Blockstein quoted environmentalist Aldo Leopold to describe how the sustainability movement will change the way people treat the world -- people will finally "learn to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Blockstein presented recommendations for promoting sustainability education to an audience of around 35 in the Carolyn Hoff Lynch Auditorium of the Chemistry Building yesterday afternoon.
His lecture opened up to a lively discourse on the movement's goals, its foreseeable future and its possible pitfalls.
Sustainability education, according to Blockstein, aims to help people understand what they must do to sustain life on Earth for years to come.
Blockstein said that sustainability education would "deliver the message of a better future."
He then presented the NCSE's recommendations for improving the teaching of sustainability.
To understand sustainability, Blockstein asserted that people must be educated not only in environmental conservation, but also in international development, cultural diversity and humanity's general well-being.
Some audience members saw the goal of widespread support for sustainability as impossible at worst and improbable at best.
Blockstein said that sustainability is bipartisan, but an audience member disagreed, stating that he believed the movement was in some respects anti-capitalistic, and that convincing conservatives to support the movement would be impossible.
Blockstein replied that he would like to see "conservatives going back to the base of conservatism," which was founded on "conserving resources, conserving institutions."
Other audience members felt that teaching sustainability is both possible and necessary.
Jon Baker, a College junior and a member of the Penn Environmental Group, said Blockstein gave "a good overview of what needs to be done to communicate the necessity of conserving for the future."
Blockstein said he wants to see faculty at major educational institutions getting involved in teaching and supporting sustainability. The NCSE already has 116 university affiliate members, and is looking for more. Penn has yet to join.
When asked how students could make a difference, Blockstein said, "Penn has a new president. A letter to the new president saying, 'Welcome to Penn -- here's something we think is really important and would like your support for,' would do a lot to further the cause of sustainability."
