Seeds for Thought: an Ecopsychology Blog

Inspiration from the voice and passion of youth

I had the honour, this winter, of returning to the work force after three years in retirement.  The job I took was as an instructor in a very small junior college in a town not far from my home.  In my political ideologies class, I mentioned the word "environmentalism" one day and was greeted with a groan which almost intimidated me.

After I handed out assignment topics, one student came to see me to ask if she could do her project on another topic, the one I had given her not being terribly inspiring.  And what was her new topic?  Al Gore, she said, and the film "An Inconvenient Truth".  I was certain that this student, Méllissa Desrosiers, had been the one to groan and I was surprised... pleasantly surprised.

Her passionate short essay moved me and I would like to share it here.  I've made a small adjustment as the purpose of the assignment was to plot an event or individual against a pre-set political spectrum of ideologies.  The essence of her text remains, however, and this young woman who wants to become a journalist has this first opportunity to be published:

Detritus

Photographer Chris Jordan presents a powerful self-portrait of America's consumer culture. Have a look at the three exhibitions he is currently displaying on his website, including one in which he does something amazing with scale and statistics.

(click on this image to see it larger)

Jordan has been selected as a recipient of the 2007 Green Leaf Award given by the Natural World Museum and the United Nations Environment Programme, which he will be receiving in person at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, on June 5th, at the opening of the World Environment Day Conference.

Encyclopedia for Life

Biologist E.O. Wilson recently won the 2007 TED Prize, and here is the video where he accepts and describes his wish for a Encyclopedia of Life, a web-based compendium of data on every aspect of the biosphere (don't miss the fantastic little movie-in-a-movie with a soundtrack by Billie Holiday!).

reading list

As some of you know, I've finished the MoonLetter (24 Moon) cycle... I am instead concentrating on giving myself greater background in ecopsychology, as defined by Andy Fisher. So I've made a list of books that I'm going to get through...

Thought this might be of interest to some of you so I've reproduced it below. I plan to attempt some assimilation on this blog on the New Moon each month. I did the first one on the last New Moon.