By Arthur Levine ’14

Applied Research Fellow
Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability

n summer 2009, 我被阳光明媚的南加州所吸引，因为那里离我的家乡纽约最远，也是因为值得信赖的十大棋牌娱乐平台大学美丽的校园和核心价值观. 我放弃了一个夏天的激进主义活动，当我来到值得信赖的十大棋牌娱乐平台时，我并不认为自己幼稚——在墨西哥湾沿岸从事了两年的种族和环境正义工作，并在纽约的社区花园和城市农场工作过. 但是，当我在大学的第二天走出宿舍，看到漆黑的天空时，什么也没有让我做好准备, a red sun, and falling soot. I expected idyllic California skies, 但迎接我的却是我在西海岸经历的众多野火中的第一场.

Fast-forward to 2023. 我从没想过会在新闻上看到我的家乡被加拿大野火笼罩的橙灰色烟雾所覆盖的照片. 我在值得信赖的十大棋牌娱乐平台经历过的烟雾弥漫的天空似乎不可能在那里发生. Our planet is on fire. It’s not an overstatement to say that. There are relative pockets of safety and calm, but in reality, a socio-ecological crisis is surrounding us everywhere all at once.

Our students understand that. If only that was the sole thing they had to worry about. But today they’re confronted by so many issues: absurd U.S. politics, the explosion of surveillance capitalism, AI, and crushing student debt with relief that was stopped by the Supreme Court. That isn’t all: There are floods in Pakistan and heat domes in the Pacific Northwest; melting sea ice; the sixth mass extinction (which is being caused by human activity); wars raging in Yemen, Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza; and hundreds of thousands of climate refugees fleeing drought and crop failure as emissions calculators and carbon concentration meters tick up.

An Uphill Battle

When I talk to Pitzer students now, it’s clear that being a socially responsible, critical thinker today can be overwhelming for them. It doesn’t surprise me.

And yet, 坐在我的办公室里，看着鼠尾草的生长，听着蜜蜂的嗡嗡声和鸟儿的啁啾声, I feel a terrible cognitive dissonance. It’s something that I share with so many in The Claremont Colleges community. Life can be beautiful here. It grows slowly and regenerates. We are here in Claremont to share knowledge and plan for our future, but what awaits us beyond the safety of this moment? 我从高中就开始为解决方案创造空间, but sometimes it feels like an uphill battle.

Our students are not immune to this upsetting reality. 在克莱蒙特大学的泡泡里，他们以自己的方式面对这个问题，并相互挑战，要求对方做点什么. 但富人和权贵似乎决心把我们从气候悬崖上拖下去，而不管我们的行动主义或科学.

我曾有机会和一些学生讨论过诸如千年生态系统评估(2005)之类的事情, 这篇文章为我们的世界提出了四种可能的未来环境情景. 这些场景分别是实力秩序、全球协调、适应马赛克和技术花园. 我告诉他们，感觉我们正在经历这四种情况的反常混合，各国在军国主义上花费更多, border walls, and surveillance than on climate finance to maintain order; where global orchestration around big issues is facilitated by the United Nations yet co-opted by fossil fuel interests; where AI, renewable energy, 物联网是我们解决复杂问题的最大希望，同时也让我们越陷越深，无法回头.

Adaptation is happening, 但我们是在共同努力，还是只是在不断变化的地缘政治格局中争夺最高地位?

A Thin Veneer of Safety

对于校园里的任何人来说，这些重大问题似乎离教室或格罗夫宿舍很远. Everything still seems OK here. 然而，安全与平静的外表并没有厚到让学生无法越过柑橘林，看到一个复杂而富有挑战性的景观. 即使在我们的区域范围内，同样的全球模式也正在复制. 我们这个世界的小角落实际上是一个庞大的柴油排放系统、全球化贸易和电子商务网络分销系统中的一个节点. 学生既是推动变革的积极分子，又是推动更多采矿的消费者, industrial processes, shipping, and ultimately the disposal of cheap goods.

We are all tied up in this system. The question is, now that we know we are, what will we do about it?

Arthur Levine ' 14(中)指出，Pitzer学院占地31英亩，拥有许多特色，如Pitzer学生花园，学生可以在这里发展他们的环保思维.

Southern California’s Inland Empire region, which extends from Claremont to Nevada, reflects the larger world. 我们的地区拥有美国最多样化的人口和最糟糕的空气质量和生活条件.S. 它也是亿万富翁的家园，也是亚马逊和其他财富500强公司盈利的基础设施. Warehouses and truck traffic dominate the soil, water, and air and push aside native plants, animals, and lands. The climate is heating, drought is increasing, and the population is growing, even though the region faces increasing vulnerability.

Small Steps Still Matter

我们的学生有途径参与过渡到一个生态健全的社会. 作为Redford Conservancy团队的一员，也是5c社区的一员, I feel like this is my biggest contribution to them. 当学生对未来和他们的贡献感到愤世嫉俗时，他们就想放弃. That’s exactly where fossil fuel, big tech, and big pharma want them to be.

The Redford Conservancy may be a small organization in the grand scheme, but we prepare students to avoid falling into this trap. Our students learn to support communities on the front lines, confront harmful projects at the planning and advocacy level, expose corruption, write, document their work, generate and visualize data, and do meaningful scientific research and solution-building. 通过我们所有的项目，我们向他们展示了一条穿越绝望通往未来的道路.

如果学生们觉得他们可以投入工作，让世界变得更美好, that is a victory. It matters. 提醒他们如何做到这一点是我们作为教育者可以争取的最重要的胜利之一.