Archive for ‘Indiana Dunes’ Category

Join Us on August 17 for the Indiana Premiere of ‘Green Fire’ and the Launch of the ‘Ethic of the Indiana Dunes Region’

Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time, Relatos: Giving Voice to Local Ethics around the World

June 5th, 2011

Join the Center for Humans and Nature and the Lake Michigan Coastal Program of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources on August 17th, at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center in Porter, Indiana for the free Indiana public premiere of Green Fire: Aldo Leopold And A Land Ethic For Our Time. Curt Meine, the Center for Humans and Nature Director of Conservation Biology and History, and the film’s on-screen guide, will be part of a panel discussion following the film.

Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Lake Michigan Coastal Program
Center for Humans and Nature

The event  also highlights the launch of the Ethic of the Indiana Dunes Region, with commentary by Thomas Anderson, Cassandra Cannon, Kathryn Kintzele (Center for Humans and Nature Director of Global Responsibilities), Nicole Messacar, Charlotte Read and Laurel Ross.The event is hosted by Indiana Dunes Tourism. To get more details click here to view the invitation.

More posts about Aldo Leopold, Indiana Dunes, Kathryn Kintzele, bioethics, citizenship, environmental ethics, environmental justice, ethics, governance, public health, public policy, smart growth, social movements

The Indiana Dunes Relato: Toward a Local Ethic of the Indiana Dunes Region

Global Program, The Biosphere Ethics Initiative, City Creatures: Rediscovering Human-Animal Relationships in Chicago’s Urban Wilderness

October 4th, 2010

Indiana Dunes State Park Manager Brandt Boughman with Climate Change Ethicist Donald Brown

Indiana Dunes State Park Manager Brandt Baughman with Climate Change Ethicist Donald Brown (Penn State University) at the Indiana Dunes State Park, Chesterton, Indiana, USA

The Global Program of the Center for Humans and Nature (CHN) hosted a successful meeting, and first step, toward a local ethic of the Indiana Dunes region, 14-18 September 2010. In its 5th annual Keeping Nature Alive Symposium, CHN, with support from Save the Dunes, the Tryon Farm Institute, the Field Museum and the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, brought together local, regional and international leaders to begin creation of a document and program that will inform partners and decision-makers of the ethical underpinnings of biodiversity conservation in the Indiana Dunes region. The Symposium, through presentations, dialogue, site visits and a drafting session, laid the foundation for the program that will continue through 2010 and beyond, with the Local Ethic to be printed in early 2011.

The Indiana Dunes sit on the banks of the Great Lakes, which make up 20% of the world’s freshwater, and house heavy industries such as British Petroleum, U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal. The main substantive themes of the Indiana Dunes Ethic include their particular Biodiversity; Social and Cultural History; Private-Public Partnerships; Education; Community Justice, Engagement and Activism; and Arts.

Relatos are the heart of the Biosphere Ethics Initiative (BEI). The BEI is a local-global soft law program aimed at incorporating ethical principles of conservation into law and policy. In a Relato, the partners of a particular region or nation-state highlight ethical principles in action, documented in particular settings in time by communities of practice. This informs the global Evolving Biosphere Ethic (launched in February 2010), as well as the creation of their own particular Local Ethic.

The Symposium report and drafting documents are currently underway and will be posted online. If you would like to be a part of this work, please do not hesitate to contact Global Program Director Kathryn Kintzele.

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5th Annual Keeping Nature Alive Symposium announced: “Implementing the Biosphere Ethics Initiative in the Indiana Dunes Region”

Global Program, City Creatures: Rediscovering Human-Animal Relationships in Chicago’s Urban Wilderness

October 29th, 2009

The CHN North American Global Responsibilities Program will work closely with its regional partners to develop a local Biosphere Ethic for the Indiana Dunes Region, leading to the 5th Annual Symposium in September 2010. The purpose of the local ethic will be to influence local governance structures and organizations to take biodiversity conservation ethics into consideration when planning. It will be the first local implementation of the global Biosphere Ethics Initiative, a soft law programme based in the social movement theory that pragmatic, justicial change occurs “from below.” Planning meetings have begun with the Save the Dunes Council and the Lake Michigan Coastal Program of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. For 10,000 years, water, wind and sand have worked to make the Indiana Dunes a place like no other on Earth, and for more than a century, civil society organizations and government leaders have been struggling to keep the humans and nature of the Indiana Dunes region alive. The Indiana Dunes are located on the banks of Lake Michigan, and with the other Great Lakes (found between the United States and Canada), they make up 20% of the world’s freshwater resources. International oil and steel companies have already found a home here, and there are new global threats daily, such as mining and pipelining. If you would like more information on this project, please contact the CHN lead staff for the initiative, Kathryn Kintzele.

More posts about Indiana Dunes, biodiversity, ethics

CHN’s Ron Engel Gives Lecture on Indiana Dunes to Nelson Institute Faculty and Students

May 20th, 2009

Ron Engel, CHN Senior Fellow, gave a lecture at the headquarters of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on the ecological, political, ethical, and religious significance of the century long struggle to preserve the Indiana Dunes to a group of thirty faculty and students from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, led by Professors William Cronon and Gregg Mitmann.

More posts about Indiana Dunes, J. Ron Engel, democracy, ecology, environmental ethics, ethics, public policy, religion