Environmental Writing 2018

Ramapo College, April 2018
(photo/Jan Barry)

The world as classroom. That’s ever more so these days as global climate change raises crucial questions around the world and in our own lives.  A wide variety of global and backyard environmental issues, from farming in the Garden State to world sustainability, caught the attention of 14 student-journalists in the Spring 2018 Environmental Writing course at Ramapo College. The cross-curriculum class drew a lively mixture of juniors and seniors majoring in environmental studies, science, communications and literature.

Ramapo College environmental studies students speak at Ramapo River
Watershed Conference, April 2018  (photo/Geoff Welch)

The class was honored to host a distinguished visiting professor—Thilmeeza Hussain, who teaches World Sustainability at Ramapo College; she is a former deputy ambassador of the Maldives to the United Nations and a 2018 Aspen Institute New Voices fellow—and a number of distinguished speakers. These included Ramapo River Watershed Keeper Geoff Welch, Secaucus Environmental Director Amanda Nesheiwat, Alexa Marques of Teaneck Creek Conservancy, Elliott Ruga of the NJ Highlands Coalition, Josef Corso of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Ramapo College Environmental Studies Professors Chuck Stead, Howard Horowitz and Harriet Shugarman. 

Elsewhere in Bergen County: Bald eagles' home in Ridgefield Park
  endangered by mall construction behind riverside grove of trees, April 2018
(photo/Jan Barry)

  

The styles and formats the class participants used to engage and enlighten readers range from poetry to press releases, letters to the editor to literary analysis to scholarly essays, magazine feature stories to blogs and specially created websites. The broad range of their concerns are conveyed in several headlines for work posted on the class website, http://ramapolookout.blogspot.com/:

Indigenous Women Speak out, Work to Be Saviors of Our Planet

Ode to a Season Late in Coming

Students Lose Class Time Because of Dangerous Weather

Mapping the Effects of Climate Change

A Native’s Take on Puerto Rico in the Wake of Hurricane Maria

Across the World, Young People Are Getting into Environmental Politics