Today’s guest post is by the Chair of the Global Climate Change Task Force, Shirley Fiske.
A nice thing. Except for the reality.
Earth Day is a nice thing, today celebrated in the District at Union Station with a farmers market, giveaways, exhibits fromNASA, and a recycling drive, all nice things. Seems like a pale comparison of the Earth Days of earlier years, when the entire Mall was dedicated to booths, displays and lots of gatherings. I supposed it’s not unexpected given the maturation of the event and the politicization of the environment and polarization politically that has developed in the intervening years.
Earth Days are a secular celebration, birthed at a time when people felt more spiritually about oneness with Mother Earth. As a public celebration, it seems to have lost steam…perhaps the complexity of American celebrating, and lack of support of the private sector in making our American personal and family celebrations viable as Big Bang events. Or perhaps it’s because the American public has learned through formal and informal education how to relate to the earth better, moving the threshold for Earth Day to a higher level of event-making.
Earth Day has adopted climate change as their focus, and that’s also a nice thing. There’s a “spot on” quote from a spokesman that “climate change has real consequences for real people as well as places that we love and animals.” This is something that the Task Force has written about and that most anthropologists studying climate change know already, and now it seems to be appropriated by Earth Day.
However, the part of the message that gets left out is one that anthropologists are all too familiar with. Yes, climate change is happening now to real people, but it is hitting the poorest with the least resources the hardest, forcing long-time residents on the coasts in the Pacific NW and Alaska to relocate or lose their resources. Compare the two coastal scenarios: (1) Alaskan Natives are fighting tooth and nail to find any scrap of federal resources (or any resources) to help them relocate from Shismareff (as Elizabeth Marino reminds us); and farther south, the Quinault are losing glacial melt from glaciers that feed their rivers and stream, and host the return of the salmon each year. They will lose those salmon as the runs continue to dwindle under climate change projections. Compare this to (2) the unnerving persistence of politically-entrenched legislation that buffers well-heeled residents and homeowners of beachfront property in the Outer Banks, the mid-Atlantic’s storm-prone and beautiful barrier islands. They enjoy the unique historical and political artifact of legislation that provides publicly supported coastal flood insurance, a dinosaur from the pre-climate change era, perhaps the only public insurance targeted to such a vulnerable geographic area. Under conditions of climate change, where are coastlines will be increasingly battered by storms and rising tides, how come entire regions get support while others don’t? where’s the environmental and social justice? Too cynical or an uncomfortable reality?
Filed under: Commentary | Tagged: climate change, Earth Day, Shirley Fiske | 2 Comments »
justice system. Dr. Dana-Ain Davis of Williams’ dissertation committee notes, “In addition to being an outstanding leader, Karen also has an outstanding record of academic achievement.” She is currently working on her PhD in anthropology at City University of New York. Karen received her Bachelors of Fine Arts at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in anthropology and continued on to receive a Masters of Arts in Performance Studies at New York University.
Searching for a Career in Anthropology
Today’s guest blog post is by anthropology student Ennis Barbery.
When Elizabeth Van Dolah and I became the student representatives for the Washington Area Professional Anthropologists (WAPA), we thought about the main reasons students are interested in attending WAPA’s events, and we held student happy hours to discuss what sorts of events students wanted. One of the main reasons that students become involved with WAPA is that we want to make connections with anthropologists working in the career settings to which we aspire. We want to learn about how they got started, the challenges they faced, and the advice they have for those of us trying to find our way into their chosen career field. With this knowledge about student interests and goals in mind, Elizabeth and I began planning the WAPA Career Panel that was held on the evening of April 2nd, 2013 at the Charles Sumner School in Washington, D. C.
For the panel, we attempted to recruit practicing anthropologists from a variety of sub-disciplines and working in different types of agencies. We ended up with a nicely balanced group of three: Kirsti Uunila, an archaeologist working as a Historic Preservation Planner for Calvert County, Maryland; John Primo, an ecological anthropologist working for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; and Frances Norwood, a medical anthropologist working as a social science research analyst for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. On the night of April 2nd, followed by some time to eat and socialize at a nearby restaurant, each of the panelists gave a brief talk about their current careers, explaining the paths they took in finding those careers, how mentors helped direct them, and giving advice to those wishing to get started on a similar path or to make a change in their current careers. Then, we opened up the floor for discussion. 25-30 people were in attendance and I recognized many of the attendees as students. The questions they raised ranged in topics, from navigating to the government job application website to balancing work and family; from the rationale for getting a PhD as compared with a master’s degree to recommendations about specific medical anthropology programs in the area.
Apart from the important advice that the panelists provided, this career panel helped to humanize these professional and very successful anthropologists for students. Sometimes, especially when we are insulated in coursework, it becomes difficult to imagine that we will eventually be getting paid to do anthropological research. The panelists told stories about bartending and cleaning park toilets. Their paths to their current careers were meandering, and the stories they told helped me relate to them and see myself as a practicing anthropologist.
Filed under: Career/Funding/Awards, Commentary | Tagged: career in anthropology, Elizabeth Van Dolah, Ennis Barbery, Washington Area Professional Anthrpologists (WAPA) | 2 Comments »