As part of a seminar he's taking at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad, Richards traveled to the frigid country to investigate climate change up close.
In November, Tim Richards '10 had the opportunity to fulfill a dream he's had since he was five years old: visiting Greenland.
Richards visited the frigid country, specifically the area in and around the city of Kangerlussuaq, as part of a class he's taking at Denmark's Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) called“Greenland—A Scientific Expedition.” In preparation for the trip, Richards and his classmates learned about Greenland's geology, biology, and ecology. The course emphasized Greenland's effect on climate change, as well as climate change's impact on the country.
Traveling to the edge of Greenland's enormous ice sheet was a definite trip highlight, says Richards, a philosophy major who is spending the entire fall semester at DIS. The journey to the ice sheet involved a three-hour drive across a snow-drifted road—one of only 400 kilometers of road on the entire island. “The terrain was otherworldly—rocky, mountainous, icy, snow being rapidly drifted by the winds which were strong enough to support your weight when leaning into them,” he says.“The Arctic is like a desert, except with snow. The landscape was sublime.” He was also impressed to witness a giant laser beam being projected 100 kilometers into the sky in order to measure the activity of the aurora borealis.
Richards was most struck by the degree to which human life in the Arctic is difficult to sustain.“I don't understand how Inuits lived there for thousands of years before modern technology,” he says.“I almost felt like I was on a different planet where I didn't really belong.”
Richards' environmental activities extend beyond his Greenland trip. In December he'll go to Copenhagen to attend the COP15 international climate conference, the 15th Conference of the Parties under the United Nations' Climate Change Convention. Richards has been granted observer status by the Wilderness Society, where he worked last summer. He has also been nominated for the Watson Fellowship; if his proposal is accepted, he'll spend next year traveling among five continents to study the theory and practice of sustainability firsthand in ecological communities.
In January, Richards will present his senior thesis at the Sixth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability at the University of Cuenca in Ecuador. His thesis is entitled“Beyond Environmental Morality: Towards a Viable Environmental Ethic(s).”
Explains Richards,“In attending environmental conferences and reading environmental literature, I found them all to have a weighty, sanctimonious tone. Making people feel bad about themselves is not an inspiring basis for a movement.” In his thesis, he argues that“we can creatively re-imagine the way we do and make things so as not to be harmful to the environment by default.”
Professor of Philosophy Kathleen Wright had suggested that Richards submit his thesis to the conference, even though it is normally geared towards graduate students and professional academics.“I can't believe I'm going to present at an international conference with people who think about these issues for a living,” he says.“I hope to get people thinking differently about environmentalism and have my mind opened to other approaches and angles as well.”
