The U. Nebraska-Lincoln’s School of Natural Resources kicked off its research seminar series with a talk about water and the environment.
Speaker Eric Freyfogle spoke to students and faculty about law, environmental inaction and the need for collective action. The speech took place Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in the Hardin Hall Auditorium on East Campus. Freyfogle is the first of five speakers in the 2010 Research Seminar Series, sponsored by the school.
Freyfogle’s talk was called “Good Use of Water.” He is the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law.
“I hope I am here to provoke you, not in a political sense, but in an intellectual and moral sense,” Freyfogle said.
Freyfogle spent much of his talk focusing on one question he deemed exceedingly important: What does it mean to put nature to good use?
“We just can’t continue on the trajectory we’ve been on for the past 250 years,” he said.
Freyfogle said three vital tasks the world faces today are engaging in the good use of water and nature and really taking it seriously as an issue; rethinking the institution of private property rights for nature; and realizing all of this will require collective action.
“Collective action is what we need, and that is not going to come about unless we make changes,” he said, “voicing concerns publicly and having the government respond to it.”
As Freyfogle is not only a professor but a lawyer, much of the talk stressed his belief that it will require laws to get anything really accomplished. He said we must focus less on our day-to-day individual lives and come together as one large group to force lawmakers to write and pass laws that will accomplish goals.
Corinne Kolm, a natural resources graduate student, attended the talk for personal interest.
“To me, most interesting was his opinion on how best to affect organic change in this country based on the legal system,” she said.
Freyfogle said the word “environmentalist” has been demonized. No one knows really what the long-term goal is, let alone how to really get anything done.
Audience member and natural resources graduate student Christina Hoffman agreed.
“I think it’s an important thing,” she said. “I liked his idea of coming up with a new way of thinking about how we look at environmental issues and a new moral perspective.”
Freyfogle offered his input on where he said the world is right now and what the first steps are toward making progress.
“The problem we have today is we’re looking at our feet,” he said. “We need to bring our eyes up and look at the horizon. Where do we want to end up? Where should we be going? Where do we want to be in 100 years on the planet?”