LSP Environmental Studies Community Event Reports

I attended the Environmental Studies book release party on Wednesday September 17, 2008, which took place in the Kimball Hall Lounge from 5:30-7:30 pm. The two authors who were discussing their newly published books were Dale Jamieson, the academic director of and a professor in the Environmental Studies Program in NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences; and Tyler Volk, the Science Director of Environmental Studies and an Associate Professor of Biology in NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences.
This book release party should have been called “Schmooze with the authors and get free wine and cheese,” because that’s what it really was. There was a small bar with non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, a small table with appetizers and au-devours, such as assorted gourmet cheeses and meats, as well as various fruits and raw vegetables. There was also a table on the opposite side of the room where copies of the two books were laid out for people to sample and hopefully buy, made obvious by the fact that two NYU Bookstore employees were sitting at the ready with a portable credit card machine. As far as I know, the party didn’t have an official sponsor, but it could have been sponsored by the Environmental Studies department. Many of the people at the party were current or former professors in the Environmental Studies Program, and the rest of the party guests were either friends of the two authors, or NYU students or employees who noticed the free food and booze while passing by. I would estimate that during the half hour I attended the party, which was from 5:30-6 pm, there were 10-30 guests in attendance at any given time, with more people coming during the latter part of that half hour. I only saw one person buy a book, and it was because he was a friend of Dale Jamieson’s and was obviously looking to brown-nose him; as was evident during his lengthy conversation about what an amazing author and scientist Jamieson was, and how he told him he thought that “…both Obama and McCain should each read it before their upcoming debate...”
Dale Jamieson’s book is titled Ethics and the Environment: /An Introduction, and focuses on how the environment fits into living an ethical lifestyle; Jamieson brings up issues such as political philosophy, human morality, the value of nature, and other environmental and ethical issues. The book was published by Cambridge University Press, and sells at $29.99 for a paperback and $90.00 for a hardcover edition.
As a person, Jamieson seemed to be very upbeat and gregarious, obviously loving the attention he was getting from the party guests, but also very enthusiastic about his book and the issues, ideas, and opinions that he brought up in it. Tyler Volk on the other hand, was much more reserved and soft-spoken; but he too became very passionate when asked about the issues, processes, and resolutions that he presented in his book, CO2 Rising/ The World’s Greatest Environmental Challenge.
In CO2 Rising/ The World’s Greatest Environmental Challenge, Volk talks about how the rising levels of CO2 are changing the Earth’s natural processes and cycles, especially by altering its natural cooling process, leading to global warming. During a portion of his book, Volk actually takes the point of view of a carbon atom, and he follows it through one of the possible journeys a carbon atom could take: He follows a carbon atom into a leaf of barley and then into an alcohol molecule in a glass of beer. The carbon atom then enters the human bloodstream through digestion of the beer, and then is released back into the air. Volk believes that his readers will become educated about the carbon cycle on a global level and the disturbances that human activity creates for it, thus allowing them to make educated decisions if/when confronted with problems such as, which energy processes will best power civilizations in the future? What is a sustainable amount of energy use for different people in different parts of the world? What is the proper amount of global equity in per capita emissions?
This event was definitely a new experience for me. I’ve been to some business parties before because of my parent’s occupations that were somewhat similar to this event; but I had never attended a book opening, or attended an event with a bunch of academic socialites by myself. I already had previous knowledge about environmental sustainability and about rising levels of CO2, but by listening (and eavesdropping) on the authors, as well as reading the summaries and parts of each of their books, I learned more about the specific issues and problems that are creating these global concerns: Such as when the impact of population is combined with the impact of technology, the effect on the environment is multiplied, (Dale Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment: /An Introduction.)
After attending this event, my interest in environmental sustainability and global warming was not enhanced because I have heard so much about these issues in class, from NYU, television, and other media outlets. In my opinion, this event did not have value to any community because it was a private event meant to promote the books of two authors; it had no relevance to any community improvement, unless someone who attended the event took the knowledge that they gained from learning about the topics in the two books and used that knowledge to improve their respective communities. Obviously, this event was intended to have a positive impact on the environment by educating people on the current problems in it, and what we can do to correct them. However, there was no immediate positive impact on the environment that can be attributed directly to this event.
Once more, the book signing was a promotional event whose purpose was to advertise the books of these two authors, and I believe it did just that. The only way I would improve this event would have been to advertise it more so that a larger number of people could have found out about it and attended. If I hadn’t seen this event under the “Events Listing” on blackboard for our class, I would not have known about it. I checked my e-mail on the day of this event, and on the left side of the “NYUHome” page where events for that day within the university are listed, this was not mentioned; so either it was a very poor job of advertising by these two authors and NYU, or the book signing was meant to be a smaller gathering and only for people who were truly interested in Environmental Science.
Overall, I was indifferent to my experience at the book signing. I felt that it was interesting to see how professors, high-ranking university employees, and well-to-do New Yorkers interact; as well as being able to get free, high quality food while doing an assignment. Nonetheless, the atmosphere at the book signing was somewhat bland, and if someone who wasn’t interested in Environmental Science came to the event, they would have left immediately because there was no one to greet them and educate them about what the event was or what it was about.