Environmental Values

We cannot begin to know ourselves until we can see the real reasons why we do the things we do, and we cannot be ourselves until our actions correspond to our intentions, and our intentions are appropriate to our own situation.
— Thomas Merton

Every day, we act in the world . Some of our actions are natural. We breathe in and breathe out, inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. But most of our actions are cultural and-individually and institutionally-they are actions of value. Sometimes we know we're acting on our values. But most of the time, we're not thinking in ethical terms. We're acting according to the habits of our heart, and those habits are shaped by our culture. We're conforming to the expectations of other Americans, past and present.

We act based on what we know and what we value. What we know-our ecological literacy-affects how we see the world and our place in it. Ignorance affects our actions-and not just the stuff we don't know. As Mark Twain said, "It's not what we don't know that hurts us, it's what we know for certain that just ain't so." Ecological literacy is interdisciplinary. It's a matter of science-biology and chemistry and physics-but it's also a matter of social science, history and the arts.

What we value-our environmental ethics-also affects how we act in the world. As people work to make the world more sustainable, we'll need to think about our values. Indeed, sustainability itself is a value. In 1995, the Merck Family Foundation commissioned a study called Yearning for Balance that concluded that America is "a society at odds with its values." So it's good educational practice to think carefully not just about what we know, but also about our beliefs and behavior.

What do St. Olaf students know and what do we value? To help us answer this question, we designed two surveys-one to measure ecological literacy, and one to measure environmental values. We plan to give them to our first-year classes in January, and to report the results here.

They'll help us with our teaching, and with assessment of St. Olaf's environmental impact on its students.

As soon as they're finalized, we'll post copies of the survey here so that other colleges can use them. They're also available in an on-line format, so if you'd like your students to take them, please contact Jim Farrell at farrellj@stolaf.edu.