Environmental education

Subhankar Banerjee spent 14 months in the Arctic taking photos of wildlife and lakes and sky and native people. His photos have been shown all over the world.

Banerjee's photos were shown on the floor of the U.S. Senate, where they helped defeat a proposal to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

There is nothing partisan about his photos, Banerjee told the Deseret Morning News in a telephone call from New York City. Still, he believes they may have changed some minds in places like Washington and Fairbanks — and yes, well, maybe in every place he shows them.

On Thursday, a display of Banerjee's photos will open at the Museum of Utah Art and History in downtown Salt Lake City. That night Banerjee will join author Terry Tempest Williams and bird expert David Allen Sibley in a celebration called "From the Arctic to the Red Rock: An Evening of Environmental Humanities."

The event honors the opening of the new College of Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah. In addition to lectures by the three naturalists, the evening will include music by seven Utah Symphony musicians, as well as light and slide shows.

Tim McInnis, assistant dean in the College of Humanities, bills the event as "the intellectual equivalent of Cirque de Soleil."

"Banerjee will inspire us with his words and images of the Arctic, then hand the baton to David Sibley, who will 'fly' us down to the Great Salt Lake and describe the magic of the wetlands, then hand the baton to Terry Tempest Williams, who will bring us all home to Utah's red rock wilderness," said McInnis.

Williams has been named to a three-year endowed chair in the new humanities program, which basically means she will teach undergraduate and graduate students. She'll be teaching them writing and also the philosophy of environmental activism. Biologists and other scientists will also teach courses.

It's this interdisciplinary approach to environmental studies that is exciting to Robert Newman, the dean of the College of Humanities, and to David Livermore, the director of the local Nature Conservancy. The conservancy is a co-sponsor of the Nov. 4 event.

"Humanities have long played a role in teaching a holistic view of natural resource management," said Livermore. He commends the U. for starting a program that will "connect the dots between different disciplines and allow scientists to interact with those in the liberal arts."