Colloquia Series
A Pilgrim’s Wilderness Lessons on the Environment, War & Technology
April 12
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
7–8:30 PM
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
7–8:30 PM
Presented by Rick Bass, author/activist.
The evening’s talk and readings will trace the evolution of Rick’s time spent as an activist in northwest Montana’s Yaak Valley—an oil and gas geologist and hunter who fell in love with a wild landscape. For 30 years Rick has been working to protect the Yaak’s last wild places on public lands—national forests. He works both at the extremely local level, lobbying county commissioners for decades, and nationally, traveling to Washington, D.C. His years of experience as a geologist prior to becoming a writer led him to engage in global warming activism as well. He has been active both domestically and internationally attempting to protect lands and raise awareness—all while still remaining engaged as an artist, a writer of short stories.
The frenzy of the activist, writes Thomas Merton, can become a kind of violence unto itself. In a fragmented time of war, particularly the war against our physical environment, how does one seek to balance one’s desires against one’s responsibilities. Indeed, what are one’s responsibilities, in a time of war? Is balance no longer even possible, and now only a pretty pipe dream, a myth?
Rick Bass, Author/Activist