Pluralism Lost: Sustainability’s Unfortunate Fall

• Published in: Academic questions 2010-03, Vol.23 (1), p.102-111
• Main Author: Wimberley, Edward T. “Terry”
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic freedom; Citizen Participation; Climate; Climate change; College Environment; Colleges & universities; Cultural Influences; Cultural Pluralism; Curriculum; Distance Education; Education; Educational Philosophy; Environmental Education; Environmental Influences; Faculty Recruitment; Florida; Global warming; Higher Education; Ideology; Interaction; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Natural Resources; Personnel Selection; Philosophy; Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Undergraduate Study
• ISSN: 0895-4852; 1936-4709
• DOI: 10.1007/s12129-010-9155-1

"Paradise Lost" explores the themes of human frailty, failure, and redemption following humanity's "original sin," eating of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. This original sin resulted in human beings being banished from an earthly paradise and compelled to wander eternally a world fraught with danger, despair, desolation, and death. "Paradise Lost" is Milton's attempt to understand humanity's predicament and to suggest how redemption might be realized. Milton's theme remains relevant to the relationship of human beings to the environment in the modern world. Concerned environmentalists assert that the earth's pristine resources are being destroyed by human culture and portray their own version of the ecological "hell" that will follow. Nowhere is their clarion call more strident than when warning about the global threat posed by climate change. According to these ecological alarmists, the apocalyptic outcome of human interaction with the planet can be avoided only by making dramatic changes in people's attitudes, behavior, cultures, and economies. In this article, the author offers an unflinching account of what happened in a very short amount of time when Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) carried its commitment to sustainability beyond the bounds of fair-minded intellectual pluralism. (Contains 12 footnotes.)