Spirit in Action

ENPH - Environmental Public Health At Work

A visit with 3 folks with the ENPH program - Environmental Public Health - at UW-EC, a training ground for professionals working with the intersection of public health and the environment. Crispin Pierce is the director of the program and Caleb Johnson and Patrick Bloecher are seniors in the program. At the same time they do the public work with ENPH, they are transformed personally by the experience.

Broadcast on:: 21 Feb 2010
Audio Format:: other

[music] ♪ Let us sing this song for the healing of the world ♪ ♪ That we may hear as one with every voice ♪ ♪ Every song we will move this world along ♪ ♪ And our lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpsmeat. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. ♪ Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world ♪ ♪ That we may dream as one ♪ ♪ With every voice, with every song we will move this world along ♪ Today for Spirit in Action, we'll again be looking at how we care for creation. I use that phrase "care for creation" rather than "environmentalism" because it treats us as part of the whole, while environmental implies implicitly that we are separate from the environment, the things that surround us. Over the past few weeks, I visited with Sam Thayer, wild foods foraging expert and author, Jim Bacchus, wildlife photographer and author, and with David Abbas, an author grid back to the lander, teacher, experimenter, and the organizer of a 500-mile expedition down the Mississippi called "Paddle for the Planet." And today, we're going to look at another aspect of care for creation. We'll be talking with folks involved with the University of Wisconsin O'Clare's Environmental Public Health Program, ENPH. We'll talk with two seniors in the ENPH major, Caleb Johnson and Patrick Blecker. But first, we'll talk with the head of the ENPH program, Chris Van Peirce. We'll talk to Chris Van, then Caleb and Patrick, about the training and work involved in the Environmental Public Health Program and their motivations and aspirations for this work, how they function professionally as spirit in action. Over the next hour, we'll welcome all three of them into the Northern Spirit Radio Studios. [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] [ Background noise ] I don't know. I feel like there are so many different doorways to step through with this field and this career. I think there's a lot of opportunity both on global levels as well as domestically, you know, working within our government but also working with people of other countries and trying to get out because, you know, in reality, the environment here and the choices we make affect people on the other side of the planet. And the more we become aware of this and realize that there's a need for sustainable practices and a kind of an awareness of the policies and the actions we take and their effect on other people. And I think that by encouraging a more sensible sort of growth or a more smart growth, I think we can figure out a way to try and be a little more sustainable with our practices. And right now, you know, it seems like there's a lot of consumption going on and the resources are starting to dwindle. And if we keep up at the rate we're going, you know, we might not be able to support the life that we know what our lifestyles that we have. So I guess I would like to work with trying to get in and maybe help design some of these policies and help get that voice at the table that says we have to be aware that the decisions we make not only affect the health of the environment, but they directly affect the health of the people that live within it. And in order to try and sustain a better society that will incorporate and be conducive to health of people, we have to try and work to make sure we're more mindful of the decisions we make. Perhaps seeing what you've seen, you're not so opposed to government regulation. There's been a significant movement that says we got to downsize government, get government off our backs. It doesn't sound to me like Caleb, you're thinking that getting government off our backs is like government's got a really vital role. What about you, Pat? How do you see does government belong in here? Does the UN, does the US federal government state, what levels appropriate to deal with these things? To me, it seems that both stakeholders, the private industry and the government have to sit down together and figure these things out because obviously there's a disconnect between things. And you know, all these different corporate industries of the private sector always said, you know, we want less government, more of a laissez-faire government, stay off our back. But if you look what happened to some of these industries when they started going under, they came to the government for help. You know, in time of need, they wanted the taxpayer dollar and the bailouts, but then in times of prosper, they don't want any government action. So I think that's kind of two-sided. I believe there's got to be more cooperation between the two to try and come to something that's better for the wealth and the health of the entire nation. You're both seniors in the environmental public health major. Have you had any specifically stunning moments, things where you learn and you said, wow, my mind is open changed. I had no idea that this was out there. Some aspect of the world or the way that we interact with the world where you've really felt like this intellectual awakening really changed things for you. Caleb, you got some comments? I guess I would phrase it in the sense that it's sort of been at the end of my education here at Eau Claire. It's kind of been a culmination of a connection of all the dots here. I suppose all these courses could be looked at as dots drawing a bigger picture of some sort. I think that's what's really happened for me in these last few years of school, junior and senior year. I've really begun drawing the lines between these dots of classes and connecting demography, biology and ecology and communications and all these different fields that seemingly are unrelated on the surface. When you break them down, you essentially see a lot of connections between social science classes and hard science classes and the need for cooperation between all these different facets of your education to be able to truly understand global issues and in-depth critical thinking. So it hasn't been one class as so much as the understanding, the connections between all the classes now at this point. I guess I would like to also outline one class specifically that kind of combines two different fields as environmental economics or the economy of the environment top by Eric Jamelsky. I have an environmentalist in the area of Eau Claire here. He really brings together the understanding of how humans impact the environment and what that impact has on humans in terms of economic growth. I'm really taking a step back and looking at the economy with the environment incorporated into it rather than how it's kind of traditionally been seen as the economy and then the environment as an additional sidekick. I've had experiences in the world that taught me to think differently about how we are really impacting one another, the world impacting us and we are impacting the world. I had heard long ago about the ozone hole that was over Antarctica and how that was growing because of stuff we're doing on the earth. It didn't really strike me that that was a really big deal until I went to New Zealand. And when I was there at the beach, you'd see people dressed up like they did in the 1920s in this country with long sleeve tops and bottoms. And on the news each day where we'd hear wind chill or that kind of thing, they'd have the burn time and it would be anywhere from 30 minutes down to seven minutes before you'd get a sunburn because of the amount of ultraviolet rays that are coming through. So have there been bits of knowledge like that that have hit you that you just went wow, the world is a different place than I thought it was. I did a semester in Costa Rica and living down there and seeing the differences but then the similarities as well between their way of life and ours. You know it's really opened my eyes to see that there is a lot more at stake than just what might be out your back door. It's what's crossed the pond as well so they say. What do you think Caleb? Yeah a project that I did for one of our ENPH classes that took a look at something similar to that was looking at the electronic waste produced in the United States and how that gets treated in a lot of Asian, South and Central Asian countries like India and China and some of these less wealthy countries are taking our waste and breaking it down to its raw elements in an unregulated, unsupervised fashion and what's been the result is trash villages essentially electronic waste computer shells and TV boxes and things like that stacked you know 15 feet high and people walking through them like trenches in World War one and two and acid baths to remove some of these heavy metals and things like that in the electronic components and the acids just dumped directly into the river that is served as the villages water source because this is a niche they've found that they can make some money off of the raw materials but in the long term their health costs and other effects of this improper disposal of these wastes and processing of these wastes is causing enormous issues economically and health wise for these people and will continue to do so for many years because of our irresponsible disposal of the waste or someone trying to make a profit by having it disposed of in a cheaper fashion by exporting it over there and so that's a real complex thing to think about how is learning these kind of things changed you and I'm talking about the internal values I think you were just commenting on this too Pat you were talking about how you got changed when you got this other view of the world of course this program is spirit and action and I'm interested in the linkages about the ways that we see and experience the world within the spiritual blueprint that we're looking at for the world and how that motivates and supports us in healing the world there's a lot of healing to be done and whether it's in those villages over in Asia or whether it's down in Costa Rica and how have either of you been changed Pat or kill him I feel that just from learning more and more you know in educating myself as well as being educated you kind of start to develop a sense of awareness and more mindfulness about your own actions and also the actions of other people and how that affects the greater picture in reality a lot of these you talked about healing a lot of the ways we do that now is a quick fix a band-aid or a way to just kind of solve the problem for a little bit or cover it up or push it off to the side there's been a disconnect for such a long period of time that's almost ingrained into us to separate ourselves from a problem the more I learned about public health and environmental health is that it's based in prevention and trying to get to the root of these problems and attack the cause versus trying to just solve it on the downstream end I think that the more people are aware of the problems that are out there and become more mindful of situations of others around them and in the world the more they can make a choice that would hopefully be a better alternative you know instead of having things shipped from the other side of the planet so we can have them in our living rooms maybe it's time we need to start focusing on how can we either get by without that or maybe get by with a product that was produced more locally those are ways that people in general could be changing and you know that the world could improve for the better have you made any specific changes yourself I mean did you decide to eat local did you decide not to use the hairspray that was destroying those on level I mean I don't know what's happened for you I guess I try and just live a little more consciously of what I'm doing instead of you know getting in the car and driving maybe take the bicycle or walk you know to save a little bit of gas and it you know it saves not only resources but your own resources the money in your own pocket so a lot of it if you look at it on your own finances you can make these changes and it benefits not only you but also things around you and I guess I like to shop a lot at the farmers market downtown in the summer I wish they had more opportunities to do that year round we've got a great local food co-op down the street here and it you know that gives people access to some of these fruits and vegetables and things that are more locally produced probably have less environmental impact and are healthier for folks I guess what I've done to try and change in my own life just cutting back a little bit and maybe being aware that if these instant gratifications aren't really going to help me or anybody else out I'm just trying to be a little bit more mindful of what I do what about you Caleb how's this work for you I guess in response to how I've changed spiritually over my time at UW Eau Claire I would say my course work has really led me to find faith in the supernatural based on the natural and I would describe that as some of the wonders that just take place in everyday life DNA replication disease resistance hydrogelogic cycles just miracles of the natural world on such a microscopic scale with how patterned atoms are how my new molecules can be arranged in such complex ways to create such enormous macroscopic beings and just the dynamics of how nature works in the ebb and flow and there's just so much undeniable mystery in science that although we've been able to observe it and prove it and find fact in it it's still to me just miraculous and how life is found away on a rock you know floating in space and could potentially have on a few other rocks somewhere that we you know we don't know about what's out there completely in the universe and so the earth itself has been given the opportunity to have life and that humans have been given the opportunity to be self conscious or aware of their ability to affect those creating properties that have essentially led to life it's just it's just amazing how science has opened up my mind to a lot of miracles that can't really be explained other than faith in the force of life and you know however people describe that force of life be a singular being or as a force or something like that I would say I feel it more and more with my increased knowledge in the many ways that it affects my life and that's the way I've come to change is thinking more about the connections my life has with my surroundings and things like that and the reliance that I have on my surroundings and whether it be my loved ones or my local resources that I have and you know the clean water that we have here in Eau Claire and the great soil and blue skies and I mean living in this part of the country is a real blessing I was raised in Catholic and one of the first things I remember learning in terms of the religious education there's ten commandments right you know you don't kill people you don't lie you don't steal that kind of thing whatever it is I think as our world evolves and becomes more complex people have filled up more of the area that perhaps we need additional rules to be guiding us from the background can either of you think of perhaps a command that we could add to the ten commandments that would be in tune with what you've learned through the ENPH through this environmental public health study that you've done you got an idea Pat? Yeah I would say maybe we could add the old idea of there's no free lunch if people would realize that everything comes at a cost and trying to figure out what that cost may be might lead to you know a little bit more compassion a little bit more mindful decision making I guess I wouldn't add one as much as change possibly thou shall honor the mother and father to thou shall honor the mother and father as well as thine offspring because I think that's something we've forgotten is that there's generations to come Pat talked about the concept of instant gratification and that's the way society lives these days is the here in the now at one time they had that mindset that they needed to plan for generations to come I need to be ready for retirement in twenty years as opposed to I need to retire right now The planning for the future is I think something that's been lost in our instant gratification society and I know a lot of Native American cultures had in planning for seven generations down the line and planning their actions to correspond with how it was going to affect their offspring their offspring offspring and maybe we need to take into consideration more the people who are going to be here after us as well as giving honor to the people who have been here before us so I think that would maybe be a good addition to the commandments If you're willing to speak about it where did you come from religiously and how's your study has your learning changed your relationship to your religious or spiritual upbringing I grew up as a Catholic in Hudson I went to St. Patrick's Church in Hudson through high school and sort of fell away from the church as freshman in high school which led me to not be confirmed through the church and so although I was raised a Catholic I guess I've never been confirmed as a Catholic and I really don't attend a Catholic church I would say I've found faith in nature as I've said before now and so I guess church for me is maybe a couple hours hiking around in the woods and really giving gratitude in your own way to whatever provider is responsible for those privileges you get to see on a daily basis Pat, how about for you? I was also raised Catholic right now I don't go to church every Sunday in conventional style church I guess that doesn't mean though that I don't feel spirituality or any kind of greater sense of purpose or the idea that there is a higher power but currently I guess more of my spiritual growth has been through self-reflection and reflecting on the actions of myself and others and trying to search for more understanding in those things and you know I don't confine myself I guess to one religion right now and you know I'm not saying that I pick and choose from each but I think it's important to try and look at all the different religions and beliefs of the world and try and take something positive from each of them and maybe instead of you know identifying differences in these religions maybe there's things that we can understand that are common between the two and maybe pull those together to gain even a better understanding of what's going on Well where the world has taken you is to major in the CNPH program here at the University of Wisconsin-au-Claire it's constantly involving program it's been there for 40 years where should it go is it a valuable part of this university is a valuable part of the American landscape does it need to grow shrink modify you've been sitting in the tables and the chairs there watching it you have any input as to where it should move from here I think the only way it could go is forward it's a great program and I think it's only going to grow it's a broad field and it's a program that's very important I think and sustaining life and trying to get some of the ideas out there that we've been talking about I hope it continues to grow and expand in the future Pat do you think it specifically fits in a liberal arts education as opposed to say technical college could you do this at a technical college would that be sufficient or is it somehow appropriate in this growing ground of the liberal arts? I think there's aspects of it that probably could come from a technical school as far as you know some of the lab sciences and those kind of technical fields but in order to I think gain even more from it it has to be in a liberal education setting or a four year school where you have that exposure to many different fields and you can pull together more ideas so I think that the advantage of having it in a four year school or a liberal arts school is that you get that exposure to different fields and you can therefore paint a better picture for yourself about what's important and what's going on I think the nature of the program here at Eau Claire is it's a comprehensive major and so focusing it so finally as to fit it into the guidelines of a technical college or vocational styling university just seems unreasonable with the nature of the learning that goes on it's very diverse grouping of classes that we have to take and the job itself it's a very diverse job and without having taken some of those economic courses and communications and social science courses and understanding things outside of just how to test water quality and things like that my learning of those has really enhanced my ability to interact with operators at different facilities and creatively and critically think for the greatest outcome that I'm trying to achieve rather than a A to B B to C mine track that maybe is found more often at a vocational university when I think Eau Claire has an opportunity pretty unique opportunity is this is one of only 28 I believe programs in the nation that offers this kind of degree I think it's something that they have an opportunity to take a lot of pride in and promote the fact that we have this professional critically thinking degree it does sound like a great program I'm really honored that you came here spend your time with me here today and I want to say go forth and make a real difference in the world it looks like you're poised to do that and I can't help but think the world will be better for it thanks both Pat and Caleb thank you for having us Mark we've been speaking today with three people involved with the ENPH environmental public health program at UWEC those were Patrick Blecker and Caleb Johnson preceded by the director of the ENPH program Crispin Pierce the theme music for this program is turning of the world performed by Sarah Thompson this spirit in action program is an effort of Northern spirit radio you can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website northernspiritradio.org thank you for listening I am your host Mark helps me and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit may you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light this is spirit in action with every voice with every song we will move this world along with every voice with every song we will move this world along and our lives will feel the echo of our healing