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Rev. Al Masters

Dr. Charles McKelvey

September 28, 2009

Former interim chaplain, Rev. Al Masters, and sociology professor Dr. Charles McKelvey led off this year’s Lillian and Marshall Brown Lecture Series on Sustainability in Belk Auditorium on September 22.

Masters discussed how ecology and theology are related, pondering the questions “Is God green?” and “Does God recycle?”

“Regardless of your political perspective or religious beliefs, whether you’re Greek or non-Greek, whatever your major, sustainability is the one issue that brings us all together with the global community,” Masters said. “We are, all of us, humankind, plants, and animals, a part of the solution, and we as humankind are probably more part of the problem.”

Masters noted that earlier generations didn’t have the opportunity to recycle industrial waste, and, while we have recycling opportunities today, the land has suffered. He also discussed the added air pollution that will result from China’s and India’s imminent car revolutions.

Further, Masters discussed “eco-justice,” which he defined as “the direct link between ecological health and economic justice.” The former chaplain referenced environmental justice advocate and economic consultant Majora Carter, who regularly asks scientists if they believe we would have the same sustainability issues today if energy, transportation, and agriculture waste infrastructures were sited near affluent people as easily as they are sited near poor people.

“If we want to get serious about sustainability, we must first get serious about the issue of poverty,” Masters said.

Masters mentioned several ways that PC and the local community could practice sustainability, such as turning off all electronics each Friday at sunset, partnering with Upstate Forever, installing solar panels on the campus bookstore, and holding an environmental Olympics competition among student groups.

“Maybe we could design a covenant of simplicity to challenge our consumer culture,” Master said.

McKelvey, who directs the Semester in Cuba program, discussed "The Greening of the Reds: The Search for a Sustainable and Just World System,” exploring the relationship between world economic systems and the environment.

“Human use of essential resources has surpassed levels that are sustainable,” McKelvey said. “Without a change in patterns of consumption, uncontrollable decline will occur.”

The sociology professor cited The Limits to Growth, a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies.

“Human society has overshot ecological limits in regard to population growth, fertilizer consumption, soil degradation, fresh water resources, deforestation, the extinctions of species, world energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions,” according to McKelvey.

“We need to change the structure of the system,” McKelvey said.

The sociology professor discussed how world systems have affected the land. According to McKelvey, there has been a growing global awareness since the 1960’s of the role of conquest and domination in human economic and cultural development.

“Domination can no longer be the foundation of development,” McKelvey said. “We have reached the geographical limits of the earth.”

Domination threatens the ecological balance of the earth, according to McKelvey.

He said that people can help alleviate the ecological crisis, as well as other crises caused by the present world system, by deepening their understanding of and committing to universal human values, having faith in the future of humanity, and becoming personally connected to the social movements formed by the peoples of the world that are seeking to develop a just and sustainable world.