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Show Monday, January 7, 1991 The Daily Utah Chronicle - Page Nine Feature miwiiroiniinnieinift By Gregory Thilmont Chronicle Feature Writer Belatedly, world consciousness concerning the state and possible future of the natural has world become unprecedentedly heightened. Issues which range from global warming and acid rain to deforestation are now well known. These are global issues, with far reaching implications and what can seem like an endless convolution of problems and possible solutions. Local manifestations of the changing environmental awareness are readily observable. In the Union Building, strategically located green cans receive polystyrene for recycling. A year ago, these plates and cups would have headed for the trash foeios if Deefttoir end of nature in attract a large and interested his lecture. As this series was inspired by the audience. "In the series we want to drastic changes in the world of number environmental conissues fronting the is undergoing, McKibben will two discuss of this aspects the change actual physical alterings of the world. We will also present positive means that people can do to help the environment and the philosophical situations." She added that the people questions which surround these changes. In his appearing in the series are world book renowned and writers McKibben stated, "In the last three decades the scientists. amount of carbon Though caliber lecturers dioxide in the atmosphere has heap. Students can go out of increased more their way to contribute to that than ten percent. environmental cause, but a walk out of the building presents yet another problem. On a typical winter day, the Salt Lake valley sky is a soupy, gray mess of pollutants. The destruction of the atmosphere is easy to experience first hand. However, the destruction of primeval forests in the Amazon Basin is a distant and mysterious In the decade, last an immense "hole" has opened up CHRONICLE PHOTOJohn Telford above the South Pole each Fall. . . The percentage of West German forests damaged by acid rain has risen from less than ten percent to more than fifty percent." According to McKibben, man about these issues is the aim of an upcoming lecture series given by the Utah Museum of Natural History. Entitled The End of Nature?, the series will be composed of six separate lectures on the world's bill of health. The title of the series was taken from a book of the same name The End of Nature by Bill McKibben. a McKibben, bestselling author and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, will begin the series by exploring what exactly is the creation where once there was a sweet and wild garden. "The air around us, even where it is clean and smells like spring and is filled with birds, is significantly changed. We have substantially altered the earth's atmosphere." McKibben's second approach to the ensuing dilemma. The philosophical Here is begins implications, the way man thinks about nature and his place in it, are changing as forests are burned and seas rise. "Nature used to be a place lay people. Anybody can come to the lectures and develop an understanding," said McKibben. Unfortunately, this is no longer true. "Changes in our world can happen in our lifetime not just changes like wars, but bigger and more sweeping events. Without recognizing it, we have already Monday, Jan. 14, will discuss the stepped over the threshold of such a change. I believe we are at the end of nature." Mankind's so called manifest destiny to conquer and utilize the world's resources, according to McKibben, should be questioned. "In other words, our sense of an unlimited future, which is drawn from that apparently bottomless well of the past, is a delusion." With McKibben's appearance tonight at 7:30 p.m., the series will commence. Though the material may seem at times ominous, Victoria Smith, the series' producer, believes it will Smith said. The second lecture, on flora of the world. Sarah Laird, director of the Periwinkle Project, will be lecturing. The project takes its name from the Rosy Periwinkle plant. This flower, found in the Amazon (and hence endangered), has yielded two powerful anti-canc- and miners to forest police. "We wanted people to see alternate views; some people make their living from these forests," Smith said. Another author, Terry Tempest Williams, will relate the story of Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan enviromentalist, on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. As coordinator of the Green Belt Movement a grass roots reforestation Maathai was featured in a PBS video, "Race to Save the Planet." "We had invited Maathai to speak in the series, but due to she could not fiolitical problems, program Smith said. This lecture will focus on the of individual's importance in where man could find God. Nature was always bigger than man and beyond his control," concerning the plight of rain forests from the forest's inhabitants themselves who range from Indians, ranchers, the prestigious, "the series is for has become an instrument of problem. It might be difficult for change like no other species someone to imagine how logging before, taking evolution to an 10,000 miles away from Utah accelerated state. With our could drastically affect his or her gaseous emissions, "We have life. built a green house a human To expose and present a forum a expose si?ds er want to show a to preserving benefit positive drugs. "We rainforests," Smith said. The fauna of the world will be covered by Dr. John W. Terborgh, director of the Duke University Center for Tropical Conservation. Terborgh will be lecturing on Monday, Jan. 21. Monday, Jan. 28 will bring Bob Reiss, a journalist whose work has appeared in the The Washington Post and the Smithsonian Magazine. Recently returned from Brazil, he will present differing opinions making positive changes. The lecture series will end on Monday, Feb. 4. At that lecture Dr. Elliott A. Norse of the Center for Marine Conservation will speak on the ancient coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, while relating them to the world problem. These coastal forests, according to Smith, are as endangered as their Brazilian counterparts. The Museum, along with its (which include Red Butte Gardens and Arboretum and Kennecott Copper Company), designed the series to inform and help people realize that their actions affect the environment. These actions, according to McKibben, affect "where the forests stop and the tundra or the prairies begin; where the rain falls and where the arid deserts squat; where the wind blows strong and steady; where the glaciers form; how fast the lakes evaporate; and how high the seas rise." The lectures will take place in the East School High Auditorium. For additional 7 or information call 581-488- 581-692- 7. Feeling winter blues? It may not just be the cold fever'," Steven Harrison, staff specialist at the Graduate School of Social Work, said. By Kathleen Ferguson Chronicle Feature Writer An inversion over the Salt Lake Valley has kept the sunlight hidden for seven straight days. Temperatures below 30 degrees Fahrenheit have become commonplace. Health advisories warn the public to stay indoors, while abandoned cars ($$$) decorate the sides of the road everywhere, Christmas break days numbered more than usual this year, and yet, it is time for students to attempt a fresh, clean start at a brand new quarter of rigorous study. Aaaaaagggggghhhhh! No wonder the phrase "winter quarter blues" is often heard across the campus during this time of year. According to many, it is not just a phrase, it is a reality. "We used to call it 'cabin "When I lived in Alaska for a few years, during the winter months being confined to the indoors became uncomfortable and sometimes unbearable to some and thus, the ability to cope with everyday life became hindered," Harrison said. However, Harrison said he doesn't have a problem with the "winter blues". He said he beats them because he loves winter sports, doesn't mind the cold weather and is able to get out and enjoy himself and life during the winter. Unfortunately, however, not everyone can share his winter wonderland optimism and the "winter quarter blues" begin to affect one's ability to study, concentrate and just have a good general outlook on the season. Daniel Christensen, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the U., said research over the past eight years or so at the National Institute of Health has suggested that when the amount of sunlight available decreases, people become depressed. Only six percent to eight percent actually become clinically depressed, or in need of professional help. The "winter blues" is known to the medical community as "Affective Seasonal Disorder." "One of the theories for this winter blues is that it is the deprivation of sunlight which surrounds us, perceived by the eye and transmitted through various parts of the brain most specifically the Pineal Gland causes some people to react," said Christensen. "For those who have this sort of that depression, the more common symptoms are that they often begin to oversleep they just don't want to get up in the morning. They have a tendency to overeat and gain weight. Generally, their energy level is very low, and it sometimes affects their ability to concentrate," he said. Christensen said Affective Seasonal Disorder is almost never seen in the tropical part of the world, but the further north (or south) one goes, the more common this kind of depression becomes. Affective Seasonal Disorder is treated in a number of ways. The most common is the purchase of full spectrum lights to be used in the home, office and anywhere a person spends a lot of time, medications such as Prozac, are also used, but only in the most severe cases. For most, the "winter blues" is a mild disorder that can be combated with common sense and the acceptance that something does see "blues on page eleven |
