The Rachel Carson Council in South Carolina
“When nature’s bank refuses to honor the drafts of the population for meat and bread … science is the only foundation on which we can depend for the recuperation of exhausted lands, or sustaining the fertility of those that are already tilled.”
Thomas Clemson, founder, Clemson University —1868 letter to the American Farmer
A land grant university with a founding mission of sustainable agriculture and a sustainable economy, the modern Clemson University has expanded its mission into a calling to operate the university and educate its students with a priority of social, economic and environmental well-being. Since 2007, Clemson has been a charter member of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, implemented a strong Climate Action plan keeping carbon emissions at the 2007 level even though since then Clemson has grown tremendously.
Given the alignment between Clemson’s goals and the Rachel Carson Council’s mission, commitment to climate justice, and current national campaign to end the clear-cutting of forests for the production of industrial scale wood pellets, RCC President & CEO, Dr. Robert K. Musil was invited in March to two of Clemson’s three campuses to lecture, give seminars, teach classes, and recruit applicants for the RCC’s National Environment Leadership Fellowship (NELF)
Musil began his visit at Clemson’s Rich Lab campus, a technology research and teaching center with a Department of Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science (EEEE) that focuses on environmental solutions and remediation. Musil was hosted by Debora Rodrigues, Chair of the EEEE Department, a microbiologist and water quality expert, and Sudeep Potat, an Associate Professor in EEEE and a specialist in waste water treatment.
At the Rich Lab campus, Musil presented to a combined graduate seminar about Rachel Carson’s warnings about the dangers of science and technology driven by efficiency and profit, as well as the corruption of science and scientific research by corporations who failed to have any feeling or compassion for people harmed by the production or pollution from their products. Musil highlighted the contemporary work of the RCC in environmental justice and its concern for those most harmed by such pollution such as those minority communities in South Carolina affected by the industrial scale production of wood pellets by clear cutting forests.
The next day, Dr. Musil visited the Clemson main campus, home to Clemson’s more than 20,000 undergraduates and a number of environmental programs and departments including the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation where he was hosted by Alan Johnson, Associate Chair and a member of the Clemson University Sustainability Commission.
Musil spoke in two separate classes of the “Introduction to Environmental and Natural Resources” where students had read Carson’s Silent Spring, The Sense of Wonder, her 1962 Commencement Address at Scripps College for Women, and essays from Musil’s blog, “Connections” about Rachel Carson and her values.
At the end of Musil’s time at Clemson, some 100 students, a dozen faculty, and a number of potential RCC NELF Fellows had signed up to be active in the RCC’s campus program and Clemson University became the 76th member of the RCC National Campus Network.
