It is not enough to say that NEO is effectively striving for an environmentalist reputation. As cities around the country are exploring land use and energy management, citizen stewards, and an overall environmental impact assessment, Cleveland and its surrounding communities are looking desperately for residents and a sustainable economic base. We are ripe with resources and eager for education.

NEO has an opportunity to not only present the business practices of a sustainable economy, but also create educators of environmental stewardship. With little in the way of Environmental Education college level programs and plenty of future jobs in the field, an infrastructure waiting to be created is at hand.

What to teach? How about natural sciences and our local garden of eden where biodiversity is rich, abundant, and preserved. How about Native American practices and rights to the land? Spiritual practices that honor human beings as well as the world they are comprised of? The history of the area in terms of cultural diversity, of industrial evolution, of families lasting generations in the city because they consider it "home."

There are plenty of avenues to take in educating educators, professionals, entrepreneurs, and citizens. There are plenty of avenues to bring about an infrastructure for a more sustainable Cleveland culture. What if we created educators that want to educate around our Blue Lake. To give back to communities where the "man" has lost his stronghold and the opportunity for peace and wealth are within reach? Let us educate ecological citizens about opportunities in public policy, business, manufacturing, and education.
Which university will be the first to offer an Environmental Education Degree to its students?

Let us start THIS conversation.

It is the responsibility of all members of the Global community to inspire the youth (every subsequent generation) to take hold of their environment. From biodiesel to turning off the water while brushing your teeth, every individual is responsible for attending to the needs of children as if they were their own. To place into perspective the need for reusing materials by having the child's entire community reminding them of the need only fortifies the necessity for the action to take place.

What good green literature have you read? Interested in reading more? Here’s a source: Ecobooks from Independent Bookseller. Research here and then ask your local bookseller to order for you – keep the bucks in Northeast Ohio.

I found this site because I am reading a wonderful book by New Yorker favorite, John McPhee called Oranges. A great companion to Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire, this book reveals the history and culture of the citrus industry. I’m still waiting for Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma to come out in paper.

Also recommended: Green Empire: The St. Joe Company and the Remaking of Florida's Panhandle by Kathryn Ziewitz and June Wiaz, Michael Gruenwald’s The Swamp, Janisse Ray’s The Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. And for those who grew up in this region Annie Dillard’s wonderful treatise on growing up in Pittsburgh and on the shores of Lake Erie, An American Childhood. Out of print, but available online via CSU Library is the fabulous history of our own crooked river, The Cuyahoga by William Donohue Ellis. I found the history of shipping and of the beginning of public housing imminently fascinating.

It’s fast becoming a good time to put on your sweater and slippers and snuggle up to a good book by the fire. Perhaps you might enjoy some of these as I have.