Spring Creek Podcast Spring Creek Project

In this episode, Jennifer Atkinson explains that the age of climate consequences is upon us, and anxiety and despair are rising along with global temperatures. To successfully face the challenges ahead, we need to build more than solar panels and sea walls — we also need to build the emotional resilience to stay engaged in climate work over the long haul. She offers five key steps for navigating the psychological and emotional impacts of climate change while channeling our anxiety into collective efforts to create a livable future.
Jennifer Atkinson is an author and Professor of environmental humanities at the University of Washington, Bothell. She researches eco-anxiety, grief and hope, and teaches seminars on climate and mental health that have been featured nationwide. Her most recent book, “The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators: How to Teach in a Burning World,” offers strategies to help young people navigate the emotional toll of climate breakdown. Her podcast “Facing It” also gives listeners tools to channel eco-anxiety into action.
This talk is part of the series “Collective Climate Action: Inspired Organizing for Our Future” produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University. If you’d like to watch a video version of this talk, it’s available on Spring Creek Project’s YouTube channel.

Welcome to "Collective Climate Action: Inspired Organizing for Our Future," a speaker series produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University.
This series includes talks from a wide range of speakers. They invite us to imagine a world that centers climate justice and inspire us to find our role in creating that future. We examine why collective action matters and how to find or redefine our roles in the climate movement.  And we explore how being a part of this critical social movement can help us live better, more meaningful, lives. 
We hope you share these talks with others to expand and inspire our collective work toward climate solutions.

Today’s “Luminaries” guest is Robert Michael Pyle, a renowned environmental writer, conservation biologist, butterfly expert, and Guggenheim Fellow. Bob is the author of nearly 30 books, including “Sky Time in Gray’s River,” “Chasing Monarchs,” “Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest, ”and “Wintergreen,” which received the John Burroughs Medal.
During this episode, Bob shares how Ann Haymond Zwinger’s book “Beyond the Aspen Grove” changed his perception of what environmental writing could be. 
Zwinger (1925-2014) was an American writer and naturalist. "Beyond the Aspen Grove," published in 1970, was her first book. She went on to publish 20 more books on natural history, often featuring her own beautiful illustrations. Her writing covered many landscapes, including American deserts, alpine tundra, and Baja California, Mexico. She became a specialist on Western rivers. Zwinger was nominated for a National Book Award in Science in 1973, won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing in 1976, and won the Western Arts Federation Award for nonfiction in 1995, among many honors.
“Luminaries” is produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University. This series invites people to share stories about writing and art that illuminates their environmental thinking or work.

Today’s “Luminaries” guest is Leah Wilson, a place-specific visual artist and writer. Leah’s artwork is informed by physical engagement with the environment, keen observation, and a curiosity toward ecological research. Her art has been exhibited at galleries throughout the West Coast and her work is in public and private collections, including the Percent for Art Collection at Oregon State University.
During this episode, Leah recounts her experience witnessing a video installation called “The Crossing” by video artist Bill Viola. She shares how, in the nearly three decades since she first saw the installation, it has impacted her relationships with fire and water. 
Bill Viola is an internationally celebrated artist who has been instrumental in establishing video as a vital form of contemporary art. In his 40-year career, he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcast. Viola’s video installations envelop the viewer in image and sound, employing state-of-the-art technologies. They are shown in museums and galleries worldwide and are found in many distinguished collections. “The Crossing” was created in 1996 and is part of the Guggenheim Museum’s collection.
“Luminaries” is produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University. This series invites people to share stories about writing and art that illuminates their environmental thinking or work.

Our inaugural guest on “Luminaries” is Kathleen Dean Moore, a climate activist, philosopher, celebrated environmental writer, and one of the co-founders of the Spring Creek Project. She co-edited the collection “Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril” and is the author of several books, including “Wild Comfort,” “Holdfast,” “Great Tide Rising,” “Earth’s Wild Music,” and “Take Heart: Encouragement for Earth’s Weary Lovers.”
During this episode, Kathy recalls a field course during which she and her students ponder the prose poem “Unchopping a Tree” by W.S. Merwin. Merwin (1927-2019) was an American poet who wrote or translated more than 50 books of poetry and prose, winning two Pulitzers and National Book Award, among many honors, in his decades-long career. In 2010, he was named the 17th Poet Laureate of the United States.
“Unchopping a Tree” was originally published in 1970. You can find it in Merwin’s prose collection “The Miner’s Pale Children” or as a standalone piece in Trinity Press’s gift edition.
“Luminaries” is produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University. This series invites people to share stories about writing and art that illuminates their environmental thinking or work. 

Welcome to "Luminaries," a new podcast series produced by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University.
Sometimes we come across a piece of writing, art, or music so vivid and brilliant it leaves us unequivocally changed. “Luminaries” invites guests who love the planet to share a personal story about a piece of writing or art that inspires or sustains their environmental thinking or work. 
We are inviting guests to choose a piece that makes their heart glow. The pieces range from essays, books, and poems, to artwork, music, and film. The guests will explore how the piece changed their thinking or life, how it sustains them, how it challenges them, or how it invites them to reimagine their relationship with the natural world.
“Luminaries” will be an open-ended series. We will dip in and out of it over the months and years ahead. As a whole, the episodes will offer a radiant collection of creative work that people can tune into for inspiration, resolve, and respite as they do the critical work of loving and protecting the Earth.