The Ethics Center welcomes the 2020-21 Environmental Ethics Fellows. This year’s Environmental Ethics Fellowship, supported by a generous gift from John and Joan Casey, will focus on the intersection of ethics, the environment, and COVID-19. The pandemic has brought a mixed bag of environmental impacts. It has temporarily reduced greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and noise pollution. However, it has also increased the use of single-use plastics and materials such as take-out containers and face masks. These three outstanding fellows will work to produce tools to aid thinking ethically about the pandemic’s impacts on the environment.
Taylor Ellis ’21, a senior from Santa Fe, New Mexico majoring in accounting with a minor in philosophy, is working towards creating a more thoughtful business model of sustainability amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Mary Kleinsmith ’22, a junior from the Bay Area majoring in finance, has a personal passion for the outdoors that she hopes to expand into ethical considerations of sustainability and business in regards to the pandemic. Rebecca Poirier ’21, a senior from Connecticut majoring in environmental studies and minoring in Spanish, public health, and sustainability, has a strong passion for protecting the environment, especially during these unprecedented times.
Thoughtful reflection by the fellows, and the creation of blog posts and articles contributes to the Center’s Environmental Ethics Resources. We invite you to read, This Moment, an essay authored by Taylor Ellis ’21. Taylor accounts the personal experiences of Garrett Veneklasen, who asserts that human knowledge, and being, is a product of the environment that we are now neglecting.