SDSU Recruits Activists for Ill Earth

In the San Diego State University course catalogue, it is listed simply as Psychology and the Environment. But to the 60 or so students who attended the first class this week, it sounded more like Environmental Boot Camp.

The instructors didn’t mince words. They were looking for “a small army of activists,” they said, to enlist in a project called Therapy for a Dying Planet. It would be demanding, they promised--at least two years of classroom study, hands-on training and foreign travel. It would be ambitious--helping New Guinea establish its first national park was one possible project. It would not be for the squeamish.

“We want to make sure people know what they’re getting into,” said Dr. Kathryn Wullner, a counselor and adjunct psychology professor, who is teaching the class with Gary Priest, a senior animal trainer at the San Diego Zoo. “Are you willing to risk malaria? Will you enjoy sloshing through mud and can you deal with snakes hanging overhead? This is the place to find out.”

Of all the ways in San Diego County to get an environmental education, Wullner and Priest might be offering the most spine-tingling route. The four-phase project is designed to teach how incentives can be used to modify human behavior to sustain the planet. And to lure students to enroll, Wullner and Priest have come up with an incentive program of their own.

Students who complete two semesters of classroom study, or Phase 1 of the project, will be eligible for Phase 2: a summer internship at the San Diego Zoo. In an attempt to improve reproductive success, student interns will help encourage natural behavior in captive settings--such as developing ways to enable animals to earn their living through foraging, much as they would in the wild.

But Phase 3 is the real “carrot,” Wullner says--a trip abroad. Having applied behavior modification techniques with animals, students will have the chance to try it with humans. The excursion, scheduled for January of 1992, is still being planned, and funding is sought from the National Science Foundation. But New Guinea and Belize are among the top candidates.

The key, Wullner and Priest say, is to teach students to strive for “win-win” strategies that enable communities to preserve valuable habitats and their own economic health at the same time. If a culture depends on trapping and selling rare exotic butterflies, for example, building a breeding station to increase the butterfly population could help save the species and the local economy as well.

“We’re living in a critical time in human history,” Priest said. “Each of us exploits our environment--that’s called staying alive. What we’re talking about is learning how to exploit it sustainably.”

Partly for this reason, students of all majors and backgrounds are welcome--an interdisciplinary group, the instructors say, will be better equipped to solve complex environmental, economic, social and cultural problems.

To make sure they woo only the most dedicated students, Wullner and Priest resorted to scare tactics last week. Wullner told students she wanted only those who would take the class for no credit, if they had to. Priest told a story about an animal keeper at an Ohio zoo who had her arm ripped off and eaten by a polar bear she was feeding.

But later, a handful of recruits seemed invigorated by the warnings.

“The great weakness of the environmental movement at this point (has been) they beat you over the head and say don’t, don’t, don’t,” said Kent Stober, who has a degree in aerospace engineering and is a volunteer behavioral researcher at the San Diego Zoo. “I have a fervent desire to do something.” “I’m going all the way,” said Alex Kesaris, a psychology graduate student who is pursuing his masters in environmental studies. He said he was excited by the prospect of designing action plans that urge individuals to take responsibility for their surroundings.

“I’m not someone who blames corporations. To me, the problem is every one of us,” Kesaris said. “It’s so easy to blow it off--you want convenience. But I’m commuting on a bicycle. I bought a motorcycle because it gets much better mileage than a car. I’m starting to get into recycling. My roommate thinks I’m crazy. But at least it’s something we can do.”

Can environmental activism be taught? Students said no. But facts are a persuasive weapon, they said.

“You can’t go out and proselytize and preach. But you have to teach this because you’re fighting the (messages of) advertising,” said Valerie Hare, a senior biology major who works as an assistant librarian at the San Diego Zoo. “It’s like they said--they’re trying to prepare an army. What can Gary and Kathy do by themselves?”