Earth Stewardship: An Initiative by the Ecological Society of America to Foster Engagement to Sustain Planet Earth - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 185

ESA is developing partnerships with public relations fi rms to help train ecologists
in the art of effective communication with business leaders and has begun to develop
a speakers' bureau of ecologists with these skills. We hope to deepen our ties with
public relations companies who can help spread the word regarding Earth
Stewardship. These discussions and the above-mentioned Demonstration Project
not only serve to expand the conversation of Earth Stewardship to audiences with
real ability to enact lasting positive change in environmental practices, but they also
identify career paths and opportunities for ecologists with businesses and organiza-
tions that are trying to meet sustainability goals of economy, environment, and
equity.
In addition to outreach to communities of faith and business, ESA is developing
collaborations via the arts and humanities. Currently, this effort is being led by the
Long-Term Ecological Research Network via Ecological Refl ections ( http://www.
ecologicalrefl ections.com/ ), an effort to link environmental science with the arts and
humanities (Goralnik et al. ( 2015 ) in this volume [Chap. 16 ]). This effort led to
environmental art exhibits at the 2012 and 2013 ESA Annual Meetings as well as
temporary exhibits of environmental art at the National Science Foundation head-
quarters in Ballston, Virginia in 2012 and 2013. The goal of this collaboration is to
connect environmental science and Earth Stewardship to the general public through
the languages of the arts and humanities. Similarly, the 14th Cary Conference
brought together philosophers, ethicists, religious scholars, and ecologists to explore
the linkages among values, philosophy, and action and to explore a new framework
for conversations about how to motivate and implement actions toward sustainabil-
ity (Rozzi et al. 2013 ). That conference was an important steppingstone toward the
present volume (see Introduction to this volume).

12.5 The Future of Stewardship at ESA

The growing interest in Earth Stewardship from the leadership and membership of
ESA bodes well for future involvement of the Society in this area. Continued effort
is clearly warranted; indeed, we consider it urgent. The wide range of scales at
which stewardship can be approached allows individuals to be involved in a variety
of ways and to identify activities that resonate personally. A spatially small scale,
such as a local park, a backyard, or the area designated for a BioBlitz (see Box 12.1 )
can motivate some individuals, while others may fi nd regional or global scales more
compelling. The existence of many environmental organizations focused on water-
sheds, ranging in size from small neighborhood watersheds to the Chesapeake Bay
watershed that encompasses six states plus the District of Columbia, exemplifi es the
range of scales at which a particular disciplinary approach to stewardship can be
applied (Kingsland ( 2015 ) in this volume [Chap. 2 ]). ESA can continue to encour-
age involvement across a wide range of scales. Here, we highlight several directions
that seem important and tractable.