Earth’s Body registers my interest in being both a denizen of the local landscape and of this great green planet. (It is also the title of one of my favorite essays authored by Scott R. Sanders, a friend and colleague.) Ever since the first Earth Day in 1970, when I took seriously the challenge presented by my high school chemistry teacher, Bill Lumbley, to be mindful of the Earth each and every day, there has been a constant thread of concerned interest.

Beliving that local change is paramount, I was active in the Environmental Commission of the City of Bloomington throughout the 1990s. At IU, I joined the Council for Environmental Stewardship in 1998 (its future is now uncertain). More recently, I have been a participant in the Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Initiative (ELSI). In summer 2006 I was a faculty fellow in the new Human Biology program.

In my university teaching I have taught a variety of courses dealing with environmental science, politics, and history. To tie my interest in environmental history and history of IU, I sketched out a design for a “green” web course.