Justice is not a simple word to understand, said Samuel Gorovitz, a professor of philosophy at Syracuse University.

In order to achieve environmental justice, Gorovitz, a former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at SU, said people must understand that they are not separate from nature. Environmental justice, he added, takes different definitions for other species and throughout time and generations.

“It’s all interconnected, the surface and beneath,” Gorovitz said. “You mess with one part, you mess with it all.”

Gorovitz was a member of a three-person panel that discussed the path toward environmental justice in a complex world on Friday, which was Earth Day. The talk was the third installment of State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s “Moonlighting Discourse Series.” SUNY-ESF President Quentin Wheeler moderated the event, which took place in the Gateway Center.

In addition to Gorovitz, the panel included Sanjit “Bunker” Roy, founder of the internationally acclaimed Barefoot College in India, and Meagan Fallone, CEO of Barefoot College. The college educates illiterate and semi-literate rural villagers in India.

Roy, who was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2010, said justice begins with respect. He added that people do not show enough respect for the sun, water and soil.

“I’m going to say something about college that you may never invite me back,” Roy said to Wheeler. “School and college give you the arrogance that you have the answer to everything.”

As CEO of Barefoot College, Fallone has guided the college’s expansion to more than 68 countries. Through her many trips abroad, Fallone said she learned that poor and indigenous people understand the necessity of and respect for nature.

“We can learn from them,” Fallone said. “We forget that appreciation here in the Great White North because we can buy (what we need) at Kmart.”

Roy discussed the harms globalization poses to rural areas, adding that globalization is an urban solution but a rural problem. Roy used the example of a village cobbler’s job being stolen by factories that manufacture plastic shoes in the city. He said plastic comes at the expense of the rural weaving community.

“It’s unjust. It gives me a feeling of anger,” Roy said. “Why can’t we bring dignity back in their lives?”

Roy and Fallone said Barefoot College empowers illiterate or uneducated rural villagers by treating them the same way they treat people who have a formal education. Roy does this because he said he believes village people are punished by others because they cannot read or write.

Roy added that society is hung up on the idea of certification, which writes off the capabilities of rural villagers. He said he believes that the certification phenomenon will be the destroyer of rural society.

Fallone, who regularly speaks on the power of women as agents of sustainable change and poverty reduction, said on Friday that she believes women have been absent in crafting policy about environmental justice. Though she claims she is not a feminist, Fallone said she wants women to take 50 percent of the seats in Congress, as opposed to the current percentage of just below 20 percent.

The Moonlighting Discourse concluded a week of SUNY-ESF activities in celebration of Earth Day.

Sophie Renker, a freshman environmental science major at SUNY-ESF, was at first skeptical of the talk show setting, but said she found that the panel was not a lecture but a discussion with the audience.

“I loved the combination of all three on stage. They created a lot of energy and excitement,” Renker said. “I’m definitely coming back for another moonlight session.”

Published on April 24, 2016 at 9:58 pm

Contact Anjani: asiman@syr.edu