Non-profit director discusses environmental problems

In his travels with the New Community Project, a non-profit organization, director David Radcliff has visited many places, including the Amazon, Burma, Nepal, El Salvador and others.

"If we don't know the reality then we're not liberated to act," Radcliff said, speaking to a crowd of about 30 people in the Alice Haynes Room last week.

The reality he described was the fate of the human species and other animals. About 700,000 people die from atmospheric pollution and 180 million Africans will die from conditions of global warming.

"We're walking towards a cliff," he said.

Considering heavy snowfall this winter, Radcliff said that more snow in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast were predictions of global warming and that trends were continuing.

"People and species are struggling to adapt," he said.

Radcliff projected images of his travels onto a screen. There were photos of an Alaskan moose, a view overlooking the top of a bright green Amazon forest and a bobcat in the wild. The final photo had a developing error, in which a man indigenous to the Amazon sat in a canoe. His body was fading and transparent to the forest trees in the background. His disappearance was a projection of humanity's fate on society's continued path, Radcliff said.

New Community Project is based in Elgin, Ill. Its primary goals focus on environmental sustainability, global justice and providing grants to partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America for girls' education. Radcliff speaks regularly at colleges around the country and serves as an adjunct faculty member in the adult education department at Elizabethtown College.

Senior Grant Weaver, who traveled with Radcliff to Ecuador two summers ago, invited him to speak.

"David was extremely enthusiastic and excited to jump at the opportunity," Weaver said. "Educating and speaking is what he is all about."

Radcliff had something unique to offer the campus community — his liberal, challenging stance is not often found nor vocalized by others with similar views, Weaver said. The lecture was part of the University Forest Apartments Academic Link program, which works to involve faculty with lectures on campus.

Contact reporter Keon Monroe at keon.monroe@richmond.edu