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Human
ecology, sustainability, ecological economics, teaching
Installing
an anemometer system for Fox Islands Wind, LLC, Vinalhaven, Maine |
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Links: Sustainability
Activities Blog |
Introduction and biography You have arrived at the
teaching, service, and research web site of Dr. Michael “Mick” Womersley
(pronounced Wumm-ers-lea, preferably with a Yorkshire accent). I'm British, from
Sheffield, England, but have lived in the USA since 1986, have been formally
studying and/or teaching university-level ecology and economics since 1989,
and have been involved in one way or another with wilderness, conservation,
sustainability, sustainable building and engineering, rural economics and
homesteading since about 1979. As the world unfolds in
the 21st century, climate change is shaping up to be the preeminent
sustainability problem, while renewable energy and energy efficiency are the
obvious solution. Many people wonder where what kind of world we will pass on
to our children. In particular, given likely stress and conflict over
resources, how can we navigate ecological difficulties while maintaining and
extending political, religious, social and economic freedoms? These are my
primary teaching and research interests. As can be seen from the photo above,
I am very interested in renewable energy and energy efficiency and so are a
lot of my students. All students who take our basic class in environmental
sustainability learn about these things. Many students go on to work in
sustainability or environmental education after they graduate. The main purpose of this
web site is to allow students in my classes to access the various handouts
and other documents for each course, hopefully saving paper in the process.
Links are also provided to web pages that are interesting or helpful to the
courses. If it pleases, you can also look at our various blog pages. My partner Aimee Phillippi,
also a Unity College faculty member, and I have a very small farm, and if you
like small farms, there are pictures if you follow the links to the left. Teaching: My main workload is in
teaching the junior level required course in sustainability, titled Environmental
Sustainability. This course is also a flagship for the college’s work in
sustainable living. I am also responsible for the bi-annual
economics/ecological economics course sequence. I teach several of the policy
courses, and am often assigned to Interdisciplinary Core courses, especially
those involving discussions of leadership or motivation. I enjoy using my
wilderness skills to teach the Introduction to Conservation Law Enforcement
map-reading laboratories each fall semester. My various online
curriculum materials are non-copyright, and instructors from other
institutions are free to borrow them from this web page here
and adapt them to their own use, without attribution. If you feel you need
this permission in writing, please email me at mwomersley@unity.edu My teaching aim is to
instill an awareness of the theories of ecology (applied to humans),
sustainability, and ecological economics and their consequences in my
students and to provoke independent and critical thought about these
processes, but also to encourage personal and lifelong action to make the US
economy more sustainable and the world a better place. My hope is that
students will go on to make a difference. Public service and research: My primary research
interest is in the future of human and other life on planet earth,
particularly in the future of liberal democracy and the western tradition. I
am interested in whatever theory and applications in ecology, economics,
politics, ethics and engineering exist that might lead to a life of freedom
for humans, embedded in a healthy and diverse biosphere. If you like, and have
nothing better to do, you can follow the results of this continuous inquiry
almost daily on my Sustainability
Activities Blog and my Farm
Blog. I employ these research
interests widely and professionally. Beyond working with my friends and
colleagues to help make Unity College the best environmental college and
community it can be, I consult widely with other individuals and
organizations on sustainability and environmental curriculum. I perform
program reviews in environmental curriculum delivery for other institutions,
am asked to peer review journal articles and books, and also review proposals
for funded research for various federal science organizations. I have active public
service and research interests in community wind assessment, renewable
energy, and energy efficiency. I advise local groups and communities on all
of these matters on request. My students and I also perform basic wind
assessment for community groups using equipment from NRG Systems Incorporated, a Vermont
wind assessment equipment manufacturer, most recently for our local high school
and community development program. If you are located in Maine and have a
government or not-for-profit site and require a full wind assessment, please
contact me by email at mwomersley@unity.edu Search and Rescue: I am the faculty advisor
for the Unity College Search and
Rescue Team, active with the Maine
Association for Search and Rescue, and co-editor, with former Flight
Sergeant and Team Leader Tom Taylor, of the annual Journal of the Royal Air
Force Mountain Rescue Association, On the Hill. I am Resource Officer, and part of the Duty Officer
Roster, for the Maine Association for Search and Rescue, Occasionally I post
rescue-related newsletters, bulletins, or pictures here on the team blog. Education specifics: My May 2002 PhD from the
Maryland School of Public Policy was for a dissertation on sustainability,
climate change and religious environmentalism. I was awarded the MS degree in
resource conservation from the University of Montana Forestry School in May
1996 for a thesis on sustainable development in the Highlands and Islands of
Scotland. I also have a basic
biology undergraduate degree from the University of Montana, where I focused
on conservation biology and related human socio-political systems. My first
careers were in military aircraft engineering and mountain rescue, as a
member of the Royal Air Force, 1978-1985. Trained as one of the RAF’s famous
“engine fitters,” I use my engineering and shop-instruction skills a good
deal in my work with renewable energy. I am also a self-taught builder and
small farmer. |
