Earth Systems Science, Inc.

Earth Systems Science Focuses on Neighborhoods

Jan 27, 2002

Earth Systems Science, Inc., a newly formed California public benefit non-profit educational corporation, has landed in Los Angeles. Patrick McCullough teamed up with Gregory Lee to form the non-profit.

Patrick McCullough has several years experience in grassroots community advocacy and urban forestry. His environmental efforts began as a grassroots community effort to beautify the abandoned MTA Expo right-of-way to deter trash dumping. That initial effort resulted in more than 2,500 trees being planted in a six mile stretch of the unused rail line. McCullough became a community environmental advocate by following his heart and taking various training opportunities through groups such as Tree People.

This ultimately led to a consultant position with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and his becoming co-coordinator of the Los Angeles Community Partners (an affiliate of NPCA). The activities of these groups led him from the city to the wilderness and natural beauty of the great outdoors. This experience deepened his concerns for the plight and blight of inner city neighborhoods. But the brief visits to the natural areas were terminated by the need to return home to the city. He began to realize that even when urban youth can get a rare chance to get to the wilderness, they often return to the inner city. There they are isolated among family and friends who rarely have the chance to experience the outdoors. This realization deepened his conviction that improving the local neighborhood environment was a vital and worthy effort.

During an outdoor leadership training session, he met Gregory Lee. Lee is a former environmental consultant who returned to teaching Geography. For most people, Geography was memorizing maps, states, and capitols. But the Lee's Geography was a mind-boggling highly integrated and systematic vision of the complexity of nature skillfully revealed and admired using plain English. The informal and enjoyable yet insightfully stimulating lessons took place outdoors with interactive and engaging hands-on activities. McCullough was bewildered at first. There was so much that was new all coming at once.

The two struck up a friendship. Six months later, they were working as a team implementing an innovative outdoor education program for urban high schools students under the auspices of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). It seemed an unlikely combination---a union printer and a professor---a tradesman and an academic. But to see them work together, you would think they were more like Siamese twins. While appearing to be opposites, they share many traits. Both disdain bureaucracies. Both have no fear of rolling up their sleeves or slogging through the mud. Their focus is keenly set on youth and improving the environment and world around them.

Earth Systems Science now seemed a logical growth of McCullough's earlier environmental efforts and Lee's teaching and people-to-people project efforts. McCullough's grassroots neighborhood experience enriches the community-based education effort of Earth Systems Science. Lee is able to provide the technical and curricular support to better train and empower the neighborhood youth and families. The combination of an experienced grassroots advocate with an experienced pragmatic environmental educator is the core strength of Earth Systems Science.

Earth Systems Science will be organizing an environmental community-based education pilot program in local area neighborhoods. So watch for upcoming Earth Systems Science activities.

?¿½ 2002, Earth Systems Science, Inc. All rights reserved.