Ecology Hall of Fame: Terry Tempest Williams

By Christina Roberts

Terry Tempest Williams, born in 1955, is an American writer and environmentalist who focus is on the deserts of the American West. Besides being in the Ecology Hall of Fame, she is an accomplished author of several books (Pieces of White Shell, An Unspoken Hunger, Leap, Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert, and The Open Space of Democracy ). Williams writings, besides personal and educational, are reflective of current issues in our environment. Her passion to protect the desert and its wildlife is transcended to people who don’t necessarily think about the environment. Her article in Sports Illustrated relates to fans of wildlife, on the court and off. After reading some of her work, I have slowed myself down to appreciate and really look at the details as well as the big picture of the world around us. Williams writes of issues that would keep most conscientious people up at night. Without preservation of the earth and its inhabitants, our future is bleak. Williams brings hope and understanding to the health our future as well as the earth’s. Her essay, The Earth Stares Back, is accompanied with the aerial photography of Emmet Gowin. Without reading the essay, one would think some of the images are naturally evolved by time and weather. The erosion is not all natural and the wildlife is declining because of the drastic change in conditions (Gowin, 2002). Huge mining sites and test craters are scars in the Earth (Gowin, 2002). Together Williams and Gowin create a powerful message to encourage people to be responsible for their actions. Williams(2002) writes ”Emmet Gowin has made exposures of the Earth, a changed earth, an Earth we may not recognize because our eyes have been locked on the horizon. We live at eye level, which is its own conceit, a point of view that supports what we believe to be true- that the Earth is here simply to support us. We survey the land around us and dream of the ways it can serve us” (p.126).



Emmett Gowin, Copper Ore Tailing, Arizona 1988, split toned gelatin silver print


References:

Moonwater, R. (2007). www.coyoteclan.com. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from http://www.coyoteclan.com/index.html

Williams, T. (2002). The earth stares back. In Gowin, E. (Ed.), Changing the earth (pp. 125-131). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.

Williams, T. (2003). Big game, this naturalist's binoculars moved from deer to hawks to karl malone [Electronic version].Sports Illustrated, 10. Retrieved March 30,2007, from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/features/si50/states/utah/essay/

Williams, T. (2004a).Ground truthing [Electronic version]. Orion Magazine, 4(2). Retrieved March 30, 2007, from http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/04-3om/TempestWilliams.html

Williams, T. (2004b) Engagement [Electronic version]. Orion Magazine, 4(3). Retrieved April 4, 2007, from http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/04-4om/TempestWilliams.html