Extreme Sports and Environmentalism: Not Mutually Exclusive

Newswise — For many years, extreme sports and environmentalism have been seen as opposing interests. However, there are some who believe there is a strong connection between true extreme adventurers and their attitudes toward the environment.

In his most recent book, Contact: Mountain Climbing and Environmental Thinking, Dr. Jeff McCarthy describes the growing symbiosis between climbing and environmental awareness. Whether climbers look at their climb in terms of a conquest (the "flag on a summit" concept), or caretaking (the "protection" aspect), or connection (the intertwining of person and nature), they each have a very unique perception of the nature around them which corresponds to a full spectrum of American environmental attitudes.

McCarthy has done extensive research on extreme sports like mountain climbing and rafting and environmental attitudes. As an extreme adventurer himself, McCarthy has climbed rock, ice and snow for 20 years, with first ascents in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, and expeditions to Africa and Asia.

McCarthy has focused his teachings on the idea that throughout American political history there has long been an emphasis on the establishment and preservation of national parks and open space and the understanding that they can be defined as a resource for national health and well being. Additionally, throughout American literary history, there has been a tradition of American heroes like Huck Finn and Ike McCaslin behaving in extreme ways in "wild" places.

Dr. Jeffrey McCarthy is the chair of environmental studies and associate professor of English at Westminster College. He was educated at Wesleyan, Edinburgh and Oregon, and has been a Fulbright Fellow to Canada, with other research fellowships at the Oregon Humanities Center, the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, and the National Humanities Center.

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