Presentation to the Graduation Ceremony

The Nicholas School, Duke University
13 May 2006

William H. Schlesinger
James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry, and Dean

Welcome 2006 graduates of the Nicholas School!

Commencement is the end of one journey and the beginning of another.  The masters students who will graduate from the Nicholas School this year began their studies in 2004­a year when a giant tsunami swept the coastal ecosystems of southern Asia. The very next year, a giant hurricane destroyed one of our major coastal cities.  These events add exclamation marks to our recognition of the importance of judicious environmental management and how vulnerable our population­in the developing and the developing world­is to environmental phenomena that we do not know well and do not anticipate.

You began your work here because you knew that we can do better­better in our management of the planet for human health and well-being against the onslaught of events that nature may deliver to us.  Better in our management of human impacts to the biosphere, which increasingly impoverish its species diversity, alter its climate and change the chemistry of its air and water to realms beyond our evolutionary experience and adaptation.  Better in our transition to a global society that values, not growth, but sustainability­key to the persistence of a quality life for the greatest number of fellow citizens that occupy our finite planet.  At the very least, we must wean ourselves of a diet of fossil carbon, where in the case of petroleum our production shows all signs of falling vastly behind global demand.  This year, I am pleased to announce that we have a “green graduation;” the CO2 released during the generation of power for today’s ceremony has been mitigated by an equivalent amount of wind power generated by the Sterling Planet Company and contributed to the grid in the Midwest.

I hope you have found your years at the Nicholas School to be rewarding and that we have fulfilled our promise to you in education. I hope you have taken advantage of some of the special events that have passed through our halls­the launch of the Nicholas Institute, the Student Conferences on Conservation Science, and the recent forum on marine noise pollution.   I hope you have made some friends here that will last a lifetime­forged by your common goal to show the world how we can dobetter.

Like all commencements, this weekend is a beginning­soon you will begin your careers with the corporate, government, conservation and advocacy organizations to ensure that your dreams of a better planet will be real.   Some of you may begin your career in academics and pure research to broaden and deepen understanding of how our planet works.  Some of you may see the opportunity for significant personal gain from this work; but, I hope you never sell nature short as you pursue your career.  Whatever you do, I hope all of you will take the time to make sure that you communicate your work broadly.  What you do is too important to be lost in the bowels of the Ivory Tower.  What we all do to help ensure a better future for the biosphere will only happen when the widest citizenry knows that it is important and wants to make it happen.

I wish all of you the best, and I hope you will stay in touch with us­faculty, staff, fellow students­at the Nicholas School.  We like to see and hear what our students are doing.   And, of course, if we don’t see you here, I can assure you that the Alumni Office will track you down with the tenacity of Homeland Security.   Good natured, of course: they will simply ask you to help others to enjoy what you have enjoyed and to do what you are about todo.

I am proud to see you graduate today and to welcome you to the Nicholas School family.