University Times

Students, faculty, staff and alumni were recognized for their achievements Feb. 29 at Pitt’s annual honors convocation.

Among the honorees recognized by Chancellor Mark Nordenberg were 294 undergraduate students named University Scholars, representing the top 2 percent of their schools based on cumulative academic standing. Three distinguished alumni fellow recipients, Roslyn M. Litman, Young Woo Kang and Ralph J. Cappy, received special recognition for their lifetime achievements.

Keynote speaker Maxwell King, a former Philadelphia Inquirer editor who stepped down in January as president of The Heinz Endowments, was presented an honorary doctorate in journalism at the convocation.

In his address, “Hard Times on Planet Earth: How Human Ingenuity Has Gotten Us in Trouble With the Natural World and How It Can Help Us Build a Model of Stewardship for the Future,” King emphasized the need for changes in the way humans interact with and manage their world in light of recent advances that threaten to strain the planet’s resources to the breaking point.

Noting that in just the past 50 years humans “have gone from being participants in life on earth to being masters of life on earth … from being passengers on the planet to being the pilots,” King pointed out that humans now hold the power to decide how life on earth will proceed. That role comes with the absolute responsibility to be good stewards of the earth, he said. “We have always exercised our right to exploit the world. Now must accept the responsibility to care for it.”

Tracing population growth from the time of the Industrial Revolution to the present 6.5 billion, King cited projections that the population will rise to 9 billion by mid-century. He said that if all humans today had a modest American standard of living, demands on natural resources, energy and air already would have outstripped the earth’s capacity. Noting that United Nations figures project that the world’s population will level off in 2200 at more than 10 billion, King said, “If we reach that number, it’s a pretty good guess that the natural world will be completely altered.

“Already humankind is squeezing other forms of life off the planet,” he said, pointing to the threatened extinction due to global warming of 20-40 percent of the world’s species and the disappearance of natural lands and wooded areas. “It is not an exaggeration to suggest in 50 years what we think of as wildlife and wild lands will be largely gone,” he warned. “And in another 50 years, climate change may have altered the shape of the continents and the weather itself,” he said.

“For all of you who are concluding your schooling here, that’s your world. That’s the world you’re going to inherit from my generation, and my generation should not be proud of that. That’s the world you’re going to have to figure out how to manage,” King said.

“So, the question that must be going through your minds right now is this: … Did this grumpy old man really come here on our honors convocation day to tell us the world is ending?” he said, eliciting laughs from the audience.

“I did not come here with such a dire prediction. I don’t think the world is ending. I don’t think that spectacular level of change means life is doomed in some way,” he said.

“I do think we are at the most profoundly important watershed moment in the history of our species and that the course of our history and future is going to change pretty dramatically,” King added. Commending the students for their hard work, intelligence and education, he reiterated his optimism. “It’s that intelligence, yours and that of your species, that is going to salvage our future. All that history of dramatic change that I’ve been talking about has come about for one reason and one reason only: human ingenuity,” he said, adding that ingenuity has allowed humans not just to gain dominion over the planet. “It is human ingenuity, in fact, that has got us into the pickle we’re in right now. … And it is human ingenuity that will get us out of trouble,” King said, telling students, “I am as confident about that as I am confident that your excellent education here will fit you for a productive, fulfilling role in this brave new world.”

He criticized 18th-century economist Thomas Malthus, whose population projections convinced the thinkers of the day that humanity would outgrow its ability to feed itself, leading to strife and starvation. “What he did not properly account for was innovation. That is the creative product of human ingenuity,” King said. “The history of human existence is full of prophets of doom like me who predicted that things are spinning out of control … and full of examples of human ingenuity unexpectedly providing new innovative solutions. …

“In our day it is possible to imagine a similar scenario in which a latter-day Malthus will tell us that the world is about to run out of fossil fuel and that we face a dark future without power, electricity and transportation, followed by technological innovation that will produce new cheaper forms of solar energy or hydrogen power or the elusive gift of fusion nuclear power providing us with new forms of safe, clean energy,” King predicted.

“I don’t want to imply it’s going to be easy,” he cautioned. “I do think we can count on human ingenuity to see us through. But I don’t think we’ll achieve a happy outcome without a profound cultural change in our approach to the natural world.”

That need for change is going largely unheeded by governments, individuals, organizations and businesses, with development continuing as if resources were unlimited, King said.

“The whole world is now developing according to the growth principles of American-style capitalism, pushing for more, more, faster, bigger, greater.” That push may be good for economic development and improvements in the quality of life for third-world people, he noted, “but it is also propelling us toward a profound alteration of the environment. … And sometimes it seems as if totally wired, tuned in, we’re missing the mark. We’re missing the biggest story in our own history.”

King reiterated his optimism in the next generation’s ability to take proper action. “Pitt’s graduates come to the problems of the modern world with the training and understanding and perspective needed to lead the sort of profound cultural change I’ve been hoping for. … I am optimistic about us, about you, about our intellectual capacity, our educational capacity, about our having the understanding needed to meet these challenges.”

He tempered his confidence in relying solely on human intellect as he concluded his talk with words of ancient wisdom from the Buddhist, Muslim and Judeo-Christian traditions.

“Although it’s human ingenuity I’m counting on, I also think there’s much in humanity’s spiritual legacy to guide us and to give us hope,” King said, closing with a passage from the Torah: “When God led Adam around the Garden of Eden, God said, “Look at my works. See how beautiful they are? How excellent? For your sake I created it all. See to it that you do not spoil or destroy my world, for if you do there will be no one to repair it after you go.”

—Kimberly K. Barlow