Earth Ethics Institute emerged as a program of the Environmental
Demonstration Center, a
unique project housed on the Miami Dade College Kendall Campus. The
Environmental Demonstration Center, conceived in 1976 by Dr.
McGregor Smith, prospered and housed several programs: an
Owner-Builder Center; a Landscape Center; a Tropical Lifestyle
Center; and a Nature Center. Over time, Dr. Smith and
colleagues Dr. Norma Watkins
and Dr. Tim McGuirl recognized a need in higher education
for an additional program which would offer credit and non-credit
courses in something which they titled Earth Literacy. The
Environmental Ethics Institute (EEI) embraced that opportunity in
1988. In 1992, after Hurricane Andrew, the
Environmental Demonstration Center continued as the Environmental
Center and independently of the Center, the Environmental Ethics
Institute, became a college-wide academic initiative with a mission
of infusing Earth Literacy in all academics and operations of the
college. Recognizing that Earth Literacy is more than environmental
awareness, the name of the institute was re-named the Earth Ethics
institute in 2002.
Since its inception, EEI
has been a catalyst for introducing
administrators, faculty, staff and students at Miami Dade College to
the new way of thinking called "Earth Literacy." Grounded in the
profound implications of the story of the evolution of our
14-billion-year-old universe and the developmental process out of
which the Earth and all life emerges, Earth Literacy fosters respect
for Earth and life in all its diversity.
Earth Ethics Institute provides resources, workshops, and programs
for the Miami Dade College
community that encourage the integration
of the knowledge, values and skills needed for a sustainable way of
life into all practices and disciplines.
EEI fosters an awareness of global interdependence,
ecological integrity through biological diversity and the natural
processes that sustain life.
