Alternative Approach—Greater Impact?

I want to thank you for the retrospective on Free the Planet (“Solving Wicked Thorny Problems” [Page 18, Fall 2019]). I was heavily involved with leadership of the Environmental Action Group (EAG) from 1995 to 1997, and I have to admit that when a couple of younger students started a new environmental group on campus, I was a little indignant that they didn't work with us and allowed my hurt feelings to prevent me from finding out what they were about. But while EAG was very much embedded in the “think globally, act locally” strategy of the time and focused in taking concrete and immediate actions on campus, FTP focused on protests and advocacy off campus, which at the time seemed ineffective to me; but as your article makes clear, in hindsight they may have had a greater impact. I am grateful to Rachel Fritts ’14 for writing the article and to all the activists at Grinnell who have had the vision to look beyond the campus at the larger picture.