We see environmental issues in terms of science and policy, but those are two legs of a three-legged stool. The third is the humanities, for the study of literature, history and spiritual traditions tells us not only how the natural world changes, but why those changes matter.

Bates' interdisciplinary environmental studies program was designed around that concept, says program chair Jane Costlow, professor of Russian. The humanities can nurture a capacity for reflection and a longer, broader perspective — a kind of "long-term wisdom," she says.

In the humanities, too, we see through the eyes of other cultures. "It's about attending to the stories of people who have been working out ways of living with the natural world for millennia," Costlow explains. "If you begin with Creation stories and you end up with a South African writer who's writing about apartheid, you've got this huge range of different insights."

Take her research into the forest's role in Russian literature. From fairy tales to Tolstoy, a hands-on advocate of reforestation, Russia's vast woods have a central role in its literature. Today, Costlow says, as Russians seek a post-Soviet identity, their imagemakers have rediscovered the forest as a symbol of enduring values. This despite decades of unbridled industrialization that has sorely hurt the landscape.

"Certainly, I don't think people come home from Russia wearing rose-colored glasses," says Costlow, who takes Bates students to Russia regularly. "But I'm constantly amazed at how far the country has come in a relatively short period of time, when they're facing just unbelievable obstacles."