Interview: Richard Doherty

By Chris Karr in Miscellaneous on Oct 28, 2005 4:44PM

At a recent conference in the city, Chicagoist met an interesting fellow who told us that he taught in environmental communications. We hadn't heard of that before so we asked him a bit about himself and what exactly he did.

Chicagoist: Who are you and what do you do?

Richard Doherty: My name is Richard Doherty and I’m an instructor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, in the Communications department. Besides teaching communications classes, I also manage computers. My real title is “Academic Resource Coordinator”. The classes I teach range from interviewing in communications to writing for electronic media to – my newest one is – environmental communications, which is really a more important area to me. My specialty is in environmental studies.

Chicagoist: What are “environmental communications”?

Richard Doherty: It would be how the environment is communicated, mostly through media. Whether it’s ads for hybrid vehicles or some sort of cartoon for kids. I saw a cartoon the other day that was about some little guy named José or something in the tropical rain forest. It was about how José was going to help the forest stay “good”. Environmental communications could be TV news, print stories – all media and how it’s communicated. It could be education and how kids are taught about the environment as well – how teachers pass that information along.

Chicagoist: Can you think of an example in advertising where someone’s used environmental communications in a positive way and one where they really fumbled it?

Richard Doherty: The first thing that comes to mind is BP. They used to be British Petroleum, but now they’re “Beyond Petroleum”. Their ads are bright white pages with colorful little icons like a sunflower. They’re looking at alternative fuel sources beyond petroleum. I think that’s fairly clever for them and they’re saying, “Yeah, we’re about petroleum, but we’re really thinking ahead and trying to do things better.” As for a blunder, I’d have to think a bit. Nothing comes to mind. This being a new class, I haven’t completely developed it yet, so I’m still in the process of collecting things.

(More below the fold...)

Chicagoist: What is it about environmental studies that draws you to the field?

Richard Doherty: Middle school elementary education is where I started with my environmental studies masters [degree]. After doing my internships and student teaching, I decided that wasn’t where I wanted to be with that age group. So, when I looked into higher level teaching, I saw that environmental communications was a possibility for me. To raise awareness among our young people about what’s going on in the environment around us and how it’s being communicated to us. Particularly to consumers, which I think is a big one. Often companies promote the aspects of a product that make our lives easier or faster, but they don’t ever say anything about the consequences of that product on the environment. That never comes up. But we’re at a time where we’re having all kinds of issues, whether it be air pollution, water pollution, landfill space running out – whatever it is. Those are all in the background. It’s like the environment is like death. We don’t like to talk about death much and we don’t like to talk about the environment that much. Because we know we’re doing the bad things, but we’d rather have the fast and easy life.

College students are at a good time where their minds are opening up and they’re seeing more of the world around them. Although you can’t really change their values or beliefs at that point. They’re going to have to do that. But if you open up their eyes and they begin to see some different choices in their lives.

Chicagoist: With things like the lakefront parks, and the “Green Roofs Initiative”, Chicago markets itself a bit as a green city. Does that message match the reality?

Richard Doherty: In some aspects it does. Chicago does have quite a few parks. There’s the whole Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and movement. There are quite a few bike paths and trails, and lanes on streets. And there’s… I don’t think I’m totally convinced. Have I seen other cities that are more environmental? Yeah. Could I name them off the top of my head? No. Cities are hard because they’re such a concentration of people and more people use more resources, more waste is generated. To minimize the impacts of that is a hard thing to do.

Chicagoist: Does Chicago do a good job for a city its size?

Richard Doherty: I think they’re doing okay and I think there’s a lot of people committed to improving it. Just seeing all the people who ride their bikes to work. Here and there are little things like the bike spot at Harris Theatre at Millennium Park. It was a cool little addition. Meigs Field is being turned into a park.

Chicagoist: In the past year, we’ve heard a lot about the state cutting the funding for the CTA. From the perspective of environmental communications, is there an environmental message that they could sell to the average city dweller to put pressure on the state legislature and Congressmen?

Richard Doherty: Sure, they could. They could tout the benefits of using public transportation over driving. They could do that, but is that going to sell people on the idea of using the CTA when it’s super-crowded? When most people go to work, it’s often unsavory – it’s not a modern new public transportation system already. Granted, they need the money to improve that. What else? I ride to work in the morning with my partner – we drive down. It takes twenty minutes to get to UIC from the upper end of uptown. If you take the train, it’s fifty. When you are leading a busy life, that extra thirty minutes makes a difference – an hour every day if you’re riding the train. There’s so many aspects of commuting on the train that just the environmental part I don’t think will persuade people. It’s more about comfort and time. If they can somehow include the environmental message, as an add-on, that would be helpful. When it comes down to it, you need clean air, you need clean water – those are the first two things you need to live. But most people don’t consider that in their daily lives.

Chicagoist: Is our society and communities better educating children about the environment?

Richard Doherty: I think we’re making progress on it, yes. What’s hard is that as our population grows, we continue to add to the pile of waste and pollution. Are we doing better in our schools? Maybe. Certain things have been cut and we’re really focusing on the core stuff. But I think that teachers are adding environmental elements to their education, to their lessons. Yet of you still have older generations that didn’t get that and they’re doing most of the consuming, in ten to fifteen years, there’ll be a lot more environmental awareness when we’ll really need it.

Chicagoist: With winter coming on, what are some environmentally-friendly activities Chicagoans can take advantage of?

Richard Doherty: You mean like snowmobiling?

Chicagoist & Richard Doherty: (Laughter)

Richard Doherty: I’d go to something that didn’t consume energy – something that doesn’t consume fossil fuels – something that doesn’t generate all kinds of litter, trash, and other waste, and something that gets people outdoors enjoying nature. The more people are outside and having good experiences in the outdoors, the more people care about it. So anything that’s an outdoors sport.

Chicagoist: What is your favorite outdoors space here in the city?

Richard Doherty: Some of the cemeteries around town, because not a lot of people go around there and they are a protected space. There’s not a lot of people, there’s not a lot of traffic, and there’s quite a bit of wildlife out there. So I find that – especially in the cemetery by where I live – I see hawks there. I saw a fox one day. I see rabbits and squirrels and all kinds of songbirds too. It’s a pretty rich place.

The other place that I like is Montrose Point where there’s the bird sanctuary there. There’s that bit of land and there’s sand dunes as well. It’s a nice spot. I really like Jackson Park, too. That’s a nice place. I don’t get out of the city much, but to the west is the forest preserves.

Chicagoist: Any parting thoughts for readers?

Richard Doherty: Get out and enjoy the outdoors and take public transportation.

We'd like to thank Richard for sitting down with us and chatting about the environment. The chance to enjoy the summer outdoors is gone now, but there's quite a few things that make the Chicago outdoors special in the fall and winter. Get out there and enjoy it in the next few months.