Hear a Story
Watch a Story
A Modern Environmental Myth
By Carolee Brockmann
Brown University Economics and Environmental Studies
Professor Talbot Page's Environmental Economics students had a visit from storyteller Jay O'Callahan this past November. The relatively new discipline of Environmental Economics addresses environmental problems with economic tools of analysis. What does that have to do with stories? "The fishery dilemma is an example of an environmental problem exacerbated by normal economic policies," said Professor Page.
And that's where the storyteller comes in. Nationally known storyteller Jay O'Callahan's newest story, The Spirit of the Great Auk, is about the near extinction of the codfish. Professor Page, a regular attendee of O'Callahan's storytelling workshops, called O'Callahan's new work a "modern environmental myth."
"It transforms the nature of the problem beyond naive blaming," said Page, who invited the storyteller so that his students could experience the fishing industry's economic/environmental problem from an artist's point of view.
Three years in the making, O'Callahan's The Spirit of the Great Auk is the story of Richard Wheeler's 1500 mile kayak journey from Canada to Cape Cod, an odyssey in which he meets the plight of the ocean and fishing communities head on.
Ostensibly, Wheeler tries to bring attention to the tragic extinction of the great and noble auk bird, but he discovers that he has become the fisherman's champion of the codfish.
"Tell them," say the people of every fishing village where narrator Wheeler stops. "Tell them that we're fishing out the ocean. We're catching the juveniles. The codfish aren't coming back."
On his journey, Wheeler discovered not just sea birds, but fish, could become extinct. He saw the sea itself suffering from abuse.
The poignant dilemma of the fishermen, who are fishing both themselves and the codfish into extinction, was an eye-opener to Professor Page's students.
"Students often bring a very black and white picture of blame - 'us' versus 'them'", said Page. "Jay O'Callahan helped them experience the problem with a story that is truer to reality than bare facts."
Brown University Economics and Environmental Studies
December 1996
Used by permission