More than just tree-hugging

Most college-age students have been fed images of environmental destruction at some point in their lives. Global warming, toxic waste and deforestation are broad ideas that don't seem to affect anyone at much of an individual level.\nBut for all of Matthew Auer's life, he has known that the environment is of absolute importance.\n"I always had a thing for the forest," he said. "When I was hanging out in a national forest or national park or state park, I just felt different than I did when I was in an urban area."\nAuer, associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said he knows environmental issues tightly weave themselves into current events. The war in Iraq, communism's aftermath in Eastern Europe and individual college students are no exceptions.\nAfter a bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from Yale, Auer said he chose IU and SPEA as his new home for its strong service-oriented approach. Auer said he didn't want to be limited to just teaching academic theory. Instead, he chose to teach in line with SPEA's programs that aim to solve already existing problems. Colleagues praise Auer for his hard work at SPEA and abroad.\n"Whenever I'm on a committee with him, he's very ... committed to whatever we're working on," said Debera Backhus, assistant professor in the SPEA. \nAssociate Professor Joyce Man specifically lauds Auer for tightening relations between SPEA departments.\nAway from IU, Auer has had a chance to solve world problems for the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy. For example, through an agreement between IU and the U.S. government, Auer promotes forest diplomacy issues to foreign countries at venues like the United Nations Forum on Forests.\n"International negotiation is notoriously difficult work to do," Auer said. "It's slow, and it can be tedious and it can be very political."\nThe Brazilian government, for example, sees no benefit in surrendering its authority over the Amazon rain forest to a third-party. It's Auer's job to negotiate a middle ground among nations whose differing agendas delay environmental reform.\nSo far Auer's work has made headway. Though none of the agreements at the Forum on Forests are law yet, they remain morally and politically binding. Such work has given him insight into environmental policy at the international level, an interest he developed over time.\nAuer said the war in Iraq is a tell-tale example of environment policy aggravating more than the environment. Due to the strong insurgency opposing the U.S.-led coalition, the United States diverted funds from environmental infrastructure in Iraq to more immediate security demands, he said, and issues like the environment became second-level concerns.\n"Because you don't have the electricity in place, then you can't run a sewage treatment plant. Because you don't have sufficient power, electrical power is not reliable," Auer said. "If you don't have security, then you don't have the other things that you want to have in place at the social, economic and environmental level."\nAuer's grasp on environmental policy strengthened during recent editor and contributor roles for the new book, "Restoring Cursed Earth." The book evaluates the policies of post--Cold War Russia and Eastern Europe, their effects and impacts. Auer found a mixed bag in the former Soviet states.\n"The countries are able to reduce certain kinds of pollution, but then it's being replaced by other kinds of pollution," he said. Parts of Eastern Europe are the pollution-plagued industrial wastelands seen in the media. Others, like former governmental off-limit zones, remain in pristine condition, whose natural resources "can make the mouths of the West water," Auer said.\nA little-known issue is indoor air pollution. Getting up to show soot from an air filter in his well-kept office, Auer underscored the problem. Though it is nothing the presidential candidates have mentioned this campaign season, even environmentalists have made little progress in treating indoor air pollution, he said.\n"The larger part is that indoor air pollution is in many ways more of a public health risk than outdoor air pollution," Auer said. "You're dealing with the most local space you can imagine -- it's a micro environment."\nAuer cited chemicals in paint and glue that backs carpet as well as synthetic dust from chair upholstery and clothing. He admits we receive these particles in small amounts but that we're "essentially bathed in them."\n"What are the consequences of daily exposure over the course of 10, 20 (or) 30 years? We don't really have a good handle on that," Auer said.\nBut Auer mentioned the Bank of America's desire to build a Manhattan "green" building -- one constructed of environmentally friendly and self-managing materials. Recent meetings in Bloomington among local organizations hope to stimulate green construction.\n"It's happening in Bloomington, (but) Bloomington's a very progressive town," Auer said. "It needs to happen all around the country and to the extent that it's affordable and realistic and promotes public health all around the world."\n-- Contact staff writer Patrick Caldwell at pcaldwel@indiana.edu.