OLLI leader offers help facing future

Joanna Brunso’s past has prepared her to help present-day Green Valley residents face a challenging future.

Lifelong exposure to nature honed her appreciation of the environment and now inspires her to preserve Earth’s resources.

Brunso will lead “Facing the Future: Planning for Living on Empty,” one of 35 study groups offered during February and March by the Green Valley program of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Arizona. Her class begins at 11 a.m., Feb. 7, at Beth Shalom Temple Center, 1751 N. Rio Mayo, and will meet weekly through March 6.

“This series will explore the effects of diminishing oil supply, the drought in the Southwest and the impact of population explosion,” Brunso explained. “And we shall present some possible solutions such as solar electricity.”

Brunso’s appreciation of the environment was rooted in her childhood, when her physician father purchased farmland that included a pre-1700 house in rural Rhode Island.

“I learned to appreciate the woods and the animals that lived there,” she said.

A mathematics major at Colby College, she was qualified to become an engineering aide and computer programmer for General Electric in Cincinnati, where she met her late husband Jorgen, a Danish engineer. He introduced her to more wilderness adventures after Boeing lured him to Seattle.

“We immediately began camping and hiking. It was wonderful to have all those national forests,” she recalled.

An avid collector of nature books, her husband taught her to recognize trees and plants wherever they lived, whether the Northwest, Sweden or upstate New York.

“How can you not know about the world in which you live?” she insists.

Later trips abroad introduced the couple to alarming threats to Earth. She vividly recalls the destruction of animal habitats in Kenya and Brazil, where forests are being denuded for timber, crops and mining.

“We read about how animals were disappearing,” she said. “We always were very interested in how man affects the environment.”

Interest evolved into action during the years Brunso lived in Seattle. As a stay-at-home mother of three young sons, she was hungry for adult intellectual pursuits.

Lacking understanding of local politics, she turned to the League of Women Voters for education and mental stimuli.

At that time there was a proposal to cut a half-mile swath through mile-wide Seattle to route Interstate 5. League members, including Brunso, took action. They attended hearings, wrote reports and consulted experts. Brunso’s report on the impact of the highway went to the head of transportation planning in the civil engineering department at the University of Washington.

“He called me and said, ‘Congratulations. If this had been your master’s degree thesis, I would have given you an A-plus’,” she recalled.

Inspired by this accolade, Brunso pursued her master’s degree in transportation planning. Much later, after a move to upstate New York, she worked for the state of New York, initially to promote carpooling during the oil shortage crises in the 1970s. Her career finale was working as a Metropolitan Transportation Planning Director in upstate New York. This job heightened her awareness of highway-generated pollutants.

Understanding how human lifestyles can affect the environment and diminish resources, Brunso now drives a hybrid vehicle.

She also listened carefully when representatives from Tucson Electric Power Co. explained the possibilities of solar power to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation. She investigated, then acted by adding solar panels to supply electricity to her home.

“I truly feel Arizona should do a great deal more to harness the energy in our abundant sunshine,” she said. “I don’t see why new houses aren’t required to have solar electric power.”

When she heard Professor Guy McPherson of the School of Natural Resources at the University of Arizona speak on the impending hardships caused by decreasing oil supplies and runaway greenhouse gasses, she wanted to share his information with an OLLI study group.

“We also know there is a drought in the Southwest. Our rivers are not running freely, and pumping ground water is creating even greater pressure on the aquifer,” Brunso added. “We may come to the point when there is very little water for us.”

Is harvesting rainwater one solution?

Brunso has asked Ken Seasholes of the Arizona State Water Resources Department to explore solutions to the water crisis during the Feb. 14 “Facing the Future” class.

Three other OLLI study group leaders, Rick Ernst, Paul Taylor and Hal Mansfield, will join Brunso on Feb. 28.

“They will present a DVD explaining how the arithmetic progression of population and the use of natural resources is leading to a very dismal future,” Brunso explained.

“That will lead to a fifth class on March 6 to form a discussion group that may continue on into the future to try to find solutions to the problems,” she said.

As curriculum coordinator for Green Valley OLLI, Brunso encourages others to design courses to inform and inspire residents’ intellectual interests.

“Green Valley has lots of facilities for physical fitness, but OLLI offers opportunities for mental fitness,” she stressed.

OLLI registration/membership packets are available at the Joyner-Green Valley Library, 601 N. La Canada, or contact Penny Schmitt at the OLLI/UA office (520) 626-9039 or ollimail@u.arizona.edu.

For additional information, visit www.ceao.arizona.edu/seniors/olli.html.

Marge Hanley is a Green Valley resident and former reporter with the Indianapolis Star.