64 days
Sept 17 – Nov 19, 2026
15 universities
Five states
Montana → Santa Barbara
American West
0
University intentions set
The Journey
This fall, environmental scientist and Jungian scholar Dr. James Dalton takes to the road for a 64-day, 15-university, five-state journey down the American West — from the University of Montana in Missoula to a homecoming finale at UC Santa Barbara, his alma mater.
Psychology · Environmental Science · Law · Keynote speaker · Workshop facilitator · K–12 educator for 40+ years · Former lecturer at UCSB
Traveling campus to campus by motorhome from September 17 through November 19, Dr. Dalton will deliver his signature lecture, "One Simple Thing: An Eco-Optimist's Response to the Planetary Condition," free of charge, to university audiences and to high school classrooms along the route.
The tour answers a need that educators see every day: a generation of students who care deeply about the planet but carry a quiet, corrosive eco-anxiety — the feeling that the story is already written and nothing they do matters. One Simple Thing meets that anxiety head-on, not with reassurance, but with evidence.
The Lecture
Not reassurance. Evidence.
The lecture tells four true, documented recovery stories — proof that when people act, the planet responds:
The return of the humpback whales
After the 1986 whaling moratorium
The healing of the ozone layer
Under the Montreal Protocol
The wolves of Yellowstone
And the renewal of an entire ecosystem
The rescue of the Pacific Northwest's ancient forests
A story of sustained human intention
Then the lecture does something most climate talks don't: it hands agency back. Every student is invited to choose one concrete personal action — their own "one simple thing" — and to hold that intention going forward. The specific intention may evolve over a lifetime; the commitment to always keep one is permanent.
As students set their intentions, each one appears on a live map of the tour, joining the intentions of every campus that came before — a growing, visible record that individual action, multiplied, is how planetary recovery has always happened.
"One Simple Thing: An Eco-Optimist's Response to the Planetary Condition"
Free of charge at every stop.
Research
A journey and a study.
Along the way, the tour also serves as a research effort: intentions and pre/post responses gathered across fifteen campuses will help build an evidence base for how eco-optimism, honestly presented, changes what students believe is possible — and what they're willing to do.
Campus Schedule
15 stops, September through November.
September
October
November
▲ Multi-day campus engagement
The Route
Follow the journey.
The full 64-day route from Culver City to the Northern Rockies, down the Pacific Coast, and home to Santa Barbara. Drag and zoom to explore. Click any stop for details.
Legend
Tour begins
September 17, 2026
64 days · 15 universities · ~5,500 mi
Be part of it
The tour is entirely self-funded. Every lecture is free.
There is no admission, no product, and no cost to any school or campus that hosts a stop. Follow the journey on Instagram, attend a lecture along the route, help connect the tour with a campus or classroom, or support the effort directly as it grows into a long-term platform for planetary optimism.
One simple thing. Always.