This past Friday Liz Moran, policy director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, shared the unresolved story of the Hoosick Falls water contamination. By sharing the story of the Hoosick Falls community, Liz helped raise awareness of the crisis that is still in the process… Continue reading »
Nancy Marks ‘76 is an environmental lawyer for the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC). In her Log Lunch talk on Friday, she talked about the current lead contamination crisis in Newark, NJ and described NRDC’s work on the issue. She started her talk by asking the audience what… Continue reading »
For the final log lunch of the year, Jesus Payan, Emma Levy, Hallie Whitmore, Amber Lee, and Allie Campbell, all in Professor Art’s Environmental Planning Workshop, gave a presentation about the project that they have been working on for the past semester. They were tasked with researching and investigating how… Continue reading »
Fara Courtney is Principal of Outer Harbor Consulting and Strategic Advisor to the Partnership for Offshore Wind Energy Research. She spoke at log lunch this week about the status of U.S. offshore wind projects. After asking for a show of hands, it was clear that not… Continue reading »
Becky Cushing is the Berkshire Sanctuaries Director for Mass Audubon, overseeing six wildlife sanctuaries, twelve miles of hiking trails, and the Berkshire Environmental Literacy program. In her log lunch talk on Friday, she spoke about their efforts to make nature accessible to everyone, not only because being connected… Continue reading »
Professor of Economics and Provost Dukes Love. This week at Log Lunch, Provost and Professor Dukes Love talked about Williams’ approach to sustainability and its future at the college. He is on the sustainability planning group for strategic planning and as Williams is closing in on the 2020 commitment… Continue reading »
Tom Daniels is a Professor of Planning and Design and directs the Program in Land Use and Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. He spoke about Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, VT as an example of a sustainable farm that is also an important community resource. Mainstream industrial farming… Continue reading »
Del Rose Hooker (left) and Ingrid Thyr (right) Del Rose Through a CES grant, Del Rose ’21 went to Ecuador with Cristina Mancilla ’20 to study Ithomiini, or clear wing, butterflies in a cloud forest on the Eastern Andes. She investigated the relationship between regional diversity of clear… Continue reading »
Cecilia Del Cid, the Assistant Director of the Davis Center at Williams College, is a biologist and has a Masters in Forestry. She said that her passion for this work started when her parents bought a small track of jungle in Guatemala. She had grown up in Guatemala… Continue reading »
On this particularly cool day in early October, Bathsheba Demuth and Julia Philips took us on a journey to a much colder part of the world. Both of them have lived in and authored recent books about the arctic region, and they shared some of what they… Continue reading »
As people shuffled into the Log this past, they were pleasantly surprised to smell delicious Alaskan salmon. Josh Pierson ‘00 and Marc Barreda ’99, co founders of “Papa’s Catch Salmon”, returned to Williamstown to give a long lunch talk about how they got involved in Alaskan commercial fishing… Continue reading »
Greg Watson, the current Director for Policy at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, gave a Log Lunch talk that focused on the question of how to reconcile environmental quality with economic equality and equity. He emphasized the importance of equity, because it is not enough for… Continue reading »
May 10th, 2019 At the last Log Lunch of the semester, Karen McComish from Mt. Greylock High School, Pres. of Youth Environmental Squad and Caroline Weinberg ’19 gave talks on their respective work on climate activism. Karen and a group of dedicated seniors have gotten involved in the Sunrise… Continue reading »
May 3rd, 2019 Today, Paul Bierman ’85 of the geology department at University of Vermont gave a Log Lunch talk on his work on 26 of Cuba’s rivers. Paul Bierman (left) with his daughter Marika, a student at Williams With a small cohort of Cubans and American scientists and… Continue reading »
April 19th, 2019 Last Log Lunch, Cynthia Espinoso Marrero gave a talk on the history of Holyoak, MA, and the work she does there to make the city a better place. Cynthia (right) with new baby Xineri and husband Osmar (left) A food systems scholar and activist, Cynthia grew… Continue reading »
April 12th, 2019 Dr. Art Gold, a professor of watershed hydrology at the University of Rhode Island, spoke at Log Lunch today about the degradation of Fiji’s coral coast due to excess nitrogen. High levels of nitrogen entering the coastal waters results in Sargassum… Continue reading »
April 5th, 2019 Julia Goren ’01 (left) with Diane Fish Diane Fish, Deputy Director of the Adirondack Council, and Julia Goren ’01, Director of the Adirondack VISION Project, gave a Log Lunch talk on the Adirondack Park, NY–the largest park in the lower 48 U.S. states. This is the only… Continue reading »
March 8th, 2019 At this Log Lunch, Judith Schwartz gave a lecture on the research she’s been doing as a freelance writer and journalist. Her most recent book, Cows Save the Planet, is about soil, in short. But it is also about busting environmental myths, like the common argument that… Continue reading »
March 1st, 2019 Last Log Lunch, Gemma Holt ’17 told a crowd munching on scallion pancakes and sesame noodles about the Fulbright she spent in Finland, right after graduating Williams. During her senior year, Gemma wrote a thesis about Arctic governance, which is a topic that doesn’t get a lot… Continue reading »
February 22nd, 2019 At the last Log Lunch, Professor Ron Bassar told the crowd about the four years he spent before joining the Biology department at Williams last year. He studies the guppy–a popular pet fish in the U.S., which actually derives from the Caribbean island of Trinidad. He… Continue reading »
February 15th, 2019 Topher Sabot ’99 gave a Log Lunch talk on Friday about his dairy farm, Cricket Creek. He brought along three of his cheeses for the crowd to try, a special treat for a rapt audience. Topher spoke about his roots as the son of an Economics professor,… Continue reading »
February 8th, 2019 On Friday, Professor Apotsos gave a Log Lunch lecture on the Fulbright Fellowship he did last year in Cape Town, South Africa. Using his background in coastal oceanography and work at the USAID (US Agency for International Development), Professor Apotsos aimed to work with regional planners to… Continue reading »
January 18th, 2019 At the last log lunch, visiting economics and sustainability professor Don Carlson gave a talk on the benefits and disadvantages of capitalism in the context of climate change. Professor Carlson is teaching at his alma mater as a “reverse sabbatical” from a fruitful career in investment banking… Continue reading »
January 11th, 2019 At the last log lunch, sophomore Wyndom Chace presented on her CES-funded summer internship at the University of Rhode Island. She conducted research on how nutrients used for fertilizer, like nitrogen and phosphorus, behave throughout riparian zones. A riparian zone is any land adjacent to a… Continue reading »
January 4th, 2019 At the last log lunch, Dr. Karl Korfmacher of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) gave a talk on the ways in which we can use GIS programs to analyze the potential health impacts from transport and well emissions generated by HVHF operations in the Marcellus Shale… Continue reading »