December 7th, 2018 Seniors Will Keating, Shauna Sullivan, and Drew West presented at Log Lunch on their work this semester in the environmental studies senior seminar, taught by Sarah Gardner. (From left) Sarah Gardner, Drew West, David McGowan, Bob Hatton, Shauna Sullivan, and Will Keating The project was commissioned… Continue reading »
November 30th, 2018 Thomas Bernard has a long history in the Berkshires. Born in raised in North Adams, he graduated from Williams College and has worked at Mass MoCA, MCLA, and is currently the Director of Special Projects at Smith College. He was elected mayor of North Adams in November… Continue reading »
Don Carlson with Peter Kelly-Detwiler November 16th, 2018 Energy expert Peter Kelly-Detwiler’s (’83) Log Lunch talk centered on the rapid changes occurring in electricity and transportation sectors. As renewable electricity resources and energy storage become increasingly cost-effective, the electricity sector begins to become greener. At the same time, our… Continue reading »
November 9th, 2018 At last week’s Log Lunch, Jenny Hansell, President of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, gave a talk on her work at the BNRC. The BNRC is a land trust, conserving parcels of land through trail-making and also providing human access to the wild. In particular, the… Continue reading »
November 2nd, 2018 Last Log Lunch, architect Tessa Kelly ’07 spoke about her ongoing project in her hometown, Pittsfield. She is working with students in Sarah Gardner’s Environmental Planning senior seminar to design a park in the west side of Pittsfield. This is a historically black neighborhood with culture that… Continue reading »
Log Lunch worker Jane Tekin with Chris Varrone October 26th, 2018 Chris Varrone ’85, Managing Director in the ESG group at Silver Leaf Partners, raises money for clean tech companies, projects, and funds. He gave a talk at the last Log Lunch about the future of offshore wind energy… Continue reading »
October 19th, 2018 Cedar Blazek ’13 gave a talk at Log Lunch last Friday about why energy efficiency in buildings matters. Buildings use 40% of the country’s energy, and while advances have been made in renewable energy sources to power large buildings, it is more logical to think about ways… Continue reading »
Students Nikolai Christoffersen and Jane Tekin with Elena Mihaly October 5th, 2018 At the last Log Lunch, Elena Mihaly, a Staff Attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, gave a talk on the realm of environmental law. “In the last decade, the number of climate change lawsuits has skyrocketed,” Elena… Continue reading »
September 28th, 2018 On the second Log Lunch of the academic year, Drew Jones of Hopkins Memorial Forest introduced the event that would be happening there the coming weekend: the Berkshire Bioblitz. (from left) Drew Jones, David McGowan, Elizabeth Orenstein, Eric Doucette Eric Doucette of MCLA, Elizabeth Orenstein of… Continue reading »
September 20th, 2018 Last Friday’s Log Lunch featured Dr. Noël Bakhtian, the Director of the Center for Advanced Energy Studies, a research and education consortium bringing together the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory and the four public research universities in Idaho and Wyoming. She shared her educational and professional career road-map… Continue reading »
Ben Hellerstein, the state director of Environment Massachusetts, gave a log lunch talk on the progress MA has made on clean energy and what’s left to do. Growing up in Westchester, NY, Ben reminisces on the glory of vacationing in the mountains and a consequent love of nature. He went… Continue reading »
Ben Hellerstein, the state director of Environment Massachusetts, gave a log lunch talk on the progress MA has made on clean energy and what’s left to do. Growing up in Westchester, NY, Ben reminisces on the glory of vacationing in the mountains and a consequent love of nature. He went… Continue reading »
Professors Nicolas Howe and John Kleiner, both part of the Campus Environmental Advocacy Committee, gave an informative log lunch talk about carbon offsets and what the College is doing to decrease them. Though both professors definitely slipped in hints of their personal opinions on the topic, they also conveyed essential… Continue reading »
Bill Vitek, former Williams visiting professor and current professor at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY, gave a Log Lunch talk on Friday about the intersections of philosophy and the earth. He introduced a concept called the “New Perennials” which sounds similar to the word “millennial.” This is rather intentional, as… Continue reading »
Tom VanWinkle calls Dr. Jim Carlton, the director of Williams-Mystic, the “world’s most renowned marine ecologist.” Dr. Carlton certainly knows a lot about tropical storms and climate change. Specifically, his Log Lunch talk was about the greatest Japanese earthquake, which occurred on March 11, 2011, in which 1,000 ocean vessels… Continue reading »
Laura Marx of the Nature Conservancy gave a talk at the last Log Lunch on how climate change has implications for forests. Severe weather, increased droughts, storms, and altered temperatures are changes in the environment that trees are used to. “Climate change means more energy is entering the atmosphere on… Continue reading »
Jessica Leibler of the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University’s School of Public Health gave a talk at Log Lunch about her research on animals, humans, and the diseases they carry. She is currently researching three things: zoonotic–animal to human, that is–disease transmission, infectious diseases associated with urban… Continue reading »
Molly Case, deputy development director of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), gave a log lunch talk on this NGO’s work in Haiti tackling the sanitation crisis triggered by the 2010 earthquake. The worst cholera outbreak in recent history bolstered a need for better sanitation–few have flush toilets, if any toilet at… Continue reading »
Dean Cyron ’75 is the founder and CEO of Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Company, a certified 100% organic, fair trade, and kosher coffee roasting operation in Orange, MA. You may recognize these beans from dining halls around campus–the College has used Dean’s Beans as its main coffee supplier for over… Continue reading »
At the first Log Lunch of the spring semester, Katy Hall, associate professor at Williams-Mystic, and Natalie DiNenno ’18 presented “America’s Vanishing Coastline: Climate Adaptation and Decision-Making in Southern Louisiana.” The presentation was adapted from research DiNenno conducted for Hall’s marine policy class when she attended Williams-Mystic in spring 2017. Continue reading »
David McGowan, director of the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, gave a Log Lunch talk about how he got into land conservation and why it’s important that lands continue to be conserved. The Michigan native talked about some of his favorite, most beautiful places in Massachusetts, including Race Point Beach in… Continue reading »
The last Log Lunch of Winter Study featured Tom Tyning— Professor of Environmental Science at Berkshire Community College—who discussed New England’s most endangered vertebrate: the Timber Rattlesnake. This rare reptile is found in the eastern portion of North America, though it has now been extirpated completely from many states due… Continue reading »
Ann Weeks, the legal director of the Clean Air Task Force, and the mother of Eleanor Lustig, a current senior and staff member of the Log Lunch food prep crew, spoke about the possibility of hope in the fields of environmental law and technology in Trump’s America. She gave a… Continue reading »
Geosciences professor José Constantine gave a talk at the last Log Lunch about how dams are changing the course of the Amazon — literally. “America used to be the best at dams. Damn, we were good,” said a punny Professor Constantine. Geosciences professors José Constantine and David Dethier Now,… Continue reading »
Recently, Williamstown became a pollinator-friendly community. Professor Sarah Gardner’s Environmental Planning class did a project on the measures Williamstown can take to protect pollinators: not just bees, but all insects, which have an effect on pollination. (from left) Prof. Gardner with a petition to make Williams a bee-friendly college,… Continue reading »