By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff 04:00AM / Friday, December 18, 2020Print Story | Email Story WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town’s diversity committee Monday got a lesson in Williamstown’s racist history and some advice on actions that could address structural inequity. Williams College seniors Kate Orringer and Morgan Dauk appeared… Continue reading »
By Anna Bruce ‘21 On November 17 2020, the Center for Environmental Studies welcomed Maxine Burkett ’98 for a Class of 1960 Scholars Program Zoom lecture entitled: “First Do No Harm: Climate Migrations, Reparations, and the Guarantee of Non-Repetition.” Burkett is a Professor of Law at the William S. Continue reading »
November 19, 2020 By Julia Munemo The Global Ocean, taught this semester by the five faculty members who constitute the Williams-Mystic program, is among several new courses introducing Williams students to the interdisciplinarity of the sea. Based in Mystic, Conn., the program generally draws students from colleges across… Continue reading »
A Message for the Graduating Seniors from the Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff (7 minutes)… Continue reading »
Environmental Studies Thesis Student Final Presentation May 12, 2020… Continue reading »
Williams students Sofia Barandiaran, Julia Gunther, Cristina Mancilla, and Del Rose Hooker Newball speak to the City Council. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A Complete Streets inventory project undertaken by Williams College students offered a number of scenarios for making a more pedestrian and bicycle friendly loop around the downtown,… Continue reading »
Williams College students present their recommendations for Prospect Mountain Ski Area in Woodford at the Bennington Free Library on Wednesday. BENNINGTON — Advancing Prospect Mountain Ski Area’s nascent snowmaking effort, installing a solar panel system atop the base lodge, posting mountain conditions more regularly online and expanding the… Continue reading »
Karin Meyers gave a talk on the relevance of Buddhist practices in facing the current climate crisis. We can see Buddhist practices as having an inherently ecological approach because they deal with interbeing, dependent co-arising, and interconnectedness with each other and with nature, and include ethical principles of… Continue reading »
Lauret Savoy in the MatT Cole Reading room with the 1960’s scholars The Center for Environmental Studies was honored to have Dr. Lauret Savoy author and David B. Truman Professor of Environmental Studies and Geology at Mount Holyoke College share her book with us. Her 2015 book, Trace:… Continue reading »
The 5th annual Berkshire Natural History conference brought together a community of naturalists, students, scientists, activists, and people of all ages to celebrate the natural beauty of the Berkshires and to encourage its preservation. The conference was sponsored this year by Green Berkshires, Berkshire Community College, Williams College Department of Biology,… Continue reading »
Leah Penniman, from Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, NY, came to Williams and gave a talk that focused on the themes of uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Leah explained that in order to understand our present-day food system and the injustices contained within it,… 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »