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 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 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 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 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 »
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 »
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 »
Candy Dann, Massachusetts DEP Municipal Assistance Coordinator, gave a log lunch talk on Friday about the recycling and trash in the state. Recycling is complicated! Waste is complicated. Whenever you throw something out, you are participating in mining, trucking, warehousing, marketing, and countless other obscure systems. We live in a… 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 »
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 »
The application system for summer 2018 is now OPEN. 2018 Summer Program Dates: Monday, May 21 – Friday, August 3, 2018 The Harvard Forest Summer Research Program in Ecology is an opportunity for students to participate in 11 weeks of mentored, paid, independent research focusing on the effects… Continue reading »
Confronting Climate Change (24min) with Elizabeth Kolbert, Van Jones, James Hansen, Bill McKibben, Rob Nixon, Maxine Burkett, Stephen Gardiner and Mark Tercek. Produced by Sarah Gardner. Directed by Dave Simonds. Journalist Elizabeth Kolbert hosts a searching conversation with leading environmentalists. The Williams College Center for Environmental Studies was founded in… Continue reading »
On Friday, April 7, Bern Johnson spoke to Log Lunchers about his work as Executive Director of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW), an organization that provides resources for grassroots environmental lawyers and citizens fighting environmental legal battles throughout the world. Bern Johnson with daughters Tatum (left) and… Continue reading »
Hansen being arrested for protesting the Keystone XL pipeline in 2013 (source: Fox News). On Wednesday, March 8, Dr. Jim Hansen, an atmospheric physicist turned activist, spoke to a concert hall packed with students, professors, and community members. Hansen was born into a tenant-farming… Continue reading »
On Tuesday, Feb. 28, Stephen Gardiner—professor of Human Dimensions of the Environment and director of the Program on Values in Society in the Philosophy Department at the University of Washington, Seattle—spoke about the ethics of geoengineering in response to climate change. Williams philosophy professor Julie… Continue reading »
On November 4th, 2016, Sophie Robinson, spoke to the Williams College community on the film, The Age of Consequences. Sophie is a filmmaker, climate change organizer and a social justice activist. With that, she is the film’s Executive Producer and Director of Outreach. Sophie spent three years organizing and coordinating… Continue reading »