Jonah Center

I know I'm posting like crazy right now, but I just added a link to The Jonah Center for Earth and Art, which is an educational center located in the North End of Middletown. Professor Chernoff is the President and Professor Ku is also involved.

Upcoming events

Just because sometimes posts get lost, I wanted to remind you that the following things are happening within the next two days:

1. really cool thingy with Ann Carlson tomorrow (10/1)
2. climate change lecture on Tuesday (10/2)

Feet to the Fire (!!!)

This legitimately sounds like the most amazing thing ever (to me, at least):

Tomorrow there will be a meeting between students and visiting artist Ann Carlson to discuss and help shape her new projects on campus. This effort is part of the larger Feet to the Fire -- an interdisciplinary project to explore global climate change (organized through the CFA).


TOMORROW - MONDAY OCTOBER 1
Ann Carlson
Meeting with students from 6-7 PM
Zilka Conference Room 202 (above the Zilka Gallery (CFA) on the 2nd floor)

Message from Barry Chernoff

Here is an email from Biology/E&ES Professor Barry Chernoff—to the students of the "Energy Resources" forum—about sustainability and climate neutrality at Wesleyan:

Hi Forum Members:

Jacob has written an important exhortation that I hope you will take seriously. It is critical for us to make sure that the administration and the entire Wesleyan community is aware of the important environmental issues facing us and the globe. But I ask that you opine thoughtfully and not to fall prey to slogans and buzz words. While such words as "sustainability" and "climate neutral" may express feelings that we have, they may not communicate well because of their ambiguous nature or because, in the case of "climate neutrality" the word may actually mean nothing. Take a moment and think about it. "Neutrality" as a modifier of "climate" means that we put nothing into the environment (that which surrounds us) that has a potential negative affect on the climate, which means that whatever we emit (including heat) must be balanced by some sink. That fact the we are aggregated as a university onto a campus that is removed from its post-glacial conditions means that we impact the climate and nature of this piece of the CT River Valley. Escaping heat alone, sidewalks, roads etc. contribute to a warming of this area that has important consequences for the fauna and flora. Just compare the climate and phenology of Middletown to where I live -- the difference is drastic. But beyond the local, there can never be a truly neutral system. Even if we were powered by 100% solar, it would take a huge amount of fossil fuels to build the panels, repair the panels and maintain the panels and wires. The fuel and electricity it requires to continually maintain and upgrade our buildings. The only way I could conceive of neutrality would be for us to purchase emissions credits in excess of our emissions with additional costs for heat, sewage and trash.

I suggest that it is approaching a minimal environmental footprint that we are after. Highly efficient systems, renewable energy, and environmentally responsible behaviors on the part of the entire community.

So please write but also think about our responsibility. As we learned fro Peter Staye 2 weeks ago, the largest single waste of energy (and hence emissions) on this campus is due to student behavior, especially those of our colleagues living in the wood frame houses. I think that we should bring to the table how we will work to decrease substantially the environmental footprint of our colleagues -- faculty, students and staff -- when we ask the administration to accelerate plans to rework the campus. Are we willing to consider an Environmental Honor Code for all members of the Wesleyan Community? Also, please ask yourself who is to pay for our march toward neutrality. We are members of this community for perpetuity and it is up to us to help make such renovations possible. Are you willing to invest real $ , effort and time to accelerate progress or are you just asking to transfer the responsibility of the payment to others for a righteous cause? This must be a joint effort of our entire community and I pledge to you not only personal $ but also efforts to modify the behaviors of faculty and staff if you will work on your peers.

I encourage all of us to write and to work cooperatively to make this a campus where our impact on the environment is minimized for the betterment of the region and the planet. I ask you also to acknowledge that Wesleyan has taken a leadership role by pushing an agreement reached among regional universities to lower energy use by at least 20% by 2010. The accord was not well advertised but it exists nonetheless (even Peter Staye mentioned this in his presentation).

Whether or not Wesleyan signs an agreement (President's Climate Commitment) is less important to me, and I hope to you, than is real progress towards an important goal. As a friend of mine on the campus of one of the Universities that has signed the challenge relayed: big words, little concrete action -- a "feel good proclamation". Let's not look for bragging rights or the status conferred by such agreements -- let's look to lead the pack by making real progress in changing facilities, behaviors and social norms.

I am really proud to be your colleague (though you might feel differently after reading the above). Learning with and listening to you about alternative energy in our forum convinces me that because of people like you there is hope for the future. You are the reason I came here and our enterprise this semester is nothing short of exhilarating. So let's work on this, but work on it in a constructive way that will be a model for others: with purpose, with goals and with changed attitudes among members of our community.

Blog away!

With all best regards,

Barry

President's Climate Commitment

In case you're not on the listserv (which is fine), Bekka and Sarah emailed out this really important information about environmental concerns at Wes:

Some of you might have seen President Michael Roth's recent blog post on global warming (if not, check it out now!!)

EON has been working hard to encourage the President to sign the President's Climate Commitment, a national movement among universities to move towards sustainability with the eventual goal of carbon neutrality.

President Roth has agreed to review the commitment and deliver his response by November 15. In the meantime, EON is trying to show Roth that the student body (you!) greatly supports his signing of this commitment and cares deeply about sustainability and Wesleyan's role as a responsible institution.

EON has been in touch with leadership from the Commitment, who believe that the best way to get Roth to sign is to show overwhelming positive student support. ***Please post responses on Roth's blog showing appreciation for his comments.*** We are excited that he is clearly taking this matter to heart and we would like to encourage him to take substantial action. We believe that positive comments, rather than challenging or antagonistic remarks, will be most helpful.

Jacob has provided this simple one-liner in case you don't want to write your own:

"I am concerned about the environment and I want to see Wesleyan become greener by signing the Presidents Climate Commitment. Thank you!"

the COMpost

Check out this video of Elisa composting. Also, the Univeristy was just gifted with two new Earth Tubs!!! You can see an Earth Tub in action in the video. Or you could look at this picture (which sortof shows an Earth Tub in action):

How to unsubscribe

If you want to unsubscribe to the EON listserv:

1. Go here
2. Search for "weseon"
3. Click on the link to weseon
4. Click "unsubscribe" on the left

If you do unsubscribe, be sure to continue visiting the blog (and soon to be launched website)!

Climate Change Lecture at Wes

Mark the date! On 10/2 Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is giving a talk about climate change as part of the Engaged Scholarship lecture series. She is a research scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a member of the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change). You can read her papers if you want...

12-1 pm (intended for someone with some background)
"IPCC Chapter One: Observed Changes in Physical and Biological Systems"
Exley 405

8 pm (intended for a general audience)
"Climate Change in Our Backyard: Global and Local Aspects"
Tischler Lecture Hall (formerly Exley 150)

Canning Workshop at Earth House

SUPER-DUPER AMAZING FUN WITH VEGETABLES AND VINEGAR!
"When?" you ask. "And where will this spectacular event be taking place?"

Come to Earth House (159 High St), Saturday Sept. 29, 2:00.
We will be pickling and canning and applesauce making all the livelong day!
This is a great opportunity to learn (and teach) about food preservation.

We will preserve food from Long Lane Farm and White Gate Farm to be used
for the Live Wolves vegan coop and possibly Veg-Out (depending on how much
we can).

History of Environmentalism at Wesleyan

1) So I found this completely by accident, but I think it's really interesting (especially for EON). Basically, there was a (now defunct?) History tutorial sometime in the early 2000s (I just want to say that it's really awkward to write "2000s") set up with the intent of improving institutional memory.

You can read about the project here, and specifically about environmental activism at Wesleyan here.

2) I also found this by accident...and by this I mean E3's website. E3 (which stands for Earth, Equality, Education) was the environmental organization on campus at around the same time the Wesleyan History Project was happening. They accomplished a lot (particularly in regards to recycling, which I definitely take for granted). I'm not sure what happened to them (maybe they morphed into EON?)

This is late, but...

The meeting tonight will NOT be in Woodhead...it will be in an as yet undisclosed classroom on the first floor of Exley. Don't worry, though--there will be ample signage to guide you.

Earth House Veg-Out

Get yourself to Earth House on Tuesday, 9/18 at 6:30 for delicious food from Long Lane and to discuss Live Wolves (the campus' local, organic, vegan co-op). Cost is $4; bring a bowl and your preferred utensil.

How effective is voluntary action?

The Lights out San Francisco Blog mentioned a Grist article I thought was really cool--it's about the effectiveness of small, voluntary actions on environmental problems. The article is a response to a piece that argues that voluntary actions are basically ineffective.

Grist--

"it's gloom and doom with a sense of humor. So laugh now -- or the planet gets it."

Maybe you guys already know about Grist, and I'm way behind. If you don't, however, I strongly recommend you check it out. If you have ever found environmental websites to be overwhelming (I mean, I definitely have), you must check out GRIST. A hub for environmental journalism, Grist pulls together environmental news from multiple sources and spices it up so it's not totally impossible to read. You can subscribe to one or all of a variety of email lists--including daily or weekly environmental news summaries (incredibly readable and humorous) and the grist list (which is "a weekly rundown of all that is hip, weird, wacky, and wonderful on the green scene"). Anyway, I'm totally enamored, and highly recommend it.