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(11/19/09 4:22am)
“I believe that, more and more in the 21st century, conflict will be driven over resource competition rather than ideology or politics,” Professor Michael Klare, professor and director of peace and world security studies, began his lecture on last Thursday, Nov. 12.
Klare spoke about the future of geopolitics and natural resources during his lecture, titled “The New Geopolitics of Energy: Beyond the Crisis.” Klare has authored numerous books and is a correspondent for The Nation, a contributing editor to Current History.
He supported this initial assertion by highlighting that wars have historically occurred over disputed resources. In this century, though, the ratio of supply and demand is rapidly changing and shows no potential for reversal. Klare cites this as a result of the drastic increase of the per capita share of the GDP in developing Asia, from $1,600 in 1990 to an anticipated $12,000. The emergence of this new middle class will boost automobile sales and consequently increase the demand on sources of energy. “China is predicted by 2015 to be the number one consumer of energy, passing the U.S., which has tremendous implications for the world economy, the environment and U.S.-Chinese relations, [especially for] the possibility of conflict,” stated Klare.
He also discussed how population growth has immense implications for the supply and demand ratio. The global population is expected to reach two billion people by 2050, all of whom will need land, food, water, and building materials. The challenge is finding clean, safe, and efficient ways to provide for the impending crisis.
Klare proceeded to discuss the status of petroleum and other sources of energy, concluding that clean energy must be developed if the world is to sustain peaceful life. “Petroleum is the single most important resource in international commerce, providing 40 percent of all oil,” said Klare. “Natural gas will last longer, but is a limited substance [that] will peak in production before the end of this century. Coal is less abundant than generally perceived and will peak mid-century.”
Klare proposed that the U.S. and China could develop clean energy together, an endeavor that would benefit both countries through shared cost and alteration of the dynamic to halt the potential for ultimate conflict. However, this would eliminate clean technologies from the status of commodity and lessen the potential for development resulting from competition.
“Though his suggestion that China and the U.S. work together could help disperse the risk involved with investing in new technologies,” said Litsey Corona ’11.5, who attended the lecture. “I’m not sure how likely it is that each country will engage in sharing technological findings that could put them ahead in the energy market.”
While it is unclear what the future of U.S.- Chinese relations will hold, Klare made a compelling argument for collaboration.“China continues to rely on coal for its primary source of energy,” he explained. “Carbon Dioxide emissions will impact global climate change, the global economy and China’s purchases of imported energy. Americans will have to pay higher prices for oil and other fuels,” said Klare.
Klare also clarified that his fear of future conflict is embedded in the future change in relations. “At the present time we are not at a genuine adversarial relationship with China,” he continued. “Competition over energy will become more intense if relations between Washington and Beijing deteriorate.”
He discussed how the fear of conflict can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy and how, as a result, measures should be taken to ensure the continuance of peaceful relations.
“I especially liked when he talked about the future relationship between the U.S.A. and China and that the psychology is what really has to change,” said Jakob Terwitte ’13.
This altered psychology, if ever achieved, would have enormous implications for energy production, the environment and international relations.
(11/19/09 4:13am)
“Climate change is the challenge of our time,” Pier LaFarge ’10.5 emphasized throughout our conversation. “Students at Middlebury have a great opportunity to become engaged on various levels of action.”
At 2 a.m. on a Friday afternoon, one would think a senior Feb would much rather embrace a much needed weekend retreat than acquiesce to a Campus interview, but LaFarge enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to discuss his activist role on campus and the current debate on climate policy.
The Rhode Island native arrived at Middlebury after what he believed was the typical Febmester of erratic endeavors — everything from backpacking in the Swiss Alps to conservation work in Costa Rica. When posed the banal question of “Why Middlebury?” Lafarge couldn’t help but smile.
“Middlebury is such an encompassing and involved place, La Farge said. “People really want to be here. There is a huge sense of community not found in many other places.”
LaFarge seized the opportunities that Middlebury offered. During President Barack Obama’s campaign, he worked as an intern for 1Sky, an organization that advocates federal action to stop global warming. On campus, LaFarge is active in the Middlebury Mountain Club, especially with the recent initiative to reinstate the MiddView program in first-year orientation.
“We are waiting for Finance Committee approval, but we are closer to getting MiddView back,” said LaFarge, who adamantly explained his rationale for trying to rescue the program.
“MiddView is an integral part of coming to Middlebury,” said LaFarge. “It’s a three-day, focused experience where nervous first-years, in a healthy social context, can engage with each other and upperclassmen. Most importantly, incoming students have the chance to discuss their fears, which turn out to not be singular to any one person — everyone is talking about the same thing,” said LaFarge. “MiddView reflects the best parts of the Middlebury community — connecting to the landscape and the people.”
Getting back to discussing his sincere interest in climate change and environmental policy, LaFarge gave a brief history of the evolution of his passion.
“My father was an environmentalist and outdoorsman,” he explained. “He worked in both land and water conservation. His legacy has helped inspire me to follow in a similar activist vein. In high school, I began to engage with issues dealing with sustainable energy and climate change. I researched different environmental policies for my senior project.”
While in college, the environmental policy major has expanded this interest to a desire to “bring policy focus and awareness on a relatable level back to campus.”
LaFarge is particularly motivated to help erase the stigma associated with labels like “environmental” or “climate change.”
“We need to unpack climate change into its functional parts, making the debate much more palatable for everyone around the country,” explained LaFarge. “Approaching the issue from a deconstructed view is extremely beneficial — breaking it into energy efficiency, green jobs, pollution regulation, investment in transportation infrastructure and renewable resources, etc.”
LaFarge plans to focus his thesis on ways in which climate policy can be filtered through the philosophy of conservative states.
“Agriculture in the United States has a lot to lose from climate change,” said LaFarge. “As rain patterns change and droughts become more frequent, growing crops will get harder and more expensive.” LaFarge added, “Addressing climate change at the national level has the ability to bring good jobs back to struggling rural communities through investment in the renewable energy industry. Legislation will also open up a bunch of income opportunities for American farmers in areas like biomass and carbon sequestration.”
When asked how students who are not necessarily well-versed on environmental policy can get involved, LaFarge explained that the first step towards understanding the climate crisis is to educate oneself. He encourages people to go out and read up on scientific developments and current policy debates.
“There is so much space and opportunity to get involved, any student can make change in numerous ways whether it’s contacting their senator or joining climate action organizations.”
Wanting to make one point extremely clear, LaFarge reiterated, “The debate has moved beyond debating the science behind climate change. What we’re talking about now is ‘how fast’ and ‘how hard’ the effects will hit. This challenge is about working to keep the pace of climate change within the bounds of what our systems can handle.”
(11/19/09 3:56am)
It is no surprise that many Middlebury graduates go on to pursue careers relating to the environment, sustainability or climate change (or all three). Scholars-in-residence like Bill McKibben and organizations like Sunday Night Group and Weybridge House encourage activism and environmental interest, and provide students with impressive credentials to bolster their résumés. Middlebury alumni have played pivotal roles jumpstarting environmental NGOs and movements like 350.org that are global in scale and are shaping international environmental policy today. While there are no doubt hundreds of alums currently involved in environmental work of one kind or another, the following profiles provide a brief sample of just a few. (Seniors, take note.)
Bennett Konesni ’04.5
After helping to start the Middlebury College Organic Garden (MCOG) while studying at Middlebury, Konesni’s passion for gardening has translated to his newest project — the founding of Sylvester Manor, a 243-acre educational farm located on an old plantation on Shelter Island, N.Y. “Our mission is to preserve and interpret the property,” Konesni said. “And to encourage a culture of food that is delicious, joyful and fair.” His uncle inherited the property and when Konesni suggested creating something similar to Shelburne Farms, there was no stopping them.
“I really enjoy designing things, then trying them out to see how they work.” Konesni said. “I guess I’m a little bit of an inventor in that way, whether it’s systems in the fields, a barn layout or an efficient office space.”
Konesni graduated with a triple joint major in music, anthropology and environmental studies with a focus in human ecology. After founding the farm, he now works as its executive director and is in charge of daily administrative duties, athough he tries to spend as much time as possible in the fields.
He cites his experience starting and managing MCOG as the one that ultimately encouraged him to continue to pursue farming and local foods.
“The experience of starting the garden, from navigating the college bureaucracy to building a shed to harvesting and selling our first produce, has prepared me extremely well for my life as an entrepreneur,” he said.
More than anything, Konesni said that his professors and classmates pushed him to pursue his interests — to grow, question and improve constantly.
“Professionals like Jay Leshinsky reinforced our budding knowledge and professors like Bill McKibben, John Elder, Anne Knowles and Jon Isham urged us on and fed us ideas to consider,” Konesni said. “Finally, though, it’s my Middlebury classmates. The encouragement and ideas that they have given me has been the best Middlebury gift of all.”
Konesni encourages all of us to visit the organic garden. “Get your hands in the soil and all of your other projects, classes, and relationships will improve,” he said. “It’s a powerful place — go explore it.”
Elizabeth A. Baer ’04
A former environmental studies & policy major, Baer is putting her degree to good use at Conservation International, an environmental non-profit based in Washington, D.C. Baer works in the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business on a team called Conservation Tools for Business.
“My team develops tools and methodologies for companies to help companies shrink, green and offset ecological impacts in their supply chains — the chain of growers, producers, transporters, exporters, processors and others who are involved in making products and delivering services for a company,” Baer said.
“We do this by helping companies develop targets for how they would like their suppliers’ performance to change, methods for building capacity in the supply chain, incentives to encourage performance improvement, monitoring methods to track change, and approaches to report on and communicate about changes with the public so that consumers can make more informed buying decisions,” she explained.
Baer enjoys the ways in which her work can have far-reaching implications, as even small changes made by major international companies like Starbucks, Wal-Mart or McDonald’s can have enormous effects.
While she has always considered herself to be environmentally conscious, she credits Middlebury with putting her consciousness into a global context and grounding it in science.
“It’s an extraordinarily exciting time to be in the environmental field,” Baer said. “We’re facing critical global challenges, certainly, and the science only tells us that things are getting worse. But at the same time, we’re seeing more and more companies, individuals and nations engaged in environmental issues than ever before.”
“The world is beginning to understand that environment is not an ‘either-or’ proposition, but that if we can shift our way of thinking and operating, ‘win-win’ solutions exist for us to develop sustainably while protecting the natural resources we rely on to thrive,” she continued. “The question now is whether we have the will to make the right choices and to implement the necessary changes quickly enough.”
Jason Kowalski ’07
After working to organize Step It Up 2007 with other Middlebury graduates and Scholar-in-Residence in Environmental Studies Bill McKibben, Kowalski now works as a policy coordinator at 1Sky, a start-up grassroots campaign urging congress to pass strong climate legislation as soon as possible.
“My role is to make sure legislators on Capitol Hill hear the demand for action coming from their constituents,” said the former English major. “And also to make sure advocates around the country have the tools they need to apply pressure to the legislative process. Overall, it’s a mix of lobbying, policy analysis and working with our grassroots network.”
Kowalski describes his experiences at Middlebury as key to his current career trajectory. “Working with great professors like Jon Isham really got me thinking about what I was learning in the classroom and how I could apply it to the real world.”
After taking science and economics courses, Kowalski worked with friends and professors to calculate the College’s carbon footprint and figure out how much it would cost to switch from dirty oil to sustainably harvested biomass.
“A combination of student support, solid relationships with the administration and economic analysis led to a triumphant ‘yes’ vote in 2007 from the Board of Trustees to move forward with the aggressive carbon reduction agenda being implemented on campus right now,” Jason said.
In many ways, Kowalski argues, Middlebury’s carbon neutrality initiative closely mirrors the battle underway in Washington right now — “only,” as Kowalski says, “Capitol Hill is much more hostile than Old Chapel.”
Bonnie Frye Hemphill ’08
After graduating in 2008, Hemphill finds herself working at Climate Solutions in Seattle as a fellow in business partnerships. A small non-profit working to accelerate practical and profitable solutions to global warming was a perfect fit for Hemphill after four years of involvement with Middlebury’s SNG.
“I give many of my classes and professors a good deal of thanks,” Hemphill said. “But far and away, I learned the most from Middlebury’s student climate activism. The basic skills of organizing — inspiring diverse folks to mobilize around abstract goals, conducting large group debates and cold-call phonebanking the media to show up at events — have all proven invaluable.”
At Climate Solutions, Bonnie coordinates the Business Leaders for Climate Solutions program with campaign planning, research, administrative, communications and networking support. “It’s a network of more than 550 northwest businesspeople making the case for building the clean economy,” Hemphill said. “It was just 125 at this time last year.”
Her work allows her to be involved in a number of projects at once, including drafting an op-ed for a utility CEO to publish in a local paper supporting Senate action or clean energy investment; researching green tax incentives; helping a group of businesspeople put together a trip to Washington, D.C., to testify before Congress about successful alternative energy projects; and, of course, reorganizing the database.
“Though I am pretty tired at the end of the day,” Hemphill said. “I can honestly say I love it. I took full advantage of Middlebury’s remarkable resources and networks to jump from school to my work here.”
Julie Baroody ’03.5
After graduation, Baroody envisioned herself working in international public health, but the former international studies major now considers herself very lucky to have found the Rainforest Alliance (RA). The RA is an international conservation organization that strives to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.
“My current role is as coordinator of the RA’s climate activities,” Baroody said. “I’m thrilled to be part of the new and rapidly growing forest carbon community, with my colleagues finding ways to ensure credible reductions of greenhouse gas emissions through avoiding deforestation and forest degradation.”
While at Middlebury, Baroody was involved in environmental groups on campus, though she did not major in envrionmental studies.
“I lived in Weybridge House and attended ES colloquia regularly, and discussed environmental issues all the time with my peers,” Baroody said. “To me, integrating environmental issues into daily life, instead of focusing on them as something special or separate, is the only way to truly address some of the biggest challenges faced by individuals, communities, businesses and all the governments of the world.”
David Barker ’06
Barker has spent the past two years working as a project manager for the New York City Parks Department helping to implement a program called Schoolyards to Playgrounds as part of the mayor’s 30-year sustainability plan known as PlaNYC.
“The mayor wants all New Yorkers to live within a 10-minute walk of a park and since there’s not a lot of vacant, available land in the city, he saw the opening of 265 schoolyards (locked after school hours and on the weekends) as a practical way to accomplish this goal,” Barker said.
In his own words, Barker “has worn a lot of different hats for the team,” from attending participatory design meetings with schools to coordinating with different agencies during construction to make sure it does not interfere with other projects to responding to requests about the status of each project from public officials, civic groups and City Hall.
“I really wanted to be involved with something tangible after graduation,” Barker said. “There’s nothing better than seeing a barren asphalt yard be turned into a vibrant community space. The feedback from the schools and communities has been incredibly rewarding. At a recent ribbon cutting, the kids wrote each of us thank-you notes describing their favorite amenities. It’s work that rarely feels like work.”
While Middlebury did not provide the former Campus features editor with the technical know-how to interact with a team of architects, engineers and construction staff, it helped in other ways. “It taught me to look at the big picture, to communicate effectively through writing and public speaking and to juggle multiple tasks at once.”
Tyler Lohman ’08.5
After graduating with a joint major in geography and German, Lohman now works in New York, N.Y., as the general manager, sustainability director and chief operating officer of Dos Toros, a brand new taqueria in Manhattan.
While he does his fair share of burrito rolling — “I’m pretty solid: the trick is to use your pinkies at the end” — much of his time is spent scheduling, doing payroll, advertising, marketing and other customer relations duties. However, his true passion lies in making the company as “green” as possible.
“Being the Midd alum that I am, I don the few Patagucci and Pradagonia items that I own and have started to make the restaurant as sustainable as physically and fiscally possible.” Lohman said.
The taqueria currently features salvaged furniture, energy-efficient lightbulbs, low water usage toilets and faucets and greenware. In addition, the ceiling is constructed from tin found on the side of the road, all food waste is composted and even the used deep fryer oil gets turned into biodiesel — and, of course, the restaurant serves only local organic beans and sustainably raised chicken.
“Middlebury has influenced every move and decision I’ve made,” Lohman said. “While at school I knew I was learning things I believed in, but I did the work slightly more for the sake of the grade and what I thought the teachers wanted. But now, in the ‘real world,’ I’ve realized that I indeed do have very strong personal beliefs and tremendous drive to initiate my own projects — skills that I definitely picked up at Middlebury.”
(11/19/09 2:53am)
Putting together the second green issue of The Campus raised the question, “Just how green is the town of Middlebury?” The College is touted for its environmental awareness and Vermont is nationally known as one of the greenest states, but how does Middlebury fit into the picture? We sought experts on the subject and found three who know a lot about the area and a lot about being green: Patti Prairie, CEO of the local environmental firm Brighter Planet; Jonathan Corcorran, president of the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACoRN); and Fred Dunnington, town planner.
— Lea Calderon-Guthe, Local News Editor
Enviornmental Awareness: Deirdre Sackett
A majority of Vermont’s towns share the same ecologically aware mindset as Middlebury’s. Yet what makes a town like Middlebury so environmentally conscious? The key to this town’s ecological awareness lies in its close-knit community, according to Brighter Planet CEO Patti Prairie.
The Middlebury-based environmental firm recently partnered with the 350 Challenge campaign, a popular and influential environmental campaign that originated at the College. Brighter Planet’s goal as part of the 350 Challenge was to receive 350 new bloggers. The company was initially insecure about the number of bloggers it would receive, but as time went on and the word spread, Brighter Planet found it had little to fear.
“We’re now over 3,500 [bloggers] in a year in a half,” said Prairie.
That’s 10 times the number the company expected.
Prairie considers it the power of the Middlebury community at work. She explained that bloggers who joined the campaign received a virtual badge that was displayed on their blogs and Web pages. Friends and family members noticed the attractive badges and, by word of mouth, discovered and joined Brighter Planet’s campaign.
“People help each other,” Prairie noted about Middlebury’s community. With such a strong following, it is evident that Middlebury as a town is concerned not only with the town’s environmentalism but also with global environmental awareness.
Prairie also noted that the College has influenced the town’s environmentalism in a positive way, especially with the newly built biomass facility that reduces the College’s carbon footprint by 40 percent.
“My sense is that [the town of Middlebury] is on the leading edge of environmentalism,” she said.
She still suggests that residents visit her company’s website, http://www.brighterplanet.com, so that they can calculate their carbon footprint and ways to reduce it.
Overall, Prairie credits the power of community and the College with making Middlebury such an environmentally conscious town.
Local Food: Lea Calderon-Guthe
Eating local foods is a simple way to go green and support the local community, especially in agriculturally rich Addison County, the area for which Middlebury is the shire town. Jonathan Corcorran cited the county’s long history of farming as an advantage for the local food movement in the area over other parts of the state with less developed farming communities, but he also said that Addison County still has a ways to go.
“I’ve heard that three to five percent of the foods purchased in Vermont are locally grown and produced, so there’s huge room for improvement, huge, and I think that’s really the bottom line,” said Corcorran.
“I would say that’s probably reflected here in Addison County — the number might be a little higher, maybe it’s seven percent, really nobody knows — but there’s definitely a committed core group of localvores here.”
With eight Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs that allow people to pay a discounted price for a share of a farm’s crops each season, four farmers’ markets and over half the county’s restaurants belonging to the Vermont Fresh Network, meaning they serve a certain amount of local food, Addison County residents have a lot of options in the area for eating locally. These options provide to the residents, but they also exist because community members asked for them, which might explain why Corcorran calls the area “a very interesting new model anchored by local demand.”
Corcorran showed pride in a community that “gets it,” that seems to understand the basic principles of eating local to keep money in the local economy and farms “working, productive and hopefully prosperous.” But he stressed some more abstract concepts that he wishes the wider community were more aware of.
“Food touches everybody,” said Corcorran. “It’s more than just new opportunities — it’s about changing our culture. We’re having to ask the simple question that people have always asked: ‘Where is our food going to come from?’ It’s about restoring dignity and respect to farming, and also beginning to treat the land on which we live with greater respect. We can’t farm the way we’re farming now and expect to have something in three generations. We’re going to have to reimagine what agriculture is.”
Until everyone gets the bigger picture, however, Corcorran is content to push for smaller gains.
“I’m not a 100 percent localvore, but I think it’s that we’re at three percent,” he said. “Shoot, why can’t we get to 20 percent? Why can’t we get to 25 percent? I don’t think we need to be purists about this, we just need to be sensible, and I think that’s the direction we’re moving in.”
Town Initiatives: Lea Calderon-Guthe
“Is Middlebury green? We’re trying to be,” said town planner Fred Dunnington.
Not many towns can boast their own Climate Action Plan, but the Middlebury Area Global Warming Action Coalition (MAGWAC) has been working to implement the town’s plan since 2006 with the goal of reducing town greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10 percent below 2002 levels by 2012. MAGWAC, headed up by town energy coordinator Laura Asermily, has been responsible for two campaigns, the Way to Go campaign, which promotes carbon-conscious transportation, and the Energy First campaign, which promotes energy saving and alternative energy use. From the two campaigns have sprung such initiatives as the Green Expo, in its third year in March 2010; a Local Solutions Energy Resource Directory; the Earth Day Fair; and expanded shuttle bus services from Addison County Transit Resource (ACTR). Dunnington traced the town’s green habits all the way back to the 1980s.
“There was a proposal for a hydro[electricity] project in response to the earlier oil crisis a couple decades ago,” said Dunnington. “At that time, the town said, ‘We should be energy efficient.’ [Current green initiatives]are just a new wave of this — the town has always been fairly advanced and attuned to [energy efficiency], which is only natural in a community that has a connection with an academic institution like the College that’s attuned to what’s going on in the world. We’re blessed by that.”
But where the College has a large endowment and a deep-pocketed Board of Trustees, the town is dependent on the slimmer wallets of its voters, which can limit how much the town will spend on going green.
“The problem is,” said Dunninton. “The town is stretching as hard as it can in this time of economic stress to keep a level tax rate and fund a major town improvement, the bridge, so the voters are not able to easily take on other new investment. The College is in a position to be even more advanced in its knowledge and research and its financial resources. We benefit from that and work with the College and support everything they do, and we think about how might their projects work for an organization of our scale.”
An example of the town following in the College’s footsteps is the current plan for a district biomass project that would heat Porter Hospital and municipal buildings. The town is also looking at a new pumping system that could use the heat from the 50-degree water currently expelled by the wastewater treatment facility to heat a slab in an equipment storage building.
“This is out-of-the-box stuff,” said Dunnington. “It’s not done that often, but we’re thinking about creative ways to use the infrastructure that we have. I think people in Middlebury are very receptive to alternative energy initiatives, especially if they’re demonstrated to be cost-effective.”
(11/19/09 2:05am)
Dear Middlebury Campus,
As a member of the community of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., the idea that the seas could rise with global warming is very distressing. After seeing the recent photograph of the government of the Maldives signing a petition underwater to promote climate change in Copenhagen, I realized this is a very big issue where I come from, too. Not only is Florida very close to sea level, it is one of the areas most affected by storms in the world, and with a steadily rising sea level, these storms could become more deadly than they already are.
If world leaders can agree to lower the CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere and slow down or stop global warming, then this would be a huge step forward. If global warming slowed down or stopped, it would be beneficial for everyone, not just the countries with the highest sea levels. If nothing is done, this world will see millions of homes destroyed and people displaced, uprooted and forced to find a new way of life. These leaders need to agree on a plan and find a solution so that when I want to visit my home in Palm Beach Gardens, I don’t have to wear a scuba suit.
Thanks,
Andrew Ackerman ’13
(11/19/09 2:02am)
It is a risky business to apologize to your daughter via a newspaper column. First, of all, she is likely to find it embarrassing. To be honest, since she was about 11, my daughter has found any public acknowledgement of the fact that I was her father to be more or less unbearable. I was even required since about pre-K to turn off the radio when we drove into the carpool lane at school so that no one would be tempted to look into the car and see human evidence that she didn’t actually live alone, on her own in a Beanie Baby-filled duplex somewhere. (This may also have had something to do with my taste in music … although come to think of it, I haven’t been allowed to choose the songs we played on the car radio since Joanna could talk.)
Joanna, of course, is her name. She is the one I am apologizing to.
But what I want to apologize for is something slightly more serious. Jo, I’m afraid I blew it. We blew it. I’m afraid we’ve let you down even more unhappily then when I tripped while carrying you on my shoulders a couple weeks before your fifth birthday. (And you know I’ve never gotten over that.) We got distracted while trying to make sure that you and your sister had enough dresses to wear to all those bar and bat mitzvahs and, because it wasn’t all selflessness, I’ve got to admit that some of the distractions were due to our own efforts to get ahead in life, you know, working to build up the number of hits our names would generate when entered on Google (which is the only true metric of the impact we make in our lives, right?)
And the cost of letting ourselves get distracted was somewhat more egregious than the cost of my parents not really paying much attention to me after my baby sister was born. I mean, I was emotionally scarred and ended up being a little needy. That’s not good. But the cost of our screw-up was destroying the entire planet Earth.
Which is serious, even if you are not a polar bear. (I don’t mean to make light. There is nothing funny about a drowning polar bear. Unless you’re a seal.)
Now, I know what you’re thinking, Jo. You’re thinking I’m trying to overstate this for dramatic effect. But here are the facts (which I acknowledge you and most of your fellow students already know): virtually every credible scientist who has studied the problem has concluded that spiking CO2 content in the atmosphere is contributing climatic anomalies that are going to have very serious consequences. We can debate whether global warming is plateauing or even whether it is cyclical. But there is no denying that Arctic ice caps are shrinking vastly more rapidly than any projections made even as recently as a few years ago and similar problems are taking a toll in precious and fragile locations like the glaciers high up in the Himalayas.
Three rivers flow from those heights — the Ganges, the Mekong (along which you once cruised) and the Yangtze. Something like three billion people depend on those waters and should their flows be impeded, should their levels fall, it would be a social, economic, humanitarian and security catastrophe. There are credible estimates that temperature rise of three degrees in this century could result in the dislocation of over 700 million people. This makes it a potential historical turning point for humankind and a challenge on a scale exceeding all those that have ever come before.
Now, I know you are saying, “yes, I know. I go to Middlebury. We’re greener than Kermit the Frog. We get it.” And I know that two-thirds of Americans under 30 agree this is a critical priority. But less than half of Americans over 50 get it (regrettably, I am part of this group, which is pretty much past our “sell by” date). And here in Washington, well, no one gets much. I follow this stuff for a living and I have to tell you right now it looks pretty bleak that the U.S. government is going to do what it must to seriously address this issue.
I once ran a political campaign’s policy operation and when I told the candidate that perhaps the single most important thing he could do was embrace the idea of a gasoline tax or a carbon tax, he literally blanched. Then he changed the subject. Now, he is among those likely to block cap and trade legislation in the current Congress, and he’s one of the alleged good guys, a Democrat. Heck, the President himself, who ran on promises of doing something about this, looks like he is going to backtrack from a demand that we set emissions limits or put a price on carbon and what’s the result going to be? Stalling progress on the rest of the world doing anything about it, that’s what. When the world meets in Copenhagen, we’ll end up with a pale face-saving deal that essentially punts these decisions down the road.
Now you hear talk about trying to slow emissions without setting limits or putting a real price on carbon. And frankly, while that is certainly better than doing nothing (China just released a state-sponsored study suggesting they should reduce emissions four to five percent a year through 2050; they are more forward-leaning on some of these issues than we are) it’s not going to do the trick.
Without these measures, carbon levels will rise and then water levels will rise and the climate will shift and other than those who like the idea of summer sailing at the North Pole, it’s not going to be a happy time.
So, what do you get besides an apology? Well, advice, of course. I’m a parent, I can’t help it. My generation has failed to meet its responsibilities. But your generation gets it. To me, the only way this issue resonates in Washington is if people start figuring it in their political cost-benefit analysis. Someone needs to send the message that millions of voters between 18 and 35 consider action on this issue to be a litmus test. They need to make it hurt to do nothing. They need to make platitudes and pork unacceptable alternatives. They need to say, “fix it or we will change the game right now” and right now, the message we are getting is just not loud enough. It’s too soft. The crowds are too small. The political efforts are too much at the margins. No politician in America thinks they will lose their job if they get this wrong. They need to know different, to be proven different.
It is embarrassing for a parent to turn to a child to ask for help, especially if the reason is his own failure and that of his fellow parents. But trust me, you will someday have children (not too soon, please) and when you love them as much as your parents love you, you will not forgive yourself for having failed to rise to this challenge. I know you can do it. I mean you got us to let you have your own car up there in Middlebury, and Lord knows we hated that idea even as we were somehow made to do it. That’s power. Multiply that by 50 million or so and that’s the power of America aged 18-35.
Gandhi is alleged to have said that “when the people lead, the leaders will follow.” While this may be true, and who am I to quibble with Gandhi, over the course of my life, you have proven to me that it is even more clear that when the children lead, the parents will follow. We may pretend at the time like we are doing the leading. But in this case, as in so many others (see the car comment above), we know the truth, right?
(11/19/09 2:00am)
I’m packing for the trip to Copenhagen, site next month of arguably the most important international negotiations in the planet’s history. There will be big rallies, speeches to give, delegates from every corner of the world, grand conference halls, lots of press. But I’ll be thinking, often, of home. Not just because I miss it, but because for me it’s the source of many of the ideas we deeply need right now.
The tension between the global and the local is the most interesting and fruitful fact in our ongoing environmental debate, and few places symbolize it better, or more hopefully, than our Middlebury campus.
We face the first truly global crisis — they don’t call it global warming for nothing — and that clearly demands planet-scale action. So it’s useful work to try and build that worldwide coalition. CNN called our international day of action for 350.org “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history” — we stood in halls of our temporary offices in New York as pictures poured in from 5,200 actions in 181 countries and almost giggled to think we’d pulled it off with a crew of seven core staff, all 2006 graduates of this college. They’ve turned themselves into some of the finest organizers now at work anywhere — each one took a continent and managed to reach places and people who had never been active on this issue before. They found some of their best allies in students and faculty at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (350.org is a poster child for why this merger makes so much sense). It all came together quite beautifully — if you look at the pictures on 350.org, you’ll see women in burkas with 350 signs, slumdwellers from Mombasa, soldiers in Afghanistan. The idea that environmentalism is for rich white people is simply not true.
On the other hand, those organizers got their start in the privileged hallways of this college — in the classroom and in the library and in the college garden. They cut their teeth helping build support for the biomass plant, and the plantation of fast-growing willows that is the best hope of making it truly sustainable. All of these young people, and I as well, are as deeply interested in the local as in the global.
Which makes sense. Because on the one hand, any global solution is only as useful as the sum of the local actions it motivates. Leaders in Copenhagen won’t actually erect any windmills — even their governments, though they have a huge role to play, can’t actually make change happen on the scale and at the pace we need. By the same token, inspired action in one town or on one campus — oreven hundreds of campuses — won’t make a real dent in the carbon concentration of the atmosphere. For that we need worldwide action — we’re past solving this crisis one lightbulb at a time.
How to reconcile these different ends of the spectrum? By mobilizing those forces that work everywhere at once. Economics, for instance: the deep goal of the Copenhagen meeting will be finally to put a stiff enough cap on carbon that the cost of fossil fuel will rise enough to begin to change behavior — that every institution, and not just green-oriented campuses, will start looking for alternatives to coal and gas and oil.
Or religion. One of the best parts of 350.org was the involvement of thousands of local churches and mosques and synagogues — across America, for instance, congregations rung the bells in their steeples 350 times. That filters up — as popes and patriarchs begin to enunciate the message that social justice demands climate sanity, behavior will start to shift. The link may not be as easy to model as a price rise, but it’s real.
One of the great forces we need to muster is youth itself, the surging, idealistic, hopeful power that’s been applied so often to so many local and national tasks. As we worked around the world on 350.org, we couldn’t help but notice that our best organizers were often very young — 20-year-olds in Ethiopia organizing giant rallies in the streets of Addis Ababa, college-age networks across Australia, New Zealand, India, China. Linking them together is ever more possible thanks to the new technology (we have 23,000 photos of actions in our Flickr account at 350.org).
And their power comes only in part from their youth. College campuses are the perfect place for ideas like these to incubate, because people have time, and they have each other — there’s a group of people gathered together not because they work for the same employer but because they’re engaged in the same search for understanding. Watching people reach for that understanding, try to put it in into practice, is the great privilege of the professor — I’ve enjoyed few things so much in my years in Vermont as watching the Sunday Night Group turn into one of the nation’s premier environmental outfits, developing precisely the kind of people we desperately need.
So it was fun standing in Times Square on 350 Day, showing photos from across the planet on the Jumbotron advertising screens. But when the pictures from Middlebury’s 350 potluck came across the computer, I was suddenly deeply homesick. We all need to be citizens of the world, but it’s impossible unless you really live someplace. Thank heaven for Addison County.
(11/19/09 1:52am)
The dismal state of the environment these days has me down in the dumps. In fact, it has depressed me so that I’ve been forced to drink (I imagine no one saw that coming). With climate change (and governments’ inability to do anything about it — world leaders agreed this week to not decide on anything at this year’s summit in Copenhagen, instead deciding to wait just a little bit longer in an inspired move), our throw-away culture, and a myriad of other problems far too numerous to mention, it’s a wonder that we’re all not raging alcoholics, passed out in a gutter somewhere, drowning our worries in the drink. Perhaps we should be.
You see, I’m not drinking solely to block out my sorrows — I’m drinking for a good cause. One of the greatest things to come out of the broadly named “environmental movement” in the past few years has been the idea of slow food. By this, I mean food that is sustainable — local, often organic, or both — that is prepared with care and intention at every step in the process, and that is expected to be consumed with that same care in mind. Here, we savor quality over quantity, specificity over ubiquity, and food with a story over food with a label. Which brings me back to alcohol.
Luckily for us, caught up in this movement for better and better tasting food has been a push for equally stimulating spirits. Microbreweries and local wineries have experienced an enormous flowering over the past decade, and we’re now blessed with a variety of drinks that might have been unheard of only a few years ago. And even more luckily for all of us Middlebury students, we happen to have a local microbrewery just down the road.
The Otter Creek and Wolaver’s brewing facility is well known to Middlebury students; its brewery tour seems a rite of passage for the newly-21, and its seasonal selections provide just enough variety to keep students interested. Moreover, as a brewery, it is committed to lessening its environmental impact as much as possible. Wolaver’s Certified Organic Ales was one of the first organic breweries in the United States when it began in 1997, and now it produces a number of organic ales for nationwide consumption. Of course, it is important to mention that while Wolaver’s brews are organic, the organic hops they use have to be trucked in from thousands of miles away, lessening their environmental credentials. However, Wolaver’s has also begun its Farmers Series of ales, which incorporate ingredients from local farmers, helping contribute to the local economy and building the idea of a story I mentioned earlier.
To me, it is this story that is most important. While microbreweries and artisanal foods are not a cure-all for all of our environmental ills, they are important for what they do — they make us ask questions about our food. It’s too easy to just go to the supermarket and pick up some anonymous case of beer; it’s much more interesting to know where it comes from, who produces it and how. So when we drink beer from a brewery down the road, that in and of itself isn’t solving anything, but it is the beginning of a valuable and essential process.
The more we learn about food, the more we want to know. If I know where my beer comes from, I’ll want to know how it’s produced, or maybe I’ll want to know what it does with its waste and if its hops are sustainably grown. Drinking local beer forces us to ask questions, which is always one of the most valuable things one can do.
So please, go out and have a drink from one of Vermont’s many local breweries. The state has been blessed by a growing number of local producers, all making some great beers. It’s important to know that by drinking alone we won’t solve any of our problems, but we can start to help. So as the empty bottles multiply and the problems fade from our consciousness, we can know: that glow we’re feeling comes from more than the alcohol.
(11/19/09 1:36am)
Maryland College cuts carbon by 80 percent
St. Mary’s College cut its carbon dioxide outputs by 80 percent last year thanks to a series of student initiatives. Students purchased Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to offset 100 percent of their carbon footprint due to electricity use.
Several new buildings on campus introduced geothermal HVAC systems which will cut emissions by several hundred tons. Other buildings have increased the efficiency of windows to both save money and reduce the College’s carbon footprint.
Members of the community believe the changes made at St. Mary’s should inspire members of the community. To solve climate change requires that everyone make sacrifices and look at their own habits, according to David Kung, associate professor of mathematics.
“The students at the college are part of a nationwide movement that is redefining the way society views environmentalism,” said Emily Saari ’12, co-president of the college’s Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC).
—The Baynet
Haverford College to add Enviornmental Studies
After years of discussion and a grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Haverford College will add an environmental studies program.
Members of a faculty committee submitted their application to the foundation and received a $1.5 million grant to start the program. The College will attempt to raise three times that amount through fundraising in the coming three years.
The new program will combine elements of a science and humanities education. A faculty committee will determine what courses will form the program and how many faculty members to hire.
Discussions about adding a similar program have been ongoing for years. The College hired its first professor for the program recently. “I think that a liberal arts college is the perfect place for this sort of thing. My kind of research fits really well into interdisciplinary, small liberal arts college environment,” Professor Helen White said.
“We are still in the data-gathering mode, trying to hear from students, alumni in environmental careers,” Professor Robert Scarrow said. “We are asking faculty which of the courses they already teach have environmental implications, because, although we are bringing in new faculty members, we think the program needs more than three faculty members
—The Bi-College News
Williams students fast for climate change
Environmental student leaders at Williams College will fast through upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen to promote immediate action to stem the effects of climate change.
The students joined with other environmental leaders throughout the world in the Climate Justice Fast following the conclusion of the Nov. 6 climate conference in Barcelona.
The group will organize a relay of fasting so that students do not have to continually fast for the duration of the event. Organizers predict the fast will last 42 days at the very least.
Members of the Thursday Night Group, the Williams environmental club, will wear t-shirts to show their support for the effort.
—The Hamilton Spectator
(11/18/09 5:17pm)
Green group rallies support for climate summit
Members of Middlebury’s Sunday Night Group (SNG), a student-run environmental advocacy organization, engaged in a campaign this week to encourage students to call President Obama and demand his attendance at the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen.
Officials from nearly 193 countries will be attending the meeting, which begins Dec. 7. At press time, President Obama remained unsure of whether he would attend.
The meeting will be a continuation of the work of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change that focuses on “stabiliz[ing] the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous man-made climate changes,” according to the UN.
Organizers originally hoped that these talks will result in a firm agreement on capping emissions and will go farther than the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, many of the goals of which have not been realized.
However, Obama and other world leaders acknowledged Sunday that a legally binding treaty is not a feasible goal for the upcoming talks. Rather, they will pursue a more ambiguous “politically” binding agreement, and continue work in the upcoming talks in Mexico City in 2010.
“Politically binding” effectively means that the treaty would likely have to be renegotiated during every change of power in a nation, SNG member Rhiya Trivedi ’12.5 explained Sunday. However, the details of the “nebulous” term remain unclear.
“This represents a major setback,” Trivedi admitted to the group. Right now, Obama needs to go to Copenhagen to write the best agreement he possibility can within the limits he and other leaders established Sunday, she said. The work can and will be continued in Mexico City.
SNG member Nate Troutman Blumenshine ’10 initially expressed some concern with advocating Obama’s attendance to Copenhagen rather than protesting his decision not to pursue a legally binding decision.
“[Obama] has to prove he is the guy that represents real change,” Blumenshine said. “We need to take what we can get [out of Copenhagen], but show we’re disappointed. Our job is still to be the voice [saying] that aggressive climate policy is a priority.”
While Blumenshine acknowledges that it could be politically harmful if Obama goes to Copenhagen with goals of a binding treaty and fails, he hopes to show that failing to deliver on real change would be equally detrimental in gaining votes.
Scholar-in-Residence Bill McKibben agrees that Obama’s attendance will be falling short of what the current climate situation demands.
“It will be as much spin as substance, [but] we need to get Obama engaged in this fight somehow, and this may be as good a way as any,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Despite these setbacks, however, Brazil’s announcement Friday that it would voluntarily cut carbon emissions by at least 36 percent by 2020 offers some hope for the upcoming talks.
Environmental Minister Carlos Minc hopes that this step will lead other nations to follow suit, the AFP reports.
Trivedi notes, however, that this move is indicative of a greater problem.
“Brazil’s voluntary cuts represent a greater, graver problem, which is that developing countries are believing less and less that the developed will do the necessary,” she said in an e-mail. “Despite the fact that they have no historical responsibility for the problem … developing countries are starting to do everything they can and more to mitigate and adapt to climate change.”
The focus of SNG’s work this week, however, remained mobilizing the Middlebury student body to call Obama and express their expectation that he attend the upcoming talks. They had four key modes of reaching students.
First, SNG members created a Facebook event to reach a large number of students and publicize the need to call Obama.
Second, SNG reached out to other student organizations to help motivate their respective bases.
“This is not an issue specific to just green fingers,” Moriel Rothman ’11 explained. All student organizations should be involved, because this meeting has the power to affect everyone.
Third, SNG members passed out information cards at the dining halls explaining how, when and why to call Obama.
Fourth, SNG members performed a skit Wednesday in Proctor and Ross dining halls, giving a mock-Obama a plane ticket to Copenhagen.
McKibben believes that calling Obama may be effective, but is not entirely convinced the President can be swayed on this issue.
“Obama doesn’t have to worry too much about the politics of global warming because most environmentalists will vote for him regardless,” McKibben wrote in an e-mail. “But he does know that among young voters last time, climate change was an issue of overriding importance, and also that they’re the ones who were out knocking doors for him. So if he’s vulnerable to any pitch, it’s one like this.”
Associate Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson seconds McKibben, also remaining unsure what effect phone calls could have.
“In general, elected officials will want to keep an eye on the overall views of their constituents,” and phone calls can help alert Obama to those views, he said. However, “the president’s ultimate decision about whether to attend the talks will, of course, depend on many factors besides the protests or calls.”
(05/07/09 12:00am)
Author: Garrett Reynolds Primum non nocere. It was here in the Opinions section in an article by Annie Onishi '09 that I first heard of this so-called Hippocratic Oath. It means "above all, do no harm," and is traditionally taken by physicians upon entering the practice of medicine. For physicians, it is sometimes better to take no action - for example, when knowledge of the sickness is inadequate. I think this concept could be extended to the ailments afflicting the world: poverty, global warming, inequality, etc. Unfortunately, at Middlebury, there is a tendency to think that we know enough about these ailments to offer prescriptions. Encouraged by our education system, students engage in activism in order to endorse their points of view. I think this is problematic for two reasons. First, it could be inflicting more harm than good, and second, we leave behind open debate and the search for knowledge that is far more important at our age.There are many issues taken up by the Middlebury community, most of which are very complicated and merit years of study. For example, the College proudly supports local farmers by buying local foods, but there has been no discussion of the opportunity costs involved. Are we taking vital business away from farmers in poorer countries? Could those countries produce the food more efficiently, using less energy and with less environmental impact? Talking of the environment, was the windmill we now have an effective use of our money in combating climate change? What does it mean for the College to be "carbon neutral?" Or take the Middlebury student activists who, around the time of the 2007 troop surge in Iraq, advocated an immediate and complete withdrawal from Iraq. What would that country look like now? I don't know the answers to these questions, but neither, I think, do any of the other students at Middlebury.An appropriate answer, therefore, would be "I don't know." Unfortunately, that's not a phrase you often hear on campus. I think this is partly due to the education we receive. We are not taught to not know; rather, we are encouraged to take a strong stand, even where we have no grounding to support us. On most essays, we are expected to make a clear-cut argument, which we do, even after having only skimmed over a handful of basic readings. How often do we write a paper talking about the pros and cons of a position and conclude by claiming not to know enough to pass judgment on the topic?We might do well to more closely follow Wittgenstein's maxim: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent." But, in many of our classes, it seems more like: "Whereof one remains silent, thereof one gets a zero for class participation." Middlebury students obviously have a lot of creativity, drive and initiative. It seems that these qualities could be better harnessed
(04/30/09 12:00am)
Author: Cloe Shasha Middlebury College's local food initiative is a couple steps ahead of other colleges and universities. The amount of local food in Middlebury's dining halls - 25 percent from Vermont alone - is a number higher than at most other institutions. Some other colleges and universities across the country, however, have also made enormous progress in recent years towards a sustainable food culture.In 2000, an environmental health and policy class sparked interest in a group of Yale students to bring sustainable food to the University. As they learned more about the harmful effects of pesticides, they grew more driven to develop a sustainable food project and integrate local foods into the dining hall menus.In 2003, the Yale Sustainable Food Project started the Yale Farm and a farmers' market and focused its first efforts on the dining system at Berkeley, one of the residential colleges at Yale, similar to a commons Middlebury's system. For two years, 100 percent of the food in Berkeley's dining hall was sustainable, according to the University's sustainability purchasing guidelines. These guidelines were established with the help of the students involved in the project. Local food is bought first, followed by certified fair trade and organic foods, followed by the next best alternatives, depending on the particular ingredient. "Since 2005, all of the dining halls - including the one at Berkeley - serve sustainable food," said Sustainable Food Project Program Coordinator Hannah Burnett. "The amount of sustainable food available has increased each year, and now we're at 40 percent in every dining hall," said Sustainable Food "We've collaborated with Yale Dining to make this happen, and since they became self-operated last year, they're even more poised to make change and focus on issues of sustainability."UC-Santa Cruz (UC-SC) started a local foods initiative in 2004. In the university's dining halls, 25 percent of the produce purchased is local and organic. They also buy organic rice and milk."The produce comes from a consortium that we helped form so a group of local organic farmers could bring all their produce to a central location and then only one truck would come to campus," explained Scott Berlin, the director for dining and hospitality services at UC-SC. "There is also a connection to our campus farm with all of these growers in that they work with each other to utilize the research and training that the campus provides on sustainable farming techniques."By participating in the Real Food Challenge, UC Santa Cruz hopes to have 20 percent of all of their food purchases be sustainable, local or organic. This would almost double their current purchasing trends.Berlin mentioned that with more local foods, the university will have to work on adjusting students' food expectations and foster willingness to eat seasonal food."We are blessed to live in one of the most fertile produce areas in the world," Berlin continued. "Sustainability is truly driven by region. With these resources available and with our year-round climate we have access to many food items for 12 months a year."For many years, Williams College has been working on a sustainable food initiative. In the past four years, the college has replaced all of their conventional milk with local, hormone-free milk, and they have increased their overall consumption of local and organic foods by 30 percent. They buy almost all of their vegetables locally. Williams' dining services have membership to Berkshire Grown, which is an organization that promotes sustainability in agricultural practices. The college has maintained a strong relationship with the farming community for several years, according to Chris Abayasinghe, assistant director of dining at Williams."In the last five years, we have accelerated our local food initiatives," Abayasinghe said. "We purchase $300,000 of local food per year, which comes out to about 10 percent of our budget."One of Williams' sustainability goals includes developing more relationships with local farms and with the town, which they believe will expand their options for nearby food sources. But Abayasinghe said that purchasing only local food does not seem like a viable option for Williams, at least not in the near future."If we were to switch all of our food to local, the local farms would not be able to supply us with the amount that we would need," he said.Williams students appreciate the sustainability efforts of the college, according to Abayasinghe. They value eating healthful, fresh and local foods, and a number of students are interested in helping the college achieve its sustainability goals. More colleges and universities continue to express interest in incorporating sustainable food into their food budget plans. By consulting schools like Middlebury, Yale, UC-SC and Williams, other institutions can get a sense of how to initiate and deepen sustainability efforts in a time of economic instability.
(04/30/09 12:00am)
Author: Corinne Beaugard and Kaylen Baker We begin our lives of schooling between the ages of two and three on our first day of preschool. Sixteen years later, we go to college for four years, then possibly to graduate school. We spend the better part of our youth passing through the motions of structured education without the opportunity to direct our own paths. Of course there is summer, which has the potential to rejuvenate and restore, but many of us want to be productive year round, using summer to build resumes and work. Following this predestined course is the perfect fit for people who thrive in the structured and demanding environment of higher education, but some reject it and choose to explore the world and themselves without such constraints. Luckily for those of us who want to leave for a semester or more, Middlebury makes it extremely easy to do so. Our Feb program is great because it allows students, both Febs and non-Febs, to take a semester off while still being part of a particular class. There are a considerable number of students on campus who have taken time off, which is likely due to Middlebury's lenient policy. It is possible to defer for a semester up until the day before classes start. Cassandra Moore, a first-semester sophomore, took last semester off as well. She had been deliberating for a while and finally decided it would be for the best. "I moved from Durango, Colo., to Olympia, Wash., in late August and lived with two friends, Mesa and Automne, in the cutest little house. And that's what I did: I just lived there. I wanted to take time off school and didn't have a plan, really, of what to do - and I didn't want to plan anything." She also had crappy jobs, one at a religious coffee shop and another cleaning at a scummy motel, yet she enjoyed her time. Time works in a very different way when you're not in school. The day is not organized into class periods, athletic practices, lectures, and screenings. It is a lot more flexible and the days become distinguishable for reasons aside from hours in the library and meals in the dining hall. Upon reflection, Cassie noted how valuable this was for her. "It seems strange, but it was really nice to work jobs, for a little while, that I didn't care about. It was relieving. It wouldn't hold my attention for a very long time, but for a little while. It was nice to reserve my best energy for my life outside of work." She stayed in Oregon for the rest of her time off, working, riding her bike, and enjoying the freedom of really living. Cassie considered returning to school, not entirely convinced it would be the best decision, but she did and is not disappointed. However, she believes she may take the following semester off and possibly more in the future. Many people here are more concerned about their graduation date, but Cassie says she'd recommend taking time off to everyone, realizing how crucial it was for her personal growth and happiness."I think it is a bad decision, honestly, not to take time off. I think there is a reality beyond school's structure that so many people don't see for too long and I think that is sad. I think plowing through education like we do lends itself to the creation of a lifestyle that is equally fast-paced and just not humble."Other students decide to take time off with the intent of participating in a social or political cause. Ben Wessel, currently a sophomore, plans to take next semester off to work for 1Sky, a climate advocacy group in Washington, D.C. He has worked for the organization before and felt it was so rewarding he wants to return. At 1Sky he will participate in U.S. and international policy analysis, working with existing policies, as well as proposals, that aim to influence Congress and organize the grassroots youth movement. Ben said he decided to take time off not because he needs a break from this academic environment but because this environmental movement is so time sensitive. Waiting until graduation is not an option; too many critical decisions that will have already been made, decisions he hopes to influence. According to Wessel, taking next semester off is the best solution, for he does not want to continue investing himself half heartedly in school and this cause. By taking time off he can fully devote himself to achieving climate goals and then return to school, satisfied that he followed his calling to act. His work with policy change will culminate with an international conference in Copenhagen, COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009. During this time, Ben will work with the group of young people at the conference to influence the policy makers."We will call attention to the failings of negotiations through creative actions," Wessel said, "with focus on the media. We offer a policy stance that will safeguard all countries." Ben is excited to sit at the table with the policy makers and his fellow activists this coming December to push for his climate agenda, which he hopes will be enacted.Xian Chiang-Warren '11 went straight to college after high school like most kids do in the United States, but soon changed track. "It just became apparent to me during my first year that I wasn't getting enough out of being here academically," she explained. "I was in classes I was interested in with amazing professors, but it wasn't clicking. The timing was off."Instead of returning for sophomore year at Middlebury, she decided to take time off and travel around South America with some friends. Originally, she expected to end up working at an animal refuge in the Amazon Basin in Bolivia, but as she traveled along, her plans changed and she found herself forging a different and spontaneous trail.Chiang-Warren does not disapprove of formal education, but she staunchly believes that life must contain more than just theoretical classroom discussions and regurgitated principles. "There are other things that academia can't teach you, things that it alienates us from, which are equally important to our growth as human beings," she said. "What scared me was the idea of hitting age 21 or 22 and not being able to remember existing outside of these places."When asked whether it was difficult to return to school life after her traveling, she admitted, "Yes and no. I was always going to come back - I understand that I should probably finish college, that it opens more doors than it closes, and also there's just a lot of information out there that I want to learn. Most importantly I've found amazing friends here, without a doubt the most interesting and talented groups of people that I've ever seen in one place. I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to spend three more years with them. With all that said, it was still really hard to get on the plane back home.""Make sure you are doing something adventurous and different than you have done before," advised Nate Blumenshine '10.5 on taking time off. Instead of continuing his sophomore year, he harvested corn on a Kansas farm to learn more about the U.S. food system and lived at a Lutheran retreat center in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Two years later, he left school again to learn Arabic in religiously enticing Bethlehem Palestine. "I felt the power of the divine when I saw the spot where Jesus was born and heard the call to prayer and church bells ringing in unison," he remembered. This past fall, he worked on the Obama campaign in Reading, Pa. - this inspiration drew largely from the broadened international perspective he has gained. "[Obama's] role in improving U.S. relations with the rest of the world just by being elected is better than another candidate could have done with four years devoted towards doing the same thing," he said. Each valuable experience taught him something - one day, while crossing the border to Jerusalem, he went through the checkpoint behind a smiling Palestinian man and his Frisbee got stuck in the x-ray machine. With instructions from the Israeli guard, he recalled, "I walked back to the other side of the machine and kind of crawled up on the conveyor belt so that I could reach into the X-ray and grab my Frisbee. Triumphantly, I freed my Frisbee from its dark radioactive fate and received smiles of congratulations from both the Palestinian man and the Israeli soldier." However, Blumenshine accepted this cordiality fully aware that his American identity was responsible. "Something was wrong here
(04/23/09 12:00am)
Author: Ben Wessel Middlebury has long been at the forefront of the climate policy debate in this country. Scholars like Bill McKibben, John Elder and Jon Isham, and the students of the Sunday Night Group (SNG), are known throughout the country as premier climate advocates. Midd-kid initiatives like Step It Up, 350.org, and MiddShift have become models for grassroots organizing around the climate issue. It should come as no surprise, then, that Middlebury students are on the scene as Congress starts to debate the most important climate bill it has seen thus far. SNG was privileged enough to discuss the ins and outs of this bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA), with Andrew Savage '03.5, legislative director for Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.). Welch, a longtime supporter of Middlebury environmental initiatives and a veritable climate champion in Congress, is on the influential committee that begins dissecting the ACESA this week. In fact, Welch and his staff wrote the entire portion of the bill regarding energy efficiency incentives, an effort that the SNG applauds as a necessary step to combating the challenge. There is, however, a central part of the bill that must be resolved in the coming weeks as it moves through committee. The bill creates a cap-and-trade system to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by having polluters buy and sell pollution permits. The big sticking point is whether businesses that burn a lot of carbon are given the permits for free or whether the government will auction off the right to pollute. As the Wall Street Journal explained recently, the EU's cap-and-trade system that gave away the permits for free "let utilities pocket billions of euros in windfall profits, because they got the permits for free, yet were able to pass on higher electricity costs to consumers."The U.S. Congress cannot afford to make this same mistake. This issue goes beyond climate science and basic economics - it's about justice. The government should auction 100 percent of the permits, as polluters should have to pay for the harmful emissions they put into the atmosphere. Full auction avoids even more government spending in this time of billion-dollar bailouts, and returns auction revenue to the public policy process for spending decisions. How this money is spent will affect the speed and cost of the clean energy revolution this country so desperately needs. The Sunday Night Group calls on Welch to continue his great work on climate change and to become a vocal and strong-willed advocate for a 100 percent auction of permits in order to promote a just and fair solution to the climate crisis.
(04/23/09 12:00am)
Author: Dana Walters On April 14, Dean of the College Gus Jordan sent out a campus-wide e-mail informing students that they would have to pay a $50 parking fee per semester next academic year. This new fee will affect on-campus residents as well as commuters and Language School students, who will be charged $25 for the summer.Talks about the carbon neutrality project here on campus spurred the proposal of a parking fee. "However," Jordan wrote, "as the economy declined, we decided to implement the fees as quickly as possible to help support other important initiatives on campus (improving access to MiddRides and Zipcars) and to relieve some financial pressures (plowing and maintaining parking lots)."The extra money amassed from the tax will go to support campus-wide transportation such as shuttle bus services. The administration hopes to reduce the number of students who find it necessary to drive on campus or bring a car to school with them. The e-mail explained that the ultimate goal was a "more pedestrian-friendly environment."Jordan admitted that these changes may not be as fruitful in the immediate future as they desire. "Although we do not expect the number of registered cars to drop significantly next year," he wrote in the e-mail. "We expect that this policy, when combined with other initiatives, will contribute in a small way to Middlebury's goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2016."While many campus-wide emails end up at the bottom of the virtual trash bin on student computers, this one received immediate attention for the effect it would have upon student bank accounts in the current economic climate. Amanda Lowe '11, who currently has a car at school, explained that it might not affect her when she is abroad next year, but that she is still "somewhat peeved" about having to pay the fee when she returns. When asked if she thinks the tax will actually reduce the number of people bringing cars to school, she said, "The fee isn't so large as to be quite an effective deterrent. It's really not a big deal. Maybe if it were $100 a semester."The administration did not put the new parking policy into effect without considering students. "Students were active participants in the original idea of charging for student autos on campus," said Jordan. "Most students also realize that the vast majority of colleges and universities already charge such fees." In this light, the new policy may not seem that particularly noteworthy, but the announcement has received mixed reactions from from students. "Some students understandably worry that the College will 'nickel and dime them to death,' explained Jordan. "Many others have expressed the opinion that it makes sense to charge students a small fee to help cover the College's costs of supporting student cars on campus, and many students desire improvements in alternative options for transportation on campus and around the community."One student who does not have a car on campus, Sean Dennison '11, expressed skepticism about the parking regulations."I think probably in the current economic situation
(04/23/09 12:00am)
Author: Grady Ross At the heart of the crowded vitality of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida runs Main Street USA, a tribute to the role of a traditional American main street as the lifeblood of any town. Complete with a barber shop, bakery and a cinema, the quaint homage to small-town life recalls aspects of Middlebury, Vt. As Middlebury shares its lot in the country's economic plight, Main Street's role as the hamlet's jugular is now being put to the test."Main Street has a special role," said Gail Freidin, executive director of the Better Middlebury Partnership, formerly the Middlebury Business Association. "This role is extended to more than Main Street, really to all of the downtown, because of public spaces and because of the variety of uses that take place there: not just retail, but dining out, the library and entertainment."Despite such attractions, however, Freidin acknowledges the affects of the economic recession on the town. "Businesses have tightened their belts," she said. "People are concerned about their ability to sell their inventories." This is a concern that is no less troubling as locals make the trek to Burlington and similar locations, which are able to offer more options to the consumer. "This is not unique to Middlebury," Freidin said, referring to the pull from larger, more urban, options. "This happens nationally as the scale of retail changes. Increasingly, most of America demands large retail outlets and lots of parking." Main Street's role, in reviving downtown business, is therefore to bring in "things that are missing that might appeal to a broader spectrum of the community," said Freidman.Mendy Mitiguy and Tracy Payne, the latest local business owners to set up shop on or near Main Street, feel they have what it takes to fill those gaps, offering what they believe is unique to the downtown Middlebury experience."We offer more contemporary lines, a more fashionable option," said Mitiguy, comparing her new women's clothing store, named for herself, to Middlebury's alternative retailers. The shopping experience itself will be different, she noted."We're about educating the buyer," Mitiguy said. "We're teaching how to update simple looks with accessories, or how to make an old look current. This helps them save money."Certainly, a thinning wallet is on most people's minds lately. Payne, owner of Middlebury's newest salon, A Cut Above by Tracy, thinks this fact will work in her favor."People can't afford a brand new car, but they can get a $12 haircut," Payne said. "They can feel better about themselves. People who look good tend to feel good, and they tend to want to strive farther."It is a positive attitude that Mitiguy shares in an otherwise depressing climate. Mitiguy, who owns two other Mendy's locations in Stowe and Shelburne, Vt., even anticipates Middlebury as a destination for shoppers and tourists in the future. "Our Stowe location is more of a resort area, mostly traveled by out-of-staters," she remarked. "We're letting those out-of-staters know that as they travel through Vermont they should stop into Middlebury as well."Payne hopes to start with a faithful local following, noting that she offers the same services that a pricey Burlington salon might offer. She wants to make her services available to everyone."I want it to feel comfortable for everyone to come," she said. "I love little kids, but I also love college students. I learn so much from them. I learn a lot from the older generation as well. I want to serve a vast variety."This is something that Payne feels she is more able to do than other Middlebury businesses that specialize in personal care, primarily because of her flexible hours."Say you use a box color to color your hair, and it comes out flamboyant orange," she said. "You can call me at any time and I'll run over to the salon to help you fix it."These are the kinds of details that Freidin hopes will help make Middlebury a destination. "It's not so much about whether or not the local market can support downtown businesses," she said, "it's about whether or not a larger market will find Middlebury attractive."
(04/16/09 12:00am)
Author: Logan Brown Recently, on any given Tuesday in a Middlebury dining hall, you might have looked up from your sandwich to see 50 students scattered across the cafeteria frozen in odd positions with coal in hand. You might be sprinkling an ice cream cone and become distracted by the voices of fellow students shouting an altered rendition of "The Circle of Life." Or maybe you were interrupted by a costumed parade of students cheering and shouting, holding signs in a plethora of languages reading, "Where is the Endowment?" One might feel many emotions while viewing such a spectacles - entertained, curious, annoyed, utterly confused - and for this group on campus, that is exactly the point. They want to get us talking, and boy, are we talking.Their first demonstration, "Freeze for Coal," occurred two Tuesdays before spring break in Ross dining hall. Participants employed a technique called "stop improv," in which a group of people freezes together in unison for a set period of time. Photographers were placed around the dining hall to capture the frozen students, and these snapshots would later be used to create part of a photo journal published in The Campus. The demonstrators knew the event would create a great deal of confusion among students, so they all wore unifying green strings and stuck around after to speak with anyone curious about their purpose. Since this initial demonstration, two even wilder demonstrations have occurred. "Coal the Musical" in Atwater Dining Hall, and "Cirque du Coal-nay" in FIC.Although all the demonstrations seem to have a common thread - coal - you still might have questions regarding the goals of the demonstrations. If you asked any of the very knowledgeable students participating about their purpose, they would tell you that they are working to make Middlebury's currently "opaque" endowment more transparent. For those of us who have not yet attended Sunday Night Group (SNG), a transparent endowment means that Middlebury makes the nature of all of its investments public. If our investments are made public or at least available to a group of students concerned about the environment, we can ensure that we invest with environmental sustainability in mind.The actual demonstrations are meant to start dialogues among students present and the photo journals and media exposure are meant to continue that dialogue with students, faculty and, most importantly, the the Board of Trustees. The demonstrations stem from SNG, The Advisory Committee of Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI) and the many Middlebury students who came back from Power Shift fired up about making a realistic difference on our campus. The students involved in the demonstrations intentionally took a creative approach to their activism to avoid any harsh pointing of fingers, and to make sure people were having so much fun they would keep coming back for more.The group on campus that focuses specifically on this issue is the ACSRI. Nate Blumenshine '10.5, a member of the group, explained that there are three approaches to socially responsible investing.Currently, the only approach that Middlebury uses is divestment and investment screening, techniques applied to three percent or less of the total endowment. Divestment is the reduction of some type of investment for financial or ethical reasons. For example, after the genocide in Darfur, Middlebury stopped investing in companies connected with the Sudanese government that are not calling for an end to the genocide. The second approach Middlebury could take is called "positive investing." Smart investors diversify their portfolios over many different industries; one of those industries is green technology. Middlebury could put a larger portion of its investments into that industry which could in turn create more business for those companies and a ripple effect could occur. The third approach - according to Blumenshine the most desirable - approach would not require the college to change the way it invested at all. Middlebury could engage in shareholder activism. For example, if Middlebury invested in a coal company, Middlebury would work directly with that company to reform their mining practices. Recently, many student groups (including one from Bard College) participated in shareholder activism with McDonald's to ensure that the potatoes they purchased were free of a harmful pesticide.This third approach is idealistic but practical. As far as any tangible progress, the students engaged in the activism are pleased with the discussions that their actions prompted and have contacted a small number of the trustees. They have received mixed responses. Although some trustees seem extremely enthusiastic about having a transparent endowment, some might hesitate because they fear that by releasing their investments, other groups or individuals could copy the strategy by which Middlebury hires investors. Another challenge for our endowment lies in commingled in funds. For example, our investment company also invests for several other colleges in the Northeast and it is possible that some of our funds are combined in investments, making it difficult to determine which funds belong to which clients. However, Blumenshine explains that likely those colleges would have similar values to Middlebury's and if we could get dialogues going with those schools, we could engage in socially responsible investing as an even more powerful, united force.According to GreenReportCard.com, Middlebury is one of very few schools to receive an overall grade of an A- on environmental initiatives. Middlebury is already ahead of the rest of the pack in environmental awareness. The College received an A within eight out of nine categories, including shareholder engagement, investment priorities, transportation, student involvement, green building, food and recycling, climate change, and energy and administration. However, endowment transparency received a D. Call Middlebury students overachievers, but why not make the endowment transparent and go for the A+?
(04/16/09 12:00am)
Author: [no author name found] Pearls, Politics,and PowerApril 16, 4 p.m.Former Vermont governor Madeline Kunin speaks at Elderly Serviceson Exchange Street toencourage women to enterpolitics and work for changein their communities. Tickets includedinner, $30. Info: 388-3983.Tom Paxtonconcert inMiddleburyApril 18, 6 p.m.Grammy-winner Tom Paxton performs at the United Methodist Church as part of the After DarkMusic Series. Show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets available online or at 388-0216.Cycling for a Sustainable FutureApril 20, 11 a.m.Cyclists biking 350 miles as part of their "Radical Stimulus" eventmake a stop inMiddlebury. Meet them at Hillcrest to discuss climate change.All-you-can-eatpancakes inAddisonApril 19, 7 a.m. - 11 a.m.Support the Addison Volunteer Fire Department at thisall-you-can-eat breakfast.Info: 759-2237.Discussion on underage drinkingin MiddleburyApril 21, noon - 1 p.m.Bring lunch to "High Risk andUnderage Drinking in AddisonCounty," presented by theAddison County PreventionPartnership, at the Ilsley Library.For more info, call989-5544.
(04/16/09 12:00am)
Author: Kate Siegner "A Cleaner Tomorrow." "Baking with Solar Energy." "Algae Fuels the Future." These titles accompany three of the videos that have been uploaded to Planet Forward, the new social networking video site devoted to publicizing issues related to climate change and clean energy. Frank Sesno '77 created the Web site and is hosting a national PBS special on April 15 that will showcase the project and include clips from selected videos. Sesno is a strong advocate for expanding the dialogue on renewable energy so that larger sectors of the population will have access to information as well as a forum in which to discuss new and innovative ideas. "In this age of citizen journalism, we are inviting all Americans to join the debate, offer opinions and let their voices be heard," said Sesno in a press release on the Middlebury College Web site.In particular, Sesno has expressed interest in having students become involved with the project; he has made several trips to the College, where he has attended a meeting of the Sunday Night Group, the largest environmental group on campus, and spoken with the head of the Film and Media Culture department about encouraging Middlebury students to submit videos. Students have responded enthusiastically to Sesno's encouragement, and have already produced five videos that have appeared on Planet Forward. Two of them, "Going Under" and "Choose Earth," were selected to appear on PBS. "Choose Earth," created by Leslie Stonebraker '09, features the new biomass plant on campus. A clip from Stonebraker's film will appear in the opening of the channel's special, and she, along with the creators of "Going Under," flew to Washington D.C., to be in the audience for the show's filming. Stonebraker, a film and media culture major, had been hired by Facilities Services to document the opening of the biomass plant which launched on Feb. 19, so when she was presented with the opportunity to make a film for Planet Forward, she jumped at the chance. Stonebraker feels her film is important because the College is "on the forefront" of the green movement and yet "lots of people here are unaware." For example, when she talked to friends about her film, many did not even know there was a biomass plant on campus. "Choose Earth" is therefore about spreading awareness.Matt Vaughan '09, who co-produced the chalkboard stop-motion animation "Think Hydrogen" with Michaela O'Connor '11, also hopes to educate the public about his cause - using hydrogen gas for energy "in the most simple way possible." Vaughan is a physics major interested in applying physics to green engineering, and used his thesis as inspiration for the video. After participating in Power Shift from Feb. 28 to March 2, he realized "there's a real hunger for knowledge" and that "people want to get involved but don't know how." Vaughan sees Planet Forward as an opportunity for people to learn, and highlights the "differing views" that the Web site presents.Planet Forward has the potential to be a successful organizing force in the green movement, since it is open to such a diverse array of people and opinions. In the words of Bill McKibben, scholar-in-residence in Environmental Studies, who was interviewed in the film "A Message from Bill McKibben" by Middlebury students Alex Consalvo '09 and Evan Griswold '09, it's time to "stop worrying about light bulbs and start worrying about organizing."
(04/09/09 12:00am)
Author: Dickie Redmond RUDIN '09 NAMED AS FIRST BASKETBALL ALL-AMERICANThe men's basketball team made history this past season, and now new records are visible at the individual level. Ben Rudin '09 is Middlebury's first All-American, earning second-team national honors - distributed by the National Association of Basketball Coaches - and first-team All-Northeast honors. Earlier this year, Rudin was honored by the conference when he landed a spot on the NESCAC first-team as the conference's player of the year.Rudin led the Panthers to their best season in school history, as the team finished with an impressive 24-4 record, a conference championship, and a spot in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season.Rudin has also written himself into school history with remarkable offensive and defensive statistics. He is the 15th player in school history to register 1,000 points, ending his senior season with a total of 1,221 - good enough for the sixth spot on Middlebury's all-time list. Rudin also racked up 460 assists, placing him at the top of the record books. The senior is also second in steals with 155 career thefts. The former NESCAC Rookie of the Year ended his senior season third in conference scoring with 17 ppg, first in assists with 4.61 a contest and fifth in steals. Exceptional conference play ultimately guided the Panthers to their NESCAC Championship, and Rudin's above average 21.2 ppg in conference play must be noted, including his 25.8 points per contest in the final eight games of the season.PETE SMITH '10 AND MIKE STONE '09 NAMED NESCAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEKPete Smith '10 was named NESCAC Player of the Week two weeks ago as the Panthers won both their contests over spring break. Smith was key in generating offensive opportunities, delivering nine assists in just two games against Colby and Washington and Lee. Smith had a part in half of Midd's goals against the Generals, assisting six of the team's 12 as the Panthers went on to win, 12-10. The victory marked the team's second out-of-conference win. Later in the week, the Panthers hosted Colby College, where Smith sparked the offense, delivering three assists and netting one for himself in the win.Tri-captain Mike Stone '09 picked up Player of the Week honors this past week after making big plays in Middlebury's road wins over Amherst and Bowdoin. After consistently leading the team to a six-game winning streak and a ranking of fourth in Division-III lacrosse, Stone has demonstrated his worth time and time again on the field. Having racked up seven goals, two assists and three ground balls in just two games, he promises to deliver a key performance in Saturday's matchup against the 10-ranked Tufts Jumbos.ATHLETIC PANEL TO EXPOUND ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUESOn April 7 at 6:30 p.m., a panel of professional athletes met to discuss issues pertaining to sustainability and sports in a talk titled "Jocks and Treehuggers: Pro Athletes on Sustainability." The panel talked about the relationship between the environment and sports - both the effects of a changing climate on sports and the impact that sports has on changing environmental behavior. Bill McKibben, Middlebury's scholar-in-residence in environmental affairs, gave the introductory remarks, introducing the panel that consisted of NFL pro Dhani Jones, pro soccer player Natalie Spilger and Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff.Jones, a member of the Cincinnati Bengals, is the star of a new series called "Dhani Tackles the Globe." The football star promotes the World Food Program, works closely with Al Gore on his climate change campaign and rides his bike to and from practices and games. Spilger is founder of GreenLaces, an athletic sustainability program that started in 2008. The organization works with youth athletic leagues to educate children about the importance of eco-friendly behavior and, more specifically, recycling. Wolff has written for Sports Illustrated since 1980, and, more recently, wrote a widely acknowledged article titled "Going, Going Green" that helped fans understand the impact of climate change on sports. Wolff is also owner of the Vermont Frost Heaves, a premier basketball league based in Williston, Vt.
