Being Green

Environmental Studies Mellon Research Grants: Deadline extended to Feb. 26

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thumbnailCAW6XNSLApplications are now available for the Environmental Studies Mellon Research Internship. You can obtain an application from our website (www.wesleyan.edu/environmentalstudies/ <http://www.wesleyan.edu/environmentalstudies/> ).

Internships are for a duration of 9 and a half weeks and carry a stipend of $3,900. The summer internship will run from May 26 – July 30, 2010, while the Fall internship would run the term of the semester.

Applications are due in the Environmental Studies Program Office (Exley Science Center, Room 331) on or before 26 February 2010. Internships are for either the Summer or Fall 2010. You must have 2 letters of recommendation submitted by that same date. One letter should be from your faculty mentor, the second from another member of the Wesleyan faculty. Awards will be announced by 5 March 2010.

The student application seeks two short letters of recommendation.  In addition to recommending the student, the faculty mentor must briefly (1-2 paragraphs) explain the project, its importance and relevance to her/his research program.  Letters of recommendation may either be sent to Ms. Marinelli through campus mail or by email (pdf preferred) to vmarinelli@wesleyan.edu.

 

Environmental Studies Mellon Research Internship — Feb. 19 deadline

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thumbnailCAW6XNSLApplications are now available for the Environmental Studies Mellon Research Internship. You can obtain an application from our website (www.wesleyan.edu/environmentalstudies/ <http://www.wesleyan.edu/environmentalstudies/> ).

Internships are for a duration of 9 and a half weeks and carry a stipend of $3,900. The summer internship will run from May 26 – July 30, 2010, while the Fall internship would run the term of the semester.

Applications are due in the Environmental Studies Program Office (Exley Science Center, Room 331) on or before 19 February 2010. Internships are for either the Summer or Fall 2010. You must have 2 letters of recommendation submitted by that same date. One letter should be from your faculty mentor, the second from another member of the Wesleyan faculty. Awards will be announced by 5 March 2010.

The student application seeks two short letters of recommendation.  In addition to recommending the student, the faculty mentor must briefly (1-2 paragraphs) explain the project, its importance and relevance to her/his research program.  Letters of recommendation may either be sent to Ms. Marinelli through campus mail or by email (pdf preferred) to vmarinelli@wesleyan.edu.

Wes Energy Conservation Showdown Prize

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Want to make Wes greener?  Want some extra cash? Want to help solve the University’s budget crisis? Want to have your voice heard by the administration?

Then submit to the Wesleyan Energy Conservation Showdown––the ECS-Prize. If you’ve ever had an idea to make lightbulbWesleyan more sustainable, but didn’t know how to be heard by the Administration or Physical Plant, this is your chance to affect real environmental change––and get paid to do it.

Prizes are $600 for the winning group entry, and $200 for two more runners-up groups. These entries, and any other “honorable mentions” will be collected into a document and sent directly to President Roth’s desk.

We are asking for submissions of at least 3 pages on how to conserve resources and money at Wesleyan. Students are encouraged to work in teams of 2 to 3 members to divide work, but you can work individually or in larger groups if you want.

Entries will be judged on how much natural resources the idea saves, and how much money the University will save because of that conservation. “Resources” can be utilities such as heat, water, and electricity but can include other things as well––for example, if the University is spending money on an environmentally harmful product, and students can find a cheaper, environmentally-friendly alternative, then that idea would be considered successful.

The rules are online at the WSA’s website: wsa.wesleyan.edu/committees/finance-and-facilities-committee/ecs-prize. All questions can be directed to bfirke@wesleyan.edu, or wesecsprize@gmail.com. Information about Wesleyan’s utilities will be posted soon, so any research will be a little easier.

The deadline is March 1, 2010.

The Many Psychologies of Global Warming: Bill Blakemore ’65, ABC News Correspondent

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Tuesday, November 3 in the Chapel at 8:00 p.m.

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Four weeks before the nations meet in Copenhagen to try to avert global catastrophe, Mr. Blakemore will identify many often surprising psychological factors at play as people in all walks of life deal with the latest “hard news” on climate.

He’ll explore new definitions of sanity that may pertain, and give examples displaying different “psychologies”, as well as manmade global warming’s place in the long history of narcissistic insults to humanity itself.

Two new time-line graphs of rapid and dangerous climate change will give fresh global context to the psychological challenges and experiences he has observed in the five years since he began focusing on global warming for ABC News.

Computer modelers trying to project the speed and severity of global warming’s advance often say that “the biggest unknown” in their equations is not data about ice or atmosphere, carbon or clouds, but “what the humans will do.” This talk probes that field and many states of mind already engaged.

Sponsored by the Wasch Center, Department of Psychology, and the Robert Schumann Lecture Series in the Environmental Studies Program.  Follow-up discussion on Wed., Nov. 4 at 4:15 p.m. in the Wasch Center.

FYM Seminars and Discussion Groups Today!

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Be a part of the solution and learn more about water issues at the FYM Feet to the Fire faculty seminars this afternoon from 4-5:30 p.m. 

f2fh20The Water Crisis in the American West – Prof. Peter Patton, E&ES, Shanklin 107

Oceans, Boats, and Human History – Prof. Vijay Pinch, HIST, PAC002

Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Not a Drop to Drink – Prof. Krishna Winston, GRST, and Prof. Brian Steward, PHYS,   Woodhead Lounge in Exley Science Center

On the Waterfront – Prof. Richard Adelstein, ECON, PAC001

FYM Common Reading discussion groups with faculty, staff and peer advisors follow after dinner from 7-8:30 p.m. to deal with the resource challenges.  Be a part of the solution!

FYM’s Common Moment and Water Footprint

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f2fh20cmThis year’s Common Moment promises to be a memorable experience!  Produced by the amazing staff at Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts, it will include incredible drumming, rhythmic movement, Prometheus (Wesleyan’s fire spinners), a human histogram, and of course, ice cream. 

 As a class, you get to showcase drumming and dance movements from six different cultures—Korean, Cuban, West African, Japanese, Irish and South Indian—where water is an important component of their cultural traditions.  Assigned to one of the six cultural groups, you will be taught a drumming and movement piece, choreographed by Nicole Stanton, chair of the dance department, and Bill Carbone, a graduate student in the music department.  After spending about 20 minutes with a choreographer and student staff to learn the piece, each group will perform for the entire class. 

The evening will culminate with the Class of 2013 forming a human histogram about its own water footprint.  On Andrus Field, you will embody your responses to a survey that you completed in discussion groups the night before, which was developed from the information in the Water Footprint website in your Common Readings.  It will be a night not soon forgotten!

Check out the Water Footprint website in Blackboard or at http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home .   Complete the questions to find out how your water footprint measures up with the rest of the world’s!

Waste Not’s Campus Tag Sale

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FURNISH YOUR DORM THE WESLEYAN WAY WITH ITEMS FROM THE WASTE NOT TAG SALE!

Waste Not! is an EON (Environmental Organizers Network)-sponsored effort run by the Sustainability Interns to reduce unnecessary waste during move-out and encourage items to be recycled from year to year.  At the end of the thumbnailca661rsbspring semester, EON collects unwanted items and then, in the fall, we hold a HUGE tag sale to sell those items back to the community, thereby keeping valuable items out of the landfill and in circulation. Proceeds from the sale will go to local charities and Sustainability at Wesleyan.  We’ll be holding the sale September 5, 6, and 7 from 2-5 p.m. each day at Mocon, the round building between the Nics and Hewitt.  It’s gonna be awesome. 

Check out our website for a complete list of items and price list and other related information:  http://www.wesleyan.edu/wsa/eon/wastenot/

If you have any questions regarding the tag sale or sustainability at Wesleyan, feel free to shoot us an email at WESustainability@gmail.com.  We look forward to seeing you all there!! 

Ali San Roman ’11 & Nora Christiani ’11, Sustainability Interns