Past Green Colby Events

Event Description: The lecture will begin at 12:15, please join us at 11:45 for a buffet lunch. Please RSVP to if you will be joining us for lunch.



From the nineteenth century to the present, American artists have explored the impact of humans on the environment through pictures and sculptures. Their varied images convey the deep ambivalence felt by Americans who, on the one hand, celebrated the progress of industry while, on the other hand, decrying its often devastating consequences and celebrating the beauty of virgin nature. This tour and discussion will focus on environmental themes in the exhibition Art at Colby: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Colby College Museum of Art.



Lauren Lessing is an art historian and educator with more than twelve years of experience working in museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. In her current position as Mirken Curator of Education at the Colby College Museum of Art, she directs community outreach and programming, and links the Museum?s collections and exhibitions to curriculum at the college. Lauren completed her Ph.D. in Art History at Indiana University in 2006 under the guidance of Sarah Burns, and she has written numerous papers, articles, and catalogue essays on nineteenth and twentieth-century American art.



Sponsored by the ES Program

Murray Carpenter, Environmental Journalist
Lecture will begin at noon. Join us at 11:30 am for lunch with Mr. Carpenter Environmental issues spanning thousands of miles can seem remote and nebulous, but they often relate in surprising ways to our lives in central Maine. This talk will focus on local connections to three big-picture stories: long-range air pollutants, the fungus that is killing amphibians worldwide, and migratory fish management.

Mr. Carpenter has worked as a reporter and editor at the Republican Journal, a staff writer for Maine Times, publisher and editor of Northern Sky News (a monthly tabloid covering the environment of New England and adjacent Canada), and a radio news producer for Maine Public Broadcasting Network. He has also written for New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and Audubon Magazine.

George Lapointe has served as commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources since 1998. He formerly directed the Interstate Fisheries Management Program with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which included fishery management planning and implementation, seeking state-based solutions for fishery management issues, and coordinating activities with state and federal agencies, academic and scientific organizations, conservation organizations, and members of the public to promote efficiency, outreach and public participation in the ASMFC fishery process.

This Thursday, October 22 The Environmental Advisory Group (EAG) will host two discussion sessions, at 4pm in the Parker-Reed Room of Schair-Swenson-Watson Alumni Center.  GOALS:

* Provide information about the history, organization, and objectives of campus sustainability initiatives and the EAG
* Provide information about campus environmental groups
* Solicit feedback and ideas for improving Colby's sustainability efforts  EAG Presentation (20 minutes)
* Update of campus greening efforts   
* EAG review of recent initiatives
* Student initiatives

Questions (20 minutes)

Idea Boards (30 minutes) Participants will be invited to circulate around the room as their schedules permit, posting ideas for EAG consideration on flip charts dedicated to specific sustainability areas, including:
* Energy usage and conservation
* Greening residential life (e.g., Green Orientation, EcoReps, Green Graduation)
* Recycling/Waste minimization
* Enhancing personal engagement with and responsibility for living sustainably
* Pesticide and other chemical use on campus

Glen Brand, director of the Sierra Club's National Cool Cities Campaign, will discuss the growing movement among U.S. cities and counties to combat global warming. The Sierra Club's national Cool Cities campaign aims to engage citizens to help local governments in implementing a wide range of clean energy solutions. He will also touch on the Cool Communities activity that's taking place in Maine.

Co-sponsored by the Geology Department, the Environmental Studies Program is hosting an evening of raising awareness to an important environmental justic issue facing our nation: mountaintop removal mining. Speaker Julia “Judy” Bonds is co-director for Coal River Mountain Watch and has been fighting for social and environmental justice for Appalachian coalfields since 1998. In 2003 she won the coveted Goldman Environmental Prize, awarded to one person from each continent. Since winning the award, Julia and others at Coal River Mountain Watch have embarked on a mission to educate America about the Clean Water Act and to motivate Americans to consider where their electricity comes from and who pays the true price for that electricity.

Tim Glidden '74, director of Land for Maine's Future, will discuss the importance of Maine's natural resources on the state's economy. Growing recognition of the "quality of place" as a competitive advantage makes land conservation essential to ensuring future economic health. Juggling the competing demands for natural resources will create management and policy challenges. Arrive at 11:30 a.m. for lunch with the speaker.

With the rising risk of consequences of climate change, and with the elimination of all greenhouse gas emissions certain to take many decades or even centuries, there is growing discussion about whether intervention (often referred to as geoengineering) merits consideration. Michael C. MacCracken, chief scientist for climate change programs at The Climate Institute in Washington, D.C., will discuss how preliminary analyses appear to indicate that regionally focused geoengineering could limit some of the most severe potential impacts of global warming at a relatively low cost.

Robert H. Gardiner is principal of Independence Wind, LLC, a Maine company formed to develop large-scale wind power projects in Maine and New England. It identifies favorable locations for wind development, supervises the engineering, permitting, construction and operation of such facilities, builds public acceptance for wind power, organizes professional teams to execute projects, and mobilizes investors interested in becoming involved in this rapidly expanding business.

Clean-up along various streets.