Environmental Events - Week of November 7 & beyond
Monday, November 7
Environmental Studies Program Fall Cider Social
The Orchard, Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest 103
4:30p
Meet fellow ES majors, minors and faculty. Learn more about how the major and opportunities in the program and get any questions answered prior to spring registration. Prospective majors and minors are also encouraged to attend. Apples, cider and cider doughnuts will be served.
Tuesday, November 8
Blue Carbon Credits: Finance Opportunities to support People, Nature, and Climate
Center for the Blue Economy - Environmental Justice & Sustainability Speaker Series
9:00 - 10:00p ET (6:00 - 7:00p PT)
Join here via Zoom, Password: HappyOcean
Lindsay Cope, Mediator and Program Manager, Meridian Institute, will discuss how blue carbon holds great potential as an ocean-based solution to climate change, while also providing a broad array of co-benefits. For more info on the topic and speaker, visit the event page.
Thursday, November 10
Student Panel on Climate Study and Activism
Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series
The Orchard, Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest 103
12:30 - 1:20p
Students from the California Climate Semester will join Climate Action Capacity Fellows and Sustainability Solutions Lab participants in discussing their experiences.
Sponsored by Environmental Studies, Climate Action Capacity Project, Middlebury California Coast and Climate Semester
Thursday, November 10
The Middlebury Science Café: Organic Farming
Lost Monarch Coffee Bar, 3 Mill Street
5:30 - 6:30p, doors open at 5:00p
Join this chat about what it takes to start and grow an organic farm in Vermont. Henry and Gabby from Old Farm Road will be discussing the science of soil and sustainable farming practices. Doors open at 5:00 so swing by early to grab a good seat and an amazing coffee from Matt at Lost Monarch. If you are interested in leading a future talk or have a topic you want to see, please email Katherine and Alex.
Sponsored by The Center for Community Engagement and midd.data
Friday, November 11
Vermont’s Wild Bees: Past, present, and future
Biology Department Seminar Series: Spencer Hardy ‘16.5, Vermont Center for Ecostudies
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 220
12:30 - 1:20p
Four years ago no one knew how many species of bees were in Vermont or anything about the abundance of the vast majority of species. After combing fields, forests, and museum collections around the state, we now know there are more than 350 species of bees in Vermont. The brand new State of Vermont’s Bees provides the first detailed look at the conservation status and needs of these important pollinators.
Spencer Hardy ’16.5 grew up exploring the rivers and hills of eastern Vermont, fascinated by the seemingly endless biodiversity in this small state. He chose to attend Middlebury in part because of the proximity to great bird watching, though he ended up writing his biology thesis on the fish communities of Lewis Creek. After graduating, he bounced around the state and the country, working on a variety of farms and field research projects, before landing at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. Since 2019 he has coordinated the Vermont Wild Bee Survey, the first deep dive into the state’s bee diversity.
Friday, November 11
Reciprocal Inclusion of Microbiomes and Environmental Justice Contributes Solutions to Global Environmental Health
Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs International and Global Colloquium Series
Robert A. Jones ‘59 Conference Room, Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs
12:30 - 1:30p
Lunch begins at 12:15 pm (free to faculty, students, staff and alumni), RSVP to rcga@middlebury.edu for lunch.
Erin Eggleston, assistant professor of biology at Middlebury, will discuss how generations of colonialism, industrialization, intensive agriculture, and anthropogenic climate change have radically altered global ecosystems and by extension, their environmental microbiomes. The environmental consequences of global change disproportionately burden racialized communities, those with lower socioeconomic status, and other systematically underserved populations. Environmental justice seeks to balance the relationships between environmental burden, beneficial ecosystem functions, and local communities. Given their direct links to human and ecosystem health, microbes are embedded within social and environmental justice. Considering scientific and technological advances is becoming an important step in developing actionable solutions to global equity challenges. Here we identify areas where inclusion of microbial knowledge and research can support planetary health goals. We offer guidelines for strengthening a reciprocal integration of environmental justice into environmental microbiology research. Microbes form intimate relationships with the environment and society, thus microbiologists have numerous and unique opportunities to incorporate equity into their research, teaching, and community engagement.
Sunday, November 13
Movie for a Cause: A Place at the Table
Marquis Theater, 65 Main Street
6:00p
Doors open at 5:00p, free admission with canned good donation
Addison County Community Trust and John Graham Housing & Services are co-sponsoring this screening of A Place at the Table as part of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. The documentary film, winner of the 2013 Pare Lorentz Award, investigates incidents of hunger experienced by millions of Americans, and proposed solutions to the problem. An audience Q&A with Elise Shanbacker, Addison County Community Trust, and Susan Whitmore, John Graham Housing & Services, will follow the film at 7:30.
National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week (November 12-20, 2022) is a nationwide endeavor by the National Coalition for the Homeless to promote education, action, and awareness about hunger and homelessness.
Addison County Community Trust (ACCT) is a nonprofit affordable housing trust that develops, owns, and manages affordable homes in Addison County, including rental apartments, mobile home parks, single-family homes, and senior housing. Founded in 1989, ACCT has built or preserved safe, energy-efficient homes for hundreds of Addison County residents and families. John Graham Housing & Services (JGHS), founded in 1981, has a mission to provide emergency shelter, affordable housing, and essential services to individuals and families without a home or facing housing instability in Addison County. The JGHS mission is strengthened by intensive service coordination and housing navigation. JGHS has an emergency shelter in Vergennes and affordable housing properties in Vergennes, Bristol, and Middlebury.
Monday, November 14
Global Sustainability Alum Speaker Series - Inaugural Event
Robert A. Jones ‘59 Conference Room, Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs
7:00p
Featuring two Midd alums from Wellington Management Company LLP in a discussion about Applying Sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in the Capital Markets:
- Sandhya Subramanian Douglas ’93 P’25, Partner, Senior Managing Director, Director of Strategic Analysis & Implementation
- Soyibou Sylla ‘20, Investment Science
Amanda Frank ’23.5 and Samuel Sullivan ‘23 will moderate.
Wellington was one of the first firms to integrate climate science with asset management by appointing a climate scientist from Woods Hole Research Center in 2018. Sandhya and Soyibou will share their firsthand experiences with this initiative and some perspectives on their own professional journeys in sustainability since graduating from Middlebury. Visit go/sustainabilityalums for more info and speaker bios.
Sponsored by Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest, Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, Climate Action Capacity Project, Center for Careers and Internships
Tuesday, November 15
Poetry reading by Ruth Farmer
Chellis House Library
12:15 - 1:15p
Sushi lunch will be served
Ruth Farmer is a poet and essayist from Bristol, Vermont. Her prose and poetry have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She will be reading from her new collection of poetry Snapshots of the Wind, which explores and celebrates waking up to the life around and within us. In these reflective poems, Ruth Farmer traces the wonders and nuances of interior and exterior landscapes, seasons, and perception through three sections: What’s Seen and Not Seen, Voice, and Snapshots of the Wind. Drawn from a lifetime of moments that granted her greater clarity and homecoming, these poems meditate on the world, beyond headlines and tweets, where we really live.
Sponsored by Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies
Tuesday, November 15
School of the Environment Info Session
Axinn Center 219
4:30–5:30p
Learn more about how Middlebury’s School of the Environment can build your capacities for problem solving and leadership from the faculty directors and former students. The six-week summer program will take place in Monterey, California, which is a microcosm of the world’s environmental challenges and an exemplar of sustainability planning. For six weeks Monterey will be a laboratory for exploring the world’s most pressing needs, such as Climate resilience, Food Justice, Restoration of marine ecosystems, Urban sustainability and Political and social commitment to change.
Sponsored by Middlebury School Abroad
Tuesday, November 15
Cause for Alarm? Global Data on Democracy and Autocracy
Virtual Middlebury
4:30–5:30p
Join via Zoom
The RCGA program on Global Trends in Autocracy and Democracy presents Staffan Lindberg. In this talk, Lindberg introduces the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project goals and methods of measuring democracy, followed by the latest analyses of global trends for democracy and autocracy in the world showing that almost 70% of the world’s population now live in autocracies and that 2021 registered the largest number of countries sliding back on democracy (autocratizing) ever recorded. Professor Lindberg will finally show the latest results from the “Case for Democracy” project on the dividends of democracy across a range of human, socio-economic, and development outcomes.
Staffan I. Lindberg is Professor and Director of the V-Dem Institute at University of Gothenburg; Principal Investigator of Varieties of Democracy; Wallenberg Academy Fellow, author of Democracy and Elections in Africa (JHUP 2006), co-author of Varieties of Democracy (CUP 2020), Why Democracies Develop and Decline (CUP 2022) and over 60 academic articles. Lindberg has extensive experience as consultant and advisor to international organizations.
Sponsored by Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs
Thursday, November 17
Community as Ecosystem and Liberation
Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series
The Orchard, Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest 103
12:30 - 1:20p
Liv Peña, Vice Chair of the Vermont Releaf Collective Board and Samantha Langevin, Network Manager for the Vermont Releaf Collective
What is the purpose of community and how do you build it? Join members of The Vermont Releaf Collective as they talk about this question and how Releaf is a compelling example of how community can be an ecosystem that benefits all its members. The Vermont Releaf Collective is a growing network whose goal is cultivating connection, sharing resources, and uplifting voices of people of color in Vermont in the focus areas of land, environment, agriculture, and foodways. With a membership of 260+, it intends to serve as a collaborative ecosystem for growing power and community.
Liv Peña (she/her) serves as the Vice Chair of the Vermont Releaf Collective Board and was a member of the first Releaf Organizing Squad. She also founded the organization in 2020. Liv studied Food Systems at UVM and has worked across a variety of spaces and roles related to food and agriculture, policy, and racial justice/social change. An aspiring farmer, she comes from a long line of agricultural ancestors in the Dominican Republic, and Virginia, New Jersey. She dreams of creating and contributing to physical and social spaces to advance food sovereignty and justice for Black people and other communities of color in Vermont and beyond.
Samantha Langevin (she/her) is the Network Manager for the Vermont Releaf Collective and has been a member since 2020. A graduate of Yale, Samantha has worked as an educator teaching about the intersections of agriculture, racial justice, and environmental science. She has also been deeply enmeshed in our food system as a chef for over 10 years and currently serves as the Vice President of the Middlebury Natural Food Co-op Board.
Sponsored by Environmental Studies