Environmental Studies

“We Conserve What We Love”: Stories About the Conservation of Bread Loaf Katherine Michels ‘14.5, Environmental Philanthropy Associate at the High Meadows Fund In June 2015, Middlebury College and the Vermont Land Trust, with the support of alumnus Louis Bacon ‘79, signed a conservation easement which forever protects 2,100 acres of land around the Bread Loaf campus. Katie spoke with people from Middlebury College, the Vermont Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy of Vermont, Ripton, and Louis Bacon’s representatives.

Poet Ross Gay will discuss the way our relationship with the earth might also be the site of the radical imagination. Ross Gay, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Indiana University, is visiting campus as the Spring 2016 Bread Loaf Orion Resident, a collaboration between Franklin Environmental Center, the ES Program and Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers’ Conference. Ross was recently chosen as a finalist for the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his 2015 poetry collection Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

Energy Company of the Future Mary Powell, Mary Powell - President & CEO, Green Mountain Power Green Mountain Power has a vision to use energy as a force for good, improving lives and transforming communities and is focused on a new way of doing business to meet the needs of customers with integrated energy services that help people use less energy and save money, while continuing to generate clean, cost-effective and reliable power in Vermont.

Shift in Perspective: Observing Food Systems Jon Turner, Owner-Wild Roots Farm Vermont in Bristol, VT and President, Farmer Veteran Coalition of Vermont In this presentation, we will discuss the current food systems and their ecological impact as well as examine alternative methods that produce a more diverse yield and are influenced heavily on what needs can be met by the natural systems already in place. Topics for focus include agro-forestry practices, permaculture design and community interaction.

Shedding Light on the Working Forest: Curiosity, Connection, Creativity Kathleen Kolb, painter and Verandah Porche, poet Painter Kathleen Kolb and poet Verandah Porche will discuss the collaboration which culminated in the traveling exhibition currently at the Vermont Folklife Center. While we humans rely on the forest and those who harvest it, the service that it provides for us remains largely invisible and not widely understood.

Adequacy and Equity under Neoliberal Climate Governance: Assessing the Paris Moment Timmons Roberts, Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies; Professor of Sociology Brown University, Institute at Brown for the Environment and Society Dr. Roberts will speak on the current paradigm of international climate change governance, including synthesis of important developments at the 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris, starting November 30. What are the prospects for the Paris climate change negotiations?

Drilling, Scanning, Poking and Prodding: Getting Under Antarctica’s Icy Skin Jill Mikucki, Assistant Professor of Biology, Middlebury College Antarctica’s subglacial environments are difficult to access because they are covered by thick (up to 4 kms) ice. Only recently, through the development of novel drilling technology, have we been able to get a glimpse of Antarctica’s deep, ice-covered biosphere. In this talk I will present highlights from these ‘first-ever’ sampling expeditions with a focus on the microbial life making a living in this cold, dark world.

ENVS 0401 Senior Seminar Presentations

ENVS 0401 Senior Seminar Presentations

Professor Robert Stolz, University of Virginia