OLDER POSTS
INSURER CLIMATE RISK DISCLOSURE SURVEY 2012 |
 |
The Ceres report, Insurer Climate Risk Disclosure Survey: 2012 Findings & Recommendations, is based on 184 company disclosures in response to a climate risk survey developed by insurance regulators. Surveys were completed by insurers licensed to operate in three states – California, New York and Washington – that require climate risk disclosure. Collectively, these companies represent a significant majority of the American insurance market. |
| RENEWING ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AT BROWN |
 |
Report of the Committee to Review the Environmental Studies Concentration As part of the ongoing cycle of reviews of Brown’s concentrations by the College Curriculum Council, an interdisciplinary committee met throughout the fall to review the Environmental Studies and Environmental Science curricula. Please note that these recommendations, if approved, would affect students in the class of 2017 and beyond. Current students' programs will not be affected. The committee would appreciate your feedback. You may submit your comments through this feedback form. |
PROPOSED CHANGES TO ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM SPARK STUDENT CONCERNS |
 |
BROWN DAILY HERALD ARITICLE - ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM CHANGES FACE PROTEST By MICHAEL DUBIN/Staff Writer, BDH Photo by Lydia Yamaguichi, BDH Concentrators expressed concerns about new required courses in a forum on Friday, March 15. Students voiced sharp disagreement against proposed changes to the environmental studies concentration at a public forum Friday. Approximately 40 students and three of the 10 faculty members who served on the Committee to Review the Environmental Studies Concentration attended the forum, which was held at the Urban Environmental Laboratory to solicit student feedback on the changes. |
| PBS SHORT FILM – THE STORY OF AN EGG |
 |
The Lexicon of Sustainability |
DEATH OF HUGO CHAVEZ GIVES VENEZUELA A CHOICE ON CLIMATE CHANGE |
 |
Article by CES MA Alumni Susanna Mage and Research Fellow Guy Edwards Photograph by Miguel Gutierrez/EPA Regardless of one's position on el Comandante Hugo Chávez, the death of the Venezuelan president opens the door for a policy debate on a critical issue for Venezuela and the world's security: climate change. As the 2015 deadline to create a new global treaty on climate change approaches, the question for the oil-rich country looms: will Venezuela be a key architect of an ambitious and equitable deal, or will it sabotage progress? |
| A NEW TECHNIQUE TO SIMULATE CLIMATE CHANGE |
 |
Statistical physics offers an approach to studying climate change that could dramatically reduce the time and brute-force computing that current simulation techniques require. The new approach focuses on fundamental forces that drive climate rather than on “following every little swirl” of water or air. And yes, there’s an app for that. |
FORMER GRAD STUDENT HAS THESIS PUBLISHED IN ECOSYSTEMS MAGAZINE |
 |
Former CES Graduate Student Suzy Mage’s work with Professor Stephen Porder is published in Ecosystems magazine. The title of the work is Parent Material and Topography Determine Soil Phosphorus Status in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. |
| UNDERGRADS PROTEST IN WASHINGTON D.C. |
 |
UNDERGRADS PROTEST KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE IN D.C. By ALEXANDER BLUM/Staff Writer, Brown Daily Herald Photo by Lawrence McDonald For over 100 environmental student leaders within the Brown community, the long weekend was a break from classes — but not from advocating their cause. Living up to their activist image, Brown students traveled to the nation’s capital Sunday to march alongside an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 other protestors in opposition to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. From the Washington Monument to the White House and back, protesters urged President Barack Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and to move forward with other environmental initiatives. The protest — organized by The Sierra Club and 350.org —involved 168 organizations and was the largest climate march in United States history, according to The Sierra Club website. |
| PROFESSOR STEPHEN PORDER SELECTED AS 2013 LEOPOLD LEADERSHIP FELLOW |
 |
Dr. Stephen Porder in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has been selected as a 2013 Leopold Leadership Fellow. The Leopold Leadership Program, located at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, was founded in 1998 to fill a critical gap in environmental decision-making: getting the best scientific knowledge into the hands of government, nonprofit, and business leaders and the public to further the development of sustainable policies and practices. Dr. Porder is among the 20 mid-career academic environmental scientists named as Fellows this year. The group was selected through a highly competitive process on the basis of their exceptional scientific qualifications, demonstrated leadership ability, and strong interest in sharing their knowledge beyond traditional academic audiences. The Fellows will take part in intensive leadership and communications training designed to hone their skills in engaging with decision-makers, media, and the public. They also become part of a network of past Fellows and program advisors who are working with leaders, both within and outside academe, to solve society’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges. The list of 2013 Fellows is below, and more information about the program is available at http://leopoldleadership.stanford.edu |
| POSSIBLE RI MARINE CLEAN-UP BILL |
 |
State Launches Marine Debris Clean-Up Bill PROVIDENCE — Dave McLaughlin showed up at the press conference with a large bag full of trash he had collected at 6:30 that morning from Hull Cove in Jamestown, one of Rhode Island’s most picturesque shorelines. Beer cans, plastic bottles and bags, and foam shoe soles were emptied on a table. Some of the beer cans were the old pull-tab type. “We just did a cleanup there last month,” said McLaughlin, a volunteer with Clean Ocean Access, the organizer of the recent cleanup. |
| VISITING PROFESSOR SETH ZUCKERMAN RECEIVES ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP AWARD |
 |
Author and visiting professor Seth Zuckerman traveled to Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 22, where a project he directed for the Mattole Restoration Council was honored with the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. “The Mattole Restoration Council is one of North America’s oldest community-led watershed restoration organizations. Established in 1983, the council’s primary mission is to understand, restore and conserve the ecosystems of the Mattole River watershed, with attention to threatened Coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead. The Mattole Forest Futures Project applies long-term thinking to the future of the forests in their watershed. Privately owned forests provide public benefits including wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration and watershed protection. The Forest Futures Project established a set of “light touch” harvest methods that promote the development of older forests, are compatible with economically viable logging and receive streamlined review because of additional environmental protections forged by stakeholders. The project used the first watershed-wide Program Timberland Environmental Impact Report (PTEIR) and made it available to any landowner in the watershed who chooses to harvest under its terms. Participants file a checklist-style plan that costs approximately 50% less than a regular Timber Harvest Plan (THP).” |
| BROWN PROF. RICK BENJAMIN NAMED RI POET LAUREATE |
 |
Governor Lincoln D. Chafee today appointed Rick Benjamin, Ph.D., of Warwick as State Poet of Rhode Island. Dr. Benjamin replaces outgoing State Poet Lisa Starr of Block Island, whose five-year term has expired. "Dr. Rick Benjamin is an accomplished and committed poet and educator who has taken his love for and belief in the power of poetry far beyond the classroom and out into our Rhode Island communities," Governor Chafee said. "One of the many letters of recommendation sent on Dr. Benjamin's behalf stated, 'Rick Benjamin knows that poetry can change people – that the writing and reading of poems can change how we live within and give back to our communities.' Another wrote, 'Based on his extensive community involvement with poetry, I think he has already distinguished himself as an "unofficial" State Poet.' With this in mind, it is my pleasure to make the unofficial official and appoint Rick Benjamin the State Poet of Rhode Island." Rick Benjamin teaches ENVS-0520, Wild Literature in the Urban Landscape, during the spring semester at Brown through Environmental Studies. |
| BROWN STUDENTS SCRAP TOGETHER |
 |
Brown Students Scrap Together Campus Composting By SOPHIE DUNCAN/ecoRI News college intern PROVIDENCE — On a recent Sunday night, several Brown University students gathered for the last SCRAP meeting of the year. SCRAP— also known as the Student Compost Initiative — began as an environmental studies assignment for a class. |
| ECOREPS SIFT THROUGH BROWN TRASH |
 |
EcoReps Sift Through Brown Trash for Recyclables By SOPHIE DUNCAN/ecoRI News college intern PROVIDENCE — Last month several Brown University students gathered at Wriston Quad wearing white Tyvex suits and shouting “America Recycles Day!” For three hours they ripped open 40 bags, 20 trash and 20 recycling, to see how accurately students dispose of their waste. The trash and recycling bags came from four areas of campus. |
| DISTRESSING CLIMATE REPORT FROM THE WORLD BANK |
 |
World Bank Issues Alarming Climate Report NPR Interview with Jim Yong Kim (Brown 82’) Countries attending U.N. climate talks were not able to come up with any major agreements on reducing carbon emissions and slowing global warming. This comes after the World Bank issued a report predicting global temperatures could rise by 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century — possibly sooner if current promises to curb emission are not kept. Renee Montagne talks about this with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. |
| BROWN ARTICLE ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF AGRICULTURE |
 |
Soil determines fate of phosphorous December 17, 2012 | Author: David Orenstein Brazil’s soybean yields have become competitive with those of the United States and Argentina, but the soil demands a lot of phosphorous, which is not renewable. In the United States, meanwhile, historical applications of the fertilizer have polluted waterways. What accounts for these problems? It’s the soils, according to a new study comparing agriculture in the three countries. |
| 2013 ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAM PLAN RI |
 |
Ramping-Up Energy Efficiency in Rhode Island On November 2, National Grid submitted the 2013 Energy Efficiency Program Plan for Rhode Island to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for review and consideration. The 2013 Energy Efficiency Plan was developed collaboratively by key stakeholders representing a wide range of consumer and environmental interests, including the Energy Efficiency & Resource Management Council (EERMC), ENE, the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, The Energy Council of Rhode Island, and the Office of Energy Resources. The plan also incorporates ideas and feedback that members of the public presented at the Rhode Island Energy Efficiency Forum, held in September. |
| STEEL YARD SHOWS HOW REUSE TRUMPS RECYCLING |
 |
PROVIDENCE — It may look to some that the folks at the Steel Yard need to mow the lawn, but the overgrown grasses, trees and shrubs on the property are part of an integrated storm water mitigation plan. From steel mills to locomotive manufacturers, Rhode Island's capital city has a long history of industrialism. While that industrialism gave rise to booming economics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, few of those big mills and businesses remain today. Unfortunately, due mostly to ignorance, those manufacturers and mills have left much of the city’s — and state’s — soil and ground water contaminated, or at least potentially contaminated. |
| 2011 - 2012 GREEN REPORT CARD |
 |
Rhode Island General Assembly The Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI) offers this biennial report card to highlight important environmental issues considered by the Rhode Island General Assembly in the session spanning 2011 through 2012. The headlines from the last two years have been dominated by pension reform, questionable decisions by the Economic Development Corporation, and municipal bankruptcy. In the fall of 2011, a special legislative session was called to handle a single issue: the unfunded pension liability for state employees. In this context, attention to environmental issues dropped throughout the two year period. Although significant pieces of legislation were passed early on, opportunities for progress on key environmental is-sues were also missed. |
| ARTICLE - KATHERINE SMITH'S WORK WITH TEENS ON THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON HUMAN HEALTH |
 |
Teaching Teens About Climate Change, Health Katherine Smith’s students had to wait until they came to Brown University to learn how climate change could affect human health. Now that Smith and her fall semester class have developed a rich new curriculum on the subject for high school teachers, future 10th to 12th graders might not have to wait so long. Photo by Mike Cohea, Brown University / Article by David Orenstein, Brown University |
| ARTICLE ON BROWN'S DIVEST COAL STUDENT GROUP |
 |
Students Aim to Hit Fossil Fuel Where It Hurts By KEVIN PROFT/ecoRI News staff Divestment from fossil fuels means selling investments in companies such as Chevron and BP. Individuals can divest, but it’s when large organizations such as universities and municipal governments divest that companies like ExxonMobil are tangibly affected financially. Most colleges have huge endowments, money built up through donations over time. They invest their endowments in the market and then use the profits to pay expenses. Brown University’s endowment is about $2.5 billion. Harvard’s is more than $30 billion. Collectively, the money invested by universities into the market is enormous. |
| CES REPORT ON UN CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS GETS WIDE MEDIA COVERAGE |
 |
Brown Professor J. Timmons Roberts, Graduate Student David Ciplet and Undergraduate Students Spencer Fields and Keith Madden authored a report that was released Monday, November 26, 2012 on the eve of the United Nations climate change negotiations in Doha. The report, published with the organization the International Institute for Environment and Development, and researched as part of their Climate and Development Lab at Brown University, assesses the extent to which wealthy countries have delivered adequate finance to developing countries to prevent and adapt to climate change. The group found that wealthy countries have fallen far short in keeping eight key promises, and they outline critical steps to make progress moving forward. The research has received extensive coverage in over 50 media outlets in 22 countries including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Reuters and Bloomberg Business Week and Democracy Now. Here are links to some of the coverage: |
 |
BROWN SLASHES CARBON FOOTPRINT, ENERGY COSTS Article – Brown Daily Herald "Brown University has reduced its energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 29.4 percent during the last five years and slashed its annual energy costs by $3 million in the process, according to the University’s2012 Sustainability Progress Report. Since 2008, the University has invested $14 million in energy efficiency projects. Energy savings will cover the investment; a $2.6-million lighting project will pay for itself in less than five years." READ ARTICLE |
 |
This fall ENVS student Elara Mosquera has been working with Environment Rhode Island on a campaign to ban plastic bags in Providence, RI. Their main form of community outreach is via a physical and online petition. |
 |
CES Professor Timmons Roberts' Climate and Development Lab has been working with the "LDC Group," the 48 Least Developed Countries negotiating bloc in the United Nations Climate Change negotiations (the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol). Last week, they helped LDC Chair Pa Ousman Jarju of The Gambia publish an "Open Letter to President Obama" in the London Guardian's environment section. The letter to Obama has been reproduced in The New Era(Namibia);Earth Island Journal(United States);New Spotlight(Nepal) And in translated form in Yesil Gazette(Turkey). The letter is also mentioned or quoted in articles in Huffington Post (Will We See a Greener President During Obama's Second and Final Term?),the Malaysian national news agency Bernama (LDCs Challenge Obama On Climate Change), Italian newspaper La Stampa (Lettera a Obama dei Paesi poveri: Agisca contro cambiamenti clima), South Africa’s IoL (Looming climate aid gap on the horizon) and on the TckTckTck site.
The list keeps growing. Next week, the CDL will be releasing a policy briefing through the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, whose authors include David Ciplet (Sociology), Spencer Fields (CES grad), Keith Madden (Brown undergraduate), Mizan Khan (fellow), and Professor Roberts. |
 |
Democracy Now! posts video of environmentalist Bill McKibben speaking about Hurricane Sandy and climate change. "It’s really important that everybody, even those who aren’t in the kind of path of this storm, reflect about what it means that in the warmest year in U.S. history, ... in a year when we saw, essentially, summer sea ice in the Arctic just vanish before our eyes, what it means that we’re now seeing storms of this unprecedented magnitude," McKibben says. "If there was ever a wake-up call, this is it." |
| CLIMATE CONVERSATIONS - INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE 'INVALUABLE' FOR ANDEAN ADAPTATION |
 |
Article by Brown Student Emily Kirkland In Eastern Africa, severe drought is causing massive famines. In the United States, temperature records are soaring due to one of the warmest winters in decades. From pine beetle infestations in the Rockies to thinning ice in the Arctic, the impacts of climate change are inescapable. Indigenous peoples have extensive knowledge of their local environments, gained through hundreds of years of observation and trial and error. They possess a large repository of strategies, skills, and techniques for dealing with climate variability. Three examples from the Peruvian Andes – included in a Brown University paper- illustrate the importance of the role of indigenous knowledge for adaptation. |
| WHAT COUNTRY FACES THE WORST CLIMATE CHANGE? |
 |
Rising seas threaten to drown island countries such as the Maldives and Kiribati in the era of global warming — a dire scenario that has forced leaders to plan for floating cities or consider moving their entire populations to neighboring countries. Most countries won't need to take such drastic steps to simply survive, but many more will similarly experience the uglier side of climate change. |
| UNTANGLING SEA LION INDIVIDUALITY |
 |
Project by Tara Gancos Crawford, CES MA '10 Throughout most of their range on the west coast of North America, California sea lions are abundant. However, the genetically distinct population in the Gulf of California, Mexico is declining. This "stock" has declined by 20% in the last two decades with some colonies reduced by 50%, having a high probability of going extinct in the next fifty years. Sea lions play important roles in healthy ecosystems as top predators and prey, so losing them in Mexican waters may have serious impacts on the environment. |
| BROWN STUDENT WINS GRAND PRIZE IN NATIONAL CHANGEMAKER COMPETITION |
 |
19-year-old Lauren Behgam takes hunger personally. A rising sophomore at Brown University, she helped to start the Food Recovery Network (FRN), a national student-led nonprofit that donates the surplus unsellable food from campus dining halls to people in need. On Saturday, she presented her work to a panel of judges and a live audience and was awarded the $15,000 grand prize in the Banking on Youth Competition in Washington, DC. Behgam and the Food Recovery Network competed alongside five other young finalists from across America in the pitch-off, who were all flown to the nation’s capital to present. A total of 180 young change makers entered the competition, which was put on by Ashoka Youth Venture and the Consumer Bankers Association to recognize and inspire youth-led social entrepreneurship. |
| HEATHER LESLIE DISCUSSES THE OCEAN HEALTH INDEX |
 |
Sustainable management of a huge, complex and valuable resource such as the ocean requires a comprehensive metric that did not exist until now. In the Aug. 16 edition of Nature a broad group of scientists including Heather Leslie, the Sharpe Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, describes the Ocean Health Index. The index rates coastal places, from regions to nations, on 10 goals: artisanal fishing opportunity, biodiversity, carbon storage, clean waters, coastal livelihoods and economies, coastal protection, food provision, natural products, sense of place, and tourism and recreation. Leslie recently answered questions posed by David Orenstein. |
| ARTICLE ON ROBERTS' & EDWARDS' WORK ON LATIN AMERICAN CLIMATE CHANGE |
 |
Brown’s support of Latin American Platform on Climate receives positive endorsementGuy Edwards | October 12th, 2012 | Brown’s Climate and Development Lab Over the past two years, the Watson Institute partnered with Brown’s Center for Environmental Studies to provide partial support for Visiting Fellow Guy Edwards. Edwards has led Brown student participation in the United Nations negotiations in Cancun and Durban, and in a web portal on climate change in Latin America called Intercambioclimatico.com and on the Global Conversations website. |
| REPORT EXPLORES CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE STRATEGIES IN RI URBAN COMMUNITIES |
 |
Exploring Climate Change Resilience Strategies in Rhode Island Urban Under-served CommunitiesThe Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI), concerned about the frequent neglect of low-income communities and communities of color in many key stakeholder processes, especially as those processes relate to climate change mitigation and adaptation planning, sought to fill that potential void in the work of the Rhode Island Climate Change Commission by preparing this report. |
| SCIENCE COALITION VIDEO ON INNOVATOR PROFESSOR HEATHER LESLIE |
 |
Dr. Leslie leads an international interdisciplinary research team focused on small-scale fisheries in Mexico’s Gulf of California. The research approaches and findings she is developing in Mexico are applicable to other ecological and institutional contexts, including the United States. Dr. Leslie and her research team also are translating the results of their research to help inform implementation of the first-ever National Ocean Policy in the United States. This policy recognizes the impact of our oceans on national security, energy development, food provision and our economy. Dr. Leslie’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation. |
| JOHN HOPE COMMUNITY GARDEN ARTICLE |
 |
Growing community at the John Hope Settlement HouseBy A Brown-led community garden at Providence's John Hope Settlement House nourishes little minds and bodies by helping children ages 3 through 12 learn about urban agriculture while enjoying the fruits of their labor.
|
| CES STUDY IN PROVIDENCE JOURNAL |
 |
Brown U. study: Providence neighborhoods with trees far cooler in summer's heat By Alex Kuffner PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- We all know that on hot days it's cooler under a tree. But a class at Brown University set out to quantify how much cooler and explain the reasons why. Read The Report |
| WILL ALLEN TALKS ABOUT RAISED GARDEN BEDS IN PROVIDENCE SCHOOL PLAYGROUND |
 |
GROWING FARMERS Will Allen was talking to a group of kindergartners, graduate students, and teachers gathered around raised beds in a Providence school playground in early April. “He comes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” explained Kathryn DeMaster, a visiting assistant professor in the Center for Environmental Studies, “which is a city a lot like Providence. He teaches people to grow food.” Then she added, “He used to be a professional basketball player.” “He’s bigger than every basketball player!” exclaimed one awestruck boy. Allen, who is about as tall and muscular as the mythical Paul Bunyan, was visiting the John Hope Settlement House with Brown students who’ve been helping the children grow vegetables as part of a DeMaster-taught class called Sustenance and Sustainability. “I want to see more Ivy-educated farmers,” she said, noting that grad students, too, need basic farming lessons. |
| COLLEGE STUDENTS WORK TO REDUCE YEAR END WASTE |
 |
COLLEGE STUDENTS PREFER NOT TO LEAVE TRASHED For four years, EcoReps, a student-run group at Brown University, has partnered with the university’s facilities management staff to collect furniture, clothing, house wares and other items from students moving out. The program, dubbed Clean Break, has collected 40 tons of goods during the past four springs. Last year, the group took in 17 tons of items, and donated much of the haul to the Rhode Island Donation Exchange Program. Brown University sophomore Gretchen Gerlach (ENVS) was one of roughly 20 students who volunteered to coordinate collection efforts last year. She will do it again this month, as EcoReps plans to set up nine collection “corrals” around campus where students can drop off goods for donation. Gerlach recalled being shocked by what she saw in the corrals last spring. “I was so overwhelmed at how many brand-new packaged items I saw — clothes with the tags still on them and food and electronics that hadn’t even been opened yet.” |
 |
" Watson, who is concentrating in Environmental Studies at Brown and Apparel Design at RISD, tries to use what she learns at Brown about the environmental impacts of apparel production and implement it into her designs at RISD, she wrote." "I wanted to capture the power and drama of nature" - Watson. |
Students updating Central Falls disaster plan
About 30 environmental studies students from Brown University are working with Central Falls to update and expand the city’s plan for managing natural disasters, including flooding from the Blackstone River.
 |
Species |
Dov Sax, of Brown’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Bernd Blossey, professor of natural resources at Cornell University, organized a conference for the Ecological Society of America in West Virginia. Among the topics: What to do when climate change forces species out of their historical habitats.
Brown Installs Solar Panels on the New Aquatics Center
The 168 rectangular panels on the roof of the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatic Center will generate enough power to keep the lights on and enough thermal energy to heat the million-gallon pool. The center, due to open April 13, will be Rhode Island’s first hybrid (heat and power) solar installation — also the largest in the nation and the first on a college campus.
 |
Stormwater utility fee system explainedArticle by CES Graduate Student Kate England |
WESTERLY - The typical Westerly homeowner would pay $68 per year under a stormwater utility fee system included in a draft report produced by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Owners of a typical commercial property would pay $449.
CES Grad Student Goes Behind The Scenes at Durban
When graduate student Brianna Craft volunteered to help the Least Developed Countries bloc at the United Nations climate change negotiations in Durban, she had no idea she'd been given an all-access pass to the closed-door climate talks. Here she talks about her experience, what she learned and why she's still optimistic about the possibility of international climate justice.
CES Chair J. Timmons Roberts and Environmental Studies students travel to Durban South Africa for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations (Nov. 28-Dec 10, 2011)
 |
The purpose of this group is to contribute timely, accessible and impactful content that informs more just and effective global policy making on climate change, particularly on the issues of climate finance and Latin America. The focus during the fall 2011 semester is to influence the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in Durban, South Africa to produce more just and effective processes and outcomes concerning climate finance and other relevant climate policy. FOLLOW THEIR PROGRESS AT THE FOLLOWING LINKS BELOWGlobal Conversation: Follow Brown's Climate Change Team at the COP 17 Negotiations http://www.watsoninstitute.org/news_detail.cfm?id=1602 Climate & Development Lab – Twitter Feed http://climatedevlab.wordpress.com/ Intercambio Climático – Blog of the Latin American Platform on Climate http://www.intercambioclimatico.com/en/ Adaptation finance: How can Durban deliver on past promises? http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/opinion/47954 |
Local Occupy Protesters Join D.C.Rally
PROVIDENCE —The local Occupy movement traveled to Washington this weekend to join an estimated 10,000 protesters against the proposed transcontinental tar sands oil pipeline.
Two buses left the city early Saturday with about 40 protesters from the Occupy Providence and Occupy College Hill protest groups for the Sunday afternoon rally at the White House. The event was organized by activist and college professor Bill McKibben of 350.org and Tarsandsaction.org. Both groups urge President Obama to deny the permit for the pipeline.
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
With more trees, city looks to go greener |
 |
Natalie Villacorta In a report released last May, the spring 2010 class ENVS 1920: "Analysis and Resolution of Environmental Problems and Case Studies," found that areas of Providence with fewer trees are hotter than greener neighborhoods. Trees are crucial to human health and happiness in a variety of ways — they remove pollutants from the air, provide shade and add beauty to their surroundings. |
|
TREES AND THE URBAN HEAT
ISLAND EFFECT:
A CASE STUDY FOR PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND
“One straightforward and cost-effective way for the city to buffer itself from heat waves stood out among all the rest: to plant and care for trees”
UNITING ART AND BIOLOGY TO CONSERVE CORAL REEFS
 |
Outreach, education, and charity to inspire marine stewardship among policy makers and the public
|
Art and science are increasingly joining forces, more now than in the past, because of their shared creativity and the critical importance of conveying accurate messages to the public about the natural world. Mattison aims to discover how art and science can inform one another and combine to catalyze a public and political movement for coral reef conservation. To learn more about Courtney Mattison’s project Click Here.
CLICK HERE to read this article about recent Environmental Studies graduate Matt Severson and his extraordinary work.
*Article from July / August 2011 Issue of Brown Alumni Magazine
 |
CES Alumni Chip Giller founded Grist, a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, WA, to provide smart environmental news minus the gloom, doom, and sanctimony -- and to spur people to action. Back in college, Giller carried around all the garbage he produced for a week to demonstrate the wastefulness of the average student. Now the staff at Grist has dared him to do it again. For a week, Giller will carry his family's trash wherever he goes. To keep him motivated CLICK HERE to make a donation supporting his efforts and Grist's green news and advice. To learn more about this dare visit CLICK HERE |
March 2010 Floods
What have we learned?
Everyone in Rhode Island remembers the pictures of the Warwick mall in the middle of a lake. The weather forecasters standing in a foot of water on I-95 as the major interstate was closed due to flooding. The helicopter footage of the Warwick and West Warwick wastewater treatments plant completely inundated with river water.
After nearly two months of research and interviews, a group of students in the Center for Environmental Studies is releasing six reports that document the work that has been done over the past year. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT
Click on the Following Links for Press:
- Warwick Beakon
- WRNI - Rhode Island's NPR
- Fox News Providence
- Rhode Island State News.net
- What Grows On in Rhode Island
- Projo 7 to 7 News Blog
- Projo.com
Nine Brown Students to Cover Cancun Climate Negotiations
With seed funding from Brown’s office for International Affairs and the Watson Institute, Professor Timmons Roberts and CES Research Fellow Guy Edwards have begun an ambitious new project of “engaged scholarship” on how Latin America is addressing the issue of Climate Change. A team of eight Brown students—five undergrads, three Master’s students, and one PhD student—will be accompanying them the U.N. climate negotiations in Cancun this December.
The project centers around a multilingual web portal and blog, developed in partnership with a Latin American network called the PCL—the Plataforma Climatica Latinoamericana, a project of the Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano and the UK-based Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). In Cancun, Plataforma members and Brown students will work together as teams on reporting key issues in the negotiations.
Longer-range projects of the consortium will be country-by-country reports on: Climate models and vulnerability, Adaptation Options and Climate Politics. The site will include exhaustive and updated web resources on climate change for reporters, policy-makers, teachers, and citizens.
Other Topics of Interest
CES student Eric Van Arsdale has been working on Cape Cod this summer studying what residents and visitors know about the salt marsh die back that threatens the Cape's precious marshes. He offers a small taste of the experience in his op-ed in today's Cape Cod Times ahead of his presentation tomorrow at the Annual State of the harbor conference in Wellfleet. Eric's fellowship was made possible through the Brown Environmental fellows program, funded by the Henry David Thoreau Foundation the Silverton Foundation through the Environmental Change Initiative and the Center for Environmental Studies.
Brown Daily Herald 3 September 2010
Grad students' climate change suggestions inspire legislation
This summer, a University research project was transformed into legislation aiming to address the effects of climate change in Rhode Island. The new law was supported by Rep. David Segal, D-Providence and East Providence, in the state House of Representatives and Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, in the state Senate.
The piece of legislation — which was passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly in June and became law — adopted three of the 26 recommendations made by students in the fall 2009 seminar, ENVS 2010: “Special Topics in Environmental Studies: Urban Adaptation to Climate Change,” taught by J. Timmons Roberts, director of the Center for Environmental Studies and professor of sociology and environmental studies. View full article
The Providence Journal 25 July 2010
R.I. environmentalists elated at National Ocean Policy
Last week, President Obama signed an executive order creating the first National Ocean Policy in the nation’s history. This column includes comments by Heather Leslie, professor of biology, who thinks the new policy will go a long way toward helping people see the connections among abundant seafood, clean water, safe beaches and coastal development. View full report and follow-up editorial by Professor Leslie.
June 22, 2010: Special Issue on Changing Climates featuring an Interview with CES Director J. Timmons Roberts on the
Theory, Culture and Society Blog
R.I. Senator Whitehouse proposes national fund for ocean research
Mary Lesbirel, David Murray (CES), Senator Whitehouse, Lena Weiss, John Torgan (Save The Bay), Sara Clemens.
Monitoring done by David Murray and John Torgan is used to help find ways to prevent ecological disasters and protect waters.
FULBRIGHT: Grants for Study, Research or
Teaching Assistants Abroad. www.fulbrightonline.org
Other 2011 Graduate Student Research Opportunities
Environmental groups and programs at Brown and in the Rhode Island Community
Curious about what environmental legislation is being discussed and voted on in Rhode Island? Want to get in on some action at the statehouse?
Team up with the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island's CARE Alliance, an EPA-funded group that meets monthly to discuss environmental hazards and solutions in Providence!
Brown Dining Services Sustainability Program was formed in 2010, bringing together the Real Food Initiative, Community Harvest program, Beyond the Bottle and SCRAP (Brown's new composting group), under one central management group.
Check it out!!
CES Alums: Want to keep in touch?
Join our social networking sites for environmentally-minded alumni! Brown Alumni Staying Green, a facebook fan page, and the Green/Sustainability subgroup of the Brown Alumni Association LinkedIn page were recently created by the Center for Environmental Studies and the Brown Alumni Association. Join these pages for discussions, job postings, pictures, events, and more!
Brown Alumni Staying Green: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brown-Alumni-Staying-Green/144123438927
Green/Sustainability LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2345867
OLDER LINKS
Calendar of Environmental Events
emPOWER Newsletter
Winter 2010
Resources at the UEL
CES GRADUATE STUDENT
JEREMY KNEE HAS ARTICLE
PRINTED IN WEST VIGINIA
LAW REVEIW
An article contributed to by Sociology PhD student Dave Ciplet and CES Director Timmons Roberts is featured in a New York Times article about climate change.
KeepRIClean.org is a new website launched by Save the Bay and several other organizations. This site provides a comprehensive list of clean ups and green opportunities throughout the state.
Students for a Just and Stable Future
CES Alum Colin Cheney
Through Poetry, Colin maps an American landscape of NY rooftop gardens, occupied Iraq, and crumbling NE farms.
Global Conversations with Dov Sax at BIARI:
“Climate Change and Biodiversity”
How to ensure climate-change finance really is "new and additional"
International Institute for Environment and Development
Brown students synthesize lessons learned for NE marine spatial planning
Bill Would Create Panel to Monitor Climate Change
(Providence Journal, April 25, 2010)
CES Director Timmons Roberts quoted in National Geographic web story about the 40th anniversary of Earth Day:
"Earth Day at 40: What Good Is It now?"
(April 22, 2010)
An update from Port au Prince, written by Sasha Kramer of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), who was a CES seminar speaker last semester.
(February 12, 2010)
Copenhagen's climate finance - six key questions
Co-authored by CES Director Timmons Roberts
(February 3, 2010)
CES Faculty members Phil Brown and Heather Leslie featured in January 2010 edition of the The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning 's publication, The Teaching Exchange.
(February 3, 2010)