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Environmental Studies Department |
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Earth Week 2003 Distinguised Speaker
This presentation was co-sponsored by the Macalester Geography Department and the Environmental Studies Program. The Environmental Studies Senior Seminar students’ semester long efforts were finally realized during Earth Week, May 23-26, when all the events miraculously came together. Although the days leading to Earth Week were very busy and overwhelming, Earth Week was overall a very successful event in many aspects: many people took part in the activities, there was a presence on campus, and people had a good time while learning about environmental issues. The ES Senior Seminar feels very fortunate to have had great volunteers, co-sponsors and donors for all of the events. Although Earth Week was primarily organized by the ES Senior Seminar, it seems to be something that may take place in the coming years because of the great underclassmen that helped enthusiastically alongside the senior seminar class. For a list of events that were held that week, click here. This event was sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program, Community Service Office, Biology Department, Geography Department, High Winds Office, MacRO (Macalester Recycling Operation), Habitat for Humanity, Maction, Cultural House, Mac Greens, Environmental Action Coalition, The Chapel, MULCH, Amnesty International, M.A.A.S. (Macalester Association of Alternative Spiritualities), M.P.J.C. (Macalester Peace & Justice Committee).
The Dream is Alive … and Well by Aldemaro Romero Well, it seems that this year was my last winter in Minnesota. After a five-year stint as Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Macalester College, I have decided to accept the position of Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Arkansas State University. These past years have been of incredible growth and renovation in the ES Program. Numerous courses were added, a complete revamp of the curriculum took place; numerous campus-wide initiatives were born and developed; nearly one hundred papers, abstracts, and books were published. Unfortunately those transformations found a ceiling, and when that happens, you know it is time to move on. For the foreseeable future the ES Program will be in the more than capable hands of Prof. Brett Smith, a man with ample academic and real-world experience in environmental issues, a colleague with whom I shared a great deal of curricular and extra-curricular initiatives, an individual of unquestionable integrity and dedication to our students. For that reason, and that reason alone, I leave Macalester not only with the feeling of having accomplished the mission within the circumstances I encountered, but also with high hopes for the future. We, the many faculty, staff, students, and alumni that have contributed to the Program in the last few years, strongly believe in a Program that is strongly interdisciplinary in nature, that looks at environmental problems from a holistic approach, that tries to find solutions to the problems that result from the complex interactions between humans and their natural environment. We believe also in an institution that practices what preaches; that keeps its word when given, that teaches by example, not rhetoric. We believe in an institution that is student-centered, that is uncompromising when it comes to quality education; that places dedication over politics, calculated risks over bureaucratic complacency, vision over petty accounting. We believe that our mission is to make better citizens and that the best return for the institution are those students who come back to us saying “what a great experience you gave us.” For all that and many other things, I believe that the dream is alive and will be realized, because dreams may be delayed, their realization postponed, but they can never be killed notions emerged from passing politics and petty personal inclinations. After all, if history has taught us anything, is that after thousands of years, humans are still in search for a world of justice, of equality, of passionate reasons. We are not yet there, but when we see flashes of accomplishments, we rejoice because we know that those dreams will, sooner or later, become a reality. With the same hope I leave Macalester today, a place and an experience I will never forget. And regardless of when those dreams are fulfilled in the college, I will always keep in my memory the echo of the three reasons why I undertook this task in the first place: the students, and the students, and the students. Good Bye. Macalester Environmental Review Five articles and one book review have been published since March 2002 in the Macalester Environmental Review. They are: Articles
Book Review
You can find Macalester Environmental Review at www.macalester.edu/environmentalstudies/MacEnvReview/index.htm EnviroThursday EnviroThursday finished its fourth year with 346 people attending the sessions. There were three speakers and seven videos shown during Spring 2003 semester. They were: Speakers "Career Positions to Save the Environment with The Fund for Public Interest Research" by Ryan Keith, Assistant Director, The Fund for Public Interest Research "Using MN Atlas and ArcView for GIS Projects" by Carol Gersmehl, Macalester Geography Department "Environmental Justice and the Market: The Politics of Sharing Wildlife Revenues in Tanzania" by Dr. Richard Schroeder, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Rutgers University.
Faculty in Action Prof. Al Romero was invited to visit the archives of the Boerhaave Museum (National Museum for the History of Science) and The Natural History Museum, both in Leiden, The Netherlands, to examine documents regarding Peter Artedi, a Swedish naturalist that influenced many others, including Carl von Linné, in the system of classification of living organisms. He also visited archives in Amsterdam and located the residence and the place where Artedi was buried. This information will be used for a work to be published in a professional journal. Prof. Romero was also selected as member of National Council for Science and the Environment Nominating Committee to elect the new leadership of that institution of which Macalester College is a charter member. Articles Published
Prof. Lorin Hatch is currently preparing to conduct field work (late April through early November) at Square Lake in northern Washington county (just north of Stillwater, MN). He'll be sampling lake water, plankton, bottom sediments, and the benthic fauna on Tuesday mornings. He'll also be examining how the benthic fauna contribute to the cycling of nutrients throughout the lake. Prof. Hatch will be conducting laboratory analyses during the remainder of the week. Later on, he'll be conducting laboratory feeding experiments using a benthic insect and algae to determine how food quality affects their growth and nutrient cycling. If any students are interested in helping out (either in the field or lab), they're welcome to join him! There are many possibilities for student research with regards to this project. This fall semester Prof. Hatch will be offering a "Research Methods in Aquatic Ecology" course that will go through all of the field and laboratory techniques that he uses in addition to having a journal club. On a disappointing note, Prof. Hatch just received word that his proposal to the National Science Foundation in the Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology was not selected for funding. This project would have focused on urban ecology, and would have offered opportunities for under-represented groups in environmental biology the ability to work on campus ecology research issues. Prof. Bill Moseley has enjoyed teaching “People and the Environment,” a geography course to be cross-listed with environmental studies beginning next academic year. This course introduces the student to the study of human-environment interactions from a geographic perspective. The course examines environmental issues in a variety of geographic contexts (developed and developing countries) and the connections between environmental problems in different locations. Prof Moseley was also quite pleased to have his fall geography seminar on Comparative Environment and Development Studies cross-listed with ES. Prof. Moseley has been hard at work on two books to be published in the fall. The first is an African studies reader and is entitled Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in African Studies. It is under contract with McGraw-Hill/Dushkin and is scheduled for publication in October 2003. The second is an edited volume entitled African Political Ecology: Rural African Livelihoods in a Regional Political Economy Context. It is under contract with Ashgate Publishing Limited and is scheduled for publication in late 2003. Both volumes deal extensively with environmental issues in Africa. Since December 2002, Prof. Moseley has attended the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in Washington, D.C. (December) and the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in New Orleans, LA (March). At the first meeting, he presented a paper entitled “Export Orientation, Environmental Change and Household Vulnerability in the Malian Cotton Basin” and, as a member of the meeting’s national organizing committee, was responsible for coordinating all of the paper sessions related to the environment. At the latter meeting he gave a paper entitled “(Re)Examining Rural African Livelihoods and Environmental Change: Relative Wealth and Vulnerability in the Malian Cotton Basin” and participated as a panelist in two other sessions: “Political Ecology in the Regions: Africa” and “Development and Security III: Where Might We Go From Here?” Prof. Moseley also attended the first Twin Cities Africanist Symposium at Carleton College in February where he presented a paper entitled “Leaving Hallowed Practices for Hollow Ground: Wealth, Poverty and Cotton Production in Southern Mali.” In conjunction with a colleague in the Anthropology Department at Grinnell College, Prof Moseley is organizing and workshop entitled “Research and Pedagogy in Political Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Environment and Development Studies.” This workshop will be held in the fall at Macalester and will enable liberal arts college faculty from around the country to share experiences and build a network of colleagues to enhance their teaching, research, and scholarship in political ecology. Prof Moseley also has spent time contributing to the development of a new study abroad program entitled “ Globalization and the Natural Environment: South Africa.” This is a joint initiative of Macalester, Swarthmore and Pomona Colleges and is scheduled to begin in January 2003 in Cape Town, South Africa. In the Spring Semester Prof. Brett Smith is teaching two courses: Sustainable Development and the Global Future, which is cross listed in International Studies and Environmental Studies, and Green Politics, in the Political Science Department. Off campus, Prof. Smith led two adult education classes at First Universalist Church in Minneapolis: two sessions on Global Civil Society and three sessions on the World Bank's impact on sustainability. I also led a workshop at the recent Living Green Expo at the State Fairgrounds on Globalization and Sustainability and in early April spoke at the Minnetonka UU Church on Economic Globalization. I also continue my activities as Chair of the Sierra Club North Star Chapter's International Issues Committee and the Metro Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance's Economic Globalization Committee. Prof. Sarah West continued her research on market-based incentives for the control of vehicle pollution. In particular, she presented new work on how gas taxes can be set to both reduce pollution and minimize the burden placed on poor households. West, along with Prof. Rob Williams from the University of Texas at Austin, presented their paper, "Estimates from a Consumer Demand System," in January at the American Economics Association Meetings in Washington DC. Along with Prof. Al Romero, Prof. West submitted an interdisciplinary volume of readings for undergraduates called "Environmental Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean" to a major university publisher. Prof. West also continues to work with Macalester graduate, Soren Anderson '01, now at Resources for the Future, on research on the effect of open space on property values. This research will help policymakers to balance urban development with greenway and park preservation. Professor West presented this work at the University of Minnesota's Environmental Economics seminar in March. Prof. West is currently teaching "Environmental Economics and Policy." Those alumni, faculty, and staff interested in submitted news and/or comments to this newsletter, send an email to esson@macalester.edu or write to Aldemaro Romero, Environmental Studies Program, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105-1899. Newsletter Editor: Ann Esson, esson@macalester.edu
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The 2003 Environmental Studies Distinguished Speaker this year was Dr. Richard Schroeder, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Rutgers University. He spoke at the April 10 EnviroThursday. His talk was entitled "Environmental Justice and the Market: The Politics of Sharing Wildlife Revenues in Tanzania." Dr. Schroeder earned his B.A. at Macalester College in 1978 before going on to earn an M.S. in environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. at the University of California - Berkeley (under Michael Watts). He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politics in the Gambia (1999) and Producing Nature and Poverty in Africa (co-edited with V. Broch-Due) (2000). In addition to his academic achievements, Dr. Schroeder also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone and as a Program Manager for the Save the Children Federation in the Gambia (
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