Speaking of web interviews, check out Professor Finkler talking about the Henry Luce Foundation grant for the Sustainable China initiative. A fluid speaker, indeed.
You can get the full story on the Lawrence homepage. The initiative includes this fall term’s Econ 209, Water, Politics, and Economic Development, which includes a trek to China in December.
Here is exciting news from the Career Center and the new Lawrence Scholars in Environmental Careers program — an inaugural summit! That’s this Saturday at the WCC.
Inaugural Summit Saturday, April 16, 2011 Lunch @ Noon, (Parrish-Perille) Program: 1-3 p.m. Warch Campus Center-Kraemer Room
PANELISTS:
Betsy Benson ’69, President, Energy Associates
She specializes in electricity issues, principally those related to different generation sources. Her clients have included utilities, independent power producers, energy trade associations, and regulatory bodies throughout the United States and Canada. She also serves as an advisor to the US Government on international trade and trade treaty negotiations related to energy and environmental issues. Betsy will focus on the issues, opportunities, and challenges associated with energy and environmental careers today and in the future.
Bill Haas ’02, Director of Energy Programs for the Energy, Sustainability and Carbon Solutions National Practice at Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure, Inc.
He is responsible for the execution and management of energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability projects. Previously he served as Energy Division Representative for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and was a Policy Associate with the Environmental Law & Policy Center. Bill’s company is hiring – learn about exciting career opportunities!
Cathy Statz ’96, Education Director, Wisconsin Farmers Union
Local food and sustainability are old ideas with new energy. Society’s growing interest in agriculture and the environment has created opportunities to explore the economy, health, social justice and community development. Cathy’s Lawerence experience broadened her understanding of – and approach to – the challenges and initiatives of her work with a non-profit family farm advocacy organization.
Another in a series of notes from the very busy ENSTers — Mike Link and Kate Crowley from Full Circle Superior are speaking on Tuesday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Steitz Hall 102. Here’s a brief description:
Full Circle Superior’s mission is to bring attention, education and research to the Great Lakes and to promote healthy water quality and fresh water conservation now and for future generations. Through the summer of 2010, two retired naturalists and educators, Mike Link and Kate Crowley, successfully circumnavigated Lake Superior along its shoreline on foot! This 1500+ mile journey has taken them through 4 states and provinces, dozens of state, provincial and national parks, and countless communities and special places over the past 5 months. The hikers, assisted by a small support crew, conducted a scientific study of the vegetation, hydrology, ecology and sociology of the lake in collaboration with various research institutions and universities on both sides of the border to build a benchmark body of data on the lake for the study of future generations to come.
See you there.
A message from our resident fluvial geomorphologist, Jeff Clark:
I know a number of you are interested in renewable energy and solar power in particular. Heck we even have our own array. Why not come and learn more about large scale solar power from an industry insider?
Why not, indeed?
Mark Culpepper, Chief Technology Officer, SunEdison will be on campus Thursday to give us “An Insider’s View of the Solar Power Industry.” You can find us at 4:30 over in Thomas Steitz Science Hall 202.
Mr. Culpepper has a background is telecommunications and IT security, and is working on distributed generation issues for SunEdison.
This is certainly a hot topic.
Standup economist Yoram Bauman was on campus all day, talking in two classes, brunching with interested students, and finally knocking us dead with his material from convex hulls (don’t ask if you aren’t a math-econ major), exotic grains (I always suspected quinoa was funny; now I’m convinced) and the American political spectrum. Bauman delivered what was certainly the funniest Povolny Lecture in the history of the series.
His primary work and his primary message has to do with climate change and the price of carbon. Bauman argues that a carbon tax of about $30 per ton would serve the dual purpose of reducing carbon use and generating revenue that could offset the reliance on distortionary taxes (e.g., sales and income taxes). His message is that this lunch isn’t free, the tax would translate into about $0.30/gallon on gasoline and $0.03/kWh on coal-generated electricity. And here’s the key to the message — these price increases are necessary in order to reduce the quantity demanded for fossil fuels in rich western countries. So, in that spirit, the idea of a cap and “tax” is perfectly consistent with the basic economics lesson: if you want to use the market to get people to buy less, then the so-called market signal is the higher price.
On behalf of the economics faculty and students, I’d like to thank Yoram for a great day and wish him the best in his careers.
Lawrence alum, George B. Wyeth, will kick off the Povolny Lecture Series this Tuesday, April 20, at 7 p.m. in Science Hall 102. Mr. Wyeth picked up his B.A. from Lawrence back in 1973, notably serving as editor-in-chief of The Lawrentian. He leveraged his success here into a Masters in Public Policy at UC-Berkeley and a law degree from Yale. After a stint in the private sector, he joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1989 and is now the Director at the National Center for Environmental Innovation.
Well, to be accurate, right now he is the the Stephen Edward Scarff Memorial Visiting Professor, teaching a course on policy implementation with Professor Chong Do-Hah. His talk is “Change isn’t Easy: An Inside Perspective.” Like his course, the talk will address the public administration challenges of addressing environmental problems.
We hope to see you there.
Good news on the clean air front — it’s getting cleaner. In fact, it’s been getting cleaner for a long, long time. Don’t believe me? Well, then go check out the new EPA Air Quality Trends that was released earlier this week. Of the six criteria pollutants (NOx, SOx, CO, PM, O3, and Pb), the trend is continually downward. Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) are also on their way down. That’s despite a growing population, growing vehicle fleet, and (until recently) a growing economy.
Almost makes me want to go out and eat a big hand full of dirt.
Almost.
From our pals over in Environmental Studies:
Does meeting with fellow students and faculty to talk about running a farm in the ghettos of Oakland, dumpster diving to feed pigs, and corralling runaway turkeys in downtown Oakland sound like fun?
During the Spring term Green Roots and the Environmental Studies program will be sponsoring a for credit campus read program. The book is Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, by Novella Carpenter. Her work covers topics including sustainable agriculture, urban communities, and healthful eating. As a special treat, the author will be in the Fox Cities in mid-April, just before Earth Day!
Contact Andrew Knudsen knudsena@lawrence.edu or Jason Brozek jason.brozek@lawrence.edu for more information.
