A little over a year ago, coinciding with the administration’s creation of the Sustainability Office, students, grad students, and some administration members from different environmentally concerned campus groups decided to create an inter-organizational forum for sustainable action, called Sustainable Dartmouth. The origins of SD, or Sustainable Dartmouth, remain steeped in ancient folklore while its not-so-terrifying […]

The world’s wild fisheries are being depleted at a rate much faster than they can be restocked, so aquaculture, which is being employed to supplement the shrinking supply of wild fish, is the world’s fastest-growing food sector. However aquaculture in some cases aggravates rather than redresses the problems of over fishing. The practice contains much […]

Presumably, there is a disconnect between mainstream, first world environmental values and environmental justice, which is a focus on the social and environmental needs of communities of color, the poor, especially poor women, and the colonized.

Following a highly controversial and infamous essay, “The Death of Environmentalism,” by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus,* the mainstream environmental […]

Alcott Smith, a veterinarian-turned-naturalist and 60-plus year resident of these parts, can proudly say of himself that he was once the “New Hampshire answer to James Herriot.” But this description barely scratches the surface of Smith’s niche in the Upper Valley.

After forty years of veterinary practice, Alcott Smith now contributes to society as a naturalist, […]

Offshore wind power is a rapidly growing renewable energy source that has finally set sail for America. Cape Wind, a private corporation, hopes to harness Nantucket Sound’s constant gusts for 130 turbines that produce 420 megawatts of electricity, enough to power half a million homes and businesses. Each turbine would rise 270 feet above the […]

There is a Hebrew phrase, tikkun olam, which means the perfecting or the healing of the world. Translated into action, this Jewish concept is essential to the environmentalist cause; as human beings continually evolve, the earth turns on its axis and resonates with conscious energy. A concrete expression of such environmental awareness is making itself […]

Many Americans dismiss environmental concerns as a problem for the future. While they believe that the United States should protect the environment, there is no sense of urgency. It is a common belief that Western culture and business can afford to damage the environment as long as we do not cross a certain threshold after […]

Over 500,000 miles of roads exist within our national forest system. Most of these are unused, unmaintained, and ecologically damaging roads that are only used by the most rash off-road vehicle devotees. These roads fragment fragile habitats, increase stream sedimentation, accelerate erosion, and increase wildlife mortality. Clearly it is time to do something about them.

The […]

Imagine New Year’s Day inHanover, year 2100. Bundled up, you trek to the snow sculpture on the green. The warning of “The Lorax” was heeded – people like you began caring an awful lot – and humanity’s grandest finest achievement was got – planetary sustainability. Not only had Dartmouth College and the town of Hanover […]

The Land of Fire and Ice has a national joke: “What should you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest?” And if you’ve ever been to Iceland, you’ll know the answer: “Stand up.”

Slumped in a Keflavik bus headed to Reykjavik this past July, I glimpsed a moonscape of lava fields and craggy […]

There has been a lot of talk lately about making changes in our energy systems. Fossil fuels are facing a number of challenges including rising costs and their inevitable release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Current climatic studies reflect a mounting destabilization of our weather patterns and a general rise in average global temperatures. […]

For several decades now, ecotourism has been touted as a means of stemming the loss of biodiversity around the world by replacing the economic growth achieved via extractive industries and subsistence activities with growth realized through low impact tourism. National governments, major international development agencies, multilateral lending banks, and transnational environmental organizations have all jumped […]

On November 3, 2004, at II: 10 a.m., Senator John Kerry called President George Bush. Minutes after, word went out across news wires and the Internet: Kerry was conceding the election. This would not be another 2000; the presidency would not be left hanging for weeks and months of uncertainty.

Instead, in 2004, George W. Bush […]

There is something about the state of Califomia that draws Easterners to visit and explore. It may be a combination of the sun and the relaxed attitude that gives people the itch to move West, or perhaps it is the prevailing sense of “wildness” and unknown. Whatever the case, I was drawn out West this […]

Thesis proposals are in, and job interviews are on the horizon. As you return to campus for the winter term, is there much to look forward to? I’m sure you hear, almost daily, forecasts of doom for today’s college graduates looking to join the work force. Sure, that applies to the investment bankers and future […]

With the steadily growing movement of urban agriculture spreading across paved and chain-linked cities of America, thousands of urban residents are discovering and rediscovering the land around them-land that has lain forgotten or poorly used for decades. Agriculture flourishing and producing in the clogged cities? Oxymoronic, you might say. But the overflowing gardens and impressive […]

Tom Chappell spoke like a great philosopher as he conveyed his message of “common goodness” to an eager crowd of Dartmouth students and faculty on October 16 in Collis. “Goodness is an entity; a living being that has inherent worth and dignity,” he argued. These words were particularly refreshing coming from the lips of a […]

While the vast majority of Americans consistently supports a clean and healthy environment or is at least sympathetic to the environmental cause, the role of environmental issues in American electoral politics has been minimal at best over the past twenty years. In the past five presidential elections well less than ten percent of actual voters […]

So, you are thinking about getting involved with environmental activities at Dartmouth! Good choice! Coming into the environmental groups at Dartmouth-the greenest ivy-might seem a little daunting at first because of the sheer plethora of groups and projects with which you can get involved. But have no fear: this quick guide will give you the […]