This past summer, a housemate of mine lent me a book called Wild Fermentation, written by Sandor Ellix Katz and published by the Chelsea Green Publishing Company of White River Junction.

I spent the month of February, in of 2007, learning to farm organically. I was, almost literally, in la-la land. My hosts Suzanne and Alvaro moved there with their six children after fleeing Chile for political reasons in the 1960’s.

The climate debate is no longer centered on the question, “Is it happening?” but rather “What are the specific effects going to be?,” “Are we seeing some of these effects already?,” and “At what rate do we have to curb our greenhouse gas emissions to stabilize the climate for future generations?”

Since leaving Dartmouth, I have been lucky enough to find regular nine-to-five jobs that pay me to help save the planet.

Global warming has been called “the challenge of a generation.” It has made national and international headlines as a growing, and, in many instances, an immediate crisis. By altering global temperature and weather patterns it has caused prolonged droughts in some areas and heavy monsoons in others; it has seriously impacted agriculture, contributed to the […]

The climate debate is no longer centered on the question, “is it happening?” but rather “what are the specific effects going to be?” “are we seeing some of these effects already?” and “at what rate do we have to curb our greenhouse gas emissions to stabilize the climate for future generations?” James Hansen, Bush’s top […]

For the environmentally-conscientious person this inspiring exhortation raises obvious, “What should I do?” questions such as, “What is the best route to service?” or “How does service manifest itself most effectively?” And, in particular for many outdoor-enthusiasts, “What if I admire and revere the idea of service but my self-satisfying outdoor-activity-obsession trumps ‘service’ every time?”

A Footprint Up Your…

Full disclosure: I hate the concept of the Ecological Footprint. It’s overly simplistic, vague, and too often mistaken for a legitimate metric of sustainability. That said, it’s one more test that Dartmouth students score pretty well on, and for that reason alone it’s worth looking at.
The Ecological Footprint is a rough measure […]

“There is a body of interdependent and unified interests and values… segregated by well-defined boundary lines from the rest of the world. The people in such a district have common interests, common rights, and common duties, and must necessarily work together for common purposes.”    -John Wesley Powell, Institutions for the Arid Lands, 1890

John Wesley Powell […]

We’ve all heard the warnings from scientists and environmentalists: “The polar icecaps are melting! Sea levels are rising! Extreme weather is coming! Carbon dioxide will be the end of us!” But isn’t global warming still a theory? Do we really know what causes it? Shouldn’t we just adjust to a warmer climate rather than try […]

The weather was windy and overcast the morning I set out for the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), located a little over a mile north of campus. I was interviewing for a Women In Science Project (WISP) internship entitled “Arctic Sea Ice Cover in a Changing Environment.” I was first interested in the […]

Every year, the department of Environmental Studies offers ENVS 50, Environmental Problem Analysis and Policy Formation, in which a group of students identify and research a local environmental problem and develop a solution that can be integrated into existing policy. In Spring 2004, students in this class were given the following mission: “Identify the most […]

At Dartmouth College, our Environmental Performance indicators for energy use, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, and waste disposal per capita have been on the rise since 2001. These data, although sobering, helps us face the sustainability challenge squarely.

A social change theory popularized by author Alan AtKisson suggests that when innovative individuals or groups present […]

Staring behind the glass of an Odwalla cooler, I am making an agonizing decision: Strawberry C Monster, or a Mango Tango smoothie? After a few minutes of taste-bud indecision, the orange allure of the Mango Tango wins out, and I reach in and grab a bottle and head to the checkout line. […]

As we sat chatting in the beautifully appointed dining room, a fresh gust of wind shook the trees outside. We all cast a half-questioning, half-anxious look at the clouds tempting rain outside. Although we had heard reports of heavy rain the night before elsewhere in Iowa, the half inch already received here was […]

What is Geothermal Energy?

Geothermal, or Earth energy, is created from sources of heat deep under the Earth’s foremost layer. As the Earth’s core exudes heat to the surrounding rock, magma is created and flows under the planet’s surface. Since the liquid magma is less dense than the surrounding solid rock, the rocks begin to shift […]

It has always been a belief of mine that sometime within my lifetime, ecologically sustainable business will experience an economic boom. I maintain that as the myriad effects of fossil fuel (ab)use, land degradation, and pollution become increasingly apparent, public demand for “green practices” will eventually force a significant government and market response. If you […]

Upon entering my freshman year, I had grand intentions of following the pre-medical path. However, the appeal of a career in medicine (combined with the usual parental encouragement) couldn’t overturn my affinity for design, specifically in architecture. I struggled to validate architecture in the eyes of the other liberal arts (surely there must have been […]

Each year, American colleges and universities hand out design degrees by the thousands.

Credentials in hand, an army of young architects and urban planners, engineers and product designers enter the job market and, with a little luck, begin to practice their professions. But what exactly is the “system” within which they are practicing? Have their college […]

It’s an exciting time for environmental sustainability at Dartmouth! Green buildings,sustainability in courses, a campus sustainability coordinator, and lots of student and faculty mterest in sustainability … all this represents a new era of increased interest and activity in many environmental aspects of life at Dartmouth. This in turn presages a profound increase in awareness […]

When first proposed the idea of writing a piece on the influence of my Zen practice on my environmentalism, I thought it’d be a piece of cake. I never feel more present and spiritual than I do when hiking through the woods of New Hampshire or sitting to meditate to the crashing waves of the […]

We need to remember what land is. Land is grace. It is something that comes in quiet moments and deep breaths. It is not something that was created to be sectioned off or partitioned. Land is experienced as that moment of ineffable beauty, vivid touch and life, something that can’t be owned, can’t be faked […]

My family never went to church on Sundays. Instead, most Sunday mornings, we would go for a walk in the woods behind my house. It took about a half-hour to walk down to the Potomac River, and as we traversed the little creek that led us there, we would talk. My father would teach us […]

When I was about eight years old, itching for my afternoon to start after a monotonous Sunday School class, my teacher told us that we would have a homework assignment for the week. As the class groaned, she remarked, “This will be easy. All I want you to do is hug a tree.” Groans quickly […]

How did you become a farmer? What were your early experiences in farming?

Farming looked like a practical form of my philosophical goals and values. I was highly driven by ideology, but not necessarily practicality. My first farmmg experience was at a Kibbutz in Israel. I was low on the totem pole-I had a fairly […]

Incoming students often raise their eyebrows at the idea of an organic farm becoming part of their college experience. You may be surprised to learn that back in the late 1800s, Dartmouth actually hosted an agricultural program of 50 students as part of the same government initiative to educate farmers that created famous agricultural programs […]

Let’s talk about food.

Think about the last chicken queso you ordered at the Hop-do you know what kind of chicken you’re eating, what kind of cheese? You get the salmon special at Homeplate¬where did the salmon come from, and the side of green beans? Or how about an average meal at Collis-where do we buy […]

Despite having been on the farm blitz list since my freshman fall, I actually never made it out to the farm until my sophomore summer when I took Professor Ross Virginia’s Ecological Agriculture class. That’s how I first got to know Scott and made a connection to the farm. I had always been interested in […]

Looking back on his threemonth trek across the frozen continent, Dartmouth senior Jim Laatsch recalls ethereal storms of “diamond dust,” sparkles of frozen moisture swirling in the Antarctic air.

“It’s amazing, in a minimalist way, to stand in such a vast emptiness. It’s almost like sensory deprivation; no horizons, no features; everything’s just white.”
Last November, Laatsch […]

Jim Hornig can be considered the soul of the environmental studies program at Dartmouth. Instrumental in its creation and chair of the program from 1978 to 1992, his legacy was solidified with the opening of the Hornig Environmental Studies Library in the spring of 2001. Whether or not it was the homage intended for him, […]

Looking for the Rabbit Hole

“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” In The Matrix, Morpheus offers this choice to Neo, a chance […]