Earth Week 2009
Monday - April 13:
Please stop by the EWFM Library to check it out!
Paper waste: An Earthweek display at Lehigh University from LTS Lehigh on Vimeo.
Tuesday - April 14:
Wednesday - April 15:
Thursday - April 16:
Friday - April 17:
Saturday - April 18:
2009 LVAIC Conference on ITunes U
We are pleased to announce the audio of all the 2009 LVAIC Sustainable Campuses Conference presentations have been uploaded to Lehigh's iTunesU.
You can access Lehigh's iTunesU site by going here http://www3.lehigh.edu/itunesu/index.html.
If you do not have a Lehigh UN and PW, open iTunes as a Lehigh Guest. You can then go to the Sustainability@Lehigh area in the About Lehigh section.
The files are under the 2009 LVAIC Sustainable Campuses Conference Tab.
BECC Presentation Abstract Submissions
The online abstract proposal process for the 2009 Behavior, Energy and Climate Change (BECC) Conference is now open. Please visit www.BECCconference.org to submit your abstract. The 2009 Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference will be held in Washington, D.C., November 15-18th. |
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* Location: Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, D.C.
- * Content: Spotlight Research Topics
- * Events: Post-Conference Hill Briefing and Other Interactive Side Events
We invite you to contribute your most innovative work on Behavior, Energy and Climate Change as it relates to any of the following topic areas:
- 1. Policy
- [International Policy, National Policy, Utility Regulatory Policy, Interstate/regional Policy, State Policy, Municipal Policy, Transportation Policy etc.]
- 2. Physical Environment
- [Technologies, Built Environment, Feedback Devices, etc.]
- 3. Social Organization
- [Groups, Organizations, Business & Industry, Social Structures, Social Networks, Social Movements, etc.]
- 4. Media, Marketing & Communications
- [Marketing, Social Marketing, Media, Communications, Entertainment, Branding & Labeling Segmentation, etc.]
- 5. Psychology & Culture
- [Social Norms, Values & Beliefs, Lifestyles, Attitudes, Habits, Decision-Making, etc.]
- 6. Analysis, Models & Methods
- [Economic Models, Monitoring & Evaluation, Behavioral Models, Cost-Benefit Analysis, etc.]
When selecting a panel/topic area for submission, please use the associated subtopics as a guide. Also, please note that the list of subtopics is illustrative and not exhaustive. We recognize that most abstracts are likely to be eligible for consideration in more than one panel/topic area, thus we allow for three topic area choices. Academicians should note that the panels/topic areas do not reflect disciplinary boundaries. In other words, a researcher who may be approaching an issue from a design perspective, a social-psychological perspective, or a business perspective could potentially submit to any of the six panels/topic areas.
Abstracts must not exceed 250 words. Presentation abstracts that are not chosen for a formal session will be eligible for inclusion in the poster session. Please be sure to accurately indicate your preferences on the online application form. You may submit more than one proposal, but participants will be limited to one presentation or poster per person. All presenters and discussion leaders are required to register and to pay registration fees. Registration will start mid-August.
We look forward to your participation and to the new and innovative ideas and research that will be shared at the 2009's BECC Conference. Please feel free to circulate this announcement and encourage participation. The deadline for abstract submission is April 24, 2009, so don't miss your chance to be part of this exciting conference.
Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, ACEEE 2009 BECC Conference Chair
BECC Conference Convening Organizations: American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy www.aceee.org Precourt Energy Efficiency Center piee.stanford.edu California Institute for Energy and Environment ciee.ucop.edu
Earth Day Photo Contest 2009
Help Lehigh University celebrate Earth Day 2009 by participating in the 2nd Annual Environmental Photography Contest. Photographs will be displayed along Memorial Pathway during the Earth Day celebration on April 15, 2009 from 10 -4pm. Students, faculty and staff will judge the photographs on that day. There will be one grand prize winning photo, with runners up in each individual category. All photographs must be related to the environment. Faculty and staff members can submit photographs but will not be used in judging. Prizes will be announced at a later date.
ALL submissions due on or before April 1st at 4pm. Please submit your photos to ineday@lehigh.edu
Any questions please email jfm207@lehigh.edu.
Foster Hewett Lecture Series
Check out the 2009 Foster Hewett Lecture series here.
E-House Project
The Alliance for Sustainable Communities - Lehigh Valley is a local non-profit organization and is dedicated to working for community sustainability. We are currently looking for students who could help us on our E. house project as a volunteer, an intern, or as independant study. The E-house (located at Lower Saucon Township office) project aims to renovate an existing old residence into a model for sustainable living (energy self-sufficient, carbon neutral, using sustainable renovation methods and sustainable greenhouse & garden). When renovation is completed, the E. house is planned to be used as a local educational center for the communities.
We have finished an overall design of the renovation but need to develop detail plans. If you are interested in green building, sustainable building, energy efficiency, please join us on Thursday, Feb. 19 from 12-2pm.
For more information check out the presentation to the township office here.
Or check out the project brochure here.
Focus the Nation
Focus the Nation is intended to increase environmental awareness amongst students, faculty, and staff. The Environmental Coalition has proposed that professors use the firs 5-10 minutes of class on February 3 (or February 4 for MWF classes) to explore the environmental aspects of the course subject, or in some way, relate the course to environmental issues. We hope that you will find this teach-in event interesting rather than disruptive to your normal syllabus. Environmental issues appear across all studies, and this discussion should not be limited to certain departments. The Environmental Initiative is in the process of creating an online repository of material for you to use: http://intranet.ei.lehigh.edu/resourcepage/
We need your help to expand the Environment Across the Curriculum online database to include those materials you think are important and relevant that might help other faculty and students of the Lehigh community. At the moment, the database can only be accessed from on-campus, but will be made accessible remotely in the near future.
In addition, on Thursday, February 5th, a panel discussion entitled "One Year Later: Lehigh's Quest for Sustainability" will be held in the Sinclair Auditorium at 4:10pm. Light refreshments will be served.
If professors are interested in making student attendance required or for extra credit for this event, please contact the Environmental Initiative at ei@lehigh.edu and we will coordinate sign-in sheets for your class and deliver them to your office after the event.
Click Here for a flyer.
First LEAG Newsletter
The Lehigh Environmental Advisory Group (LEAG) was commissioned by President Alice Gast in spring 2008, and has been charged with:
- Gathering input from the campus commu-nity about important institutional environ-mental and sustainability initiatives.
- Evaluating initiatives for ease of imple-mentation; degree of impact; areas where Lehigh can take a leadership role.
- Articulating Lehigh’s “Climate Commit-ment.”
- Taking advantage of the university’s aca-demic programs and the engagement of students to be sure that initiatives are fully analyzed for their life cycle environmental impact.
- Providing advice to the president and senior leadership on priorities for initiatives to undertake with expected timeframe and anticipated impact.
Their first newsletter has just been published and can be found at http://www.lehigh.edu/~inleag/newsletters/LEAGFall2008NewsLetter.pdf
The 2008 AASHE Conference Experience
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Conference was an incredibly motivating event. Over 1,700 people from across the world attended with one shared goal; to make the world truly sustainable. The long bumpy road to a symbiotic relationship with the earth must start with a revolution from the universities. Practicing and teaching 
sustainability will be the spark that ignites one of the greatest accomplishments by humankind. The conference consisted of four keynote speakers with a range of backgrounds, but all recognized that we are in a crunch time to escape the failures of our past. Their topics all focused on different aspects of sustainability such as wind energy, president-elect Barack Obama, economics, and biodiversity. Global warming is the common enemy fueling our sustainable movement.
The AASHE Conference had over 400 presentations, sharing ideas and experiences to reduce a university’s carbon footprint. I was fortunate to be one of these presenters, where I presented on sustainability attitudes and behaviors of incoming freshman at Juniata College (my undergraduate school). These presentations consisted of topics ranging from curriculum to practices. These presenters took great pride in presenting on what their universities were doing. 
Along side this well-run conference was an expo with venders offering innovating products and services to achieve sustainability. One might assume an event like this will create a huge carbon footprint, but through carbon offsets and a well-executed plan, the footprint was minimal if any. A great example is the shuttle service from the hotels and airport were biodiesel buses. Recycling and compost containers were placed throughout the convention center, which was in a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building.
Sustainability is not a contest among these schools but a destiny. I encourage all of you to practice sustainability and fuel this change.
–By Kenneth Wiles, Lehigh Graduate Student
Campus to Careers
NCSE's Campus to Careers (C2C) Program supports young professionals in their first steps towards environmental careers through paid, environment-oriented internships, fellowships and other short-term positions (3 months to 2 years) with federal agencies. Positions involve field and lab research, analysis and other activities.
C2C is currently accepting applications for spring and summer 2009. Applicants from diverse backgrounds in natural resources, environmental studies, biology, geosciences, energy and engineering are welcome. Please have your students email c2c@ncseonline.org for more details or to apply.
Toyota USA gives Lehigh University Grant
Toyota has granted Lehigh University $317,778 to support environmental literacy programs.
Click Here for the full article.
Chad Briggs Receives Fulbright Scholarship
Those who qualified for the
Fulbright German
Studies Seminar explored
the correlation of science
and culture over the
summer. A group of
scholars participated in a
two-week grant activity in
cities throughout Germany
and the rest of Europe and
received an award of round-trip air travel, lodging, and the opportunity to
pursue individual research in Europe. The topic this year, ‘Science and
Society: The impact of Science on Policy Formation’, focused on the
development of policies in current issues at the core of modern society,
such as climate change, food technology, gene technology, stem cell
research, and the broad scope of education.
Also examined were the
interests that structure relations between national governments, economic
corporations, political and supranational bodies, and research and
development institutions.
You may be curious as to Fulbright’s relevance to Lehigh. Well, the
school’s very own Chad Briggs of the department of international relations
and the environmental initiative contributed to the success of the 2008
Fulbright Seminar. As an experienced instructor, research fellow, and
Fulbright scholar, he shared his expertise on June 5th by leading a seminar on
environmental security at the London School of Economics. Professor Briggs
presented an overview of environmental security issues and approaches,
with an emphasis on the connection between environmental systems and
social resilience/vulnerability. He will also be applying his knowledge and
experience as a Fulbright scholar in Lehigh University classrooms as the
instructor of European International Relations, European Environmental Policy, and Global Security and the Environment.
Click Here for more information.
Plastic Bags?
Browse this visual and informative link by the Pocono Record about plastic shopping bags. Take a moment to review it before you go shopping!
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016
* Image on right by Chris Jordan at Treehugger.com. It depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/poptech2007-chris-jordan.php
Lehigh Celebrated Earth Day 2008
Lehigh Students learned about recycling, wind power, sustainable internship opportunities, eco-friendly school supplies, vegetarianism, green buildings, and environmental jobs. We also planted a tree, had a live band, and had free organic and trade food samples!Earth Day Network
For more about Earth Day 2008 click here
WFMZ News Video - http://wfmz.com/view/?id=255860
Brown and White Earth day slide show - Click here to view the slideshow
Photography Contest Winners!
Here are the winners of the EI/ECo sponsored photo contest! The overall winners recieved an Olympus-donated Evolt E-510 camera and 2 lenses. The category winners recieved $25 gift cards. Put your mouse over the names of the winners to view their picture or click on them to view full size.
Wind Energy Donation Results
On April 22, Earth Day, 2008, 21 Lehigh Students signed up for semester donations ($420) along with $320.81 collected in cash donations toward Wind Power.
Tricia Long Earth Day News Article
Pennsylvania may have turned its attention this past Tuesday to the Democratic 
Presidential Primary, but a group of Lehigh faculty, staff and students didn’t let another important observance that day go unnoticed: Earth Day.
As students headed to class down Memorial Walkway, tossed Frisbees on the University Center lawn, and tour groups strolled through Lehigh’s campus, they were greeted by students armed with information on how to “Make Lehigh Green.”
Lehigh Earth Systems Science Class Responds To Global Warming Hoax Article
On April 8, 2008, an article was posted on Express-Times declaring Global Warming a hoax. Recently the Lehigh Earth Systems Science Class wrote a response the will be published in the newspaper. Click Here to see the response.
Environmental Discussion Panel
Professor Dork Sahagian featured on "Everybody's Talking About the Environment" Panel Discussion on April 22 at the Da Vinci Science Center.
Also at the Da Vinci Science Center April 26-27 - "Yes, In My Backyard" involving events featuring easy, inexpensive ways everyone can make a difference every day at home. All weekend visitors will receive a guide outlining 15 simple things they can do at home to protect the environment and save money.
World Statistics Clock
Check out this cool clock that uses past statistics to calculate various current world statistics including population, births, deaths, various diseases, emissons, etc. Check it out here http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Dork Sahagian Interviewed on NPR
Professor Dork Sahagian was recently featured Thursday, March 13, on Nation Public Radio's "All Things Considered" program in the Environmental Section.
NPR Website
Environmetal Policy Design MA!
The Environmental Policy Design MA brochure is available!
MA in Environmental Policy Design (pdf)
Click here to go to the graduate admissions application.
Fall 2008-
- 401 Philosophical Politics and Environmental Policy Design (required)
- 402 Scientific Foundations for Environmental Policy Design (required)
- 438 Environmental Risk: Perception and Communication (elective)
- 455 Environmental Justice and the Law (core)
- 315 American Environmental History (context)
Spring 2009-
- 439 Env. Security (core)
- 435 Eval Policy Design (core)
- 433: Inter. Env. Law (core)
- 431: US Env. Law (core)
RESULTS - Lehigh University Focus the Nation
Bethlehem City Council member and former chair of the Human Resources and Environmental Commitee, Karen Dolan (left) talks with Lehigh University students, (left to right) Elizabeth Swiatek an International Relations and Literature student from Sergeantsville, NJ,Will Brehm an International Relations student from Lawrenceville, NJ and Laura Deutsch an Environmental Studies and Environmental Sciences dual major from Nazareth, Pa. before the panel discussion, at the "Focus The Nation" nationwide
teach-in on the environment, at Lehigh Universities Sinclair Auditorium on Thursday January 31, 2008. A panel of professors and community leaders in the environment held a panel discussion as part of the nationwide teach-in to discuss what we as community members and individuals can do to help the urgent global warming problem. (Douglas Kilpatrick/Special to TMC / February 1, 2008)
Lehigh Students Attend Global Warming Conference - Powershift
On November 2nd, 27 Lehigh Students got on a bus to Powershift 2007. They were 27 students out of over 5,500 from all over the world. There were students from the continential U.S., Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and even other countries. Power Shift was the largest national youth conference on global warming ever.
The weekend was packed with workshops, panel discussions, speakers, musical guests, and other amazing events. The weekend was emposering and it was refreshing for the students to be surrounded by like-minded people who were also fighting for a change. Green Action came back ready for Action!
-Alice Kodama
New Lehigh University Group - Environmental Coalition
Recently, a group of Lehigh students formed the Environemntal Coalition (ECo). The vision of the Environmental Coalition is to create an environmentally conscious and motivated Lehigh University. The mission of the organiztion is threefold;
-To serve as a focal point for collaboration between student clubs and organizations that are involved in environmentally related efforts on campus. The Environmental Coalition will be a means to: unite disparate, "grass roots" efforts to make Lehigh more sustainable; help groups attempting to accomplishsimilar goals; and provide a single, unified "face" to the administration, saving them time and providing weight to student initiatives.
-To serve as an educational clearinghouse for information related to sustainabilit: a reliable resource that would be known around campus as "the people to talk to" about environmentally related issues. The Environmental Coalition will build awareness and enthusiasm for sustainability on campus by running lectures, workshops, and other activities for students, faculty, staff, and all members of the campus community.
-To serve as an advocate for institutional change, by actively lobbying the administration to make Lehigh more sustainable. The Environmental Coalition would study Lehigh and create an in-depth sustainability assessment or "report card" to show strengths, weaknesses, impact on the environment, current initiatives, ect. in more detailed steps towards becoming sustainable instution will be created and implemented through the initiatives of the Environmental Coalition.
Sahagian plays role in IPCC receiving 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
He contributed to three reports by the IPCC, which recently shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore.
A Lehigh University professor contributed to three of four assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which on October 12 was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore.
Dork Sahagian, professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and director of the Environmental Initiative, served as a contributing author for the Second Assessment Report which was released in 1995, a reviewer of the Third Assessment Report released in 2001, and a contributing author for the forthcoming Fourth Assessment Report.
Authors from across the globe have written and peer-reviewed each of the assessments. These reports presented new and then stronger evidence which showed that human activity has contributed to global warming over the last 50 years.
“Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming,” said The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awarded the prize.
“The importance of the results of the IPCC process is in the degree to which it represents consensus of a huge community of scientists, social scientists, and other scholars,” said Sahagian. “While there is no specific political agenda in IPCC, I certainly hope that the results will be incorporated in policy-making throughout the world, as they affect everyone living now or yet to be born.”
The IPCC was established 20 years ago to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. Next week, the IPCC will meet in Valencia, Spain to adopt the fourth and final volume of the climate change assessment report.
“People have already created enough greenhouse gas emissions (and land use changes) to impact climate in ways that could disrupt fragile social and economic systems,” said Sahagian. “However, the potential for much more severe human-induced alterations looms large, and is inevitable if we do not immediately take major steps to reduce and soon curtail completely greenhouse gas emissions.”
As director of the Environmental Initiative, Sahagian is working to create a leading program for environmental science, technology, economics, education, policy, and the myriad interactions between people and the environment. He conducts research in paleoclimatology, volcanology, stratigraphy, geodynamics and tectonics, global hydrology and sea level.
“My own contribution to the IPPC has been only very minor, involving humanity’s effect on sea level rise,” said Sahagian. “Nevertheless, I am glad to have been able to provide even the smallest insights into a critically important process.”
--Tricia Long
What is the Environmental Initiative?
Lehigh University's Environmental Initiative (EI) is a broad interdisciplinary program of research, education, and outreach. The EI integrates environmental activities in science, engineering, politics and policy, communication, history, anthropology, sociology, economics, ethics, education and other traditional disciplines. Bringing together our core and affiliated departments, these interdisciplinary activities address the full spectrum of environmental problems facing society.
The EI directs an undergraduate major and minor in Environmental Studies and a graduate certificate program in Environmental Law and Policy. In Fall, 2007, the EI will launch a masters program.