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Featured Event

Film Screening: Chasing Ice
April 2, 2014
The third in the EARTH'S TURN film series planned as a lead up to Earth Day. A discussion after the film will be led by the Smith College Green Team. Sponsored by CEEDS, Sustainability Reps, Green Team, Divest Smith College, SGA Sustainability Committee, Climate Action Now, 350 MA, Office of Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, with support from the SGA.
Seelye 106
6:30 pm

Writing and the Sciences: Fiction and Nonfiction
April 8, 2014
Acclaimed science writer Dava Sobel (Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, A More Perfect Heaven, The Planets) is the Joan Leiman Jacobson Visiting Nonfiction Writer at Smith this year. She will give her first public reading at Smith jointly with National Book Award-winning fiction writer Andrea Barrett (Ship Fever, Servants of the Map, The Air We Breathe, Archangel). After the readings, Dava and Andrea will discuss (contrast/compare) the challenges of writing literary non-fiction and fiction about science and scientists and answer questions from the audience. This is an unprecedented opportunity for students and faculty to explore ways in which science and literature link across the curriculum. Place: Date: April 8 Time: 4:30
Seelye 207
4:30 pm

Events at Smith

LSS 100: Landscape, Design, and the Environment lecture
April 7, 2014
Randolph Hester, landscape architect and Professor Emeritus, UC Berkley: Lecture title TBA
Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall
2:40 pm to 4:00 pm

Events Off Campus

Lecture: The Olmsted Brothers' Landscape Legacy in Holyoke
April 2, 2014
A talk by Amanda Rookey of the University of Massachusetts Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. Part of the Holyoke History Room's Guest Speaker Series.
Community Room of the Holyoke Public Library
6:00 pm

Lecture- Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
April 3, 2014
by Daniel Goleman, PhD, a psychologist known internationally for his 1995 book Emotional Intelligence – Why It Can Matter More Than IQ . His new book delves into surprising findings from neuroscience labs and explains why attention is a little-noticed mental asset that makes a huge difference in how well we find our way in our personal lives, our careers, as parents and partners, and in virtually everything we do. This presentation is a benefit for The Academy at Charlemont. General Admission- Adults/$25; Seniors/$20. Tickets Can be Purchased t theAcademy of Music Box Office (Open Tuesday- Friday 3:00PM-6:00PM) or by calling 413-584-9032 ext.105 (Service fees will apply with purchase).
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Academy of Music, Northampton
7:00 pm

Environmental Teach-In
April 4, 2014
Amherst professors, community members, alumni and students are coming together to speak about environmental issues. Speakers will be presenting on a wide variety of issues: anything from paleoclimatology to public health. Drop by for just five minutes or stay for the whole two hours. There will be food!
Amherst College, Frost Library
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Mill River walk
April 5, 2014
Come with us! This month we'll be walking Downtown Northampton I: Paradise Pond to Old South Street. Sponsored by the Mill River Greenway Initiative, Friends of Northampton Trails and Greenways and Smith College CEEDS (Center for the Environment, Ecological Design & Sustainability) SPACE IS LIMITED! Email us at info@millrivergreenway.org to reserve your spot and get directions to the starting point!

Lecture: Evo-Devo and Darwin's Exclamation
April 7, 2014
r. Pamela Diggle is a professor and the associate department head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. Her talk is entitled “'A Great & Curious Blunder in Dame Nature': Evo-Devo and Darwin’s Exclamation." Her research interests concern the evolution of morphological diversity among plants, with particular emphasis on understanding how features of development shape the dynamics of evolutionary change.
Amherst College, Merrill Science Center, Lecture room 4
3:30 pm to 5:00 pm

Out of the Blue: Nantucket and the Pacific World
April 8, 2014
Edward D. Melillo, assistant professor of history and environmental studies: This lecture will chronicle the stories of David Whippy and William Cary, a pair of nineteenth-century Nantucket mariners who spent many years residing in Fiji. These two castaways were involved in the export of sea cucumbers from Fiji to China and the importation of whales' teeth to Fiji from various parts of the Pacific. The histories of Whippy, Cary, and the commodities they traded offer potent testimonials about cultural and ecological changes during the nineteenth century. They also illustrate the long-term connections that emerged among Nantucket, Fiji, and the broader ecosystems and cultures of the Pacific Ocean region during the 1800s. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
Amherst College, Pruyne Lecture Hall
4:30 pm

David Dillon Annual Memorial Lecture: David Eisen
April 8, 2014
Critical Tools for Contemporary Practice David Eisen is an architect, writer and educator with a focus on utilizing design as a tool for social transformation. As the architecture critic for the Boston Herald and Boston Phoenix his writing investigated the relationship of design innovation to broader trends in culture, politics, and the often-overlooked aspects of urban life.
UMass Gordon Hall, room 303
5:30 pm

Featured Event

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
April 15, 2014
A lecture and book signing about her latest book of the same name with Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer for The New Yorker, and award winning author of "Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change". Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, and through these stories, provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.
Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall **Note new location**
7:00 pm

Film Screening: Students and Goliath
April 9, 2014
The fourth in the EARTH'S TURN film series planned as a lead up to Earth Day. A discussion after the film will be led by Divest Smith College. Sponsored by CEEDS, Sustainability Reps, Green Team, Divest Smith College, SGA Sustainability Committee, Climate Action Now, 350 MA, Office of Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, with support from the SGA.
Seelye 106
6:30 pm

Events at Smith

Consuming to Extinction: Africa, Asia, America and the Ivory Trade
April 10, 2014
a lecture with Stephanie Rupp, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at City University of New York. Sponsored by the departments of Anthropology, East Asian Studies, African Studies, the Environmental Science and Policy program, the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design, and Sustainability (CEEDS), and the Smith College Lecture Committee.
Seelye 106
4:30 pm

Earth Week Tabling and Activities
April 14, 2014
April 15, 2014
Come to the Chapin Lawn everyday during lunch for tabling and activities. Each day focuses around a theme, and there will be activities and information. Rain location for activities is inside the Campus Center TV lounge.
Chapin Lawn
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

LSS 100: Landscape, Design, and the Environment lecture
April 14, 2014
Andrea Olsen, Professor of Dance and Environmental Studies, Middlebury College: Designing Space with the Body in Mind
Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall
2:40 pm to 4:00 pm

Events Off Campus

Talk: Relevance of Extreme Events for Breeding Birds
April 9, 2014
Extreme weather, such as heat waves and drought, can have strong effects on the distribution, abundance, and persistence of many species. In this talk, Andy Allstadt will first discuss how we can quantify extreme weather events, and how these metrics may relate to ecological systems. Then, Brooke Bateman will discuss how extreme weather events and recent climate change have affected breeding bird species in the U.S.. We will use case studies to highlight how learning about past relationships can help us plan for future changes in extreme weather and climate
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UMass Morrill Science Center, room 134
3:30 pm

Lecture: The Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto
April 9, 2014
with Mexican author Gustavo Esteva, a forefront figure in post-development theory. Is there a future for development? Can we follow a path endangering both the environment and the social fabric? The alternative is not going back to the stone age. We can construct a world economically feasible, socially just and ecologically sensible for buen vivir, living well.
Franklin Patterson Hall, Main Lecture Hall, Hampshire College
5:30 pm

7 Dirty Energy Roadshow: Intersections Between Nuclear, Coal and Natural Gas Extraction
April 9, 2014
The Dirty Energy Road Show includes a power point presentation examining the parallels of coal and nuclear issues, and connects them to other forms of dirty energy and climate change. Parallels are drawn to hydraulic fracturing for natural gas as well. The presentation looks at the mining of materials, how the power plants work, waste issues, and impacts on the health of humans and ecosystems. It also shows examples of front line communities fighting back against waste dumps and other polluting facilities, as well as Mountain Justice folks fighting mountaintop removal. It includes a power point and a table with lots of free info. and items for available for a small donation like t-shirts, books, posters and DVDs.
Hampshire College, Main Lecture Hall
7:30 pm to 8:30 pm

"Hydraulic Fracturing: Reconciling Technical Practice with Public Expectations"
April 10, 2014
Physics seminar Professor John Deutch '60 of MIT. Tea/cookies will be served before the talk, at 4:15 p.m. in Merrill 204.
Amherst College, Merrill Science Center, Lecture Room 3
4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Lecture: "Poolitics" with Gustavo Esteva
April 10, 2014
"Poolitics: The Flush Toilet and Struggles for Political Autonomy," A lecture with Gustavo Esteva, renowned post-development author Activist and community-based intellectual Gustavo Esteva of Oaxaca, Mexico will reflect on poverty, excrement and collective resistance to economic and state oppressions. The interconnection of these issues has been termed the ‘politics of shit’ and resulting theories point to alternative attitudes and techniques for ‘developing’ the global poor and realizing self-determination for marginalized groups. How do dominant attitudes about ‘shit’, the flush toilet, and alternative sanitation manifest in neo-colonial development schemes? What is the meaning of buen vivir for Mexico’s indigenous peoples and what has their struggle for autonomy looked like in an urban, contemporary setting? All are welcome.
Amherst College, Fayerweather Hall, Pruyne Lecture Hall
7:30 pm

Amherst Community Co-op Kick-Off Event
April 12, 2014
Jonathan Lash and Gary Hirshberg are featured speakers at this membership drive kickoff for a new Amherst food co-op! Free food and Bart's Ice Cream! All are welcome - free childcare and live music!
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Immanuel Lutheran Church (867 N. Pleasant St.) Amherst

Conference: Global Health and Innovation
April 12, 2014
April 13, 2014
The Global Health & Innovation Conference is the world's largest global health conference and social entrepreneurship conference. This must-attend, thought-leading conference annually convenes 2,200 leaders, changemakers, students, and professionals from all fields of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship. "A Meeting of Minds"-CNN.
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Yale University, New Haven, CT

Psymposium 2014: Workshops & lectures on the ethnobotany and culture of psychoactive
April 12, 2014
April 13, 2014
and medicinal plants. Speakers include Dennis McKenna,Ph.D, Lyle Craker, Ph.D, Hamilton Morris, Alexandre Tannous, Lily Ross, Lawrence Millman, Ph.D and other special guests. For more information and tickets, visit:
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UMass Amherst, Mahar Auditorium

Film premiere: Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America
April 13, 2014
WGBY-57 presents the world premiere of “Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America,” a new, one-hour documentary produced by Lawrence Hott and Diane Garey of Florentine Films/Hott Productions and WNED TV, Buffalo/Toronto. This film chronicles the career and lasting influence of America’s premiere landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace, and many town commons and campuses right here in the Pioneer Valley. This is the first screening of the film, which will be broadcast on PBS stations later this year. Screening followed by a discussion and Q&A with producers Lawrence Hott and Diane Garey and landscape historian Ethan Carr. Free and Open to the Public
Academy of Music, Northampton
4:00 pm

Seminar: Massachusetts Action on Climate Change:
April 14, 2014
A discussion of the Commonwealth’s leadership in climate action and plans for the future. Massachusetts Senator Marc R. Pacheco will speak about Massachusetts’ status as a leader on green policies and clean energy practices, as well as plans for future climate legislation.
Room 203 Morrill Science Center (III), UMass Amherst
3:00 pm

Seminar with World Food Prize Laureate Daniel Hillel
April 14, 2014
Professor Emeritus Daniel Hillel, the Israeli water and soil scientist who developed micro-irrigation to improve agriculture in the Negev desert, returns to campus to speak on “Water supplies, water requirements and agricultural water use efficiency in a changing climate." Dr. Hillel was the 2012 World Food Prize Laureate.
UMass Bowker Auditorium
4:00 pm

Featured Event

Earth Week Friday Festival
April 18, 2014
Activities include live local music, a dance and music performance by Celebrations dance company, the Tinydance Project, and the Smiffenpoofs, arts and crafts projects, a campus wide free box, bicycle hay rides, and free food from Hungry Ghost Bread and Maple Valley Creamery.
Chapin Lawn
4:00 pm to 7:00 pm

We Put Our Bodies at the Gate: An Intergenerational Conversation
April 21, 2014
on Environmental Activism. Conversations about struggle often end with bewilderment about how to effect changes in our increasingly complex world. Join us for an inter-generational panel discussion to demonstrate vision and inspire hope, featuring 95 year old Frances Crowe from the "shut It Down" Vermont Yankee Affinity Group featured in the "Bodies at the gate" exhibit in Nolan Arts Lounge; local environmental activists, and others making a difference over time through organized resistance.
Campus Center 103/4
7:15 pm

Events at Smith

Earth Week Tabling and Activities
April 16, 2014
April 17, 2014
April 18, 2014
Come to the Chapin Lawn everyday during lunch for tabling and activities. Each day focuses around a theme, and there will be activities and information. Rain location for activities is inside the Campus Center TV lounge.
Chapin Lawn
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

Hydroponics Workshop
April 16, 2014
Engineers for a Sustainable World lead a hydroponics workshop as part of Earth Week.
CEEDS, Wright Hall 005
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Film Screening: Earth Days
April 16, 2014
The final film in the EARTH'S TURN series planned as a lead up to Earth Day. A discussion after the film will be led by the Smith College Sustainability Reps. Sponsored by CEEDS, Sustainability Reps, Green Team, Divest Smith College, SGA Sustainability Committee, Climate Action Now, 350 MA, Office of Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, with support from the SGA.
Seelye 106
6:30 pm

Lecture with Elise Keaton from The Keeper of the Mountains Foundation
April 17, 2014
Learn about mountaintop removal coal mining from Donna Branham, Keeper of the Mountains activist and Appalachian native. Hear the perspective of a frontline community member and learn about how people are fighting back against the destruction and social injustice caused by fossil fuel companies. Event Co-Sponsored by Smith College Green Team and Divest Smith College as a part of Smith Earth Week.
Campus Center 103/104
4:00 pm

Bike Kitchen Open Hours
April 17, 2014
Maybe you are wondering where the bike paths are or where bike resources are in the area. Maybe you are having trouble with your brakes or something else on your bike and want to learn how to fix it yourself. Or maybe you just LOVE bikes. In any case, come to Open Hours and we can help!
Talbot basement
6:00 pm

An Activist Evening with Tanya Fields
April 17, 2014
Join us for an night of conversation, deliberation, and explanation! Ms. Fields will talk about her experience as a urban-based black woman activist, as well as her current initiatives to bring food justice and economic independence to her community. Free & Open to the Public! Tanya Fields ts a food justice activist, educator. urban farmer. food blogger. and the founder and executive director of the BLKProjek. This Bronx-based food justice and health organization serves underserved woman of color by creating women-led economic development opportunities and is committed to urban farming and the elimination of food deserts. Sponsored by The Smith Association of Class Activists.
Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall
7:00 pm

Open Mic at the MacLeish Field Station
April 17, 2014
Celebrating the intersections of science, activism, and performance. Bring your instruments, art, poetry, and science! Refreshments will be provided. The Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station is a 240-acre patchwork of forest and farmland located in West Whately, MA that provides opportunities for faculty and students to pursue environmental research, outdoor education, and low-impact recreation. The open mic will be a chance to explore the station and its environmental classroom. Meet at Chapin loading dock at 6:40pm, email edixon@smith.edu to reserve a space in a van.
Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Film: "Meat the Truth"
April 17, 2014
Animal Advocates are showing the film "Meat the Truth" as part of Earth Week.
CEEDS, Wright Hall 005
7:30 pm

Apple Tree Training Workshop-- Field Station Friday
April 18, 2014
Celebrate Earth Week at the MacLeish Field Station by learning about training apple trees at our fruit orchard! Renowned artist and sculptor Dan Ladd will be leading a workshop on tree training techniques and we will be doing some hands-on work in the orchard to train our young apples trees. Refreshments will be provided. A van will leave from Chapin at 1:00 p.m and return to Smith by 4:00 p.m. Sign up at http://doodle.com/reymequqvbn4ehmn to reserve a spot in the van.
Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Webinar: The Role of Carbon Pricing and Other Approaches to Address Climate Change
April 18, 2014
In recent years, many climate experts have argued that the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground if we are to avoid passing critical climatic thresholds, and that the most effective way to achieve this by pricing carbon through a "fee-and-dividend" strategy. Under this approach, carbon would be taxed at various points of entry in the national economy, with the fee return direct to consumers in relation to their carbon consumption. The latest issue of The Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, a publication of the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, includes two essays discussing the judiciousness of a carbon pricing approach vs. prescriptive regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. This event features two of the contributors to these essays.
CEEDS, Wright Hall 005
2:00 pm

Outing Club Sunset Hike
April 18, 2014
Join the outing club by the boathouse for a hike at sunset.
The Boathouse
6:30 pm

S'mores at the Athletic Field fire pit
April 18, 2014
Chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmellows! Enjoy the first S'mores of the season at the end of Earth Week.
Athletic Field Fire Pit
8:30 pm

Real Food Challenge Workshops
April 19, 2014
The Real Food Challenge is coming to Smith College to lead workshops about food justice and organizing skills. After the workshops, we'll cook and eat dinner together on campus. It's going to be a great opportunity to connect with networks of student real food leaders and make plans to bring more real food to campuses in the Pioneer Valley. If you have any questions about the workshops or real food challenge, feel free to email Maya at mkutz@smith.edu.
Campus Center 204
10:00 am

Catch Chestnut Fever!
April 19, 2014
Come help restore the American Chestnut at the MacLeish Field Station! One hundred years ago one out of every four trees in the eastern forests was an American Chestnut. The introduction of a fungal blight from Asia in the early 1900's drove the American Chestnut to extinction, completely transforming the eastern forests. The Center for the Environment is part of a national effort lead by the American Chestnut Foundation to restore the American Chestnuts to the eastern forests. A seed orchard is being established at the MacLeish Field Station to produce blight resistant nuts. Join us and be prepared to get dirty! We will meet on Saturday at 1:00 pm next to Chapin loading dock to drive up to MacLeish and should be back on campus by 4:30 or 5 pm. Want to join us? RSVP to Paul Wetzel (pwetzel@smith.edu). Why RSVP? So that there is enough van space, tools for planting and food to keep up your energy!
Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station
1:00 pm

LSS 100: Landscape, Design, and the Environment lecture
April 21, 2014
Julian Agyeman , Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University: Just Sustainabilities: Re-imagining e/quality, living within limits
Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall
2:40 pm to 4:00 pm

Opening: We Put Our Bodies at the Gate: Environmental Activism
April 21, 2014
and Nuclear Power An exhibit documenting both the history and calling attention to the urgency of issues related to the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vermont. Including a visual account of the civil disobedience campaign of the "Shut It Down" affinity group; displayed along with information and a call to action.
Nolan Arts Lounge/ 103/4, Campus Center
6:45 pm

ES&P capstone project presentations
April 22, 2014
Presentation 1: Bioregional Urbanism: Florence MacGregor and Apelila Joseph. Presentation 2: Fort Hill Estate Redevelopment: Alina Ahmad, Alexis Flora, Katherine Robb and Leanna Marans. Lunch provided.
Neilson Library Browsing Room
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

Events Off Campus

Conference: Sustainability: Systems and Solutions
April 17, 2014
For more information and to register for this April 17th event, visit the web site listed below.
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UMASS Lowell Conference Center

Herbfest 2014
April 22, 2014
Join us to enjoy demonstrations and presentations on a wide variety topics related to the history, culture, traditional and modern uses of herbs, spices, and medicinal plants. Admission is Free.
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UMass Amherst, Student Union Ballroom
11:30 am to 2:00 pm

26th Annual Virginia A. Beal Lecture and Dinner: Food Security
April 22, 2014
The Department of Nutrition will host the 26th Annual Virginia A. Beal Lecture and Dinner on Tuesday, April 22, 2014. The event begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge in the Student Union. This year’s program is titled “From Neighborhood to Nation: Changing Policies to Improve Nutrition and Food Security.” Donald (Diego) Rose, PhD, MPH, RD, Professor and Head of the Nutrition Section in the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences at Tulane University, will deliver the keynote lecture titled “The Food Policy Landscape: Improving Nutrition from Farm to Fork.” The program will also feature a panel discussion entitled “Policies to Promote Good Nutrition: Are We Doing Enough?” Panelists include Paula Serafino-Cross, MS, RD, LDN, a Staff Dietitian with Baystate Medical Center, who will address federal food and nutrition legislation and its implications for consumers and dietitians, and John Gerber, PhD, Professor of Sustainable Food and Farming with the UMass Stockbridge School of Agriculture, who will address local policies to support local foods.
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UMass Amherst, Student Union, Cape Cod Lounge
4:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Keynote Address by Dr. Robert Bullard, Father of Environmental Justice
April 22, 2014
Robert D. Bullard is dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University. He previously served as Ware Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University and is often described as the father of environmental justice. Bullard is author of 17 books addressing issues of sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, climate justice, emergency response, and regional equity. In 2008, Newsweek named Bullard one of 13 Environmental Leaders of the Century and in 2013, he was honored with the Sierra Club John Muir Award.
UMass Amherst, Mahar Auditorium
7:00 pm