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CLICK HERE to read this article about recent Environmental Studies graduate Matt Severson and his extraordinary work.

*Article from July / August 2011 Issue of Brown Alumni Magazine

Congratulations to the Environmental Studies Graduating Class of 2011

Click Here to Watch Video

Videos of Senior Thesis Presentations

Devon Cupery - Narragansett Bay Eutrophication: An Analysis of Historical Primary Productivity and Current Nutrient Reduction Policy

Dena Adler - Seeing the Future of the Forest for the Trees: Finding Common Ground for Managing Yellowstone’s Whitebark Pine in a Time of Changing Climate

Kai Morrell - What Factors Promote Conservation Action Education at Zoos, Aquariums and Museums

Kyle Lemle - Translating Religious and Scientific Environmental Epistemologies: A Case Study on Community Forestry in Bhutan

Sarah Rosengard - The Early Eocene Climatic Optimum: An Environmental Snapshot within Earth's Latest Hothouse

Daniel Mahr - Drivers of Deforestation and Agriculture in Mato Grosso: A Ten-year MODIS Analysis

Cecilia Springer - Poisonous Regulations: Assessing the Toxicity of a Novel Flame Retardant

Click on Student's Name to See Their Video

Congratulations to 2011 Environmental Achievement Award Winner David Murray

Congratulations to David Murray who was honored at Save the
Bays' 41st Annual Meeting held May 19 in Newport. Dr. David
Murray is a senior researcher in the Geology and Environmental
Studies Programs at Brown University. For more than a decade,
he has led water quality research efforts on the Providence and
Seekonk Rivers and has been in the forefront of scientific under-
standing of the rivers’ health. Dave has served as an invaluable
educational resource for Save The Bay, leading programs for Project Narragansett and serving as a humble but authoritative expert to Save The Bay, government officials teachers and kids alike. Dave has also conducted research in the Canadian Arctic and is an accomplished sailor in his home port of Bullock’s Cove.

CES Alumni Chip Giller founded Grist, a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, WA, to provide smart environmental news minus the gloom, doom, and sanctimony -- and to spur people to action. Back in college, Giller carried around all the garbage he produced for a week to demonstrate the wastefulness of the average student. Now the staff at Grist has dared him to do it again. For a week, Giller will carry his family's trash wherever he goes. To keep him motivated CLICK HERE to make a donation supporting his efforts and Grist's green news and advice.

To learn more about this dare visit CLICK HERE

March 2010 Floods
What have we learned?

Everyone in Rhode Island remembers the pictures of the Warwick mall in the middle of a lake. The weather forecasters standing in a foot of water on I-95 as the major interstate was closed due to flooding. The helicopter footage of the Warwick and West Warwick wastewater treatments plant completely inundated with river water.

After nearly two months of research and interviews, a group of students in the Center for Environmental Studies is releasing six reports that document the work that has been done over the past year. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT

Click on the Following Links for Press:

See Press Release

CES Director Timmons Roberts and Brown students attended the 2010 UN Climate Conference in Cancun, Mexico!

Check out their blog on Today at Brown

and

Recent posts on Intercambio Climatico, Latin American Perspectives on Climate Change

From left to right: Kelly Rogers, MA student, Public Policy, Timmons Roberts, Director, CES, Guy Edwards, Fellow, CES, Adam Kotin, MA student, CES, Spencer Lawrence, Political Science concentrator, Michelle Levinson, International Relations concentrator, Emily Kirkland, Latin American Studies and Economics concentrator, and Arielle Balbus, Development Studies concentrator.  Not pictured: Cecilia Pineda, Environmental Studies concentrator, Sara Mersha, MA student in Environmental Studies, David Ciplet, PhD student, Sociology, Diana Graizbord, PhD student, Sociology.

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Nine Brown Students to Cover Cancun Climate Negotiations

                                                                   

                                                          

With seed funding from Brown’s office for International Affairs and the Watson Institute, Professor Timmons Roberts and CES Research Fellow Guy Edwards have begun an ambitious new project of “engaged scholarship” on how Latin America is addressing the issue of Climate Change.  A team of eight Brown students—five undergrads, three Master’s students, and one PhD student—will be accompanying them the U.N. climate negotiations in Cancun this December. 

The project centers around a multilingual web portal and blog, developed in partnership with a Latin American network called the PCL—the Plataforma Climatica Latinoamericana, a project of the Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano and the UK-based Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).   In Cancun, Plataforma members and Brown students will work together as teams on reporting key issues in the negotiations.

Longer-range projects of the consortium will be country-by-country reports on: Climate models and vulnerability, Adaptation Options and Climate Politics.  The site will include exhaustive and updated web resources on climate change for reporters, policy-makers, teachers, and citizens. 

Other Topics of Interest

CES student Eric Van Arsdale has been working on Cape Cod this summer studying what residents and visitors know about the salt marsh die back that threatens the Cape's precious marshes. He offers a small taste of the experience in his op-ed in today's Cape Cod Times ahead of his presentation tomorrow at the Annual State of the harbor conference in Wellfleet. Eric's fellowship was made possible through the Brown Environmental fellows program, funded by the Henry David Thoreau Foundation the Silverton Foundation through the Environmental Change Initiative and the Center for Environmental Studies. 

Eric's op ed

Brown Daily Herald 3 September 2010

Grad students' climate change suggestions inspire legislation

This summer, a University research project was transformed into legislation aiming to address the effects of climate change in Rhode Island. The new law was supported by Rep. David Segal, D-Providence and East Providence, in the state House of Representatives and Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, in the state Senate.

The piece of legislation — which was passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly in June and became law — adopted three of the 26 recommendations made by students in the fall 2009 seminar, ENVS 2010: “Special Topics in Environmental Studies: Urban Adaptation to Climate Change,” taught by J. Timmons Roberts, director of the Center for Environmental Studies and professor of sociology and environmental studies.  View full article

The Providence Journal 25 July 2010

R.I. environmentalists elated at National Ocean Policy

Last week, President Obama signed an executive order creating the first National Ocean Policy in the nation’s history. This column includes comments by Heather Leslie, professor of biology, who thinks the new policy will go a long way toward helping people see the connections among abundant seafood, clean water, safe beaches and coastal development. View full report and follow-up editorial by Professor Leslie.

June 22, 2010: Special Issue on Changing Climates featuring an Interview with CES Director J. Timmons Roberts on the
Theory, Culture and Society Blog

R.I. Senator Whitehouse proposes national fund for ocean research

Mary Lesbirel, David Murray (CES), Senator Whitehouse, Lena Weiss, John Torgan (Save The Bay), Sara Clemens.

Monitoring done by David Murray and John Torgan is used to help find ways to prevent ecological disasters and protect waters.

FULBRIGHT: Grants for Study, Research or
Teaching Assistants Abroad. www.fulbrightonline.org

Other 2011 Graduate Student Research Opportunities

Environmental groups and programs at Brown and in the Rhode Island Community

Curious about what environmental legislation is being discussed and voted on in Rhode Island? Want to get in on some action at the statehouse?

Env Legislation Science Cafe

Team up with the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island's CARE Alliance, an EPA-funded group that meets monthly to discuss environmental hazards and solutions in Providence!

Brown Dining Services Sustainability Program was formed in 2010, bringing together the Real Food Initiative, Community Harvest program, Beyond the Bottle and SCRAP (Brown's new composting group), under one central management group.

Check it out!!

 

Concentrator Barbara Santisteban '11 was selected to receive the School for Field Studies Distinguished Student award for her exceptional environmental research during the Fall semester of 2009 in Australia.

More information on the SFS website.

(April 4, 2010)

Congratulations to Sara Mersha, 2010 award recipient of the

ROBERT AND PATRICIA SWITZER FOUNDATION 2010 SWITZER ENVIRONMENTAL FELLOWSHIP

A CES graduate student, Sara will focus on climate justice, climate debt and food sovereignty at local and international levels.  She was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts.  Sara worked for 12 years in community organizing as Executive Director of Direct Action for Rights and Equality.  She plans to work at the intersection of community organizing and climate change science.

Environmental Studies student Lee Richter '10 published an opinion piece on coral conservation in the Florida paper, The Reporter:

Will the Endangered Species Act protect Keys coral reefs?


(March 26, 2010)

CES Alums: Want to keep in touch?

Join our social networking sites for environmentally-minded alumni! Brown Alumni Staying Green, a facebook fan page, and the Green/Sustainability subgroup of the Brown Alumni Association LinkedIn page were recently created by the Center for Environmental Studies and the Brown Alumni Association. Join these pages for discussions, job postings, pictures, events, and more!

Brown Alumni Staying Green: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brown-Alumni-Staying-Green/144123438927

Green/Sustainability LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2345867