Gina McCarthy, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Barack Obama, spoke last Thursday in Kagin Commons as the Lectures Coordination Board (LCB) spring speaker. During her time in charge of the EPA, McCarthy – who is now a professor at Harvard University – made significant progress on initiatives to cut…
Fossil Free Mac wants Macalester to stop entering into private partnerships with oil and gas companies and place a moratorium on the ones it already has – and it could have its proposal before the Board of Trustees by February. In the past, Fossil Free Mac has sought the college’s total divestment from any financial…
“Pipelines spill, tar sands kill” read one sign from the Hold the Line March to Stop Line 3 on Sept. 28, as activists marched to the state capitol to protest the construction of a new tar sands pipeline in northern Minnesota. Several environmental advocacy groups including Youth Climate Intervenors and Honor the Earth, united to…
By Gordy Moore On Saturday, April 5, Macalester hosted the first-ever mass gathering of sustainability-minded Minnesota college students. The freshly formed Twin Cities+ Student Sustainability Network, created this semester by Sam Zieve ’17, Shelby Witherby ’18 and Ana Diaz ’18, kicked off with a day-long summit held at Mac last Saturday. After a morning keynote,…
Dear Macalester Community, In the wake of the presidential election and other current events that remain at the surface of our collective conscience, we, members of MacCARES, have taken time to reflect. To acknowledge that we are not alone in this reflection, to further conversation, and to provide context for our perspectives, we write the…
The Lectures Coordination Board hosted Derreck Kayongo, a prominent expert in sustainability and health, on the evening of November 2 in Kagin’s Hill Ballroom. Kayongo is the founder of the Global Soap Project, which recycles soap from American hotels and delivers it to communities in developing nations. He is also the CEO of the National…
Happy Earth Day, Macalester! Started in 1970, Earth Day is recognized annually on April 22. It is a day for communities to gather to celebrate the world we live in. Earth Day is the brainchild of Wisconsin Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson, who proposed the idea after witnessing the impacts of a major oil spill in…
If you haven’t heard, oil is super cheap right now. US Energy Information Administration (EIA) statistics show that this week, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline is hovering around $1.80. For comparison, oil prices haven’t dipped this low since the beginning of 2009, and last year’s average was slightly above $2. These…
To inform students of the dangers of “Big Agriculture,” MacCARES, MacFeast, NÜDL and the Sustainability Office co-sponsored a dinner with the nonprofit Impact on how Agribusiness affects the natural resources in Minnesota, specifically water. The dinner featured a speech by Sonja Trom Eayrs of the Dodge County Concerned Citizens on how industrial agriculture or “Big…
WEtility. That’s utility for community, or a business model for cooperatively-owned solar energy created by four Macalester students. Over J-term, Maggie Lobbig ’19, Becca Krasky ’19, Jack McCarthy ’18 and Gordy Moore ’17 used a Dream It Fund to investigate potential ways of effectively crowd-funding sustainable energy. After applying for and receiving Dream It funding…