Can academia help the environment?

Interesting new ebook, available for free.  

Abstract : Twenty-first-century conservationists are contending with biodiversity loss on an unprecedented scale, compounded by the interrelated threat of climate change. These global challenges call for first-rate talent, highly sophisticated technology, and advanced financial and organizational tools that can be used across jurisdictional boundaries and professional disciplines. Academic institutions—from colleges and universities to research institutes and field stations—are surprisingly powerful and effective catalysts for integrating all these elements into strategically significant and enduring large landscape conservation initiatives. This edited volume gathers more than a dozen first-hand accounts of the long-term impacts academics are making on the ground, from the University of Nairobi to Harvard. With measurable results, their efforts are protecting wildlife habitat, improving water quality, building sustainable economies, and bettering public amenities around the world now and for centuries to come.

Solving a work problem with wheels

When your office is half a mile from your files, how do you solve the problem?  With a three-wheeled bicycle in a limestone cave.  Your National Archives at work! 

Happy Bike To Work Day!

Friday, May 15 is Bike to Work and School Day.  

  “The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.” - Peter Golkin

Green Energy Fee Annual Showcase is TODAY!

The Office of Sustainability and the Green Energy Fee (GEF) Grant Program invite everyone to join them in celebrating the wonderful accomplishments of the GEF Grant Program.

Come meet this year’s applicants and learn about their projects at the GEF Annual Showcase TODAY! Wednesday, May 13th from 4-5:30pm in the Miller Hall Collaborative Space. More details are here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1434577723524397/

Environmental Journalism: high points and low

Interesting article in the Columbia Journalism Review.  Environmental journalism is getting notice - as in Pulitzer Prizes, for example, but there are plenty of problems in the field...

Sustainability Event May 5th - Charles Krusekopf

Dr. Charles Krusekopf

Just  letting you all know about a sustainability-related event happening today (May 5th) at 7:00pm that may be of interest. Dr. Charles Krusekopf, executive director of the American Center for Mongolian studies & director of the Royal Roads University School of Business in Victoria, British Columbia, will be giving a talk in the Library Presentation room (Wilson Library 164f) entitled: "Natural Resource Development in Mongolia - Impacts on Culture, Environment, and Government."

 Since the mid-2000s the Mongolian economy has boomed, fueled by the development of the coal, copper and gold mining industries. The development of major mines by multi-national corporations and a gold rush involving thousands of artisanal miners across Mongolia has upset traditional ways of living, leading to disputes over land and water. New mining projects and infrastructure have impacted wildlife, destroyed archeological sites and displaced local people. Corruption has grown and democracy has been undermined as politicians seek to benefit personally from their power to allocate mining rights. This session will examine the impact the natural resource boom over the last decade has had on Mongolia’s political system and government, the natural environment, and tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

This event is being offered as part of WWU's two-day "Mongolia Days" celebration. For more information about Mongolia Days, see this link.

Mongolia Days are sponsored by Western Libraries, Woodring College of Education, the Center for East Asian Studies, and the Center for International Studies. Programs are made possible by the generous support from Henry G. Schwarz, John C. Street, and Susan Bradbury.