Thursday, April 29, 2010

UCSB Wins Three Best Practice Awards

The UC Office of the President just announced the winners of the 2010 Energy Efficiency Partnership Best Practice Awards. UCSB received awards in three categories:

Student Sustainability Programs - Program for the Assessment and Certification for the Environment and Sustainability (PACES)
Water Efficiency & Site Water Quality - San Clemente Ecological Restoration and Stormwater Management Plan
Sustainable Food Service - Residential Dining Sustainability Plan

Congratulations to our winners!

To read the official announcement and see the entire list of winners:
http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/docs/BestPracticeAwardWinners2010.pdf

Monday, April 26, 2010

2010 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference

California Higher Education Sustainability Conference

June 20-23, 2010 (the main conference days are June 21 and 22)
Los Angeles Trade-Technical College

The early bird registration ends May 14.
Students are only $50; Staff/faculty are $475

For more information and to register: http://2010higheredsustainabilityconference.org/

Talk: SB County Agrifood System: Export-import and the Potential for Localization

The Santa Barbara County Agrifood System:
Export-import and the potential for localization


WHEN: Tuesday, May 11, 4:00-4:50 pm
WHERE: Env Studies Conference Room (#4016 Bren Bldg)

Why localize the Santa Barbara County agrifood system? How local is the system now? What are some of the costs of the current system? How can we localize the Santa Barbara County agrifood system to reduce costs and increase benefits?

Followed by an edible demonstration of our local food system by the Isla Vista Food Co-op.

Presented by the SBC AFS Research Group led by Professor David Cleveland: Sean Anderson, Ingrid R. Avison, Caitlin Brimm, Heidi Diaz, Anthony Hearst, Kai Hinson, Sydney E. Hollingshead, Nora M. Muller, Corie N. Radka, Tyler D. Watson, Hannah Wright.

Sponsored by UCSB Academic Senate Sustainability Champion Program and the Environmental Studies Program.

Friday, April 23, 2010

TGIF Announcements

1) The Green Initiative Fund - a student lock-in fee - was reaffirmed by the students for another four years! Yea!

2) 2009-10 TGIF Awards have been announced.
See the TGIF web site http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/tgif or the press release for more information about the projects that were awarded funding http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=2229

Go TGIF!

Films: Green Screen

Green Screen
Environmental Film Premier

Saturday, April 24
Refreshments and Live Music, 5 p.m.
Screening, 5:30-7 p.m.

Embarcadero Hall, Isla Vista

Featuring these short films: Cultivating Kids, EcoWatch, Navigating Copenhagen, Plastocalypse

GreenScreen is an environmental media production program of UCSB's Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television, and New Media and the Department of Film and Media Studies.

For more information: http://www.cftnm.ucsb.edu/Events/2010/greenscreen/index.html


Event Presented By Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television, and New Media, and The Coastal Fund of UC Santa Barbara Associated Students.

Isla Vista Earth Day

Isla Vista Earth Day

Saturday, April 24 @ noon - 7:00 pm

Anisq'oyo Park, Isla Vista

The event will have exhibitors, food vendors, live music, etc.

Event is put on by the UCSB Environmental Affairs Board.

For more information: http://www.as.ucsb.edu/eab

Summit on Energy Efficiency

Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency

May 12-13, 2010
Four Seasons Biltmore Resort - Santa Barbara, CA

Organized by: The Institute for Energy Efficiency, UC Santa Barbara

The second annual Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency will be held at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara on May 12-13, 2010. This event brings together key players in industry, academia, venture capital, and government for two days of insights into the latest breakthroughs in energy efficiency technologies and in-depth discussions around accelerating them to market.

UCSB students and faculty save an additional 50% off of the regular academic rate - use coupon code UCSB50.


Keynote speakers include:

* Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, Google

* Michael Peevey, President, California Public Utilities Commission

* Richard Newell, Administrator, US Energy Information Administration


Sessions include:

* Enabling Technologies for New Energy Sources

* Implementing Energy Savings

* Energy Efficiency Computing at a Large Scale

* Energy Efficient Information Technologies

* Tools and Technologies for Energy Efficient Building Systems

* Moving Towards a Large Scale LED Market

* Most Promising Technologies for Energy Efficiency


Full details for the Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency can be found at http://iee.ucsb.edu/sbsee2010.


Contact Whitney Wegener Kopf, Program Director, Institute for Energy Efficiency with questions at whitney@iee.ucsb.edu or 805-893-5496.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Talk: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water

The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water

UCSB REGENTS’ LECTURER MAUDE BARLOW

Tuesday, May 11 / 7:00 PM
Corwin Pavilion

By 2030, demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by forty percent. The global water crisis is the greatest human and ecological crisis of our time. Because most of us were raised with the myth of water abundance, we have been slow to come to terms with the enormity of the threat of a world without water. Maude Barlow will outline the nature of the crisis, including the crisis facing California, and offer the practical principles that could lead to a water-secure future.

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch. She is also an executive member of the San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalization and a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. Maude is the recipient of eight honorary doctorates. She is also the best-selling author or co-author of 16 books, including Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water.

Sponsored by UCSB Arts & Lectures, the IHC’s Oil+Water series the Dept. of History of Art & Architecture, the Dept. of Film and Media Studies, the Dept. of Environmental Studies, the Environmental Defense Center and the Community Environmental Council.

For more information: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/maude-barlow/

Talk: Alien Ocean: Life at Sea

Alien Ocean: Life at Sea

Stefan Helmreich (Anthropology, MIT)

Tuesday, May 4 / 4:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

A new generation of marine biologists, employing the science of DNA sequencing, is coming to see the ocean as animated by its smallest inhabitants: marine microbes. Thriving in extreme conditions - from deep-sea volcanoes to methane-rich coastal areas - such microbes are becoming key figures in scientific and public debates about the origin of life, climate change, bioprospecting and biotechnology, and even the possibility of life on other planets. Such microbes are fresh, scientifically-imagined tokens for the life the sea symbolizes and substantiates. Drawing on anthropological work with marine microbiologists, I name this new double-visioned sea the alien ocean - a zone in which worldly nature oscillates between familiar and strange, in which the very category of "life" is at sea.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Oil + Water series and the Community Environmental Council.

For more information: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/alien-ocean-life-at-sea/

Field Trip to Shepherd’s Farm

Field Trip to Shepherd’s Farm

Wednesday, April 28 / 2:00 PM
Shepherd’s Farm, Santa Barbara

Join the Community Sustainable Food Group for a visit to Shepherd’s Farm here in Santa Barbara. Transportation will be provided. Location of departure to be announced. Please contact Megan Carney at megcarney@gmail.com for more details.

Sponsored by Community Sustainable Food Group and the IHC’s Food Studies RFG.

Film: Blue Gold: World Water Wars

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

Tuesday, April 27 / 3:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an exponential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth. We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, “This is our revolution, this is our war”. A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?

Sponsored by the IHC’s Oil + Water series and the Community Environmental Council.

More information: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/blue-gold-world-water-wars/

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Talk: Arctic and Antarctic Cricles

Hester Blum (English, Penn State University)

Thursday, April 22 / 4:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

In 2007 a Russian submarine planted a titanium flag on the Arctic seabed under the North Pole, laying the groundwork for Russia’s claim to Arctic oil resources. “Arctic and Antarctic Circles” explores the pre-history of Russia’s polar land-grab in terms of the influential – if satirized – early nineteenth-century theories of Hollow Earth theorist John Cleves Symmes. In doing so, the talk considers the unexplored possibilities that the Arctic and Antarctic regions offer to hemispheric or transnational conversations, as well as to more recent calls to reorganize critical thinking from a planetary perspective.

Hester Blum is associate professor of English and director of the Center for American Literary Studies at Penn State University. She is the author of The View from the Masthead: Maritime Imagination and Antebellum American Sea Narratives, which won the John Gardner Maritime Research Award. Blum is at work on a new project on the print culture of polar exploration.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Oil + Water series, the ACGCC and the Community Environmental Council.

More information: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/arctic-and-antarctic-circles/

UCSB Listed in Princeton Review's Green Guide

Princeton Review chose the 286 schools included in their Green Guide based on the "Green Rating" scores the schools received in the summer of 2009 when they published Green Rating scores for 697 schools in their online college profiles and annual college guidebooks.

The UCSB campus has a nice profile (pg 130), plus an additional profile on our Environmental Studies Program and the Bren School - combining sustainability with education and research (pg 131).

Way to go UCSB!

The USA Today article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-04-20-greencolleges20_ST_N.htm

The Green Guide: http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=7076

Monday, April 19, 2010

Save the Date: Sustainable Agriculture Talk

Sustainability Champion and Professor David Cleveland's (Environmental Studies) students will be presenting on sustainable agriculture.

Tuesday, May 11 @ 4:00 pm
Bren Hall, Room 4016

More details to follow.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Movie/Lecture: Addicted to Plastics

Addicted to Plastics: the Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle
with introductory remarks by Dr. Andrea Neal

April 15 @ 3:00 pm
Bren Hall, Room 4016
FREE

Refreshments will be provided.

Event sponsored by the UCSB Coastal Fund.

Talk: An Authentic Performance of Fishing

An Authentic Performance of Fishing: Indigenismo, Tourism, Music, and Dance on Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico

Ruth Hellier-Tinoco (University of Winchester)
Thursday, April 15 / 4:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico, was singled out for special attention in the idealistic postrevolutionary years of the 1930s, promoted as a site/sight of authentic Mexicanness, useful for nationalistic and touristic agendas, performing a role as attraction, destination, and iconic location. This talk will explore the multiple signifying and sensorial uses of the waters of Lake Pátzcuaro throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty first, in relation to processes and policies of tourism, performism, nationalism, and indigenismo. Discussion encompasses tourist displays of fishing, Noche de Muertos events, tourist and advertising imagery, films (the Disney production of The Three Caballeros and Janitzio), local fish dances, and scholarly and journalistic representations.

Ruth Hellier-Tinoco, PhD, is a scholar, creator and performer whose work engages in an interdisciplinary context with the fields of performance studies, ethnomusicology, dance studies and anthropology, applied and community arts, theater studies, and Latin American studies. Since 2002 she has held the post of Associate Professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Winchester, UK.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Oil + Water series and the Community Environmental Council.

For more information: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/hellier-tinoco/

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Talk: Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben

Saturday, April 24, 2010 @ 3:00 PM
Corwin Pavilion

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

One of America’s leading environmentalists, Bill McKibben is the founder of the international climate campaign 350.org, a Guggenheim Fellow and former New Yorker staff writer best known for his work on climate change issues including his treatise on global warming, The End of Nature. His recent book Deep Economy addresses the shortcomings of the growth economy and offers a realistic scenario for a hopeful future; while his newest release Eaarth argues for the essential change that will make our damaged planet endure.

This is a FREE event.

Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the Environmental Studies Program as part of the UCSB Critical Issues in America series: Forty Years After the Big Spill – Looking Back, Looking Ahead: 21st Century Environmental Challenges in a Global Context.

For more information:
https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu/Details.aspx?PerfNum=1739

Movie: Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World

Le Monde du Silence (The Silent World )

Introduction by Nicole Starosielski (Film & Media Studies, UCSB)
Tuesday, April 13 / 3:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle’s Academy Award winning documentary The Silent World is noted as one of the first films to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color. Cousteau and his team of divers shot the film over two years in the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Having filmed before Cousteau turned environmentally conscious, The Silent World shows the crew of the Calypso using dynamite near a coral reef and attacking a school of sharks. Because of these actions, the film was later criticized for the environmental damage it caused.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Oil + Water series and the Community Environmental Council.

Sponsored by the Oil + Water series and the Community Environmental Council.

For more information: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/the-silent-world/

Monday, April 5, 2010

Sedgwick Reserve Open House

The folks at Sedgwick Reserve invite you to an Open House!

Saturday, April 10 from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

There will be hikes, craft projects, live music, a silent auction, and lunch for purchase - or bring a picnic lunch!

Individuals are $10 and families $25 (includes a beverage and dessert).

For more information: http://sedgwick.ucnrs.org


Proceeds from the event support the Outdoor Education Program on the reserve.

Talk: Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

DAVID MACKAY
Department of Physics, University of Cambridge
Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government on Energy and Climate Change

April 6, 2010 3:30pm KITP Kohn Hall 1003
UC Santa Barbara
To be followed by a reception at 5:00pm

Please arrive early as seating is limited. This lecture will be simulcast in ESB 1001and webcast at http://iee.ucsb.edu.


Biography
David MacKay FRS studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and then obtained his PhD in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology. He has taught Physics in Cambridge since 1995. Since 2005, he has devoted much of his time to public teaching about energy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Climate Change. Nine months after the publication of 'Sustainable Energy - without the hot air', David MacKay was appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Friday, April 2, 2010

Conference: Our Planet, Our Problem

The UCSB Environmental Affairs Board invites you to:

Our Planet, Our Problem: Approaches to a Climate Solution

Friday, April 9, 2010
10:00 am - 7:00 pm
UCSB Corwin Pavilion

This conference will bring influential members in the climate change arena to UCSB in order to provoke critical thought about the dilemma at hand. This full day event, featuring three panels addressing grassroots, business, and legislative solutions, respectively, comes in the wake of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event has been organized by students, and was conceived by a group of 23 undergraduates who were inspired to bring change to their campus community after attending the UN summit in December of 2009. By integrating grassroots, business, and government efforts, the event will empower the nation's youth to seek a greener future.

For more information: http://www.as.ucsb.edu/eab/

Bren School Master's Group Project Presentations

The Master of Environmental Science & Management
Class of 2010
Group Project Final Presentations

Open to the Public

Thursday, April 8, 2010
1:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Bren Hall

Reception (with cash-only no-host bar) to follow

Thursday, April 1, 2010

San Clemente Wins Goleta Valley Beautiful Award

On March 31, the Goleta Valley Beautiful Awards Committee announced the winners of the 2010 Goleta Valley Beautiful Annual Awards, and the San Clemente Villages Graduate Student Housing won the Public Institution category.

The winners receive their awards at the 36th Annual Goleta Valley Beautiful Awards Event at the Stow House Gardens on Sunday, May 2nd.

Congratulations to Housing & Residential Services for another job well done!