Blast from the Past: Life on ERG 2000 and 2001
What was “life on ERG” like at the turn of the century?
Category: Student Life
What Makes the Wilderness?
As a new ERGie last September, I — along with the rest of my cohort — took “Interdisciplinary Analysis in Energy and Resources” with professors Isha Ray and Dan Kammen. Part of the course was a close reading and discussion of environmental classics selected by the ERG faculty. Inspired by faculty leadership and in-class discussions with my peers, I want to share a discussion of one of my own favorite…
For the love of research: What does it mean to love doing research?
Insights from ERG core and affiliate faculty – Duncan Callaway, Severin Borenstein and Dan Kammen.
The Carbon Cost of a Wilderness Trip
As I made the long drive from Berkeley to Lee’s Ferry–the put-in of the Grand Canyon–I reflected on what may be a slight contradiction in my values when it comes to my own carbon footprint: I willingly drive long distances in order to spend time in the wilderness…Is this carbon impact an acceptable trade-off for the enjoyment and renewal I expected from this adventure?
Ready, Set, Sort: This year don’t let treasures go to waste
Living in the Bay Area has changed my relationship with trash and taught me about its many intertwined issues—energy, land use, water, agriculture, ecology, trade, development, and environmental justice—to name a few. While many of those are not necessarily in our control as individuals, one thing we may be able to affect is how much trash we do produce and where it ends up.
On the 1st Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me: A Partridge in a Lime Tree
While these debates are far from settled, I believe decentralized centers of organic food production are the best way forward for building food security and resiliency in any community.
Temptation and Temperance: Cutting our Teeth on Alaska’s Pika Glacier
As Ian tiptoes his way in ski boots up the granite crack above the ledge I’m standing on, cascades of snow rumble down the couloir* 50 feet to our right. The fog amplifies the sound so it sounds more like a big wave crashing than snow sliding. Shrouding our views, the fog also creates spatial ambiguity. Where exactly are these slides being released from and where are they going? Are we in the slide path? As if mocking us, another deep rumble of snow starts cascading over the granite wall a few hundred feet to our left.
From Ideology to Action: Naomi Klein Comes to Town
Klein’s ideas are big, and in many ways they go beyond what’s taught in classrooms in terms of boldness. But how can students translate ideas into action? One of the most exciting aspects of studying energy now is that there are ample opportunities to engage in related advocacy outside the classroom, perhaps more than ever before.
“We said it would take everyone to change everything… and everyone showed up.”
Despite the fact that I come from a country where demonstrations happen every week (for good and for bad) – or maybe because of that – my first thought was: “What in the world is going to change for politicians when a bunch of people take to the streets on a Sunday morning for an hour and a half?” And yet, I found this initiative pretty exciting.
ERG Professor Emeritus is Skeptical of Geeks
It is interesting to note that this is often expressed as the triumph of individuals over institutions, wrapped in a mantle of progress and development. Some of it, admittedly, does promote efficiency and social progress. But not all, and not everywhere. The creation of new social and political risks without forethought is already stirring demands for institutional control, a genuinely unfunded mandate. There is also a redistribution of wealth and privilege, instantiated by rapid obsolescence.