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March 1, 2016 Spring 2016 : Issue 37
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Astronomie en Geografie met meetinstrumenten, Leonardus Valck, 1706 - 1730
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I
recently saw an article reporting that the Navy is bringing celestial navigation
back into their training curriculum. In honor of this, our headers are featuring a couple of tools you could use to navigate sans GPS.
What I appreciate about this announcement is that it is an example of not following blindly one particular paradigm of progress in order to solve challenges we face.
Of course, the other part that I like about it is that it is related to the sky and examining our relationship to the universe beyond to navigate ourselves on the land (and sea) below.
Yes, yes...that is a broad, somewhat ambiguous, highly romanticized description of navigating across the sea using shadows cast on a carefully marked wooden disc, but I think there is virtue in the fact that it is even possible for it to be romanticized in that way at all.
Speaking of not following one particular paradigm of progress, I must mention our upcoming fundraising event
Ski for the EC which will be tomorrow evening out at Ski Hesperus from 4 - 9pm (details are below). This isn't your traditional gala, benefit concert or star-studded dancing event but a fun night with community, under the stars with fire, warm drinks and a way to support the work and experiences that the EC provides to our students, campus and community.
Register to ski,
sponsor an athlete or just come out to enjoy the night. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
P.S. I'm still looking for sponsors! Feel free to
click here and help me help the EC.
Ricky Green
EC Assistant Coordinator
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The Uunartoq disc was discovered in an 11th century convent in Greenland in 1948. It is thought to have been used as a compass by the Vikings as they traversed the North Atlantic Ocean from Norway to Greenland. (Photo: Proceedings of the Royal Society)
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Ski for the EC
Want to get your night skiing on, showcase those noodle turns of yours, AND raise money for the Environmental Center? Ski for the EC Wednesday, March 2nd from 4-9 at Ski Hesperus! Amiably compete to see who can rack up the most laps on this amazing little hill.
We'll have a fire raging, hot cocoa brewing and some tunes rocking at the base. The winner will walk away with the trophy of a lifetime, notoriety for their regional ski prowess, and two free lift tickets to Telluride!
To help with the fundraising side of things, you get to become a sponsored athlete! That's right, contact your friends, family, faculty, you name it, and ask them to pledge a certain dollar amount for each lap that you ski. The more sponsors you have, the better! We recommend requesting $5-$10/lap because, after all, you are a sponsored athlete! At the end of the night, the EC will tally your laps and follow up with your sponsor(s).
Cost: Ski Hesperus is offering a discounted lift ticket for the night's festivities to registered athletes $25. Lift tickets are FREE to anyone who has at least three sponsors at $5 a lap or one sponsor at $15/lap.
If skiing/riding is not your thing, but you still want to support the EC!: Consider sponsoring an athlete. $1 a lap, $5 a lap, $20 a lap...pick your pleasure!
All contributions are tax exempt and a
ll proceeds will benefit the Environmental Center's work to cultivate tomorrow's environmental leaders through advancing sustainability in our region today!
Environmental Center seeks an Electric Generator and/or Cement Mixer to help with the build out of our Sustainability House of Education & Design
Exciting news! The EC's partnership with the Engineering Senior Design Seminar and Physical Plant Services is advancing at a rapid fire pace...and we will be breaking ground on our new Garden Shed (aka Sustainability House of Education & Design) this Friday! To help us get this project off the ground, we are looking to borrow an electric or gasoline cement mixer (2-5 cubic feet) from March 4
th
-20
th
. If you care to let us borrow this for a bit, we will happily thank you in fresh produce and be sure to credit your in-kind, tax-exempt contribution.
Please contact Rachel at [email protected] if you have a cement mixer that you are open to us using. Thank you!
SJCA's Green Business Roundtable: FLC's Climate Commitment
Last year Fort Lewis College exceeded their first emissions reduction target under the Second Nature Climate Commitment, to which they are signatories, by 20%. Their goal is to reach climate neutrality by 2080. Learn about what they did, how, and the greater challenges that lie ahead.
Speaker: Rachel Landis is the Director of the Environmental Center at Fort Lewis College where she works with tomorrow's environmental leaders to build the tools, passion, and know-how to create positive change in the world. She's also a senior field instructor at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), teaches for Colorado College's Outdoor Recreation and Leadership Program and ski patrols and Telluride Mountain Resort.
When: Wednesday, March 9th from noon to 1 pm
Where: Henry Strater Theater, 699 Main Avenue, Durango
For more information: visit the San Juan Citizens Alliance
website
Vote Real
The Real Food Challenge Team at the EC has been doing a lot recently to reach out and inform the FLC student body about what it means to be real and why it matters. We have been giving presentations to student organizations, faculty groups, and other members of the community to enact social change in our food system. With the help of others we hope to launch more initiatives within the FLC community to help us reach our goals in the future.
I
n San Juan Dining they have began labeling foods that are categorized as "real", you can also have your say in what you want to eat on campus by voting real, choosing one new food item per month that will be changed to real in the dining hall when seasonally available, and we will also be having a Townhall meeting at the Sustainability Summit this coming 29th of March.
Join us and see results of what the students want to see to help make FLC more sustainable!
Bring your Bottles
The Environmental Center's Zero Waste Team needs to collect 60-70 20 ounce soda bottles for an exciting event they will be hosting on April 3rd: the Race to Zero Waste! So if you have some 20 ounce bottles drop them off at the EC!
Free Store
Crickets for Lunch
This is my first semester working for the Environmental Center. I always enjoyed volunteering for the EC, so I knew I would like getting more involved. On the Local Food Team our initiative is
to enhance La Plata County's local food system to ensure that everyone has access to local, healthy foods, and
one of our missions was to create ways to get other students involved as well. My teammates came up with some really great ideas, and although I had some thoughts, I wasn't sure if I should go with them. Eventually I presented my ideas. With open arms, my team encouraged me and Crickets for Lunch was born.
I did a ton of research to make sure that feeding my peers crickets was a good thing to do. That's when I was introduced to the world of entomophagy. I learned the many benefits of eating bugs, and the many wild ways you can enjoy them. Although I became comfortable with including bugs in my diet, I wasn't sure if everyone else would be as ready to crunch on crickets. All I could do was present my research and hope that my peers were able to see the benefits and look past the stigma.
With butterflies in my stomach, I displayed what I had worked diligently on. In the middle of the Student Union, it didn't take much time to gather a crowd. People were shocked to see the treats I was offering- chocolate covered crickets and fried garlic chili crickets. In the most normal way I could attempt, I proposed they try one. My fears of rejection and abundance of leftover crickets were squashed! Shock turned into excitement as people were thrilled to try their first cricket. Since the idea of eating a bug when they didn't have to see its details was easier to swallow, the chocolate covered crickets were a big hit.
I felt revitalized. The encouragement and support from the Environmental Center gave me the spirit to accomplish what I set out to do. It was awesome seeing my ideas flourish in reality. Working at the EC has been amazing, and I love seeing the incredible things that get generated there by determined students and staff. I also loved getting a first-hand look at how accepting and willing to try new things the scholars at Fort Lewis are. A fire has kindled within me, and I'm excited for all of the future opportunities I have to collaborate, create, and get people involved.
The Environmental Center has given me the tools and training to make changes in the community. I'm always excited to learn more and work on projects that better La Plata county and further. It's because of programs exactly like the Environmental Center that I chose to attend Fort Lewis. The community at the EC reassures me that I've made a great decision. I've never felt so involved at school and I can't wait to see what more we can accomplish.
Local Food Team
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Sextant, Source: Nordisk familjebok (1904), vol.2, p.296
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Grub Hub will now be serving hot meals on Mondays and Fridays! Sodexo is working with the Sociology Club to get more food to more students! Basically, food that has not been eaten but would have been thrown out- gets re-purposed into new deliciousness.
Come and hang out in the Sociology Club and eat (and look at all the cool stuff) or take some food to go and eat it when it is convenient for you.
Also - in our sustainability efforts we are asking students to Bring Your Own Container/Tupperware (BYOC/T).
When: Mondays and Fridays, 11:30am - 1:30pm
Where: Reed 16
Cost: Free
Old Fort Hoophouse Workdays
Every Thursday the hoophouse is open for volunteers. Let us know if you are interested in coming!
You'll be rewarded with the benefits of hanging out in the warm, green interior of the hoophouse, learning hand-tool use and gardening skills applicable to your backyard garden, and taking home some local greens once they're ready in mid-March.
Curious about using a broadfork? Wondering how to sow seeds and protect them from the cold? Come find out!
When: every Thursday
Where: Old Fort Farm
Four Corners Federal Land Internship
FC-FLIP connects regional college students and recent
graduates with resource managers to gain the hands on
knowledge and skills of what it means to work with or for
a federal agency. Interns participate in a rigorous
paid 11-week career-building internship
program in natural, recreation, or cultural
resource management areas.
Positions in: Timber/Forestry, Visitor Services, Mining and Engineering, GIS, Hydrology, Range Management, Natural Resource Management, Environmental Science and Education
When: May 31 - August 12, 2016
Stipend: $400/ week
Benefits: WFA Certification, AmeriCorps Ed Award
Deadline: March 15, 2016
For more information: contact Lauren van Vliet, Intern Coordinator - Southwest Conservation Corps,
[email protected]
What's Hop'n - Winter Workshop
If you want to learn more about growing, marketing or utilizing hops, join us for the 2016 Winter Hops Workshop. It will be held March 12th from 8:30 to 4:30 at Fort Lewis College Student Union Building. We have a great program planned and hope to see you there.
When: March 12th, 8:30am - 4:30pm
Where: Fort Lewis College Student Union Ballroom
Cost: by March 7 - $25, after March 7 and at the door: $30
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| Take Action |
Bibliophila |
Not to pressure anyone! :)
Time is running out much faster than you may realize. Let me throw a few worthy organizations and issues at you.
The Sierra Club is encouraging us to
show some appreciation to President Obama for his use of the Antiquities Act in designating three new National Monuments, Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow, and Castle Mountains, and preserving 1.8 million acres of incredible desert landscape.
Here's something worth taking note of, on March 6th the next Democratic Presidential Debate will go off in Flint, Michigan. Think the citizens of Flint are impacted by the social malady known as Environmental Racism? Only too well!
Influence the debate
by insisting that issues of environmental and racial injustice are embedded in this timely and appropriate forum.
There are many other outfits worthy of your time. Check out the FLC Environmental Center and their Ski for the EC event at Hesperus Ski Resort, March 2nd from 4 -9 pm.
One World and it is worth saving ... for EVERYONE!
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The Day Philosophy Dies is a provocative and gripping new political novel. This thrilling adventure deftly and forcefully explores and satirizes power, fame, corruption and a hailstorm of political questions:
"Step One is to recognize that there is a problem." When a movie star is kidnapped and put through a 12 step recovery program for addiction to Western Civilization, reality gets turned on its ear. The fugitives careen headlong through passion, betrayal, and assassinations toward an explosive event that will transform the world. Everything you know can change in an instant. Are you ready for the next step?
"With a stunningly unique voice, Casey Maddox takes us on a crazy, intense odyssey of discovery. A trip to forbidden realms with everything at stake. The Day Philosophy Dies is a novel that goes to the heart of the ongoing disaster that is society today."
-- John Zerzan
author of Future Primitive, Elements of Refusal, and Running on Emptiness.
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For more information:
