1/17/20
NORTH ADAMS, MASS.—Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) announces the theme of its upcoming spring
Green Living Seminar Series will be “Environmental Pollution.” This 11-part series
will begin on Thursday, Jan. 30, with the talk “Plastics in the Environment: Separating
Myth from Reality,” presented by Chris Reddy, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution.
All Green Living seminars will take place on Thursdays at 5:30 p.m., in Room 121 of the Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation on the MCLA campus. These lectures are free and open to the public.
“Through these presentations, students and community members will have the opportunity to learn about how environmental pollutants affect people and wildlife, and about what is being done to address environmental pollution,” said Elena Traister, MCLA professor of environmental studies.
Additional seminars will take place February 6–April 16, 2020 and will include:
February 6: “Acid Rain: How Science and Volunteerism Contributed to Addressing an Environmental Challenge,” presented by Paul Godfrey, emeritus director of the UMass Amherst Water Resources Research Center
February 13: “Road Salt: The Problem, the Solution, and How to Get There,” presented by Vicky Kelly, environmental monitoring program manager at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
February 20: “Water Quality in the Hoosic River Watershed,” presented by Matt Reardon, environmental analyst — Nonpoint Source Program Manager at the MassDEP Division of Watershed Management
February 27: “PFOA in New York and Vermont,” presented by David Bond, associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College
March 5: “Mercury in the Environment: Ecological and Human Impacts,” presented by Zofia Baumann, assistant research professor at the University of Connecticut
March 12: “What is New England Doing about Nutrient Pollution in Our Waters?” presented by Emma Gildesgame, environmental analyst at the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission
March 26: “PCBs and the Housatonic River,” presented by Jim Murphy, former public affairs specialist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
April 2: “Mercury Toxicity in Loon Populations in the Adirondacks,” presented by Nina Schoch, executive director and chief scientific officer at the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation
April 9: “Pollution, Evolution, and How to Reduce our Dependence on Antibiotics and Pesticides,” presented by Emily Monosson, author with the Ronin Institute
April 16: “The Ozone Hole: Its History and Current Status,” presented by Jim Anderson, Philip S. Weld Professor at Harvard University Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Each semester, the MCLA Green Living Seminar Series hosts lectures by local, regional, and national experts organized around a central theme related to the environment and sustainability. The 2020 series is a presentation of the MCLA Environmental Studies Department and the MCLA Berkshire Environmental Resource Center.
Podcasts will be posted online following each presentation at www.mcla.edu/greenliving. For more information, visit www.mcla.edu/greenliving or contact Elena Traister at 413.662-5303.
