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Recycling on Hamilton's campus is being revived by Matt Stringer '03. Students, faculty and administrators are getting in the "habit again" with new bins and assurances that their efforts will pay off in less waste for the landfill and a more environmentally friendly campus.

Dr. Richard Shore gave a one-man performance as John Muir on April 10 to emphasize the need to protect wilderness and the environment. John Muir was an outdoorsman of the truest sense; he lived in the land, not off it. Muir penned the proposal to designate Yosemite as a National Park, and was the strongest proponent for its protection. Shore dressed as Muir, spoke in a Scottish accent like Muir, and in the first person, communicated Muir's ethics of wilderness conservation.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Thomas Diggins led a campus walk on April 10 to teach students about the tree species found on campus and some natural history of New York. More than 25 types of tree were identified, including American elm, swamp white oak, Kentucky coffeetree and ginkgo, which is considered to be a living fossil.

Will global warming have any real effect on me? Jonathan Overpeck from the University of Arizona addressed this question in his keynote speech, which concluded the Antarctic Peninsula Conference on April 5. The response was an overwhelming "yes," regardless of where you live.

As part of the Antarctic Peninsula Conference, Dr. Amy Leventer of Colgate University presented the results of research she conducted with Hamilton College Professor of Geology Eugene Domack. They studied marine sediments to find records of environmental and temperature change. By identifying the species of fossilized diatoms in the sediment, they were able to tell what the environment was like at the time these organisms were alive. Diatoms are microscopic...

Reuters News Service quoted Professor of Government Cheng Li in an article about the gap between the rich and the poor in China. The story discusses a study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) that suggests China needs a balance of social equality and economic expansion in the near future.

Michelle A. Walvoord, of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, spoke to the geology department about desert water table dynamics on March 15. Her talk, titled “Desert Vadose Zones: re-supply or refuse?,” outlined her work in the field, which includes formulating a new model for water flow and aquifer recharge in arid and semi-arid regions. Vadose zones are the regions...

Four students along with visiting Professor of Biology Thomas Diggins joined members of the Sierra Club and the New York Old Growth Forest Association (NYOGFA) in Saratoga Spa State Park on March 10 to determine if the forest was old growth or not. The park is located just north of Albany, NY, and was going to be developed into a golf course until the Sierra Club stepped in and argued for its protection.

Noted author Barbara McMartin delivered a lecture, "The Adirondacks: Public Activism and Political Rigidity," on Feb. 27 in the Fillius Events Barn. McMartin, a resident of the Adirondacks, is the author of Adirondack guidebooks and other books on the forest preserve. In her talk sponsored by the Environmental Studies program, McMartin spoke about the role of public activism and political rigidity in the history of the Adirondacks. McMartin presented cases where attempts to enhance appreciation of the wilderness have been skewed or hindered by disagreements or ineffective governance.

Thomas Diggins, visiting assistant professor of biology, published "A Seasonal Comparison of Suspended Sediment Filtration by Quagga (Dreissena bugensis) and Zebra (D. polymorpha) Mussels" in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. Diggins found only a modest difference between the water filtration rates of these two species, a factor previously believed to be significantly different. Diggins is one of only a few scientists working on comparing zebra and quagga mussels, work that is important in understanding contemporary Great Lakes ecology.