New School Environmental Studies

Mark Fiege is associate professor of history and the William E. Morgan Chair of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, where he also directs the Public Lands History Center. He is the author of Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West, which received the Charles E. Weyerhaeuser Award from the Forest History Society for the best book in forest and conservation history published in 1999-2000.

He spoke to a gathering of New School faculty, staff and students about his new book The Republic of Nature: Environmental History and the Canonical American Past.  Fiege read from chapters of his book, highlighting the much overlooked fact that President Abraham Lincoln was an environmentalist, as well as the change in American attitudes due to the 1970′s gas shortages.

Dr. John Byrne is Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP) and Distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Policy at the University of Delaware. On March 20th, the Tishman Environment and Design Center sponsored a talk by Dr. Byrne where he discussed the political economy causes and implications of technologically driven solutions to climate change and proposed a third way, a commons approach. The importance of community based action and the role of cities and metropolitan areas are discussed as key to a successful climate change strategy.

Dr. John Byrne is a contributor to the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1992, and shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC.

Click below to see slides from Dr. Byrne’s presentation.
Dr. John Byrne Presentation PDF

The 2012 Environmental Studies Graduation Celebration will be held Thursday, May 17th at 1:30pm in 66 5th Ave room 101: Kellen Auditorium.  All Environmental Studies community members are invited to celebrate the seniors accomplishments!

There will be a reception directly following the celebration in the Vera List Courtyard at 66 West 12th Street.

All questions can be directed to the Environmental Studies email address: environmentalstudies@newschool.edu

On October 8, students in “The Hudson and the Harbor” set out on a day-long field trip to the Palisades, Fort Montgomery, and Storm King Mountain. Rather than return to Manhattan that night, most of the group opted instead to camp at Croton Point Park, a Westchester County park built on the site of a former landfill (it’s a beautiful place–really!). There they were joined by other Environmental Studies students, alumni, and staff (including one who biked all the way from the Battery–go Ian!) who together celebrated a perfect Indian summer night on the banks of the Hudson. We hope to organize a similar outing in the spring. In the meantime, if you’re dying to camp, Croton Point Park is just a short one-hour train ride from Grand Central. In other words, you don’t need a car to get there!

Environmental Studies Professor Nevin Cohen presented at The New Green City event in Union Square on Wednesday, October 5th.  Environmental Studies Chair, John Clinton (who aslo directs the Milano Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program) discussed issues with visitors to the New School exhibit on sustainability.