Interested in Organizing a Screening of 'Big River'?

Carla Fleisher is the Outreach Producer and screenings coordinator for Big River, a new documentary telling the ecological story of our nation’s industrial and chemical-dependent agriculture. It is the companion film to the award-winning documentary King Corn.

She hopes that someone here at Wesleyan is interested in joining the Big River Harvest Tour: a nationwide screenings tour of the film during the fall harvest season. As part of this effort they are rallying groups across the country to screen the film, either with or without King Corn, in an effort to raise consumer awareness. They’re especially interested in having university organizations screen the film and would be honored to have our participation.

Author and environmentalist Bill KcKibben has called the film, “A sharp and clever reminder that nothing ever really goes away, certainly not the soup of chemicals we’re pouring into our fields.” Already, the film has been chosen by the Center for Disease Control to be screened as one of only two films at the 2009 National Environmental Public Health Conference.

Watch the trailer and visit our website. If you're interested, email weseon@gmail.com and we will forward you the application. DEADLINE TO APPLY IS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH.

If you have any questions, contact Carla Fleisher directly, either by phone or email:

Carla Fleisher
Outreach Producer, Big River
www.bigriverfilm.com
(781) 540-9240

Farm Meeting Potluck, Friday, 2/26

Hey Farmers,

FARM MEETING this FRIDAY at 6 PM at FARM HOUSE (located at 344 Washington Street).

Anyone is welcome to come.

It will be a potluck. and lots of fun!

Please come with ideas of what we want to say in our upcoming meeting (time TBA) with Dean Mike.

Beets, love, and happiness!

Competition for Local Changemakers

Do you know a local Changemaker?

Green Mountain Coffee and Ashoka's Changemakers have joined up to launch Revelation to Action: Your Place. Your Idea. Your Change. Believing that real change starts at home, we will find and help fund the most innovative ideas to inspire community action and improve communities across the Northeastern US.

PRIZES

- 3 competition winners will each be awarded USD $5,000

- 7 state winners will each be awarded USD $5,000

- 3 early entry prize winners will receive a Keurig® Coffee Brewer and a 12-month coffee supply


- Recommend an organization and if it wins, your prize is a Keurig® Coffee Brewer and a 6-month supply of coffee

- Re-tweet about the competition and you will be eligible to enter a drawing for one bag of fresh Green Mountain Coffee® and fun competition items


NEXT STEPS

1. Visit http://www.Changemakers.com/Revelation

2. If you are new to the site, create a profile, it only takes 5 minutes

3. Sign-in with your username and password

4. Download the entry form in a word document so that you can edit your entry and save changes before entering online; this ensures that your work is saved

5. Enter your idea or organization here: https://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/69520/entryform

6. When you are finished make sure to click the "Publish" button to complete your entry


Early Entry Deadline: March 24, 2010
Final Deadline: April 21, 2010


For complete rules and regulations for this competition, please visit our website at http://www.Changemakers.com/Revelation, and click on Eligibility, Criteria and Prizes.


Should you have questions, feel free to contact Alexis Ditowsky:
Alexis Ditkowsky
Ashoka's Changemakers
Email: aditkowsky@ashoka.org
Phone: 347.321.4748
Skype: alexisditkowsky
Web: http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/revelation

Program on The Asian Longhorned Beetle

Thursday, March 4th, from 3 to 5 pm

in the Hubbard Room of Russell Library in Middletown

The Asian Longhorned Beetle, an insect first found in New England in 2008, has caused the destruction of more than 30,000 trees in nearby Worcester, Mass. The State of Connecticut has crafted a response to the invasion and is pairing with the Middletown Garden Club to educate professional, municipal and home gardeners about the beetles. The presentation by Rose Hiskes, entomologist at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station CAES. The lecture is jointly sponsored by the Middletown Garden Club Conservation Committee and the CAES. Light refreshments will be served.

Because of the unusual life cycle of this beetle, it is very difficult to identify until enormous damage has been done. Targeted trees include many of the hardwood trees native to Connecticut. The only cure when the beetle infests an area is to clear-cut the targeted trees, which is what happened in Worcester, MA. A web site that describes reporting procedures for the beetle when it is identified is: http://www.massnrc.org/PESTS/alb/

RECYCLEMANIA: Official Week #2 Results

Here are standings after the 2^nd week of the eight week contest.

Grand Champion - Competition Division

Schools participating in both the Per Capita Classic and the Waste Minimization competitions are eligible to become the Grand Champion of RecycleMania. The Grand Champion will be the school that, based on their combined results, demonstrates the greatest achievement in both source reduction and recycling.

National Rank = 172^nd of 294 schools

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Recycling rate (%)
1	Tufts University	36.48 %
2	Amherst College	36.03 %
3	Middlebury College	33.71 %
4	Connecticut College	33.39 %
5	Wesleyan University	23.43 %
6	Hamilton College	12.05 %
7	Trinity College	10.70 %

Per Capita Classic - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can collect the largest amount of acceptable recyclables per person.

National Rank = 56^th of 417 schools

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Recyclables Pounds/Person
1	Tufts University	8.17
2	Connecticut College	7.48
3	Williams College	7.24
4	Amherst College	6.47
5	Middlebury College	6.41
6	Wesleyan University	5.37
7	Hamilton College	3.68
8	Trinity College	3.19

Waste Minimization - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which produces the least amount of municipal solid waste (including both recyclables and trash) per person.

National Rank = 193^rd of 214 schools

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Waste Pounds/Person
1	Middlebury College	19.01
2	Connecticut College	22.39
3	Tufts University	22.40
4	Wesleyan University	22.90
5	Hamilton College	30.53

Gorilla Prize - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can collect the highest gross tonnage of recyclables, regardless of campus population.

National Rank = 211^th of 421 schools

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Recyclables Pounds
1	Tufts University	107434.80
2	Williams College	23364.00
3	Middlebury College	22949.02
4	Connecticut College	19210.00
5	Amherst College	16355.00
6	Wesleyan University	15900.00
7	Trinity College	9742.00
8	Hamilton College	9120.00

Targeted Material - Paper - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can recycle the largest amount of paper per person.

National Rank = 18^th of 257 schools

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Paper Pounds/Person
1	Wesleyan University	3.08
2	Williams College	2.88
3	Middlebury College	2.72
4	Amherst College	2.39
5	Connecticut College	2.29

Targeted Material - Corrugated Cardboard - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can recycle the largest amount of corrugated cardboard per person.

National Rank = 66^th 270 schools

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Corrugated Cardboard Pounds/Person
1	Connecticut College	3.43
2	Williams College	2.68
3	Amherst College	2.64
4	Middlebury College	2.28
5	Wesleyan University	1.55

Targeted Material - Bottles and Cans - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can recycle the largest amount of bottles and cans per person.

National Rank = 52^nd 269 schools

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Bottles and Cans Pounds/Person
1	Connecticut College	1.75
2	Williams College	1.69
3	Amherst College	1.45
4	Middlebury College	1.40
5	Hamilton College	0.75
6	Wesleyan University	0.74

Bike to Bring High Speed Rail to Connecticut!

Krista Dressler of ConnPIRG sent us an email about this, check it out!

This semester ConnPIRG is working to bring high speed rail to Connecticut!

High speed rail lines are energy efficient trains that can travel at over 200 miles per hour and the exciting part is that President Obama shares our vision. He included $8 billion in the last stimulus package for new high speed rail projects.

So they’re working to build support for a new rail line that will connect Springfield, MA and New Haven, CT. During Spring Break they will be riding bikes along the proposed rail route, stopping in major towns along the way and holding press conferences with local politicians

They're going to be engaging the media, working with our politicians and having a lot of fun on our way to bring high speed rail to CT.

Are you interested in getting involved in the bike ride?

Please email Krista Dressler at kristad@studentpirgs.org and she can get you all the information you need to make a really big difference on this issue, and have a great time doing it!


Krista Dressler
Field Organizer
Student PIRGs
work: (860) 233-7574
kristad@studentpirgs.org

First Official Week of Recyclemania Results!

Here are the current results with our peer NESCAC schools. These results do not include the first two weeks of collections. Those were practice weeks. This is the first week of the actual eight week contest.

Our national standing for Waste Minimization is listed at the end.

Grand Champion - Competition Division

Schools participating in both the Per Capita Classic and the Waste Minimization competitions are eligible to become the Grand Champion of RecycleMania. The Grand Champion will be the school that, based on their combined results, demonstrates the greatest achievement in both source reduction and recycling.

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Recycling rate (%)
1	Tufts University	40.10 %
2	Amherst College	35.96 %
3	Connecticut College	34.15 %
4	Middlebury College	33.71 %
5	Trinity College	15.78 %
6	Wesleyan University	12.40 %
7	Hamilton College	8.05 %

Per Capita Classic - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can collect the largest amount of acceptable recyclables per person.

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Recyclables Pounds/Person
1	Tufts University	4.38
2	Connecticut College	3.86
3	Williams College	3.58
4	Middlebury College	3.20
5	Amherst College	3.15
6	Trinity College	2.59
7	Wesleyan University	1.80
8	Hamilton College	1.18

Waste Minimization - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which produces the least amount of municipal solid waste (including both recyclables and trash) per person.

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Waste Pounds/Person
1	Middlebury College	9.50
2	Tufts University	10.91
3	Connecticut College	11.31
4	Wesleyan University	14.53
5	Hamilton College	14.64

Gorilla Prize - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can collect the highest gross tonnage of recyclables, regardless of campus population.

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Recyclables Pounds
1	Tufts University	57559.80
2	Williams College	11558.00
3	Middlebury College	11474.51
4	Connecticut College	9925.00
5	Amherst College	7950.00
6	Trinity College	7905.00
7	Wesleyan University	5340.00
8	Hamilton College	2920.00

Targeted Material - Paper - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can recycle the largest amount of paper per person.

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Paper Pounds/Person
1	Williams College	1.46
2	Middlebury College	1.36
3	Amherst College	1.33
4	Connecticut College	1.17
5	Wesleyan University	0.55

Targeted Material - Corrugated Cardboard - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can recycle the largest amount of corrugated cardboard per person.

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Corrugated Cardboard Pounds/Person
1	Connecticut College	1.75
2	Williams College	1.29
3	Middlebury College	1.14
4	Amherst College	1.14
5	Wesleyan University	0.97

Targeted Material - Bottles and Cans - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which can recycle the largest amount of bottles and cans per person.

Rank	School Name	Cumulative Bottles and Cans Pounds/Person
1	Connecticut College	0.95
2	Williams College	0.84
3	Middlebury College	0.70
4	Amherst College	0.67
5	Hamilton College	0.31
6	Wesleyan University	0.28

Waste Minimization - Competition Division

In this competition schools are competing to see which produces the least amount of municipal solid waste (including both recyclables and trash) per person.

National Ranking = 186 of 203 schools