“How long would it take my family of four to save enough urine to fertilize our hayfield?” I ask fellow alumnus Abe Noe-Hays ’00. He raises his eyebrows. “It’s five acres, you said? You’re going to need some friends.”
Since 2005, College of the Atlantic students have attended the annual Conference of Parties, or COPs, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UNFCCC. Soon COA students were shaping entire terms around meetings, taking classes and full-term residencies to pore over diplomatic language and investigate international treaties with Doreen Stabinsky or Ken Cline, sometimes both.
On June 4, 2016, noted writer and naturalist Barry Lopez spoke to the seniors and their friends and families during COA’s commencement. He generously offered COA this written version of his powerful talk.
Helena Shilomboleni ’09 is completing her PhD in the social and ecological sustainability of food systems at Canada’s University of Waterloo, examining food security in Mozambique through two local organizations.
Edward Stern ’03 has dipped his feet into almost every aspect of the ocean fisheries world: commercial fishing, policy, government, science, technology, even boatbuilding. He currently works for The Fisheries Secretariat in Stockholm, Sweden.