THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868
THE AMHERST
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VOLUME CXLIX, ISSUE 5 l WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019
AMHERSTSTUDENT.COM
Alum Wins MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship Zach Jonas ’22 Managing News Editor
Photo courtesy of Emma Swislow ‘20
Over 100 students congregated on the First-Year Quad on Friday to take part in a rally advocating for climate action. The strike is one of several that occurred across the globe demanding action on the growing climate crisis.
Climate Crisis Illuminated in Strike Natalie De Rosa ’21 Managing News Editor
Students, along with faculty, staff and other community members, rallied on the first-year quad on Friday to demand for stronger climate policy on campus and stand in solidarity with other climate strikes occurring across the globe. The strike, which comprised of several teach-ins throughout the morning and a main rally on the first-year quad at 12:30 p.m., drew over 100 participants. The strike is one of several that occurred around the world over the week of Sept. 20-27 as a part of the Global Climate Strikes, an initiative inspired by 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, who skipped school every week to protest in front of the Swed-
ish Parliament. The global strikes were scheduled throughout the week, with Sept. 20 and Sept. 27 drawing the largest turnouts. Three days ahead of the United Nations (UN) Climate Summit in New York, nearly four million people participated in climate strikes worldwide on Friday, Sept. 20, according to Vox. In a landmark report released last November, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that an average increase in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius — which the world is currently expected to match and exceed — will drastically increase the frequency and strength of natural disasters and result in rising sea levels. That same IPCC report also warned that governments only had 12 years to slash greenhouse
gas emissions before the dangerous effects of climate change are irreversible. The college has not been immune from demands for climate action. In the last decade, the college campus has seen increasing calls for the college to divest from fossil fuels in light of climate change. The college’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) was itself crafted by a student group working with the Office of Environmental Sustainability. Last November, in advance of the Board of Trustees’ vote on the CAP, students shared personal stories of being impacted by climate change at a well-attended event titled “Student Voices from the Frontlines of Climate Change.” A few months later, the Board of Trustees passed the Climate Action Plan (CAP), promising to achieve carbon neutrality
by 2030. Leading up to Friday’s strike, organizers hosted a number of events throughout the week, ranging from invited speakers and discussion groups to chalking and an art build. Four students also traveled to Boston — funded by the Office of Student Activities — to attend the city’s climate strike on Sept. 20. Abby Strong ’23, an organizer of the strike who served on its steering, logistics and research committees, said that the strike’s intention was to show solidarity with other communities protesting internationally. “The physical act of leaving classes, disturbing our daily lives to bring attention to the cause — that was the main goal,” she said.
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The MacArthur Foundation awarded the MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship to Andrea Dutton ’95, a geochemist and paleoclimatologist studying past sea level rises to predict its future conditions, on Sept. 25. The grant is a nostrings-attached sum of $625,000, installed in quarterly payments over a five-year period. Dutton is the seventh Amherst alum to win the prestigious award. She plans to use the grant to further her research, aid women in science and spend more time with her family. Dutton’s findings on sea level change during earlier periods of global warming, at similar levels to today, reveal the fragility of the ice sheets found in Greenland and Antarctica. Her research highlights the necessity to mitigate current global warming and its dangerous effects. Dutton followed a nontraditional path to her current occupation. When arriving at Amherst in the fall of 1991, Dutton had planned to fulfill the pre-med requirements, take the MCAT and attend medical school while majoring in music. It wasn’t until her sophomore year that she took her first geology course. “I was leaning toward being a chemistry major,” Dutton said in an interview with The Student. “Someone recommended that I take linear
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