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Overpopulation is inextricably tied to countless environmental issues: Poverty, water shortages, pollution and waste management, famine, and resource consumption. It was this topic, with a focus on family planning and sex education, that was the focus of a discussion on Wednesday in the Kirner-Johnson Red Pit led by Izaak Walton League representative Rebecca Wadler Lase ’00 and Sierra Club representative Cassie Gardener.

Rebecca Wadler '00, a representative of the Sierra Club, will speak about global over-population and its adverse environmental impacts, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m., in the Red Pit at Hamilton. The talk is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Hamilton Environmental Action Group.

The Hamilton Environmental Action Group (HEAG ) participated in the worldwide 350 day on Oct. 24. HEAG members made 350 papers cranes that were hung on a tree in Root Glen to raise awareness of the climate crisis.

The Class of 2010 Senior Gift was announced on Oct. 1 at the Senior Gift Kickoff in the Fillius Events Barn. The gift will support an Environmental Endowment Fund. Keynote speaker Greg Robitaille '85, co-chairman of the Annual Fund, challenged the class to outperform previous years and realize that this gift is setting the stage for their future engagement with the college.

The Hamilton Environmental Action Group (HEAG), launched this semester's campaign to encourage sustainability and raise environmental awareness within the Hamilton community on September 21. The campaign, known as Green Week, was designed both to promote a sense of individual environmental responsibility and to educate students and faculty members to environmental problems on campus that have global implications.

Casey Wick, assistant director of physical plant custodial services, has been honored with an Environmental Stewardship award for his efforts to support environmental awareness at Hamilton. The award was made by Hill & Markes, Inc., an Amsterdam, N.Y.–based distributor that provides solutions to its customers who are looking to bring “innovative sustainable and environmentally friendly products into their organizations.”

For nearly 200 years, Hamilton College has been committed to environmental stewardship. Hamilton has a strong repertoire of environmentally sustainable practices, from the continual planting of trees on campus and investment in renewable energy resources for KJ and the Glen House, to student activist groups such as the Hamilton Environmental Action Group, the Recycling Task Force and Sustainability Committee.

They were lined up at 7 a.m. A passer-by might assume that the hundreds of Hamilton students in North Lot on August 25 were there to buy tickets for a popular band’s concert or to take advantage of a free giveaway. But the students gave new meaning to “reduce, reuse and recycle” as they turned out by the hundreds for the 2nd annual Ham Cram & Scram tent sale. Cram & Scram is a reuse/recycle program aimed at reducing end-of-the-year waste; residence hall items were collected at the end of the spring semester, stored over the summer and tagged at bargain basement prices to be snapped up at the two-day tent sale.

The second annual Cram & Scram recycling effort has come to a close with unprecedented results. Fifteen students led by Ashley Langer '09 dedicated more than 1,000 hours of work within a two-week period, and their hard work paid off – this year's group demonstrated an intense commitment that prompted outstanding results.

Hamilton was represented by 26 students at Power Shift 2009, held Feb. 27-March 2, in Washington, D.C. The conference brought 10,000 young people to Washington to mobilize, network, learn, teach, make a statement, and lobby congress to make some real progress on global warming. Students met with members of Congress to discuss rebuilding our economy and reclaiming our future through bold climate and clean energy policy.