News

Catherine Coleman Flowers Keynote for Black History Month

February 14, 2024

Join us on Thursday, February 29th at 5:30 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom for the culminating event of our Black History Month celebration: a keynote address by Catherine Coleman Flowers, internationally recognized environmental activist, critically acclaimed author of “Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret,” and Vice Chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Flowers has brought attention to the largely invisible problem of inadequate waste and... Read more »
State Grant Empowers Arts and Culture Nonprofits to Ignite Clean Energy and Climate Action

December 6, 2023

AMHERST, Massachusetts – A groundbreaking collaboration between Western Mass arts and culture nonprofits and UMass Amherst Extension units has been awarded a substantial grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) to spearhead a transformative climate action project, entitled Clean Energy in the Cultural Sector. This dynamic partnership aims to address pressing environmental challenges, accelerate clean energy adoption, and water the seeds of a resilient, low-carbon arts and... Read more »
UMass Extension Vegetable Program

July 28, 2022

Climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic toll. Increasingly volatile weather trends. These are some of the significant challenges facing farmers today, and UMass Extension's Agriculture Program is here to help, whether it be through statewide education programs, visits to farms for technical assistance, applied research, or its periodic Vegetable Notes newsletter. Genevieve Higgins, an educator in the Extension Agriculture Program’s Vegetable team, thinks about Extension’s... Read more »
Why Confronting Invasive Species Is One of the Best Ways to Prepare for Climate Change

July 17, 2022

AMHERST, Mass. – New research, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, finds that the ecological effect of invasive species alone is comparable to the combined effects of invasives plus warming temperatures, drought or nitrogen deposition. This suggests that a critical preparation for climate change is to manage invasive species at the local level. It is no secret that the ecological health of the... Read more »
Responding to Climate Change

February 22, 2022

Climate change. It’s really big. So big that it’s difficult to know how to easily talk about the many interconnected pieces and parts that define it, not to mention the myriad efforts we must enact now to make a difference. Our changing climate is one of the most complicated issues facing our planet today: a massive global challenge affecting us on local, regional, and national, and international scales. There’s no time to waste in addressing this interdisciplinary puzzle, so huge... Read more »