Macalester covers fewer than a dozen city blocks—but how big is its carbon footprint? Ten years ago, a team of senior seminar students set out to find what it takes to keep the college fueled for a year, adding up the carbon cost of classroom heating and lighting,...
Facing fears about a warming planet, a new generation of college students chooses activism over anxiety. By Laura Billings Coleman During finals week last December, Helen Meigs ’21 decided to ditch her schoolwork and travel to Washington, D.C. A new...
from the latest issue of I.Q. Magazine By Laura Billings Coleman With furnaces turned off for the season, and gas prices down by more than dollar a gallon, it can be easy to forget how much Central Minnesota’s fortunes can turn on the cost of energy. But as thousands...
from the second issue of bMag By Laura Billings Coleman The prairie winds that roll across South Dakota and eight Sioux nations carry the potential to produce three times the electricity their citizens can use. Harvesting the wind energy—and the green jobs that...
Can you love animals and eat them, too? Originally published in Mpls/St. Paul magazine, October 2008 Though I’ve been a meat-eater most of my life, I’ve always been squeamish about its preparation. I prefer not to touch bacon until it’s been burned...
Safe Harbor By Laura Billings Coleman Mpls/St. Paul magazine, June 2009 Legend has long claimed that the veil between the human and animal worlds is very thin the farther the sun gets from the earth, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised to find myself standing...
