As a previous lecturer at Stanford who never used Powerpoint when teaching statistics, I can say that students still continue to "take notes" with computers, which is impossible to do effectively in a class that deals in mathematical expressions. When are students going to keep their laptops at home and start bringing notebooks to class again to actually engage in their learning process?

I can't speak to "earth systems," but in hardcore engineering like EE, having to cramp your hand writing down a series of equations and corollaries of electromag or mechanical statics surely DOESN'T help the learning process. The obvious solution is that equation work should be minimized and moved into the reading
Now, some profs think lecturing is simply the process of writing or presentation equations, which is not really teaching.
But I think it's a smear to criticize professors who happen to use an organized slide system. Information-heavy engineering (eng physics, CS) has a strong argument against live lectures..what's the point of watching it real-time when you could use SCPD tapes to follow more closely and stop it when you need to review? Other things like case studies and project discussions can be done on a board with supporting slides.

As previous commenters noted, there are some disciplines in which slides are more useful than lectures. Certainly in some large lecture classes, would it be possible to practice working with the equations in class? Isn't that something that must be done at home?
Unfortunately, professors feel pressured by the educational establishment to use computer technology in their teaching. It it possible that, with feedback from students, they would feel more free to choose the most effective teaching methods for their disciplines.
What suggestions do you have for the courses you mentioned? I would like to hear more specific solutions in a subsequent column. (But you must put "Robert Sapolsky" in your column somewhere because I'm only reading your column because I have a google news alert on Robert Sapolsky....)