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USM National Green Campus
News Archive

Week of February 7, 2011

News from Across the USM Campuses

Feb. 8th - "Sustainability and the College Park Campus" - This lecture will be held at 5pm,in the Lecture Hall of the School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, on the University of Maryland, College Park campus. The presentation will be by Dr. Ann Wylie, Vice President for Administrative Affairs, and Scott Lupin, Director of Sustainability and Associate Director of the Department of Environmental Safety, for the university, and is a part of the Sustainable Tuesdays Lecture Series.

Feb. 9th - Ryan Rykaczewski  (NOAA/GFDL) - "Enhanced nutrient supply to the California Current Ecosystem with global warming and increased stratification in an earth system model." This event is hosted by Victoria Coles, and is a part of the Horn Point Laboratory Faculty Seminar Series. Seminar will be held on Wednesday at 11:00am in the HPL auditorium

Feb. 10th - Jonathan Thompson of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, "The influence of land use and climate change on forest biomass and composition in Massachusetts, USA."? This event is hosted by Matt Fitzpatrick, and is a part of the Appalachian Laboratory Seminar Series. The seminar will be held on Thursday at 3:30pm, in Room 109 of the Appalachian Laboratory.

Feb. 11th - Dr. Colin Polsky,?Clark University,?Graduate School of Geography?- "Finding a Place for Lawns in Research on Global Environmental Change."  This seminar, sponsored by the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education, will be held on Friday at 2:00pm in the Technology Research Center, Room 206, on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus, and is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Visitor parking passes for the TRC lot may be purchased for $4.00 in the CUERE office in TRC 102/105 on the UMBC campus shortly before seminar.

Guest column: A new resource? (By Hilary Staver, The Diamondback Online, 2/7/11)

Conference looks to clean up Baltimore's harbor: Early report card gives waterway poor grades (By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, 2/6/11) [Article quotes Heath Kelsey of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science]

Blackout: Infrastructure 2.0 (By Steven Spinello, The Diamondback Online, 2/3/11)

Teachers to look at water's health: Research will focus on the impact climate change and human activities have on bays (By Liz Holland, DelMarVaNow.com, 2/3/11) [The research is being conducted at a University of Maryland Eastern Shore facility near Assateague.]

The connection between blackouts and electricity 'decoupling' (By Tim Brennan, The Baltimore Sun, 2/3/11) Tim Brennan is a professor of public policy at UMBC.

University of Maryland No. 6 on EPA List of Top 20 university 'Green Power Purchasers' (University News, University of Maryland College Park, 2/2/11)

Loh vows to see Purple Line through: New president appears willing to compromise on alignment issue (By Yasmeen Abutaleb, The Diamondback Online, 2/2/11)

State of Maryland News

Misleading electric ads make case for reregulation (By Jay Hancock, The Baltimore Sun, 2/6/11)

Maryland county caught up in fight over energy extraction method (BY Darryl Fears, The Washington Post, 2/6/11)

In Pepco territory, blackouts mean more home generators, more noise complaints (By Steve Hendrix, The Washington Post, 2/5/11)

Other harbor cleanups offer lessons to Baltimore: Boston, Washington and Norfolk offer different approaches (By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, 2/4/11) 

We pay a visit to the Baltimore Free Farm, where community activists are working to promote sustainable living and urban agriculture in a once-vacant lot in Hampden (NPR - The Signal, 2/4/11)

BGE to seek rate increases on more regular basis: Parent Constellation sees drop in quarterly profit (By Hanah Cho, The Baltimore Sun, 2/4/11)

Artist portrays Baltimore's degraded harbor: 'Empty Waters' depicts trash, industry on the Patapsco (By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, 2/3/11)

USM Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative

Howard's Environmental Sustainability office focuses on green principles: Councilman Fox questions progress of state's first 'green office' (By Lindsey McPherson, The Columbia Flyer, 2/3/11)

Developers distressed over bid to curb septic systems: O'Malley proposes ban on large rural housing projects to aid bay, limit sprawl (By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, 2/3/11)   

EPA moves to get perchlorate out of drinking water (By Tim Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun - B'More Green Blog, 2/2/11)

National and International News

Princeton Plans Massive Solar Field (The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 2/4/11 updated 2/7/11)

Droughts, Floods and Food (By Paul Krugman, The New York Times - Opinion, 2/6/11)

Einstein was right - honey bee collapse threatens global food security: The bee crisis has been treated as a niche concern until now, but as the UN's index of food prices hits an all time-high, it is becoming urgent to know whether the plight of the honey bee risks further exhausting our food security. (By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The [UK] Telegraph, 2/6/11)

Asia faces climate-induced migration 'crisis' (By Martin Abbugao, AFP as reported by Yahoo News, 2/5/11)

Germany sells vision for 'green toys' to world (By Melissa Eddy, The Associated Press as reported by The Washington Post, 2/5/11)

Surprising Home-Energy Hogs (By Oilver J. Chiang, Yahoo Finance, 2/5/11)

Canada PM Harper Urges U.S. to Approve Oil Pipeline (The Associated Press as reported by Fox News, 2/4/11)

President Obama's Plan to Win the Future by Making American Businesses More Energy Efficient through the "Better Buildings Initiative" (The White House - Office of Media Affairs, 2/3/11)

Americans still hooked on gas guzzlers: Minivans, SUVS, crossovers and pickups: We can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. The big question is whether rising fuel costs will squeeze our love for big vehicles and hurt the economy. (By Charley Baline, MSN - Money, 2/3/11)

Amazon drought caused huge CO2 emissions: Experts fear it might happen regularly, turning forest into warming source (By Stuart Grundings, Reuters as reported by MSNBC.com, 2/3/11)

In Pa., Obama Pushes Investment in Clean Energy (By Michael D. Shear, The New York Times - Politics, 2/3/11)

US states take initiative on cap-and-trade (By Sheila McNulty, Financial Times, 2/3/11)

EU Climate Commissioner Hedegaard - 'Reducing CO2 Emissions Early Can Save Money in the Longer Term' (Interview by Christoph Schult and Christian Schwägerl, Der Spiegel - International, 2/2/11)

EU Climate Commissioner Hedegaard - 'Reducing CO2 Emissions Early Can Save Money in the Longer Term' (Interview by Christoph Schult and Christian Schwägerl, Der Spiegel - International, 2/2/11)

Hamish McRae: Let's get real: cheap oil is never coming back (By Hamish McRae, The [UK] Independent - Opinion, 2/2/11)

Environmental Outlook: Oil Subsidies and the Future of U.S. Energy Policy (NPR - The Diane Rehm Show, 2/1/11)

Brent oil surges past $100 on Egypt anxiety (By Robert Gibbons, Reuters, 1/31/11)

Senators vow to strip Obama climate power (AFP as reported by Google News, 1/31/11)

In an Oil Price Gap, the Scent of Tar Sands (By Clifford Krauss, The New York Times - Green Blog, 1/31/11)

Please send your ideas and comments regarding campus sustainability to green@usmd.edu

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