Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

Week of January 16, 2012

News from Across the USM Campuses

Jan. 18^th - Dr. Johan Schijf, UMCES - Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, "Chemistry on the Edge: How Particles Control the Solubility of Trace Metals in Natural Waters." Chesapeake Biological Lab, CBL Distinguished Scholar Seminar Series - 2012. This event will be held on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in Nice Hall at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.

Jan. 19^th - Jeff Cornwell - UMCES Horn Point Laboratory?- "Benthic Nitrogen Transformation Processes in Chesapeake Bay." Appalachian Laboratory. Seminar will be held on Thursday at 3:30pm and located in Room 109 of the Appalachian Laboratory. Host: Katia Engelhardt

Environmentalists to honor Conway: Maryland delegate serves as an advocate for the  Shore (DelMarVaNow.com, 1/9/12) [Articles cites Conway's support for Salisbury University]

State of Maryland News

New Tool Reveals Country's Most Polluted Places: How Close Do You Live? Thanks to a new tool from the EPA, you can see how close you live to the country's biggest polluters. (By Scott Thill, Alternet.org - Environment, 1/16/12) GHG Emissions for Maryland (EPA map of Greenhouse Gas creators, January 2012)

1-11-12: The Fragile Economics of Offshore Wind (NPR/WYPR - Environment in Focus, 1/11/12)

Baltimore's downtown public spaces get a face-lift: Downtown Partnership leads effort to spruce up parks, plazas (By Lorraine Mirabella, The Baltimore Sun, 1/9/12)

Issues Headed To The General Assembly, Ethics Reform, MARC Service, and A Proposed Tax On "Fracked" Natural Gas (NPR/WYPR - News, 1/9/12)

USM Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative

• Practices
• Programs
• Policies

• Presentations
• Climate Change Definitions
• Facilities Master Planning
• Statewide Sustainability Efforts
• ACUPCC National Benchmarking
• Useful Links and References

Well Blowout, Toxic Water: Fracking Disasters on the Rise - Oil well blowout in Alberta, explosive water in Ohio put drilling technique under scrutiny (By Common Dreams Staff. CommonDreams.org, 1/17/12)

Climate Proposal Puts Practicality Ahead of Sacrifice (By John Tierney, The New York Times - Science, 1/16/12)

Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms: Some states have introduced education standards requiring teachers to defend the denial of man-made global warming. A national watchdog group says it will start monitoring classrooms. (By Neela Banerjee, The Los Angeles Times, 1/16/12)

Waste Water: America's Hidden 60 Million Barrel A Day Industry (By Reuters as reported by The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 1/16/12)

Goodbye, Fish: Rising CO2 Direct Threat to Sea Life - Study: Rising CO2 affecting brains, central nervous systems of sea fish (By Common Dreams staff, CommonDreams.org, 1/16/12)

AFL-CIO Head Rich Trumka: ‘Congress Is Effectively Controlled By Climate Change Deniers' (By Brad Johnson, ThinkProgress.org - Green Blog, 1/12/12)

Study: Simple Measures Could Slow Global Warming (UPI.com - Science News, 1/12/12)

NASA Says Canada In 'Hot Spot' Of Ecological Change (By CBC.ca as reported by The Huffington Post Canada - Green Blog, 1/12/12)

Oil lobby's financial pressure on Obama over Keystone XL pipeline revealed: Study shows money flowing to oil lobby ahead of decision on tar sands pipeline in the November elections (By Suzanna Goldenberg, The [UK] Guardian, 1/11/12)

Doomsday Clock Moves to Five Minutes to Midnight - Thanks in Part to Inaction on Climate Change: It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007. (Edited by Joe Romm, Climate Progress - ThinkProgress.org, 1/11/12)

State Gets 20,000 Comments on Its Gas Drilling Rules by Deadline (By Mireya Navarro, The New York Times - NY/Region, 1/11/12)

Deepwater Horizon's missed lessons: Not two years after the Deepwater Horizon debacle, the U.S. is proceeding with plans to expand oil drilling instead of pushing alternatives. (By Richard G. Steiner, The Los Angeles Times - Op-Ed, 1/10/12)