USM National Green Campus
News Archive

Week of January 30, 2012

News from Across the USM Campuses

Working toward fishing and swimming in the Inner Harbor (By Pamela Bond, The Baltimore Examiner, 1/29/12) [Baltimore City leaders have asked UMCES's Integration and Application Network to provide a report card on present Inner Harbor conditions]

Towson rallies campus community for RecycleMania 2012: University-wide recycling challenge returns, aims to reduce overall waste (Towson University Newsroom, 1/24/12)

UMES solar farm garners local 'Environmental Star' honor (UMES Office of Public Relations, 1/20/12)

 State of Maryland News

Analyst: Plan for poultry decline (DelMarVaNow.com, 1/26/12)

Baltimore ranks 11th among major U.S. cities in biking and walking, Washington second: Maryland ranks 32nd among states in the percentage of commuters who walk or use a bike (Jeannine Stein, Tribune Newspapers as reported by The Baltimore Sun, 1/25/12)

In Annapolis, green agenda a "heavy lift": Legislative leaders say activists' help needed to pass flush fee increase, septic limits (By Tim Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun - Green Blog, 1/25/12)

USM Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative

National and International News

Virtuous cycle: 10 lessons from the world's great biking cities (By Christine Grant, Grist.org - Biking, 1/30/12)

On Climate Change, Weathercasters May Be Misguiding Their Viewers (By Lynne Peeples, The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 1/30/12)

State Dept. official overstates Keystone jobs by a factor of 10 (By Jess Zimmerman, Grist.org - Energy Policy, 1/27/12)

Popular Criticism Cracks China's Wall of Denial About Pollution (By Sharon LaFraniere, The New York Times, 1/27/12)

The End of Elastic Oil: The last ten years have brought a structural change to the world oil market, with changes in demand increasingly playing a role in maintaining the supply/demand balance.  These changes will come at an increasingly onerous cost to our economy unless we take steps to make our demand for oil more flexible. (By Tom Konrad, Forbes.com - Tech, 1/26/12)

Big government, our one shot against crazy storms: In our age of devastating droughts, wildfires and hurricanes, the federal government is more important than ever (By Christian Parenti, Salon.com - Global Warming, 1/26/12)

Conservatives Use Creationist Playbook to Attack Climate Change Education in Schools:

The overwhelming scientific evidence that says humans are causing the warming of the planet has emerged as the new battlefield in middle and high schools in the U.S. (By Bill Walker, Alternet.org - Environment, 1/26/12)

On Keystone XL, Mainstream Media Displays Major Bias Towards Oil Industry (By Brian Merchant, Treehugger.com - Business/ Corporate Responsibility, 1/26/12)

The peak oil crisis: On closing our refineries (By Tom Whipple, Falls Church News-Press, 1/25/12)

Oil Supply as a Strategic Risk (By Justin Gillis, The New York Times - Green Blog, 1/25/12)

Has Petroleum Production Peaked, Ending the Era of Easy Oil? A new analysis concludes that easily extracted oil peaked in 2005, suggesting that dirtier fossil fuels will be burned and energy prices will rise (By David Biello, Scientific American, 1/25/12)

Bernie Sanders Pledges Legislation Ending 'Absurdity' of Federal Fossil Fuel Subsidies (By Mat McDermott, Treehugger.com - Business/ Economics, 1/25/12)

Why does agriculture keep getting a climate pass? (By Tom Laskawy, Grist.org - Food, 1/25/12)

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