Week of October 1, 2012

News from Across the USM Campuses

Oct. 3^rd - CBL Fall Seminar Series - Dr. Ned Cyr, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, "NOAA, Climate, and Ecosystem." This event will be held from 3:30pm - 5:00pm at the UMCES's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.

Oct. 4^th - Nick Zegre, West Virginia University - "Characterizing the hydrologic response of a mountaintop-mined watershed to changing land use and climate: Implications of scale." This event is hosted by Dave Nelson, and will be held Thursday at 3:30pm in Room 109 of the Appalachian Laboratory.

MaryPIRG, officials join campaign against fracking: Dangers outweigh economic benefits, group members say (The Diamondback Online, 9/25/12)

State of Maryland News

Bay oysters 'virtually extinct' (By Clara Vaughn, Capital News Service as reported by DelMarVaNow.com, 9/27/12)

MD delegate seeks fracking ban until studies prove it is safe: Gas lobby accused of blocking funding for meaningful studies (By Rona Kobell, The Chesapeake Bay Journal, October 2012)

Lake slowly died as town, despite state order, did nothing to replace failing septic systems: Town couldn't afford fix so camp's owner was helpless as sewage polluted her lake (By Rona Kobell, The Chesapeake Bay Journal, October 2012) 

A Garden of Opportunities for Cleansing Urban Storm Runoff (By Daniel Strain, Chesapeake Bay Quarterly, September 2012)

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

CMD Special Report: ALEC's (Corporate) Love Affair with Fracking (By Sara Jerving, PR Watch, 9/27/12)

Largest Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Installation in U.S. Operating at Texas A&M (By Derek Markham, Treehugger.com - Technology/Wind Technology, 9/27/12)

Police Accused of Using Torture Tactics Against Nonviolent Keystone XL Pipeline Protesters: A tree-sit continues in Texas despite an unprecedented escalation in police and industry violence toward peaceful blockaders working to prevent construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. (By Candice Bernd, Alternet.org - Environment, 9/27/12)

Arctic Methane Release: The End Of The World As We Know It? Arctic methane, and all that frozen soil carbon, could easily play a huge role, not so much in the near-term evolution of Earth's climate, but in the long tail of the global warming climate event (By Climate Guest Blogger, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress, 9/27/12)

Plastic debris reaches Southern Ocean, previously thought to be pristine: Researchers on 70,000-mile voyage to investigate climate change say effect of humans is now 'truly planetary' (By Zoe Holman, The [UK] Guardian - Environment Blog, 9/27/12)

Democratic senators want a stop to Arctic drilling (By Sean Cockerham, McClatchy News, 9/26/12)

New Groups Make A Conservative Argument On Climate Change (NPR/WYPR, 9/26/12)

100 Million Dead, Trillion of Dollars Lost from Climate Change by 2030, Estimates Study (By Common Dreams staff, CommonDreams.org, 9/26/12) Full study here

Ocean Acidification Occurring at Unprecedented Rates (By Allison Winter, Environmental News Network, 9/26/12)

Fracking Regulations In States Leave Wells Without Inspection, Environmental Group Says (By Tom Zeller, Jr., The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 9/25/12)

Climate change is already damaging global economy, report finds: Economic impact of global warming is costing the world more than $1.2 trillion a year, wiping 1.6% annually from global GDP (By Fiona Harvey, The [UK] Guardian - Environment Blog, 9/25/12)

Markey/Waxman Report: Carbon Pollution Creating A ‘Cocktail Of Heat And Extreme Weather' (By Katie Valentine and Stephen Lacey, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 9/25/12)

Cargo cyclists replace truck drivers on European city streets (Low Tech Magazine, 9/24/12)

Analysis: 93 Percent Of Fox News Climate Coverage Is ‘Misleading' (By Stephen Lacey, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress, 9/24/12)