USM National Green Campus
News Archive

Week of December 3, 2012

News from Across the USM Campuses

Dec. 5th  - Sunshine Menezes of The Metcalf Institute will lecture on "Oceans in the news: Communicating science, risk, and uncertainty." The seminar is a part of the Horn Point Laboratory Seminar Series, and is hosted by J. Pierson. It will be held on Wednesday at 11:00am in the HPL auditorium (Coastal Science Bldg.).

Dec. 6th - Public Health Garden Meeting - Join us to learn about what is going on at the Public Health Garden and discuss garden activities and upcoming events. The meeting will be held at 5pm at the Public Health Garden, on the University of Maryland, College Park campus. The Public Health Garden at the University of Maryland, College Park, is a student teaching and community garden demonstrating sustainable agriculture and environmental best practices in support of public, environmental and community health.  

Dec. 10th - Toyota Green Initiative @ Bowie State University - Join us for a fun-filled day of festivities that will include a tour of the Bowie State greenhouse, a lecture series and a full day of recycle activities centered on students to increase sustainable education and promote green living. This event will be held from 10am - 5pm at the Wiseman Center. The Day of Service activity will be held at 10am in the Campus Green House; the Recycle Drive activity will take place from 10am - 5pm at the Wiseman Center; and the Lecture Series activity will take place at 12pm at the Thurgood Marshall Library. All activity locations are on the Bowie State campus. For more information, contact Mi'Shaun Stevenson at 301-860-3471 or at mstevenson@bowiestate.edu.

State of Maryland News

O'Malley touts Maryland's fight against climate change: Urges Obama to give a federal boost to offshore wind prospects (By Tim Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun - B'More Green Blog, 11/29/12)

O'Malley to reintroduce offshore wind bill: Others call for natural gas as a priority (By Holly Nunn, Gazette.net, 11/28/12)

USM Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative

Baltimore nears adoption of climate plan: Hearing, vote set Thursday before city Planning Commission (By Tim Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun - B'More Green Blog, 11/28/12)

National and International News

'Alarming' Year of Extremes as Climate 'Tipping Point' Looms: UN groups issue stark warnings at climate summit in Doha (By Common Dreams staff, CommonDreams.org, 11/28/12)

Science under pressure as pesticide makers face MPs over bee threat: The debate over neonicotinoid insecticides has reached a crucial point, with MPs grilling chemical firms, out-of-date rules failing to protect nature and a row over scientific research (Damian Carrington, the [UK] Guardian, 11/28/12)

BP Suspended By EPA From New Contracts With Federal Government (By Josh Lederman, The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 11/28/12)

Sea-level Rise Outpaces Expert Predictions (By David A. Gabel, Environmental News Network, 11/28/12)

Expiration Of Wind Tax Credit Kills Jobs, Senators Say (By Lucia Graves, The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 11/28/12)

Mississippi River Levels Decreasing to Near Record Levels: Could disrupt tourism, commerce (By Common Dreams staff, CommonDreams.org, 11/28/12)

An open letter to governments and their negotiators: To really address climate change UNFCCC-COP18 should decide to leave under the soil more than 2/3 of the fossil reserves (By Bill McKibben, Nnimmo Bassey and Pablo Solon, 350.org, 11/28/12)

The World Energy Report's scariest findings: The U.S. may surpass Saudi Arabia as the planet's leading oil producer -- and the cost could be catastrophic (By Michael Klare, TomDispatch.com as reported by Salon.com, 11/27/12)

China planning 'huge fracking industry': Chinese plans to expand fracking for shale gas prompt fears over local water and international climate impacts (By Jaeah Lee, Mother Jones as reported by The [UK] Guardian, 11/27/12)

UN: methane released from melting ice could push climate past tipping point - Doha conference is warned that climate models do not yet take account of methane in thawing permafrost (By Fiona Harvey, The [UK] Guardian, 11/27/12)

Lamar Smith, Global Warming Skeptic, Set To Chair House Science Committee (By Amanda Terkel, The Huffington Post - Political Blog, 11/27/12)

Hot and bothered: Global greenhouse-gas emissions and current trends (Economist.com, 11/26/12)

Conservative Groups Team Up To Fight Renewable Energy: ‘We're Going To See A Knock-Out, Drag-Out Fight' (By Stephen Lacey, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 11/26/12)

New Scientist Special Report: 7 Reasons Climate Change Is ‘Even Worse Than We Thought' (By Joe Romm, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 11/26/12)

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