Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

Week of March 4, 2013

News from Across the USM Campuses

March 4^th - CPScholars: "The Business Case for Sustainability" by Tim Carey, Director of Sustainability and Technology at PepsiCo. This event will take place from 5-6:30pm in the Hoff Theater at the Stamp Student Union, on the campus of University of Maryland, College Park.

March 8^th - Steven Stewart?Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability -? "Integrated Watershed Management and Meeting TMDL Reduction Requirements." Seminar will be held on Friday at 2:00pm in the Technology Research Center, Room 206, on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus. The event is free and open to the public, and 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 the seminar.

'WaterShed' Team Takes Expertise Around the World (UMD Right Now, News Release, 2/27/13)

Biologists lead international team to track Arctic response to climate change (UMCES - Chesapeake Biological Laboratory News, February 2013)

State of Maryland News 

March 12^th - 24^th - 21^st Annual Environmental Film Festival, Washington, DC. The vital role of earth's rivers in human survival and their vulnerability in the changing global environment is theme of the 2013 Festival. The locations for the screening of films that make up the festival, will be held at a variety of venues in the DC Metro area, including several in Maryland.

Offshore wind bill emerges from key committee (By Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun - Maryland Politic Blog, 2/26/13)

Washington Post poll finds majority support in Md. for offshore wind energy (By Aaron C. Davis, The Washington Post - Maryland Politics, 2/26/13)

National and International News

The Times Kills Its Environmental Blog To Focus on Horse Racing and Awards Shows (By Will Oremus, Slate.com, 3/4/13)

Not All Density is Created Equal (By Kaid Benfield, The Atlantic Cities Blog, and the NRDC Switchboard Blog, 3/4/13)

USM Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative

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Ernest Moniz, MIT physicist, is to be nominated as energy secretary (By Steven Mufson, The Washington Post - Business/Economy, 3/4/13)

Obama announces nominees for energy secretary, EPA chief and budget director (By Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post - Energy & Environment, 3/4/13)

How extreme weather acts as a catalyst for climate concern: As the impacts of global warming start to hit home, we are seeing weather-related variation in public perceptions (By Adam Corner, The [UK] Guardian, 3/4/13)

The Environmental Impact of the Sequester Cuts (By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog as reported by CommonDreams.org, 3/4/13)

Splash and grab: The global scramble for water (By Fred Pearce, New Scientist Magazine, 3/4/13)

Keystone XL pipeline report slammed by activists and scientists: Sierra Club leads angry response to 'deeply flawed' State Department report into proposed oil sands pipeline (By Paul Harris, The [UK] Guardian, 3/2/13)

NYT cancels Green blog: No explanation from editors following surprise announcement (By Curtis Brainard, The Columbia Journalism Review, 3/1/13)

IPCC urges Obama to raise awareness of science behind climate change: Rajendra Pachauri says US president should push for improving public's understanding of man-made global warming (By Severin Carrell, The [UK] Guardian, 2/28/13)

Public concern in environment lowest in 20 years: Levels of public concern were lowest since 1992 in 12 countries, according to an international poll (By Adam Vaughan, The [UK] Guardian, 2/28/13)

King Tides Offer California a Preview of Sea Level Rise (With Photo Slideshow)

Recent King Tides in the San Francisco Bay area gave a glimpse of what sea level rise could look like. (By Brook Meakins, Alternet.org in partnership with GlobalPossibilities.org, 2/28/13)

Climate-caucus redux: New group isn't the first (By Emily Heil, The Washington Post, 2/27/13)

6 Ways the Sequester Will Mess Up the Environment: National parks, food inspection, and clean-energy development are just a few of the programs that will take a major hit. (By Zaineb Mohammed, Mother Jones magazine, 2/27/13)

The New Abolitionists: Global Warming Is The Great Moral Crisis Of Our Time (By Joe Romm, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 2/27/13)

Apparently nobody cares about the environment anymore (By Lloyd Alter, Treehugger.com - Business/ Environmental Policy, 2/27/13)

Study: Over 100 Million Americans Drinking 'Toxic Trash' Water: New analysis from Environmental Working Group shows carcinogenic chemical lurking in nation's public water (By Andrea Germanos, CommonDreams.org, 2/27/13)

Climate change could kill big U.S. reservoirs (By Susie Cagle, Grist.org, 2/26/13)

Australian climate outlook remains bleak with Tony Abbott out for revenge: Australian elections on 14 September threaten a rollback of years of climate change progress. The time to act is now (By Alexander White, The [UK] Guardian, 2/25/13) 

The 'Land of 10,000 Lakes' Is Running Dry: Minnesota's depleting aquifers show consequences of climate change, unsustainable water management (By Andrea Germanos, CommonDreams.org, 2/25/13)